After supper she fell alseep, only to be woken up by someone pounding on the hidden door in the back of her wardrobe.For a moment, she forgot everything else and simply watched the sunset, entranced by the way it made Orison look like a place in a fairy tale - old stone immured in winter and darkness, and yet reaching like hope or dream toward the ligth and the sky and the delicate touch of the sun's glory. Now she was able to rememebr the sound of horns. For a long moment, she ached to leave the castle, not to escape back to the illusion of her old life, but to go out into Mordant's world and find the spot among the trees and hills where it was possible to hear hunters or musicians calling joy and passion into the cold.
The knocking person turns out to be Master Quillon, ho has come to warn her against speaking to Geraden. He has enemies who might kill him if he knows too much of the secrets of the Congery...Does everyone here spend all night sneaking around behind everyone else's back?
Terisa decides to avoid Geraden in order to keep him safe. But he shows up at her door the next morning and
The two begin to talk of the King, and Terisa asks geraden why he trusts him so.Geraden's grin nearly ruined her good intentions: he looked so happy to see her tha tshe wanted to break down immediately and tell him everything. It was all she could do to glance at him and force her mouth into a smile.
he then tells terisa about his first meeting with the King, when he was only a child who had fallen into the pig wallow...As if the words were being forced out of him by a deep but involuntary conviction, he replied, "I have the strongest feeling he knows what he's doing."
Terisa tells him that Master Eremis had convinced her that she was not real, because of the reason of language. Geraden explains to her that the magic and power in the translation changes things, and that perhaps language is one of the things that it changes...
Geraden then asks her what went on at the meeting of the Congery. She finally tells him
Geraden doesn't understand, but finally pulls himself together. And then"They told me not to tell you. They told me that if you knew what the Congery was going to do your enemies would have you killed."
The two then spend a few days exploring Orison. Terisa notices that the highborn people look down upon Geraden, but all of the workers seem to respect him very much...they are up on the battlements when they see a group of horsemen approaching through the snow. Geraden thinks that the leader looks like the Tor, and that they bear a litter with them. The two run down to courtyard to see who it is.Nothing in her father's dour unlove or Reverand Thatcher's weakness or Master Eremis's desire has prepared her for the way geraden unknotted his throat and swallowed his desires and gave her a smile like a gift.
It does turn out to be the Tor, and the litter contains the body of his oldest son, killed by a wolf produced by Imagery. The Tor wishes to see the King, but the Castellan does not wish to let him, as the King is busy and has not granted him an audience. Geraden then takes charge as a son of the Domne.
Terisa is returned to her rooms as Geraden, the Tor, and the Tor's slain son are taken to the King. She rememebrs how her father had hit her when she cried after her mother's death... Later Geraden joins her there to tell her that the King had become very upset over the dead son.the boyish prance-and-fumble of exuberance and mistake was gone from his manner entirely. The way his chestnut hair crowned the strong lines of his face made him look incontestable, as sure of himself as if he had power and knew how to use it...At once Geraden turned toward Lebbick. "No, Castellan." He had become taller almost without transition, cetain of his authority. "Be warned yourself. You might yet despise me as much as you wish. But the day has not come when you speak for the Domne. I speak in his name. In his name I claim the responsibilty. Let it crush me if it will. The King will see my lord Tor."
the King instead returns to playing hopboard with Adept Havelock."When King Joyse saw it, he seemed to stand up inside himself. He took the body out of the Tor's arms. He raised his head as if he was going to howl. There was so much outrage and hurt in him that it practically shouted from his face. I thought that finally - finally - he was going to get angry enough to do something. I was wrong."
Later in the day more groups of the leaders of the Cares arrive at Orison. The King refuses them all audiences, even to the one who carried messages from his wife and daughter.
In the morning Terisa asks Saddith to help her dress in a seductive gown. She then dismisses the maid and alone finds her way to Eremis's quarters.
She lets herself in and sees Eremis and Saddith having sex on his divan. She remembers once seeing her father having sex with one of his mistresses in her mother's bed...
She finds her way back to her room and puts on her clothes from the real world, then stares out the window for the rest of the day, and sees yet another group of Mordant's leaders arrive by horseback...