"Precaution, Nikki," she answered. "After your brother, Deymorin, was here, threatening to bring that Mauritumin machine into the tower and destroy the rings, Anheliaa was filled with concern. I knew Deymorin had arrived with that Mauritumin woman. I knew that Mikhyel had taken his side in the matter and angered Anheliaa. I needed to know if you were party to the Mauritumin threat, as Deymorin was."

She paused: an opening, he supposed, for him to defend his brothers. But she knew betteror should. Deymorin had told him Lidye had been in the room when Deymorin had confronted Anheliaa. She knew that Deymorin had never mentioned the machine, that the root of that fear was Anheliaa's paranoia, not Deymorin's threat.

"I asked them to arrest everyone answering your descrip- tion," she continued at last. "I had to, Nikki. I had to know when you entered the City. There's been such chaos. And I must say, Nikki, I was very concerned, when Captain Sir- oni said Deymorin claimed to be the Rhomandi. That was the only reason you were arrested. Sironi believed he rec- ognized you, but he didn't know Deymorin. And when the man with you claimed to be the Rhomandi, he was confused."

"Confused."

"Deymorin should have known that you were now the Rhomandi. When Sironi told me, his description of Dey- morin certainly matched my own experience, and I was afraid that Deymorin had bullied you. Had forced you to abdicate the title."

"That was foolish of you."

"Was it? I don't know your brother, Nikaenor. I only know you, and your sweet and amicable nature, and I wanted you free of his influence. Free to call me a fool to my face, or to ask for freedom from his domination, if that was your wish. I'm sorry if I've done badly."

"Sweet and amicable. Such an opinion you have of me, madam."

"But you are, Nikki. As well as intelligent and reason- able. It speaks well of your brother that you maintain such loyalty to him, but I have yet to see that side of him that inspires that loyalty in you. I trust I shall have the chance."

"Is that why you had us put in the Crypt? So you could . . . observe that side of Deymorin?"

"Crypt? What crypt? I thought you were in Sparingate?"

For the first time, there was a hint of prevarication to her voice. Nikki raised his chin, and her false face wilted.

"Nikki, I didn't know. I still don't know. But when Sironi described your situation . . . I had you brought from there as soon as I could, Nikki. As soon as I knew."

He said nothing. He waited for her to mention the obvi- ous (to him) omission within that statement.

"Brolucci has been in charge. It was he that suggested the arrests be made upon entryto give us time. He or- dered your disposition, and told me only when your arrests had been confirmed. Another error in judgment, I grant you, but I've had such pressure . . ." Her mouth quivered, then firmed. "No, I won't make excuses. But I had you brought here, as soon as I knew, Nikki, please believe that."

So, she wasn't going to repair the omission. "My brothers are still there." He pointed out.

"No longer, Nikki. Deymorin and the Mauritumin woman will be joining us for dinner." Nikki didn't bother to point out the table had been set for two. "I had you brought first because I wanted a chance to speak alone with you. But then I was in the Tower all daythe storm, as I'm sure you knowand so I finally just sent for them.

They're in your brother's room now, but"

"And Mikhyel? Will he be joining us as well?"

"Mikhyel?" She tilted her head at him, puzzled. Or so it appeared; he no longer trusted her expressions.

"Has he returned from Giephaetum, my lady wife?"

"Oh." She turned her backhiding that false face. "Um, no. Not yet."

So, even with him, she sought to maintain the lie that had been spread throughout the house. But why? They'd sent letters to the Tower from Armayel. Mikhyel had writ- ten those letters; Anheliaa had answered. Anheliaa had asked them to return to Rhomatum. And Lidye had known they were coming.

"When will he returnfrom Giephaetum?"

"Nikki, I1 don't know how - . ." She faced him again, and her delicate features were twisted with uncertainty.

"I'm sorry, Nikki. I lied, as you, in your subtle way, accuse.

But I don't know how . . . You see, Nikki, I very much fear your brother Mikhyel is dead."

"Dead?" His head went blank. Then filled with images of the Crypt and that scar-faced inmate and all the things that he'd feared had happened since he left. He groped blindly for his chair.

"Nikki, I'm so sorry . . ."

Her hand touched his shoulder. He flinched away.

