Serpent in the Shadows: Part Four

Shocking cold enveloped Denil. It was beyond cold, so intense that it should be painful but there was no body to feel pain with. He was being torn apart and remade at the same time. Bright lights rushed past and something inside screamed. There was nothing to see or feel apart from the light and the incredible, impossible cold. He would fall forever and never land. Time stood still and rushed on. The cold consumed thought and emotion until there was just a frozen core.

As suddenly as it began, it was over and Denil discovered that he was lying shivering on a stone floor. He managed to roll over, away from the portal, a moment before Sai'em tumbled through. Denil couldn't move, could barely breathe, and his entire body seemed to be locked in bone-deep shivers. He wanted to throw up, but his muscles wouldn't unlock to let him.

With a quiet roar the portal winked out and Denil was left in semi-darkness.

Eventually, the shivers began to ease and Denil cautiously moved his head, reassured when the world didn't lurch around him. He could just make out that he was lying on the floor of a chamber lit by a single flickering torch. There was a quiet feminine grunt to his left that he hoped was Sai'em.

"Everyone alright?" Jak asked, his voice sounding strangely rusty. "Nobody broke anything?"

Denil took a deep breath and managed to say, "I'm fine."

"Same here," came Sai'em's voice.

There was a quiet groan from Jak's direction. "What in hellfires was that?"

"I'm not sure," Sai'em said. "Denil's notes didn't mention side-effects."

"Maybe the wizard forgot to mention them," Jak said.

"More likely it's because I'm working with a spell that's been bolted together from theory and a human spell."

"I suppose there's no way to make the trip home smoother?" Jak asked.

"Not without giving me some time to experiment and an army of testers."

"Don't bother. You know how to get us home, right?"

"As long as I cast the spell from this chamber, yes."

Denil decided that it was time to risk sitting up and it proved to be much easier than he'd anticipated. Sai'em was already standing up, bow in hand, stalking around the chamber. Jak was sitting, shaking his hands as though he was trying to restore the circulation. He must have noticed Denil watching; he looked at him and sent Denil a small, lopsided smile.

"Cold?" Jak asked.

"Getting better."

The staff lay a couple of feet away. Denil reached out for it, the wood surprisingly warm under his fingers despite the passage through the portal, and used it as a prop to clamber to his feet. Jak was on his feet a moment later and the three companions took a short break to pace around the small chamber, walking off the remnants of the portal's cold.

The portal had formed in a stone archway that stood separately from the walls. It looked as though it had deliberately been built that way and Denil stopped in front of it.

A minute later he felt Jak stop at his side. "See anything interesting?"

Denil cocked his head. "I'm not sure. I think this archway might have been specifically built to contain portal spells."

"I see what you mean," Jak said after a pause.

Denil bent a little closer to the stone arch and traced some markings. "These look like runes."

"Elvish?" Jak asked sharply.

"Similar. Not a dialect I'm familiar with, though."

There was only one way out of the chamber, a wooden doorway opposite the archway.

"It might be barred on the other side," Jak said dubiously. "That's what I'd do."

Strangely it wasn't and Jak opened it a crack to peek through.

"Is there anyone out there?" Sai'em asked softly.

"Corridor's clear," Jak answered equally quietly. "Let's - crap, guards."

Denil held his breath as the rhythmic sound of heavy, marching footsteps filtered through. Jak closed the door and pressed his ear against it, nodding after a long, breathless pause to let them know that the soldiers had gone past without stopping to check the room.

"What did they look like?" Denil asked, trying to recall the descriptions from the book.

"Big," Jak said succinctly. "Lots of armour. Tattoos on their cheeks and they were carrying weird staff things. Kind of like yours, only they flared out at the top."

"Were they the same soldiers who took Charry?"

"Yeah, except those guys had swords instead of staffs. I counted six on that patrol."

"What kind of armour did they have?" Sai'em asked.

"Mail shirts, breastplates and a high collar. You'll have to be damn accurate with that bow if you're going to take any out."

Sai'em smiled grimly. "I can be."

Jak eased the door open again and cautiously looked through the crack. Satisfied that the corridor was empty, he opened it wider and slipped through. Denil followed and Sai'em brought up the rear.

"Any idea which way is best?" Jak asked.

The corridor was wide enough for three men to walk abreast and dimly lit by widely spaced torches. It disappeared into shadow in both directions with a couple of doors leading off it. Denil shrugged and glanced at Sai'em, who was frowning slightly.

"I can feel magic in that direction," she said slowly, pointing to their right. "It's faint and it has a signature that I don't recognise. It might be an elf, but I can't be sure."

"Could it be a problem?" Jak asked.

"I don't know. It's worth investigating, though."

Jak nodded and set off down the corridor in the direction Sai'em had indicated. Denil followed, hoping no one else could hear his racing heart, and Sai'em took the rear on soundless feet. Her white coat and breeches gleamed in the darkness and Denil briefly wondered why Jak hadn't insisted that she change into something less conspicuous before dismissing the thought.

They didn't run and they didn't creep, instead walking down the corridor at a steady pace, ready to flee or fight if they heard a patrol coming. At the end of the corridor, Sai'em pointed out the direction. The corridors all looked the same and they twisted and turned until, after a few minutes, Denil had no idea where they'd come from. There was an almost imperceptible slope to some of the corridors and their direction always seemed to take them up. Once they heard a patrol of soldiers and managed to hide in a chamber of moth-eaten cushions before the soldiers spotted them. When they continued, Jak stopped to test every few doors. A few of them were locked, but most led into empty storage rooms or barracks. The place seemed unnaturally empty.

After a few minutes, the corridor they were following abruptly came out on the landing of a winding stone staircase. Sai'em hesitated for a moment before gesturing upwards and Denil followed Jak with nerves strung tight with tension. If they encountered a patrol now, there would be nowhere to hide and they would be at a huge disadvantage in a fight. Miraculously, the stairs stayed as empty as most of the corridors below. Denil blinked hard as he rounded one of the curves and the light suddenly brightened. A few more steps and then they were out in a wide corridor lit by mage lights.

Almost at the same moment, a patrol of soldiers came around the corner at the other end of the corridor twenty feet away. Jak swore and Denil felt a slight breeze stir his hair as one of Sai'em's arrows sped past him and buried itself in the lead soldier's forehead. Another arrow took out a second soldier before they had time to react and then the soldiers were roaring a foreign war cry and running towards them.

Jak and Denil took a couple of steps forward to give themselves some manoeuvring room away from the top step and Denil shifted his grip on his quarterstaff ready for a blow that never came.

A ball of brilliant blue energy exploded from the flared tip of a soldier's staff and hit Denil full in the chest. There was a moment of agonising pain before his vision went black and he passed out.

Jak was being dragged down a corridor between two large soldiers. He kept trying to stand or walk, anything so that he wasn't being dragged so uncomfortably, but his legs wouldn't do what he told them to. He'd lost consciousness for a few minutes after an energy bolt hit him and now his head throbbed and his stomach rolled queasily with every movement. So far he was the first to wake up despite being the last to get hit. Sai'em was being carried by another solder ahead of him, slung over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes so that her head bounced off his back with every step. Jak could hear another body being dragged behind him that he hoped was an unconscious Denil and not a dead one.

The thought made cold shivers run down his spine.

This corridor was busier than any other had been. They passed two patrols as they went and several servants in red and gold livery. The servants appeared human and they scuttled past with downcast eyes. Jak noted that they had the same black tattoos on their cheeks as the soldiers: a stylised snake.

The corridor ended in a pair of wide double doors guarded by two soldiers wearing red enamelled versions of the other soldiers' armour. The guards crossed their staffs as the other soldiers approached and issued a challenge in a harsh, clipped tongue that Jak didn't understand. The soldier carrying Sai'em answered in the same language and the two guards lowered their staffs and pushed the doors open.

The vast hall beyond was filled with talk and laughter that quickly died down so that Jak and his captors proceeded down the centre in near silence. Jak was vaguely aware of passing several tables filled with richly dressed people but all his attention was focused on the raised dais at the end of the hall.

It held a long table with only two people sitting at it despite the numerous plates of food. Seated on a large throne-like chair was an almost repulsively pretty man. He had short, black, tightly curled hair and olive skin. His nose was aquiline and his dark eyes were lined with kohl. Rich robes glittering with gold thread proclaimed his importance to everyone. He wasn't the one who captured Jak's gaze, though.

No, Jak stared at the boy sitting next to him on a chair that was almost as grand. The boy had sandy blond hair almost to his shoulders that gleamed in the light from the mage-lights. Familiar hazel eyes swept over Jak but didn't seem to recognise him. The boy's eyes were rimmed with kohl and his silver-threaded robes were almost as elaborate as the ones that the man next to him wore. He was at once heartbreakingly familiar and utterly foreign.

"Charry," Jak whispered as he was dragged to the foot of the dais.

The boy stiffened but there was no other sign that he'd heard Jak.

The soldiers unceremoniously dropped Jak and it was all he could do to remain on his knees instead of sprawling on the stone floor. He heard a muffled grunt as Denil was dropped next to him but Sai'em remained worryingly still and silent when she landed a couple of feet away.

A slight, arrogant smile crossed the lips of the man on the throne and he asked a question in a strange, metallic, grating voice. The question was in the same language that the soldiers had used so Jak stared at him blankly. The smile stayed plastered on the man's face as he stood, walked around the table and stepped down one of the steps leading to the dais.

"Where did you come from?" the man asked in that unnatural voice.

Jak said nothing.

"Answer me!"

Still Jak was silent.

The pretty man shrugged. "No matter. I can guess. The elf brought you. My cousins have decided to interfere again."

There was a flash of irritation on his face when Jak stubbornly refused to answer, but it was gone in a moment.

"Why did you come?" the man mused. "Why would the elf bring two humans to my realm?"

Jak finally spoke. "To find my son."

One eyebrow rose elegantly. "Your son? And why, please tell me, would you believe that your son was here?"

He followed Jak's eyes to Charry and his smile widened. "So you're the human..." He chuckled unpleasantly. "Boy, who is your father?"

Charry didn't look at Jak. "You are, Lord Ayulphel."

"And do you recognise this man?" Ayulphel asked, gesturing to Jak.

Charry's eyes flickered to Jak for a bare moment. "He...looks like a man I once knew. A long time ago."

Ayulphel turned back to Jak. "There, I hope that has cleared up any confusion."

"You lying-"

The man stepped down and backhanded Jak with surprising strength before he could finish. Jak tasted coppery blood in his mouth.

"I am Lord Ayulphel, God of this domain," Ayulphel shouted.

For a moment his eyes flashed with a bright light. Taken with the unnatural grating voice Jak had to admit that he was certainly not human, although he wouldn't accept that he was a god no matter how many miracles he performed.

"You're a lying, deluded-"

This time it was a soldier who clouted Jak around the back of his head and sent him sprawling.

"Take the humans to the mines," Ayulphel ordered. "Collar the elf and put her with the other one. She may be useful."

Jak kept watching Charry as he was dragged away, even when his son smiled up at Ayulphel and the arrogant creature ran his hand through Charry's sandy blond hair.

As Sai'em slowly came around, the first thing she was aware of was throbbing pain in her head. It pulsed with the rhythm of her heart, chasing fragmented thoughts away every time she tried to piece together why she was feeling that way. There were images of a fight and strange soldiers and then nothing.

Something cool and wet was suddenly pressed over her forehead and the pain receded a little. A soft voice murmured words that she couldn't quite hear as someone wiped her face with deliciously cool water.

Eventually the unknown voice said, "I know you're awake."

It took Sai'em a minute to register that the voice was speaking Elvish with the slight drawl of a wood elf. That struck her as odd, but for a moment she couldn't place why. Then memory returned with brutal clarity.

The portal. Jak's son. Corridors. The fight and a bolt of energy hitting her in the chest.

Sai'em struggled to sit up and fell back with a groan when the room seemed to spin around her and her stomach threatened to expel its contents.

"Jak, Denil," she muttered, swallowing hard several times. "Where are my friends?"

"I don't know where your friends are, akasha. You were the only one they brought in."

Sai'em cautiously opened her eyes, wincing as the light sent spikes of pain through her head. A few deep breaths got the pain under control and she tried to sit up again. Warm hands steadied her, although the room still spun dizzily and Sai'em nearly lost the contents of her stomach again.

"Hey, easy now," the voice said gently. "It's probably easier if you don't move too much for a while."

Sai'em shifted slightly and groaned when the room lurched again.

"Here, let me help," the kind voice said.

With a lot of help from the stranger, Sai'em managed to get half propped up against something that yielded slightly beneath her shoulders. She twisted to find out what she was leaning against and found rough grey fabric a few inches from her nose. Obviously she was leaning against someone's outstretched legs. Her eyes slid upwards, taking in narrow shoulders, a pale thin face surrounded by dark red hair, and finally locking with friendly brown eyes that seemed strangely out of place here.

"Hello," the strange woman said.

Sai'em found that she was automatically returning the weak smile. "Uh, hi."

The woman brushed a hand through Sai'em's hair and she realised that this must be the person who had bathed her forehead with cool water.

The assumption was confirmed when the woman asked, "How do you feel?"

"Not great," Sai'em replied truthfully.

The woman nodded. "There seems to be some difference between elf and human physiology that makes us react much more violently to the stunners. Most full humans only get knocked out for a few minutes."

"How long have I been out?"

"A couple of hours. The worst of it should wear off over the next day or so."

"How do you know?"

The woman tucked a lock of hair behind a pointed ear. "I've had a bit of experience."

Jak's hands were already starting to ache and he could feel a couple of blisters starting to form under the calluses he'd acquired from years of sword work. He could only imagine how Denil, unaccustomed to this kind of physical work, was feeling.

They had been dragged through a series of long corridors after leaving Ayulphel's banqueting hall. Then there had been flights of stairs, twisting and turning until Jak was thoroughly disoriented. The mines seemed to be under Ayulphel's castle, but it was difficult to be sure because he hadn't seen a window or a hint of anything apart from endless corridors since he'd arrived. The strange soldiers had stripped Jak and Denil of all their weapons and handed them pickaxes before pushing them down a long, roughly hewn mineshaft. Luckily, they had both recovered enough from the energy bolts from the soldiers' staffs to get down the mineshaft without help. Jak had no doubt that they would have been dragged again if they hadn't been capable, and probably beaten if they hadn't been able to wield the pickaxes. He'd already seen two slaves beaten for not working hard enough.

Slaves.

There was no doubt in Jak's mind that that was what he and Denil were now considered to be. The men hacking at the rock face around him all had the beaten, defeated expression that he had seen on the faces of the slaves that Wolf Company had once been hired to rescue. They wore rough brown or grey tunics and breeches in various degrees of raggedness and a few had leather boots while the rest wore canvas rags tied around their feet. Jak and Denil were the best dressed of the lot.

The tattoos on the cheeks of most of the men emphasised their status and Jak was beginning to wonder whether the soldiers were also higher status slaves. Many of the miners had the stylised rearing snake tattoo of the soldiers, but some had a variety of other designs. So far Jak hadn't worked out a pattern to the tattoos.

He had worked out some of the organisation down here, though. A few soldiers patrolled, carrying their staff weapons. Any worker taking an unauthorised break received a solid clout from the staff, although the soldiers hadn't yet used the stunning bolts on anyone. Children too young to wield a pickaxe ran about with cups of water for the workers or carried away baskets of rock for sorting somewhere else. There seemed to be an emphasis on maximum production while keeping slaves alive so Jak was hopeful that they would be rested and fed eventually.

