Kadir continued, "Something strange happened when the girl touched the wand. A burst of magic-"

"Backlash," Charlotte said impatiently.

"Nay," Kadir said slowly. "She interrupted the casting of the ritual at the critical moment. Something more than backlash occurred. I worry for Raina's safety, wherever she might be."

Charlotte snorted. "She had no concern for the danger of a backlash. She was more interested in avoiding being transported to Alchizzadon as your prisoner."

"No need for drama, Char. You know it was for the best."

"Best? She's disappeared to stars know where. She could be in grave danger!"

Justin silently cheered Charlotte for expressing his sentiment exactly.

"She strikes me as the type to land on her feet," Kadir replied mildly.

Justin had to give the fellow that. Raina had a decent head on her shoulders and a fair helping of common sense. Most of the time. When she wasn't talking crazy about being forced to have a child with a stranger or blowing up magic rituals. But if Kadir had been planning to kidnap her after all-to which the whoreson had just admitted-could Raina's other wild claims also be true? Justin's eyes narrowed dangerously. If those mages thought to hurt her, they had a surprise coming in the form of his blade.

"She's a lot like you," Kadir commented quietly.

"I did not run from my duty when the time came!"

"Ahh, but you fought it."

"In the end I did the right thing."

Justin frowned. What they had asked of Raina was most certainly not the right thing.

Kadir was speaking again. "... girl makes a good point, you know. What we have demanded of the daughters of Tyrel is a travesty."

Charlotte's desk chair creaked sharply as if its owner had just dropped into it heavily, mayhap in shock.

Kadir continued, "We have foreseen a revolt like this for several generations. We thought you might be the one, but at the last minute, you relented. Raina, however-"

"What do you mean, you foresaw a revolt?" Charlotte exploded, cutting him off.

"Think about it. We have bred a line of arch-mages. Women more powerful than almost all other known wizards. The daughters of Tyrel are educated. You own land. You are the result of thousands of years of concerted effort to create extraordinary women. It was inevitable that eventually you would realize your own power and break free of us."

Break free? Justin's mind stumbled over the thought, paralyzed by the implications of it.

"But ... but ... the Great M-m-age...," Charlotte stammered.

"Ahh, yes. The Great Mage. His time draws near. Very near, indeed, if the portents are true."

Charlotte jolted. "Then it is more important than ever that we recover Raina! The House of Tyrel dares not fail in its duty after so long."

Kadir sighed. "We were not able to place a rune upon her before she bolted. We have no way of tracking her. She's smart, resourceful, and, if she's at all like her mother, stubborn."

"I have asked terrible things of both of my daughters. Tell me it was not in vain. That my girls will be the ones to end this."

"Raina has gone from us. Perhaps she will find a source of magical power strong enough to rouse the Great Mage. Perhaps it is fated that she will be the one to end our long wait."

Great Mage? Magic to rouse him? What was all this? Justin frowned, straining to hear more.

Kadir said quietly, "Our soothsayers think there's a possibility-slight, but possible nonetheless-that Raina may solve the problem of rousing the Great Mage."

Charlotte snorted. "The Mages of Alchizzadon have worked on that for thousands of years. What could a mere girl do that the greatest scholars of our age have failed to achieve?"

Kadir replied, "For several months, seers across the colony have been reporting similar visions and prophecies. Mind you, they live and work separately. And yet, they are seeing nearly identical signs. The stars are aligning."

"Toward what event?"

"I am not at liberty to go into the details of our seers' visions. We have our agents combing the Midlands and beyond in search of her. If she can be found, she will be."

An urge to bolt out the door in search of Raina himself nearly overcame Justin. Charlotte was speaking again. "... sure she's not dead?"

"Positive. The portal opened for just an instant. I saw Raina and that kindari fall through."

"To where?" Charlotte exclaimed in frustration.

"The Wand of Rowan could have taken them anywhere it has been in the past. Who knows where it chose to take them?"

It chose? Kadir spoke of this wand as if it were a living thing. Justin had picked up a few tidbits here and there over the years about magic-he had a habit of eavesdropping on the secret magic lessons that had been arranged for Raina over the years-but he'd never heard of a sentient magic item.

"Where would the wand take a stranger new to its use?"

Kadir spoke quietly enough that Justin had to press his ear to the door to hear the answer. "The grove of the rowan treant, Whisper, lies in Dupree. Guarded by dryads. Perhaps the wand went home to its maker."

"The wand bears fae magic? Bah!" Charlotte burst out in disgust. "A fae spirit could have thrown Raina anywhere!"

Every story Justin had ever heard of the fae painted the mythical creatures as sly, conniving tricksters with dark senses of humor and a wide mean streak. And one of them had taken Raina?

Kadir spoke soothingly. "The fae are bound by the rules of their courts. I do not believe they would harm an innocent young girl."

Justin scowled. Well, at least the man admitted that Raina was innocent in this entire affair.

"Where is this rowan grove?" Charlotte inquired.

"West of the city of Dupree."

