"You know Imala?"

"Relatively well. Enough to know that taking the Passages would not be her first, second, or any choice."

"It was more of a sprint, actually."

"I see."

"I shielded both of us the entire time."

"I'm sure that was a great comfort to her."

"Not really."

"I can imagine."

And from the gleam in her dark eyes, she was imagining that right now, and was enjoying what she had no doubt had transpired between the two of us.

"We arrived safely."

"I don't believe that would have absolved you in her opinion."

I recalled Imala's reaction. "No, it didn't."

"And then you stepped through the mirror as spider bait?"

"I trusted Mychael and his Guardians to pull me out if anything happened, and they didn't let me down. The other delegates were placing the blame for the Rak'kari squarely on my shoulders, insisting that Chigaru was a Mal'Salin and that the Mal'Salins had always been allied to the Khrynsani, and this was just the latest attempt to cripple the kingdoms' defenses to launch an attack." I shrugged. "So I thought the best way to prove that I had nothing to do with the Rak'kari would be to go into the Void myself with a spy gem attached to my harness."

"So getting yourself killed would prove them wrong."

"Imala said much the same thing."

"I'm not surprised."

"She described it as dragging a baited hook through shark-infested waters. I told her who better than a dark mage to survive against creatures spawned by black magic."

"You're here and in one piece, so it must have worked."

"It did." I held up the gem. "Do you have a crystal ball available?"

Agata Azul gave me a bemused look as she stood, retrieved a head-sized orb from a shelf, and put it on the table between us. I activated the spy gem to play its recording in the crystal ball.

The gem mage watched the recording, and I watched her.

"I take it you played this for the delegates?"

"We did."

"Their reaction?"

"They were convinced this marked the beginning of a joint and imminent Khrynsani/goblin attack on the Seven Kingdoms."

"And how did they account for the fact that you nearly died making the recording?"

"Insanity, or so I assume."

"A logical enough assumption. Since I haven't heard that we're at war, I take it you convinced them otherwise?"

"Dakarai Enric did. Thankfully most of the other ambassadors were intelligent and levelheaded."

"Most?"

"The Nebian ambassador, Aeron Corantine, arrived with his mind made up-or his pockets lined-and refused to budge in the face of either proof or logic."

"I haven't heard of him."

"Be grateful. Imala and I had to sit across a negotiating table from him for nearly a week. She had many interesting ideas as to how to make him disappear and have it look like an accident. By the end of the week, she had dispensed with the desire to make it look accidental. She merely wanted to lunge across the table and throttle him to death."

Agata Azul laughed. "I would've liked to have been there." She held up a hand. "As an observer, not a participant. My patience can only be tried so far. What's on the other spy gem?"

I passed it to her. "This is what Sandrina Ghalfari and the remaining Khrynsani plan to do next. If they had succeeded in using the Rak'kari to cut the Seven Kingdoms off from each other it would have simplified their plans, but the Conclave college has some creative and ingenious faculty. They came up with a way to destroy the Rak'kari and clean out the Void."

I briefly told her about the invasion of Timurus seven hundred years ago by an off-world army that completely wiped out all life on the planet. No one knew who they were, where they'd come from, what they had wanted, why they had invaded then, and why they'd returned now.

"None of this would have been an issue for us had the Khrynsani not chosen Timurus as their fallback refuge if they were ever defeated," I continued, "and as the place to store the Rak'kari eggs until they were needed. The Khrynsani traveled to Timurus by way of the Passages, both to regroup and to release the Rak'kari into the Void. We believe they encountered the invaders when they arrived and had to bargain for their lives-or simply made them a deal."

"To serve us up on a silver platter to save their own miserable lives."

I indicated the spy gem she held. "Mychael had the portal mages in the Conclave college's dimensional studies department open a small rift-no more than a window really-on a mountainside overlooking the city of Astava on Timurus. That gem will show you the army we saw massing. The same army that wiped out the population seven hundred years ago is there again. Their banners as well as the Khrynsani flag are flying over the city. The people of Timurus had mages and magic, and while they weren't to our level of ability, they weren't exactly helpless. The invaders were said to control magic different from anything that has ever been recorded, so based on Timurus's fate, no single kingdom can hope to defeat them. The only way we stand a chance of avoiding Timurus's fate of total annihilation is to form alliances and combine our armies. All of the kingdoms agreed, with the exception of the Nebians."

