Then Chap jumped to his feet, growling softly, his attention focused upward.

"Shhhh, don't give us away," she whispered.

She knew he wouldn't, but felt a need to remind him. All the two of them had to do was wait for Rashed to finish his search and come down the stairs. The wooden boards beneath her knees were attached to her home, to her business, and she would defend them. She leaned closer to the hole and peered toward the stairs.

Noticing soft light reflecting off the wood near her face, she glanced down. Her topaz stone was glowing. Chap whined almost pitifully, and Magiere was about to tell him to be quiet again, when a scream rang out from upstairs-female, high pitched, and terrified. A child's voice.

Magiere knew the voice. It was Rose's.

Chap rounded the bar toward the stairs before she could respond, forcing her to follow.

"Wait!" she ordered in a loud whisper.

He stopped, growling low, body trembling.

Magiere had counted on meeting Rashed in an open fight. She had felt his thoughts in the cave below the warehouse. Monster or not, she'd felt his perverted warrior's sense that would bid him to attack alone. Would Rashed use a child as bait? Such an act seemed out of character. She joined Chap at the foot of the stairs.

Rose screamed again and didn't stop this time. Magiere grabbed the scruff of Chap's neck.

"Slowly," she said. "Keep a sharp watch."

She hated allowing herself to be lured into a trap, but there was no choice. Rose was in danger.

Staying alert, they crept up the stairs toward the sound of Rose's cries. Not running to help her became more difficult with each step. Nearer the top, she could tell the sound came from her own room. She peered quickly around the wall's edge with one eye, then pulled back. The door was wide open.

"Get Rose," Magiere whispered. "Do you understand? I'll fight. You just get Rose."

Chap stuck his head out around the top of the stairs toward the door, then back toward Magiere, and he growled.

Magiere stepped into the hallway to see Rose sitting on the floor of her room, crying loudly. She appeared unhurt, but tears streaked her face, and she was so frightened that Magiere struggled not to simply run in and grab her. Otherwise, the room, what she could see of it, appeared empty.

"Come here," she whispered, hoping Rose might be able to run out on her own. "Come out of there, now."

Rose only shook and cried harder.

Magiere stepped forward cautiously, Chap inching along close at her side. As she approached the doorway, she leaned her back near the right wall and, stepping sideways along it, watched the left side of the room come into view around the doorjamb. She held out her hand to Chap, motioning him to wait. When her shoulder brushed the doorjamb, the whole room was in view.

It was empty, wind blowing through the still-broken window where Rashed had crashed outward several nights before. She relaxed slightly, and reached out her hand to Rose.

Rose's eyes turned upward.

Magiere ducked as a hand slashed down from above the door. Fingernails raked her throat in a wild attempt at a grip as a body landed on her back, driving her down on one knee. Rose's cries turned to hysterical screams, mixing with Chap's snarls.

The hand grasping her jaw still fought for a grip, and if it managed one, it would most likely snap her neck. Strength and rage welled up in Magiere, but this time she knew it would come, and so it did not overwhelm her.

She pushed off from her folded legs, curling her head and shoulders down, and turning in mid dive until her back and her attacker led the slide across the floor. When she collided with the nearest bedpost, the attacker was caught between the post and her own back.

The bed lurched and the hand across Magiere's jaw lost its grip entirely.

Magiere rammed her elbow backward. The point of it connected with her attacker's torso, and she was able to scramble away, spinning around on hands and knees to hold the falchion at guard in front of her.

As in the forest the night before, just the sight of Teesha caused Magiere to hesitate. Everything about this exquisite creature seemed like a dream, unreal. But the scratches on Magiere's throat felt real enough, reminding her of the danger.

Teesha was on her feet instantly, and Magiere lunged, driving her around the bed's end-and across the small room. Magiere shifted in the other direction across the side of the bed, ready to cut through lithe woman's back if she tried for the window.

"Now, Chap!"

Teesha froze as Chap rushed in, gripped the back of Rose's muslin dress with his teeth, and dragged the screaming child into the hallway out of sight.

Open, honest emotion shone off Teesha's fine features-hatred.

"You thought to break my neck when I entered?" Magiere asked. "Do you have another idea now?"

"I can move faster than you. I won't let you hurt him again."

Magiere experienced an unwanted moment of hesitation. The uncontrollable fury she normally dealt with when facing these creatures seemed weak.

She looked at Teesha's brown curls and red gown and small waist. There was no sword in Teesha's hand. She simply appeared to be a lovely young woman. Enraged, but not a monster. And even though Magiere knew better, Teesha's appearance affected her, as did the small woman's words. This creature was trying to protect its… partner, companion… mate?

"I never wanted this battle," Magiere said, not quite sure why she spoke. "He started this."

"Rashed? No, you began this."

"It was him, and Ratboy, who broke into my home and killed Rose's grandmother."

"After you befriended the blacksmith, sniffing about his sister's death place, asking questions. Lie to yourself if you want, but not to me. You've been hunting us since the day you arrived."

Confusion threatened Magiere. Is that what they thought, that she'd come here to hunt them?

"No, Teesha. I never-"

"You're tired," Teesha said, her voice melting from cold anger to sweet comfort. "I can see it in your face. And no wonder, after what you have been through these past nights. Poor thing."

Warmth and sympathy swirled inside Magiere's mind.

"Life isn't easy for your kind," the compassionate voice said softly. "No, it's just as hard as ours. Always in motion, alert, waiting and watching. Sit with me, share with me. I will listen. I will understand."

Magiere once saw a tapestry of a sea nymph on the wall of an expensive inn. The tapestry was so well executed that she remembered standing for a long time and examining every detail. The portrayal was so alive as the nymph's arms reached outward in welcome, abundant dark hair falling to her waist, stray damp curls clinging to narrow cheeks.

Teesha sat before her on the rocks, droplets of seawater clinging to the bare skin of her cheeks and throat. Did she wear a red dress? Did the smooth white of her stomach show through a jagged rip in the cloth? The compassionate eyes looked at Magiere. Arms stretched out to invite her.

All she had to do was lower her sword and lay her head on the nymph's shoulder. Teesha would understand. No one in Magiere's life had ever held her, comforted her, that she remembered. Not friends… there had been no friends… not family, not even Aunt Bieja.

Leesil. He had done this once, one long night on the road, or had it been twice? Had it really happened at all?

Magiere stepped forward and was rewarded with a grateful smile.

"Tell me everything," Teesha whispered. "I will care for you. I will take your sorrows and drain them away."

Her fingers brushed Magiere's chin and moved up to stroke her temple.

Chap growled from the open doorway.

Teesha's attention flickered briefly toward the dog.

The nymph faded from Magiere's visions. There was only the woman, the creature. Teesha. Magiere backstepped once as her sword arm pulled up and swung level.