"Why on Urth would Raina be cast all the way there?"

Kadir's answer was grim. "I would not presume to know the workings of any fae magic. The timeless ones do not see the world as we do, and work for their own mysterious purposes."

Justin leaned against the wall beside the door, cursing himself roundly. This was his fault. Raina'd asked for his help the night of her party and he'd ignored her. Sent her away from him. He'd known her all her life and never once had she given him cause to believe she was anything but honest and forthright. He should have believed her.

He'd heard enough. His next move was obvious. He snuck away from the solar on grimly silent feet. He'd helped make this mess; it was up to him to help fix it. If Raina was not in this rowan grove, mayhap the dryads there would know where the treant's rod had sent Raina.

He returned to his pallet in the dormer for the castle lads and quickly packed the gear he would need for a long journey. A stealthy trip to the kitchen to supply himself and he was on his way. Foreboding weighed heavy upon him. Raina was caught in the middle of something huge, and it was his duty to rescue her. The night was cold, but he did not feel it nipping at his nose as he set his feet to the north road at a steady jog.

CHAPTER.

10.

The footpath to Dupree was a treeless slash through the Wylde Wood, its margins trimmed back a good thirty feet on each side. Keeping this end of the path open fell to the men of the hollow to do each year and was a source of much grumbling about wasted effort. But today Will was abjectly grateful for the broad avenue of short greensward on each side of the actual track. No Boki ambush could be set in such a wide space.

After he spent a few hours walking the path nervously, Will's exhausted mind began to play tricks on him, questioning if he really was fleeing from Boki, actually racing to report an invasion of the borderlands and the slaughter of dozens of innocents. The journey took on an unreal quality as he grew light-headed with fatigue. Maybe none of it had happened. Maybe he'd imagined it all.

He would wake up from this strange dream having dozed off under the spreading branches of the old hickory during an uneventful night's watch. He would shake his head at his morbid nightmare and walk down the hill to get breakfast. He'd eat the last of the winter fat sausage, fried crispy brown in his mother's big iron skillet, and have a mug of oatmeal thinned with cream still warm from the milch cow.

But as hunger turned to sharp pain in his gut and fatigue turned to sharper pain in his thighs, his dream-like state also passed. And then the memories came. Wave upon wave in violent, excruciating detail that would not stop. The knot of vengeance unfulfilled grew in his gut and tightened into something akin to fury. He'd heard bleeding-heart greenskin lovers argue in the past that orcs and goblins and their kind were entitled to live and breed and die in peace. But the bleeding hearts were wrong. Orcs were vicious beasts with no respect for, nor right to, life.

He and Rosana walked on and on, and during that long march he learned to hate. He tasted rage, bitter and hot upon his tongue. He sipped of it. Then drank of it. Then gorged on it until he nigh drowned in its ichor, wrath suffusing the farthest reaches of his being. If he ever came across Ki'Raiden again, he would kill the Sixth Thane of Boki. Slowly. Painfully. By torturous degrees for each of the citizens of Hickory Hollow the thane had slaughtered.

The light brown strip of dirt before the two of them wended its inexorable way north, back toward the heart of the colony and more heavily populated areas. Will knew the path well, having walked it every spring since he was big enough to push a handcart loaded with boots his father had made over the winter.

It was nearly noon when the footpath widened out into a pair of wagon ruts and another hour before it widened again into an actual road. The forest gave way to fields dotted with cottages, and eventually Will spied the massive stone outcropping of Giant's Fist in the distance.

"What's that?" Rosana asked abruptly, breaking the long silence that had held between them for most of the morning.

"The Giant's Fist. Story goes that a giant was turned to stone here and buried." Will had always thought it a silly story, but if the hearth tale of the Sleeping King was real, who was to say that this one was not as well? His mother maintained that someone had merely embellished the natural shape of the rock, carving it a bit to look like fingers with rough nails and craggy knuckles. His father only shrugged when asked his opinion on the matter.

Perhaps Ty had known more on the subject than he was willing to say. Maybe he knew whether or not it was possible to turn a giant to stone in such a fashion. What else had he known about magic that he'd never shared with his only son? Will cursed his father anew for not deigning to teach him more of the ways of magic beyond a few simple spells.

Rosana's only response was a skeptical noise.

They walked on in silence, each immersed in their own loss and pain.

Several hours beyond the Fist lay Castlegate Falls, the largest market city in the region. It boasted an Imperial Army outpost and its population swelled to nearly a thousand people on a big market day. It was steady at about half that between times.

Ironically, this was what Will had always dreamed of as a boy: coming to the city on a hero's errand. Unfortunately, he'd failed to imagine the tugging grief and sickening loss that accompanied such an errand.

As he neared the town, his apprehension grew. The ravages of the Empire upon the countryside became more apparent in decimated forests and ugly pits where ore and precious gems had been crudely torn from the earth. The soothing presence of nature around him ebbed.

