It was almost dark when Jes got back to the farm.
Gura greeted him from the porch and Jes ruffled his fingers through the wiry hair. The Guardian had been demanding today; Jes was tired and his head hurt. He tried not noticing that there was something wrong because he didn't know if he could keep the Guardian under control this time if there was.
Rinnie hadn't come out when Gura barked.
The Guardian also knew he was tired, and he was willing to wait until they knew for certain. So it was Jes who walked to the back of the cabin and saw that Rinnie had done a few hours' worth of work before putting her tools away where they belonged.
Had Rinnie grown impatient and set out after Mother and Lehr? He didn't think so, especially since she'd left Gura here. He followed Mother and Lehr's tracks to the woods, but he couldn't see anything that indicated Rinnie had come here today. The ground around the cabin was too packed-down for him to follow a trail there.
Reluctantly he gave way to the Guardian.
He shouldn't have stayed so long watching the new temple, thought the Guardian unhappily. But he'd never seen anything like the taint that spread from the temple through Redern. He'd been worried about Hennea; the forest king had made him responsible for her safety, and there was nothing safe about the temple. The geas that bound her made it impossible for him to stop her from going in, but he'd stayed and fretted over it until Jes had convinced him that Mother would know what to do about it.
In wolf form, the Guardian looked for Rinnie's scent along the edge of the forest, but Jes had been right. She hadn't followed Mother.
He went back to the cabin. Gura flattened himself submissively, but the Guardian ignored him. Gura shouldn't have let Rinnie go off alone. Dogs did not make good guards - they were taught to obey the commands of the people they guarded.
Rinnie's scent was here, but it was difficult to pick out one trail from another. He needed Lehr for this kind of job. He lifted his head from the porch step and cast an irritated glance toward the forest; judging by the time Hennea had taken to get from the village to the place where something had happened to Papa, Mother and Lehr should have been back by now. As he turned his head he caught a whiff of an odd scent.
What had Bandor been doing at the farm?
He seldom visited his aunt - both the Guardian and Jes found the village distressful. There were too many people for Jes, and he got confused by their unguarded emotions. To the Guardian, there were too many possible threats. Even so, he knew Bandor's scent of yeast, salt, and soap.
The sound of rapid footsteps made him blend into the side of the porch so that he remained unseen. The wind was coming from the wrong direction, so he couldn't tell who it was until Hennea came out in the open.
One sleeve was burned away and blisters started at her fingertips and trailed up fire-blackened flesh to her shoulder. She slowed to a walk, staggering slightly as she came in sight of the cabin.
"Seraph," she said. "Jes, are you here?"
The Guardian shook with the implied violence of her condition, even though Jes tried to soothe him with the observation that she might have done the damage to herself because the hurt was concentrated on the wrist the geas band had been on. Hennea smelled of anger, fear, and pain, and Jes was tired. The beast snarled silently.
Hennea gasped slightly, and the Guardian knew that she felt the dread of his anger.
"Jes," she said, closing in on the cabin. "Jes, I need to talk to you. There's none here to harm anyone. Please. I need to talk to you."
A tear slid down her face, and she wiped it away impatiently. "Please. I need your help."
If the forest king hadn't given her to him, the Guardian could have ignored her; but she was one of his now. So he slunk away from the porch and let her see him clearly, though Jes would rather have resumed his usual form because he didn't want to frighten her anymore than she already was. Jes liked Hennea.
"Jes," she said, unfazed by the monstrous wolf that stalked toward her. "Guardian. I'm so sorry. I've betrayed you all. I don't know what he's planned, but it's my fault."
It was difficult to get human speech out of his wolf throat, but the Guardian managed. "Who?"
"He planned it," she said, holding her burnt arm awkwardly away from her body. "I thought I was so clever, figuring out that he was playing a game with your family - but his game was more subtle than I expected. He set me up, all but sent me out to find Seraph and tell her that I thought your father hadn't been killed. He knew that she'd go and take Lehr. He knew Rinnie would be left here unprotected. He didn't care about you, he doesn't know what you are. But he wants Rinnie."
Jes helped the Guardian cool his rage, and the beast welcomed the calm that would allow him to accomplish what was necessary.
"He has her?" he asked.
"Not when I left - I thought I might beat him here - but she's gone, isn't she? That's why you're here and not Jes."
"My uncle was here," the Guardian said. "Bandor, the village baker."
"Lark take them all," she whispered. "Bandor is one of Volis's favorites. Would he turn your sister over to Volis?"
"He wouldn't hurt her knowingly," said the Guardian after a moment. "But his intentions are not important." Since Jes controlled his savagery, the Guardian was able to think clearly again and focus his purpose. "We need to find them. Can you run?"
Lehr was right, it was late when they reached Redern, and Seraph was exhausted, both emotionally and physically. Only her obsessive need to force answers out of the solsenti priest gave her the fortitude to start up the steep street of Redern.
