He smiled at her. "Oh, yes. Your line is long and powerful, as I told you, as is the Vail line. However, unlike the Vail line, who forgot their magic"-he smiled now at Nicholas-"that is not exactly true. Galardi Vail, your grandfather, liked to toy with wizardry, but he never imagined that it was actually inside him, waiting to be freed. Your line, Isabella, the Contadini line, never forgot, which is why you were so strong. It is only when you lost your memory that you lost your magic."

She nodded slowly. She said, "Erasmo was right. I was a witch, a powerful witch, and I knew it, but-"

"You still are. You are here and that makes you even stronger. Don't forget it."

She said in some wonder, "I remember now when I was a child in San Savaro, I knew my father was spoken of behind hands, and with awe and pride, mostly, when the rain fell and none had been expected, or when a woman birthed twins unexpectedly, or when disease struck the fields and yet the barley and wheat still grew tall. All believed it was my father's doing. He was magic and all knew it. He was also deeply good. He said I was just like him. I was his magic princess."

She turned to Sarimund. "My parents-do they still remember me?"

He nodded. "Oh, yes. Every day they think of you, mourn your loss. As for Vittorio, he is wedded to another lady and abuses her endlessly. She has borne him no children. His seed is lifeless, you see. When your father realized this, he knew Ilaria could not have borne Vittorio's child. And he wonders who the real father was, and wonders about those deaths and how you, Isabella, disappeared so quickly afterward. He remembers perhaps seeing you in that ship's cabin, but he can't be certain since he never saw you again through his magic, because the link was broken, you see. You no longer remembered him. Nor could your elder brother, Raf-faello, ever find you and he carries his father's strong magic blood. Your mother grieves, Isabella, she still grieves. You have four brothers now, the youngest only four years old. It would seem that there will be yet a fifth brother bom very soon."

"I have four brothers? Almost five?" She couldn't comprehend it, simply couldn't take it all in. But she did comprehend one thing very well: Vittorio had never been punished.

Nicholas said, "Sarimund, you said it was better she didn't remember because Ryder Sherbrooke would have contacted her family, she'd have gone home to San Savaro and still been in danger. My question is why in the name of Heaven didn't you simply strike down Vittorio? Then she could have gone home without risk."

Sarimund said slowly, "I know so many things, see so many things, but I am not of the physical world now, my lord. I could no more call down a plague on Vittorio's head than a Tiber could trap a red Lasis. Do you understand?"

"Yo u mean you cannot cross from here to England?"

He smiled at that and shook his head. "No, I cannot even cross into England. Nowhere on earth, for that matter." "But_"

Sarimund closed his hand around Nicholas's wrist. "If I 'd been able, I would have blighted that evil monster to the pit of Hell. Ah, there is so much evil everywhere. Here in the Pale evil flourishes madly."

Rosalind looked squarely at Sarimund. "After I have saved Prince Egan, after Nicholas has paid his debt to me, I will go home and see that Vittorio is punished. Now, Sarimund, what are Nicholas and I to do now that we are here in the Pale?"

49

Sarimund lightly touched white fingers to her cheek. "Once you have saved the little boy, the earthly wizard who stands beside us will pay his debt to you."

Nicholas said, "Very well. I will accept that here in this strange land, I am a small boy, who is also a prince. She will save the boy, and thus save me. So, tell me, Sarimund, does this mean that you are my father as well, back when all this began? Are you a Vail?"

Sarimund laughed. "My line is long and noble, perhaps more powerful than either of yours, but my line is not of your line, my lord. Your father is your father, the Earl of Mountjoy, descendant of Captain Jared Vail. You are English through and through.

"You have come into the Pale as you were meant to do. You have become who you were meant to be. Time grows short now and it is time for you to act."

"Will Nicholas survive when he pays his debt to me?

Sarimund was silent for a very long time. He turned to look up at the three bloodred moons. "When Taranis approved my spell, he dreamed to me that if I interfered in any way at all, then the spell would cease and all would be lost. I demanded then to know why he couldn't interfere; after all, he was a god, he lived in the Pale. He sang to me: Ido not meddle in the affairs of witches and wizards and they do not meddle in the affairs of dragons.

"Therefore, since I promised not to meddle, I cannot cast my eyes to what came to pass, and thus I cannot know."

Rosalind grabbed Sarimund's beautifully stitched collar and shook him. "Damn you, wizard, that lame bit of reasoning is not good enough."

Sarimund eyed her, a gleam of pride in his beautiful eyes. "It is the best I can do. If only you had come to the Pale when I first selected you, Isabella, the bright child so filled with magic light-then all would have come to pass as I foresaw it. Jared Vail would have been here to protect you.

"But the time was still far into the future. Actually, I have wondered if Taranis meddled and knocked time awry. He is occasionally bored, you know, and it would perk him up to create some mayhem."

Rosalind began shaking Sarimund, so frustrated she wanted to clout him. "You listen to me, Sarimund. I do not care if the magician Merlin himself knocked time awry, I don't want Nicholas in danger, do you understand me?"

"Since you are yelling," Nicholas said, grinning at her, taking her hand in his, "he certainly hears you."

He turned to Sarimund. His voice was emotionless when he said, "You believe I will die, don't you?"

Sarimund said, "I cannot know, I told you. But now that I have seen you, my lord, I realize you are formidable, that you will not be easily vanquished, but your powers are still crude because you do not want to accept your magic. You must forget your hidebound earth rules with all their constraints. You must allow yourself to believe and accept what you are and you will grow stronger here, stronger than the three bloodred moons. You will be invincible.

"Here in the Pale, magic is sharp and clear and embedded in the very air itself. Here, there is nothing to impede your ability-if only you will let your magic have its full rein. Here, you will find it obeys you, mayhap with some elegance. Elegance and grace of action is a very fine thing in a trained wizard."

Rosalind said, "The lines I sang when I first began to speak again – Iknow of his death and her grievous sin. Who are they? What does it mean?"

"The he is Prince Egan, you know that his death is very possible indeed. Naturally, Epona's is the grievous sin, which could come to pass if you fail. I planted the lines deep in your mind, so they would always be with you, a reminder, a trigger, I suppose you would say in your modern day, to make you see, to understand."

"But I did not understand."

"Perhaps my elegant lines were a bit too subtle, but no matter, you are here. Ah, look yon, there is Taranis. He is the leader of the Dragons of the Sallas Pond.

"Listen to me, hath of you. The balance in the Pale is always precarious. Taranis knows this very well. He made certain I knew it when he dreamed the danger to me so long ago."

Taranis, Rosalind thought as she and Nicholas turned to look at the magnificent dragon who was soaring through the night sky, silhouetted against the bloodred moons, coming closer and closer. The very air around him seemed to part with his passage. He flapped his huge wings lazily, remaining perhaps a dozen feet above them. His emerald eyes whirled in his great head as he studied them. He was much larger than his son, and he was elegant, all his movements lithe and supple, as if practiced for a very long time.