I was inside in a moment, lantern in hand, setting the delicate lockpicks against those rough manacles to release her from her chains. There!

And suddenly she was free and in my arms, my girl, my own Lanen. I stole enough time from our peril to hold her to me for a breath—forever—then I took her arm and pulled her with me. Every bone in my body was screaming at me to run.

The moment I reached the road I called out in truespeech. "Shikrar, my friend," I cried, striding as swiftly as I might towards Verfaren, holding my fist to the stitch in my side. "How fare you?"

"I have eaten a little, and rested," he replied. "I am still hungry, but that may be addressed in time."

"There is no time, Shikrar, do you hear me ? 1 am filled with the most terrible foreboding. I beseech you, my friend—my wings are gone forever, I must needs borrow yours. When will you be able to fly?"

My head ached instantly from using truespeech, my side was worse, and I noticed as I walked that the wind was rising. From the south, of course. I was headed directly into it.

There was the merest hint of a sigh from Shikrar. "I am at your service, my friend. I have eaten but little, I am yet wing-light."

"Then come now!" I cried, breaking into a run for a moment, despite the pain, ere I was forced to walk again. My heart pounded in my chest like a great river over rapids, and of a sudden I found I was terrified. I could not stop shaking, and I feared in my marrow that Lanen's death was near her. "Come swiftly, soulfriend, find me on the road. I will not stop to wait for you."

Even as I bespoke him, I felt the fear of death enter me. "Shikrar, swiftly, to me!"

The moment we stepped outside the cell several things happened at once.

First and most obviously, we sprang Berys s trap, for more of the Rikti appeared and began attacking us—though they seemed to concentrate on Jamie. I fought them off as best I could.

The second thing that happened was that, to my infinite delight, I could hear again, and I could speak.

"Varien!" I cried, as loudly as I could in truespeech. "Come swiftly, my heart!" Then I realised—I had no idea where I was.

"Where the devil are we, Jamie?" I asked, beating off Rikti as I spoke.

" Verfaren, where else would you find half the Hells in the corridors," he grunted, between slashes at the Rikti and swerves to avoid being injured. "Come on, the farther away we can get the better. Run!"

We pelted down the corridor and I called out to Varien as we ran—

"We Jamie and I are in Verfaren the College of Mages attacked by Rikti but I am free ..."

—and met Berys and Marik turning the corner not five feet in front of it.

"Oft, Hells, it's Berys!"

I heard only "We come Lanen! Shik—" before Berys waved his hand and the beloved voice in my mind was silenced yet again.

I was getting truly sick of that trick of his.

I felt the activation of the Rikti on the prison door and hurried Marik down with me, along with two of my favoured guards who bore lanterns and the makings of the small altar that was needed to work the demonline. There was very little reason for either of us to stay in the Great Hall any longer, after all. The Lord of the Fifth Hell was doing a fine job on its own.

I was tempted to linger. The pleasure of seeing those colleagues I had despised for so many years dying in pain, confounded by a powerful demon—for they had never truly considered the possibility of such a battle, leaving such studies to me—ah, it was balm to my soul. Deeply satisfying. Still, there was no more for me to do, and I did not wish to lose my new treasure.

I expected to find the hunchbacked woman or possibly the proud student Vilkas in a foolhardy raid being savaged by Rikti; instead we ran full into the prisoner herself barely at arm's length, with some servant behind her and the Rikti nowhere to be seen. I threw up a barrier and just managed to stop them barrelling into us and escaping; they were held motionless. It was as well I was so powerful at that moment, for they struggled wildly, but my will was implacable and my power ascendant. I grinned and with a gesture stopped her from using Farspeech as well.

"How very kind," I said lightly. "Now I have two sacrifices, and you have even unlocked the door for me. Very considerate."

The guards handed off their lanterns to Marik and bore the prisoners unceremoniously into the cell they had just left.

In the event, Shikrar was nearly upon me when at last I heard my beloveds mindvoice.

"Shikrar, I have heard her! She is in Verfaren and faces Berys—in the name of the Winds, come quickly!"

"I am aloft. Where are you, Akhorr" asked Shikrar. His mind's serene voice restored in me a tiny measure of calm, at least enough to answer.

"On the road heading south of the field where we welcomed our people," I shouted, running as fast as I could. I told him what little she had said even as I ran, and heard his distant roar through the darkness. It was balm to my heart, as was the sound of his wings above me. I cried out to him in truespeech and saw him looking back and forth.

"I can't see, drat these clouds—grace of the Winds, there is the moonlight—and there you are, all of you. I come!"

All of us?

I turned around. The wind had been in my face, I had not heard the others behind me. Aral and Vilkas were on foot, Rella, Will, and Maran were mounted. Just for an instant I blushed in the darkness. At least someone had thought of horses.

Although I was proved the shrewder in the event.

The poor creatures had objected strongly to Salera when she had first arrived at the Dragons Head—was it ten, twelve days since? It seemed a lifetime—and even more strongly to Shikrar when he joined us up on the High Field, in the mountains. They were still not at ease around him, but they hadn't bolted. Or they hadn't bolted when Shikrar was walking sedately alongside them as we all came down the mountain. When he appeared suddenly from the night sky and landed with a thump right in front of them they did a spinbolt and disappeared into the windy darkness, leaving Rella, Will, and Maran to rise up and brush the dust from their clothes.

"Well, it was a nice idea," said Rella, grimacing.

"I cannot stay," I told them, as Shikrar gathered me in his hands. "I will see you in Verfaren."

"Don't leave me here!" cried Rella. "Please—Jamie—"

"I have bespoken Kedra, he comes for you," said Shikrar, and took to the wild sky. We were barely aloft when he let forth a huge hiss of pure fury, stretched his wings, and flew at the utmost of his strength. I could feel it even as he held me, I knew that bone-deep change between flight that is important and flight on which life depends.

"Raksha!" Shikrar cried in truespeech as he flew. The wind was fierce against us. "Akhor, it is a Lord of one of the Deep Hells, some kairtach has summoned a major demon!"

The wind might have come directly from the Hells that night. It blew in huge gusts, catching him on the upswing, throwing me backwards as he tumbled. The gale fought him, swiped at him, almost seemed to be trying to knock him out of the sky, but he laughed fiercely at the challenge and rode the tempest.

My heart soared. No matter that we rode on the treacherous wings of storm—it was Hadreshikrar who held me safe, who for more than my lifetime had taught every youngling of the Kantri how to fly. He was not the teacher of flight because he enjoyed the company of younglings, or because he had endless patience with them, although those were truths as well—no, he had earned his position. Every year. Only the best flyer, the one with the most experience and the greatest proven skills, was allowed to teach. He had been the best longer than I had been alive. I felt it when he caught the feel of the winds, felt him begin to move with them, anticipating the gusts by some weather-sense I envied desperately even as the blankness at my back ached for what was not there.