Fine. Then you do something about it. Now.

She had offered to give her sworn word, but she hadn't actually done it.

Miryo opened her eyes and gave Tsue the most sincere look she could manage. "May I have just a moment, before I drink it? I'd like to pray."

The Cousin gave her a long, searching look, and finally nodded. She took a step backa"just onea"and waited.

Void it. I was hoping she'd leave the room.

Miryo, robbed of the privacy she'd hoped for, turned and went to the window. Outside she could see the moonlit ground, but not the moon itself; that was on the other side of the house. She looked through the panes of the glass at the sky, envisioned the stars there, and closed her eyes.

Here goes nothing.

Miryo began to sing.

She kept it as quiet as she could; her hands, clasped near her mouth, helped muffle the sound. She got a good distance into the spell before Tsue realized something was happening.

"What are you doing?" the Cousin snapped, stepping forward.

The game was up. Miryo spun to face Tsue, singing full-voice now; as the Cousin lunged at her she dodged. It was a ridiculous chase, trying to keep out of Tsue's hands while fighting to control the power. No, not to control it; that was beyond her. She just had to direct it, to make certain that someone elsea"Tsuea"took the brunt of its force.

The power built to a crescendo, and Miryo realized she had no idea what it was going to do.

Through the roaring in her head, she saw the door fly inward hard enough to rebound off the wall. And there, so suddenly and unexpectedly Miryo almost didn't believe her eyes, was Mirage.

One instant her doppelganger was in the doorway; the next, she twisted and threw herself violently to the floor. And even as she did so, the energy of Miryo's spell broke its bounds and shot outward in an expanding ring of razor-edged fire.

Tsue had only begun to scream when it hit her.

The world swam around Miryo. Blackness threatened at the edges of her vision. She took deep gulps of air, reaching out for something to steady herself; there was nothing nearby, and then suddenly Mirage had an arm around her, holding her up.

"Warrior's teeth," her doppelganger swore, looking around the room.

Miryo's vision was clearing. All around, at chest-height, there was a band of destruction. Her spell had ripped into the walls, and through them; the ragged edges were dancing with rapidly spreading fire.

She forced herself to look to her left.

Tsue's body had suffered the same fate as the walls. The spell had caught her squarely, and had ripped her upper body apart.

"This place is going to be covered in fire and Cousins in about half a second," Mirage said.

Miryo complied numbly as her doppelganger dragged her toward the door. They made it to the hallway, and stopped there.

Two Cousins in the room to one side had been coming to investigate the noise. They had gotten no farther than the doorway; the spell had caught them there. As far as Miryo could see in either direction, the energy had torn through the doors and walls. She wondered how far the destruction stretched.

"Not this way," Mirage muttered, eyeing the growing flames. She pivoted and dragged Miryo into the other neighboring room.

For a moment Miryo thought the body on the floor in there was also her doing. But this woman, she saw, was intact, and still alive.

"Can you climb?" Mirage asked.

Miryo swallowed the urge to laugh hysterically. "Yes."

"Out the window and onto the roof. If you go to the eastern end, there's a drainpipe that will take you down to the southern wing. From there you can climb the tree down to the ground."

"What about you?"

Mirage nodded at the unconscious Cousin. "I've got to take care of her."

As she went to the window, Miryo saw what her doppelganger meant; Mirage had pulled a thin rope out of somewhere in her clothing and was knotting a harness out of it She glanced up and scowled at Miryo, standing there. Only then did Miryo realize Mirage was wearing her uniform, but without the mask. Her pale skin looked even whiter against the black. Almost as pale as Miryo herself felt.

"Move!"

She moved. Miryo leaned out the open window and saw that it would be no trouble at all to get to the roof. At least, it wouldn't have been trouble under normal circumstances; now, however, her hands were shaking, and her vision was fogging, and she couldn't forget the sight of the fallen Cousins.

"Fallen?" Say it. They're dead.

Miryo took a deep breath and climbed out the window.

