"Look at him, tearing his hair out. Why do you let him suffer?"

No one should ever be made to suffer so, she thought. You have taken away my last restraint. He is mine and I will have him.

"There is a price," she said fiercely.

Rulke frowned. "Another game? What is the price, shade of Elienor?"

"No game. Give me what I want or you get nothing."

He looked tormented. "I haven't got time for this, Karan!"

There, it was out in the open.

"My Ghashad have taken him back; he will soon be here." He raised his hands.

Karan was on the edge of panic. At all costs she didn't want Llian to see her dealings with Rulke. He would never forgive her. She spoke quickly. "Do that again and you get nothing. I can hold out against you for long enough. The dark moon will be in hythe in a week. All your preparations must be made in seven days. You cannot teach me to work with the construct in a few hours. Pay my price."

He looked surprised. "You're smart too! Perhaps I'll make do with what I can compel from you."

"You can compel nothing useful from me. I, too, have been forged in intense fires. I can turn off my gift in an instant. I did it before, after Name, and couldn't find it again for months."

"What is your price?"

"All compulsion must be taken from Llian."

"Never, else how will I get you to do my will?"

"You can torment me, threaten my lands, my people. But until he is free you get nothing."

She could see his impatience now. "Very well," he said. "What does it matter? I have no further need for him, and much else to occupy the part of my mind dedicated to his control." He waved his hand. "It is done."

"We are linked. I say it is not done."

"You bluff. I sense no link."

"You cannot," she guessed, "now that you are out of the Nightland. Do it."

Rulke wrestled with himself. How he hated anyone to get the better of him. Yet he must not let pride stand in the way of the ultimate goal. What did anything matter but that? He nodded. His eyes went blank, his lips moved, he looked deep into her eyes. For a moment everything swam before her but she wrenched her mind back to the task.

"It is done."

"I am not satisfied. Do it again."

He smiled. "I've a price too, since we've come down to the final negotiations. Tell me who you really are."

He'd hit on the only thing that she did not want to give up, even for Llian. If he knew who she was, he'd use that too. Was Llian worth that sacrifice? She looked away, clenching and unclenching her fists.

"Well?" he asked softly. "I won't harm you."

Karan bit her lip. Was anyone worth that much? Was Llian? "I am triune," she whispered. "I have a Faellem ancestor. My third name is Melluselde."

His reaction was not at all what she'd expected. Taking her in his arms he hugged her to his vast chest. She struggled helplessly. "I'm so sorry," he said. "I truly am." He let her go.

She fell down, gasping, not game to ask what he meant. Rulke performed the operation of release a third time, and this time it seemed better to Karan, more complete. She could not see into Llian's mind, but over the link she felt the great relief, the lifting of pressure that he had been under for half a year.

"Well?"

"I am satisfied," she said from the floor.

He smiled and there was relief in the smile.

"Are you still going to bring Llian back?" she said.

"Do you want me to? Will it help you do my work?"

"It will make it ten times harder."

"So I thought. He'll lose his good opinion of you if he sees what you do here! In that case, I have no use for him anymore."

"Good." She closed down the link between her and Llian, just in case. And in case one of her stray thoughts got through. Rulke was right. She was mortally ashamed of what she was going to do. Then, thinking about the prophecy Rulke had spoken in Katazza, she was reminded of Shand's reply.

"There was a foretelling about the triune and you, was there not? Shand said it: "Break down the golden horn, Wish the glass unmade, Fear the thrice born, But beware the thrice betrayed."

Rulke laughed. "An old Charon fable, but he's got it mixed up. He should have spoken it to Faelamor, not me. I'm not afraid of you, Karan. Now, do your part." He gestured to the construct.

She had almost forgotten it. But now she was struck by the incongruity. "Why do you dwell in this frigid ruin when the whole of Shazmak is available to you?"