"You said." His voice failed him. He fought it angrily back, thinking his brother would be alive, but for this woman. "You said Brolucci ordered us into the Crypt. Bro- lucci is the captain of Anheliaa's guard. The men who ar- rested us wore your father's colors, madam. The men standing at my bedroom door are not Tower men."

"I had to use those whom I could trust, Nikki. Surely you see that?"

"You could trust. You've been in the Tower. You've had Deymorin and Kiyrstin released. And what of Anheliaa, my lady wife? Where is Anheliaa?"

"That's the problem, Nikki. That's been the problem."

She sank gracefully into a chair. "Anheliaa has been . . .

unavailable . . . since . . . that day."

"Unavailable," he repeated while his mind tripped over the verified facts, to the conclusion: "Dead?"

"No, thank the rings. At least, not yet. But that's why I had to concede some decisions to Brolucci. Anheliaa is comatose, since the day of the Collapse. She's been con- fined to the Tower. I believe only her instincts have the rings spinning at all."

Another fast mental sort. "What about the letters we received at Armayel? What about our arrest papers? Who signed them?"

She bit her lip and stared down at her hands for a mo- ment. Then, without a word, she went to a desk near the window, pulled a sheaf of papers from a drawer, and handed them to him wordlessly.

He stared at the top sheet. Anheliaa's name, her almost- signature repeated over and over.

"Your doing?"

She nodded.

"So we add forgery to your other parlor accomplish- ments."

She lifted her chin, offered no apology. And perhaps, in all fairness, she'd had no real choice.

Among the pages, one of Mikhyel's letters, written from Armayel. The page blurred, and damp spot appeared in the middle of the letter, followed by a second. Nikki swiped a hand across his eyes and asked, feeling a darker hatred than anything he'd ever felt in his life: "What happened?"

".To Mikhyel?"

"Who killed him? Was it that Ganfrion? Whoever it was, I want him!"

"What do you mean, who killed him?" Lidye stared at him. "The rings"

"I left him last night in the Crypt, madam, with Deym- orin and a number of very unpleasant housemates. I know Deymorm didn't kill him. I want to know who did!"

"In the . . ." She held her hand to her forehead, her face losing what little color it had. "No. I don't believe you.

He's dead. He couldn't have come in with you."

"Why couldn't he?"

"Sironi said"

"I don't give a damn what Sironi said! He talked to Mik- hyel first!"

"No . . . Nikki, I . . . Sironi said it was you and Deymorin.

That you'd brought another man in with you who claimed to be Mikhyel, but it wasn't. He said it wasn't!"

"Then Sironi's a damned liar!" He drew a deep breath, seeking calm. "If you didn't know Mikhyel was in the Crypt, then why did you tell me he was dead?"

"I1 saw him disappear, Nikki." She sank to the floor near his chair, one hand resting on the armrest. "And then the rings . . . the lightning . . ." She buried her face in her hands. "It . . . it was . . . horrendous. Nothing caught in thatwhatever it wascould have survived, don't you see?

When the letters came, I was certain Deymorin must have written them. To make me, I mean, Anheliaa, believe Mi- khyel was alive. I mean . . . I was doing that regarding Anheliaa, wasn't I? If * was doing it for good reasons, surely - - ." Her voice broke on a sob. "Oh, Nikki, I'm so mortified."

Despite his better sense, he rested his hand on her pale hair. And through that touch, almost like sometimes happened with his brothers, he knew the truth of her horror, the depth of the embarrassment she now suffered.

And he began to wonder if perhaps he had been too hasty. Whatever animosity had existed between them, the past month had obviously wrought significant changes in them both.

Her head came up and, still without meeting his eyes, she tipped her cheek into his palm. "When the storms began, I fell to the floor, hid, I'm ashamed to say. It seemed hours before it was quiet again. I lifted my head to darkness.

Utter, terrible darkness. I thought for a moment I was blind. But I was in a bed, my bed, in my room, not the ringchamber, and Brolucci arrived, with candles, and took me to the Tower. I saw . . . I saw .."

