“But I thought an eldin healer could draw the—”

“No eld can draw the poison from her without dying in the attempt. As your mother died, drawing the poison from her child.”

Dain flinched, for again he heard the accusation and bitterness in Kaxiniz’s voice. He had no memory of having been poisoned as a young child, no memory of having been seriously ill. Thia would have told him about it if it had really happened. Yet he heard no lie in Kaxiniz’s words.

Dain sighed, then said, “Can the Chalice of Eternal Life not create a cure?” Behind him, Alexeika gasped aloud. Potanderzin blinked in shock. Kaxiniz drew back deeper within the embrace of his leafy chair. Dain did not know what had shocked them this time, but he was getting tired of how these people took offense at everything he said or asked.

“Do you know where the Chalice is hidden?” he persisted.

“I do not.”

Dain’s last hope crashed. He couldn’t believe he had come all this way, risked his life and the lives of his friends, only to meet now with failure. He’d been so sure the eldin would help Pheresa. Had Thiatereika still been alive, she would have stretched out her hand instantly to help a stranger. He realized he’d expected all the eldin to be like her, but clearly they weren’t.  And yet, there was another mystery lying concealed beneath Kaxiniz’s hostility, a secret of some kind, a . . . a sort of wariness tinged with fear. Dain glanced around at the handful of eldin looking on, then turned his frown on the nearby dwellings. There weren’t many of them. There seemed to be almost no folk in this enchanted village. And why had the little ones fled at the sight of him? Were they so wary of strangers? Why? Who could harm them, much less find them here?  “Why do you hide yourselves?” he asked. “What do you all fear?” Kaxiniz’s and Potanderzin’s faces were like stone. Dain sensed a flash of panic between grandfather and grandson, felt it as sharply as though it had been shared with him.

“Something is wrong,” Dain said. “You fear me? Why?”

The two of them exchanged glances that only confirmed Dain’s suspicions.  “Why?” he repeated. “All my life I have heard of the eldin ways, of eldin gentleness, of eldin hospitality, of eldin grace and love of beauty. I saw it in my sister, who never spoke from unkindness, who cherished all living creatures.” “Your sister is dead,” Potanderzin said harshly. “You said she died by violence.

So has it been for most of our folk. We have been too gentle, too trusting.

Well, no more!”

Kaxiniz reached out and touched his wrist, but Potanderzin scowled and jerked away from the old eld’s touch.

“You ask why we fear you?” Potanderzin said angrily to Dain. “You stand here, in our last place of refuge, and feel hurt because we abhor you!”