"Before the Forbidding we traveled by gates," he explained, "in those few places where such devices would function. Gates can only be made in certain places, and only lead to certain places, and since the Forbidding it is many times harder to make them. The Aachim set up defenses against the use of gates, in Shazmak and all their cities. We have not yet broken the defenses of Shazmak and until we do I cannot take the construct there. Besides, Carcharon is a superb place to use my construct, perhaps the best in Santhenar. In that, at least, your mad ancestor was right.

"So here, piece by slow piece, I attached the reality to the pattern that I brought from the Nightland. There the reality could not exist, so the construct had to be made here. And you are the sensitive who will seek out the Way between the Worlds and tune it to the destination."

"You would go between the worlds?"

"I would, and you will find the Way for me. I will make you great. No one has ever accused me of betraying those who served me faithfully, no matter what my reputation with my enemies. Cast aside your petty dreams, your petty alliances, and follow me."

No point in further delay. "What would you have me do? Why me?"

"Because you are triune. But rare and precious as triunes are, you are not just any triune. You can link! And most of all, because you are a sensitive. Only you can sense out the Way. And, I have to say it, the irony drives me powerfully."

"The irony?"

"That you, who are the very image of my nemesis, the beautiful Elienor, shall be the one who opens our way into the universe."

His eyes glowed; for a moment Karan was caught up in his majestic dream. And it had to be said, she wanted to find out about her triune talent, whatever it was. She had yearned for it ever since Tensor revealed the truth to her. She looked up at him. The magnificent, terrible eyes caught her. She shivered again.

"I will do it," she said. "Show me to the machine, and the working of it."

THE DARK.

OF THE MOON.

Halfway up the knotted ridge below the amphitheater, Llian's captor slipped on black ice and fell heavily. Llian was hurled off his shoulder, slid off the path and jammed between two boulders. The man came to his knees, gasping for breath. Not even the iron-hard Ghashad could run up this slope under such a load. Blood poured from a wound on his scalp. In the ghostly light of the darkening moon it looked black.

Groaning, Llian tried to get up, to find nothing underneath his legs. He was wedged by the shoulders between two rocks, without the strength to pull himself up that half a span to safety. The Ghashad started toward him then staggered back as from a blow in the chest. The clouds parted. The dark moon brought all his bones to the surface, dancing like an animated skeleton. The dance was a struggle with someone who could not be seen.

The Ghashad roared his pain to the skies. From not far away he was answered, and answered again. The falling snow was lit by a series of flashes. Llian hoped it was Men-dark. The Ghashad fell to one knee, went over on his back, rolled over and his arms rose and fell. He seemed to be banging something against the ground. There came a dreadful groan and Tallia appeared beneath him, unable to hold her illusion under the weight of his blows. He was cracking her head up and down against the ice.

She was failing. The Ghashad was going to kill her. Dragging himself onto the track, Llian heaved a rock at her assailant's head. The reaction sent him slipping backwards, he wedged between the boulders again, then ever so slowly his weight began to pull him through.

The rock struck the Ghashad hard on the ear. He yelped and let go of Tallia's head momentarily. Straightening her legs, she shot him backwards off her.

He landed on his back and went skidding head first down the slope. He glanced off a boulder, clawed at the ice and slid gently over the side. Llian heard a thud, then the rattle of stones. The wind soon blotted out his ever more feeble cries.

Tallia lay groaning on the icy step.

"Help!" said Llian faintly.

"Give me a hand," said Tallia at the same time.

"I can't; I'm slipping." He moved an arm and slipped a bit more. "Help! I'm going to fall!"

With an almighty groan she crawled across and extended her hand. Llian moved his other arm, slipped again and his weight pulled her with him.

She cursed, twisted on the ice and thudded into the boulders that Llian had been jammed between. The gentle shock was almost enough to tear his hand out of her grip, she was so weak. "I can't hold you, Llian."

Llian's legs thrashed, dislodged a clump of snow and found purchase against rock.

"I've got my foot on something," he said.

"Then push with all your heart, because I'm done."

He strained, found another hold with his knee and thrust himself up between the rocks to safety. Tallia released his hand and lay down in the snow.

Llian lifted her head. Her face was covered in blood.

"Thank you," she said.