She almost walked right past the bakery. If there hadn't been a light in Alinath's room, she might have been able to do it. Alinath loved Tier, too. Seraph hesitated outside the door.
"She won't believe you, Mother," offered Lehr.
"Yes," said Seraph, "she will - because she needs to believe it as much as I did." She gave Lehr a tired smile. "She'll still think it is my fault - but at least she won't think he's dead. She has the right to know."
Seraph knocked briskly at the door. "Alinath, it's Seraph, open up." She waited, and then knocked again. "Alinath? Bandor?"
Lehr tested the air, "I smell blood. Is the door locked?"
Seraph tried the latch and the door swung open easily. There was no light in the front room, nor the bakery, but Lehr didn't need light and she followed him to Alinath's room. The door was ajar and Lehr opened it cautiously.
"Aunt Alinath?" he said, and the concern in his voice sent Seraph ducking under the arm he held the door open with.
Alinath was gagged and bound hand and foot on her bed. Her face was bruised; someone had hit her cheek and split the skin, which had bled copiously all over the bedding. When she saw them she began struggling furiously.
"Shh," said Seraph, sitting beside Alinath. She took out her knife and carefully slid it around swollen flesh to cut the ropes. "I'll have you free in a moment."
"Rinnie," said Alinath as soon as the gag dropped from her mouth.
"What?" asked Seraph.
But Alinath had begun to shake and Seraph couldn't understand what she was saying.
"Slow down," she said, keeping her voice calm so she didn't upset Alinath further. "What about Bandor and Rinnie? Did Bandor do this to you?"
Alinath tried to sit up, but it was obviously painful and Seraph hurried to help support her.
"It was Bandor," Alinath said, breathing shallowly around sore ribs. "He's gotten so strange lately - I don't know what's wrong with him. This afternoon, after the priest came, he started muttering about Rinnie and you."
She stopped and swallowed. "You and I have never seen eye to eye, Seraph - but you'd die to protect your children. I know that. So when he started saying dangerous things... things that would get the whole village riled up if they heard... Well, I told him he was a fool. That there was nothing evil about you, and he had no call to accuse you of being shadowed."
Seraph's stomach clenched.
Alinath turned her head away. "He hit me. He's done that a couple of times in the past month. I'm not saying I'm the easiest person to live with, but... you know Bandor; he was never like that."
"Go on," said Seraph.
"This time, it was more than a casual slap. I didn't know if he was going to stop. Ellevanal help me, I don't think he did either. Then he muttered a bit more and said something about not needing my interference. He tied me up and left. Seraph, I don't know what he's gone to do."
"He started after the priest left? Volis, not Karadoc?" asked Seraph.
Alinath nodded. "I don't like that man. Did Bandor go out to the farm?"
"Did he say that was what he was going to do?" asked Seraph.
"He said that he was going to save Rinnie."
"We haven't been there since early this afternoon," said Seraph. "I left her with Gura, but Gura knows Bandor. I have to go find her. Will you be all right here?"
Alinath nodded. "Find him before he hurts her," she said.
"Where would he take Rinnie," said Lehr, "if he didn't come back here?"
"The priest," said Seraph. "If he thought she was shadowed he'd take her to the priest. We'll find them," she told Alinath.
"Be careful," said Tier's sister. "Be careful, Seraph. Bandor's not the man you know."
Outside the bakery, Seraph frowned in indecision; go to the temple or all the way out to the farm?
"Can you tell if Bandor and Rinnie came by here?" she asked Lehr.
He shook his head. "Not even if it were full noon - there's too much..." He stiffened and looked around.
Seraph felt it, too, a cold chill fluttering down her spine and a lump in her throat that made it hard to swallow.
"Jes," she called. "Are you here?"
"Listen," said Lehr. "Someone's riding a horse up the road."
She saw Skew first, his white spots clearly visible in the starlight as he leapfrogged up the steep corner, hooves slipping and sliding. As soon as he was on the more level part of the road he broke into a smooth trot and stopped in front of her.
"The priest," said Hennea tightly, sliding off the horse. "I was a fool. He sent me to get you to leave your daughter unprotected."
Seraph nodded. "I've come to that conclusion myself. Do you think they'd take her to the temple?"
"Yes."
"We'll leave Skew here," said Seraph. "He'll lose his footing on the cobbles in the steep parts. Lehr, can you find some place to secure him?"
"There'll be space by the woodshed," he said and took the horse.
Hennea stood a little crookedly, as if she were in pain. Seraph called a magelight and took a good look at Hennea's burnt arm.
"There are easier ways to break a geas," she said dryly.
"I was in a hurry," replied Hennea, her lips curving in a pale smile. "And I was angry."
"That's going to hurt," observed Seraph.
"It already does. I'm not going to be much help in any kind of fight; my concentration is gone. I can feed your magic, though."
"Good enough," Seraph said.
