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But what of the Night Masks? Cadderly’s reasoning screamed at him Aballister had indeed searched him out, had sent killers to search him out, to murder him and to murder Danica

It was only then that Cadderly suspected that the wizard had placed an enchantical energies The young priest’s heart fought back against the reasoning, against the logical protests, for he did not want to believe that he was being deceived, wanted desperately to believe in his father’s sincerity

But his mother had not died in childbirth!

Aballister’s charan to unwind Cadderly focused on the wizard’s continuing words once es, but was chanting

Cadderly had let his guard down, had no practical defense against the i spell He looked up to see Aballister loose a sheet of sizzling blue lightning that wobbled and zigzagged through the popping red dust The wizard apparently understood the properties of this landscape, for the blast deflected unerringly toward Cadderly The young priest threw his ar explosion jerk his rab at his heart and squeeze viciously

He sensed that he was flying, but felt nothing He sensed that he had slaainst some rock, but was beyond the sensation of pain

"Now you are dead," he heard Aballister say, distantly, as though he and the wizard were no longer facing each other, were no longer on the same plane of existence

Cadderly understood the truth of that clai into the world of the spirit, the realround, broken and sht, the saon’s Codpiece when he had gone in search of Headmaster Averts spirit

One, two, played the notes of Deneir’s song

He knew only peace and serenity, felt more at home than he had ever felt, and knew that he had coht find sohts of the es of Danica, his dearest love, were not tainted with regret, for Cadderly held faith that he and she would one day be rejoined His heart lifted; he felt his spirit soar

One, two, ca Like a heartbeat

Cadderly saw his body again, far below hihtly

No! he protested

One, two, co told He looked to Aballister, spell-casting oncedoorway in the red air Aballister would return to Castle Trinity, the young priest suddenly realized, and all the region would be plunged into darkness

Cadderly understood the plea of Deneir, and no longer did his spirit protest One, two, beat his heart

When he opened his ain flooded with the wares of childhood the wizard had conjured Rationally, Cadderly understood that he had been under an enchantic proved Aballis-ter’s lies But the lure of what Aballister had shown hie ca priest, a memory he had blocked out, packed away in a reo He stood before the doors of the Edifi-cant Library, a young and not so fat Head his father before hie He screamed at Aballister, even cursed the man, and reiterated that Aballister had been banned fro the Edificant Library

Aballister showed no sign of rehed at the burly priest Then take the brat," he cackled, and he roughly shoved Cadderly forward, tearing a handful of hair from Cadderly’s head as he pulled his hand away

The pain was intense, physically and emotionally, but Cadderly did not cry out, not then and not now In looking back on that awful moment, Cadderly realized that he did not cry out because he was so accustomed to Aballister’s commonplace abuse He had been the outlet for the wizard’s frustrations He was the outlet as his mother had been the outlet

His , and Aballister turned about, his eyes popping ith surprise when he saw that his son still lived Behind the wizard, the portal glowed and shie of the anterooical borders Aballister would abandon hio about his business and leave his son, "the brat," to fate

More h he had opened a box that he could not close He saw Aballister’s face, twisted dee, heard his mother’s pitiful cries and his own quiet sobs

The e sword appeared in the red air before hily "Lie down and die," he heard the wizard say

That sword! Aballister had used it against Cadderly’s mother, had used this very same spell to kill Cadderly’spriest heard hi thrummed in his head of its own accord; Cadderly did not compel it to play and hardly heard the harht he heard Headmaster Averts voice at that ical sword arcing his way, slicing for his unprotected neck, too close for hie

The sword struck him and then dissolved with a sharp sizzle

"Damn you!" the wizard, his father, cried

Cadderly saw nothing but his e focused on thishis lips, a burst of anger and reat for him to contain It ca Cadderly had ever heard, a purely destructive twist of the precious notes,

TTie very ground heaved before him, and he continued to scream Like an ocean wave, the red soil rolled toward Aballister, a crack widening in its ?" the wizard protested, and so weak and minuscule did his voice sound beneath the roar of Cadderly’s primal scream!

Aballister lurched into the air, thrown by the wave He flailed his ar futilely, and fell into the torn crack The wave di quiet once more

"I a, pained cry from somewhere not too far below the rim of the crack

Another cry erupted fros, and he threw his hands up before hi his lead, the crack in the ground, too, snapped shut Aballister’s cries were no more

War’s End

An exhausted Cadderly stepped through the door Aballister had conveniently created, stepped through the wall, which was no longer covered with a swirling mist, and into the room where he had left Danica A dozen ene to each other, but, oh, how they scra priest suddenly appeared in their et away froerous man In but a few moments, only she reh to draw their weapons and face the young priest squarely

"Go to Dorigen!" one of them barked at another, and the man ran off

"Stay back, I warn you!" another ly with his spear

Cadderly’s head throbbed; he wanted no fight with this crew, or with anyone for that nore his precarious situation He accessed the song of Deneir, though the effort pained him, and the next ti not a spear, but a writhing, obviously unhappy serpent Theback away froh it made no move to attack

"We have your friends! another en, cried "If you kill us, they, too, will be killed!"

Cadderly didn’t even hear the second sentence The proclamation that his friends were prisoners, and not dead, sent his hopes soaring He rested back against the wall and tried hard not to think of the fact that he had just destroyed his own father

Danica raced into the room a moment later, slammed hard into Cadderly, and threw her ar

"Aballister is dead," the young priest said to Dorigen over Danica’s shoulder

Dorigen gave him an inquisitive look, and Danica, too, backed away to arth and stared hard at her love

"I know," Cadderly said quietly

"He was your father?" Danica asked, her expression as pained as that of Cadderly