Rest was something he needed soon. The mail shirt was an uncomfortable, heavy weight dragging at his shoulders. Each swing of his pickaxe seemed harder than the last and he couldn't spare the time to check how Denil was faring. Sometimes he caught a glance of the scholar out of the corner of his eye, just long enough to note the exhausted set of his shoulders, but there was no way to make sure that Denil was coping without drawing attention from the patrolling guards. The last thing that Jak wanted was soldiers keeping a closer eye on him while he tried to formulate an escape plan.

Jak was trying to muster the energy to lift his pickaxe for another swing when the sound of a deep horn reverberated through the mineshaft. Around him the slaves immediately dropped their tools. Jak considered trying to hold onto his axe until he noticed a solider watching him with a small, cruel smile while he fingered his staff. He dropped the axe and joined the rest of the slaves as they trooped up the mineshaft.

Someone touched Jak's hand and he almost swung out until he realised that Denil had moved up next to him. Denil's face was so pale it was almost grey and he was streaked with dirt. Jak had a feeling that his own face was almost as bad. Nevertheless, seeing Denil's face calmed him a little and Jak began to feel slightly more hopeful. He smiled and Denil smiled back. Jak told himself that he was taking Denil's hand to show the other slaves that they were both spoken for. He almost believed it.

Sai'em had no idea how long she spent drifting in and out of restless sleep. Her cell - there was no way the room could be anything else - was lit by pale mage-lights that never dimmed or darkened so it was impossible to keep track of time. Each time she woke up there was a warm hand stroking her hair or putting a cooling cloth on her forehead to ease the insistent ache. It couldn't be comfortable for her benefactor, but the woman never complained or looked annoyed. There wouldn't have been much that Sai'em could have done if she had. For the first few hours, the room spun every time she moved and the only thing that kept her resisting the nausea was the thought that she'd have to move to throw up.

Eventually, she woke up and found that the pain in her head had faded to a faint dull ache. Sai'em experimentally moved her head and the room stayed steady. Feeling bolder, she carefully rolled and sat up.

"Feeling better?"

Sai'em turned to look at the woman who had nursed her for several hours. The new angle allowed her to take in more than she'd been able to before. The woman was a few inches shorter than Sai'em with the characteristic delicate features of an elf, but she definitely didn't seem frail. Her hair was probably bright auburn normally, but it hung in dull red-brown tangles to her shoulders. Sai'em took in the hair, the brown eyes and the accent and decided that she had to be a wood elf despite the unnatural pallor. Instead of a healthy tan, her skin had the grey-white tone of someone who hadn't seen the sun for a long time. Her rough, frayed canvas tunic and breeches and bare feet were the final proofs that she was as much a prisoner as Sai'em.

The woman frowned slightly, worry easy to read in her eyes. "If you're not recovered-"

"I'm feeling much better," Sai'em cut in. "Thank you."

A slim shoulder shrugged. "I didn't do much."

Sai'em allowed a small smile to curve her lips. "You just let me use you as a pillow and tried to ease my headache. No, not much."

An answering smile tugged at the corners of the other woman's lips. "Anyone else would have done the same."

There was an awkward silence before Sai'em held out her hand and said, "Sai'emanthadrellan á Jacrodellané. Sai'em."

The other woman hesitated for a moment before taking Sai'em's hand and touching it to her forehead. "Jyani."

Sai'em raised a curious eyebrow and the other elf ducked her head.

"What I was...before...doesn't seem important anymore. It's just Jyani now," she explained.

Sai'em didn't really understand, but she let it pass. For an elf to abandon part of her name was as though she had abandoned a part of herself; an elf's name described her and grew with her. The eldest had names that required several pages to write.

"How long have you been here?" Sai'em asked.

Jyani raised her head and cocked it thoughtfully. "When I...left, Gareyanium Foxwater had just taken her seat on the Council."

Sai'em did a quick calculation in her head. "That was fifteen years ago."

"Oh. Is that all?" Jyani's voice didn't betray any surprise, only weary acceptance.

"Why haven't you escaped?"

Jyani tugged down the neck of her tunic to reveal a black collar. It seemed to be made of metal that had an oily sheen and was cleverly constructed of overlapping plates that moved like a second skin. Sai'em unconsciously reached up and was surprised to feel skin-warmed metal under the collar of her own shirt.

"You won't be able to cast any spells without Ayulphel's permission and there are spells on the cell-door to stop us picking the lock if we had anything to pick it with." Jyani gestured around the cell. "We're stuck here at Lord Ayulphel's command and there isn't a damn thing we can do about it."

A quick scan of the cell didn't show Sai'em anything she could use to escape with. It was bare apart from a pile of blankets in the corner. She tried to reach out to the energy fields that she could feel around her, but nothing happened.

"I tried at first," Jyani said. "Ayulphel seems to know exactly what we're capable of."

"Who is he?"

Jyani was distracted from answering by the sound of a lock turning. Sai'em turned to the door in time to see a soldier enter with a staff aimed straight at them. They couldn't hope to overpower him before he got them both with one of the stunning bolts. Another soldier followed and set a tray down in the middle of the cell floor and then they both backed out, locking the door behind them.

"Did you notice their tattoo?" Jyani asked.

Sai'em nodded. "It looked familiar, but-"

"Just think back. Concentrate. It will come to you."

Looking inward, Sai'em pictured the stylised snake in her mind and tried to match it to a memory. It had been a long time ago, many years, and she hadn't been paying attention very closely. History had never been a strong point...

Sai'em felt sick horror settle into the pit of her stomach. "But..."

Jyani just watched impassively.

"It's impossible," Sai'em whispered. "We wiped out the plains elves twenty-five centuries ago."

The large room the slaves had been taken to for the night was cold and lacked anything resembling beds. Instead, each slave had been handed a blanket and a bowl of tasteless grey mush that masqueraded as food. It was lit by mage-lights high in the ceiling that dimmed suddenly half an hour after they arrived. Jak noted that he and Denil weren't the only ones to work out that two men under two layered blankets were warmer than one man under a single blanket. Occasional muffled grunts from dim corners indicated that not everyone was sleeping and Jak grimaced. No matter how desirable Denil was, nothing could ever induce him to have sex in a room filled with sweaty, dirty slaves.

Denil was curled on his side with Jak spooned up behind him. He had refused to let Jak see his hands, but the way he gingerly held his bowl and blanket told Jak that Denil's hands had blistered painfully. The scholar simply wasn't cut out for this kind of work. Jak's hands weren't in wonderful shape, but he was confident that the worst of the throbbing would be gone by morning and his calluses had protected his hands from serious damage.

The tension in Denil's body betrayed his pretence of sleep. Jak was going to let him carry on pretending until Denil whispered, "Have you come up with a plan yet?"

Jak sighed quietly. "No."

"I don't regret coming with you. I just thought you should know that."

"I know you don't. I regret letting you come, though. This isn't something that you're built for."

Denil shrugged a shoulder. "I'm fine."

Jak knew that was a lie, but it was a harmless one and if it helped Denil to cope then he would let it go.

"Why would Ayulphel have taken your son?" Denil said thoughtfully.

"Maybe he really is Charry's father." It was a painful thing to admit, but Jak had to concede that it was possible. "Anaya didn't tell me anything about his father. I always had the feeling that it was something she didn't want to remember. I certainly wouldn't want to remember sex with that...that thing."

"It's possible, but unlikely. I didn't see any resemblance."

"Not every son looks like his father."

"True. I still doubt that Ayulphel is Charry's father. There must be something else."

"I'll ask him while I'm wringing his scrawny neck," Jak said dryly. "It's a vital part of our escape plan."

Jak was surprised to feel a stifled snort of laughter from Denil.

"I might actually help you with that - there was something distinctly repulsive about him. He made my skin crawl."

"I thought you were out of it in the hall."

Denil shook his head. "I was groggy, but not completely out."

It was odd how easy it felt to talk to the back of Denil's neck. Jak was sure that he wouldn't have been this candid if he'd been looking into Denil's eyes and he was equally sure that Denil wouldn't have talked so honestly either.

"I think the founders of this society might have been elves, or related to them at least," Denil said suddenly.

"Why?"

"The language they're speaking - it's a very corrupted dialect of Old Elvish."

"Can you understand anything?"

"The language has shifted a lot. I can pick out a few words, but some have changed too much to be sure of the meaning and there are words in there that I don't recognise at all. If I could listen to it for a few days or see it written then I might be able to translate properly, but it's a very corrupted version of a language that hasn't been in regular use for centuries."

"I guess we'll have to ask Sai'em about them. If we ever find her again."

Jak regretted the words as soon as he spoke them, but it was too late to take them back.

Denil apparently found it easier to ignore them completely rather than start a conversation neither of them wanted to have. "I think one of the guards has been watching me."

Jak stiffened, forgetting all about elves and mysteries as nasty memories from his mercenary days flooded his mind. "Oh?"

"Not like that." Denil craned his neck to look at Jak for a moment. "Definitely not like that. You've been glowering at anyone who comes within twenty paces of me - I think everyone understands that I'm not on the market unless they want a painful end."

It was a fair accusation so Jak didn't protest. "How has he been looking at you then?"

Denil settled back and inched closer to Jak. "Thoughtfully. I'd be inclined to say curiously. It's as though he's trying to work something out."

"Which one is it?"

"The big one with dark skin. His tattoo looks like a scar under the ink."

"I think I know the one."

"Jak, I think he might be the key to getting out of here. So far everyone else is ignoring us - he isn't."

"He could also be working out how to get you into a darkened corner for a private chat, if you get my meaning."

"I'm sure that isn't it. If it were any of the other guards then I'd be inclined to agree, but there's something else in his eyes. He almost looks sympathetic."

Jak turned it over in his mind, trying to match up Denil's words with the big soldier. There was something different about him, but it was difficult to be sure what that was. At the end of the day, though, this was the first thing approximating a lead on an escape plan that he'd seen.

"Try to get his attention tomorrow," Jak said reluctantly.

"What?"

"The guard. Try to look open or something. See if he starts a conversation and keep him talking."

"You want me to use him."

"If necessary - we're just fishing for information at this point. Tell him anything he wants to know and maybe he'll let something useful slip."

There was a long pause before Denil nodded sharply and said, "Alright, I'll try."

"Good man. Just don't let him lure you down any deserted corridors."

The grey paste - it didn't deserve the title of 'porridge' - tasted worse than it smelled and the hard biscuits they were given to scoop it up with weren't much better. It was accompanied by a couple of flasks of water with cups that didn't break no matter how hard Sai'em tried, and a dish of wrinkled raw vegetables. Jyani ate it all quickly and neatly, not wasting a crumb, and Sai'em managed to choke some down before giving up and pushing her bowl aside. The water tasted slightly metallic, but it was better than none at all. Jyani eyed Sai'em's bowl hopefully and she pushed it towards the other woman with no regrets.

"So, how did plains elves get here?" Sai'em asked, watching Jyani scoop up the evil smelling grey gunk. "They couldn't have created portals, not with their magic."

"We sent them," Jyani said through a mouthful of biscuit.

"What?"

"Well, not 'we' we. Slaves. Ice and wood elves."

"How? None of our people were captured."

Jyani carefully licked her fingers and put the empty bowls back on the tray. "So the records say."

"Are you saying that the records lied?"

"Not intentionally. They probably had no idea that any slaves were taken. It was very late in the war."

"How do you know, then?"

"When I first got here, Lord Ayulphel put me in a room not far from his apartment. He'd call me in and talk to me for hours about a lot of things."

"How did you end up down here?"

Jyani shrugged. "I did something that he wasn't too happy about, but he still needs me so I wound up here rather than dead."

"He needs you?"

"I'm a full wood elf with all my power. The collar controls my power and he can use it for his own purposes. He'll do the same with you."

Sai'em shivered, feeling afraid for the first time. "Not if I have anything to do with it."

"You won't. The collar can't be resisted. I tried, at first, but it was impossible."

"Why does he need us if he has other elf slaves?"

Jyani shot her a surprised look. "The war was twenty-five centuries ago. None of the original slaves are still alive. Ayulphel and the other lords have been breeding their elf slaves to humans for centuries so there are no pure-blooded elves left here."

Sai'em suddenly felt sick. "Other lords?"

"Of course. You didn't think that Ayulphel was the only one?"

The grey muck Denil had at breakfast was the same as the grey muck he'd been given for supper. The slaves around him ate it hungrily and he could only assume that they'd been here for so long that they no longer gagged on it. Jak grimaced with every bite, but he was eating steadily and Denil reluctantly ate as much as he could before pushing the bowl away. They were being fed in the same large room that they'd slept in, with lots of guards patrolling the room, probably to make sure no fights broke out over food.

The slaves were dirty, ragged and all male. At first Denil had wondered about that, until he thought it through and realised that the women were probably kept in breeding pens somewhere else. He'd noticed some slaves casting dark looks in Jak's direction and for the first time was glad that Jak had made it so obvious that they were together. It might not stop the most determined man, but most of the slaves had probably already realised how dangerous it would be to make unwelcome advances to either of them.

The big, dark guard that Denil had noticed yesterday was on duty again today. He shot occasional glances towards Denil and again there seemed to be only curiosity in his eyes. His size and obvious strength would have worried Denil if he'd seen anything darker in his eyes. There didn't seem to be anything malicious there, though, and Denil knew that, if the opportunity arose, he'd do exactly what Jak had asked and try to talk to the guard.

Talking was going to be a problem. The babble of voices around him were speaking a language so changed and corrupted that Denil was having trouble understanding any of it. Words had subtly shifted meaning and usage, if he recognised them at all, and new words had been introduced. His knowledge of Old Elvish came from written records. The language around him had evolved over two thousand years in a different way from the language that Sai'em now spoke. Denil could pick out a few familiar words and, as he listened, he gradually began to pull meaning out of the corrupted language, but it was incomplete and he knew that he wouldn't be able to speak it himself without a lot more time to familiarise himself with it.

"You alright?" Jak asked suddenly.

They were sitting side by side on the floor on their thin blankets so Denil leaned briefly against his side before remembering that Jak probably wouldn't feel it through his mail shirt and padded undershirt.

"I'm fine," he said quietly. "I'm trying to work on this language."

"Ah." Jak's eyes constantly roved around the room, never lingering anywhere as he searched for approaching danger. "Any luck?"

"I'm still working on it."

The loud clanging of a bell interrupted them. Around them, the slaves put down their bowls and moved to line up at the doors without any prompting from the guards.

"Are you going to be able to do this?" Jak asked.

Denil looked down at his raw, blistered hands. "I'll have to."

Something hard suddenly thumped Denil between the shoulder blades. He looked back to find the dark guard standing over him. The guard, his bald head gleaming softly in the torchlight, shook his head in a movement so small Denil almost missed it. He understood, though, and put a hand on Jak's wrist before he could jump up and cause trouble.

The guard said something in a deep, gravely voice and Denil carefully kept his face blank even though he could guess what the guard wanted.

"You will join the others," the guard repeated, speaking Common to Denil's surprise. "Now."

Denil immediately scrambled to his feet, tugging Jak with him, and opened his mouth to speak. The sudden frown on the soldier's face made him think twice and hurry to join the other slaves instead. He and Jak were at the end of the line and two soldiers opened the doors as soon as they were there.

"What was that about?" Jak whispered.

"I have no idea."

The guard behind them hit Jak's shoulder with his staff and barked a command.

Denil glanced back and met the dark guard's brown eyes for a moment. The guard dipped his head slightly and Denil returned the nod before turning back and following the other slaves out of the sleeping pen.

They followed the route they'd taken to the mine yesterday. None of the slaves spoke, the guards pacing with them saw to that, and there was no sign of rebellion anywhere. All the slaves had the dull, dead eyes of men who have accepted their fate and realised that there is no way to change it. They were passing an intersecting corridor when Denil felt a hand close around his arm and tug him away from Jak. For a moment he panicked before realising it was the dark-skinned guard. Denil shot Jak a warning glance, 'do not cause trouble', and allowed himself to be tugged down the corridor until they were hidden from view. Then they stopped and Denil turned to face the guard with an impassive, unchallenging expression on his face.

