"Looks like a sitaara," Sagani proposed: matter-of-fact, with only the slightest hint of interest. The others, stumped as they huddled around the battered case and its unidentified contents, looked up at her in surprise. It was the most confident answer that anyone had as yet produced since they discovered the peculiar instrument in the wreckage of an abandoned wagon barely a day's march out from Caed Nua. It certainly was not a harp, as Hiravias had initially guessed, given its strange oblong shape, like a small shield covered in tightened strings rather than the open frame of a harp; nor a proper fiddle, to which Edér likened it, given its lack of a neck to support the strings. While Lenneth was explaining these obvious strikes against their guesses and running through her memories of the various instruments her father had played or tinkered with - plenty of fiddles and something that might have counted as a harp, but unfortunately nothing quite like this contraption - Sagani peeked in and called it a sitaara.

And then she slipped it from its case, sat down with her legs crossed while Itumaak snuggled up against her thigh, balanced the sitaara on her knees, and began to play. She plucked the strings, one after another, testing; then in pairs and chords, tightening tiny knobs when discords sounded; then gradually began sorting sounds into melodies. The tone of it was harp-like, in a way, but more pronounced, defined, shaped by the shield-like box constraining it into something bold and sure.

The rest of them stood staring for several measures before Lenneth and Kana exchanged a delighted grin. "You know how to play it, Sagani?" Kana asked.

Lenneth snorted. "The time for that question was before she started the concert, Kana."

"It's a little smaller than the ones we have in Massuk," Sagani said, whether in answer to Kana's superfluous question or ignoring that and elaborating on her earlier proposal of the thing's name. "Fewer strings. That'll limit what I can play, but yes, I know a few songs."

Kana brightened. "Can you play 'Time and Tide'?"

"Never heard of it," Sagani said, her fingers never breaking stride.

"What about 'Lo, O'er the Gulf the Storm Brews Fierce'? Perhaps if I hum it for you..."

"Look, if you want to play this thing, have at it. I know a few songs, that's all. Yakona's the one with the musical talent in my family."

So they stood around and listened to Sagani's few songs until Kana took to humming along with them. On the third time through a particularly lively tune, as Sagani grew comfortable enough to experiment with a flourish here and there, Kana took to making up lyrics. Each line grew grander and more outlandish than its predecessor. This set Lenneth to giggling until Sagani started in on something different and Kana had to stop and listen again.

Before he could begin improvising lyrics to this tune as well, Lenneth elbowed him. "Hey, this one reminds me a little of a tukaula rhythm. I don't suppose you learned to dance at all in the lore college?"

Kana tilted his head to appraise her. "No, long before that. I wouldn't have guessed you knew the tukaula, though."

"I grew up in Rauatai," she reminded him. "Dancing in the taverns where Dad was playing as soon as I could walk. Now, how much of it I remember after all these years…" She grinned and tugged at the aumaua's hand. "Let's find out?"

Kana followed her with enthusiasm, and his widest grin, to a space of level ground far enough from the wagon to allow for movement, as the rest of their companions scattered to the sidelines of the improvised dance floor, outlining a wide crescent from the wagon where Sagani still sat bent over the sitaara. The dance began with a traditional bow to one's partner, then Lenneth stepped to Kana's side, resting her left hand on his right arm with a wink. They tucked their free hands behind their backs, elbows pointing out, and at the right beat of Sagani's music, they launched into the dance. The tukaula involved several steps forward together, with a curtsy-like bending of the knees every other step, in between turns that had them alternating between facing each other or standing side by side again, constantly changing which arms were linked. Now her right hand rested on his right arm so that they stood almost face to face and their steps forward rotated the pair of them in a tight circle; now he turned so that her right hand rested on his left arm and they stepped backward. It was one of the more formal dances Lenneth had learned, a bit complex for tavern merriment, but that was Rauatai for you. Her towering partner might have made it a little awkward had she not been dancing these steps since she was so tiny that her partners reached down to hold her wee hand instead of holding out their arm for her. Despite the years that had passed since she left Rauatai, her very bones seemed to remember what to do, and Kana beamed with approval and called out encouragement as she met his every step.

