Magda howled with anguish, but noble Sabak had not finished his grisly work. He leapt from the corpse and charged toward the edge of the woods, toward Inza.

Magda moved to block Sabak's charge. If there were any of his faithful hound's heart left untainted by the shadow, she might win him back. If not, she would be the one to end his suffering.

As the raunie stepped toward her daughter, something cold seized her foot and she stumbled. By the time she regained her balance, the shadow that had grabbed her was almost to her knee. Another squirmed across the ground to join it. With all the strength she could distill from her rage and sorrow, Magda struck this second attacker. The creature exploded, but the victory came at a terrible price. As Gard struck the ground, it snapped with the sickening sound of a bone breaking.

Magda clutched a fragment of the shattered cudgel as she fell to her knees, hacking at the shadow wrapped tight as a tourniquet around her right thigh. Each blow gouged another grisly runnel in her leg and sent a crimson haze of pain across her vision. "The sea of blood," she murmured. "The end so soon."

The fog before her eyes cleared just enough for Magda to see Sabak corner her daughter against a vardo. The hound lunged, but Inza didn't flinch. With the coolness of a trained assassin, she sidestepped the attack and plunged her dagger into the top of Sabak's head. The knife's handle still jutted from the dog's shattered skull when his corpse hit the ground.

Magda wept tears of relief and sorrow. She scarcely noticed as another shadow crawled onto her crippled leg, and another. Finally she toppled to the ground. She could feel the dank coolness of the shadows' touch as they crept across her back. The dark, liquid forms merged, forming a single band around her throat.

The shadows did not intend to possess her form. They meant to destroy her.

A single name escaped the raunie's lips: "Soth."

The death knight emerged from the mundane shadows cast by the fire. He drew his sword, blade dark with the blood of a hundred slaughtered foes, and scattered the salt shadows before him. The damned souls cringed at his passing. They could not bear the touch of his dead flesh, and the unearthly cold that radiated from his form, the eternal ache of the grave, withered them like orchids in a blizzard.

The Knight of the Black Rose fell to one knee beside Magda. With his gauntleted fingers he tore away the shadows from her throat. They writhed in his grasp until he crushed them, leaving only a fine ebon dust that whispered through his fingers.

"I gave you my word," the death knight said. "I am here."

"Not soon enough," she rasped, "but that is my fault." Magda closed her eyes and held her hand to her savaged throat. The fingers came away bloody. "I am through."

Soth dropped his other knee and cradled Magda's head in a fashion that was almost tender. He raised her so that he might hear her swiftly fading voice. "I go to my ancestors," she said, "or, rather, they come to claim me. Such is always the way, great lord. The past cannot be denied." "Perhaps," he murmured.

"But it need not be a trap." The raunie looked up at the Wanderers, who stood in somber array behind Soth. Inza was there, too. The girl's green eyes were hard, her face an unreadable mask.

"My child will help you prove that," Magda continued. "Swear you will protect her as you vowed to protect me."

The death knight bowed his head. "As master of this cursed land, you have my word."

"In return, I lift the curse my grandmother laid upon you on the night you entered these dark domains," Magda said. A fit of coughing took hold of her, and it was a moment before she could speak again. "For killing my family, Madame Girani damned you never to return to your home, though it always be in view. For vowing to preserve my family, I remove that curse and wish you safe journey."

Had Soth's withered heart been able to beat, it would have thundered in his chest. "Can you grant me passage from this place?" he asked.

"No," Magda said. "But there are others…" Her eyes fluttered closed, and she reached up a trembling hand to the death knight. In her bloody fingers she clutched a single white rose. "She comes for you."

With that, Magda Ilyanova Kulchevich died. Lord Soth plucked the rose from the corpse's fingers. As he took that fragile bloom in his hand, something marvelous occurred. A white moon joined unseen Nuitari in the nighttime sky. Its lovely light shone down on Sithicus, bathing the land in a radiance that made everything seem at peace, if only for a little while.

"Solinari," the death knight whispered. "The white moon of Krynn."

The people of Sithicus interpreted the moon's appearance in myriad ways. Some thought it a harbinger of doom, others a sign that the time of troubles had ended. To Soth, though, the meaning of that pale white orb was clear. He was one step closer to home.

"What will you do about Malocchio?" Inza asked, interrupting Soth's musings.

The death knight regarded the girl coolly. "You think him responsible for the assassins?"

"Who else could it be?" Inza looked to the other members of the troupe. They remained silent, just as she had expected.

Soth didn't notice. He had started across the camp, to the spot where Sabak's corpse lay. A salt shadow protruded from its open mouth, struggling to free itself from the body. The death knight withdrew the dagger from the hound's skull. Quickly the shadow slithered up the nearest vardo's wheel and into the open window.

"Whose wagon is this?" Soth asked.

"Mine," Inza replied. "As is the knife."

Soth studied the dagger for a moment. "Impressive," he said as he handed the weapon to her. He presented it handle first. As the girl took it, the blade's needle point scored the fingers of the dead man's gauntlet.

Soth did not ask for permission to enter the vardo; like all things in Sithicus, the wagon was his property.

He was startled to find the interior so similar to the cluttered wagon kept by Madame Girani. A high stack of manuscripts collected dust in one corner. A cloth-covered table held a heap of trinkets and small boxes crammed with charms. Cages housing all manner of strange birds hung from the rafters; they chittered and chirped nervously at the death knight's passing.

"Why would the shadow hide here?" Inza asked from the doorway.

Soth tossed aside the carpet covering an ornately carved chest hidden toward the back of the wagon. Salt was scattered on the floor all around the box. "Because this is where it, and all the others, had been hiding for days," Soth rumbled.

He threw open the box. The shadow hung on the underside of the lid like some monstrous spider. It dropped onto the salt heaped in the chest, trying to bury itself. Soth snatched the thing up and slowly crushed it.

Inza crowded close. The chill of Soth's presence didn't seem to bother her in the least. "How did Malocchio hide the shadows in there?" she said.

Soth slammed the chest shut. "It wasn't Malocchio who sent the assassins. It was Azrael."