Lehr came back and Seraph turned and started up the road at a rapid walk. Jes and Lehr could probably run all the way to the temple, but she and Hennea would have to take it slower or they wouldn't be any good when they got there. She knew that Jes was with them by the clenching of her stomach, but she only caught a glimpse of him now and again out of the corner of her eye.
"Tell me about Volis," said Seraph. "Whatever you think will be useful."
"He's smarter than I thought he was, obviously. The other mages in the Secret Path respected his power - but he's young by solsenti standards and complex spells frustrate him. Because of that, he tends to use the Raven ring more than his own magic unless he's weaving an illusion."
They came to a steep bend in the road, and Hennea quit speaking until they were on flatter ground. "I told you that the wizards steal Orders and wear them. Usually as rings, but there are some stones set in earrings and necklaces. He told me that some of the rings are painful to use, and some of them don't work all the time. Most of the wizards can only use one ring at a time, but Volis has two he uses. The first one bears the Order of the Raven. With it he usually has an Owl, though I've seen him with a Hunter's ring a time or two as well. You'll know which one he wears when you see him, just look."
"How well does he bear the Orders?"
"About as you'd think," she said. "He seems to believe the Raven Order is just like his magic, except that he doesn't have to use rituals."
Seraph smiled in satisfaction. "Tell me, does he have a bad temper?"
As they got closer to the temple, Lehr stopped and bent down as if to touch the ground, but he pulled his hand back before it touched.
"What's this, Mother?" he asked.
"What?" Seraph stopped, too, but she didn't see anything.
"A taint," said Jes. He must have been close to Hennea because she gave a nervous squeak.
"What does it look like?"
"It looks as if a foul substance was spilled over the ground," said Lehr. "It smells bad, too."
"Shadowed," said Hennea in a small voice. "I'd wondered."
"It comes from the temple," said Jes. "It's darker there."
"It's really there?" asked Lehr. "Why can't you see it, Mother?"
"I don't know why Ravens can't see the Stalker's influence, or why Larks can't either," replied Seraph. "I can understand why the ancients didn't feel it necessary for Owls or Cormorants, but Larks and Ravens have to deal with shadowing."
"Unto each Order..." murmured Hennea.
" 'Are the powers so given' - yes, yes, I know. It is still stupid. So Volis is most likely shadowed." It was a very rare condition. Seraph had never dealt with someone who was shadowed, though her teacher had. He'd died before he taught her much about it because there was so much else to learn. She knew the Stalker needed some destructive feeling or act to gain influence and the amount of influence varied. The Shadowed had been different, her teacher said, because the Shadowed had invoked the Stalker's power and welcomed the shadowing.
"Let's go," she said. "We need to get to Rinnie."
They reached the temple finally, and Lehr tried the door.
"It's locked," he said. "Barred from the inside, I think."
Seraph said something short and guttural, a summoning she would not have remembered if she'd stopped to think about it, and the door blew apart, reduced to splinters and bits of metal that covered the floor of the inner chamber.
"Careful," cautioned Hennea. "Anger and magic don't mix well."
"Where will he take her?" Seraph knew that Hennea was right, but ever since the huntsman had come to tell her that Tier was dead she'd been more frightened than she'd been since the night her brother died - and fear, like grief, made her angry.
"Follow me."
The temple was brightly lit with wall sconces, so Seraph had no trouble picking her way through the debris left by the door. But the room on the other side of the curtain was quite different than the one she remembered. It was a rectangular room with a low ceiling. There were no flying birds, no arched ceiling.
"Is this the real room or is the chamber with the Orders the real room?" she asked Hennea.
"Which do you think?"
This room was more in keeping with a building that had been put up in less than a season's time. It was not too different from Willon's store, and she couldn't smell magic in it at all...but...
"The other one is real," she said with conviction.
That room had been too detailed to have been an illusion set up just for her, but he couldn't show that room to just anyone. This chamber looked just as the villagers would expect.
Hennea nodded her head. "As I told you, he is a very good illusionist."
There was a small door set unobtrusively near the back wall and Hennea led them through it and down a narrow stairway.
"We're close now," Hennea said. "We should be as quiet as we can."
"Rinnie's been here," whispered Lehr.
"I can smell her fear," agreed Jes, already at the bottom of the stairway.
The stair ended in a short, dark hallway that smelled of earth and moisture to Seraph; but Lehr's nose was wrinkled with disgust and he was careful not to bump against the wall. Light pooled by an open doorway.
Seraph brushed by the others to enter the room first.
Rinnie was there; like Alinath, she'd been tied and gagged, but Seraph didn't see any bruises. Relief washed over Seraph; Rinnie wasn't safe yet, but she was alive.
Several hundred candles were set out to form five circles on the floor with Rinnie in the middle of the center circle. The others each contained a bit of jewelry with a single large stone in the setting.
Volis was there, too, peering over a fragile-looking scroll laid out on a table almost too small for it. He didn't look up as they entered. As Hennea had advised, Seraph looked at his hands and saw two rings. One of them should be Raven. Seraph focused her magic and looked at the rings. Raven and Owl, just as Hennea had predicted, but twisted somehow and empty. Wrong.