After several turns around their dance-floor clearing, when Lenneth had settled with growing confidence into the sequence of the steps, a cough and a tap on her shoulder interrupted the rhythm. She turned to see Edér standing nearby. He grinned and bowed in a fairly good mimicry of the dance's opening courtesy. "Mind if I cut in?" he asked, extending his arm to her. "Been watching you two for a while now and I think I've got the idea."

Lenneth glanced to Kana, who returned Edér's bow and stepped back with a toothy smile. "Go on, Watcher. Show him how it's done."

So she did. Sagani slowed the music's tempo a bit, as Lenneth took Edér's arm and he matched her steps through the first series of turns and promenades. Once or twice he hesitated at the turns, watching to see which direction she faced and which of his arms she reached for, but his steps in the promenades were certain and within a few stanzas of the song they were whirling at full tempo again, laughing and prancing with ease through the meadow.

By the time the song ended and Edér stepped back and bowed again, Lenneth was just getting warmed up. Sagani moved on to another tune, but the rhythm was still close enough to a tukaula that Lenneth found her hand going to the familiar spot at her back, her every other step tending toward the curtsy of the promenades, as she turned from Edér and started back towards the wagon.

And when she spotted Aloth, leaning like a shadow against a tree at the meadow's edge, of course she skipped over to him. "Aloth! Dance with me."

Lenneth grabbed at the wizard's hands and tugged him out into the open as his eyes went wide and objections bubbled to his lips. "What? No, I - really, it's better if I don't -"

"Aloth," she said, slowing but still pulling him along as she retraced her steps back into the open meadow again, "you trust me, don't you?"

He didn't answer, except to cut short whatever protest he was about to voice, stand still, and look her over, from her eyes down to their joined hands and up again. Lenneth gave him her winningest smile, and still he didn't answer, but swallowed once and then went along when she drew him the rest of the way to the center of the clearing.

When she bent in the dance's opening bow, he followed suit. When she reached for his arm, he held it ready for her hand. The song Sagani was playing now was slower than the last. Slowly they got into position and, on just the right beat of the song, stepped out into the first promenade.

It was quiet. Even the music seemed further distant than for the previous dances. Lenneth glanced at her partner several times and found him always avoiding her gaze, yet keeping watch of her well enough from the corner of his eyes to follow her movements and match her turns. With Edér and Kana, she'd laughed through most of the dance, and chatted a bit here and there. With Aloth, for all that she would normally talk his ears off with her questions and her stories, at this moment she couldn't bring herself to break the silence. Perhaps the warmth that spread through her was only from the exertion of so much dancing. Perhaps the tingling in her fingers each time they completed a turn and she laid her hand on his arm again was only weariness setting in. If the turns and sequences of the dance seemed somehow smoother, easier, more natural than before, it was surely just that she had gotten so much practice in before this. Or it was the advantage of dancing with someone not quite so much taller than her as an aumaua or a particularly tall folk farmer. Aloth's arms were at just the right height for her; his steps were just the right length; they fit together perfectly -

But something was off, all the same. Aloth had certainly not begun the dance with such confidence as Kana, who'd known it for years, or even Edér, picking up the gist of it from the sidelines, but the wizard seemed to have been watching her earlier dances closely too and could follow Lenneth's steps without stumbling. Yet the longer they danced together, the stiffer he seemed to grow, keeping up with her but tensing every time they turned, flinching when her hand came to rest on his arm. The next time Lenneth glanced at him, she saw his lips pressed thin and tight.

He noticed her glance and his step faltered at last. Suddenly he came to a halt, retreating from the dance position, leaving Lenneth's hand behind, fluttering in the air.

"Aloth?" she prompted.

"I -" he winced, not meeting her eyes. "I'm sorry. I don't really seem cut out for this."

"You're doing fine," she assured him with a smile. Because, until that moment, he really was, though he seemed fully unaware of it. Lenneth reached for his arm. "Here, let's start again -"

Aloth drew back. "No, I - Please. I really shouldn't."

