Klia slowly shook her head.

"All right. Now then, did the Haman, Emiel, attack you during the hunt?"

She looked at him blankly.

"She remembers little of that day," Thero told him. "She was quite sick by then."

"That night at the Viresse banquet, do you recall feeling anything prick your hand?" Seregil asked her. "No? Any other time? Do you know when you might have been poisoned?"

Again no.

"Nyal said the snake's bite is painless," Alec reminded him. "The poison must deaden feeling. And the barb on the ring is tiny."

"The ring! Thero, were you able to learn anything more from it?"

"No. Whoever used it masked it well," the wizard replied.

"Just like the charm," Seregil mused, "And yet they were able to preserve the memory of Emiel in it, and turn it white again somehow without disturbing that memory."

"We were just discussing that," said Thero, who'd evidently warmed a bit toward the older wizard. "According to Wydonis, who is much more adept than I at this sort of thing, it's possible to mask the essence of a person, as has evidently been done with the ring. But it's virtually impossible, short of necromancy, to falsely imbue that essence."

Wydonis nodded. "Whoever had Alec's charm, they were careful only to mask its appearance, leaving Emiel's essence to be found when it changed again," Wydonis explained. "I grant you, it's difficult."

"But what made it turn black again, if Emiel didn't attack her?" asked Alec.

"Perhaps merely his proximity," the older wizard said. "As Thero has speculated, these are the doings of someone with greater than normal ability."

Thero passed the ring to the elder wizard. "Perhaps you could divine more than I have from this. We can't afford to miss anything."

Wydonis took the steel ring on his palm, breathed on it, then closed his fist around it. After a moment's concentration, he nodded slowly. "As you say, it reveals nothing of the murderer. However, I can tell you something—it was made in Plenimar, as you rightly suspected. At Riga, I think, by a one-legged smith who slakes his work in goat's urine. The ring was used for a time by a woman named—" He paused, brow furrowed. "She is of the house of Ashnazai, I believe. She used it to murder six people: four men, a woman, and an infant girl—all of them kin to the current Overlord—and then herself. More recently, it was used to kill several calves. It has something of Princess Klia's essence in it, too—blood perhaps—and Torsin's." He tried one last time, then raised an eyebrow at Seregil. "I also sense a fish of some sort, but whoever used the ring to poison the princess has left no trace."

"Could a Viresse or Haman do that?" Thero asked Seregil.

"The Viresse, perhaps, but probably not a Haman. Their gifts don't usually run in that vein. I think it's time we had a chat with Nyal. I'll ask Adzriel to have someone bring him to her house discreetly. We don't want to attract attention."

Korathan shot him a questioning look. "Who is this Nyal?"

"A confidant of Lady Amali's, my lord. These are delicate matters. It would be best if he thinks himself among friends," Seregil explained. "I'll have Adzriel, Alec, and Thero as witnesses. I think Klia will agree that this is best. My lady?"

Klia nodded slightly.

"Very well," Korathan said grudgingly.

"This shouldn't take long," Seregil promised. "Send word to the Iia'sidra that you'll meet with them in two hours." He paused. "Beka, do you want to be there for this?"

She hesitated, flushing a bit behind her freckles. "With my lord's permission?"

"Be my eyes and ears, Captain," said Korathan. "I'll expect a full report."

With that settled, Seregil left the others and found Adzriel waiting just down the corridor.

"I'll send Kheeta to fetch Nyal," she said. "I hope for Beka's sake that he hasn't betrayed you."

"So do I. But I suspect she's right about him knowing more than he's let on."

Adzriel went down the back stairs and he followed, motioning for Alec and the others to remain behind.

At the lower landing, just off the kitchen, he laid a hand on her arm. A ray of late-afternoon sun slanted in through the open door beyond, striking golden glints in her dark hair even as it highlighted the circles beneath her eyes. She looked older suddenly, and careworn.

"I have something for you," he told her, pressing Corruth's ring into her hand. "It belongs here. Who knows what the Iia'sidra will decide. .." He faltered, unable for once to find the right words to shape his meaning.

The light struck the ring's large red stone, scattering bright spangles across her palm like tears of blood.

She looked down at it, then leaned forward and kissed him, first on the brow, then on the back of his bandaged hand. "I'm proud of you, my brother. Whatever judgment the Iia'sidra passes, you returned and I'm very proud of you." She touched his wounded hand again. "May I see?"

The teeth marks had scabbed over cleanly, each darkly ringed with blue lissik.

"Make certain the Iia'sidra see this," she advised. "Let them see that the dragons have claimed you. Whatever the khirnari may say, you will carry this mark of favor forever, here" — she touched a hand to his heart—"and here. Come over when you're ready. I'll see that Nyal is there."

Seregil kissed her cheek, then returned upstairs to find the others crowded around Klia's bed.

"She spoke!" Alec told him, making room. "She wants to go with us to the Iia'sidra."

"Is she strong enough?" Korathan asked, looking to Mydri.

"If we wrap her well and keep her from any jolts," his sister said. Looking down at Klia, she shook her head. "Is it important enough

to justify the risk, my dear? You're not strong enough to speak at any length."

"Must see me," Klia whispered, her brow furrowed with effort.

"She's right," Seregil said, giving the sick woman a smile. "Let them see just how badly the laws of hospitality have been breached." Leaning down, he clasped her sound hand and added softly, "If you weren't a princess, I'd have had you working with me long ago."

Her fingers tightened around his as she gave him a fleeting grin.

52 LONG EARS

Adzriel opened her own sitting room for the interrogation. Seregil, Alec, Beka, and Thero were already in place when Kheeta ushered the Ra'basi in. Beka acknowledged him with a terse nod, remaining where she was in the embrasure of the window.

Nyal gaped in amazement at the two returned fugitives. "So you were captured after all?"

"No, we brought ourselves back," Alec told him.

"After all the trouble of getting away? Why?"

"We found out a few more things along the way," Seregil told him. "We need your help again. I'm hoping you'll give it as freely as you have in the past."

"Whatever I can do, my friends."

"Good. There are a few things we need to understand first. Tell us why Akhendi would attack not only me but Alec and Beka as well."

Nyal shifted uneasily in his chair. "Akhendi attacked you? When?"

Seregil took out the sen'gai. "We found these among the belongings of those so-called bandits after you left us."

"By the Light! But Rhaish said—"

"We know what he said," Seregil cut in. "I

also know about Alec's run-in with Emiel i Moranthi. You remember that, don't you? Alec says you took his warding charm to be restored? Did you give it to anyone?"

Nyal stared at him, "I gave it to Amali. What has that to do with anything?"

Seregil exchanged a glance with Alec. "Can you explain how that same charm—Alec's—ended up on the bracelet Amali wove for Klia? The very bracelet that she used to accuse Emiel? You see, Nyal, as much as I wanted to, I never believed the bastard laid a hand on her."