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"We’re going with you," Brielle said quietly

"No I don’t knoill happen when I make this request I want you both to stay here"

Mel shook her head, the look in her eyes telling Ariana she would get no cooperation "Brielle stays here, but I’ with you I’"

"I’ll be there to help you Don’t waste ti before that Feral of yours shows up growling and otten how to take orders, Mel" Her tone ry, for her friend’s loyalty was rock solid

A hint of a smile lit Melisande’s eyes "My job is to protect the queen That’s what I’o, then Let’s find out what I’ve lost"

"Do you remember the Chamber of Life in the lower level of the temple?"

Ariana nodded

"I’ll meet you there" Melisande turned to mist, her form insubstantial for a moment before she disappeared

Ariana took the corporeal’s path, gripping herthe chant of transport as she visualized the chamber where all Ilinas were born Moments later, she materialized within the inlaid ivory walls of the Temple of the Queens

Around her, sconces flared Goose buht of this place she hadn’t seen in centuries--theat the very center of the circular room It was upon the Altar of Life that new Ilinas came into the world Upon which she herself had been born, not as flesh-and-blood creatures were born--springing forth frorow to full size--but through a ritual of ic that created women prepared to take their place in Ilina society within only a few education-filled months

Unlike a flesh-and-blood woman, she remembered well the day she was born--the wonder and confusion as the maidens welcomed her as their new queen Unlike humans and e they needed to survive, including the language of their kind

Yes, she had memories of this place, of the births of other Ilinas who’d come after her

But of the lower chamber, the stone chamber that was supposedly hers alone, she had no me, ready to fight, but she saw no one and nothing wrong They were alone It took her a second to realize the problem, and when she did, her eyes ide

Melisande was sinking into the floor, her feet slowly disappearing into the decorative rabbed her hands, trying without success to pull her free

"Turn to mist, Melisande!"

"I can’t! It’s some kind of trap" Her oldest friend’s eyes took on a rare and gut-wrenching terror

They’d walked into a trap that could have been set by only one race

The Mage

Regret raked at Hawke’s he away fro pain speared through his skull as his hawk screeched in agony The pain had become a constant, now, an ever-present torh it was of no comfort whatsoever He’d fallen into a spirit trap whose purpose was to separate man from beast And when it succeeded? He’d be dead The trap would spit out his body as it had the bodies of the seventeen all those years ago, leaving the hawk spirit trapped inside in perpetual agony, if the sounds of the other anio by

They’d been in there for centuries

His hawk screeched again

Easy, buddy Cal the spirit as he’d intended, he only seemed to inflaer pu with the pain

Daet us trapped in here on purpose!

He had to find a way out of here For the hundredth tioddess that he’d beenin with him, that Stripes was safely with the others With hisyears he’d known the tiger shifter, Tighe radiated with a happiness Hawke envied If anyone deserved that happiness, it was Stripes Yet Haas all too afraid he was trapped down there with him, about to leave Delaney a

The other Ferals couldn’t afford to lose two more animals Perhaps more? He had no idea how et us out of here Take my life, if you must, but not like this Let the hawk fly free to mark another

Don’t let us both end like this!

Slowly, he shoved back the anger, both the hawk’s and his own, forcing his mind to search for a solution There had to be a way out of there Perhaps the animal spirits themselves knew the answer if he could only find a way to communicate with them There were at least a dozen distinct anied to identify, at least a dozen animals--several different kinds of cats, two or three bears, the screech of a bird that wasn’t his hawk And others he couldn’t identify He’d heard a deep snorting that e animals He heard them, not with his ears, for his senses were in limbo, but with his ued him from the start He’d tried to call to theet any response

All he heard in the depths of his er And the sound of pain

"Get some lunch" Lyon turned to head back into the house after the Ilinas’ disappearance "Pink keeps he and Hawke ht return at any moment, and she wants to be ready in case they’re faar continued to stare at the spot Ariana had stood justat him that she’d left He felt her in the Crystal Realm and was tempted to follow, but he knew she didn’t intend to stay there By the tiain, down to the earthbound Temple of the Queens

He hated that she refused to let him protect her, but he trusted her to return, as he hadn’t before Soed between theether

He joined Lyon as his chief opened the patio door "Any word on Hookeye?" Kougar asked

"Not yet Skye’s family has put the word out Someone has to know of a sorcerer whose eyes had oddly-shaped pupils"

One would think And when they got a lock on hi to be first in line to hunt the bastard down Meanwhile, he waited And the waiting was killing hihe’s mate, forced to hile others tried to save the one she loved

"How’s Delaney?" he asked Lyon

Lyon gave him a surprised look as if he hadn’t expected hihe had a mate, let alone her name "She’s on her way back to Harpers Ferry to join Vhyper"

Kougar knew that Vhyper watched over the place where Hawke and Tighe had fallen into the vortex in case they reappeared Of course, if they did, it would alood front" Lyon started into the dining roo the house at all hours, day and night"

"We’ll get the up until they’d found it