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"Tersa, where is Dae breath She stared at hi "The boy’s name is Mikal"

He wanted to shout at her,Where’s h one of the Gates? What’s he waiting for? Useless to shout at her She couldn’t translate what she’d seen any better than she had One thing he did understand All the threads were not yet in place Until they were, all he could do ait

"What are the sticks for, Tersa?"

"Sticks?" Tersa looked at the basket of sticks in the corner of the kitchen "They have no purpose" She shrugged "Kindling?"

She withdrew fro the stones of reality andI can do for you?" he asked, preparing to leave

Tersa hesitated "It would anger you"

Right now, he didn’t feel capable of that strong an eer me I promise"

"Would youWould you hold me for a minute?"

It rocked him He, who had always craved physical affection, had never thought to offer her an embrace

He closed his arms around her She wrapped her arms around his back and rested her head on his shoulder

"I don’t ood to be held by a led hair "Why didn’t you mention it before? I didn’t know you wanted to be held"

"Now you do"

2 / Kaeleer

The Dark Council whispered

At first it was only a thoughtful look, a troubled frown The High Lord had donelife--look what he’d done to the Council itself in order to becouardian--but it was hard to believe he was capable ofthat He had always insisted that the strength of a Territory, the strength of the Realth of its witches, especially its Queens To think he would do such things with a vulnerable girl, a dark young Queen

Oh, yes, they had inquired about the girl before now, but the High Lord had always responded tersely The girl was ill She could have no visitors She was being privately tutored

Where had the girl been during the past two years? What had she been subjected to? Was Jorval sure?

No, Lord Jorval insisted, he was not sure It was only a spurious rumor made by a dismissed servant There was no reason to suspect it wasn’t just as the High Lord had said The girl probablywas ill, an invalid of soile for the stih Lord hadill until the Council requested to see her the first time

Jorval stroked his dark beard with a thin hand and shook his head There was no evidence Only the word of a man who couldn’t be found

Murdo island ofmaybe and watched the sticks float toward hie strung across the endless sea But the footing would be precarious at best, and there were no ropes to hang on to If he tried to use the to sink anyway The island continued to cruh left to hold hi to let it suck him down

The sticks broke formation, swirled and re-forh letters

You arewhore

He tried to scramble away fro, cruh roothe sticks and their endless words The sticks swirled around his ses ofile, protective wall

He leaned over the edge and watched the face float upward, sapphire eyes staring at nothing, golden hair spread out like a fan

The lips ently lifted the face out of the sea of blood Not a head, just a face, as sain The word sounded like the sigh of the night wind, like a caressDaeers

Sobbing, he tried to hold it, tried to re-form it into that beloved face The harder he tried, the quicker it slipped through his fingers until there was nothing left

Shadows in the bloody sea A wo, surrounded by a led black hair

Wait,she saidWalt The threads are not yet in place

She vanished in the ripples