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The camp of the Red Hand burned.
Gasping for breath, Tamla dropped to the ground and channeled just enough to clear the air around her. Her lungs burned from the acrid smoke and her eyes stung with tears.
"Light preserve me," Mel whispered as he stared through the trees at the remains of the camp. Tamla didn't have to follow his gaze to know that there were still people trapped in there, still fighting each other even as they were roasted alive. She clutched the dagger at her side convulsively; the part of her that had sworn itself to the Great Lord of the Dark shuddered with disgusted, while a small piece of her heart drew back in abject horror. The Creator and the Light are my shield and my guide, and grateful am I to be blinded by their brilliance...
She pushed the useless thought away. I am a servant of the Great Lord and I serve him before all else. The dagger scraped at the edge of her mind, seeking a way in, but as long as her grasp on idar held she would be able to negate its influence.
Darris knelt beside Mai, Tem, and Wat, whose still forms rested on the cool grass. Tamla could almost sense the fine threads connecting their bodies to the Dreaming. Were she to follow them, perhaps she could lead them to safety, but that would mean leaving the others to their own devices. She would not do that. She was a demon, not a monster.
The little piece of her heart laughed. Two different words for the same beast.
"We have to get them away from here," Mel murmured. "I'd say have the boys use their power to carry the sick ones, but "
"But as well light a signal fire on the Black Tower," she finished grimly. By all rights she should just take the Paladin to Shagul and leave the others to their fates. The Great Lord would reward her as he had no other perhaps even make her Nae'blis.
Her eyes fell on the still forms on the ground.
And she knew that there had never been a choice. Not without crossing the fine line between demon and monster.
She looked at Mel. "Do you trust me?"
"No," he said bluntly, "but I know you'll do what you have to."
She closed her eyes and drew on idar not the sweet, clear nectar that her tie to the Great Lord gave her access to, but rather on the filth that was somehow less tainted. The weaves flew together, one on top of the other, and she lifted the comatose youths up slowly and carefully, shielding them as best she could in cocoons of Air.
"You can channel," Mel said slowly, his face unreadable. Ihvan and Keiran had their hands on their weapons, both ready to strike her down.
Darris just stepped in front of Mai. "Are you a demon?"
Yes.
She glowered at him. "Would a demon be helping you?"
He dropped his eyes and did not question her further. For that she gave silent thanks; she was not sure she would have been able to lie. She was so tired of the half-truths and deception that revealing even such a small thing as her channeling ability left a part of her feeling wonderfully free.
"We could look for survivors..." Ihvan began slowly.
Mel shook his grizzled head. "There won't be any. I've heard stories about things like this. It's a madness takes the camp and strikes down everyone in it. They turn on each other and fight until there's no blood left in the winners."
"Ma'sha Mreth," Tamla explained. Darris and Keiran looked at her with utter incomprehension, but Ihvan visibly paled. He knew the stories, at least. "We have to get moving," she said with a voice that sounded shaky even in her own ears. "Aravalon is too far and if Ihvan is right, there is no sanctuary there. I would suggest the Trahelion lands, but..." She did not know the other demons by name, just as they did not know her, but she was not naοve enough to believe that were she would go unrecognized by Ihvan's sister.
"The border," Keiran said suddenly. He looked surprised at his own daring. "The Captain's raiding Dicia. She knows me and my brother, and I'll bet she can find help for your friends."
It was as good an idea as any. "The border, then." She looked at Mel and saw him nod once, slowly. Clearly he liked the thought no more than she, but there was nothing else to be done.
The small group trudged into the darkness, leaving the flames and the death behind them.
***
Need.
This time Mai managed to catch herself on the Protector's arm before she stumbled on the unfamiliar ground. The mysterious woman held her long enough to make sure that she was steadied, then released her grip as an unreadable emotion flickered across her face. Pain, Mai guessed, suppressed as quickly as it had surfaced. She had seen it before, on Tem's face when other voices had spoken through them.
Tem. Demons have Tem. She drew a steadying breath and looked the Protector squarely in the eyes. "Where is she?"
"Follow me." The woman glided over the ground, moving among the trees like a ghost. Mai gripped the hilt of her knife and followed her. She could feel eyes on her as she stepped cautiously through the Dreaming; when she darted quick looks around, she thought she caught sight of gleaming wolves' eyes before her strange watchers vanished from sight.
The Teacher stirred in her head. Wolves live in this place, he said with remarkable lucidity. They would never come near the Forsaken without a leader.
A leader? Mai asked silently. She wasn't above using ghostly voices when she needed to. Especially the Teacher, who had his sane moments and wasn't quite as determined to slaughter anything in sight.
The voice was quiet for a moment. I was their leader. I led the Hundred to their deaths. I led the world into madness. Ilyena!
Oh, shut up. Mai pushed the voice back, turning her attention back to the present. A beastspeaker? she wondered silently. Doesn't a beastspeaker lead the beasts?
She stopped short as a part of her made the connection. She wasn't entirely sure that part belonged to Mai DeShellay. "Jaia?"
The Protector whirled around to glare at her. "Don't you have the sense the Creator gave seaweed?" she hissed. "Do you want to save your friend or not?"
Mai ignored her. She turned her attention to the eyes, dropping her voice to a whisper and calling on the barest fragment of another's memory. "I know you're here, Jaia."
"Mai?"
Despite everything she had been through, despite the brutal self-control she had tried to force on herself, the Paladin let out a soft cry and hurried toward Jaia.