"I will not harm you," the guard said in his deep, rumbling voice.

"I'm glad to hear it," Denil said.

"I am Tir'ac."

"Denil of Errith."

One eyebrow rose. "That is a long name for a slave."

"I wasn't a slave until yesterday."

Fierce interest suddenly shone in Tir'ac's eyes and he gripped Denil's chin in steely fingers so that he could tilt his face and examine it carefully. He even tugged at the laces of Denil's shirt so that he could look at Denil's neck and shoulders. Denil managed to stay still although he wanted to pull away from the intrusive examination.

"You are not marked," Tir'ac said, surprise in his voice.

"No."

Tir'ac grabbed Denil's arms and pushed his coat and shirtsleeves up to his elbows so that he could see the unmarked flesh. Denil briefly wondered how far Tir'ac would want to check and for a moment he was afraid that he'd misjudged the man. That worry faded as soon as Tir'ac released his arms and pleased satisfaction appeared in his eyes.

"You are not a spy? Sent unmarked to confuse us?" Tir'ac asked.

"You have my word that I am not a spy."

For another long moment Tir'ac searched his face before dipping his head gravely. "That is good."

Denil allowed a quiet sigh of relief to escape. He wasn't entirely certain what Tir'ac would have done if he hadn't believed Denil's honesty, but the soldier was strong enough to do some serious damage if he wasn't pleased.

Tir'ac took Denil's arms again, this time bringing them up to examine his abused hands. Some of the blisters had burst during the night and were now angry, weeping sores. The other blisters stung and ached with every twitch of Denil's fingers. In short, his hands were a mess from the unaccustomed work. Tir'ac examined them carefully, tracing the callus on Denil's right middle finger from years of pen use, and an expression that might have been pain flashed through his eyes.

"You do not work?" Tir'ac asked.

"I'm a scholar. I study languages. Mining isn't something that I'm used to."

Tir'ac reached into a pouch on his belt and produced a small bottle and some strips of linen.

"If anyone sees us, they will assume that I am favouring you for my pleasure," Tir'ac explained as he opened the bottle and began carefully smearing a spicy, oily substance on Denil's hands.

"Are you?"

"No. I desire information only."

"I will tell you what I can if you will answer my questions."

"That is fair."

"Yes."

"Why have you come here?" Tir'ac asked.

"We were searching for Jak's son."

"He is the silver-haired man who is with you?"

"Yes. His name is Jak Kern."

"Why would he think that his son is here?"

"Jak's son was taken through a portal by soldiers bearing tattoos on their cheeks like yours. The elf that came with us traced the portal and brought us here. We've seen Jak's son - he was sitting next to Lord Ayulphel at the banquet yesterday."

A trace of surprised confusion appeared in Tir'ac's eyes. "How can Jak Kern be the father of that child?"

"He's Charry's father in every way that counts. He raised the boy from the moment he was born and couldn't love him more if he were Jak's own flesh."

The confusion faded from Tir'ac's eyes and he nodded his understanding. "The child is luckier than he knows."

"Yes, he is." Denil studied Tir'ac's face, but the soldier was giving away nothing. He seemed to be thinking deeply; his fingers had paused in the middle of wrapping linen strips carefully around Denil's hands. After a couple of minutes, Denil concluded that he wasn't going to learn anything from watching Tir'ac and decided to ask a few questions of his own. "How have you come to speak Common?"

Tir'ac seemed to shake himself out of his deep contemplation and resumed binding Denil's hands. "Lord Ayulphel required it."

That caught Denil's interest. "Why?"

"He sometimes wishes to spend spies to the Second World and has need of men who can speak their tongue and learn what occurs. Many were sent in search of the boy until Lord Ayulphel found him. When spies are branded as children, their tattoos are put in hidden places so that they can move within the population with drawing attention."

"The Second World?" Denil asked, even though he could already guess Tir'ac's reply.

"The plane on which my kind originated. We were cast out many generations ago, but Lord Ayulphel wishes to understand how life progresses so that one day he may regain possession."

Denil swallowed hard as the implications hit him like a punch to the gut. "Is there a First World?"

"Yes, but that plane was destroyed eons ago. Lord Ayulphel's kind originated there."

That explained the corrupted form of Elvish that the soldiers and slaves spoke. Denil tried to reconcile Tir'ac's information with the story that Sai'em had told, but the only explanation that he could come up with was that she had left out some details. Why?

Tir'ac finished trying off the bandages. "We must return to the mine."

"Of course," Denil said vaguely.

"My fellow Kyari will assume that you are now under my protection. They will not trouble you if you cannot work as hard as the other slaves."

It was just one step away from an outright order - Denil would not work as hard as the other slaves until his hands healed. He was surprised to feel grateful to the strange soldier.

As they began walking towards the main mineshaft, Denil asked, "What are Kyari?"

"My people. The soldiers of Lord Ayulphel."

The lingering effects of the stun-bolt caught up with Sai'em and she slept for a few hours, curled up on a pile of ragged blankets with Jyani asleep a few inches away. There were questions running through her mind, but she was too exhausted and fuzzyheaded to make sense of them. Sai'em woke to feel Jyani's gaze on her, watching silently.

"Feeling a little better, akasha?" Jyani asked.

Sai'em sat up and pushed a hand through her tangled short hair. "A little."

Jyani held out a bowl of grey sludge and a couple of hard biscuits. "I didn't want to wake you when the guard came. You'll need your strength when Lord Ayulphel requests you."

The sludge didn't smell any better than it had a few hours ago, but Sai'em took the bowl and dipped a biscuit in anyway. "Have you tried to remove the collar?"

"I tried, once, when I first arrived. The pick melted in my fingers. The Kyari won't dare remove the collar - they're too loyal to Lord Ayulphel, or too afraid."

Kyari. It sounded similar to kerayi, an ancient term that translated to something between servant and soldier and hadn't been used since the war with the plains elves.

"There was a woman, once," Jyani said softly. "She tried...Lord Ayulphel was not happy. He's had centuries to devise ways to torture without causing permanent damage."

In the dim light, Sai'em watched the colour drain from Jyani's face until she was almost grey. "Was that why you were sent down here?"

"Yes," Jyani whispered, fingering her collar without seeming conscious of what she was doing.

Sai'em waited for her to elaborate, but Jyani seemed lost in her own thoughts.

"You said that there were other lords out there," Sai'em said, determined to get some information she could use. "How many?"

Jyani snatched her hand away from her collar. "Thirteen. Between them they rule nearly one hundred planes."

"How is that possible? Our theoreticians explored a lot of worlds and only found one inhabitable plane."

"The planes lords don't worry about the habitability of their worlds. The land beyond this complex is deadly - Lord Ayulphel maintains a barrier around it that the poisons cannot pass through. He keeps other planes that are only used to grown food and animals for his sustenance. He and the other lords covet our plane. If they ever united, our plane wouldn't be able to withstand them. Instead they fight among themselves and keep their existence secret from our people. I think it's all that's saved us so far."

It was worse than Sai'em had thought possible, although the knowledge that the lords had a feudal system allowed some hope. But it would only take one becoming stronger than the others, though, and uniting them to put her world in danger. Information would be the key, information that she had to take back with her.

"How did any of the plains elves escape the slaughter?" she asked, deciding that the beginning was the best place to start. "There wasn't an elf or human left alive in Geijder at the end."

"And that is what our records show." Jyani shrugged. "They fooled us. The ones that were left behind were acting as a rear-guard, buying enough time for a few of their higher ranks and their slaves to escape through portals. While our armies were fighting and killing, a few were escaping. They'd captured a few of our people, collared them and forced them to open the portals. When the battle was over, nobody counted the bodies on either side and it was simply assumed that all the missing were among the dead."

Sai'em nodded. "And their descendents took over other planes and waited."

"Descendents?" Jyani shook her head sharply. "Lord Ayulphel is the same Lord Ayulphel who escaped through a portal twenty-five centuries ago."

"That's impossible! No elf - even my kind - lives that long and the plains elves were the shortest lived of all."

"They were also the least powerful, magically, but they found a way around it."

"How?"

"Lord Ayulphel and his kin discovered that they could transfer their souls into other bodies. Not full elves, but humans or human-elf hybrids. That was why they began breeding their human and elf slaves, trying to create perfect bodies to transfer into because they also found that they could use the power of the bodies that they took over. Think of it; they could access elven and human magic and even the odd powers that appear in humans - telepathy, empathy, fire-starting, weather-sensing, moving objects without touching them. All they had to do was breed those traits into a body over several generations. With the right spells they can prolong a body's use several times over and they have access to powers that they could only dream of before."

The idea was stunning and horrifying. Transferring a soul - stealing a sentient creature's life - went against everything Sai'em had ever been taught to believe. Worse yet, as a half-elf she would be a prime candidate for possession if she ever allowed the shields around her mind to waver. It took an enormous effort of will not to throw up at the thought.

"Ayulphel's current body has lasted for several centuries with the aid of preserving spells, but it's starting to wear out," Jyani continued. "He's-"

She was interrupted by the sound of the cell's lock turning and Sai'em automatically turned towards it. A soldier - Kyari, she reminded herself - came in with a staff raised. Two more, similarly armed, followed and the lead Kyari barked an order in a harsh, ugly language that Sai'em didn't recognise.

"Lord Ayulphel has summoned you," Jyani said quietly. "It will be easier if you don't resist."

The warning was obviously sincerely meant, but it wasn't in Sai'em's nature to tamely allow herself to be used in any way. She wrapped herself in icy dignity and followed the soldiers, silently vowing not to allow the monster called Ayulphel to get anything from her.

Jak was worried. Tir'ac had unobtrusively taken Denil out of the crowd returning from the mine and he hadn't seen the scholar since. The mage-lights would be dimming for sleep in a few minutes and Jak had no idea what would happen if Denil didn't make it back in time. He'd noticed the bandages around Denil's hands and the way that the guards - Kyari, as Denil had whispered to him during the midday break - didn't harass him even though he was working far more slowly than the other slaves. During the day Jak had noticed two or three other slaves receiving the same treatment. He guessed that it was easier to pay for protection that way rather than risk beatings and worse if they couldn't keep up. Jak was only surprised that more slaves hadn't entered into such bargains. Maybe even slaves were only willing to sacrifice a certain amount.

The other slaves in the room hadn't bothered him once. Jak was sure that it was the expression on his face that kept them all at least ten feet away. He couldn't help that; he was worried for Denil and every minute that passed only intensified that worry. The big, dark-skinned soldier looked strong enough to force the scholar into anything without much effort on his part. Jak wasn't sure that even he, with years of training, could fight off Tir'ac if the soldier wanted him. During their short break, Denil had filled him in on his conversation with Tir'ac, but it hadn't relieved his mind at all. In fact, it only made him more concerned. There seemed to be a lot going on here that he didn't understand. Tir'ac had hinted at a lot without giving much real information.

There was a stir further down the room and Jak looked up to see Denil walking towards him carrying a blanket. He had a strange, tight expression, as though he was trying to conceal a mixture of emotions. Jak started to ask him what had happened, but Denil cut him off with a sharp shake of his head. The lights would be going out any minute now and Denil gestured towards one of the darker edges of the room. The implication was clear; he had something he needed to say and he didn't want to talk within earshot of the other slaves.

Jak picked up his blanket and followed him to a clear space at the edge where they lay down and pulled the blankets up just as the lights abruptly went out. Unlike last night, Denil positioned them face-to-face and moved so close that Jak could feel his breath against his cheek. The double layer of blankets and the warm body chased away some of the chill and Jak wrapped his arms around Denil. Anyone looking their way would hopefully decide not to get too close.

"Well?" he whispered.

"I found out a few things," Denil replied.

"So I gathered. Care to share?"

Denil's body was stiff with tension in Jak's arms and he took a long time to answer.

"I found out why Ayulphel took Charry and it isn't because he's the boy's father," Denil said eventually.

A wave of sick relief swept through Jak. No matter how many times he'd told himself that it wasn't possible, there had always been the idea niggling at the back of his mind. Rescuing Charry would have been much harder if they'd been attempting to take him away from his natural father.

"Jak?"

He realised that he must have zoned out for long enough to worry Denil and tightened his arms around the scholar. "I'm here."

There was small huff of air against his face that, with a few weeks of experience of Denil's expressions, Jak thought probably accompanied a roll of Denil's eyes.

"Did you find out anything else?" Jak asked.

Denil nodded. "I think Tir'ac wants something - he gave me more information than I expected tonight."

"Wants what?"

"I don't know. Yet."

"So what did he tell you?"

"Ayulphel wants Charry because he's the result of some kind of breeding program and he hasn't been able to produce another boy like him yet."

Something knotted in Jak's stomach. "Breeding program?"

There was revulsion in Denil's voice. "Like we'd breed prize roses or cattle. He's been breeding humans and elves for years, trying to combine all the powers of our races into something even more powerful. Charry was one of the best results of the program, or would have been if Anaya hadn't escaped when she did."

A lot of things in Anaya's behaviour and the answers she'd refused to give suddenly made sense, even her eventual suicide.

"There are other children," Denil continued. "Younger than Charry, less powerful, but Ayulphel wanted Charry for something specific so he searched for years until he found him."

"And took him."

"Yes."

"What for? Why is Charry so important?"

"Tir'ac didn't say. I can make some guesses, though. If Charry is as powerful as Ayulphel hoped, he'll start to develop those powers over the next few years. At the moment, Ayulphel has him brained-washed, enchanted somehow. Think how powerful a weapon that makes him."

The knot in Jak's stomach grew tighter until he almost felt physically sick. "My son will not be used like that. He's just a kid."

"So we'll get him out of here."

"How?"

"I think Tir'ac might help. He wants to talk to you tomorrow."

"Why?"

"He's taking a huge risk even talking to me. Wouldn't you want to be certain that you're helping the right people in his situation?"

Jak thought it through for a while and had to admit that Denil had a point. If he were going to throw over everything to help two complete strangers, he'd want to talk to both of them and make sure they were what they appeared to be. Certainly he wanted to talk to Tir'ac and find out his motives. No matter what Denil said, Jak wasn't going to trust the solider any further than he had to.

"Set it up," he said quietly.

Denil nodded and shifted closer. Jak lay awake for a long time after Denil's breath settled into the slow, deep rhythm of sleep before he fell into restless dreams filled with dark things reaching out to a bright, sandy-haired boy.

Waking up in a cell with Jyani bathing her forehead seemed to be getting to be a habit, Sai'em mused to herself fuzzily. Her head throbbed again and there was a foul taste in her mouth; she had a vague memory of throwing up at some point. Cramps in her stomach testified that something unpleasant had happened. Sai'em shifted and groaned quietly.

"You resisted, didn't you?" Jyani asked tiredly. "I told you it was impossible."

Yes, she had resisted. There had never been any doubt that she would. She'd tried with every fibre of her body to thrust away the evil presence that had slithered in and possessed every corner of her mind. Vainly, she'd tried to close down when that thing took her power and shaped it into bolts of pure energy that it used to explode vases and cabinets. It had insinuated itself into her memories, leaving nothing untouched so that she felt as though she'd never be clean again. All the while, the collar at her throat grew colder and colder until it felt as though her skin would burn from the cold. Each time she fought, the collar sent spasms of pain through her body. Fighting was useless, anyway, because nothing she did seemed to stop Ayulphel's ransack of her mind. All she could do was wall off a few precious memories and protect them with everything she had left. Unconsciousness had seemed like a blessed relief.

