Zane held out his hand.
"My offer wasn't a trap, Master Julian. It was a mirror. I can teach you the Tether of the Sands. It is a way of touch, of breathing, of presence that makes a man forget he is a Duke, or a King, or a Mountain. It makes him remember he is loved."
Julian's eyes slightly narrowed suspiciously, and then at Zane. He thought of Alaric's tired eyes after he had come back from the mines the previous evening.
He thought of his own inability to provide the shelter Alaric deserved.
He thought of the Duke comforting him. He didn't want to be comforted. He didn't want to be the one comfortable but the one doing the comforting.
"Why would you help me?" Julian asked, his voice wary. "You want to take me to the South. Why would you help me tie myself closer to Lucien?"
