"You still do, and all the things that made you feel that way are still there. And all the things that you ignored when you made that choice."

"I hate him! The things that make me hate him I didn't know about before."

"Nonsense. You're acting like a hurt child."

"You never trusted Llian. You often said so."

"I admit it, but I'm prejudiced against the Zain. I make no secret of it. Mendark trusted Hennia, and she betrayed the Council. They're all the same!"

"I don't know what to do!" she cried. "I'm so confused."

They were scrambling down the steep part of the slope. In some places the mud was frozen, old bootprints deep and hard to walk on. Then they would step down without warning into greasy clay that was treacherous. They skidded their way to the bottom, where the forest waited: dark trunks, dark branches, hard dark leaves even in winter, like a threat.

Karan was sorting through her memories, trying to understand what had happened last night.

"He was curious from the moment we met," she said, speaking to herself as much as to Shand. "Impertinently, arrogantly so, it seemed to me. He asked questions that no stranger would ask of another. It shocked me then, though since I've come to learn that it's just his way."

"He is according to his nature-and the character of the Zain. That's what makes him a master chronicler, just as it is what led to their downfall."

"Did you know that one day in Shazmak he actually searched my room for the Mirror? I was furious, though later I realized that Emmant's enchantment had made his curiosity insatiable. I suppose it was the same with Tensor-they both worked on Llian's weakness."

"What was Llian looking for?"

"Something he came across in a book Emmant showed him." They passed under the leaves of the forest, out of the wind, out of the sun. Karan shivered. "He's never mentioned it since and I haven't asked. I'd forgotten about it. He was almost frantic with the lure of it-the key to one of the great mysteries. To the chroniclers, that is-nothing of real importance."

"Did he name this thing?" Shand asked, though with no particular interest.

Karan furrowed her brow. She'd been so angry at the time. "He said it was the image of a tablet."

"The Tablet!"

"I suppose so. The key to the script of the Charon, I seem to remember."

Shand gave a great sigh. "I can imagine the passions that such things arouse in a master chronicler. If the libraries of the Charon could be translated it would open whole new worlds."

"I've thought no more about it since. But after Katazza and his dealings with Tensor ..."

"Remember that Tensor forced Llian to aid him," said Shand.

"At first! I believe Llian did it willingly in the end, in return for what he could learn from Tensor." Karan had thought herself into an agitated state-she couldn't think straight; didn't know what to think. "Whatever the reason," she said furiously, "he did it! And that story about how he escaped from the Nightland, how can that be true? How could he get away from Rulke?"

"He was telling the truth as far as he knew it," said Shand. "Look, why would Rulke want to keep him in the Nightland anyway? Maybe he escaped, or maybe Rulke let him escape. What does it matter?"

"Because it's my fault! I left him there. The shame will live with me until I die. And after last night it's tearing me apart!"

She sat down on a log but the rotten wood crumbled, dropping her into a hollow full of icy slush. The trees crowded down, their black branches reaching out for her. She got up again hastily, wiping ice off her bottom, and they continued.

"After what Rulke did to the Zain I cannot believe that Llian would make such a pact," Karan went on, now veering to the opposite opinion. "Coerced or forced, yes! But not willingly. But on the other hand, he is easily dominated. It would be easy for Rulke to impress his will on him. Even Emmant did so."

"I can't follow your train of thought," said Shand. "What happened last night?"

Here the path turned around the end of a ridge, momentarily coming out of thick forest into a clearing. Before them was a steep slope, partially bare of trees, and a wilderness of deep valleys all clad in snow. Shand leaned on a rock and looked away down the slope.

"I'm all confused. He'd been so contented since Chanthed," Karan said, "whereas I've been cranky. I've been having nightmares about Rulke again. We had a misunderstanding-all my fault-and I locked him out of our room. Maybe last night was my fault too! Then we both dreamed the present and the past, when I made that sending to him here last winter. It seemed that the past unlocked the way for the present. Our dreams were linked, and I couldn't break the link, and then Rulke came."

"What?" cried Shand, springing forward to grip her by the shoulders. He stared into her eyes, shaking her in his agitation. "Rulke in the flesh? Through a gate?"

Karan pulled free, suddenly afraid for Llian. "No, it was just an image, but by the end I thought he was going to condense himself in the room." As she told the story Shand's face grew bleak.

"This almost sinks your previous bad news," he said, settling onto a log with his head in his hands. "If only I'd come back sooner."

"It was horrible. I felt split in two, the me of a year ago and me now, and Llian the same. Rulke tried to compel me over the link, through Llian. He went within a breath of doing it, too."

"Why would he want to compel Llian?" said Shand. He looked as if he had just had a very unpleasant thought. Rising from the log, they walked on. "Why use Llian to get at you, for that matter? I suppose it's easier to use connections that are already there than to make fresh ones."

"He would have had me, if I hadn't almost knocked Llian's brains out. Poor Llian! No one could resist that power." Karan wasn't confused anymore. "I've got to get back-I've left him lying up there all alone. He might die." As she spun around Shand grabbed her flying coat-tails.

"Wait, I see it now. You're quite wrong. Rulke has possessed him, as he did to Yggur long ago! Whatever Llian says or does, no matter how convincing his explanations, you must never trust him. He isn't your friend anymore-he's a puppet of a dangerous enemy. Protect yourself against him."

Karan reeled, clinging to a tree for support. "I'm not afraid of Llian. He would never harm me."

"You must protect yourself," said Shand in steely tones.

