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  To my relief, Quinn, who had gone slack when his body was gutted, suddenly shook his head, and jerked himself forward, pulling the pike out of his chest, and tossing it aside with a growl.

  The soldier nearest him watched in horror as he stood, the massive hole in his chest closing even as we watched.

  “If that’s what it’s like being lifebound, then I’m very glad to have you with us,” I told him as I separated one of Jalas’s men from his head, dancing around a wounded man on the ground who still held an axe.

  “Hurts like the fires of Kiriah herself, but it is a handy talent to possess,” Quinn agreed, grinning when he twirled his cutlass before slamming the hilt down on the head of a man who had rushed past him to get to Idril.

  “Allegria!” Hallow bellowed over the chaos of noise. “Seal the door!”

  Thorn flitted over my head as I leaped over an armless man who scrambled backward as best he could when Dexia turned to look at him, smiling her extremely unpleasant smile. Even as I ducked, slid, and spun around the soldiers who had made it into the area, I chanted, calling on Kiriah to bless me with her power, my fingers moving in a rhythm that would weave the light into an unbreakable barrier, but there was nothing there to weave.

  Kiriah had abandoned me, withdrawing when I needed her most. My heart sang a dirge, but I couldn’t pause to grieve my loss. Just as the man nearest the entrance got to his feet, his sword raised, and a cry on his lips for the others to follow him, I slammed shut the door. Grabbing the pike that had skewered Quinn, I shoved it through the handles, effectively locking it. The barrier wouldn’t last long, but it would buy us a few minutes to take care of the attackers already inside the dungeon.

  It took only four minutes before we’d dealt with the guards and soldiers that remained in our area. We stacked the dead in one of the rooms that had held some of Lord Israel’s men, now released to help us, while the wounded were placed in another room.

  “That door won’t stay in one piece for long,” I warned Hallow, nodding toward the pike that served as a barrier. The door had rung with various blows, but it had been strangely silent for the last two minutes. “They’re probably getting a battering ram.”

  “No doubt. We’ll have to hope this way is clear.” Just when we were about to go out the way Hallow and I had come in, the sound of men’s voices and boots became audible; Jalas’s men had obviously decided to come at us via the other end of the keep. We slammed shut the door, and Hallow drew several runes over it.

  “How long will that hold?” Quinn asked, eyeing the door when the men on the other side realized we’d sealed it. The frame shook a little as they tried to open it, but Hallow’s magic held.

  “An hour if we’re lucky,” Hallow said, glancing around before turning to Lord Israel. “Did you have a chance to search for another exit?”

  “Earlier, yes. There is none that we have found. Marston! Do another check for an exit.” His men searched the rooms again while we paced the walls, looking for signs of a secret entrance cut into the stone walls.

  “So now what do we do?” Quinn asked some three minutes later when we gathered together in the center again. “We’re trapped good and proper.”

  Hallow glanced upward. “Only on the sides. Allegria, do you think Kiriah would answer your call?”

  “No.” I didn’t meet his gaze when I spoke the word, feeling as if a shaft of glass had pierced my soul.

  He cast me a questioning look, but didn’t say more, just gave the ceiling an assessing look. “I’m pretty drained, and Bellias is sleeping, but I might be able to do what is needed.”

  “We could probably fight our way through the soldiers waiting for us,” I pointed out, guilt swamping me. Guilt and a desperation to be useful, to find the value that I once held.

  His lips gave a wry twist. “At what cost? Jalas did not harm Lord Israel and his company, after all, and to repay his restraint by destroying a full company of his men seems unwise.”

  “You might tell that to the fourteen men who lie dead in the room behind you,” Quinn said with a cock of his eyebrow.

  “Those men tried to kill us,” Lord Israel said, pacing the length of the area. “They forfeited their rights when they attacked us.”

  Idril held out a hand and tsked. “Lovely. I chipped a nail.”

