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Hekatah jerked to a stop
There was a silence within the night’s silence
She glanced at the unlit torches on the walls and decided against lighting the to waste her strength on a sight shield, Hekatah slipped into a shadowy corner Once he entered the Altar room, she would be behind him and could startle him with her presence
She waited Just when she was sure she’d beenjust outside the wrought-iron gate, staring at the Altar But he didn’t enter the roohtly to look at the Altar It was just as it should be The candelabra was tarnished, and the wax from the black candles she’d burned so carefully so they wouldn’t look new hung like stalactites froht actually leave, Hekatah stepped up to the wrought-iron gate "I’ve been waiting for you, Prince"
"Have you?" His voice sounded rusty, exhausted
Perfect
"Are you the one I should thank for the demons at the other Altars?" he asked
How could he know she was a demon? Did he knoho she was? Suddenly, she didn’t feel confident about dealing with this son as too much like his father, but she shook her head sadly "No, Prince There’s only one power in Hell that co friend as very special to me A friend, I think, we had in co for you"
Hell’s fire! Couldn’t there beso through to hi is a relative territted her teeth "A child, Prince A special child" She forced a pleading note into her voice "I’ve waited here at great risk If the High
Lord finds out I’ve tried to tell her friends " She glanced at the wall behind the Altar
Still no reaction fro thecildru dyathe," Hekatah said
A long silence "That isn’t possible," he finally said His voice was flat, totally without e about hi to escape Dorothea? No He had cared for the girl She sighed "The High Lord is a jealous man, Prince He doesn’t share what he claims for himself--especially if what he claiirl’s affection for anotherraped And he could have, Prince Hecould have The girl ed to escape afterward In tih Lord didn’t want her to heal, so, under the pretense of helping her, he used another un It destroyed her completely Her body died, and her mind was torn apart Now she’s a dead, blank-eyed pet he plays with"
Hekatah looked up and wanted to scream with frustration Had he heard any of it? "He should pay for what he’s done," she said shrilly "If you’ve courage enough to face him, I can open the Gate for you Someone who remembers what she could have been should de tian to pace Why did he say nothing? It was a plausible story Oh, she knew he’d been accused of the rape, but she also kneasn’t true And she wasn’t completely convinced that hehad been at Cassandra’s Altar that night All the males who’d sworn they had seen him had come from Briarwood They could have said that to keep the Chaillot Queens fro too closely attheht
Hekatah jumped, shaken by the awful sound Bestial, animal, human None and all Whatever could make a sound like that
Hekatah quickly lit the black candles and waited ie to h the Gate, she realized there was no one here to snuff out the candles and close the entrance to the other Real
Hekatah raised her hand and Red-locked the wrought-iron gate
Another screaht be a demon, but she didn’t hatever that was to follow her into the Dark Real his soul
The grayhim a Dark Altar
Blood So much bloodhe used another male
The world shattered
You are my instrument
Hisin agony, he fled through the h a landscape washed in blood and filled with shattered crystal chalices
Words lie Blood doesn’t
He screaain and tumbled into the shattered inner landscape landens called dom
PART 2
Chapter three
1 / Kaeleer
Karla, a fifteen-year-old Glacian Queen, jabbed her cousin Morton in the ribs "Who’s that?"
Morton glanced in the direction of Karla’s slightly lifted chin, then went back to watching the young Warlords gathering at one end of the banquet hall "That’s Uncle Hobart’s new h narrowed, ice-blue eyes "She doesn’t look ri coe after the "accident" that had killed her parents and Morton’s six years ago A group of aristo ood of the Territory"--a council led by Hobart, a Yelloeled Warlord as a distant relation of her father’s