"Thank you!" He wiped the worst of the blood away with his fingertips. "Are you all right?"

"No, I'm not. Give me a minute."

"It'd better be a quick minute; there are more of them. Take my hand."

Leaning on each other they lurched down the ridge. They were off the steep part when another spasm gripped Llian's heart like a squeezing fist. He sank down on the ground, holding his chest. The pain was short-lived; soon they were able to continue as before. Shortly after that there was a wrenching, disorienting feeling in his head, and again he had to sit down with an attack of vertigo. Then it was gone.

"It's gone! He's gone. He's gone!" It was beyond comprehension, but it had happened. Tallia slammed her hand across his mouth.

"Quiet, you fool," she hissed in his ear.

Llian calmed down. "Rulke's completely gone!" Karan must have succeeded after all.

"Then he's got what he wants! What's he going to do next? If you can walk, let's get down into the forest as quickly as possible."

"Walk!" cried Llian, barely able to restrain himself. "I can run. I can skip all the way, turning cartwheels."

In spite of her misgivings Tallia smiled. She had recovered enough to walk unaided. However, when Llian began to dwell on Karan's probable fate, he began to cry silently beside her. She took his arm.

They went more quickly now, after some hours reaching the forest and creeping gratefully into its protection. There they worked their way to the rendezvous, a place not far from the Black Lake, made camp without a fire and Llian sat quietly in Tallia's sleeping pouch, for it was intensely cold. He told the rest of his story, and at the end of it, as Tallia asked no more questions, made himself as comfortable as he could and closed his eyes. The euphoria had worn off leaving him weaker than ever.

The forest was dense here, except for a small clearing west of them, where a grand old tree had fallen, opening the canopy to the sky. Llian was too tired to sleep, too afraid for Karan. The bright nebula was setting, passing across the clear part of the sky, crimson and white and with its scorpion tail high. He shivered, and just then the three-quarter moon came out from behind a rag of cloud. His eyes closed.

Tallia was almost as weary, but she had to keep the watch. After a struggle with her eyelids she went the little way to the lake. The water was freezing around the shoreline. Scooping a handful onto her face she washed the blood off. Her nose, cheek and forehead were bruised raw. She wiped the water away before it froze, then hurried back. Llian appeared to be sleeping. She resumed her watch. Her face hurt.

Llian's sleep was disturbed by terrible dreams. He snapped awake. The moon and the nebula were moving into conjunction, the moon cupped within the up-arching sting of the scorpion so that it was briefly completed, a full moon, red and black. He felt a chill of foreboding. Then it was just the three-quarter moon eclipsing the nebula, merely a glowing patch of gas, and the two moved apart again, the nebula sinking behind the trees, the moon falling toward the west.

Laying his head on his arms, Llian tried to sleep, but sleep would not come. He knew why Rulke had freed him. There was no more need. Karan had agreed to do what he wanted in exchange for Llian's freedom. Time was running out.

But Llian's mind was not on the coming cataclysm. That was for others to consider. What had Rulke done to Karan? And what would he have her do?

Mendark came through the trees, his boots going whuff-whuff in the snow.

"What happened to you?" he said sharply, inspecting Tallia's battered face with the lantern.

"Did he-?"

"One of them caught me. If it hadn't been for Llian I'd be at the bottom of the gorge now. What's doing?"

"I lost them eventually, though it was hard work. I had to use a powerful magic. Then they found me again but all of a sudden they seemed to lose interest. When I doubled back here they kept right on, returning to Carcharon. Phew! I'm too old for this business."

Llian spoke up. "Just before Rulke used the construct, he said, 'Make a lie of this to dismay your friends in Thurkad.' If that was really his intention the construct failed badly."

"That much I believe," said Mendark. "I felt the disturbance that it made."

"And I'm free of him," Llian replied. "He's completely gone now."

Tallia looked questioningly at Mendark. He shook his head. "I can't tell, save by pressing him with my own Art, and I'm too weary. But even if what you say is true, Llian, you've done other things these past months that cannot be dismissed so easily, not least taking Karan up there. There must be an accounting."