  I stared at her in disbelief for a moment before returning my attention to the man at my side. Hallow, I had discovered during my time with him, did not like killing unless it was unavoidable. On the whole, I agreed with that sentiment, but I was a little less nice in my feelings when people were trying to destroy us.

  “I can try asking Kiriah,” I said slowly. “But I don’t think…she has not heeded any of my calls, and I begged her most penitently.”

  Hallow smiled, the love in his eyes serving as a balm to ease a bit of the pain that gripped my soul. “I’m sure Kiriah is saving her support for something more important. I think I can do this if I have a minute to gather sufficient arcany.”

  Although I wasn’t a priestess in her order, I sent three prayers to Bellias, asking her to hear Hallow’s call, thanking her in advance for her aid, and promising that we were doing her work in attempting to bring peace to her children on Alba.

  For a few minutes, I didn’t think she was going to heed me, but Hallow suddenly lit up with a blue light that sparked and crackled down his arms. He held the staff in front of him, Thorn now perched on top, his eyes closed as he focused. Suddenly he struck the staff on the ground, then thrust it upward at the same time that Thorn flapped his wings so rapidly they were a blur. A blue-white stream of light blasted from Thorn, slamming upward through floor after floor until the arcane light was suddenly gone, and cold air, dust, and tiny splinters of wood swirled down upon us.

  I looked up along with everyone else and saw the pale grey sky.

  “Damn me! Did he just blow a hole through the entire keep?” Quinn asked.

  “He did,” I said, full of pride and admiration. “I told you he’s a powerful arcanist.”

  “And you think my talent is handy?” Quinn blew out a breath. “Having access to Bellias’s power is a thousand times more amazing than being lifebound.”

  “It’s all a matter of perspective,” Hallow said modestly. “It’s nothing any arcanist who had a good master couldn’t do.”

  When Hallow wielded magic, it always got my gears turning, and now was no different. I had the worst urge to tear off all his clothing and have my womanly way with him, but managed to restrain myself, and simply told him, “I love you.”

  His eyes lit with a look of passion that told me he was thinking the same sorts of things I was thinking at that moment, and he moved toward me, stopping only when a voice cut through our mutual desire with the effect of ice cold water.

  “Shall we get out of here before Lord Jalas regains his senses, or do you intend to bed the priest right here and now?” Lord Israel crossed his arms. “We can wait if you like. I won’t say that it will be easy to escape a second time, but considering the look she’s giving you—”

  I ran a finger down one of the sword blades I’d finished cleaning a few minutes earlier.

  Lord Israel cocked an unimpressed eyebrow, and I reminded my wounded pride that he had fought for and protected Aryia for many centuries, and that my sword held no fear for him.

  “Escape is definitely the wisest plan,” Hallow said, but not before he could send me a look that promised much just as soon as we were alone.

  Luckily, the soldiers were still working on the door bearing the pike so that the hall, when we climbed up to it from our gaol, was empty of all but a few terrified servants who huddled together in a corner, weeping and calling upon Kiriah for protection.

  Idril looked upward, where a circular hole about the width of a yard had been punched through three floors of the keep. Cold air flooded the hall with occasional minute snowflak
es lazily drifting down upon us.

  I cleared my throat when Idril turned an unreadable look upon Hallow. “Your father will probably want to get that hole in the roof fixed.”

  “Indeed,” was all she said, and it was then I noticed that although she’d fought just as hard as the rest of us, the delicate material of her gown was unmarked by blood or entrails, unlike my own garments; her hair hung with its usual glossy sheen (my head was covered in the dust of incinerated stone and wood), and she looked as if she’d just stepped from her bedchamber after a long night’s restful sleep.

  There was a painful stitch in my side, one of my knuckles was grazed and bleeding profusely, and my nose itched terribly from all the dust.

  “I think the first order of the day is to ascertain the whereabouts and status of Lord Jalas,” Israel said, striding forward to the servants. “I have a few things to say to him about my incarceration. Er…where is the bear?”

