They nodded. The man, Zyr, it seemed, smiled at me and Ami. "I hope we get to meet again, Cousins." And he flashed into the shape of a large, sleek dog, as did the other woman. Both took off with lightning speed, following back on our trail.

"Weren't they some sort of water animals just now?"

"Seals, yes. Most of our family boast several forms. Everyone in this group does, which is how I chose, for best advantage." She hesitated, as if broaching a delicate subject. "You and Princess Amelia . . . cannot?"

Behind me, Ami snorted with amusement. In that, she and I understood each other. We were happy for Andi, finding her place and her magic, but neither of us felt the lack. "No, none of the four of us can. So if we're going to the Heart of Annfwn, it won't be by swimming."

Zynda's face darkened. "Why do you think that's where they've gone?"

"Terin said as much. I believe they planned to take Andi and the infant Princess Stella there."

She scrubbed her hands through her long hair, wringing it out with a long breath of resignation. "Ah, Terin. You fool."

It seemed mete to accept the truce they offered, though Harlan and Ash both kept a wary eye on our new companions. After introductions, our Tala cousins changed into horses, to better keep pace with us in our race back to the cliff city. Nobody seemed to know-or, if they did, would not say-where the Heart of Annfwn was. If it could be reached only by a shape-shifter that could take multiple forms, then it must be in an environment survivable only by certain animals, not by humans. Which meant high in the air or deep in the water.

Scanning the warm, calm sea, aquamarine again under the bright midday sun, I figured water for it. Probably deep water, since different sorts of fish lived at various depths. That's how I would hide something from shape-shifters, anyway.

Unfortunately, it would also render me and my blade worthless to Andi. The frustration ground at me, so much so that when Ami insisted on a pause to tend Astar, I growled at Harlan's attempt to make me rest and chose to pace instead. Zynda had sent several of the cousins ahead for news and had shifted to talk with one who'd just returned in bird form. I wanted to hear for myself, except that they spoke in the Tala language. I'd have to wait for the translation, which didn't ease my annoyance.

Harlan folded his arms, positioning himself to keep an eye on both me and the cousins. Ash had escorted Ami behind a stand of palm trees for a bit of privacy to nurse. "We could ride ahead," he suggested. "Leave your cousins to guard Princess Amelia."

"No." I glanced in Ami's direction, catching the bright glint of her hair.

"You don't trust them?"

"Not particularly." I sighed. "But it's not that. It's only that we keep getting separated and I have a bad feeling about . . ." I trailed off when he grinned at me. "Don't give me that. I'm not thinking I'm the only one who can protect her."

"Which you're not. She survived without you to look out for her."

"Nearly didn't. Terin could have killed her as he tried to kill me. Likely planned to after he raped her. When I think of her-" Well, clearly I couldn't even say it out loud, because my voice cracked.

Fortunately Harlan, though his face showed his compassion for me, did not try to comfort me. I would have had a difficult time maintaining composure if he had. "Then we'll be patient and keep this pace." He said it as a reminder that my frustration would bear no fruit.

Zynda approached just then. "No news," she said.

"It took that long to convey that?"

She smiled in her easy way. The Tala in general seemed remarkably difficult to needle. "It was an extensive list of all the ways in which there is no news."

"Delightful."

"So here's the thing." Zynda sobered. "I've been mulling it over. So far as I know-which is more than most do, as we of Salena's line guard this information carefully-Queen Andromeda is the only one who can enter the Heart. It's a secret passed from mother to daughter. I don't know how Salena could have guided her, however, having passed from this world so long before Andromeda returned to Annfwn."

I did, though. The doll. Secrets and messages. "Can Andi take anyone else into it?"

"I don't think so. Family lore said that each girl had to find her own way. Sort of a test. I don't think she could take Terin or Princess Stella into it."

"Does Terin know that?"

"On the unlikely side of possible."

"So he might try to use Stella as a form of blackmail. Send Andi into the Heart with instructions to do something or other. But Terin's company is much weakened, unless he has greater resources than we know."

"King Rayfe is a difficult enemy, especially where his queen is concerned. He's likely nibbling at their guard from the outside and Andromeda no doubt making it difficult from within."

"They have to be holed up somewhere."

"Agreed."

How to find them? I rubbed my thumb over the Star of Annfwn, feeling it heat, and looked over to see Ami approaching.

Danu take me. How dense was my skull?

To keep Ami the same distance from me, I made her mount up on my stallion, which didn't thrill her. I had to give her credit; when I took her aside and explained the plan, she firmed her chin and agreed. Maybe she clutched my waist a bit too hard, sitting behind me. Still, the war-horse tended to jump around quite a bit more than she was used to, and I hardly blamed her.