In the far corner of the room, Bandor sat cross-legged on the floor, rocking back and forth and muttering to himself. Owl-sick, thought Seraph. Unbound by Traveler laws, Volis had forced Bandor to do something against his will, and Bandor was paying the price.
She took another step forward and ran into a barrier of magic. With a quick flick of thought she made the barrier visible. It arched across the room, leaving Volis, Bandor, and Rinnie on one side of the barrier and the rest of them trapped on the other: trapped, because the barrier now covered the doorway and sealed them all in. At least she assumed they were all there. She hadn't seen Jes in the quick glance she'd taken.
"Volis," Seraph said.
Her voice trembled with fury; she'd thought she had herself under better control. She was so angry at him and at those unknown men who were like him and played havoc in their ignorance. They had stolen Tier, Rinnie, and Seraph's peace; they would pay, all of them.
Painfully, she drew the serenity of her training around her like a cloak; it was Volis who had to lose his temper. When she was certain she was calm, she said, "What are you doing?"
"Summoning the Stalker," he said, without looking up. "I've been expecting you - as you can see. Once my little Raven took flight I thought she'd bring you here. At first I was upset with her, but then I thought it would not be a bad thing to have an audience - as long as they didn't become part of the ceremonies."
Guardians were all but immune to magic - Jes could go through the barrier. It was just possible he could get through, retrieve Rinnie, and return across the barrier with her. But if he couldn't, he would never leave her. Trapped there, he would try to protect Rinnie from Volis - and that was unacceptably dangerous. She'd send him there only if there was no choice.
She could tell that Jes had reached the end of his control because the temperature in the room was dropping rapidly.
"You are an ignorant fool," she said coldly. "The Eagle is not the Stalker. The Stalker is what made the Shadowed what he was. If you manage to summon it, you will not be more - you will be nothing. The Stalker has no followers, because anything that answers to it becomes a thing just as it is."
"Don't think I don't know about people like you," said Volis. "My first teacher liked to tell me how ignorant I was because he was afraid of me and what I could do. So for years I did his bidding as his apprentice. When the Master of the Secret Path found me and told me the truth, the first thing I did was arrange for my teacher to receive a lesson ensuring that he never had a chance to mislead anyone again." Satisfaction colored his voice. "Take warning from that. You say I am wrong, but you don't know me, don't know what I can do."
The growing cold made Seraph shiver, but she trusted that Jes would hold on a few minutes more. She needed to make this boy angry.
"Oh, I know what you can do," said Seraph serenely. "Do you think that Hennea spent the whole day silent? Or do you think that I should tremble before an illusionist?" She saw her tone made him flush. Solsenti wizards looked down upon illusionists, saw their magic as a lesser thing because it neither created nor destroyed. Solsenti wizards were fools about many things. "A boy barely old enough to dress himself? A solsenti conjurer who defiles himself with the dead because he has to steal their magic or everyone would know how ignorant he was?"
"I may be an illusionist," he said with careful dignity, "but I trapped you - both of you Ravens and your Hunter son, too. And this ignorant boy found out your secrets. I know how to summon a god."
"You can't even keep a Raven with geas," said Seraph. "How could you summon a god?"
She'd hoped to anger him with the reminder of Hennea's escape, but he was too excited about his discovery.
"It will be easy," said Volis. "The Cormorant was the key."
And then, pacing back and forth, he began to pontificate upon pseudo-complexities of the Orders that the wizards of his Secret Path had "discovered" over the years.
"Lehr," Seraph said softly underneath the flow of Volis's words. "Is he shadowed?"
"Yes. Uncle Bandor, too - though not as deeply."
Seraph nodded her understanding, then turned her attention back to the ranting Volis.
"I took the rings, one for each Order. The Secret Path only has four Healer rings, but none of them work right. So they gave me this one to do as I wish. I have one for each of the Orders, but with your daughter I don't need the Cormorant."
He looked at Seraph, his face flushed with triumph. "I tried it with just the rings, but it didn't work because the spell calls for blood and death. Getting someone of each Order is impractical - but then I remembered something I read about sympathetic magic, using one thing to represent other things, like using a feather for air. I wrote to Telleridge and he said he thought it might work. So all I needed was one of you."
He looked at Hennea and said spitefully, "I could have used you, but I thought you liked me. I didn't want to hurt you. I could have saved myself a lot of trouble, couldn't I?"
"You might have," Hennea agreed mildly.
He didn't know what to say to that, so he turned his attention back to Seraph. "I thought that it would be easier to use the youngest one. It wasn't hard to persuade Bandor that she was in danger and I could help her. You should be proud, Seraph; your daughter's death will return the Eagle to the world."
Sweat dripped from his forehead, though on the other side of his barrier, Seraph's breath fogged in the cold. Evidently the barrier blocked the effects of Jes's ire.
