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Aethos nodded again. "And ... pray tell me ... what is her name? Does she travel alone?"

They turned a corner and headed down another hallway, towards the eastern part of the castle, just as Rhea had predicted the night before.

Aethos stopped in his tracks and closed his eyes, breathing slowly and deeply.

Rhea watched him for a moment, her brow furrowing slightly with anxiety. "Aethos-sola ... are you all right?" she murmured. "Aethos-sola?

Aethos took a deep breath and opened his eyes again, and though it was clear that he was trying not to let any emotion show, there were tears in the corners of his eyes.

"Nothing," he said softly, starting to walk again, faster this time. "Nothing ... or at least ... nothing that anything can be done about."

Rhea glanced at Lin, then followed after him again quickly. "Aethos-sola, what is it?" she asked him. "Do you know this woman?"

Aethos still didn't speak, but only continued walking. Partway down the hall, however, they passed a servant, and Aethos stopped and took the man by the arm.

"Send a message to my father," he said, his tone urgent. "Tell him that my sister is still alive."

The servant's eyes grew wide, but he bowed without questioning the first sola. "Right away, Aethos-sola," he said; and he hurried off in the opposite direction.

Even Rhea was taken by surprise, though she had always been certain that there had been something very different about Aerin. This however was not what she would have expected.

But she had only one question.

"Does Caranthir know?" she asked Aethos. "About who she is, I mean?"

Aethos looked at Rhea over his shoulder as he headed down the hall once more, his pace quickening still more. "It was he who brought her from here," he replied. "I never knew if she survived. I knew I would never see her again, and I thought I was prepared for that ... but the ignorance ..."

He shook his head. "Father will be glad to know she is alive, also. Though we will never see her again, the knowledge that she is alive and safe ... is enough."

Aethos was silent for a moment, and then he murmured, "She saved my life ... I was ... we were out on the battlefield, and I was injured ... Laur, the Great Dragon, was attacking us ... attacking me ... and without thought for her own life, she saved me ... but at the cost of her own."

He grew silent, wistful, as they continued down the seemingly neverending hallway.

"Though her body recovered, her mind did not," he murmured. "Caranthir ... I know not whence he came, but he knew of a way to heal her ... but it required taking her away. She ... was still unconscious when he took her ... from the time that she saved me until the time when she must have woken in your land, she knew nothing of what happened ..."

Rhea was impressed. Not only because of what Aethos said had happened, but that Aerin was still with Caranthir ... she knew if she had woken up after an abnormally long sleep in the custody of a complete stranger ... well, that stranger might not be long for this world.

Aethos looked at Lin. "Tell me about her," he requested. "What is she like? What does she look like? What is her personality?"

Though he was still trying to hide his emotion, his green eyes sparkled brightly with sadness, excitement, and tears as he asked about the sister that he had not seen for so many years.

Aethos listened intently, a smile flitting about his lips. "It has been a very long time since she left here," he told Lin. "In twelve years, it will have been four hundred years since she left us. But ..."

His face grew troubled. "It sounds as if she has changed. When she was young, she was so sweet and outgoing ... nothing could keep her down." He smiled. "But since the beginning, she was always a beauty."

He led them through a doorway to a row of cells. "Here, your friend is here," he murmured, leading them down towards the end of the row.