Sai'em lifted a hand to her throat and was surprised by how weak and shaky it seemed. "Wh-...?"

"You fought. It goes easier if you don't," Jyani said.

Her throat was dry. Sai'em tried to speak and could only produce a small squeak. Jyani moved away and returned a moment later with a cup. She managed to prop Sai'em up slightly so that she could take a few sips. Sai'em felt weaker than a newborn kitten.

"I had to fight," Sai'em said.

Jyani sat back on her heels with a sad expression. "You're only making it worse."

"I'm not ready to give up yet."

Sai'em reached inside to her power reserves and was surprised to find them almost empty. That explained the weakness. There were energy fields around her and without thinking she threw out a line and tried to hook into one to restore herself. Nothing happened. She could feel the power around her, but it was like trying to touch water through a glass covering.

Jyani touched her wrist. "You can't touch it without Ayulphel's permission. You'll have to rely on passive transfer only. That's why it's easier not to fight - you'll only waste your own reserves trying."

Sai'em ran through every curse she knew, stopping only when she began repeating herself. Jyani watched her, wide-eyed, as though she was afraid that Sai'em would take out her frustration on her. Sai'em almost laughed at the thought. For the next couple of days she'd be struggling to pull together enough energy to look after herself, never mind hurting Jyani. She sobered when she realised that Jyani was probably used to being hurt when Ayulphel was angry or frustrated.

"I'm not sure what I can just accept this passively," Sai'em said.

"Eventually you will. You'll have to."

Sai'em closed her eyes rather than argue further.

It turned out to be easy to set up a meeting between Tir'ac and Jak, far easier than either of them had anticipated. The soldier simply took Jak out of the mine during the midday break and let him into an abandoned shaft. Nobody challenged him and the other slaves pointedly looked away as they passed. None of them would interfere and risk the wrath of the other guards. Jak couldn't help pitying them. They'd never known any other life and probably never would.

The main shaft was lit by mage-lights, but this side one was unlit. As soon as they passed beyond the light from the mage-lights, Tir'ac produced a small stick from a pouch on his belt that he broke in half. It immediately produced a dim red light that made the shadows in the shaft seem somehow lurking and malicious. Jak firmly told himself that it was the cold draft that made him shiver.

"We will talk here," Tir'ac said bluntly, but quietly.

"Fine by me," Jak said, not bothering to attempt diplomacy.

"You are Jak Kern," Tir'ac said.

"I am."

"You have raised the boy, Charry, from birth."

"I have."

"You wish to take him from this plane and return him to yours."

"I do."

"That will not be easy."

Jak shrugged. "A lot of things aren't."

"The boy is well guarded. Lord Ayulphel does not wish to lose him again."

"Now that's something that interests me - why does Ayulphel want my son so much?"

Something shifted in Tir'ac's eyes. "The boy is necessary to his survival."

"Why?" Jak repeated.

"Lord Ayulphel's body is reaching its end. He requires a new body. Your son is the best candidate for his future. The boy is powerful and will mature within a couple of years. All the other candidates are but infants and Lord Ayulphel cannot spend years waiting for his new body to mature enough to function correctly."

Cold, hard fury welled up in Jak's chest at the thought of Ayulphel possessing his son's body and he had to take several deep breaths before he could speak.

"When will he do it? When will he take my son's body?" Jak asked, the anger inside making his voice harsher than he'd intended.

"Soon," Tir'ac said gravely. "At first I believe that he intended to wait until the boy was older, but his body now fails faster with every day and he must renew himself or die within a few weeks."

"What will happen if Charry isn't there for Ayulphel to possess?"

"The Lord Ayulphel will be forced to take another body, with little power, and await the growth of another child. If he doesn't, he'll face a painful death as his old body ages and burns away."

Jak smiled cruelly. "Can't say I'd regret that." A thought occurred. "Why are you helping us?"

Tir'ac's expression didn't change. "I have reasons."

"Not good enough."

"You are concerned that I may betray you or play you false," Tir'ac said.

Jak raised a shoulder. "Among other things."

"I give you my word that I will not."

"Well, no offence, but that isn't really enough. I get suspicious when enemy soldiers help me for no good reason."

"You wish for proof of my intentions?"

"Proof would be great, but reasons will do."

Tir'ac drew himself up and for the first time Jak was intensely aware of how large and strong the man was. "Many believe that Lord Ayulphel and his kind are gods. I do not."

"What persuaded you?"

"Years ago, I led an attack on one of Lord Ayulphel's enemies. He stated that it would be an easy victory and only sent a small number of men. But they knew we were coming and we faced an army ten times our number. How can a god not know this? I fought hard and managed to bring some of my men home. Lord Ayulphel killed them for failing him. He killed my wife and son and sent me to guard the mines, to be an example of the punishment given to those who defy their lord."

Jak swallowed hard. "Harsh."

"Many are punished more severely," Tir'ac said, raising his chin defiantly.

"So now you want to help us out of revenge?"

"Yes. And to show others that Lord Ayulphel is not a god."

There was only sincerity and old, cold fury in Tir'ac's eyes so Jak nodded. "Good enough for me. We'll need a plan."

Passive transfer was the slowest way imaginable to restore magical reserves. Sai'em naturally attracted tiny dribbles of power, all elves did, but the power flow was tiny. It would take days before her reserves were back to a level where she would feel relatively normal and even longer before she had anything to spare. Not that she could use that power, even if she had it. Hooking into the energy fields that she could feel around her would have restored her reserves in a few heartbeats, but all that power was tantalisingly out of reach. Instead she had to wait, doing little more than sleeping and eating, while power slowly seeped in. She was more frustrated than she could ever remember being before and feeling so weak only made her frustration build higher. The worried, half-fearful looks from Jyani made her feel even worse.

Jyani put a bowl of grey glop down at Sai'em's elbow and scurried away out of arm's reach.

"I'm not going to hurt you," Sai'em said, trying to sound reassuring. "I couldn't even if I wanted to."

Jyani's tense shoulders sagged a little. "I know."

Sai'em picked up her bowl and changed the subject. "How did you get here?"

Some of the wariness faded from Jyani's face. "It was stupid, really. I grew up in Abéra Forest and I wanted to see the world beyond the woods, so I left. I packed a bag and snuck out of the city after dark. It was early summer and I thought that I could see the human lands and be back before autumn."

"But things didn't work out that way."

"I was a few days out from the forest on a small back road when a portal opened in front of me. The next thing I knew, I was in a room with a collar on and a creature with flashing eyes and a strange voice was telling me that I belonged to him."

"You have no memory of the trip here?"

Jyani shook her head. "Whoever caught me must have used one of the stun-bolts. It was days before I realised where I'd been taken."

That was worrying. If Jyani had been playing around with magic, trying to replicate the old spells, then her appearance in this plane was easily explainable. But she hadn't. She'd been kidnapped from her plane and brought here. Even more worryingly, it meant that Ayulphel had found some way to find particular prey. The odds of opening a portal that just 'happened' to be close to an elf with strong magic were so small that Sai'em didn't even both calculating them. How many other elves had disappeared the same way? Getting back and informing the Council of what was happening was suddenly more of a priority than it had ever been.

"Didn't you try to escape?" Sai'em asked.

Jyani bristled. "Of course! I did everything I could and it didn't make any difference. I couldn't escape the room that Ayulphel locked me in and I couldn't get the collar off."

Jyani's words when Sai'em first woke up came back. "What happened to get you sent down here?"

"I almost escaped. Once." Jyani absently fingered her collar. "One of Ayulphel's slaves was pregnant. Her child was going to be powerful, so strong that he was Ayulphel's first choice for a new host, and she wanted to get him away from here. She was brave. Somehow she managed to get into my room and picked the lock on my collar. Don't ask me how she managed it - I don't know. All I know is that I woke up to find her standing over me with a bit of wire to pick the lock. My guards must have been drugged so we slipped out and went down to the old portal room. Lord Ayulphel didn't shield the room, not then, so I put together the portal spell and sent it to our plane. The slave got through, but Ayulphel found me just as I was about to step through. I couldn't let him follow her so I collapsed the spell and twisted it as much as I could so that it couldn't be traced. Ayulphel was furious at losing the child and any chance of following its mother and I was unconscious from the spell backlash for days. He almost killed me, but he needed my power to search for the child so he locked me down here instead and none of his solders have ever dared to help me."

Her story explained a lot of things. The child must have been Charry and the mother probably killed herself to keep her son safe. Sai'em felt a spark of admiration for that brave woman. If she ever saw Jak again, he deserved the truth.

"Of course, it was all for nothing anyway," Jyani said sadly. "The boy has been found and Ayulphel will take his body soon."

"Unless we stop him."

"How?"

"I don't know. Yet."

All Sai'em could do was hope that Jak and Denil were having better luck with an escape plan than she was.

The hardest part of the escape plan was working out how Tir'ac could get Denil and Jak out of the slave pen. Getting one or the other out was easy, but the other Kyari would be suspicious if they were both taken out at once. Jak had come up blank when they tried to plot this part, but Tir'ac had eventually come up with something that might work.

The shift at the rock face was almost over when Tir'ac appeared carrying heavy shackles and a staff.

"Lord Ayulphel requires men for the breeding pens," Tir'ac announced loudly.

Everyone around Jak immediately bent to their tasks with renewed vigour and hunched over as though they were trying to avoid attention. Jak had been surprised when Tir'ac suggested this, but now that he saw the reaction he understood why it was going to work. It seemed that everyone would rather spend years mining in cold dampness than a few days in the breeding pens. Jak forced his lips not to smile and hacked at the rocks with his pickaxe as though he, too, wanted to avoid Tir'ac's gaze.

Another Kyari joined Tir'ac with an armful of chains. "Who will serve their master in sacred duty?"

If possible, the slaves cowered even further.

Tir'ac dropped his chains with a loud rattle and pointed, seemingly at random, to five men. "You are chosen."

Jak propped his pickaxe carefully and tried to adopt the same fearful, reluctant manner that the other slaves had, even though inside he was crowing. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Denil do the same thing with a carefully controlled, tight look on his face.

The shackles were cold around Jak's wrists and connected to ankle irons in such a way that he could only manage a slow, awkward shuffle. Tir'ac fastened Denil's with care, still playing the part of 'favouring' a slave, and chained all five men together. The other guard took the lead end of the chain and began walking up the mineshaft, forcing the slaves to stumble after him as fast as they could. Tir'ac brought up the rear and jabbed Jak between the shoulder blades to speed him up. Jak gritted his teeth and shuffled. There was another slave between him and Denil, but he caught enough glances of the scholar to know that he was coping with the rough treatment. Jak had a feeling that the train of slaves wouldn't be allowed to stop so anyone who fell would be dragged along the stone floor.

The awkward pace made the mineshaft feel twice as long as it had done before. At the top, rather than proceeding to the sleeping pen, they were led down another corridor that subtly climbed upwards. Jak's muscles were aching from the shuffling after a few minutes, but the lead guard just tugged on the chain to pull them along when they seemed to slow down. The corridor ended in a winding staircase and Jak's heart sank. It would be almost impossible to get up them and one wrong step would send them all tumbling down again, probably dead from the fall. The lead guard halted and the rest of the column also came to a stop. Jak was slightly surprised to find Tir'ac going down the line and unlocking the ankle irons, but apparently Ayulphel valued his breeding stock enough not to let them get killed in a preventable accident.

Jak counted the steps as they went, trying to work out where they were going in relation to the mine. He had no idea where the room they had arrived in was, but he was slowly building up a mental map of this section of the compound. He estimated that they came out on the floor below Ayulphel's banqueting hall. Denil looked tense, but he betrayed nothing of what was going on beneath the surface. The other three slaves seemed to have resigned themselves to their fate. They no longer hunched and flinched away, instead keeping their expressions blank and refusing to meet anyone's eyes.

The group stopped a few feet from the top of the staircase and Tir'ac knelt, apparently to refasten Jak's chains. It would never happen. Tir'ac tapped Jak's ankle and Jak immediately cleared his throat, their prearranged signal. He and Denil dropped to the floor at the same time, unbalancing the other slaves so that they also collapsed. In the same instant, Tir'ac picked up his staff and fired at the other Kyari, who fell without a sound.

There were confused grunts from the other slaves before one, faster off the mark than the others, yelled something in his harsh language. Tir'ac stood and trained his staff on the slaves.

"Kee'sha!" he ordered.

Jak turned to Denil and raised an eyebrow inquiringly. Denil shrugged and mouthed back, "Shut up?"

Without taking his eyes off the slaves, Tir'ac tossed a set of keys to Jak. He quickly freed himself and Denil before backing away from the other slaves. The three men cowered away from Tir'ac.

"We cannon allow these men to go free, Jak Kern," Tir'ac said. "They will betray us."

"We can't kill them," Denil protested.

"Dead men cannot report our escape," Tir'ac said.

"How long will one of those stun things put them out?" Jak asked.

"A few minutes, no more."

"Tie them up somewhere and stun them," Denil suggested. "That might delay things."

Tir'ac grudgingly nodded. "Very well."

He barked something unintelligible and the slaves stood. All three were large men with snake tattoos and scarred faces. Fighting them might have been difficult but, chained as they were, they had no choice except to do as Tir'ac ordered. Jak and Tir'ac had already agreed that it would be best if Denil didn't know that they would be killed as soon as they were found anyway. They couldn't afford passengers who would stab them in the back at the first opportunity.

The staircase led onto a long corridor lit by mage-lights instead of torches. Tir'ac prodded the slaves down to the second door on the right and gestured for Jak to open it. The door led into a small room used to store bales of blankets. It was short work with Tir'ac's knife to tear strips to bind and gag the slaves with. They passively allowed Jak and Denil to tie their bonds, flinching every time Tir'ac's eyes fell on them. Jak piled a couple of bales so that they couldn't be immediately seen from the door and stepped back to allow Tir'ac to stun them. The bolts of blue energy enveloped them and seemed to crackle around them for a few heartbeats before slowly fading. Jak remembered the sensation and had a little sympathy for the expressions of pain on their faces.

Instead of locking the door behind them when they left, Tir'ac touched something on his staff and fired a bolt of red energy at the lock. The metal glowed orange for a moment and the wood around it scorched black.

"They will not escape," Tir'ac said.

Jak touched the lock and snatched his hand away quickly. "So I see."

"The staff weapon has two settings."

"Stun and kill?"

Tir'ac hesitated. "Approximately."

"Can you get us weapons?" Jak asked.

"Yes." Tir'ac led them further down the corridor and opened another door. "I was able to retrieve your own."

Jak's sword and knives were piled with Denil's extended staff in what looked like a broom closet.

"It would be best to conceal your weapons so that we can move unquestioned," Tir'ac said.

"Don't we get one of the fancy staffs?" Jak asked.

Tir'ac raised an eyebrow. "True weapons are well-guarded. I could not secure them without the correct authorisation."

Jak shrugged and began hiding his knives. Denil contracted his staff and hung it innocuously from his belt. The sword was harder to hide. Jak had managed to keep his long coat despite the mine work so eventually he belted the sword under his coat and hoped that he'd be able to free it quickly if he needed to.

When they were ready, Tir'ac closed the closet and stepped back. "The boy, Charry, has rooms within Lord Ayulphel's apartment. He is well-guarded and will be difficult to extricate."

"If it's just us," Denil said cryptically.

"You haven an idea?" Jak asked.

Denil shrugged. "Not really an idea, just a thought. Sai'em is an ice elf with a lot of magical power to command. I don't know what Ayulphel can do, but it wouldn't hurt to free her before we go after him."

Jak grinned. "And she's probably going to be easier to get to than Charry."

"We need her to get home anyway and I had no intention of leaving her here, so it makes sense to go after Charry with her power behind us."