"Solsenti wizards," said Seraph, slowly shaking her head, "always making things much more complicated than they really are. The Stalker is already here at your request." She smiled at him. "You know I speak the truth."
His eyes widened for an instant as his stolen Owl ring, once she'd called his attention to it, told him she was right. Then he narrowed his eyes accusingly. "You just think you speak the truth, that's all it means. You are wrong."
"I can't give you proof of the Stalker," agreed Seraph mildly. "You'd have to be Hunter to see what you have done in your stupidity." He didn't like to hear the word stupid, especially as he knew that she meant it. But he wasn't going to lose his temper enough for her purposes; he was too buoyed up by his plans. She'd have to bring Jes into it.
"I can show you what Eagle is," she said.
The whole time they'd spent talking, Seraph had been sorting through the intricate work of the spell holding the barrier together. If he'd just used solsenti magic, she might not have been able to break it, but he'd woven Raven and solsenti magic together and the result was unstable.
"Jes," she said, "go get Rinnie and keep her safe. Lehr, when you can, take Bandor."
Volis frowned at her words. "Jes? Isn't that the name of your idiot son? He's not here." He shivered once.
"Yes," said Seraph, "he is. You just aren't looking. Jes, the priest wants to get a good look at you."
The Guardian was nothing if not dramatic, coalescing out of candle smoke into the oversized wolf he favored over other forms. He stood not two paces from Volis, frost shading his coat and moving from his paws to the hem of Volis's robes. Jes growled, a low rumbling sound. Seraph's pulse picked up until she could hear the sound of her heartbeat in her ears.
Volis, who had no warning or understanding of what Jes was, cried out in terror. That fear did for Volis's magic what anger had once done for Seraph's. His control of Raven magic failed, and Seraph ripped the barrier into pieces with a sweep of power.
"This is my eldest son, Jes," she said. "Who is Eagle and Guardian - and in no need of your summons."
She kicked aside the carefully placed candles, breaking the circles and removing any temptation he might have had to kill Rinnie.
As she walked she continued speaking, quoting from the book of Orders. " 'Thus is it said that when the Elder Wizards took upon themselves the need to fight the Shadow-Stalker, that they created them the Orders. Six Orders created they them, after the six who slept forever. First, Raven Mage, second, Cormorant Weather Witch to aid their travels, and third created was Healer who is Lark that they might survive to continue the fight. They rested and then made fourth, the Bard and Owl to ease their way among strangers, fifth, Falcon the Hunter to feed them at need, last created they Eagle who is Guardian for all to fear.' The Guardian, Volis, is an Order like any other, though, as you can see, more difficult to detect."
Jes took back his human form and gathered Rinnie into his arms. "The priest is wrong," he said, and the voice thundered in bass notes almost too deep to hear, as if he still held part-way to the wolfshape.
"He's been shadowed," agreed Seraph.
But Seraph had given the priest too long. He threw a blast of raw magic at her and she was forced to counter it - more than counter it, because she had to protect those around her. She held the magic for a moment then returned it to him. Because it was his magic, it did not harm him, just allowed him to reabsorb it. Not an ideal solution, because he retrieved the energy he'd sent at her, but no one else got hurt.
While she'd been trying to decide what to do with it, he'd had time to gather more power and he flung it at her, forcing her back several steps. She caught it and flung it back again, but it was more of an effort. She couldn't keep doing it indefinitely because she continued to lose power and he didn't.
He also learned quickly. The third shot was no less powerful, but he broadened his target to include everyone in the room. She had no choice but to absorb the full force of his hit, or let something escape where it might hurt one of her children.
Tears of pain slipped down her face as she staggered and swayed, then someone touched her and the pain lessened.
For a dazed instant, the voice and strong hands that pressed into her shoulders were Tier's. Then, as the effects of the priest's attack faded, she realized it was Hennea behind her, offering her support and power.
She needed a shield like the one Volis had set to encase them when they had entered the room, but she didn't have time to throw a shield around everyone. Instead, she created a shield and set it around Volis. For a moment the whole area around Volis lit up, but then the shield fell apart, a victim of its hasty construction.
He laughed. "Try this," he said and sketched a sigil in the air.
She blocked most of it, but the straining of her magic past her reserves almost blinded her with pain, and the remnants of his sorcery sent both Seraph and Hennea tumbling to the ground.
She wouldn't be able to hold out against a second such blast.
"Hennea," she whispered. "When I tell you, jump away, then get the others out of here." If she could distract Volis long enough, maybe her children could escape.
"No," said Hennea.
A breeze blew a stray lock of hair into Seraph's eyes.
Wrath lighting his face, Volis drew back his hand in the manner of a man throwing a rock. Hennea took control of the remnants of Seraph's shields and refined them as Volis's hand released whatever it was he'd formed and the spell bounced off harmlessly.
Wind cooled the sweat on Seraph's forehead - she had just enough time to realize that there shouldn't be a wind when a sudden gust of it knocked her to her knees.