She made it to the roof without losing her grip. Below, she saw Mirage pushing the Cousin's limp body out the window; Miryo hoped the rope was long enough to reach the ground.

Then she turned her face away and climbed.

Linea's manor house was simple compared to Starfall. The roof was too steeply pitched for Miryo to stand on, so she pulled herself up to the ridge and began to walk along tee, one slow, unsteady step at a time.

There are at least three Cousins still alive in that house. And they're probably looking for you.

Miryo ran.

She didn't allow herself to think about it; she just focused on the far end and started running. Later, the memory would terrify her, but now she simply did it and ignored the risk of falling. When her foot finally slipped, she was already above the southern wing. She turned the slip into a slide down onto one of the attic window gables, and from there went farther down to the edge of the roof itself.

The drainpipe was there, as Mirage had promised. Miryo glanced back and saw, to her relief, that her doppelganger was following. Then she swung her legs over the edge and began to climb down.

The house was well and truly on fire by the time they reached the ground. Mirage pointed, and Miryo saw several figures emerging from the house's main door. "They'll find the other Cousin," Mirage said. "Let's get horses and go."

They went into the stable and stole two horses. Mist, Mirage said, was in the woods, but was worn out from a hard ride. They would pick the mare up and bring her along without a rider.

"What about the other horses?" Miryo asked.

"I cut their saddle girths. Move, Void it."

With the last of the momentum she'd gained on the roof, she pulled herself into the saddle and let Mirage lead her away from the blazing house.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR.

Void

"What do you need?"

Mirage swallowed before answering, in an attempt to keep the thickness out of her voice. She was exhausted from riding, but she didn't want Wisp to know that. Not that it was possible to hide much from the older Hunter.

"Refuge," she said, and was reasonably pleased with her crisp tone. "For at least a few days. Me, and one other person. And no questions asked."

Wisp raised one eyebrow. "No questions. I see. And I'm supposed to hide you. From whom?"

"That's a question."

"Damn straight it is, and I intend to get an answer to it. For one thing, I've got to know who I'm hiding you from, if I'm to do it right."

"Hiding us from everyone would be a good start."

That didn't amuse Wisp. "You answer my question, or there's no deal. You've barged in on me, ignoring the methods you're supposed to use, and now I get the feeling you're dumping a bucketful of trouble on me. This has to do with the commission, doesn't it?"

"Jaguar agreed Eclipse and I could claim refuge if necessary. Are you going to disobey him?"

"Your 'other person' isn't Eclipse. And yes, I damn well will disobey him if I have to; there may be a better way to handle this problem than straight refuge." Wisp glared at Mirage. "This has to do with your commission. Tell me."

Mirage thought about continuing to refuse, and gave the idea up. On a good day, she might be willing to face Wisp in a contest of wills, but not now. She had to save her energy for her real enemies. "All right. The ones behind the assassination are after me."

"Why?"

"I killed their Hunter. Wraith."

A slight flicker of an eyebrow was the only sign of surprise Wisp showed at the name. "And?"

"And about ten thousand other things I won't go into now. I don't have the time, and frankly, it's personal enough that it's none of your damn business." Mirage summoned all her energy to glare back at Wisp. No way in the Void was she going to explain the doppelganger issue.

"Fair enough," the Hunter said after a pause. "Answer me one thing, and then I'll give you your help. Who's after you?"

Mirage considered it for a moment, and finally decided on honesty. Lying wasn't going to make her any safer. "The Primes."

She'd never seen Wisp show visible shock before. "All of them?"

"All five."

"Void." The old Hunter exhaled slowly. "You don't do trouble by halves, do you?" Mirage didn't bother to answer that, and Wisp didn't seem to expect her to. "All right. You and one other person. Why in the Warrior's name did you pick Angrim for your hideout? Those damn bastards are all over the place, and if rumor's to be believed, one of them sold you out. Nobody knows to whom, but I'm guessing it's the Primes."

Sold me out? Ice. I will rip that bitch's guts out and hang her with them. Mirage gritted her teeth and tried to focus on the immediate issue. "Probably. They came after me awfully fast."

