[Ealasaide]

As Finian made his excuses to Kellan and walked away, Rochadan gave her a pleasant smile. “I have to agree with Finian,” he said. “You didn’t bore me at all with your thoughts about the stars. Actually, I found your view quite interesting.”

He threw a glance over his shoulder toward the stable to make sure that Sallie was still in his sight and staying out of trouble. Seeing that she was on both counts, he turned back toward Kellan. “I used to do quite a lot of traveling myself, and I have to agree with you that the sky, even the air, can be very different from place to place. The moon and stars, though... silly as it may sound to you, I always took comfort in the fact that they always remained the same moon and stars regardless where I found myself when darkness fell.”

Kellan smiled. “Yes, I can see where one might take that point of view. They are the same stars and moon, after all. It’s just that where I come from, we tend to look a little deeper than that.”

Rochadan nodded. “Yes, it seems that you do. It’s like me with horses, I suppose. Some people look at them and see an animal, the whole picture. I look at a horse and I see whether they are well-cared for or not, if their limbs are sound, and so on. I can usually spot a fast horse at a glance over, say, a good cutting horse, as well.”

“Yes, that is basically what I was getting at,” said Kellan. “It’s not so much seeing things with different eyes as knowing what to look for when you open them.”

“Yes!” agreed Rochadan thoughtfully. “But you say you can tell what the weather is going to be by the patterns of the stars. Can you tell other things as well? I can’t help but wonder if you might not be a fortune teller of some kind.”