"Did you really expect me to surrender?"

Keeping the Sword trained on his breast, she threw up her other hand in frustration. "No, of course not."

"Have you no inkling of my power?" He stood stone still, studying her as if he truly did wish to understand her.

"On the contrary, Doan-Rau, I take your power most seriously."

"Then surely, you must realize you've lost."

Words sincerely spoken. As if his retreat from Kholer had never happened, as though the Kanarekii army were not battering down his gate. That was what kept Rau going, Riordan realized. He simply refused to acknowledge defeat.

"I do not intend to lose," she snapped. "Too many people depend upon me. Obligation. Another of those useless concepts."

"One of the concepts that will be your undoing."

"I don't think so."

"I do."

He strode back to the Amber. Spreading his palms flat against it, he looked up at her in defiance. "I'd wager that if that Captain of yours were to find himself under the sudden compulsion to plunge that Power Stone into his right eye, you give up the fight in an instant."

A bluff. Could be. It would be just like Rau to use the exercise to see just how fast she'd crumble.

"Ah, " Rau whispered. "You don't believe me." He gazed into the Amber's milky depths. "Behold, Your Majesty."

Within the swirling golden depths of the Amber, Nhaille's image began to form. In horrified awe, Riordan gazed at the tiny scene that appeared in the Master Stone.

Shouting, Nhaille issued orders to the men around him. It wasn't going well, she could tell that by the way his mouth drew sternly downward at the corners. Men thundered past him. Haelian warriors followed in close pursuit. The tide of battle was turning against Kanarek. The dead turned their attention from the Haelians to their Kanarekii masters. In horror, she watched command slip through Nhaille's fingers like so many grains of sand.

Rau took in her shocked expression with a grin. "He has a pathetically weak mind."

"He is not Shraal. The curse is ours alone. How can you blame him for not being able to bear it?"

"What is this fascination of yours with the weak and pitiful? Where does it come from?"

"Yet another useless concept."

Rau smiled, and for a moment she thought she might have won him over.

"Let him go." The words were barely a whisper, a wish.

The Prince's head came up sharply. "Oh no, Your Majesty, I don't think so."

"He's nothing to you. As you say, he's no match for your power."

"To do that would be to give you everything. And I intend to take, not give."

All of a sudden she had a terrible notion of what Rau meant. "No--"

Within the golden bubble Nhaille turned toward them, as if he looked directly into Rau's sapphire gaze. The fingers that gripped the Power Stone twitched. His eyes widened, then shut tightly. Slowly, his hand began to rise.

Veins stood out against his forehead. Nhaille's traitorous arm continued to rise, up past his belt, past his breast, until he was staring in horror at the pointed end poised before his unprotected face.

His mouth tightened. His eyes flickered open. The hand gripping the amber trembled. It inched even further toward his right eye.

"Stop it! It's me you want, not him."

A dark tide of dead soldiers surged around Nhaille, cutting off his route of escape. Under Rau's control, she realized, Nhaille's command severed. Even control of his own body was lost to him.

"You misunderstand," Rau said in a tone that was almost jovial. "I want it all."

"You have it all, Rau. Stop this!"

"It's not enough. I want everything. The territory, the glory, the suffering, the misery. All of it will be mine."

A mistake. All of it. Going after the Sword. Coming to Hael. There was no hope for Rau. Rationality, mercy were beyond him. There was only one option left. To kill him.

And if she did, the soul of a madman would rest in her mind forever.

Within the Amber, the Power Stone hovered fractions of an inch from Nhaille's right eye. His knuckles whitened as he struggled to stop its progress.

"No!"

She lunged forward, bringing the Sword down in a shining arc.

Rau brought his own up in challenge. No armor, so secure was he was in his power. He put his body between her and the Amber.

Riordan swung again, meeting the steel of Rau's sword. Could he control Nhaille while he was occupied? She cast a furtive glance at the depths of the Amber.

That glance nearly cost her life.

She whirled away from the downward stroke of his sword. Dying was not an option. She had no desire to join the rest of her family in the ranks of Rau's dead.

Steel glanced off her helm. Her ears popped. The impact knocked her off balance.