  “I had him removed to a pasture outside,” Idril said, tsking again over the state of her chipped fingernail. “It was the servants leading him away that alerted the guards to the fact that I was freeing you.”

  “And you?” Israel turned to Hallow. “Do you come with a company, or alone?”

  Hallow quickly detailed the last few weeks, how we’d found Quinn, and met Idril in Abet before journeying to Ilam.

  “Your face is vaguely familiar. I believe we met a few centuries ago. And you are lifebound, eh?” Israel considered Quinn for a few moments. The latter bowed, but said nothing, looking wary.

  Hallow frowned. I watched him, asking, “What do you think? Do we stay or go? It seems the sheerest folly to remain if Jalas sent men after us, and he clearly has issues with Lord Israel.”

  “We have to stay until I can locate the stone,” Hallow said, rubbing his nose. “Much though my instinct is to get out while we can. Lady Idril, will your father’s men listen to you if you give them orders?”

  “As was witnessed below, not the soldiers, no.” she answered him with an annoyed look. “The servants in the keep will, but my father has apparently turned the rest of the Tribe against me. And much though I wish to say a few things to my father, to remain is folly. We must leave now, before the men investigate the noise the arcanist made blowing holes through the keep.”

  “The stone—” Hallow started to say but was interrupted.

  “Is not here,” Lord Israel said, turning when the servants slipped away. Thorn flapped his wooden wings a few times before settling back into position on the staff.

  I examined Lord Israel, noting that his face was drawn, as one would expect in a man who had been imprisoned. Although he looked tired and battered—unlike Idril, he had taken a few bloody blows during the battle—there was a light of retribution in his eyes that promised his spirit hadn’t given up the cause.

  “It’s not?” I asked, annoyed on Hallow’s behalf. “Where is it if it’s not here where some insane bear can guard it?”

  “The bear is not insane—” Israel paused, grimaced, and made a dismissive gesture when his men, who had taken up defensive positions at the entrances to the hall, murmured dissent. “Well, he has an odd attraction to one or two of my men, but once we figured that out, we were able to deal with his ways. And to answer your question, priest, Jalas took the stone away shortly after he had me imprisoned. He made sure to taunt me with the fact that even should you come to rescue me—not that I needed rescuing, mind you—you would not find it.”

  “Well…great big mounds of steaming dung,” I swore. “Do you know where it is?”

  “No, but I will find it.” He thought for a moment, then turned to Idril, asking, “The guards in the keep who attacked…is that the extent of your father’s force in Ilam?”

  “More or less,” she said with another graceful shrug and plucked a nonexistent bit of fluff from her embroidered sleeve. “There are a few who guard the roads, but he dismissed the army after the battle of the Fourth Age, save for the few soldiers who serve the keep. However, he can summon more should he have need. The Tribes are ever quick to provide men when called upon to do so.”

  “That is not my concern. We can see to it that he does not have the opportunity to get a message out of the keep, assuming we can lock away the remainder of his company. Marston?”

  Hallow shook his head even as Lord Israel’s right hand man moved over to confer with him. “If you are thinking what I’m thinking,” Hallow said somewhat confusingly, “it won’t serve.”

  “What are you thinking?” I asked.

  “Lord Israel wishes for us to go to Eris without him, while he remains behind to locate the stone, at which point he will use it with the other two in order to open a portal through which he can join us.”

  “That is exactly what we will do,” Israel said, interrupting his conversation to answer Hallow. “There is no reason it won’t serve us extremely well. I realize you wish to be the one to find the stone, but you must set aside petty desires in order to do what is best for us all.”

  “You make it sound like it’s just a matter of pride that Hallow find the stone,” I said, a little annoyed. Lord Israel’s high-handed manner always seemed to rankle. I wholly understood Deo’s frustration with his father. “But Hallow is a very skilled arcanist, one learned in the ways of things like hidden stones.”

  “He is not the only one who commands a knowledge of magic,” Israel said, dismissing me. “I am just as capable as he is of finding the stone. More so, since I have more experience with Jalas.”

