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Minutes passed in tense silence

Saetan’s attention drifted back to the picture A creative use of vivid colors, even if he couldn’t quite figure out what it was supposed to be How could a child capable of creating butterflies,a psychic shield that only kept specific kinds of beings out be so hopeless at basic Craft?

"It’s clumsy," Saetan whispered as his eyes widened

Cassandra looked up wearily "She’s a child, Saetan You can’t expect her to have the training or the rabbed her ars that require tre her a large piece of paper and color-sticks she can wrap her fist around Ss we usually start with because they don’t require a lot of strength, are like asking her to use a single-haired brush She doesn’t have the physical or mental control yet to do them" He sprawled in the chair, exultant

"Wonderful," Cassandra said sarcastically "So she can’t move furniture around a room, but she can destroy an entire continent"

"She’ll never do that It’s not in her temperament"

"How can you be sure? Hoill you control her?"

They were back to that

He took his cape back and settled it over his shoulders "I’ to control her, Cassandra She’s Witch No ht to control Witch"

Cassandra studied hi to do?"

Saetan picked up his cane "Love her That will have to be enough"

"And if it’s not?"

"It will have to be" He paused at the kitchen door "May I see you from time to time?"

Her smile didn’t quite reach her eyes "Friends do"

He left the Sanctuary feeling exhilarated and bruised He’d loved Cassandra dearly once, but he had no right to ask anything of her except what Protocol dictated a Warlord Prince could ask of a Queen

Besides, Cassandra was his past Jaenelle, may the Darkness help hi from the Black Wind, Saetan appeared in an outer courtyard that held one of the Keep’s official landing webs, which was etched in the stone with a clear Jewel at its center The clear Jewels acted as beacons for those who rode the Winds--a kind of welco web had a piece of one It was the only use that had ever been found for the heavily on his cane, Saetan lie, open- the bell, and waited to enter the Keep, the Black Mountain, Ebon Askavi, where the Winds meet It was the repository for the Blood’s history as well as a sanctuary for the darkest-Jeweled Blood It was also the private lair of Witch

The doors opened silently Geoffrey, the Keep’s historian/librarian, waited for hireeting

Saetan returned the bow "Geoffrey"

"It’s been a while since you’ve visited the Keep Your absence has been noted"

Saetan snorted softly, his lips curving into a faint, dry smile "In other words, I haven’t been useful lately"

"In other words," Geoffrey agreed, slanced once at the cane "So you’re here"

"I need your help" Saetan looked at the Guardian’s pale face, a stark, unsettling white when combined with the black eyes, feathery black eyebrows, black hair with a pronounced ’s peak, the black tunic and trousers, and the most sensuous blood-red lips Saetan had ever seen on anyone, one to dust so long ago that no one remembered who they were He was ancient when Saetan first came to the Keep as Cassandra’s Consort Then, as now, he was the Keep’s historian and librarian "I need to look up soends"

"Lorn, for example?"

Saetan jerked to a stop

Geoffrey turned, his black eyes carefully neutral

"You’ve seen her," Saetan said, a hint of jealousy in his voice

"We’ve seen her"

"Draca, too?" Saetan’s chest tightened at the thought of Jaenelle confronting the Keep’s Seneschal Draca had been caretaker and overseer of Ebon Askavi long, long before Geoffrey had ever co after the comfort of the scholars who came to study, of the Queens who needed a dark place to rest She was reserved to the point of coldness, using it as a defense against those who shuddered to look upon a huure with unmistakably reptilian ancestry Coldness as a defense for the heart was so Saetan understood all too well