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The only one who didn’t seem upset was the man whose existence she had just threatened Kestin’s face was cool and relaxed as he fol owed the Guardian out of the halLike her, he had seen Clarisse in the back of the hal , staring at Cerix’s dead body The gamble had paid of , as far as he was concerned; Cerix was dead, and Clarisse had not vanished So despite her holding a knife to his throat, Kestin had no reason to hate Darri

Darri did care whether he hated her--there was no point, any she didn’t She had proven that she would do what she had to anyhow But it had been harder than she had thought it would be, holding the dagger and watching Kestin’s face go slack with shock Even though she wouldn’t real y have kil ed hih he was already dead

The Guardian led theave Darri a chance--when the others were hidden fro out the coin hidden in the side of her shoe She kept it pressed against her side as they walked through the hal s into a large, gold-paneled room with a feooden chairs and tables set out on the , but only half of thelow

Halfway into the vast golden room, the Guardian turned around to face the His iron mask, she noticed, was crisscrossed with a thousand tiny scratches

Somehow, thatthe tiny silver coin into the curve of her fingers It was slick with sweat "I did what you wanted," she said "I kil ed Cerix Noant you to fight the Defender"

"I cannot"

Darri stepped toward hi by her side He watched her without"Then tel me another way to set my sister free," she said "You owe that to ht into his eye

Her aiht before, when she had thought of this plan The coin flashed sideways, right into one of the dark rectangular holes in the iron mask

The Guardian cried out and stepped back Inside his ruous sound, except that it was fol owed by silence The Guardian lifted one iron-gloved hand to cover the eyehole, but h the coin ainst his skin

Darri fel back, her arhost," she whispered

The Guardian dropped his hand "No"

"Then what are you?"

The spaces behind the eyehole were as black and expressionless as before "I am the Guardian"

Kestin stepped up next to Darri, so close his sleeve brushed hers "The Guardian is an iron uniform," he said

"How many men have worn that costu person, it seems, behind that mask And I want to knoho that person is Take it of "

The silence stretched for what felt like a very long tiloved hands to his face "You are wrong, Prince Kestin There are those of us who don’t fit your perception of what the living and the dead are Who ca could coexist You are bet er of not knowing about us""Stop stal ing," Kestin said "And who’s us?"

But Darri already knew the answer

"You and the Defender," she whispered, and the Guardian turned toward her as his hands ca the scratched-up mask

"The spel required two," he said Released from the iron mask, his voice stil sounded exactly the same: hol ow and metal ic "One to live One to die"

Aat was a face The flesh seemed to have poured itself into the neck, the cheeks and nose eaten away, the rest of it horribly soft It was like a wax model of a face that had partial y melted

The eyes, nearly hidden by the pasty white flesh, made her try to control her expression; but despite herself, she loved hands went back up to the ruin of a face, and no one said a word as the mask went back on It looked at Darri, shiny and black and blank

"You can see," the Guardian said, "why my brother preferred to be the one to die"

"Your brother?" Kestin repeated, after a long moment The triumph and certainty had been wiped from his face, replaced by pure horror

"There were six of us, original y," the Guardian said He turned and strode partly across the roo next to a delicate wooden chair For ato sit Instead, he placed one iron- next to a delicate wooden chair For ato sit Instead, he placed one iron- gloved hand on the back of the chair and turned again to face the My brother and I were the youngest, born to a foreign wife--a sorceress froic in secret, and it al owed us to survive when the factions at court chose their champions and moved with the deadliness that has always been part of our country’s tragic history Over the course of a year, my father watched both our brothers and one sister die"

"Kil ed?" Kestin asked, after a moment

"We don’t know There was no way to know, back then That’s e did e did We cal ed on dangerous powers and set our spel in stone and earth, so that it could never happen again So that there would always be punishment for murder"

"Seems a bit drastic," Darri noted

The empty iron eyes turned on her "There was no other way to end it Assassination and treachery had been our way for hundreds of years What would you have had us do, Princess--gather the court for an inspirational speech about why it wasn’t nice?"