Oathbreaker

with, I'm going to arrange for the information to be sent to every mage school I know of, and spread it as far and wide as I can.'

'What?' Jadrek asked, so aghast that he stopped massaging.

'You can't stop knowledge; you shouldn't try. If you do, half the time it's the wrong people that get it first. So I'm doing the best thing you can do with something like this -- making sure everybody knows about it. That way, if it's used, it will be recognized. Mages trapped inside one of these eggs will realize what's happened and get outside help before they hurt themselves, ones outside will know the counter.'

'Oh,' he said. resuming what he'd broken off. There was silence for a while as he plainly pondered what she'd said.

One more thing to love about him. He doesn't always agree with me, but he hears me out, and he thinks about what I've said before making up his own mind.

'Huh,' he said, when she'd begun to drowse a little under his gentle ministrations. 'I guess you're right; if you can't guarantee that something harmful stays out of the wrong hands -- '

'And I can't; there's no way.'

'Then see that all the right hands get it.'

'And that they get the antidote. I don't know that this is all that moral, Jadrek, I only know that the alternative -- taking the chance that someone hke Zaras figures out what I did .first -- is less moral.' She sighed. 'I never thought that becoming an Adept would bring all these moral predicaments with it.'

He kissed the top of her head. 'Keth, power brings with it the need to make moral judgments;

history proves that. You have no choice but to make those decisions.'

She sighed again, and reached up to lay one of her hands across his where it rested on her shoulder. 'I just hope that I always have someone around to keep reminding me when something I'm thinking about doing 'isn't nice: I may still do it -- but I'd better have good reasons for doing so.'

He squeezed her shoulder, gently. 'Don't worry. As long as I'm around, you will.'

That's what I hoped you'd say, she thought to herself closing her eyes and leaning back. That is exactly what I hoped you'd say.

Twelve

'Tarma -- '

Tarma looked up from the maps spread before her to see Jadrek nudging his way into the knot of fighters she was tutoring. She'd had ample time to leam every twist and turn of the maze within the Palace, and she was endeavoring to make sure every person of the secret army knew every corridor and storeroom before the planned coup. She felt a twinge of excitement when she saw that Jadrek's expression was at once tense and anticipatory.

She excused herself and turned her pupils over to Jodi. 'What is it?' she asked him quietly, not wanting to raise hopes that might be dashed in the next moment. 'You look like you've swallowed a live fish, and you're not certain if you're enjoying the experience.'

He raised an eyebrow. 'You aren't far wrong;

that's about how my stomach is feeling. Stefan's in Petras.'

'Warrior's Oath!' She bared her teeth in a feral grin as those nearby glanced at her in startlement. Although they had been planning for this very moment, suddenly she felt rather as though the fish was wriggling about in her stomach.

'When? How long ago did you make contact?

Where is he now?'

'About three candlemarks ago, and he's with Keth at the inn; it seemed the safest place for him.'

'All right -- this is it. He's here, we're ready. Let me get Sewen and Ikan, and I'll meet you at Kethry's.' She turned on her heel and began making her way across the crowded, dimly lit ballroom. She kept sight ofjadrek as he slipped back out the door, and she noticed that he was slump-shouldered and limping slightly.