She shuddered and buried her head again, and he pulled his hand back. "I discovered later that I had been uncon- scious for three days. Anheliaa was laid out in the Tower, her physician adamant about leaving her there. Somehow, I'll never know how, I got the rings up and reset. It was as if I were in a trance. Perhaps I was. Perhaps Anheliaa, even in her unconscious state, knew the rings must be set and took me over to accomplish it. It" Her voice caught. "It wouldn't be the first time she did that. Once the rings were back in motion, she seemed better. She still hasn't wakened, but the rings seem to have given her strength."

He felt an insidious attraction toward this woman. Her story made sense. And he didn't want to hate her. She was his wife. Rhomatum's future depended on her. Mikhyel had said Mikhyel! He shook his head, wondering where his sense had gone.

"Then Mikhyel isn't dead!" he exclaimed. "You thought he'd been killed by the rings. But he wasn't. He was in the Crypt. He's still in the Crypt. I want him out, madam.

Now!"

"But . . ." She turned tear-stained eyes to him. Her mouth was trembling. She reached her hand for his, and again, that light-headed attraction fuzzed his thinking.

"Mikhyel knows . . . so much. He's so . . ."

"Now," he repeated.

"I1 will, Nikki. I'll get him out, I promise you. Just as soon as I'm sure it's safe. Please, Nikki, understand. So much depends on my judgment. I must be cautious."

He fought her allure. He couldn't afford to trust her.

Couldn't give in to this charming woman, so different from the wife he'd willingly abandoned to what he'd believed at the time to be her fate-by-choice.

And yet, he couldn't quite bring himself to pull his hand from hers either.

"The power of the rings is uncertain," she said, winding their fingers together, pressing his hand to her cheek. "Sim- ple light is sometimes difficult. I'm ashamed to admit, I have grown ridiculously fearful. I want candles or oil lamps about me at all times. I fear the dark, Nikki. I fear the dark terribly."

"What's wrong? Why doesn't the energy return? Is it the Khoratum line?"

"Khoratum? What makes you think it's the Khoratum line?"

"Something Mikhyel said. And the power umbrella is back to the old wall."

"Mikhyel? Well, I don't know. As long as Anheliaa is alive and in that chamber, I can't truly take the rings over and seek the cause of the problem. I only hope thatwhen the time comes, I can trace the problem down."

"Why shouldn't you?"

"I1 no longer trust the rings." Her hand tightened to the point of pain, as her fingernails dug into his flesh.

"That's a terrible thing for a ringmaster to admit, Nikki, and that's what I very much fear I am soon to be. Anheliaa is so weak. She doesn't wake. I need your help, as my husband, and as Princeps of Rhomatum. I need your sup- port. And your brothers'. Mikhyel'sbless the rings he's still aliveperhaps his most of all. The civic leaders, trades- men, councillors, syndics, they're all demanding answers.

Compensation. I don't know what all. I don't know the laws of Rhomatum, Nikki, only the laws of the ley. And we don't have the power. I don't know what happened, but it's not there, and all their wanting it won't make it be there."

Her words made just enough sense to trouble a thought- ful man, a man who desired most of all to be fair, to under- stand all sides.

"Why not ask your father?"

"Father? Why would I ask his advice?"

"Those are his men. Sironi most certainly is."

"I don't know who to ask, Nikki," she whispered, "I don't know who will take advantage of my ignorance. Fa- therperhaps I distrust him most of allbut he warned me against Mikhyel. He said I should be glad Mikhyel is dead. And in that much, he's right. I can't have Mikhyel against me. Not now."

"And I say, madam, your father is wrong. Legally, mor- ally, and practically. You do need Mikhyel. And Mikhyel is not against you, not as long as you are not against Rho- matum. Mikhyel is not Rhomatum's enemy."

She bit her lip and frowned. "On your word you'll help me with him, I'll send for him immediately."

"Help you? How?"

"Talk to him. Explain to him. Support . . . me?"

Her eyes flickered up to meet his. Worried, but calm.

This sudden change in the woman who was legally his wife puzzled him. If not for the words, he'd have a difficult time believing it was the same woman.

"Why did you act as you did?" he asked, out of that thought.

"Which?" she responded without the least hesitation.

"The fool, or the termagant?"

"Uh, b-both," he stammered, startled that she'd made the connection, more so by her candid response.

"The fool . . . that was Anheliaa's idea. She insisted you were obsessed with Kharishia, and that that performance would entrance you."