For it was indeed the third vereni, staring at her disbelievingly as she emerged from the shadows. Mai whimpered and threw herself into her friend's arms. One of them was shaking she was not sure whom and tears stung her eyes. "I didn't know you were alive," she whispered.
Jaia smiled faintly. In the darkness her eyes glowed, and somehow Mai was not surprised. "Dav and I are safe," she said very softly. "I had to believe you were too." Abruptly her smile vanished. "There are people up ahead with Tem, in a clearing. They smell wrong."
"They're demons," Mai explained. "I think they're setting a trap for me."
"I thought so. I was going to try to rescue her when I found you." Jaia turned toward the clearing, her loose brown hair falling in rippling waves down her back. She was wearing some sort of leathers, Mai realized suddenly, and her soft cloak was made of coarse fur. "What are we going to do?"
"We aren't doing anything. I'm going to get Tem out of there."
Jaia gave her a stern look, as if she was a recalcitrant child. "You may be the Paladin, but you haven't had any training, remember? Those are three demons!"
"She is right, Mai DeShellay." The Protector leaned forward so that her voice would not carry. "You will be shielded and captured before I or anyone else can prevent it."
Mai balled her hands into fists. "I'm not leaving my friend!"
"I didn't say you should," the Protector said patiently. "But there are three of us, not one. And you have allies, Jaiana Mideer."
Jaia shifted uncomfortably, her golden eyes flashing. Mai knew better than to ask exactly how the Protector knew about Jaia and her wolves. When she wanted to explain, she would.
"Someone come up with an idea," she snapped, "or I'll stick to mine and bloody march in there."
The Protector looked at Jaia expectantly.
"All right," the golden-eyed vereni said with an enormous sigh. "I think I have a plan."
***
"That is the dumbest plan I've ever heard!"
"Like you have better." Wat glowered at Brendell Cane, daring the other young man to elaborate.
Unfortunately he did, in great detail. "I don't care how powerful you are," Brendell bit out. "Chasing after Mai will just get you all killed! You're not the champion of the Creator and last I checked, you aren't vereni either!"
"So what?" Wat demanded. " The two of them stood on opposite ends of the small clearing like children who refused to go anywhere near each other. "Mai's marching off with some strange woman to face demons "
"That 'strange woman' is the Protector, you stupid Troc-get!"
"Let her use her bloody Servants, then!"
Brendell stared at him in frank disbelief. "Are you ignorant or just thick-skulled? For Creation's sake! You do know that your friend's the Paladin, right?"
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"She's going to face the Dark One at Shagul!" Brendell thundered. "That's her destiny, you misbegotten spawn of a Shade! Just because you're too in love with her to "
Wat rounded on him. "I'm not in love with her!"
"You're doing a bloody good imitation of it, then." Brendell sighed, all of his anger seeming to drain out of him. When he looked up at Wat, it was with something very much like sympathy. "You can't protect her," he pointed out gently. "Not from who she is."
"What else am I supposed to do?" Wat kicked at the dirt with the toe of his boot. "She's stronger than I am now and she doesn't even care that I want to protect her because she has those two sons of swine fawning over her and..." He shook his head. "I'm the one who was always there for her. It just isn't fair."
Brendell just looked at him. "I don't think she'll ever be yours, you know. She belongs to the world."
Wat groaned. "Not you too."
"What are you...?" Sudden comprehension dawned on Brendell's face and he smiled faintly. "I don't love her, you idiot. I admire her because of what she does and who she is, but I don't love her." Abruptly the smile faded. "Even if I did, I wouldn't tell her. It would be better that way."
Despite himself, Wat found his curiosity piqued. "Why? I mean, if you love someone, you have to tell them."
Brendell quirked an eyebrow.
"I mean that's what some people do," Wat added, selectively ignoring his own hypocrisy.
Brendell's eyes dropped to the dirt. "One of the Sisters Saw sometimes not very often, but enough. She was a nice woman, I suppose. She refused to be one of my handlers." Here a harsh laugh escaped him, sending shivers down Wat's spine. "One day she Saw when she was visiting me in my cell, bringing me some extra food. Her Seeings weren't big grand ones like normal. Hers were always little things about whoever was nearby. I think that's why the High Seat let her live. She was harmless."
"What happened?" Wat asked impatiently. "What did she See?"
"She said that I will meet a girl with a great destiny. I will fall in love with her only her, because she will be the only love of my life and together we will fight for the sake of the Light." He closed his eyes. "And then she will die."
"I...I didn't know." Wat stared at his boots, suddenly feeling very petty and selfish. Maybe Mai had forgotten he even existed, but at least had didn't have something like that hanging over his head. "When you see her, will you know?"
"That I love her?" He shrugged. "I don't know. I've never been in love before. Maybe you can tell me."
Wat tried a weak smile, only to allow it to fade a moment later. "If you did know, I mean. Would you tell her?"
"Why would I do that to her?" Brendell shook his head, a strange, sad light sparkling in his eyes. "I don't even know if she'll love me back. Maybe if I'm lucky I'll make myself hate her, and then she won't have to die."
"Or maybe she'll die anyway," Wat pointed out bleakly.
"Did you know you're the most depressing person I've ever met?"
Wat shrugged and stared out into the darkness, searching for any sign of the girl he...he loved with all his heart. He would follow into the darkest depths of Shagul, if only she would let him.
"I try," he said quietly.
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