The wind picked up even more speed, turning Seraph's hair into a vicious whip that stung her eyes and cheeks as her left knee made painful contact with the floor. The table Volis had been working on skidded across the floor, hit the wall, then flung itself at the priest's head.
Temporarily occupied defending himself from his furnishings, Volis quit concentrating on Seraph; but any magic would draw his attention.
Seraph drew her knife and staggered to her feet, bracing herself against the wind.
"Hennea," she said, her voice low. "Is there a cure for the shadowing that you know and I do not?"
Seraph thought for a moment that Hennea had fallen too far away to hear her, but then Hennea said, "No. There is no cure but death."
Seraph crouched and used the motion of the wind and a feathering of magic to creep up behind Volis. When she was close enough she rushed forward, and stepped on the back of his knee, collapsing the joint so the wizard staggered backward, off balance. She threw her left arm around his chin to hold him steady and jerked her knife into his neck as Tier had once taught her. The sharp knife cut through Volis's throat, severing skin and artery.
Seraph stumbled back, fighting the wind for her balance. Victory came so quickly, brought to her by the sharp blade of her knife. Her first kill. She wondered if she'd used magic to kill him, if it would seem more real to her.
The young man's body fought for a while, but pain blocked his own magic and the extremity of his emotions kept Raven magic from coming to his aid - rings or no. Seraph watched because it seemed an act of cowardice to turn away from a death she had summoned.
When he was dead, Seraph turned away to survey the room. Lehr, bless him, had remembered what she told him. He had Bandor pinned face against the wall in some sort of wrestling hold. Hennea had gotten to her hands and knees and crawled against the wind toward Volis's body. Jes, looking exhausted, sat on the floor near -
Ah, Seraph thought ruefully, that's where the wind came from.
Rinnie's hair spread out in pale flames as she stood motionless, arms spread with palms out like some ancient statue, her skirts absolutely still though the wind still tore furiously through the room. Jes must have cut her loose because there were no ropes on her, though lines on either side of her mouth showed where they had been. Her eyes glowed with an eerie gold light that obscured her pupils.
Words of warning, long forgotten, came back to Seraph. To be a weather witch was always to long for the energies that coursed and strew themselves in tempestuous weather, always to be in danger of being so caught up that there was no way back.
"Rinnie," she said firmly. "We are safe, call back the winds and let them sleep."
Her daughter stared blankly at her with incandescent eyes and the winds swirled and played. An inkwell flipped out of nowhere and caught Seraph painfully on the elbow.
"Rinnie!" barked Seraph in the same tone she used to break up sibling squabbles. "Enough."
Rinnie blinked, and the wind died down to gentle gusts and then nothing. Small items dropped to the ground with clattering noises. Rinnie fell to her hands and knees, and Seraph hurried across the room and crouched beside her.
"How is it with you? Are you well?"
Rinnie nodded. "Sorry, Mother. I'm just a bit dizzy." Then she gave a ghost of her usual grin to Jes. "That was better than changing into an animal."
"Mother," said Lehr, "What do you need to do with Uncle Bandor? I can't hold him here forever."
Bandor was shadowed. Her hand tightened on her knife - but before she could do more than rise back to her feet, Hennea said, "No, Seraph. I lied. The shadow can be cleansed."
Seraph stilled. "What?"
Hennea sat on the floor beside the dead priest, her cheeks painted with his blood. "I lied. I swore that this one would die. It is fitting that he should die in his sins. But I can cleanse the baker with your help."
"Seraph? Bandor?" Alinath's voice rang down the corridor.
If she and Hennea were going to help Bandor, Seraph didn't have time to be angry with her now.
"Jes? Can you keep Alinath at bay without hurting her or yourself?" asked Seraph. "If we are working more magic tonight, we can't have her interrupting us."
"Yes," said Jes, using the wall to get to his feet. He took a couple of half-drunken steps and came to the doorway. Alinath got there first, but stopped just short of Jes.
"We need to get this done," said Seraph. "I think I could just possibly light a magelight. Do you have the magic, and can you concentrate well enough to use it?"
Hennea rose painfully to her feet, using her good arm for leverage. "I think I'm too numb to hurt and I am not as spent as you are. It'll be all right."
She limped over to Lehr and Bandor and spoke a word. Glowing lines circled Bandor's wrists and ankles.
"Release him, please," she said, and Lehr stepped away from him.
With the silvery threads of magic, Hennea forced Bandor around so that he stood with his back flat against the wall.
He spat at her. "Shadowspawn Witch. You should burn in the fires of good rowan and oak."
Ignoring him, Hennea reached for his head and forced him to look at her. Seraph stood as near as she dared.
Hennea took a firm grip on Bandor's hair and then set another glowing line about his forehead to hold his head where she wanted it.
"You can't allow them to distract you," she explained to Seraph in Traveler's speech. "If you have to start again it's twice as hard to grasp it."