"Hardly a surprise."

Then I told her my theory of Sandrina using Aquas as a staging area for the invaders-and wanting the Heart of Nidaar to power the portals and Gates to take the invaders and Khrynsani anywhere in the Seven Kingdoms they desired-and what we intended to do about it.

"To stop the Khrynsani and save the Seven Kingdoms," I told her, "we need your help."

Chapter 7.

When I finished, I sat silently and waited. Agata Azul had listened to the last part without interrupting to question, condemn, or contradict, her expression utterly devoid of emotion.

"The Khrynsani have never been overly fond of me," she said. "Should the Khrynsani and their allies gain power, my participation in this expedition of yours would be signing my own death warrant."

"If Sandrina secures the Heart of Nidaar we're all dead or worse," I said. "By all, I'm referring to the population of the Seven Kingdoms. Those of us on the expedition will merely be at the front of the line, and as such will be counted fortunate by many."

"I didn't say I had a problem wearing a target." She gave the slightest hint of a smile. "Any outfit worth wearing isn't complete without one. Did you know that Sarad Nukpana tried for years to secure my assistance in finding the Saghred for him?"

I went utterly still. "I was not aware."

"You could hardly be expected to know. His attentions increased after you left the court. Attentions that he abandoned after discovering Raine Benares's link to the Saghred. He needed my willing cooperation, which I would never give. I owe Raine Benares my most heartfelt and sincere gratitude. I seriously doubt my gratitude would lessen the suffering she endured for those three months, but should I meet her, I would offer it nonetheless." Agata Azul regarded me in silence for a few moments. "So you want me to drop everything to leave the day after tomorrow on a months-long voyage to an uninhabited continent, to locate a possibly nonexistent city of legend, with an even more legendary stone of power."

"It doesn't sound very appealing when you put it like that."

"Is there any way it could be put to increase its appeal?"

"Not that I've been able to find."

"This isn't an endeavor I will accede to lightly-or possibly at all." Her dark eyes held mine. "Before I give you my answer, I will know something, Tamnais Nathrach, chief mage and king's chancellor."

"I've told you all that I know, but if there's anything else I can tell you, I will."

"I don't care about the details of the mission. I want to know what is in your heart, why you're doing this. Your motivation." She slowly leaned forward in her chair, unnervingly like one of the serpents I had imagined. "Your true motivation."

I realized what she was asking. No, she wasn't asking. She was demanding this as the price for her help.

"You want a mind link," I said quietly.

"Want and must have. I have not denied my services to others merely for the satisfaction of refusing them what they want, with them knowing full well that there was nothing they could do to force me, satisfying though that was. I will not use my gift to enable evil-even if that evil began its life as an intention to do good. What is good and noble now can twist into evil later. It does not take much, as you well know. I have seen it happen, and will not be a part of it happening again. You say you want the Heart of Nidaar to keep it out of Sandrina Ghalfari's hands. That seems like a noble enough reason, but is it really? Kesyn Badru told me that you are an honorable man. However, under enough pressure I have seen a man's honor fail him-and me. What is in your heart, Tamnais Nathrach? What is in that subtle and darkly brilliant mind of yours? What do you truly desire?"

I moved to the edge of the chair, my hands resting on my knees. "I welcome you finding out."

"You're quick to agree."

"I have no time to waste."

"Even to discover the truth about yourself?"

"I know the truth."

Agata Azul stood and closed the distance between us. I remained seated, my face tilted up toward hers. The gem mage placed her palms on my temples, her fingers a gentle pressure on the sides of my head. Neither of us closed our eyes.

I knew what she would see. I let it happen. I had no choice, not if I wanted her help. I had to have it. Without Agata Azul, the expedition would fail before it even started.

