In the court of the Sphere Of All Time, one pair of silvery eyes departed.
Toka sauntered back to the lounge room of the bridal suite.
Another door on the right swung softly in and Kolano stepped from a dim passage. "Great Prince Toka finds these rooms satisfactory?"
"So far."
"After we dine, Toka shall be more satisfied."
The scent of her touched into his nostrils.
The main portals were swinging in for a cortege bearing trays of food and drink. The table serviced, Toka and Kolano were left alone. Slender green tapers gave off a delicate odor and the menu was exotic. But there was a platter of leaf-wrapped packs of Sandcliff's water berries, no doubt part of the stores from the raft. Toka felt little appetite but he tore open a pack's corner and spilled his hand full of the black fruit. There was a magic in these berries, a magic to heal all wounds—and to give renewed strength....
He met Kolano's silvery gaze. "You and the Old Ones—unlike the common Kosannans—know I am not of divine origin."
Kolano shrugged. "For ages untold, your coming has been foreseen in the Sphere Of All Time."