Once she had him unable to move she reached up to place a hand on his forehead. He struggled then, fighting the restraints like a madman - but Hennea had done a good job, and his head never moved.
"It's hard to find - the shadowing. It'll help if I'm more familiar with him. Tell me something of him - how the shadow caught him."
"His name is Bandor," said Seraph. "He is married to my husband's sister. He has always been a man of even temperament, a fair man if a bit greedy." But only a bit. The low price he'd given her for Jes's honey had been out of character, she realized. With family, he'd always been inclined to be generous. "His parents were not Rederni and he was never really accepted until he married Alinath, my husband's sister."
Hennea sent off questioning tendrils of magic, which passed through Bandor like a hot knife through butter, slipping and sliding.
"What does he want?" Hennea asked. "What drives him?"
That was harder. "I don't know," Seraph said finally. "Reducing a man to a handful of words is no gift of mine." She turned to her youngest, who knew him best.
"Rinnie," she said in Common tongue. "If Uncle Bandor could be, or have, anything in the world what would he want?"
"Children," said Rinnie promptly, though her voice shook. "He and Aunt Alinath want children more than anything. He also worries that Papa might decide to return to the bakery. Last year when the harvests weren't good, he was certain Papa would take the bakery. Nothing Papa said could reassure him."
Seraph remembered that now; it hadn't seemed important at the time.
One of the tendrils of Hennea's magic snagged and went taut, like a fisherman's net. Another slid to the same place and stuck fast as well. A third caught another place.
"More," said Hennea. "Tell me more about him, child."
"He loves Aunt Alinath," Rinnie said with more confidence. "But he worries that she loves Papa better. He wants her to see him as a better man than Papa."
The rest of the tendrils snapped taut like the strings of a violin and emitted a sound as if an invisible musician plucked at the instrument.
"Envy," murmured Hennea in the Traveler tongue. "Small darknesses that allow the shadow to take hold and shake him a bit until the small darkness grows like a blot on his soul. You have to ferret them all out, Seraph, and not miss any. Could you have your Hunter see if I've missed anything?"
"Lehr," said Seraph. "Come here and look. Does the net she's woven encase the taint?"
Lehr examined his Uncle closely. "Missed something," he said.
"He wants," murmured Seraph. "He loves. He hates. He fears."
"He's afraid of you, Mother," said Rinnie at last. "He doesn't much care for Jes either." She gave her brother's back an apologetic look. "He doesn't like to be around people who are odd like Jes is."
Hennea, lines of strain appearing around her eyes and mouth, sent out more magic.
"Done," said Lehr.
"Mother," said Jes.
Seraph turned and saw that Alinath had company in the doorway. Karadoc was with her. He'd managed to take a few steps forward, so he stood several paces in front of the door. But when Jes looked at him, he stilled once more.
"We'll be done momentarily," said Hennea. "I wouldn't try this without one who can see the shadow. Otherwise it's too easy to fail - and you'll not know it until the shadowed one kills those nearest to him."
"Like the Nameless King, the Shadowed," said Seraph. "When he killed his sons first."
"He allowed no Travelers within his realm," said Hennea. "So now we go where we are needed, not where we are wanted."
"What next?" said Seraph.
Hennea smiled wearily. "The last part is more strength than finesse. I'll try to burn the shadow from him."
"Let me help," said Seraph. "I'm all but done up, but you may freely take what magic I have left." She followed her words with action, setting the blooded knife on the floor and placing her hands on Hennea's shoulders.
Hennea thanked her with a nod and then set about destroying the hold the Stalker had taken on Bandor's soul. It was, Seraph saw, much the same as burning wood with magic, just using a different fuel. If she had to do it herself, she'd know how.
"Done," said Hennea, but Seraph, feeling the last of the shadowing leave, had already stepped away.
Bandor had long since stopped his struggles, but now he hung limply in the bonds that held him to the wall, his face blank and his mouth drooping on either side. A drop of spittle dripped slowly off his chin.
"Lehr," she said. "Come help me with Bandor."
Lehr helped Seraph brace his uncle so that Hennea could release him. Once on his feet, Bandor seemed to recover a bit. At least he could stand on his own and his face started to lose the blankness and adopt some of Bandor's own personality, like a wineskin refilled with wine.
Lehr still braced him, but Seraph stepped away - remembering what Rinnie had said about his fear of her. She didn't want to cause him any more distress than she had to.
"All right, Jes," she said calmly, "You can let them in, now."
He stared at her a moment, then bowed his head shallowly. She hid her sigh of relief: the next few minutes were bound to be interesting enough without Jes running amok. Alinath slipped around them all without a look and stood in front of Bandor.
"Is it true," she said, "is he better now? Is he unharmed?"
Seraph raised an eyebrow and looked at Hennea, who had collapsed against the wall. She nodded.
"He'll be all right," Seraph said. "Give him a while to recover and he'll be all right."
Alinath's mouth trembled and she took one more step until she stood against her husband, looking small and frail. "Bandor," she said. "Bandor."