Falling, she did catch a glimpse of Nhaille staring into the point of the Power Stone poised before his right eye.

Rau's sword crashed into the stone beside her head, sending a shower of stone fragments into her eyes. She rolled away, momentarily blinded. Riordan flung her mind outward through the Sword, tracking Rau by the dark glimmer of his mind against the Amber's brilliance. She swung, into the darkness, felt the impact, heard Rau's sudden cry of pain followed by a string of curses.

Riordan blinked, swung again.

He lunged after her. She darted away, leaving a swipe of singing crystal in her wake. Her aim swung wide, missing him. In that instant, she realized her mistake.

Wrong target. Pursuing Rau was a waste of time. Without the Amber to bolster him, he'd be powerless.

Rau tensed, poised for another assault.

She feinted left, pretending to swing at him again. He darted forward to meet her. But in the last second, she swung wide. The Sword recognized the target, rushed to meet it, kindred sorceries drawn together like magnets.

"No!"

The Prince flung himself between the Sword and the Amber.

Riordan hauled backward on the Sword, desperately trying to abort the swing. But the Sword, called by its sister weapon, descended like a shooting star toward the Amber.

Cleaving instead into the body of the man plastered against it.

Not even the resistance of armor to stop it, the crystal blade clove neatly through the fine cloth of his shirt and the equally poor resistance of flesh. She felt the scrape of bone separating. His scream of pain and terror jarred her nerves. Blood splashed in a crimson wave up over the Amber, splattering her face.

No! Nuurah please! Not this!In horror she watched Rau's head tumble from his shoulders to bounce once before it came to rest on the marble floor. Sapphire eyes stared up into hers, accusing her, damning her. The mouth moved to curse her, even now. Thrown off balance, his body teetered on its heels, then crashed to the floor.

The Sword, interested now only in this new treat, swiveled slowly toward the pieces of what had been Prince Doan-Rau of Hael.

His body shimmered. She tensed, knowing what was coming and powerless to prevent it. His torso slid along the floor, pulled by Shraal sorcery toward the Sword. She felt the burst of energy as it entered the Sword and steeled herself for the next blow.

Dragged by the tendrils of its long, brown hair, Rau's head inched toward the Sword. Jewel eyes accused her still.

Doan-Rau's soul tore into her body. Riordan flung her inner defenses against the onslaught and failed. Like a rain of needles, his mind pierced hers. She staggered back against the stone wall, panting, fighting desperately for control of her own thoughts.

Laughter shattered her mind.

Well, said Rau from inside her head. An interesting predicament, Your Majesty.

She tried to shut her mind against his intrusion and found she couldn't.

And then again, it still might work. She felt the devious gears of Rau's mind turning within her own. Now that we are one, perhaps war is not necessary. We could rule together.

Rule together with Doan-Rau lodged forever in her mind, and her face to the world, carrying out his destruction.

Think of it, Riordan, Rau hissed. Think of what we could accomplish together.

She didn't need to think about it, Rau's foul thoughts were embedded in her mind. Whatever happened, she had to end it now, even it if meant her own death. Even if it meant never seeing Nhaille again.

How touching, Rau scoffed. Did you really think killing me would solve the problem?

Rau's will penetrated hers. An intrusion so swift, she had no time to fight against it.

To her horror, Riordan felt her legs moving toward the Amber. She poured the sum of her consciousness into stopping their forward motion. To no avail.

Her fingers loosened. The Sword of Zal-Azaar clattered to the floor.

Slowly, Riordan reached out and placed her hands against the Amber.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Sweat ran in hot rivulets down Riordan's neck. Palms flattened against the Amber's warm surface, her face pressed against it, she had no choice but to peer helplessly into its swirling depths.

Like chess pieces frozen in amber, the battle paused. The dead waited, axes poised as if the chain of command had suddenly snapped, leaving them without orders. She searched for Nhaille, losing his image in the Amber's muddy depths.

Rau's will snapped closed about her like a fist, squeezing her own desires from her mind. Images of the battle vanished, leaving her blind. Summoning her strength, she tried to lever herself away from the Master Stone to snatch up the Sword of Zal-Azaar which lay several feet away, abandoned. Her fingers twitched against the Amber's smooth warm surface, but she couldn't pry a single one of them from Rau's control.