While the others watched with bemused curiosity, we started triangulating by riding up the beach, then down again. Then into the sea up to the stallion's hocks, then well into the dunes. With us so close together, the Star heated quite warm. Had it been less than blazing noon, I had no doubt we'd see it glowing, as it had when Ami tended my wounds. However, that left little room for it to heat even more if we drew near to Andi. And how close would we have to get to her before we noticed an effect?

"I'm sure it's warmer this direction," Ami insisted, on the point closest to the cliff city.

"Are you sure that's not just because you've had your hand on it?"

She poked me in the ribs with a surprisingly pointy finger.

"Ow."

"Shut up-that didn't hurt. Give me some credit here. I'm only touching it when you get to the far point in each direction."

"Fine, fine. It's more than we had before." Next I took us on an arcing line from that point into the water and back to the dunes. "Anything?"

"Go back a bit."

Obligingly, I did. She pointed at a diagonal, south and inland. I gestured to the others, who'd mounted up and waited. The stallion lunged into a full-out run at my signal, making Ami squeal and hold so tight I nearly reminded her of my cracked ribs. We'd already argued once about having Ash heal me. I had flatly refused, saying we needed Ash as an alert fighter more than I needed having my bruises removed.

I did not want to say out loud that I wanted him at full power in case Andi, Stella, or even Rayfe needed his skills.

If no one else had considered that possibility, then they didn't need to worry also.

Harlan likely had thought of it, because he didn't argue, giving me only a long, considering look. At least he only badgered me in private, for the most part.

The rest followed us without question. Not as if any of them had a better plan. Ami and I stopped periodically to trace an arc and refocus our direction. Our cousins remained in animal form, and Astar, strapped to Ash's chest, thankfully slept. We bore more south than inland, better luck there, as I had no wish to face a pitched battle with shape-shifters in the dense woods again.

After a time, the cliffs rose in the distance, towering white as we drew nearer, silhouetted against the sparkling sea from this angle. This end had been more sparsely inhabited, for whatever arcane reasoning the Tala might use. From the inland side, the cliffs appeared to have been carved out of the tougher rock of the foothills. Probably by eons of a much harsher surf than lapped the sands now.

Darker spots showed where caves riddled the surface. A fine place to hole up.

We'd paused to orient again, when a whistling sound warned me of attack from above. I ducked and the stallion responded as he'd been trained, leaping to the side and immediately zigzagging. Ami had a better seat than I'd credited her for, because she managed not to fall off.

The phalanx of flying lizards wheeled around and dove again, met midair by a shrieking black hawk I recognized as Rayfe. Zynda and another cousin changed into raptor forms to help. So, while I managed to slice up one that came too low, reeling from a taloned swipe from our side, those of us on the ground weren't much help.

The battle ended swiftly, with several of the lizards morphing back into staymachs. One, however, remained pinned to the ground by Rayfe, who shape-shifted back into human form with his sword at the creature's throat. Handy trick, that.

"Shift!" he demanded. "By command of your king and on pain of death, shift!"

The creature thrashed under his weight, spiny tail lashing, and attempted to bring up hind claws to rake at him, something I stopped by the simple expedient of putting my blade through the base of the tail. Rayfe spared me a glance. "Thank you. About time you caught up."

"So many sights to take in."

He laughed without humor and edged his sword into the lizard's throat, blood welling out. "I'm dead serious, Osme. I wouldn't shed a tear for your death."

The lizard form wavered, then blinked into an older woman, the one from the council. Rayfe's knees pinned her shoulders and my sword speared her lower abdomen. She bared teeth at him, said something in Tala.

"In Common Tongue-you wouldn't want to be discourteous to our guests."

"Kill me. I'd rather die than watch you destroy our people."

"I'm hoping your next words are to tell me that my queen and niece enjoy continued good health."

"What does it matter? All is lost."

"Tell me." Rayfe had the sound of a desperate man. Harlan must have heard it, too, for he stepped up and put a bootheel on the woman's hand, leaning his considerable weight into it.

"I've little experience with shape-shifters," he commented in that eerily neutral tone he could adopt. "If you break pieces off, do they grow back?

The woman snarled at him but grimaced, focused on Rayfe. "They're fine. Terin is a fool."

"No argument there. How many in the cave?"

She firmed her lips and turned her head to the side.

"The interesting thing about shape-shifters"-Ash clapped a hand on Harlan's shoulder, his raspy voice conversational-"is that you can cut pieces off, but they have to shift to regrow." He crouched and set a blade at the base of the woman's pinky. "And it hurts as much as it would you or I. Of course, if they bleed to death first, it's no good. Would you like to see?"