"Can we do it?" Jak asked Tir'ac.

"She is the elf who was captured with you?" Tir'ac asked.

"That's her," Jak said.

"She will be collared and imprisoned with the other elf."

"Collared?" Denil asked, his voice filled with worry.

"The collar restricts their power so that Lord Ayulphel can use it for his purposes."

Jak frowned. "Can it be removed?"

"Possibly."

Jak hadn't missed Tir'ac's reference to another elf. It tallied with what he remembered from the banqueting hall and might give them two powerful allies rather than one, if the other elf could be persuaded to betray her gaoler.

"What kind of guard is there?" Jak asked.

"No more than two are required," Tir'ac said. "The elves are powerless and locked into a cell. They require little more than food and tending and we will have the element of surprise. I will be able to disarm them easily."

They would talk about who would do the 'disarming' later. For now, they had to move through the corridors unchallenged and that had already been planned for. Tir'ac handed Jak one of the shackles and the former mercenary pulled the leather roll containing his lock-picks out of a coat pocket. Obviously none of the guards had realised the significance of that little bundle or they would have confiscated it along with his weapons. The ever-present guards and lack of chains in the mines had made it useless, but now it was as vital as Jak's sword. It only took a few minutes, with Tir'ac and Denil keeping anxious watch, to jam the locks on the shackles so that they closed but a swift tug would make them spring open.

Tir'ac carefully 'shackled' Jak and Denil together and Jak showed Denil the trick to unsnapping the locks. Then, with Tir'ac's staff weapon trained on them, they began the trek down to Sai'em's cell, trying to look like nothing more than a Kyari escorting two prisoners.

"Akasha?"

Jyani's voice was like sweet honey in Sai'em's abused, aching head. The endearment, even with the wood elf accent, was a familiar one that she hadn't heard since she left the north and it sent warmth flooding through to chase away the chills of power-depletion. It didn't matter that it was safer to submit to Ayulphel's will without fighting, Sai'em had to try. This time he'd directed her power to destroy wooden targets before pulling power through her to reinforce the shields that kept the poisons out of the air in the compound. Sai'em had been taking power from the fields around her as fast as Ayulphel used it up and the collar had stopped her from absorbing any of it into her personal reserves. Passive transfer hadn't been enough to replenish those after her first meeting with Ayulphel and her reserves were now dangerously low. She wouldn't be able to resist him again without draining her own life force. The thought sickened her, but she wouldn't have the strength to do anything against him the next time.

"You fought again," Jyani said sadly.

"Yes," Sai'em croaked.

She felt bruised all over even though Ayulphel had never laid a hand on her. It was the price of her mental battle with him. She didn't even have the strength left to raise her head for water. Jyani had to cradle her head and hold a cup to her lips to drink.

"If you continue, you will die," Jyani said.

Sai'em smiled grimly. "Ayulphel wouldn't allow that."

"Maybe."

Anything she might have added was cut off by a strange sound outside the cell. It sounded almost like a human cry. Of course, it couldn't be. Why would anyone be shouting down here?

Another muffled shout pushed away any doubt. Sai'em exchanged a confused glance with Jyani before turning towards the cell door. The movement took all her remaining strength so all she could manage was a faint gasp as sparks rained down from a lock glowing cherry-red.

Denil ducked and rolled as energy exploded off the rock behind the spot where his head had been moments earlier. Forewarned is forearmed, and they now knew how dangerous those staffs could be. Unfortunately, Tir'ac's two guards had turned out to be four and they were now in the middle of a firefight, with the opposing Kyari not bothering to keep their staffs on a low setting. They were shooting to kill and it was only Denil's quick feet that had kept him alive so far. Tir'ac had managed to stun one guard, who was now stirring groggily on the other side of the guardroom. There were several large scorch marks on the walls and cell door. Tir'ac had turned his staff's power up when he realised how the fight was going and Jak had the downed guard's staff in hand, leaving Denil to dodge bolts as best he could. Not that Denil wanted one of the lethal things. His own, unmagical, staff was the only weapon he wanted. He was a scholar, not a warrior.

Jak shouted a warning and Denil managed to roll away from a wild energy bolt. The move took him to the feet of one of the Kyari and without even thinking, Denil tangled his legs with him and tugged. The Kyari, a large, fair man, stumbled and caught himself with his staff before he fell. Denil swung his staff up and managed to connect with the side of the Kyari's head. The angle meant that it wasn't a hard blow, but it was enough to stun the soldier for a moment. That gave Denil time to roll to his feet in a move that Jak had taught him so that he could face the Kyari with his staff in hand.

The Kyari's staff wasn't suited to firing at close range, something that had so far worked in their favour, so he was forced to fall back on hand to hand combat, which suited Denil perfectly. Denil blocked the first few blows easily, ignoring the way it jarred his shoulders and healing blisters. The expression on the Kyari's face said he was just toying with the 'inferior' human. Denil smiled and some of the arrogance faded. The past few weeks had brought back the moves and patterns that Sai'em had taught him years ago, with a few new additions from Jak. Denil feinted left and began a complex pattern of strikes and parries that should force his opponent into a position where he could be disarmed. The Kyari had obviously never encountered Denil's style, which relied more on speed and planning than brute force, and he obediently tried all the right blocks and counter-strikes without realising where they were taking him. Denil stepped back, forcing the Kyari to over-extend slightly, and neatly pulled the Kyari's staff out of his hands with his own. The staff went flying and before it landed Denil had thrust the tip of his staff at the Kyari's chest, winding him, and finished him with a solid tap to his temples that would knock him cold for hours.

Denil had been so absorbed by his own fight that he didn't notice that the fighting around him had ended until he looked around for another opponent. The other three Kyari were lying on the floor, one with a smoking wound in his chest. Denil grimaced at the smell of burnt flesh. Jak and Tir'ac were attempting to open the scorched cell door with keys taken from one of the former guards.

"It's no good," Jak exclaimed after a minute. "The lock's melted. I'd need a hammer and chisel to pick it."

"Can't you just," Denil gestured to Tir'ac's staff, "blast it open?"

Tir'ac examined the thick door carefully before nodding. "I believe I can."

He raised his staff and Denil quickly raised a hand. "Wait! Wait second."

There was a small flap set in the door at eye height. Denil ducked around Tir'ac and opened the flap to reveal a metal grill just large enough to see part of the cell through. He could make out Sai'em's blonde hair gleaming in the light from a mage-light and a pair of bare feet, their owner just beyond his field of vision.

"Sai'em," he called.

There was a moment's hesitation before she called back, "Denil?"

Her voice sounded croaky and weak, quite unlike the woman he knew.

"I'm here," he said, trying to sound reassuring. "We're going to try to blast the door open."

"Blast?" another voice said.

This voice was unfamiliar. It was slightly lower than Sai'em's but still definitely female with a drawling accent that he didn't recognise. Denil vaguely remembered Ayulphel telling his Kyari to collar Sai'em and "put her with the other one". Another elf?

"We have one of the guards' weapons," he said. "Tir'ac thinks we can use it to get the door open but it might cause a bit of damage."

"Thanks for the warning," the unfamiliar voice said. "We'll try to get out of the way."

Denil could see movement in the cell so he stepped away and nodded to Tir'ac. The Kyari gave the women a few seconds to move before raising the staff, propping it on his shoulder and aiming it at the door. It took several bolts of red energy to shatter the solid door, energy that sizzled and crackled in the air and could easily kill a man. The smell of charred wood mixed with the smell of burnt flesh and made Denil's eyes water painfully. Eventually, the battered door gave way and sagged on its hinges. Denil didn't wait for Tir'ac or Jak; he'd moved forward and pushed away the remains of the door before the Kyari had lowered his weapon.

The two women were huddled in a corner of the cell. Denil was surprised to find the strange woman shielding Sai'em with her body. He'd expected the situation to be the other way around. They began slowly uncurling as he approached, the strange woman moving away so that he could see Sai'em. Her appearance shocked him and he had to bite his tongue to stop himself exclaiming aloud. Her face was pinched and drawn, seeming narrower than even an elf's face normally looked so that her cheekbones looked sharp and her cheeks sunken. There was complete weariness in her pale blue eyes that was echoed in the exhausted slump of her shoulders. It seemed almost impossible that she could have changed so much in a few days, but the evidence was in front of him.

A small, weary smile touched her lips. "Hello."

He returned the smile. "Hi. You look terrible."

She shrugged one shoulder. "I've felt better."

That was plain to see. The usually pristine elf's clothes were dirty and torn and she looked to have lost several pounds in only a few days. Denil felt Jak and Tir'ac enter the cell and pause a couple of feet behind him. Movement out of the corner of his eye drew his attention away from Sai'em to the woman she'd been imprisoned with.

Denil's couldn't tell what she was. Her tangled hair hid her ears, she was dressed in a loose, ragged grey tunic and trousers and her feet were bare. She looked malnourished and tired, but how much the narrowness of her face owed to her imprisonment and how much to her heritage was impossible to tell. She didn't have the familiar sense of presence and power that he associated with elves. Instead she shrank back into a corner of the cell, wide, frightened eyes fixed on something just behind Denil's left shoulder. He glanced back and realised that it was Tir'ac she was staring at with undisguised fear.

"It's alright, he's a friend," he said quickly, trying to reassure her. "He's helping us to escape. His name is Tir'ac."

The Kyari dipped his head gravely and the strange elf's eyes widened even further.

"Are you sure we can trust him?" Sai'em asked.

"I give you my word that I will not betray you," Tir'ac said.

"He's a good guy," Jak confirmed.

Sai'em examined him carefully for a minute before shrugging. "I guess I'll have to trust you."

The strange elf made a tiny whimpering sound and shook her head.

"Jyani, they wouldn't lie to us," Sai'em said.

The elf's eyes didn't leave Tir'ac. "Lord Ayulphel has ways to control people. They could be saying exactly what he wants them to say."

Sai'em shifted closer to her and rested a hand on her forearm. "If they take the collars off us, then will you believe them?"

The elf, Jyani, hesitated before nodding, a jerky, frightened gesture made without taking her eyes off Tir'ac.

"Will Ayulphel know?" Sai'em asked gently.

A shaky shrug. "He didn't the last time."

Sai'em turned back to Denil and pulled the neck of her shirt down so that he could see the wide band of metal wrapped at the base of her throat. "Can you get this off?"

Jak stepped forward slowly, as though he was trying not to startle a skittish deer. It was what Jyani overwhelmingly reminded Denil of. He was certain that, just as with a deer, any unexpected or sudden moves from any of the men would make her bolt.

It didn't take long for Jak to find and pick the lock on Sai'em's collar. The lock was tiny, but Jak's leather roll of tools proved to have a set of picks that were delicate enough to handle it. Tir'ac kept watch at the door while Jak cursed and muttered at the fiddly lock until it sprang open and the collar fell away.

Sai'em's transformation was stunning. For a moment she shone with bright white light that forced Denil to close his eyes. When it faded, the unnatural pallor and exhaustion had been swept away. Sai'em's clothes were still torn and dirty, but that didn't seem to matter anymore and she wore an expression of intense relief.

Sai'em had had no idea how much she'd always relied on magic being there, at her fingertips, until she was able to touch and absorb it again from the fields around her. She drank it in like a dying man finally given water; pulling it in until she was filled with so much power she burned with it. She could see the others shielding their eyes from the fury of light around her, but it didn't really seem important.

It felt like an eternity that she held that power inside, revelling in the sweet taste of energy and magic that banished the weariness and weakness of the past few days.

Eventually she had to release it or risk burning up in the fires of an overload. It was done slowly and reluctantly, though, and she held onto enough to be a useful weapon if she needed it.

Sai'em turned to look at Jyani, who was watching her with desperate hope in her eyes. "It's alright."

She had no idea why she said it, but it seemed to be the right thing because some of the desperation faded and Jyani seemed to relax slightly. Sai'em used a tiny portion of her magic as a probe to check their rescuers and found no mysterious links or unusual shields around their minds. Unless Ayulphel was much more subtle than she thought he was, there was no way he could be controlling them.

Before she allowed Jak to remove Jyani's collar, she knelt behind the other woman and brushed her fingers across it. Freed from its influence, Sai'em could now feel the complex web of spell stored in it, including something that could kill the wearer if they persisted in attempting to pick the lock. It didn't seem to be armed against anyone who was not collared picking the lock, which made sense in a place where no one would dare try it. Sai'em stepped away and gestured for Jak to remove the lock. She thought for a moment before picking up her own collar and slipping it into a pocket. The thing repelled her, but it needed to be studied if there was a chance that Ayulphel's people might be a continuing threat.

Jyani's transformation was as dramatic as Sai'em's had been. To Sai'em's senses she seemed to glow with rich green magic that tasted of living things and warm rain. Sai'em's power would feel like ice-blue light tinged with snow and aching coldness to Jyani's senses. Ayulphel's power tasted of blood, death and pain.

As Sai'em had, Jyani held some of her power after reluctantly allowing the excess to run back into the local energy fields. She still looked hungry, dirty and ragged, but there was an air of hope and determination that hadn't been there before.

Jyani stood and met Jak's eyes without flinching. "What's our plan?"

"Where will Ayulphel be now?" Jak asked.

"In his apartment, eating," Jyani answered promptly.

"And the boy? My son?"

"With him."

"How many guards are there?"

"Six in the corridor outside, none in the apartment."

"Good." A feral grin touched Jak's face, making him seem wild and angrier than Sai'em had ever seen. "We need an exit plan. Sai'em?"

She shook her head. "I'd need to be in the chamber we came in through to trace the portal spell back to our plane."

"And once we've attacked Ayulphel's apartment, the entire complex will be on alert. We can't fight our way out," Jak concluded.

Jyani cleared her throat quietly. "I may have an idea."

"Oh?"

"Lord Ayulphel shields the complex against the portal spell that he and his kindred use to travel between planes, but your spell breached that shield. I can't be sure why until I compare his spell with Sai'em's, but if I supplied the destination, we might be able to make a portal that would send you back to your own house." Jyani raised an eyebrow at Sai'em. "Would it work?"

"It might," Sai'em said thoughtfully, her mind already racing to add Jyani's new variable to the spell she'd cobbled together. "Commander, this could work."

"You're willing to help us?" Jak asked Jyani.

"Are you going to kill Ayulphel?" Fierce hatred shone in Jyani's eyes.

"Our priority is getting Charry out of here," Jak said.

"We're taking away his next host," Sai'em said quickly. "You said that he needs Charry to survive."

A vicious smile crossed Jyani's face. "He'll have to move into a much less powerful body or face a painful death. If he survives. I'm in."

"Now we just have to get there," Jak said. "Sorry, Tir'ac, but I don't think your 'transporting prisoners' thing will work this time."

"I concur," Tir'ac said.

This time Jyani didn't flinch when Tir'ac spoke. Sai'em wondered whether that was because she wasn't afraid anymore or whether she was too focused on finally escaping to worry about the source of the rescue.

"I may be able to help with that as well," Jyani said.

There was something distinctly unnatural about walking boldly through corridors filled with enemy guards. Denil had to suppress the urge to flinch every time another patrol passed them, and he could see the tension in Jak's shoulders in front of him. They kept to single file at the very edge of the passageways and Denil kept expecting one of the Kyari to see them and raise the alarm. The sensation only increased when they passed into the well-lit sections.

Jyani had explained, as she lopped off the bulbous head of a Kyari staff with her magic to create a stubby stave, that as long as they stayed within the light of her spell no one would see them. She was at the head of the column holding up the stave that now shone with bright, clear white light. The light only carried back in a narrow stripe just wider than a man and there was a visible edge to the spell, even in the corridors lit by mage-lights. It was clearly magic, but the bright light only made Denil more nervous. Logic said that light made someone more visible, not less, but so far there had been no outcry or challenge. They appeared to be invisible.

