"Where is the other dr—the other Kantri?" asked Jamie. "I thought he had only fallen behind a little. It's been more than an hour already."

"Alikfrikh has seen our fire, they will be here soon," I said. "Will did not take easily to flight, and he has delayed them."

"Is Rella with him?" Jamie asked.

"Alikirikh is a lady," I corrected gently. "And yes, Rella is with her. She is well and hearty, and laughing loudly at Will, as I understand it." I explained Will's difficulties with flight, and Jamie also laughed.

"Once they do arrive, I assume we're to have a council of war?" said Maran.

"Surely that can wait for the morning," said Vilkas, yawning.

"No, Mage Vilkas, it cannot," said Varien emphatically. "The Black Dragon appears to need neither food nor rest. It flies like nothing I have ever seen—like a creature that has seen flight but never learned how it is done—but for all that, it will arrive at its destination all the sooner." His voice grew heavier. "The Winds alone know what madness is brewing in the East Mountains, but my life on it, as soon as it arrives at its destination we will be the worse for it."

"Your pardon, Master Varien," said Aral meekly. "No disrespect to you, but can we not sleep until the others—arrive—oh," she ended quietly, as Alikirikh and her charges came to land.

Rella and Will were offered food, which she accepted and he did not at first. A brief blue healing glow from Aral, sent gently to Will, repaired his appetite.

Once we were all assembled, round a roaring fire in the deep night, we held the first Great Council of the new world. True enough, we never thought of it in those terms at the time, but that is what it was. A meeting of Kantri and Gedri together, to solve troubles that afflicted both. For all that we accomplished little, for all the awkwardness of it on both sides, there was a sense of rightness as well. It was at least an effort to plan, to work together to overcome a threat that faced us all. I believe we all found comfort in it, even Alikirikh. I had never been so long in her presence before without hearing a single complaint.

I was most pleased to see Shikrar come back to himself. I had been worried about him, and though I had tried to bespeak him, he would not hear me all day as we flew. I do not know what he and Akhor had spoken of while I sought food, but when I returned all awkwardness was past and Shikrar was himself once more. That yawning darkness that had been growing in his soul was healed now, by whatever means, and I was grateful for it.

We always assume that life will simply continue as it is. I have seen this same assumption among the Gedri, but for us it is worse, for we live so very long, and life for us can flow along unchanged for long years together. I did not believe that the coming of the Black Dragon was truly the end of the world, but I was absolutely convinced that it was the end of the world as we knew it, and that all the careful plans Shikrar and I had made for our people in Kolmar were going to have been so much wasted breath. My use-name means "She who knows without knowing." Sometimes I wish I didn't. I understand that ignorance can be a great comfort on occasion.

"The part I can't understand, Shikrar, is why you have to fight the Black Dragon? It goes against all reason," said Rella. "If it's that dangerous, why not just run? Scatter to the four winds! You can all talk to one another, distance isn't a problem. Go in a hundred different directions, make it do the work to seek you out while you think of a way to defeat it."

"It is the Demonlord," I said simply. "Even if we cared only for our own hides, even if we were willing to choose cowardice and let the Demonlord murder countless numbers of the Gedri while we sought only safety, we would only buy ourselves a little time. Perhaps your people do not remember, but we do. The Demonlord took great delight in death. He murdered hundreds of his own people before ever he killed Aidrishaan, and he could not be touched by our Fire, as true demons can."

"If that is indeed what animates that creature," muttered Rella. "I can well believe it a demon, but how did Treshak know? She could only see it pass overhead, at a distance. Surely—"

"Treshak was right," I said firmly. "Even if I had only her instinct to believe, I would trust that; but I have proof."

Varien looked up sharply. "What proof?"

"The Demonlord began life as a child of the Gedri," I said heavily. "He was human. I heard the Black Dragon today, when it looked up and saw Treshak diving towards it. The sounds it made—I think it was trying to laugh. As humans do. And I would swear on my soul that it said the word that created the Lost, but for some reason the spell did not work this time. My soul to the Winds, my friends. Treshak was right. It is the Demonlord returned, in the body of a golem of fire."

Perhaps we were all too weary, perhaps too much had happened that day, but not one of us could think how we might defeat a creature whose body was the fire of the earth itself. We all vowed to consider it while we were flying the next day, and the others went apart to sleep. The Gedri composed themselves around the two fires.

I watched, greeting the moon when it finally rose, singing in my heart with the stars that slowly wheeled overhead, making sure that no danger came nigh them.

Jamie and I spread our bedrolls, and he let me fie nearer the fire. What a gentleman.

We lay close and kept our voices low, that we might not disturb the others. There was a great deal to talk about, but in the end we were both too weary to say much about anything aside from the obvious. I was angry at myself, ignoring matters of great moment to deal with matters of the heart, until I realised that up until that time I had never had a matter of the heart that was so desperately important to me.

"I know you've spoken with her," I said, doing all in my power to keep my voice neutral.

"Yes, I have," he replied, his free arm about me. "And you were right. That kind of love is hugely flattering. Dear Goddess, Rella. I never dreamed that she was so true to me in her heart."

My own heart dropped like a stone. I must have stiffened, for Jamie leaned forward a little and kissed the back of my neck. "I said it was seductive, my lass, not that I was seduced."

I breathed again.

"I swear to you, Rella," he said, in that voice of utter truth that undoes me every time he uses it, "if I had been in any doubt about the two of us, if I loved you one whit less than I do, I'd have gone to her. Shia knows, I pity her with all my heart, and— well, you know I have never stopped caring for her."

"Then why are you here with me?" I asked. Of course I knew, I knew fine. I just had to hear it from him.

"Because you are my match, Rella my girl," he muttered into my ear. "I swear I can all but hear your thoughts. You complete me somehow." I smiled as his arm tightened around me. "My soul to the Lady, I never knew there was such an empty place in my heart until you came along and filled it." He sat up a little, leaned over, and kissed me sleepily. "I love you, Rella."

"Thank you for that, heart," I said, leaning back against his warmth. After a few moments I added, "I love you too. Can we go to sleep now."

For answer I heard his near-silent snore in my ear.

Good enough.

I thought I had pitched my bedroll far enough away not to hear them, but even around so large a fire there was only so much room.

I knew how it was. I had known before ever I caught up with them, and in my more rational moments I was happy for them both.

But, dear Lady, to hear his voice again, speaking such words to her! No dagger could be as sharp, or anywhere near as painful.