  “Oh? Would that the same experience that landed you in a cell in the lowest level of the keep?” I asked, ignoring the little voice in my head that warned it was not wise to prick his temper.

  His jaw tightened. “That was an unfortunate reaction that no one could have predicted,” he finally answered when he got his jaw unclenched. “Jalas was being irrational in his insistence that I sought to remove him from power.”

  “But, you do,” I couldn’t help but point out.

  “Now I do, of course,” Israel said, looking as annoyed as I felt. “But I didn’t previously. If you are done pestering me with petty comments and unhelpful remarks, I would like to get Jalas’s soldiers confined.”

  I ground my teeth a little and would have argued more but Hallow stopped me. Instead, we crept down one of the flights of stairs, and took the soldiers by surprise, herding them into the recently vacated cells. The second force on the other side was smaller, and they capitulated easily enough once we showed them their compatriots locked into cells. Once the servants had taken away the wounded and dead, we met outside Jalas’s chambers.

  “I will deal with him,” Israel said, nodding toward the door. “You two must go to Eris ahead of my forces. We have waited too long as is, and I fear that any longer delay will leave us unable to save the queen and Deo.”

  “Do you have some reason to believe that they are in danger now? They’ve been imprisoned for almost a year, and unless there is a pressing reason to rush to Eris, I would prefer we go in a manner that will ensure success,” Hallow said, frowning a little.

  “You must go now. We can wait no longer lest we risk the unthinkable.” Israel said no more, turning toward the double doors that led into Jalas’s bedchamber.

  “You have news from Eris?” I asked, surprised. How had he managed that when even Hallow’s most talented arcanists couldn’t penetrate the mist that seemed to hide the land from their magic?

  “I have…feelings. The queen is in danger, and Deo…”

  “He lives still,” Idril said softly, just as if it was a point of minor interest, but I was starting to believe Hallow when he said there was more to her than what appeared on the surface.

  “But we don’t know what state he’s in,” Israel said, his scowl prodigious. “Why do you argue with me, arcanist? You and the priest must be the ones to go. There is no one else I can spare who
has the power to free Deo.”

  “And the queen?” I asked, taking Hallow’s hand just because I liked the way his fingers rubbed on mine.

  A muscle in Israel’s jaw twitched. “I will see to her release once I have the stone from Jalas. Marston, a word with you before we tackle Jalas…” They moved off a little way to converse privately.

  The urge to argue, to point out the flaws in his thinking was strong, but stronger still was my need to be doing something, anything. We’d spent long months doing nothing but tracking down the location of the stones, and now, at last we were moving forward. A little kernel of defiance bit into me, saying softly in my head that even though Kiriah might have spurned me, I wasn’t going to give up. So instead of arguing with Lord Israel, I nodded and looked at Quinn.

  He leaned against the paneled wall, his eyes filled with regret and sadness that was almost painful to witness. “I am unable to deny your request,” he told us, “but I urge you again to find another way. I can’t guarantee that my ship will make it through the storms surrounding Eris, let alone ensure that you will survive if it does. To attempt this is the sheerest folly, and almost certainly a death warrant.”

  I looked at Hallow. He hesitated, taking both my hands in his.

  “My heart, the last thing in this world or the next I want is to risk your life—”

  I stopped him by pressing a gentle kiss to his lips, whispering against them, “We don’t have a choice, though, do we?”

  “Yes, we do.” His eyes were bright with admiration that made me feel as if Kiriah herself was blessing me. “We can stay until we get the stone from Jalas.”

  “And risk Deo and the queen?” I shook my head. “It’s my fault they are in Eris. I’m not going to leave them there, and if they are in danger now, then I most certainly am not going to put my own safety above theirs. I’d tell you that you could stay, but—”

  He laughed, and pulled me against him, kissing me with enough heat to steam an entire field of cabbage. “But you won’t because you know full well that I will never leave your side.”