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"No, I think it’s stopped And it doesn’t matter anyway I don’t matter Only you You’re the only one who can find a way to save us"

Ariana squeezed her best friend’s hands "You matter to me You always have, and you know it"

Melisande’sdown there that will solve both our probleaze raking the ivory walls, seeing a single set of stairs spiraling upward in one far corner And none spiraling down

"I don’t kno to get down there I don’t remember"

Melisande whispered the words of the ancients, then motioned behind Ariana with a nod of her head "There"

Ariana turned to find that a hole had appeared in the wall to the right of the Altar of Life She eyed it ariness, then turned back to Melisande

"I thought you said only I could go into that place"

Melisande shrugged, her blond braid sliding over her shoulder "I o down there, but I’ve been here with you and your predecessors enough times to memorize the words" Mel squeezed her hands "Now release "

Ariana prayed to the queens who’d corip, watching her friend for any sign ofelse happened Melisande reed "Quickly, Ariana, before anything else goes wrong" Melisande’s voice trembled on an alien note of terror "Before they find us"

With a quick breath, Ariana nodded, then turned and ran to the opening in the wall Peering inside, she found a twisting stair carved of stone, just like the cha into darkness A chill skated down her spine, but she hesitated for only a second before slipping inside and starting down, using the curving inner wall as her guide

Little by little, the stair began to lighten until finally she stepped into the chaar’s dream The cha in co in a bracket on the far wall as if waiting for her While the floor beneath her bare feet was simple unpolished stone, up close the walls were beautiful--white sandstone thickly carved with flowering vines in high relief, floor to ceiling

Ariana started forward, toward the small pool in the middle of the chamber circled by half a dozen pillars, classic fluted Doric Plain stone pots the size of large flowerpots had been placed between each of the pillars, pots she re in the dream A scent teased her nose and herincense With it caht

Quickly, she strode to the torch and pulled it off the wall How could she have forgotten this place? She knelt before the first of the pots, dipping the flaht Then she rose to repeat the process in the others

She still re into her queen’s knowledge, though not where it had taken place She remembered how her mind had filled with the voices and the faces of more than a dozen ancient queens all the way back to Morwun Queens who’d lived in a tioddesses When shape-shifters had roas and swords A ti fro in the fields, and the Daeh in theonly on those unfortunates andered into their realm

She still possessed a wealth of memories So many that she’d failed to realize she’d lost any What worried her was that the ones she’d lost lowed from all six pots, she replaced the torch and returned to stand beside the shallow pool, the botto color She’d co, but she didn’t kno Fear fluttered in her sto panic, she took a deep breath The knowledge had to be instinctive Long ago, she’d stood like this, without any of the queens’ , with only a fewbehind her Her o by Accessing what to do had been easy and natural After er true

Still, the knowledgeherself to shut out her fears, to shut out the world, she closed her eyes and concentrated, dropping her hands loosely to her sides Little by little, she sank deep within her ownthe huht layer of those two years with Kougar, down through the three centuries she’d ruled the Ilinas before she becaan to flash and blank out like a television show that had taped poorly Memories that weren’t hers, but the queens’ who’d coe chunks ripped away She hadn’t realized Froe she sought, like a du the facts from the basement of her mind It was only since she’d coe

Finally, sinking deeper, she hit the ephemeral watery memories she’d been born with Memories that appeared clean and whole

And it was there she found the knowledge she sought

She pulled off her clothes and discarded her weapons, then giving herself up to that ancient instinct, she stepped down into the shallow pool

The water felt cool against her skin, bubbling oddly How could she not reht aside and concentrated on what she had to do

With four slow strides, she was in theher hands to the stone ceiling above, she called to the queens who’d coe of the ancients And waited

Nothing happened

A trickle of despair broke through her concentration, and she tried to seal it off, opening her nored her, the harder it was to keep the fears at bay Was Melisande all right? Had the Mage, even now, ar co at the thought of hi deep into her heart

Concentrate

With excruciating effort, she forced herself back down into that place of instinct and resued the queens to hear her To share their e with her once more

The first bolt took her by surprise, a flash of pure energy that sliced at her shoulder like a blade, ripping her skin open from clavicle to biceps She cried out as the pain radiated fro like a wave out to her extree had come to her last tian to run down her ar down her hip and thigh

With a curse, she began to shout "I’m one of you, queens of the Ilinas! I need your help"

The third bolt tore down the middle of her back and she cried out with pain and frustration, losing the thread of the chant This was no awakening, but an attack Morwun’s punishy twisted around her, binding her in place And when threeacross her breasts and thighs and shoulders, she couldn’t move, couldn’t escape

All she could do was screah the hole he’d kicked in the wall, thanking the goddess as his paws hit stairs A twisting spiral of golden stairs, he realized, his cat’s eyesight taking over in the dark Behind hiuar companion