He and Rosana shuffled through the short line of people waiting outside the walls for a cursory search by the town guard prior to being allowed inside the walled city. After a small eternity, it was finally Will's turn. Rough hands patted down his ribs. "What's yer name, boy?"

"Will the cobbler's son."

"Where ye from?" Hands rudely grabbed his crotch and then slid down his legs.

"Hickory Hollow." He knew the next question-asking for his purpose in being here-so he went ahead and answered it. "I'm here as escort to yon healer." Normally, Will would have reported the Boki attack upon her caravan, but his father's instructions to speak to no one of the orcs but Aurelius rang in his ears.

The soldier replied scornfully, "Why'd ye be keepin' company with the likes of a gypsy?"

Will shrugged. It was never wise to rise to the baiting of the army. They had heavy fists and the law on their side.

Behind him, Rosana snapped to the guard rudely patting her down, "Orcs attacked a Heart caravan. They killed the guards and left me for dead. I must go to the Heart house immediately and make my report. Unhand me and let me pass!"

Will winced. Gypsies were not well liked in the best of times in these parts. He turned hastily to make an apology for her, but was startled to see the guard gesture for her to move along. Did the Heart colors carry so much weight, then, that even a snappish gypsy wearing them was shown a modicum of respect?

The first soldier muttered, "Straight on to the town square, then. The Heart's among the other guild halls."

"Thanks be," Will mumbled as he took Rosana by the arm and hustled her out of range of the guards. He half-whispered to her, "You should not be so high-handed with soldiers. Around here, they despise your kind for being thieves and cutthroats."

"My kind are despised everywhere!" she retorted. "I was lucky the Kaer took me in when I showed a talent for spiritual magic. It was they who protected me from slavers and bigots like those back there. I was barely three years old when the Kaer found me after the Boki insurrection."

He stared, shocked. "Do you remember your family?"

"No. The Heart is my family, in truth. That is why I call it the Kaer. That is an old word for family among my kind."

"And those other words you used? Prala and ... and gaj?" His tongue stumbled over the unfamiliar syllables.

"Prala means brother. Gaj is mother. Pena is sister, and daj is father." She shrugged. "I do not even know what gypsy clan I come from. I think of the Kaer as my family, so why not call it that?"

He shrugged back.

She grabbed his hand and hurried forward. "Come."

He'd never gone into the town of Castlegate Falls proper. His father always veered left just inside the gate and headed for the open field of the farmer's market to sell his boots and shoes. This moment marked the end of the familiar in Will's journey. From here on out, all would be new. A burst of excitement momentarily overtook his fear.

The street was a morass of mud and dung at first, but as he approached what he estimated to be the middle of the town cobblestones replaced the mire. He gazed up at the marvel of three- and even four-story buildings. Normally, he would revel in the sheer noise of the place. But today it was an obscenity. Didn't they know a terrible tragedy had happened? That innocents had died and their murderers were on the loose, perhaps headed here to wreak their violence next upon these laughing, oblivious fools?

Shopkeepers gossiped and shouted, oxen bawled, chickens pecked and clucked underfoot, and everyone seemed in a great rush to get somewhere. But then, so was he. Moving as quickly as the heavy foot traffic would allow in the clogged street, he and Rosana made their way to the Heart.

The thoroughfare spilled into a square large enough to fit all of Hickory Hollow inside it. He gazed around in amazement at the gaudily decorated buildings ringing the plaza. The familiar green and brown of the Forester's Guild. The purple and black of the Merchant's Guild. The red-and-gold sunbeams around a red heart on a white field of the Heart. A couple more guilds he didn't recognize. That building with the gray-and-black door and stylized mountain shape must be the Miner's Guild. Next to it stood the red and black of the Slaver's Guild with its distinctive chain-link motif. And beyond that, the blue and gold of the Imperial Mage's Guild.

Even if he hadn't known the Mage's Guild's colors, he'd have spotted the building in an instant. It was surrounded by a faint shimmer of magic, visible from the corner of his eye when he didn't look directly at it. There must be some sort of magic shield around the entire building! Such a display of power awed him.

He angled out into the square to avoid walking directly past the Slaver's Guild. He was human, a citizen race not subject to enslavement on sight, but the place gave him the jitters anyway. Slavers were known for randomly grabbing locals and impressing them into slavery to fill their quotas-usually later in the summer, though, after the planting was done and well before the harvest. Still, there was no sense in taking any chances. After all, he was in excellent health and on his way to becoming a tall, strapping youth.

Rosana threw the Slaver's Guild hall a disgusted look but gave it as wide a berth as he did.

He murmured, "They cannot take you as long as you wear Heart colors, right?"

"They would not dare," she muttered back. "The Royal Order of Sun would annihilate them all. There would be many dead bodies before the Order stopped killing over such an outrage. And not many people would be inclined to heal dead slavers, would they?"

Good point. The Heart building was whitewashed, its trim painted in alternating red and yellow. It, too, was surrounded by a faint magical glow. When they approached the steps, however, a young fellow standing in the open doorway ducked inside for a second and the glow disappeared.