Her temper flared. "You've always been prejudiced against Llian, because he's Zain."

"I know the treacheries of the Zain better than anyone on this world."

His bitterness shocked her. "I won't believe that of Llian," she said. She kicked a stone, which shot down the track, bounced high and crashed into a branch, sending down a small shower of snow. "When he comes to me, what am I supposed to do? Llian has always trusted me, no matter what."

"But you've just spent the last hour telling me how worried you were."

"I had to tell someone," she wailed. "Leave me alone; I didn't ask you to take over my life." She flung herself off the path into the forest, hurtling up into a thicket where she bogged in deep snow. She hurled it about with her arms.

Shand ran after her. "This is too important to have tantrums about."

"I'm not having a tantrum!" she said abruptly. "I just can't do it, even if you are right."

He led her out of the black forest into bright sunshine. Karan sat down on a boulder of schist, tracing the looping, knotted grain of the rock with a finger. Shand stared down the road, fighting some internal battle.

"I'm going back," said Karan. "Llian's all alone."

"He's all right; I looked in on him before breakfast. We've got to get this sorted out."

"The only way to sort it out is to talk to Llian."

"No!" Shand yelled. Then he lowered his voice. "That will alert Rulke. Say nothing to Llian, I beg you. Pretend that it never happened."

"That's how you solve your problems, is it?" she said angrily.

"It's the best way with this one, believe me."

"I don't believe you; I can't do it."

"You must," Shand repeated in obsidian tones.

"You're tearing me apart," said Karan, banging her knuckles on her forehead. "After all Llian has done for me. If he has been corrupted, it's my fault."

"Whatever Llian did was of his own free will."

"You're making a terrible mistake."

"Who knows the Zain better than I do, Karan?" Shand said bitterly. "Watching them has been the work of half my life."

"What if you're wrong?"

"I'm not." He paced down the track then came back, his back bowed.

She stepped into his path. "Well, what are you going to do?"

Shand sat down on bare ice and put his head in his hands. It was hard to get out the words he needed to say. "If this was war ..."

"It isn't!" she snapped. "Llian is mine, Shand, and I will defend him with my last breath, even against you. In spite of all you've done for me and all I feel for you."

"He must be taken to Thurkad and examined properly, with all the tools of the Secret Art."

"And then? What do you do with my Llian then, Shand?"

"He'll have to be guarded night and day. At least!"

"Be damned!" she cried wildly. "There'll be blood spilled if anyone tries!"

"Karan," said Shand, more gently, "you don't know what's at stake."

"I know what my stake is!" She went down on her knees before him. "Shand, leave him in my custody, please. Let me take him to Gothryme. Even if he is ... what you say he is, he can't get up to any mischief there. There's nothing and no one to spy on."

"This isn't a game, you know."

"Do you think it's a game to me? Look, can Rulke make Llian do things that are not in his power now?"

"No!" said Shand grudgingly.

"Can Llian use the Secret Art, or wield a weapon as if he was trained to it?"

"Of course not! Possession cannot confer the powers or the skills of the one that does the possessing."

"Then even if you are right, all he can do is spy. What harm can he do in Gothryme?"

"And if he escapes?"

"I'll send word instantly, and track him down myself."

"I don't like it." He paced down the track again, arms and legs jerking. "All right, I'll come to Gothryme," he said reluctantly. "But on one condition."

"Anything!" she said unguardedly.

"You must agree to do as I require."

"Of course!" She sighed her relief.

"I saw Malien in Thurkad," Shand said. "She said she might see you in the winter. We'll put him under the guard of the Aachim, if they do turn up, and I'll come home."

"I'll be glad to have them," said Karan. Malien was kin and would understand her view. "Though if things are as bad as you say I don't know what they'll eat. And how was Tensor?"

"No better. No worse."

"Well, what is it that I must agree to?"

They headed back again, arguing all the way, and it was not until they were almost to the inn that Karan succumbed to Shand's demands. She felt as if something inside her had been murdered.

Llian woke with a terrible headache. The bed was empty. Where was Karan? He dressed as best he could. Every time he moved his head it shrieked and whirled nauseatingly. Downstairs he was given curious looks but felt too ill to wonder about them.

It was stiflingly hot in the kitchen. A few spoons of porridge was all he could manage. Lurching outside, he wobbled down in the direction of the woodheap. There he hung over a block of wood, too ill to move.

Later, as he began to feel better, he heard voices from the track below. Karan's voice was unmistakeable. He wanted to run to her for comfort.

"I can't," she said in a frail voice. It sounded as if she was crying.

It took a few words before he recognized the other-Shand! Shand was back! Had he been capable of it, Llian would have leapt out and embraced him. Then he was glad that he hadn't.

"Llian is the enemy now," Shand said in steely tones. "Rulke has surely possessed him. After last night you can never trust him."

Last night? What was Shand talking about? A fragment of the nightmare dribbled back.

"No!" cried Karan. "How can you ask?"

"Llian is no more than a tool moved by Rulke, and a deadly one," said Shand. "Do as I say or our bargain is broken. I'll betray him if you don't. I can't compromise, Karan."

"I thought you were my friend," she wept.

"I am. You must put your feelings aside. The fate of a lot of people may rest on what you do now."

"And Llian is one of them."

"Karan!" Shand's voice was as frigid as a glacier.

She broke. "I will do as you say," she said in agony. Her words froze Llian inside.

"Say nothing to him about it; don't even mention it." They moved on up the path, out of Llian's hearing.