"Explain what? Why you've got a city named the same as one our cities? I just don't see what good it would do." He bit his lip. "It's none of your business."

"How isn't it?" Goneril asked. "It's our shared history; isn't that exciting? That we might be closer than we thought?"

"Right, so maybe it's some of your business but it is definitely not anyone else's," he replied. "Mostly we don't want to be any closer to humans. It rarely ends well."

"Oh," Goneril answered. She frowned, and looked down. "I hadn't thought of it that way. I mean...I know about Aquitaine. I understand why you wouldn't want them here. But it would be sad if that stood in the way of...of understanding history."

"It would be a lot sadder if we all had to move again," he said. "We are runnin' out of tallfolk-free islands."

"Isn't there some kind of middle ground?" Goneril asked. "You know, between knowing and having it endanger you?"

He shook his head. "I can't think of one. Not unless there was a very good reason. Curiosity or history or whatever won't cut it."

"What if you knew and humans didn't?" Goneril asked. "Don't you think...the bards would want to know, or something like that?"

He still looked doubtful over the matter. "The baird, maybe. I don't know what good it would do them either, except that they keep track of these sort of things. I just . . . it makes me uneasy, somehow."

"Well, look, if I find something, do you want me to tell you?" Goneril asked. "Or...do you not want me to be looking at all?"