"So why are you sitting still? They've got spells they can use to find people. You're stupid to stay in one place. Only way you're going to stay safe from them is to keep moving, as fast as you can."

"They can't find me."

Wisp raised an eyebrow.

"It's part of the stuff I can't explain to you now. Just trust me on it. Eclipse is on his way to Silverfire, so ask Jaguar if you want the whole story; he'll have it soon enough."

"Don't think I won't do just that." Wisp tapped a finger against her jaw, then nodded. "How about you be a priestess for a while?"

Mirage blinked. "What?"

"I can hide you at the temple. They've got cells for the ones who've taken vows of silence, and I can get you a pair of those. You wear a hooded robe and don't talk to anyone, ever, or even leave your room if you don't want to. Is your friend male or female?"

"Female."

"Good. You can be neighbors. If it were a man he'd be stuck on the other side of the compound, and that would make things more difficult."

Given how Miryo was behaving right now, splitting up would be more than just difficult. Mirage did not want to leave her double alone for very long. "That'll work. Where should I meet you?"

"At the temple. Midnight. Bring your friend."

When Mirage returned with news of a plan, Miryo simply nodded. She trusted her doppelganger to arrange things; she herself didn't have the resources to hide them both. Or even just herself. She really didn't have any resources, period. And it was easier to just accept what Mirage had set up.

The irony of their hiding spot did not escape her. Miryo felt a nearly overwhelming urge to apologize to the silent, cloaked figures who lived along their corridor. They came here for a Me of peace and meditation, living to honor the Goddess, and here she was, in their midst, her hands stained with the blood of women who had just been doing their jobs.

Goddess, I swear on my soul, I never meant to kill them.

But it felt so good, to finally do something, and touch the power I can feel all around me.a Tsue's choked-off scream echoed in her memory, and she flinched.

The old Hunter with the hatchet face had given her an odd look before leaving. Miryo had been hidden beneath a hooded cloak, so she doubted the Hunter had seen her clearly. Still, she could not shake the suspicion that Wisp had somehow guessed what lay so heavily on her heart Which was nonsense. But the idea would not leave her alone.

"Void it," Mirage cursed softly, and Miryo jumped. "I should be sent back to Silverfire to be retrained. I bloody forgot to keep the paper with me when I came after you."

Miryo felt dead. "So we don't have any way to contact Ashin." The desire to try the spell herself welled up inside her, and she gagged. Mirage didn't seem to notice.

"I'll go find Wisp this afternoon and get her to send a bird to Silverfire, for Eclipse when he gets there. That way he can tell Ashin, if he hasn't thought of it already. It's not perfect, but it's the best we can manage."

Miryo shrugged. If she had hoped to conceal her apathy from Mirage, though, she was disappointed. Her doppelganger gave her a sharp look. "What's bothering you?"

What do you think? Miryo couldn't bring herself to say it.

Mirage guessed anyway. "The Cousins."

Miryo stood and walked two steps to the wall of her cell. They were not supposed to be in here together, talking, but it was an hour for private meditation, when they were unlikely to be interrupted, and they were keeping their voices low. "I can't be as calm about it as you can."

She half expected her doppelganger to be unsympathetic; how many lives had Mirage taken? A few Cousins were nothing, especially in their situation. But Mirage nodded. "No, I understand. Believe it or not, I still dream about the first man I killed." Miryo looked at her in surprise, and Mirage shrugged. "The rest don't bother me as mucha"Wraith, for examplea"but the first one does. I didn't even know his name." Her eyes dropped to her boots, and she sighed. "You can tell yourself that it was self-defense, and that will help. A little. If you hadn't cast that spell, getting you out of there would have been a lot more difficult. And odds are good I would have had to kill those Cousins anyway."

At least it would have been you, and not me.

She was well aware that she had once been at least superficially prepared to kill her doppelganger. Questions of self-defense and so on had bothered her, but she had thought she had come to terms with them. It had been easier then, though. She had seen Mirage not as a person, but as an obstacle to be eliminated.