It wasn't long after they left the cells that a deep bell began sounding somewhere in the compound and the corridors filled with Kyari, marching or running and sometimes shouting orders to each other in their harsh language. There was no time to stop or change plans. Events were moving with the swiftness and inevitability of a landslide and second-guessing now could be disastrous, even if there had been anywhere private to talk. Instead, they moved as fast as they could while keeping as quiet as possible. It would be no good to be invisible if they made as much noise as a Kyari patrol in a nearly empty corridor. Denil just hoped that Ayulphel wasn't aware of the spell.

Somehow, it didn't matter if it was luck or skill, they came out on a corridor that was much emptier than the rest. Ten guards were positioned along it and the only door was a wide double one at the far end. There was only one person it could be long to, a thought confirmed when Jyani stopped and held up a hand. They all stopped and caught their breath for a moment. None of the Kyari appeared to have heard them. The armour these ones wore looked more elaborate than any of the other Kyari they'd seen, red enamelled with a stylised gold snake on their chests. Their crimson capes hung to their ankles and they even wore helmets in a dark, oily metal shaped to resemble serpent heads. Denil had time to decide they were special guards, maybe even bodyguards, and more numerous than Jyani had mentioned, and then the elf was signalling them to move forwards.

They moved slowly, placing each foot with exaggerated care and hardly daring to breathe in case sharp Kyari ears heard them. Denil didn't envy Jak and Tir'ac, trying to move silently in armour and mail that usually jingled or clanked with every step. They succeeded, though, and managed to get past the first pair of guards. Denil already had his staff in hand, though not extended, and Jak had unsheathed his sword before they left the cells. Their best hope was that forcing the Kyari to fight hand-to-hand again would give them a sufficient advantage. They would have the element of surprise, at least, and the skills of two powerful elves.

When Jyani and Sai'em stood between the third pair of guards, they stopped. Jak had already slowed down so that he and Denil were roughly even with the second set of guards and Tir'ac, bringing up the read, had the first set. That left four Kyari close to the doors, but there wasn't time to revise the plan. They would have to make the rest up as they went.

Jyani paused for a long, breathless second before lowering her glowing stave and allowing the light of the spell to dim and go out. Time stood still for a moment and then chaos erupted.

It was impossible to see faces beneath the helmets, but Jak was sure that their sudden appearance out of thin air had surprised Ayulphel's guard. His sword slid easily through the chain mail covering the junction between arm and body of his target. There was an ugly, metallic shriek as links parted and the edge of the sword scraped along the edge of the Kyari's breastplate. Jak angled the thrust into the body as much as he could and was rewarded with a sudden jerk before the Kyari went limp. He pulled his sword out with another grating shriek in time to meet the downward swing of another Kyari's staff. His arm almost went numb from the jarring vibration and he was forced back a couple of steps.

Someone - Jak was not sure who - shouted a warning and he ducked to allow a bolt of sizzling blue energy to pass overhead. It hit the other soldier in the chest and he collapsed to the floor with an agonised shout. Jak whirled to meet another Kyari and the fight became a blur of hacking, blocking and ducking until there was no red-enamelled armour around him. He turned in time to see blue fire shoot from Sai'em's hand and take out the last enemy soldier, but the fight was over. The air was filled with the smell of blood and charred flesh and the corridor was littered with dead or dying Kyari.

Jak made a quick visual check of his own people but none of them seemed seriously injured, although there was the beginning of a nasty bruise on Denil's face and his eyes seemed slightly unfocused. Jyani was already standing in front of the doors to Ayulphel's apartment with her arms raised. The doors glowed brilliant red for a moment before disintegrating into dust.

The space within the doorframe was shimmering as though heat-hazed, but Jak could make out the distorted figure of Ayulphel in rich robes standing in the centre of the room. Jyani raised one hand this time, palm out, and said a sharp word in Elvish. She made a jerky, pushing motion and the shield collapsed in a shower of multicoloured sparks. Now that he could see clearly, Jak had a moment of incredible satisfaction as Ayulphel paled and frowned.

Jyani staggered back with a gasp and Sai'em pulled her away. Jak didn't wait. Shouting over his shoulder for Tir'ac to defend the corridor, he ran towards Ayulphel with his sword up. Ayulphel lifted his hand in the same gesture Jyani had used and Jak felt something slam into his chest, sending him flying back to impact against the wall next to the door. The breath was knocked out of him and Jak slid to the floor, stunned. His sword lay a couple of feet away, but he couldn't get his arm to move towards it and he had to lie helplessly, gasping for air. Jak looked up to see Ayulphel moving towards him, hand poised. It took all his strength to roll away from the energy bolt heading towards him and the edge still caught his thigh, sending burning agony up his leg. Ayulphel's smile was filled with vicious enjoyment at Jak's pain.

A disturbance from the far end of the apartment distracted the smiling creature and he lowered his hand and took a couple of steps towards it. Jak's heart leapt when he saw Charry running towards him. He was wearing a simple shirt and breeches instead of the rich robes and he looked like the son that Jak loved. The illusion was shattered when Charry stood in front of Ayulphel facing his rescuers with a mixture of anger and fear on his face.

"Don't hurt my father," Charry said furiously, and it was obvious that he didn't mean Jak.

Ayulphel smiled as Jak swallowed the hurt. "You see? The boy doesn't wish to leave."

"The boy is under your influence," Sai'em said from the doorway. "He can't tell us what he wants."

Ayulphel shrugged and elegant shoulder. "The boy is mine. What he wants is no longer anyone's concern but my own."

Denil watched the faint wisp of smoke rising from Jak's thigh with horror. The fabric of his breeches had burned through in a patch the size of his palm, exposing red, charred flesh. The pain had to be incredible, but Jak didn't show it. His eyes were fixed on the blond boy standing defiantly in front of Ayulphel. The boy had to be Charry - he matched Jak's descriptions perfectly - but there was no kindness or concern in his eyes for Jak, only anger directed towards his rescuers. While the boy stood there, none of them could do anything for him.

Sai'em and Jyani had joined him in the ruined doorway and Denil was vaguely aware that Sai'em said something, but all he could focus on was the agony in Jak's eyes.

Jak turned and seemed to catch Denil watching him. He shook his head very subtly and darted his eyes towards Ayulphel. Denil understood the message and turned his attention to Charry's kidnapper.

The creature - that was the only word Denil could find to describe him - was repulsive and beautiful at once, a combination that made Denil's stomach roil.

Charry looked up at him with an expression of mindless adoration. "Why are these people here, Father?"

A smile slid across Ayulphel's perfect lips. "They have come to destroy me and steal you away, my love. They are evil."

Sai'em snorted. "Evil? We're against you, maybe, but we haven't poisoned a child's mind or corrupted a race."

"What would you know of corruption, cousin? You and your kin stay pristine and innocent in your ice and your woods, never interfering with anyone's affairs or defending those less powerful."

"You and your kin distorted our power and our race and caused the deaths of thousands."

"Your people held the swords and wielded the power that killed those men!" Ayulphel retorted, his eyes flashing gold suddenly.

"We didn't begin it," Sai'em said, angrier than Denil had ever heard her.

"Oh no? Who struck the first blow? It wasn't my people."

Slight movement out of the corner of Denil's eye pulled his attention away, towards Jak on the floor again. He had moved a little closer to Ayulphel and, as Denil watched, the former mercenary surreptitiously inched forward again and paused.

Denil tore his eyes away and was relieved to see that no one had noticed. Ayulphel and Sai'em were locked into their contest of wills and Charry was busy watching them. Jyani stood to one side leaning against the doorframe and she turned her head slightly. Denil was slightly surprised to see her wink, so quickly and subtly he almost thought he'd imagined it, before turning back to Ayulphel. There was no doubt in Denil's mind that she had also seen Jak's intent and Denil resolved not to give his lover away by a stray glance that might draw Ayulphel's attention to him.

"It seems that I hold all the cards," Ayulphel said triumphantly. "You will not risk the boy and my Kyari are already approaching. Give yourselves up and I will allow you to return to your collar."

"All the cards?" Sai'em said.

Her voice was suddenly so icy it sent shivers down Denil's spine and Jyani straightened from her exhausted slump.

"The boy is yours only because you have tricked his mind. All tricks fail in the end, though."

Sai'em didn't move or show any outward signs of her power, but for a moment Denil felt something brush his mind that reminded him of the clear night sky above snow-covered fields, pure and cold and alive. It moved on and Denil blinked to clear his eyes.

Then several things happened at once. Charry stiffened and his head shot back before he fell to the floor with a soft gasp. At the same time Ayulphel roared in a voice filled with pain and fury. Before he could do anything, Jak crawled forward the final few inches and reached up with a knife in his hand. The blade gleamed coldly for a moment before he plunged it high into Ayulphel's thigh.

Ayulphel screamed again and fell to his knees. In an instant Jak was on him and they grappled wildly before Jak fastened his fingers around Ayulphel's throat and began to choke him.

"Kill him," Jyani hissed, her eyes glittering.

Denil took half a step forward to stop the murder, but stopped. Ayulphel had already gone limp, much sooner than he should have, although Jak didn't move away or loosen his fingers. Sai'em cried out and dived on top of Charry. A moment later the shimmer of a shield covered them both.

Jyani screamed. "No! His soul is escaping!"

She turned and tried to run, but Denil caught her arm and held her back. Jyani whirled to face him and for a moment Denil knew that his life was in the balance.

"We have to get out of here and we need you to do it," he said urgently.

"He'll escape," Jyani said, almost crying.

She tried to struggle for another few heartbeats before sagging against him with a sob.

"Tir'ac!" Denil shouted.

"Many men approach," Tir'ac called from the far end of the corridor. "I will hold them off here."

"No, you need to hold these doors while Sai'em and Jyani get the portal working," Denil said firmly. "We can't take you with us if you aren't here."

Tir'ac seemed to waver for a moment before running up the corridor towards Denil. "I will hold the door, but do not take too long."

Denil pulled Jyani over to where Sai'em still lay behind her shield. "We need the portal. Now."

He didn't wait to see what she would do, instead moving to where Jak half-lay across the husk of Ayulphel's body. As he approached, he saw that the hair on the body was rapidly whitening. The entire body was aging as though a hundred years had been compressed into moments. Jak rolled away just before the ruined body crumbled into a pile of dust inside fine, rich robes and gems.

Denil knelt and touched Jak's hand. "Jak?"

Jak opened his eyes. "Denil."

The sound was somewhere between a whisper and a sigh, but at least he was alert. Denil clasped his hand tightly.

"How bad is your leg?"

"Hurts like crap. How does it look?"

"It's looked better."

Jak nodded. "Where is Charry?"

The shimmering shield around Sai'em and Charry was gone and the boy now lay on his own. His chest rose and fell with slow breaths and there was colour in his cheeks. He looked as though he was simply sleeping.

Denil helped Jak to crawl over to his son. Jak's eyes were bright with tears that he refused to shed as he lay next to Charry and gently brushed his hair away from his face.

"He looks the way he used to, before..." Jak's voice cracked. "So young."

The sound of staff-bolts drew Denil's attention to the ruined door where Tir'ac was fighting off the first wave of Kyari. Sai'em and Jyani stood face to face by the door clasping each other's hands. Denil thought he could see the faint outline of balls of green and blue fire around their joined hands, but the impression was gone as soon as he tried to focus on it.

The air began to thicken with the tense, electric feel that he remembered from the portal. Sai'em and Jyani turned their heads at the same time to stare intently at the doorway.

"Tir'ac, you should be in here now," Sai'em said in a flat monotone.

The Kyari didn't hear her, still busy with his fight.

"Tir'ac!" Denil shouted, "They're opening the portal in that doorway - you have to get in here."

That seemed to get through to him and he thumped the butt of his staff into his opponent, sending him sprawling, before diving through the doorway. He was only just in time. A moment later the lightning flickers began chasing up and down the frame, darting into the space between until the entire structure was covered with points of darting light. Through squinting eyes, Denil was able to make out one Kyari charging towards the doorway and he took his staff off his belt to defend Jak and Charry. The Kyari roared something unintelligible and plunged into the light, but never emerged on the other side.

The light suddenly rushed into a sold sheet of pale blue before splashing out. Denil flinched away as the rushing light came within a few inches of Charry before falling back into a rippling, bright blue surface. The outline of the corridor and more charging Kyari could just be made out through it, but they all stopped before running into the back of the portal.

Then Tir'ac was in front of Denil picking Charry up as though he weighed no more than a feather and was more precious than gold.

"We must go now," Jyani and Sai'em said in unison. "We cannot hold the spell for long."

Denil grabbed Jak's arm, slung it over his shoulder and heaved them both to their feet. He half-carried, half-dragged Jak towards the portal and followed Tir'ac and Charry through, this time prepared for the shocking cold that seemed to freeze mind and body. They stumbled out into the hallway of Jak's house and Denil tugged Jak away from the portal before collapsing next to him. Sai'em and Jyani followed a moment later and then the portal collapsed, leaving them in the dark.

Two floors below Ayulphel's apartment, a sleeping Kyari's eyes snapped open and he began to shake as though he was having a fit. When the tremors ceased, the Kyari went completely still for a long moment, hardly seeming to breathe. Then one finger twitched, and another, and he began to move with jerky motions as though he was not used to working his own limbs. He sat up and when his eyes opened this time they flashed with bright gold fire.

Ayulphel held a hand up to his eyes and examined the short, stubby fingers that had replaced his elegant ones. The new body felt fat and stiff, as though its former occupant had not cared for it properly for a long time. It also had little power, barely enough to light a candle without struggling, and that was even more intolerable than its ugliness.

Ayulphel took a deep breath and roared his rage.

Jak wouldn't allow anyone to treat his leg until he was sure that Charry would recover, even though the pain was now almost unbearable. He allowed Denil to prop him in the doorway of Charry's room before the scholar ran to wake Elsa. From there he could watch as Tir'ac gently laid the boy on his bed and removed his boots before tucking Charry into the fresh, clean sheets Elsa put on the bed for when he returned. Jak's eyes never left his son.

When Charry was settled, Sai'em spent a moment with her hand on his forehead before moving to crouch in front of Jak.

"Charry will be fine," she said reassuringly. "I broke Ayulphel's connection to him and put shields around his mind. The effects sent him into a sort of shock, but he'll sleep it off in a few hours. There's no lasting damage and when he wakes up I can put up better shields to make sure no one can ever get into his mind again."

"Thank you," Jak said, sure that the words would never be enough to thank any of them for what they'd done.

Sai'em nodded and stood. Jak closed his eyes for only a moment, but suddenly someone was tugging at his arms and he looked up to see Denil's face hovering a few inches away. He couldn't quite remember why it was inappropriate to kiss him where they were.

"We need to get your leg looked at," Denil said.

How had he forgotten about the pain that now seemed to be all he could think about? Jak had a sneaking suspicion that he might be verging on delirious.

"Put your arm around me and I'll help you," Denil said. "That's right, like that."

Jak gritted his teeth and silently rehearsed every curse he knew. Maybe he could get Denil to teach him some new ones in the ancient languages he loved. The scholar probably had a pile of suitably vicious-sounding curses and insults.

"Crap," Jak muttered as he brushed the door of his bedroom.

Then he howled as the motion of falling on his bed sent waves of agony up and down his leg before everything went dark and he stopped feeling anything.

Jak woke up feeling rested and comfortable, although for a long moment he had no idea why that should be a surprise. Then it all came rushing back. Against all the odds, his son was alive and asleep in his bed down the hall. Unless it had all been a dream...?

He opened his eyes and saw mid-morning sunlight flooding in through the window.

"You're awake."

