She smiled, if he could see that, and waited for him to ask the real question. But he was silent. He wanted her to volunteer the story, she realized, and she could just as easily choose to say nothing. But he deserved to know. They all deserved it, and Kirra already knew it, and Cammon may have guessed it, because Cammon could read souls, but Tayse was the only one she would tell.

He leaned upon her as if there was no other support anywhere in the world, and she held him as if she would undertake no other task for all eternity.

I realized a long time ago, with a certain amazement, that no mattter how important something is in your life, no matter how huge it is, how much space it takes up in your heart and in your thoughts, unless you mention it to other people, they have no idea it exists.

I thought it would not hurt to remind you that love is a powerful force in this world, invisible though it seems.

My love for you is elemental and immutable, and it will sustain me until I die.

A truth that no one knows is still the truth.

I have changed for the last time--this is the man I will be till I die. And that man loves you.