time

The princes stay for three weeks. Kiri and the elder make progress on Soechin. Isten's promised contentment unfolds like a flower in the sun as he comes to believe in the safety of the Ardelay house. Kiri and Jayce and once Aleko read books to Isten. The elder prince's presence noticeably improves the quality of the food, as he comes into the kitchen bearing tips and tricks from the palace chef.

After they have been there three weeks, the king calls them back.

Thereafter, they're usually at the palace for at least a quintile at a time, and never with the Ardelays for more than a couple of weeks. Kiri tries to arrange her time to be co-located with them as often as she can, but with four residences to divide her time between - the palace, the Chialto house, the estate, and the family home that it is impossible to pry Karls out of - she's not always successful. When she's got any leverage to do it with, she tries to keep them out of the path of their father. She and her Soechin study partner challenge each other to keep up with the language; she acquires a tutor, finds it agreeable, acquires more, and leaves conventional schooling, brothers in tow to share her educational accommodations.

When Kiri is twelve, Jerist Dochenza dies (fever; Kiri tries to break it, but she has to sleep eventually, especially after she catches his infection and winds up in bed for four days, a perfectly comfortable temperature but with streaming eyes and fatigue). His great-grandchild Auney Dochenza is the prime after him. Auney integrates into the group of five reasonably well, is still several years older than Kiri, and makes no significant waves in politics.

Then, when she is almost thirteen and the elder prince is fourteen, the latter... disappears.

health

Five years later, Nerine and Valdin murder each other.

They are found in Nerine's Chialto house, dead on the floor of the kierten. Her bones have been crushed to powder inside her skin. Valdin's body is unmarked except for blood leaking from behind his eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and other orifices. Further inside the house there is damaged plumbing and twisted wooden furniture.

Nerine's and Valdin's children - on the advice of Kiri and Alser - have a loudly public reconciliation of the families to calm the general public's alarm about this rivalry potentially spilling to broader segments of society. They pool money for the cost of the funerals, the Serlasts make a gift of replacing the furniture and the plumbing in the Lalindar house, the Lalindars give the Serlasts a small winery, the both of them start looking for any conveniently marriageable relatives to pair off.

It is "the Lalindars" and "the Serlasts" because the actual heirs to the deceased are nowhere to be found.

Their personal possessions, of course, are divided up in the normal way among their family members, but the family stewardship has failed to fall on any of Nerine's more or less coru descendants, nieces, nephews, or cousins, and likewise Valdin has no one stepping up to replace him as the prime of wood and bone.

Neither of them had obvious heirs like Kiri was or like Patience still seems to be, but this is ridiculous.



But Kiri has a suspicion.

She sends Jayce on a project to gather information from all their libraries and all allied repositories of data about...

...weather patterns in Soche-Tas and neighboring nations.

In case it starts raining a lot, somewhere that a certain relative of Nerine Lalindar's might have found a convenient escape route.

travel

Jayce turns up some interesting information.

Kiri leaves him in charge of everything and takes Aleko with her. She's closer with Aleko, but Jayce has initiative that Aleko doesn't and is less averse to the idea of running Ardelay business in her absence. Aleko can also draw; he has sketches of the missing prince and can make more.

They cross Soche-Tas, in their own carriage but as part of a merchant convoy that knows the way.

On the far side of Soche-Tas is the little country of Thiyec. Thiyec usually has improbably good weather. People who are less wedded to the culture of Welce than most talk about retiring there.

Thiyec has been getting plenty of rain.

They break off from the convoy and start showing the missing prince's picture to people. People in Thiyec consider nudity no more a remarkable fashion decision than hat-wearing, and it's not a terribly comfortable trip - it doesn't help that only about forty percent of Thiyec's population speaks any Soechin, Kiri's the only one who ever learned Soechin, and nobody in their party knows a lick of Thiyecine.

But eventually, there is a knock on a particular door.