"Who's Malcolm?" she asked. He looked up at her and smiled.

"That's Malkallam's real name. He's actually quite a nice fellow when you get to know him."

"Which you have, of course," she said dryly. It was so like the Alyss of old that his smile widened.

"I'll tell you all about it later. Just give me a minute, this is the tricky part."

He had the acid bottle again and was pouring liquid into the shallow well he had dug in the stone and mortar. Again, a cloud of bitter fumes billowed up, followed by a smell like burning rust. He paused, lips pursed in concentration, and watched the result. As before, the acid seemed to be taking longer than it should. He tested the first bar and felt a little movement. It was working then-but nowhere near as quickly as he had been led to expect. He considered pouring more acid in, then discarded the idea. It would only spill across the windowsill and that was something he felt they should avoid.

There was nothing they could do but wait. He replaced the stopper and handed the leather bottle through the bars to her.

"Here. Put this somewhere," he told her. He had no wish to do another climb with that stuff in his pocket. Absently, she placed the bottle on its side on top of the deep stone lintel above the window.

"What beats me," he continued, trying to keep her mind off the climb ahead of her, "is where that damned John Buttle sprang from? By now he should be with the wolfship on Skorghijl."

"The wolfship got into trouble," Alyss answered. Buttle had boasted about it when he had first recognized her, before Keren had her brought to this tower room. "They were caught in a storm. It drove them west and they hit a reef off the coast. She was badly holed and they barely made it to shore. They ran up the River Oosel to hide out for the winter-but when they thought the ship was sinking, they untied Buttle, so he'd have a chance."

"I take it he repaid that act of kindness in his usual form?" Will said, and she nodded.

"They were exhausted when they made it to the Oosel. He killed two of the guards and escaped. He came here purely by chance."

"And found he fit in perfectly," Will said. She nodded.

"It's funny," Will continued, "how people like Buttle and Keren seem to find one anoth-"

He stopped in mid-sentence as she held up a hand. He looked at her curiously, seeing the blood drain from her face. She had heard the door to the outer room open and close, and the sound of voices as Keren spoke to the guards outside.

"It's Keren!" she whispered urgently. "Will, you've got to get out of here! Go now!"

She bundled up the rope and shoved it through the bars, letting it fall to the flagstones far below. Will tugged desperately at the first bar. It moved farther now but it was still too solid to remove.

"Go!" Alyss repeated desperately. "If he finds you out there, he'll kill us both."

Reluctantly, Will conceded that she was right. Trapped on this narrow ledge, he couldn't hope to fight Keren and the guards. And at least if he were free, he'd have another chance to rescue Alyss.

There was a burst of laughter from the anteroom outside. Alyss's eyes widened as she heard the key turn in the lock. Will knew he would have to leave, but there was one thing more he had to tell her.

"Alyss," he said, and she looked at him in a fever of agitation. "If he questions you, tell him anything he wants to know. It can't do us any harm now. Just answer his questions."

She couldn't reveal his plans, he thought bitterly, because he didn't have a plan. But there was no sense in her suffering to conceal facts that Keren had probably guessed already.

"All right!" she said.

"Promise me," he insisted. "Nothing you can tell him will harm me."

Alyss was on the verge of panic but she knew he wouldn't go until she had promised.

"I promise! I'll tell him everything! But go! Now!"

He was busy looping the rope between his legs, up his back and over his right shoulder.

He tugged on his gloves and seized the tied-off end of the rope with his left hand about half a meter above his head, using his right to belay the loose end against his hip.

Alyss's stomach heaved as Will let himself plunge backward into space, controlling his fall with the loop of rope running around his body, fending off from the wall with his feet.

"I'll come back for you," he called softly. He began moving slowly down the wall. The temptation was to get to the bottom as quickly as possible, but he knew that rapid movement was more likely to attract the attention of the sentries on the ramparts.

Hurriedly, she moved away from the window, pulling the curtain across it before she did. She had to stop Keren from noticing the rope for as long as possible. If Will were caught halfway down that drop, he was as good as dead.

Alyss had barely made it to the table when the door opened and Keren entered. As he locked the door behind him, she took a deep breath and forced herself to calm down, using all her willpower to face him with a look of utter contempt.

"Well, I'm back again," Keren said. He smiled cheerfully at her, ignoring the icy stare she turned on him. Then he frowned, his nose wrinkling as he sniffed the air.

"Good God, what's that dreadful smell? Have you been burning something?"

Alyss thought quickly. She had grown accustomed to the pungent fumes from the acid but they were obviously still in evidence. Keren's question gave her an idea, however. She drew herself up to her full height and looked at him disdainfully.

"Some documents of mine," she said. "I thought it best if you didn't learn what was in them."

Keren regarded her thoughtfully. "Is that right?" he said, a little less cheerfully than before. "I suppose I should have searched you earlier. That's what I get for being a gentleman-you try to deceive me." He reached into the pouch at his belt. "But you seem to forget that my little blue friend here can make you tell me everything that was in them."

Alyss's heart beat faster as he produced the blue stone. In spite of all she knew about it, she felt an almost overpowering compulsion to look at it. She wrenched her eyes away from it with a supreme effort.

"You seem to forget," she said, mimicking his sardonic tone, "that the last time, I managed to break its hold on me."

Keren sat in one of chairs, crossing one leg over the other while he tossed the blue stone casually in his hand. He smiled in genuine amusement.

"True," he told her, "but I did tell you that the second time would be much easier?"

Alyss turned her back on him and walked toward the door, ensuring that his gaze was directed well away from the curtained window. She wasn't sure, but she thought she could hear an occasional creak from the rope tied there.

"Your cheap sorcery doesn't impress me," she said. "It's all tricks and delusions and I know how to counter them."

Keren nodded indulgently at her. "I'm sure you could," he said, "if it was, in fact, sorcery. But this is something altogether different. This is mesmerism-a form of mind domination. The stone is merely a focus point for your mind. It relaxes you and helps me control you."

Alyss laughed scornfully, although she was deeply worried by what he had just told her. She was way out of her depth here, she realized. But she had to play the game out to give Will more time.

"And now that you've told me, I'll make sure I resist the temptation to relax," she said. Keren shook his head.

"Normally, you could do that. If you know the purpose of the stone, you can resist it. But you've already been entrapped. And that initial control creates something called 'post-hypnotic suggestion.' "

Alyss rolled her eyes in derision. "How absolutely terrifying," she said. But a worm of fear was eating away inside her. Keren was altogether too confident, and the one thing she had learned about him was that he didn't make empty boasts.