A heartbeat later she had found her feet and was flying down the side of the hill. She reached the bottom and feU headlong onto the turf, tried to rise, but the movement sent black waves of nausea through her. She heard footsteps pounding toward her and twisted on the ground to meet her attackers for the last time.

They were standing on the hillside above her, staring, not at her but beyond her. She swiveled her head and saw a line of horsemen sweeping over the turf. There is no escape, she thought. Not from men on horseback.

The three ob the hillside above her cried out, and the nest thing Charis knew there were horses racing by her and voices shouting. But all this was happening a long, long way off and no longer concerned her. She lay her head down against the grass and let the pain take her. A dark pall of smoke hung between earth and sky, dispersing on the breeze. Charis felt her own cloudy consciousness dispersing as well and closed her eyes.

The sun was bright and hot on her face and Charis awoke. There were arms around her and a face hovering over her. “I am thirsty,” she said and a moment later a cup was pressed to her lips. She drank the cool water, looked at the face once more, and recognized it. “Kian!”

“The men were worried,” he said lightly. “They thought they would not get the chance to thank their deliverer.” He smiled and gave a laugh that was mostly relief. “I told them they did not know my sister if they thought any army of Seithemn’s could get the best of her. Lucky for those butchers we got here when we did.”

“Kian, I”

“Just lie back. Where are you hurt?”

“My back-an old injury,” she said and tried to smile.

“Can you ride?”

She shook her head, which started the dizziness again. “I doubt that I can.”

Kian called to one of his men, who nodded and hurried away. “There will be a carriage here soon,” he told her and lay her gently back down. “Rest now.”

“I need to talk to you.”

“Later.”

“No, now.”

Kian tugged on the leather strap at his chin and removed the plumed helmet as he settled himself beside her. She saw the long dark curls spilling over his collar and the jut of his taut jaw; she might have been seeing Avallach. “What were you doing out here-besides saving our lives?”

“Waiting for you.”

“You knew we would be coming this way?”

“The Lia Fail-I had Annubi look.”

He accepted this but asked, “Why?”

“I had to see you, to talk to you. I knew nothing about the ambush-Annubi did not see that.”

“We would not have seen it either if not for your warning.” He smiled again, with pleasure this time. “Little Charis, I never thought to see you again. Seven years and no word… nothing… and then here you are… What was so important that you had to take on Seithenin’s best in order to talk to me?”

He had asked the question and now she did not know how to tell him what she had come to say. Words were frail, clumsy vessels, incapable of conveying the truth of what she knew.

“I need your help, Kian. You are the only one I can trust to listen to me.”

“I am listening.”

“Kian, there is not much time,” she said and then it all came in a rush. “We have to be ready-it is ending… All this, this war is meaningless. We have to get ready… It is over, Kian. We have to”

He stopped her. “Wait a moment. Get ready for what? What is ending?”

She hesitated, then spread her hand to indicate all around them. “Our world, Kian. Atlantis; it is going to be destroyed. Very, very soon. We have to get ready.”

He stared at her for a moment. “If everything is going to be destroyed,” he said slowly, “will it matter very much whether we are ready or not?”

“To leave, I mean. We have to be ready to leave.”

He shrugged and smiled placidly. “Where would we go?”

“You do not Believe me.”

“I have heard these rumors before, Charis. I am surprised you Believe them yourself.”

“It is no rumor, Kian. Would I risk my life to come to you for some rumor I had heard in the fish market?”

“Why come to me at all? I am not the king.”

“You know very well why. Father is in no condition to discuss anything. That woman keeps him drugged and half out of his head.”

“You think so?”

“Are you blind too? Of course she does-but that is not why I came.” She moved to get up, and the pain took her breath away.

“Easy,” Kian soothed. “Lie back until the carriage comes.”

“Why? What do you care? I am wasting time here.”

“If I agree to give you ships”

“Give me? Do you think to shut me up by humoring me? Give the crazy woman a couple of leaky boats and send her away”

“Easy. Charis. I meant nothing like that.” He shrugged. “Besides, we have no ships-at least not as many as you would need.”

“Do you think you are doing this for me, Kian?”

He raised his hands in a conciliatory gesture. “What if I agreed? Could you prove what you are saying is true?”

“You would Believe me if I proved it to you?”

“Only a fool doubts proof,” he replied affably.

“Then you are a fool already!” she snapped.

“Me a fool?”

“Yes! Only a fool demands proof of what he already knows.”

“Listen to yourself, Charis. You talk in Mage’s riddles.”

“And you just open your eyes and look around, Kian. The land itself is telling you: hot winds blow out of the south by night; clouds come and go, but the rain does not fall; the villages along the coast.are empty, deserted; the earth trembles beneath your feet by day, and the great crystal of the High Temple at Poseidonis is shattered. Look around you, Kian. When was the last time you saw a seabird? Think! We are near the sea-there should be flocks of seabirds. Where are they?”

He stared at his sister for a. moment and turned his face away, his jaw set.

“You do not Believe me,” she said. “There is nothing I can say, no proof I can give that will make you Believe, Kian, because you have already made up your mind not to Believe.”

“Charis, be reasonable!” he huffed in exasperation. “Look, I have not seen you for seven years! What am I supposed to think?”

Charis stared back in seething silence.

“There have been earthquakes before, and dry spells, and villages deserted by war. What, in Cybel’s name, are we supposed to do-go chasing who knows where every time the ground shakes a little or a few filthy gulls fly off somewhere?”

“Annubi said you would not Believe,” she replied sullenly. “He said no one would.”

“Agh!” he said, tongue-tied with aggravation. He stood quickly and stalked off.

Charis lay back. Why did I even bother? she thought. I knew it would be like this. Annubi warned me. Why did this fall to me? Why do I Believe Throm? Maybe I am as mad as he is, after all.

The carriage arrived while one of Kian’s Magi worked over her, and Charis was lifted carefully and placed inside while Kian gave orders to the driver and escort. “What are you going to do now?” she asked when he turned to say farewell.

“I am to meet Belyn in two days’ time at a place on the border between Tairn and Sarras-at Herakli.”

“Come back home with me. Talk to Father.”

He lowered his eyes. “I cannot.”

“She is killing him, Kian,” Charis said softly.

“It is what he wants!” he growled with sudden ferocity. “Has no one told you what Seithenin did?”

“Annubi told me about the defeat.”

“It was more than a defeat-it was butchery. After it was over, Seithenin ordered those prisoners left alive stripped and bound to the bodies of their comrades-hand to hand, ankle to ankle, mouth to mouth!

“And then the madman left them there to die like that, tied to decomposing corpses! We found the survivors three days later-three days in the hot sun! The stink was horrible; the sight was worse. Avallach had to lie there like all the rest and listen to his men scream as they thrashed on the ground in that hideous dance.” Kian halted, his jaw muscles working in silence for a moment. Then he said, “They found Guistan beneath him, Charis. It weakened his mind and he has not recovered.”