Horribly, stupidly wrong. They weren't going to just tie him to the stone and leave him.

394.

They were going to burn him alive.

ll.^, 51.This wasn't how it was supposed to happen.

"There has to be a way out of here. There has to be."

One more time Grace pawed at the rough wood of the cell's door, digging her nails into every crack, groping for any sign of weakness.

"Grace." Aryn's voice was soft but urgent. "Grace, it's no use. You have to stop."

She hesitated, then lifted her hands to gaze at them: Blood oozed from the raw fingertips. With a stiff nod she stepped away from the door.

Aryn let out a sigh, then cast a worried look at Lirith. The witch's lips were pressed into a line, but she said nothing, her hands resting on Tira's thin shoulders.

Grace paced around the boundaries of the wedge- shaped cell. They had found themselves in the cell upon waking--sometime after sunset the previous night--once the effects of the rune had worn off. Somehow Tira had already been awake, for Grace had opened her eyes to see the girl's placid face bent over her. Now it was nearly sunset again. Grace knew that, when it rose over the western mountains, the moon would be full.

She considered shouting again, but her throat was as ragged as her fingers. Not that there was a point to it anyway. They would not come again. At least not until after nightfall. Oragien had made that much clear.

The old man who had met them at the tower's gate had come to their cell just after dawn, and had spoken to them through a crack in'the door, identifying himself as the All-master of the Gray Tower.

""" i---_;__ --_>/; a-,,^ A^-^^A^A^t^^ 395.

386 mark anthony either Grace or Lirith could speak. The baroness S blue eyes blazed with are. If Grace had forgotten Aryn was nobility of the highest degree, she had remem bered it then."It is for the best that you remain here," Oragien said, his voice weary but resolute.

"And for what crime are we being imprisoned?"

"For no crime, good sister. After sunset tonight we will release you, and you will be free to leave the tower."

Grace clenched her jaw. After sunset . . . and after they had murdered Travis. Wasn't that what the- old man meant?

Aryn's tone was frosty steel. "I am a baroness of Calavan, here with a duchess as well as a countess of Toloria. And all of us are companions to Queen Ivalaine. Do you truly believe you won't have to answer for this deed?"

Oragien passed a withered hand before his eyes. "In the end, we each must answer for our deeds, good sister."

At that, the color had drained from Aryn's face, and words had seemed to flee her. Lirith gripped her shoulders, pulling her back from the door.

Oragien stepped away from the crack.

Wait! Grace had tried to shout. You still haven't said why you're doing this to Travis!

But the door had already shut, and since then no other had come to the cell.

Now Grace sat on one of the two cots that occupied the cramped room. She shut her eyes and lifted a hand to her forehead. They had all awakened with headaches that still lingered. An aftereffect of the rune magic, perhaps.

396.

"Here. Drink this."

Grace opened her eyes and saw Lirith holding a TA^nofipn r*nr} Al- 1p