Rau's thoughts spun like a vortex in her mind. Moving against the current was like trying to swim through a sea of knives. His will pierced hers in a of myriad places, slicing away at her thoughts.

Sounds of the battle below them retreated in the fog of Rau's will. She felt him reach out with her mind, her hands. Riordan watched in horror as she commanded the army of the dead to turn against Kanarek.

Nuurah, help me! she thought. It is my face they will put to Kanarek's downfall. My face to Rau's destruction!

Riordan pictured herself at the front of Rau's army of the dead, leaving a trail of ruin in her wake. It would be written in the history books that Kanarek's Queen had gone suddenly mad and turned upon her own countrymen.

Ah, the irony is almost too beautiful. Rau's mocking voice boomed inside her thoughts.

Rau's will rushed out into the Amber, drowning hers in the tide of his thoughts. The dead took up their axes and turned on the meager leagues of Kanarekii warriors.

Images changed as Rau searched for new sport. And suddenly Nhaille claimed the center of her vision. Oblivious to the fighting around him, he stared, mesmerized, at the tip of the Amber stake he held in his fist. Even through the Amber's swirling depths, she could see his muscles shake as he tried in vain to move the point from his face. Inches now from his eye, he brought the point closer.

Separated by the writhing bodies of the dead, she saw Penden shouting at him, desperately trying to gain Nhaille's attention as he fought his way through the press to Nhaille's side. But the dead, fortified by Rau's will, began fighting with renewed vigor. A blockade of axes and fighting dead bodies barred Penden's way.

Horrified, Riordan watched as the tip of that Amber spike moved toward Nhaille's right eye. The Captain was weakening quickly, the strain of resisting Rau's command leeching away the small reserve of his strength. At another time, Nhaille might have been able to resist Rau's onslaught, but battle wounds, compounded by a long march, took their toll. Even through the image in the Amber's depths, Riordan could tell he'd reached the last of his strength. In seconds Rau would win. And Nhaille would join the army of the dead.

"No!" Riordan ground out the word through clenched teeth. She'd kill herself before she let that happen. She'd run the blade of Zal-Azaar across her own throat before she gave Rau the victory. Except that the Sword lay where she'd dropped it, and she could not pry her hands from the Amber to break the chain of Rau's command.

Oh no, Your Majesty, came the echo of Rau's harsh laughter. I'd never let you do that. You are to be the vessel of my revenge.

Hatred throbbed within her, a low, bass note. Riordan flung the sum of her anger at Rau's consciousness.

Too late she realized her mistake.

Rau absorbed her hatred like a sponge, expanding until he filled her mind. She gasped as his control over her tightened. Through the Amber she felt Rau reach out to deal Nhaille the final blow.

Nhaille! Dragging her consciousness away from the battle with Rau, she touched Nhaille's mind. Stop fighting him! Join with me! Understanding dawned even as she sent Nhaille her thoughts. Rau would draw strength from her hatred, just as the Sword could use her hatred and loneliness against her. She'd told Nhaille that she had to conquer her inner demons before she could wield the Sword. She asked his help to do it and they had become lovers.

Distantly, she felt Rau's malice still chanting on the periphery of her mind, urging her to join him. Riordan ignored the seductive call of his hatred.

Within the web of the Amber's control, she felt Nhaille's weakening constitution link with hers. Drawing out his love for her, his dedication to Kanarek, she wrapped herself in it and drove it like a missile into the wall of Rau's control.

Rau faltered under the sudden change in strategy, floundering for more of the hatred that had sustained him. Riordan struck quickly. With a massive leverage of will, she shoved his mind aside.

Beneath her hand, the Amber glowed bright gold. Her will flowed down the invisible current, out into the minds of the dead. Doing so, she lost contact with Nhaille. Fear for his safety clutched at her heart, but she couldn't falter now, couldn't spare a thought for anything other than marshaling the sea of dead minds against the threat of Hael. From far away she heard the clatter of boots in the hallway beyond.