Ylia held him. Tears glistened in her eyes. "Bram Forest," she said tremulously. "Now that I've found you, I don't want you to be hurt—ever again."
Bram Forest responded: "Don't worry, Ylia. If Portox hadn't known I'd be more than a match for the boar, he never would have established its conquest as proof of my identity."
"But ... but don't you see, you've been regenerated, as Bylanus said. You may not be as strong as you were."
Bram Forest looked at Bylanus, who shrugged. Bylanus lifted them when Bram Forest nodded. The park-like terrain flashed by. A dark forest loomed. The Kranuian Wood....
Close at hand, an animal screamed.
"How do I look, Prokliam?" Volna asked her seneschal.
He bowed before her. "You are lovely, O My Queen."
Volna smiled. She wore the royal purple of Nadia in a gown which fell, clinging as if sentient and voluptuous, to the wonderful curves of her body. "I'm not your Queen yet," she said, laughing.
"A mere formality, My Queen."