Jak turned towards the voice and found Denil sitting in a chair in the corner with a book in his lap.

"Hello," Jak said.

His throat was dry and his voice sounded rusty. A brief smile lit up Denil's face. He stood and picked up a mug that had been sitting on a small table next to him. Jak wondered who had brought up the extra furniture. Denil sat next to him on the bed and held up the mug.

"It's just water," he said with another gentle smile.

"Sounds great," Jak croaked.

He managed to sit up and prop some pillows behind his back so that he could drink without spilling. The water tasted better than the finest beer he'd ever drunk and Jak drained the mug thirstily.

"How are you feeling?" Denil asked.

"Fine." Jak's voice already sounded better. "Should I?"

"How's your leg?"

Jak suddenly remembered the searing pain of Ayulphel's magic, but there was only a slight twinge now when he flexed his thigh.

"Now bad. What happened?"

"Jyani healed you."

"As in," Jak waved his hand in a vaguely mystical gesture, "healed me?"

"Yes."

"It barely hurts."

"Jyani is much better at healing magic than Sai'em, although I think she scared a few years off Elsa's life when she began."

Jak tried to imagine his housekeeper's reaction to the healing spell he'd seen Sai'em use on Denil and the image made him grin. "How long have I been out? Where is Charry?"

"Three days and he's in the kitchen with Jyani," Denil said. "They've been making friends - whenever he isn't here, he's usually talking to her."

"Is he alright?" Jak asked urgently.

Denil rested his hand on Jak's forearm. "He's fine. Sai'em put shields around his mind and this house so that Ayulphel will never be able to take him again. I think he and Jyani are good for each other. They've been talking a lot and it seems to be helping them both. Do you want me to bring him up?"

Jak nodded and Denil began to get up. Losing Denil's touch on his arm sent a shiver through Jak and he caught Denil's arm before he could leave.

"Wait one moment," Jak murmured as he tugged Denil towards him.

Denil seemed to read his intention and their lips met in a warm kiss. It wasn't an intense kiss, more a reminder of what they had and a promise for later. Jak wasn't breathing hard when they parted, but something warm and contented had unfurled deep inside. He brushed his fingers through Denil's short, uneven hair and smiled. Denil squeezed his hand and moved away.

"We'll be back in a minute," was all he said.

Jak settled back against his pillows for a moment, until the movement reminded him of a pressing problem. It was fine to wear nothing but a bandage on his thigh while he slept in bed, covered by sheets and blankets, but he wasn't comfortable with being in the same state when he finally held his son again. He scanned the room and spotted clean linens, shirt and breeches piled on the blanket box at the end of the bed. He could smell the residue of stale sweat and rust on his skin, but he threw the covers back anyway. Bathing could wait.

He was surprised by how shaky his legs were when he tried to stand and had to settle for carefully crawling down the bed instead. Pulling on the clothes was awkward and left him feeling even shakier and panting slightly. He was still lacing up his shirt when there was a knock at the door and it slowly opened.

Charry stood hesitantly in the doorway with Denil hovering in the background. Jak waited, but Charry refused to raise his eyes or come towards him.

"Charry?" he said eventually.

The boy flinched. "I'm sorry, Father."

"What for?"

"I remember what I said to you," Charry said quietly, still looking at the floor.

"Ayulphel was in your mind. You didn't have any control over what you said," Jak said gently.

Charry looked up for a brief moment before lowering his eyes again. "That's what Jyani said. It was like there was a part of me in a box, trying to get out, but I didn't listen to it. Everything he said seemed so much more real than everything else."

"She was right."

"I...you're not angry?"

"Of course I'm not. I love you."

"Really?" Charry finally dared to meet his eyes. "He said you weren't my father and Denil said he was right, but that you think like you're my father anyway."

Jak grimaced. "Ayulphel was right about some things but he also lied - he wasn't your father either. You may not be my flesh and blood but I couldn't love you any more if you were."

A dam seemed to break inside Charry and he ran towards Jak crying "Father" in a broken voice. Jak held him while he cried and tears ran down his own cheeks as well. When he finally looked up, Denil had left.

Denil returned later with a heavily laden tray of food and the three had a picnic on Jak's bed. Charry's tears were mostly forgotten and he talked about everything apart from his captivity. Jak was content to sit back against his pillows and listen and laugh whenever appropriate. Denil's blue eyes were alight with laughter too and Charry already seemed to have ferreted out a lot of his life story. He made the scholar promise to tell him stories before bed.

Midway through a discussion of one of Charry's favourite adventure stories, exhaustion hit Jak and he blinked a few times before allowing his eyes to drift shut.

It was dark when he woke and Denil was sitting in his chair with a book again.

"Jyani said you'd be tired for a while," Denil said when Jak's eyes opened. "You look better, though."

Jak yawned widely and sat up. "Falling asleep like that could get a little annoying."

Denil's lips twitched in an almost-smile. "It should wear off in a day or two. You were lucky. It was a bad burn and Jyani said the magic contaminated it somehow so she had to do a lot of work to repair it. You might have died if we hadn't had her."

"Remind me not to fight elves again."

"He wasn't an elf, exactly. Sai'em and Jyani promise to explain properly when you're up to it. They don't want to do it twice, so we're all waiting until you're well enough to have a long conference about what happened."

"Sorry to hold you all up," Jak said with a wry grin.

Denil shrugged. "The delay gives us time to work out exactly what did happen. I've been trying to write it down, but I think I'll need everyone's versions to make any sense of it."

He stood and put his book on the table next to his chair before Jak could say anything. "I'm going to find some supper - Jyani said it's important to replace the energy you've lost - and then we're going to have a proper night's sleep."

Jak almost groaned at the though of more sleep, but he couldn't deny that he was already struggling to keep his eyes open.

It was another two days before Jak had recovered enough to sit in the kitchen with the others for a sort of council on what had happened. Two nights of hearing his son's terrified screams from nightmares that he refused to talk about. Jak had to let Denil help him down the corridor to Charry's room and he always found Jyani there ahead of him comforting Charry. The fact that Charry held out his arms in mute plea for a hug from his father didn't entirely wipe away the sting from finding him crying into the elf's shoulder. Charry always insisted that they both stay until he was asleep again, as though their presence could ward away the dreams for a while.

Finally Jak woke up feeling refreshed and energised with no remnants of the exhaustion that had dragged him back into sleep so many times. It would probably take time to regain the physical strength he'd always had, but the lingering effects of Jyani's healing were fading. It was still early in the morning and Jak knew that he wouldn't sleep again for a while. With real winter now upon them, the dawn was getting later and mornings were often staying dim until fairly late.

Jak rolled over and regarded Denil, still sleeping beside him, although the lines of stress and exhaustion had faded from his face. Denil had turned out to be quite different from the man Jak had expected and he knew that Charry wouldn't be home without him. That wasn't the reason why Jak's heart seemed to miss a beat whenever he saw Denil's blue eyes or why he wanted to see the beautiful smile that so rarely appeared. Somehow Jak had grown to care about him more than he'd ever cared about anyone before except for his son. It made him feel happy and depressed at the same time; happy because Denil was there and he could touch him and see him, but depressed because Denil wouldn't stay. It couldn't be long before Denil would return to Eto and they would probably never meet again. Why would a former mercenary ever need to visit a city filled with scholars?

Jak pushed away the unhappy thought and leaned forward to kiss Denil awake. They kissed until they were both gasping, and made love in silence. Afterwards they lay facing each other with their arms around each other's waists and Jak watched a smile slowly spread across Denil's face and crinkle the skin at the corners of his eyes.

"Hi," Denil said softly.

Jak smiled, too. He couldn't stop himself. "Hello."

"I guess you're feeling better."

"I guess I am. What gave me away?"

Denil's snort of laughter made Jak smile wider. Then they were kissing again, slow, leisurely kisses that probably wouldn't lead anywhere but it never hurt to find out.

Eventually they parted and Denil sighed quietly. "The others will be up and wondering where we are."

"Let them wonder. They can probably guess."

Jak was amused to see a hint of a blush on Denil's cheeks.

"There are things we need to talk about before I..." Denil paused and cut the thought off. "We need to talk about a few things."

Jak could fill in the missing words: 'before I leave'. It was annoying that Denil was being responsible and sensible about something when Jak just wanted to pull the covers over his head and pretend it wasn't going to happen. Straightening out stories had to be done eventually and putting it off would only delay the inevitable. That didn't mean that Jak had to be happy about it.

They bathed and dressed and Jak was pleased to note that he needed no aid with either task. They were the last to arrive in the kitchen even though the day wasn't fully light. Elsa had prepared breakfast and Jak insisted that she join them so that she could hear the tale of their adventures. Her blushes and fluttering when Tir'ac thanked her for the 'excellent repast' were comical in the normally down to earth and maternal housekeeper.

It took most of the morning and several pots of tea for everyone to tell their stories. Jak had already decided that Charry was old enough to find out what had really happened, so he was included. Only knowing small snippets would probably be more damaging to him than knowing the full story. Charry didn't add anything, but his presence along with Elsa required them to go over everything that had happened since his kidnapping. They frequently interrupted each other to correct or add things as they tried to create a timescale of events and Elsa often asked for extra details where they had only skimmed over things. Eventually they reached the point where Jyani healed Jak and Denil grimaced as he described cutting away the cloth around the burn.

"Ayulphel used something I've never seen before," Jyani explained. "Levin-bolts burn the flesh but they don't contaminate the wound. The energy for healing comes in part from my reserves and also from the person I'm healing. That's why you've spent so much time sleeping to restore yourself."

"Yeah, well." Jak coughed uncomfortably. "Thanks for patching me up. Feels much better."

Twin spots of pink appeared high on Jyani's cheeks and her eyes glittered with pleasure at the gruff praise. She'd cleaned up surprisingly well. Her hair had been washed and brushed so that the auburn tints shone in the lamplight and Elsa had quickly found and altered a dark green dress that highlighted her green eyes. It wasn't cut in elven style and didn't have fancy embroidery, but it looked much better than the grey rags she'd been wearing.

"I've put shields around Charry's mind," Sai'em said. "When he comes into his powers he'll be able to maintain them himself."

Jak was sure that neither of them would be thinking about the possibility until they absolutely had to. His son becoming a wizard or an elf sorcerer? No, he wasn't ready for that.

"I've also put shields around this house," Sai'em continued. "They aren't physical, but Jyani says they should prevent any portals forming inside and I've powered them from one of the local fields."

"What about the wizards?" Jak asked. "Will they detect them?"

There was an embarrassed silence before Elsa spoke up. "I don't think you need worry about that, sir. Wizards were here the night you came back and Mistress Jyani saw them off well enough."

Jak raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

It was Denil who tried to explain. "They came a couple of hours after Jyani healed you. You were out cold and she didn't want us trying to wake you, so we took care of it."

"What did they want?"

"They both wore red-trimmed robes and refused to give their names."

"Sixth-level wizards," Jak said with a sigh. "The worst of the lot."

Denil nodded. "They said that they'd felt disturbances here, both times corresponding to portal spells."

"I think it was because of the spell I put together," Sai'em added. "It was based partly on a human spell so it was much leakier than anything I'd normally do. Probably some of the power surge spilled over and they detected it."

Jak shrugged. "It couldn't be helped."

"It was probably basing your spell on a human spell that allowed it to punch through Ayulphel's shields," Jyani said. "It felt different to the spell he had me working."

"So how did you get rid of them?" Jak asked.

There was another embarrassed silence and then Jyani stood up. At the same time a patch of empty space a few feet away began to glow and shift, gradually taking on shape until Jak found that he was staring at something that looked a lot like...Jak.

"Is that...?" He turned to Denil for confirmation.

The scholar nodded silently.

It was remarkably life-like, right down to the scar on his eyebrow.

"Is my hair really that grey?" he asked.

"It sounds better if you call it silver," Denil said as a smile twitched at the corner of his mouth.

"It's very distinguished, sir," Elsa added.

"Among my people, white hair is a sign of wisdom," Tir'ac said gravely.

"Can it move?" Jak asked.

The illusionary Jak lifted his hand and waved. "Hello."

Even the voice sounded eerily familiar.

"And we got rid of the wizards with that?"

"In a way," Jyani said.

Before his eyes, Jyani appeared to grow until she was taller than Sai'em. Her hair lengthened until it fell to her waist and a few tiny braids appeared, holding back the rest of her hair to expose pointed ears. Her dress also changed, lightening to pale green and turning from wool into something lighter and finer. The neckline changed slightly and gold embroidery slithered down her sleeves and around her waist. She looked like something that had stepped out of an illustration in one of Charry's adventure books. Jak glanced at his son, who was watching Jyani's transformation with a sagging jaw.

"My people live in human lands, so we use illusion and misdirection to stay hidden," Jyani said.

Even her voice seemed different, echoing somehow or hollow. Slowly both illusions faded away and Jyani sat down.

"It was enough to convince the wizards, anyway," she said with a faint smile. "Appearance is everything to them."

"So they know there's an elf in the house," Jak concluded.

Jyani nodded. "I told them that Denil had contracted us when they refused to allow him into their library because he recognised a few characters that you were able to sketch for him. The first disturbance was my arrival and the second came when I traced Charry and retrieved him. I think they believed me."

"I guess it's a story I can work on if they ask more questions," Jak conceded.

"They won't dare to interfere with Jyani," Sai'em said, "and my shielding should keep them from sensing anything unusual from Charry. Denil and I might be a different matter."

"Why?"

It was Denil who answered. "To all appearances, we're both humans and we were able to contact elves living over two hundred miles away without leaving Genta. It won't take them long to start thinking about how we did it - I'm surprised they haven't already demanded that we be interviewed in their compound. Jyani's presence might delay them a little, but we can't stay here for much longer."

"How soon do you leave?" Jak asked numbly.

"I need to speak to my people as soon as possible," Sai'em said.

"Tir'ac can't stay either," Denil said.

"Denil of Errith has offered to speak to the commander of his city guard regarding a position," Tir'ac said in his deep rumble. "I will ensure that he arrives in Eto without harm."

"How soon?" Jak repeated.

"We have a week or more of clear weather before another storm comes through," Denil said. "It would probably be best to try to reach the North Road before the weather deteriorates again."

The pain that Jak felt at the prospect was reflected in Denil's eyes, but it wasn't a comfort. He'd assumed they would have more time together, weeks rather than less than a day. Charry looked just as distressed and he put a small hand into Jak's and held on tightly.

"We'll probably leave tomorrow morning," Sai'em said "We've only been waiting until you were stronger. The backlash weather has passed and we can't delay further. My people must know that Ayulphel and his kin are alive."

Arguing and sulking wouldn't achieve anything other than making them part on bad terms so Jak sighed and did neither.

"I wish it wasn't so soon," Jak said quietly.

"So do I," Denil admitted.

"We don't have any choice, though," Sai'em said firmly.

They sat in unhappy silence for a while and Elsa made another pot of tea. She refreshed cold cups before looking around expectantly.

"Isn't anyone going to ask them?" she said eventually. "No one is curious?"

"Curious about what?" Jak asked.

"This Ayulphel creature and how Mistress Sai'em knows him," she said, her tone implying that Jak was possibly missing part of his mind.

Sai'em paled. "I know of him, but I don't know him. Exactly."

"What do you know of him, then?" Jak asked, his own curiosity now roused as he remembered her confrontation with the creature. "He seemed to recognise you."

"It's against our laws to discuss it with humans," Sai'em said.

Denil snorted. "You've already broken a lot of those laws - one more can't hurt."

"We'll just make assumptions - probably worse than the truth - if you don't tell us," Jak added.

"We may as well tell them," Jyani said softly. "It might be better coming from us."

