He stepped boldly into the corridor beyond the antechamber. A stone staircase led up to the left, and two broad wood-paneled corridors radiated right and ahead. There was a deep carpet on the floor, and portrait paintings on the walls. These must be Her apartments.

A man in servant's livery ran up. Lavin forced himself to stand perfectly still, although his heart was hammering. "Are you looking for the general, sir?" asked the servant.

"The queen, actually." He felt his men shifting uneasily behind him. They were close to breaking strain, he knew—any slight provocation now and they would unsheath their swords. He prayed they would remain as cool as he pretended to be.

"The queen is... indisposed," said the servant. "General Armiger is with her."

"Where?"

"Her closet, at the end of this corridor, but sir, General Armiger said they were not to be disturbed. He ordered even the duennas to leave."

Lavin sniffed. "This is critical to ending the siege," he said, and walked on.

They passed two more servants and five of the queen's maids, one of whom Lavin recognized. None looked at them. Then they were at the queen's door.

33

They were in sight of the palace walls when Jordan began to hear the song. It came from directly overhead, far above the smoky air and late autumn clouds. The last time he'd heard something like remotely like this, the sky had been filling with vagabond moons at the Boros estate. The sky was empty now.

Periodically as they trudged toward the siege, Jordan had paused and closed his eyes, to watch the events there unfolding through Armiger's eyes. He knew an assault on the palace was in full swing, but beyond that everything was confused. Armiger seemed to be moving purposefully, but since he didn't talk to himself he wasn't letting Jordan in on his thoughts.

"Going in there is suicide," Tamsin had said when he told her of the assault. "We need to stop and wait for it to end."

Maybe. But Jordan feared that the seemingly empty landscape around them would erupt at any second with minions of thalience. He could easily be caught by them before they reached the palace.

Only Armiger could oppose the Winds. Compared to them, the threat of these human armies seemed almost trivial.

"We have to tell him about Mediation and thalience," he told her. "He would have acted by now if he knew exactly what was going on. I don't believe the queen told him what he needed to know."

Tamsin started to answer, then seemed to think better of it. She glanced over her shoulder, eyes catching the leagues of open sand that lay between herself and her devastated home.

"None of us knows what we're doing, do we?" she said in a small voice.

Jordan looked at her, surprised. "No," he said finally. "Not even him, I guess."

"What about the swans?"

"The Winds of Mediation take care of the earth," he said. "Maybe if we can find somewhere underground to hide, we can escape the swans."

Tamsin squinted upward. "The sun's a funny color."

"I don't want to hear it." He shut his eyes briefly, inner vision trembling between Armiger and kaleidoscopic images from the siege. As had happened at the Boros manor, the local landscape was excited, stones, wood and plants all trading images and sounds on some frequency they rarely used. Jordan could see through their eyes when they did this; he saw fighting figures on the ground from the vantage point of smoke rising above the towers. He saw both inside and outside the great hall of the summer palace, where tense soldiers waited with tinder and flint to light a new and vastly larger conflagration should Parliament's forces breach the walls. He heard the confused shouts, the screams, and he heard weeping as he saw Armiger's hands reach to undo the ropes that bound the Queen of Iapysia to a gilded chair in her chambers.

"Ka," said Jordan. "I need your help now."

"You told me the truth," said Galas. "That is why I decided to end it." She stood shakily, massaging her wrists where the ropes had chafed.

Armiger shook his head angrily. "We have more important things to worry about than your kingdom." He threw down the ropes.

Galas' maids cowered in the corners of the opulent bed chamber. Two soldiers stood uncertainly by the door; they had been placed there to guard the queen against herself, and were suffering the abuse of the maids when Armiger entered.

Galas smoothed back her hair with one hand, staring wildly about herself. "What?" She turned and looked at him in puzzlement. "What did you just say?"

"You have a greater responsibility now," he said. "More than your kingdom is at stake."

Galas laughed. She tried to stifle the sound with her hand, but it kept coming, and she reeled toward the window, bent over, hands to her mouth. When she could speak again, she shouted, "And what about me? What say do I have in this? Or do I have none? Who gets to sacrifice me on their altar? Parliament? Lavin? You?"

The door swung back with a crash and five armed soldiers paced in. Their swords were drawn. The last one in shut the door behind himself and threw the latch.

"Galas," said the man at the head of the group, "I am afraid I must ask you to surrender."

Her two guards were suddenly against the wall with swords to their throats. The other two men had their blades leveled at Armiger.

"Lavin." She felt a deep feeling of cold wash over her. "You did come."

"I came to ensure your safety," said Lavin. "I said I'd let no one harm you. And I won't."

"Then the palace has fallen."

"Yes," said Lavin.

"No," said Armiger. "He has snuck in somehow. That's why you ordered your men not to come over the walls, isn't it? To keep our forces away?"

Lavin nodded curtly. "Kindly kneel on the floor, general. You too." He indicated the others in the room. "We are going to strike you unconscious; there's not enough rope to bind everyone. Anyone who struggles will be killed." He stepped up to Galas. "You will accompany us, your highness. If you try to call for help I have instructed my men to kill you." For a second he looked dizzy; he clutched at the back of the chair where Galas had been bound. "I can't do it myself. But it must be done, if there is no alternative."

"Your highness?" said one of her men. "Give the word and we will throw these traitors out the window."

"Do as he says," she said hoarsely. "There is no point in your dying too."

"But your highness—"

"Do it!"

The maids and the two guards knelt in a line. Two of Lavin's men stepped behind them. Galas flinched as the crying maids were struck down one by one, and the men who had stayed to protect her life. In moments they lay silent on the floor. One of the women had stopped breathing; blood pooled behind her ear. Galas stared at it until Lavin took her arm.

"Goodbye, General," Lavin said. The soldier standing behind Armiger raised his sword and slammed the pommel down on the back of Armiger's neck. There was a loud crack, but Armiger didn't even blink.

Armiger held the man's sword-arm before anyone could react, and then he was on his feet. With a casual motion he tossed the man out the window. For a shocked moment no one moved.

"No noise!" commanded Lavin. He grabbed Galas by the arm and pulled her out of the way as his other three men raised their swords to stab Armiger.

One staggered back, his own sword in his gut. The other two whirled, for Armiger was no longer where he had been.

Hands like iron clamped onto Galas' wrists, and then Armiger was hauling her towards the door. Lavin leaped to intercede, and Armiger side-kicked him. The general was sent flying into a wardrobe, shattering it.

"We must get you to safety," said Armiger. His voice was flat, his grip on Galas' arm like iron. He towed the queen out into the corridor, where several servants stood, looking bewildered and offended at his handling of the queen.