"You must go as Marvor has gone. The masters do not take you for punishment if you go."
"There is nothing for me to do," she said, and her eye closed. "No. I wait for you, but only to tell you this: there is nothing I can do."
"Marvor is gone," Cadnan said slowly. "You, too, can go. Maybe the masters do not find you. If you stay you are punished. If you go and they do not find you there is no punishment for you." It amazed him that she could not see so clear a point.
"Then all can go," she said. "All can escape punishment."
Cadnan grunted, thinking that over. "Where one goes," he said at last, "one can go. Maybe many can not go."
Her answer was swift. "And you?"
"I stay here," he said, trying to sound as decisive as possible.
Dara turned away. "I do not listen to your words," she said flatly. "I do not hear you or see you."
Cadnan hissed in anguish. She had to understand.... "What do I say that is wrong? You must—"
"You speak of my going alone," she said. "But that is me, and no more. What of the others?"