Karadoc, leaning heavily on his staff, looked closely at Jes. "Ellevanal favors you, boy, though you never come to his temple; that told me there was more to you than it appeared. I didn't expect quite this much more. Some of your mother's magic in you, eh, that kept us from coming in?"
"Yes," agreed Seraph. "Jes is more than he appears."
"Traveler," Karadoc said sternly, as if reminded of his duty. "Traveler, what happened here?"
"Shadows and magic, priest," she said. "Volis and Bandor were shadow-touched. If I had known that the priest could be cured, I would have - " she remembered the satisfaction of stopping him with her knife and stopped, saying merely, "I was ill-informed."
"How did you know they were shadowed?" The old man, she thought, was playing the stern priest role to the hilt. It was a good sign. If he'd been frightened by all the magic, he wouldn't be taking the time to perform for his audience; he'd be getting the rest of the Council Elders.
"She found me tonight as Bandor left me," said Alinath, as she and Lehr helped Bandor sit on the floor. "Bruised and bound. I told her that there was something wrong with him, a bile of jealousy toward my brother after all these years." There was a pause, then she said, "I don't know what exactly he did, but he had a hand in my brother's death."
She sat beside her husband and raised her chin in a familiar gesture. "I have never approved of the choices my brother has made," she said. "I have no use for magic or Seraph. You know as much, Karadoc. I would never take her side against my Bandor. But I know that Bandor, if he were himself, would never hit me. He would never have made himself slave to another's will as he has enslaved himself to that false priest." She spat out the words. "If Seraph says that he was shadow-taken... well, I for one have to agree with her."
No one, thought Seraph with secret amusement, could miss how much it bothered Alinath to agree with Seraph.
Karadoc nodded formally. "Accepted." He grinned at Seraph, transforming in an instant from sour old man to mischievous gnome. "You should know that Alinath came to me several days ago - concerned with the oddities of her husband's behavior. I told her to keep watch, for as we all know, those of us who live in the lee of Shadow's Fall have always to be on guard against such."
He shook his head, "But of course we'll have to tell a different story to everyone else or Seraph won't be able to stay here, and no one will really believe that he was cleansed."
Bandor was huddled against his wife, bowing his forehead to touch the top of her shoulder. Seraph could hear his soft, half-coherent apologies.
Karadoc leaned on his staff. "Let me tell you what happened tonight. Volis is an evil mage, not a real priest. He needed a death to feed some dark magic and chose Rinnie, because he thought she was without protection. Her father is dead - "
"Actually," said Lehr. "Probably not. That's what Mother and I were doing when Rinnie was taken. We walked up to the place where the huntsman thought he found Father's remains. The bones weren't Father's. We think a group of human mages surprised Papa and took him."
"Alive," said Alinath. "Tier is alive?"
"Alive?" asked Rinnie, grabbing Jes's hand in a tight grip.
"I think so," said Seraph.
"Ah," said Karadoc, "then Volis was one of a group of corrupt mages who helped him in his evil doings. He was responsible for a number of terrible happenings, Tier's disappearance... oh, I'll think of a few more things. I'm sure someone had a pet die in the last month or so. Volis has been watching your farm with his magic - "
"Magic doesn't work like that," said Seraph. "Not even solsenti magic."
"They won't know that," said Karadoc repressively. "When he saw that you were away from home, he kidnapped Rinnie. Alinath saw him take Rinnie by the bakery. She came to my temple to get Bandor, who had come to talk to me about suspicions that he had about Volis. I am an old man. Bandor and Alinath confronted Volis - he hurt Alinath, and Bandor killed him."
"What about us?" asked Seraph.
"You, none of you were here. I don't know who you are, young lady," he said to Hennea, "but I can see what you are, and you'd be safer away from here."
"She can sleep at the farm tonight," said Seraph.
"How do you know that Tier is alive?" asked Alinath.
"Because they took him to use his magic," replied Hennea. "They can't use it with him dead - not this soon."
"Liar," said Alinath, rising to her feet. "My brother had no magic."
From his position on the floor, Bandor reached up and took his wife's hand. "Yes," he said. "Yes, he did."
Alinath froze, staring at the hand she held. At last she sank down again.
"Do you know where they took him?" asked Karadoc when it became apparent Alinath wasn't going to say anything further.
"To Taela," answered Hennea. "To the imperial palace at Taela."
"Before we leave here, Hennea and I will search the temple to make sure there's nothing left that could hurt anyone," said Seraph tiredly. They'd find all the Order stones, too. She glanced at Volis, but his hands were bare. Hennea must have already taken the rings Volis had worn.
"We'll go look for Papa tomorrow?" asked Lehr.
Seraph considered it. "The day after. We'll have to pack for the trip."
"If you leave, the Sept's steward will take away your land rights," observed Alinath.
"No," replied Karadoc. "He won't. He'd never get anyone else to farm that close to the mountains. I'll have a talk with him myself."