It stung to be compared in any way to Sarad Nukpana, though it was the truth. He had sought her cooperation in finding the Saghred. I needed her help now finding the Heart of Nidaar. Both were stones of power. That was where the similarities ended. Sarad was the embodiment of evil, and his intentions for the Saghred would have spread that evil over the Seven Kingdoms. He had never tried to hide what he was, and it was obvious to all who encountered him.

I had spent years running from what Sarad had openly embraced. Some thought I was just like Sarad and that I was either hiding it from everyone or denying it to myself.

I was neither.

Yes, I had once trod the same path that Sarad had eagerly run down. I had turned from that path. Yes, it still called to me, and I had used black magic since then, but only when there had been no other option. However, I had used the darkest of black magic to defeat Sarad. I had summoned a major demon against the creature, the abomination that Sarad had created. Many would say that it had been evil battling evil that night in the Khrynsani temple, and they would have been right.

It also had been the only way to defeat Sarad Nukpana. If I had had a choice, I would not have done it, but I didn't have a choice, not if I wanted to save my family, my friends, and my people. I had chosen, and it had taken all of my black magic power to succeed.

I did not regret what I had done.

I wanted the same with the Heart of Nidaar as I had with the Saghred. I wanted to keep it from Sarad's mother the same as I had with her son, and if I had to use black magic to accomplish that, so be it. If that made me evil and unworthy of help in Agata Azul's eyes, then so be it. I would not cancel the expedition. I had to stop Sandrina Ghalfari, even if I had to go it alone.

"Confident, aren't you?" Agata Azul murmured.

"I see it as determined."

She had read my thoughts, and I had let her. This was not the link. Not yet.

Her eyes darkened and her fingers tightened their hold.

I took a deep breath and slowly let it out.

Agata Azul went into my mind.

Chapter 8.

A link isn't about sensation-at least not initially. It's about knowledge.

I couldn't feel what Agata Azul was doing, but I saw and I knew.

She had clearly done a link before and knew how to find what she wanted. The closest approximation would be searching through a stack of documents, scanning each, and then moving on to the next until you found what you were looking for. Agata Azul searched my memories, her touch in my mind a methodical and careful review that was actually gentle.

I knew exactly where she would stop and take the link to the next, deeper level.

When the Saghred had forged an umi'atsu bond between me and Raine Benares.

The Saghred had used Raine as bait, knowing that I would be unable to resist the combination of her and the Saghred's dark power. Ultimately I had resisted, and Raine had broken the bond when she killed me to force Sarad Nukpana's soul out of my body. While Sarad's soul had held my body hostage, I had seen inside his mind, knew what his plans were once he had the Saghred, and precisely how he planned to execute those plans.

That knowledge had extinguished any desire I might have had for the power the Saghred had been pushing me to take. Raine lacked the magical knowledge and training to use the stone to its full potential. Sarad and I had that training, and if Sarad hadn't succeeded in obtaining the Saghred for himself, I had been the rock's second choice. Either one of us would have been exactly what that poisonous rock had been waiting millennia for. We were prizes to be taken and used.

In seeing inside Sarad's mind, I had seen the Saghred's other half. The stone had wanted to be fed and used, to perpetuate a cycle of death and destruction played out on a massive scale. Sarad had devoted his life to finding the Saghred so that he could feed and use it to remake the Seven Kingdoms into his vision of paradise-full to overflowing with suffering, enslavement, torture, and death. His paradise, our hell.

Agata Azul was seeing all of this through my eyes and thoughts as I had lived-and died-through it. She saw my dark and primal desire for the power that the Saghred offered through Raine. My struggle to stay away from Raine and the overwhelming temptation the Saghred had flaunted before me.

And the time I had come closest to giving in to that temptation. Me and Raine, our bodies entwined, our magic even closer, my thoughts utterly consumed with only one goal, my breathing reduced to ragged panting. I know now that had it gone further, the Saghred would have eaten my soul. At that moment, I would have gladly given my soul to have possessed the woman in my arms. What had stopped me was knowing that I would have taken her down with me. The Saghred would have possessed and damned us both. To stop had been agony, but I had done it. We had done it.