The dim torchlight in the cavern brightened, and she knew her irises had gone black. Canines elongated in her mouth, and she felt her nails harden as if they rooted themselves in the bones of her fingers.

"You want to see how far my power has grown?"

Vordana stepped in behind Ubad, a wary expression on his sunken face. Magiere could hear Leesil nearby, behind her, and Chap circled out to her right.

"Listen!" Ubad commanded. "You are as you are, and nothing can change this, so embrace truth. Our patron will place you above all others, and all you must do is accept who you are… rather than this deluded guise you cling to. Take your place beside him."

Magiere felt her control returning. She understood nothing of his words, and she cared little at all for whatever patron, deity or otherwise, this creature thought she belonged to. She held her form, not allowing her dhampir aspects to fade.

Ubad no longer appeared shadowy and intimidating. Magiere saw but another petty, self-serving conniver-like Welstiel-who had also helped to kill her mother. On impulse, she turned to glance at Leesil.

He watched her, punching blades gripped in both hands. Long white-blond hair tucked behind his oblong ears, his slanted eyes were wide with suspicion at the sight of her. Then his features softened as he saw she had not lost herself to savagery this time.

"You are Magiere," he said, voice firm. "Nothing can change that. And I know you. You belong with me-not them, not… whatever they serve."

He glanced toward Ubad, lifting his blades ever so slightly, poised between advancing and holding his ground.

Magiere sense his fear just below his anger, as if his own emotions flooded her. Something in Ubad's words ate at him, something more than the old man's deluded fanaticism and hunger for power. Magiere took one step back from the necromancer and his dead servant.

'Time to leave!" Leesil snapped.

He whirled forward, swinging his blade at Vordana's throat. The sorcerer dodged back as he'd done in their battle in the town street. Leesil followed with a full spin of his body, and his left blade cut through Vordana's shoulder.

"Chap!" Leesil yelled.

Vordana stumbled, clutching his shoulder, and Chap launched himself into the sorcerer. Wynn had closed in, unslinging her crossbow to load it. Magiere turned on Ubad, striking for his throat with her falchion.

Again, he was suddenly beyond her reach.

Magiere slashed once more, and this time saw shimmers swirl in the air around Ubad. His form grew hazy and transparent, and then he stood back a step's distance from her. The air around him settled, but not before Magiere saw the streams of white vanish, like the spirits who had assaulted Leesil and Wynn.

Ubad was using the spirits to escape her, and somehow they carried him wherever he wished without a word.

The ghosts reappeared.

Their forms and shapes blurred as they rose in a flurry about the cavern. The air grew colder by the moment. The young woman with the rope-burned throat flew through Wynn. The sage cried out and dropped the crossbow.

"Stop it!" Magiere shouted.

Two white blurs dived down at her, and she tried to twist out of their way. One struck her shoulder, and the other flew through her stomach as she tensed.

Magiere felt nothing.

There was no pain or chill agony as she'd expected. They had no effect on her.

The girl with the dark curls and torn throat materialized out of the air, and then blurred again as she flew through Chap. He didn't yelp but rolled off Vordana and backed up in confusion.

A soft smacking sound echoed from the back of cavern beyond the altar, accompanied by heavy, plodding footfalls. Two figures emerged from the shadows, and Magiere recoiled at the sight of them.

Dressed like mariners armed with curved swords, their skin was tinged gray and green. One was missing an ear.

Most of their hair had fallen out, leaving bald patches of decaying flesh. Their faces were devoid of thought or emotion as their mouths opened and closed sharply. No sound came from their throats. Their brackish lips smacked together, over and over. Wynn scrambled across the cavern floor, holding her chest as she retreated from them toward Leesil.

Vordana rose to his feet, disoriented, and clutched at his shoulder wound. He turned toward Leesil, who ducked away from another stream of white mist in the air. Magiere knew he couldn't evade these spirit creatures for long, and Wynn was clearly at a loss. This conflict was nothing like what they'd faced before. None of Leesil's skills or Wynn's knowledge would save either of them.

Magiere grew frightened as she feinted toward Ubad with her blade point. She had to do something. She would not let Leesil or Wynn die in this cave. When she saw the air shimmer around Ubad again, she lunged forward with her free hand, and it passed through the place where he'd just stood.

Her hand appeared to slide through him one instant, and as she blinked, he was one step farther away. She didn't stop, and her hand closed about his throat. Pivoting around him to face the others, she put her sword arm around his narrow chest with the falchion at his throat.

"Call them off!" she ordered. "All of them, or I'll slit your throat."

The ghosts stopped, as did the decaying mariners. Vordana turned toward her.

He was watchful and still. The wound Leesil had inflicted seemed to affect his focus more than Magiere expected, but his words sounded in her head.

Harm him, dhampir, and you'll regret it in ways you can't imagine.

"Leesil… Wynn," she called. "Both of you, run! The ghosts can't hurt me, and neither can Vordana."

Leesil turned on one foot to face her in disbelief. "No. You're the one they want."

"Get Wynn out of here!" she shouted. "These spirits can kill her and you, but not me and not Chap. Get to the wagon, and we'll meet you there."

With her eyes, she willed him, begged him to listen. Even once Vordana regained his focus, he couldn't drain her or Chap as he could Leesil or Wynn. In this fight, her partner could not help her. He would only be an added worry-but he could save Wynn, and thereby give her and Chap space to fight.

Chap barked once loudly as if to yell, "Yes!" and he snarled again at Vordana.

Leesil glanced at the dog and then back to Magiere. He seemed to understand. With an anguished expression, he backed away and grabbed Wynn by the arm as she gathered up her crossbow. He dragged her along, running between the two rotting seamen and through the passage to the cottage.

Chap circled around Vordana. The sorcerer tilted his head from side to side, trying to watch the dog and yet keep Magiere in his sight.

Magiere saw only one way to escape this standoff. She hoped Chap could pull Vordana down before he tried to worm his way into her mind again.

She pulled hard to slash the falchion across Ubad's throat.

As her arm tensed, his bony hand snatched her wrist, and a swirl of white enveloped them both.

The spirits didn't come for her. They threaded themselves through Ubad's robe, not surfacing again. She saw one meld into his exposed forearm, and his grip tightened on her wrist until she couldn't move it at all.

Ubad's other hand flew outward, and a cloud of white powder showered in an arc from his fingers toward the cauldron.

A flash of light exploded throughout the cavern. It faded to black as Magiere's arms were thrown aside, and she lost hold of the old mage. Magiere toppled back, falling to her haunches upon the cavern floor.

She blinked twice as she got up, swinging the sword before her. Her sight cleared, and she saw Chap pacing the cavern in a panicked rush, sniffing the ground and peering into the shadows beyond the torchlight.

Ubad, Vordana, the ghosts, and the corpses with their sabers had all vanished.