Lenneth's heart ached for his evident discomfort, and she took a step back with a reluctant nod. Aloth looked about to say more, but then he only grimaced and hurried away. She stood watching him for a moment, rubbing at her elbow as she tried to puzzle out what had brought his dancing to its abrupt end.

At last she turned to walk back toward the wagon and reconvene the group to finish their journey home to Caed Nua. But Sagani was still playing the sitaara, and a cough drew Lenneth's eyes down to see Hiravias standing in her path, hands on his hips.

"What, don't I get a turn?" the druid demanded, arching his good eyebrow at her.

Lenneth summoned a weak smile. "Well, if you're sure you can keep up with me…"

Hiravias snorted a laugh. "Just keep your toes off mine and we'll be fine, Lenni."

It was Lenneth who had to lean to reach her partner this time, though not so much as those who had danced with her as a child or even as much as Kana had had to accommodate her today; Lenneth was not among the tallest of elves herself. So it was not for any awkwardness of dancing with the shorter man that she now went so quietly through the steps. Hiravias made several attempts at conversation, to which Lenneth responded affably enough, but without the laughter and enthusiasm of her earlier dances.

And then, as they faced each other for one of the circle-promenade sequences, Hiravias leaned in and up and murmured to her, "He's wishing he were still over here in my place, you know."

That snapped Lenneth straight out of her reverie. "What?"

"Your boyfriend over there. He'd rather be dancing with you."

She felt her cheeks grow warm, but her steps did not falter. If anything, they lengthened, forcing Hiravias to push himself to keep up with her. "He's not my - What? Why'd he walk away, then? He didn't seem that thrilled to dance with me." She glared down at Hiravias, who was chuckling now. "What?"

"Not your boyfriend," Hiravias echoed her claim, "but you knew exactly who I meant, huh?"

"Well, you said…" she trailed off, trying to recall just what Hiravias had said.

"Nothing that couldn't have applied to Edér or Kana, but you and I both know they weren't on your mind just now."

Lenneth tossed her hair and fixed her gaze just over Hiravias' shoulder in pique. "I think you're making a pretty big assumption here. Playing matchmaker because...because we're both elves, is that it?"

Hiravias laughed. "No, I'm playing matchmaker because I'm sick of watching you both pine for each other like the oblivious fools you are." He snorted as they rotated their position once more, back to the forward promenade with her left hand on his right arm. "Maybe it is because you're elves. You think you have all those extra years to work things out between you. Wouldn't hurt you to try the orlan way, you know. Seize love when you find it. Tell people when you're interested. Life is short, even for an elf."

Lenneth pondered his words for the next several measures of the dance before she spoke again, quietly: "You seem so certain he...feels the same. But when I danced with him, he just seemed desperate to get away."

"Oblivious idiots, I told you. I don't know why he chickened out. I know for sure he wants you, though. There's a scent to it that's, shall we say, unmistakeable."

"Ew," Lenneth wrinkled her nose. "I did not need to know that."

"Well, if you'd just get on with it and bed him before he worries himself to death from trying to act like he doesn't want to, I wouldn't have to complain about it, would I?"

"Hiravias!" Lenneth admonished. "It's...it's not that simple."

"You could at least just kiss him and see what happens." The druid smirked up at her. "I'd give him the same advice, but he wouldn't have listened this far."

"I'm sure he wouldn't," said Lenneth with a bitter laugh. "And I can't just kiss him. He'd be horrified. He could barely stand to dance with me."

"And yet," said Hiravias, "he still wanted to. And if you could see the looks he's sending your way when your eyes are on me, I think you'd agree he still does."

It was all Lenneth could do, from that point on till the dance ended, not to keep looking over her shoulder in hopes of glimpsing these elusive looks. But when the last bows were taken and the last notes faded away, as the group reconvened at the wagon while Sagani tucked the sitaara back into its case and slung it over her shoulder, Aloth fell into place at the rear of their marching order and met Lenneth's questioning gaze with only a faint and enigmatic smile.

She spent the rest of the march back to Caed Nua silently debating whether she'd imagined the blush that went with that smile.