Harlan grinned, not nicely. "I would. In the interests of learning about this fascinating new culture."

"Ten!" the woman spat.

"Who?" Rayfe put the question to her as if she'd answered immediately, as if the attendant conversation hadn't occurred. "Give me names."

Seeming to give up, she collapsed into herself, listing names, her voice grating with despair.

"You're going to lead us to them," Rayfe said when she finished. "And we'll let you live. Else I'll give you to the Dasnarian to take home for a zoo pet."

"I'm loyal to Annfwn, to the true Tala ways. Salena was a traitor and now her get will destroy us all." Her dark blue gaze burned into mine. "Foul blood runs in your veins, viper."

"This loyalty of yours means nothing," Rayfe growled. "Don't you see? It's empty. Based on stories and songs and empty ideals. People are real."

"Principles are real. The rest is nothing." She gathered herself, shouted something in Tala, and convulsed, shifting into a shredded mass of flesh, blood, and bone.

Rayfe jumped up with some sort of Tala oath, then gazed down at her. The cousins moved restlessly, looking deeply unhappy, powerfully affected.

35.

"She suicided?" I asked after a moment of silence.

Blue eyes flashing hot, Rayfe nodded. "Not a pleasant way to go, but a fast and effective one. Most of us live in fear of doing it by accident. To do so deliberately . . ."

"A martyr's death," I concluded. "Meant to shake you."

Zynda glanced at the other cousins. "King Rayfe. We shall take care of the remains. Ursula assessed it fairly. No one else should know of this."

"I'm grateful. And for your assistance at this dire time."

"You might have invited us to do so." Zynda tilted her head meaningfully.

"I have enough accusations of favoritism to manage without crying to Salena's family for help." Rayfe looked to me. "How did you find us?"

Zynda flicked a glance at me. "We followed a star."

He shook his head and sighed. "All right. They're up in there somewhere. I can't sniff them out. Even now"-his gaze scanned the cliff riddled with holes from castle-sized to minute-"I'm not exactly sure which they're in."

"We may not be wizards and shape-shifters, but we have our methods. We can find them." I glanced over my shoulder at Ami, who sat with her back to us, playing with a fussing Astar. We left the cousins to their gruesome clean-up task. Putting an arm around Ami, Ash sat beside her, and she leaned into him. I stopped to clean my sword, giving them a moment.

"Is she all right?" Rayfe inquired quietly.

"Yes." I exchanged glances with Harlan, giving him a nod of assurance, though I doubted he needed it. "Of us three, Ami has experienced the least of the crueler aspects of conflict. But she's got steel. She would not quibble with anything we do to retrieve Andi and Stella. Just don't ask her to watch."

He nodded in understanding, gaze going back to the cliffs, seething with an impatience I understood well. And yet... "If we get to them, do we have the numbers to overpower Terin's group swiftly?"

Rayfe glared at me. "Do you suggest leaving my queen in peril a moment longer than necessary?"

I returned the stare, evenly. "If delaying allows us to muster greater forces, yes. We can keep them pinned. They're not going anywhere and they won't hurt their hostages as long as they have hope. Think about this, King Rayfe. This is end game for them. If all is lost for their objective"-I gestured in the direction of the suicided councilor-"what's to stop Terin from killing Andi and Stella out of sheer spite? Why not strike at our hearts that way?"

Rayfe scrubbed his hands through his hair and I saw clearly the shadows of exhaustion in his face, the way fear and worry had eaten at him. Had he slept at all since Andi was taken? Likely not if he'd been focused on not losing her.

Being distracted or exhausted can lead to fatal errors.

"We have them pinned," I repeated. "They know it or they wouldn't have risked that attack. I'm hungry and I need to rest. Captain Harlan, would you ask Zynda to assign a couple of the cousins to keep watch for movement?" He gave me the Elskastholrr salute, with a flicker in his eyes that showed he knew and approved of what I was doing. "Ami takes forever to feed that baby," I told Rayfe. "Why don't you grab ten minutes of shut-eye? Then we'll formulate our strategy."

His face hardened and he opened his mouth to argue. I stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. "King Rayfe. You're no good to her if you're not sharp. Take a few minutes. We're here to help now."

Rayfe narrowed his eyes at me, then sat bonelessly, head propped on a log. "Andi said you always took care of everyone, whether they wanted it or not. Ten minutes." And he was out faster than Astar at his mother's breast.

"Well done," Harlan murmured as I stepped up to his side, keeping his keen gaze on the cliffside.