Sai'em stared at her half-drunk tea for a while before looking at Tir'ac. "What do you know about the origins of your people?"

"Only the things that I was taught, which I now believe to be lies," Tir'ac said. "That Lord Ayulphel and his kindred were attacked without cause and forced to leave their plane. That we will be hunted and persecuted for all our days and that one day they will return in glory to destroy the usurpers and regain their world."

"A little truth seasoned with a lot of lies and distorted facts," Sai'em mused. "Much more effective than outright lies."

"So I have come to believe."

"They began the war, not us," Sai'em said.

"War?" Denil asked.

Jak couldn't blame him. Somehow elves always seemed removed from the fighting that swept human lands too often. He couldn't imagine elves going to war any more than he could imagine fish flying, even though Sai'em was skilled with staff, sword and bow.

"Maybe you'll understand why we don't want humans knowing about it if I explain properly," Sai'em said sadly. "Humans already either fear or respect us, often both, if they believe we exist at all. Knowing our true strength would only make the mistrust worse and we don't want to have to fight to defend ourselves. Not again."

She poured a fresh cup of tea before continuing. "Lord Ayulphel and his kind were elves once. There were originally three races of elves: ice, woodland and plain. When our world began dying, the plains elves were struck hardest. Volcanoes appeared in the grasslands were they lived and only a remnant reached the wood elves. They fled our world with us and when we decided to stay on this plane they went to the empty grasslands and began rebuilding. My people went north and paid very little attention to what was happening outside their cities. They had no idea that the plains elves had multiplied and taken human slaves. They conquered their neighbours and enslaved every wizard they found to increase their power. Plains elves have always had the least magic and the shortest lives, but they subdued human lands and grew armies of slaves and wizards. They created an empire."

"Gilder," Denil breathed.

"Gilder," Sai'em confirmed. "It happened so fast, after centuries of peace here, that no one could believe it at first. Then a messenger came to my people in the north from the wood elves. The Gilderaan armies were advancing east and massing on the borders of their forests. They needed aid or they would be destroyed. The Council met and they tried to mediate with the plains elves, but the representatives the Council sent disappeared. That left war their only choice and everyone who could fight was formed into an army."

"Even fighting together, our numbers couldn't match their Empire," Jyani said. "The war was fought with magic as well as armies, our most powerful sorcerers against the plains elves' army of human wizards. Eventually, we won."

"Thousands died and a lot of the land they had taken was drained by the magical battle," Sai'em continued. "The final battle was at their chief city, Geijder, and for some reason they refused to surrender, even though they knew that the couldn't win. My people had to kill them all and we've never understood why until now."

"So what have you found out?" Denil asked.

"They were a rear-guard," Sai'em said. Her blue eyes were dark and troubled. "They weren't fighting to survive or escape, they were stalling to give a few the chance to leave through portals. Lord Ayulphel and the other twelve Lords were the sons of the plains elves' leaders. They must have escaped while their fathers held off our army. At the end, nobody had the heart to count the dead and it was always assumed that no one on their side survived."

"There were thousands of bodies," Jyani said. "Our forefathers only wanted to erase the slaughter from their minds. We're taught what happened, but it's never discussed and we never tell humans about it."

"You covered it up," Denil said, and Jak couldn't tell what was in his voice, but he didn't sound happy.

Sai'em shrugged. "The Council did. There was so much chaos after the war that it wasn't hard to wipe it out of human records and they forgot after a couple of generations. You're the first humans we've told."

"You distorted history."

"Everyone distorts history. The truth is in the eye of the beholder. We did it for good reasons - can you imagine how humans would regard us if they had any idea what we did? Do you know how many would die if some foolish king decided to raise an army and march against us? That's why we hide and try to look harmless. Knowing that we were responsible for a slaughter on that scale would only make humans more afraid of us, and fear leads to hatred, resentment and eventually war."

There was a long silence before Denil sighed. "I guess I can see your point of view."

The final pieces of the mystery were falling into place and Jak suddenly realised that finding his son had only been a small part of their adventure. It had been the only aim for him, but Sai'em and Jyani had come away with a much larger picture to consider. Those things weren't his concern, though, because his son was sitting at his side and would never be taken away again.

There was a quiet, sombre mood in the house for the rest of the day even though nobody mentioned wars or plains elves again. Jak was torn between spending time with Charry or Denil, and solved the dilemma by spending the afternoon playing card games with both in the den. Everyone else disappeared to their rooms or found chores in the stables. After supper, Denil quietly told Charry a story and Jak found that he was listening as intently as his son, enjoying the measured rhythm of the words almost as much as the content.

When Charry left to change for bed, Denil sat back in his armchair with an amused twinkle in his eye. "I suppose I shouldn't tell him that was a poem written over five hundred years ago, should I?"

Jak grinned. "Probably best not to. Boys his age aren't supposed to like poetry."

"I didn't think you liked poetry either."

"I was humouring him."

"Uh-huh," Denil said sceptically.

Jak gathered his dignity before Denil could further deflate it and went upstairs to tuck Charry in for the night. It had always been a part of the nightly ritual when he could manage to be home for it and somehow getting back into those rituals seemed important. Charry apparently felt it too because he was sitting up on his bed dressed in his nightshirt with a freshly scrubbed face. The room had been tidied and Paet had repaired the damage as well as he could, although Jak knew that the furniture with the worst gashes would have to be replaced anyway.

Jak hugged Charry tightly before helping him to lie down and pull the covers up. He brushed Charry's hair away from his eyes, reminding himself to cut it soon, and was unsurprised to see questions in his son's eyes. It was going to take a long time, probably years, to properly sort through what had happened and put it to rest.

"Father," Charry said slowly.

"Yes?"

Charry hesitated and licked his lips uncertainly. "I have a question."

Jak forced a smile off his face. He had a feeling that Charry would not appreciate it at the moment. "Go on."

"He created me."

Jak winced, but there was no point in hiding the truth from Charry. "In a way, I guess he did."

"And one day I would have become him." It was part statement and part question.

Jak wouldn't lie to his son. "He would have stolen your body - big difference."

Charry took a deep breath. "Does that make me evil?"

"What?"

"He made me a certain way and he was evil. Shouldn't I be evil too?"

Trust a child to see into ideas that Jak hadn't had the courage to think about yet. He'd never liked philosophical questions like this. Life was easier if he left the scholars to think about abstracts like the nature of evil and he simply concentrated on getting through life as best he could. He was half tempted to send Charry to Denil for this conversation, but that would be wrong in every way. Denil could probably give him a solid, academic discussion about good and evil that would give Charry plenty to think about. He might even be able to use logic to persuade Charry that he wasn't fundamentally evil. What Charry really needed was reassurance from his father.

"You don't have to be evil," Jak said after a long pause to order his thoughts. "Nobody is built to be evil. It's something you choose."

There were tears in Charry's eyes, but he dashed them away before they could fall. "I would have become evil, though, when he took over, wouldn't I?"

"It wouldn't have been you." Jak laid his hand on Charry's chest over his heart. "He would have destroyed everything that makes you who you are. The flesh and blood stuff would have been you, but it wouldn't have been you making your body do things. He only wanted to breed physical traits because he knew that those could be bred. Your mind and your soul are your own and could never have been changed by him. You can choose."

A small, wan smile appeared. "I want to be like you."

"That's a choice, though, not something built into you." Jak said. "You aren't made to be evil, any more than anyone else."

"I choose not to be like him. I choose not to be evil." The smile on Charry's face became a little stronger. "Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure. I'm your father." Jak smiled to let him know that he was joking.

"Good." Charry sighed. "I'm going to have powers one day."

"Maybe."

"What will happen?"

"I don't know," Jak said honestly. "It's something we'll work out if it happens."

"I don't think I want to leave here yet. This is home."

"I know."

"I definitely don't want to live with the wizards."

"I wouldn't let them have you."

"Maybe I could ask Jyani to teach me," Charry said thoughtfully. "She says that her forest isn't too far away. We could live with the elves and nobody would ever hurt us again."

Jak smiled and tucked the covers securely around him. "Don't worry about it yet."

"I won't." Charry yawned sleepily. "It won't happen for years. Jyani told me."

"She's probably right. Elves often seem to be."

"Good night, Father."

Jak kissed his forehead. "Good night."

He was at the door when he heard a whispered "I love you" and whispered it back.

Denil wasn't sure what to do with himself. He lay down on the bed, but after a couple of minutes he stood again and began moving restlessly around the room. It was his last night in Genta and he had a fair idea of what would happen. He and Jak would make love at least once, probably more, tying to imprint the memory so that it would last a lifetime. The only question was whether they would argue before or after the sex.

Maybe it had been selfish to surprise Jak with the announcement that he was leaving in the way he had. Denil had always known that he wouldn't stay in Genta. So had Jak. He hadn't really had a timetable for his departure until he spoke to Sai'em before breakfast, although the prospect of clear weather had made him think about it frequently while Jak healed. There had been several times when he'd wished for the annoying itch at the back of his mind that signalled imminent bad weather. Now it was the last night and they would probably spend part of it fighting about when he left. Maybe he should have at least mentioned it sooner.

Denil heard footsteps in the hallway and was still undecided about where he should be when the door opened. The surprising part was that Jak didn't look like a man about to either fight or seduce. He looked thoughtful, even troubled, and he sat on the edge of the bed without a word.

"Jak?" Denil said, hesitating while he wondered whether he should join Jak or stay where he was. Jak's expression gave him no clue. "Jak?"

"I was talking with Charry."

It wasn't really an invitation, but Denil took it as one anyway and sat on the end of the bed. He drew up his legs and sat facing the other man so he could watch his profile.

"What did he tell you?" he asked.

Jak shrugged. "Not much. He wanted to know whether he was evil."

"Oh."

"I almost sent him to talk to you. Good and evil stuff is more your speciality than mine."

"I'm a linguist, not a scholar."

"You're a scholar - you think about that stuff. I don't."

"Of course you do," Denil said bluntly.

Jak looked up with an expression of surprise. "I do? I can't say that I'd noticed."

"You chose to become a mercenary with the Wolves rather than anything else so that you wouldn't have to kill innocents and civilians, am I right?"

"Well..."

"You deliberately made sure that you would never have to carry out orders that would harm the wrong people or condone evil in your comrades," Denil continued. "Most men who want to fight sign up with their own army, even though half the time those armies sit around and do nothing except look pretty in their capital cities. The rest of the time those armies are fighting the wars their king wants to fight and ignoring any atrocities that might happen while their backs are turned, if they aren't committing the atrocities themselves. Anyone who goes merc usually fights for whatever they can get in loot and pay, never mind the victim. You chose to join a Company that has a reputation for doing the exact opposite."

"I..."

"You made a choice based on your idea of right and wrong and you're still doing that by commanding a city watch. You wouldn't have made those choices if you hadn't spent a lot of time developing a personal philosophy of good and evil."

There was a long silence and Denil wondered whether he had overstepped the bounds of whatever their friendship was. It had all seemed obvious to him after a couple of months of watching and knowing Jak. No matter how hard Jak pretended to be the simple, unthinking mercenary, he was as far from that stereotype as he could be.

"What did you tell him?" Denil asked eventually to break the silence.

Jak snorted. "I told him evil was a choice, not something you were born to be."

Denil concealed a smile.

"You know why you're really annoying?" Jak asked lightly. "You're always right. It could get on my nerves."

"I'm not always right." Denil grinned. "Just mostly."

Jak returned the grin, but it faded quickly. "I suppose I can't ask you to stay so that I can find out."

Denil shook his head. "What would I do here? The only place I could work is exactly where I can't be."

"And I can't leave here," Jak said. "Charry needs familiar surroundings right now. I can't take him away from everything he knows."

"He might have to leave eventually when his powers start developing. We have no idea what might happen."

"I'll think about that when the time comes." Jak sighed. "Maybe it won't have to happen."

"He won't start developing anything until his body and mind are mature enough to cope," Denil said. "My weather-sense appeared early because it wasn't a traumatic or difficult gift to manage. The little bits that I've put together over the years seem to say that other gifts - human and elven - lie dormant until they can be used safely. It could be years before Charry shows anything."

"Although if his eyes turn orange that might be a dead give-away," Jak said humourlessly.

"I'm not sure they will. Ayulphel's weren't and neither are Sai'em's."

"I don't think it will happen either," Jak admitted. "He could probably stay here safely for a long time."

Denil forced a smile onto his face. "If you're ever in Eto, you know how to find me."

"Same goes for you."

They were silent for a few breaths and then Denil sighed. "It probably won't happen."

"Probably not." Jak leaned forward and kissed Denil slowly. "It would be a nice thought, though."

"Mm. Maybe if you ever need to get away from here, you could remember me?"

"I will."

They kissed again and Denil flicked his tongue over Jak's lips, memorising their taste.

"We could probably talk around everything all night," he said, closing his eyes as Jak nuzzled below his ear, "but that wouldn't change anything."

"Bad idea," Jak said indistinctly. "Wastes time."

Denil was in complete agreement with that sentiment and showed it by leaning forward, pressing Jak to the bed and kissing him hungrily. Jak groaned his appreciation and any thoughts fled from Denil's mind in a rush of desire and need.

Denil checked his saddle on Bereth one last time and patted her shoulder. Iyani the packhorse looked thoroughly disgusted to be out in the cold, crisp morning, but the rest of the horses were impatiently pawing the ground while they waited for their riders to depart. A large dark brown horse had been found for Tir'ac and Jyani would be riding a delicate black mare with one white foot. Iyani barely had any more to carry than what she had arrived with. Tir'ac and Jyani had each managed to fit their meagre belongings into the saddlebags on their own horses. Sai'em wore her Ventaxian disguise and Jyani would be creating illusions to make sure that they all appeared to be who they said they were rather than who they really were.

He turned towards the house and the small gathering in front of it. Charry was bundled in warm furs because he refused to watch them leave from an upstairs window. Elsa and Paet had insisted on helping to saddle the horses, saying quiet goodbyes as they went, and Denil had no doubt that Elsa had managed to slip a bit of extra food into the packs and saddlebags. It was hard to say goodbye to all of them, but the worst was Jak. They had already said a private goodbye in Jak's bedroom, long kisses and no promises because they didn't want to lie. Now it was the final goodbye and Denil was sure that they would never see each other again.

Charry ran forward and Jyani fell to her knees so that they could hug tightly. Denil's heart was in his throat as Jak stepped forward and wrapped his arms around him. He returned the embrace with all his strength, squeezing his eyes together until the hot prickling went way.

"I'm going to miss you," Jak whispered. "I am going to miss you so much."

Denil had to swallow hard before his voice worked. "I'll miss you, too."

Jak pulled back slightly so their eyes could meet and lock. "Take care of yourself. Promise?"

"Promise, if you do the same."

Then there was another rib-crushing hug, a moment when Denil could feel Jak all around him, before they parted and Jak stepped away and put an arm around Charry's shoulders.

"Thank you, all of you, for what you've done," Jak said. "I can never repay you."

"You don't need to, Commander," Sai'em said. "I should probably be thanking you instead."

"As should I," Tir'ac said gravely.

"And me," Jyani said. "If you ever need anything, my people will help you."

"I'll remember that," Jak said.

They all mounted and Sai'em walked Mya over to Jak. She held her head up proudly and raised her hands to cover her eyes briefly before drawing them down in a regal, sweeping motion. There was the faintest hint of sparks trailing after her fingers. Then she picked up her reins and wheeled Mya around to walk out of the gate. Tir'ac dipped his head solemnly and Jyani copied Sai'em's gesture and then they both followed her.

Denil began to speak, to say goodbye again, but he was cut off when Jak shook his head. They held each other's eyes for a long moment before Denil smiled at him and turned his mount to follow the others without looking back.

Epilogue

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