Elvenbane

She noticed that he looked a little shamefaced when she'd mentioned Valyn, but otherwise he seemed unmoved.

'She doesn't want you to have anything to do with us, Mero,' she continued, trying to make him react, trying to penetrate his indifference. 'She's going to betray us, I know she is, all of us but you...and then she's going to use you...'

A look of disgust was her only reward, and he interrupted her impassioned speech. 'I can appreciate that you're concerned about me, but I don't think that's what's really bothering you right now. You're just jealous, Shana. She's beautiful and well-bred...everything you aren't...and you're just jealous of her!' While she dropped her jaw in outrage over this injustice, he continued on, relentlessly. 'I'm sorry for you, I really am; she'd be perfectly willing to be your friend...if you weren't so sure there was something wrong with her just because she's so lovely! You know, in a lot of ways she admires you...she thinks it's really fascinating how strong and self-reliant you are. You could be her friend, Shana, if you weren't so eaten up with envy!'

Shana clenched her fingers into white-knuckled fists, and felt her ears burn with mingled shame and fury. Shame...because she was jealous of Triana; how could she not be? Triana was exquisite, and standing next to her, Shana felt like a young heifer with muddy feet and a tangled tail. But fury because the elven maiden had taken Shadow in so completely. There was no way Triana wanted to be friends! The so-called overtures she had made were all as phony as a glass ruby. Every one of them had been poisoned sweets...with mockery beneath the gentle words. But no one...or at least, no one male...was going to believe that. They wouldn't look any deeper than the surface.

'It's not you I'm worried about,' she retorted angrily. 'It's what you're doing to the rest of us! We're supposed to be finding ways to help the humans and the halfbloods, but we haven't done one single thing since we got here...because you have been spending all your time with her! You've been ignoring your wizard magics, trying to show off for her. I know you haven't been learning anything about combining your powers...you've let it all go to waste, everything I tried to show you. And I'm telling you, Shadow, she's going to betray us, you...all of us!'

As she searched his face for any sign that he'd actually heard her words, she felt herself being tempted to use her mental powers on him. If she could just force him to pay attention...and if he wouldn't, she could probably control him...

'This is childish,' Mero declared loftily. 'I'm not going to waste another moment of time on your infantile accusations.'

He reached forward and caught her arm before she could pull away. 'And don't try your wizard tricks on me...' he warned, as he took a firmer grip on her arm and forced her away from the door. 'I'm ready for them, and you won't get anywhere.'

And with that, he turned the lock and let himself out, slamming the door shut and leaving her fuming behind him.

She wanted to kick, scream, run after him and beat some sense into his head. She did none of these things. Instead, she forced herself to calm down to a point where she could think, taking deep breaths and deliberately emptying her mind, as the flush left her cheeks and ears, and her icy hands warmed.

She had to think objectively about this, she decided, when she had sufficiently calmed down. She went over to her favorite chair in the library and curled up in it, watching the tops of the trees tossing below her, as a high, warm wind whipped them, the kind of wind that heralded a storm. All right...if she kept an eye on Triana, there was nothing she could do that Shana and Keman together couldn't escape from. At least, I don't think there is. If they both watched her, they could get away. If Valyn wouldn't believe her, too bad for him. She'd get him away when Triana betrayed them all and then he'd believe her.

She indulged in a brief daydream of tearing Valyn out of the hands of Cheynar's men and escaping into the night with him...of his gratitude afterwards...

But reality intruded, and a stab of pain at the way Shadow had treated her. I am jealous of Triana; Shadow's right. The way she manipulated and used him was sickening...she drained him without his knowing, otherwise he'd be farther along with his magic by now...

She suddenly realized something and her cheeks burned with shame. She had been using the others in exactly the same way, though not to the same degree. She'd been stealing their power, a little bit at a time...and she'd been considering using her mental abilities to manipulate Shadow. To manipulate him just as surely as Triana, though in a different way.

In fact, she'd been using her powers to manipulate a great many people in the past year.

She shuddered as she realized just how close she had come to becoming like Triana. She had learned a great deal with the wizards in the Citadel...but not once had any of them said anything about morality. The wizards were not unlike their elven parents...any means was fine so long as the desired end was reached.

And that was not what Alara had taught her.

That's not right, she told herself fiercely. I don't know what is right...but I know what isn't. You didn't use your powers to manipulate friends who trusted you. That was betraying their trust.

She took a long, hard look at what the past year had made her, and she didn't much like it.

I'm becoming as bad as the elves. Worse, because I know better.

She stared at the frantically tossing branches, and tried to figure a way out of the entanglement that was right. Shadow wasn't listening to warnings. Valyn didn't listen to her much at all. Keman was completely innocent. All right, she had warned everybody and only Keman believed her. So, if worst came to worst, what could she do?

She stared at the book on the floor, the last one she had been reading. There was something she could do, she realized as she stared at it. It wasn't entirely ethical, but it was an elegant solution...

She could...she thought...steal enough power from Triana and the rest that she could transport all three conspirators out of there and back to the Citadel, that's what she could do. Or at least as many of them as she could get in the same room. Which meant that she'd better start practicing the magic on small things. If she could steal enough power...

Her hand closed on the nearly forgotten amber lump from her hoard; she closed her hand around it in an automatic reflex, then took it out and stared at it...and began to laugh.

Stupid! Of course she'd have enough power! She could use her stones to amplify it! Why didn't she think of that before? Because I was so busy being jealous of Triana, that's why.

And that was an entirely elegant solution. She could drain enough from Triana alone to take them to the Citadel...and that would leave the elven lady helpless to follow or detain them.

If she was going to do it, she'd better start practicing now. She looked up as the room suddenly darkened, and saw that the storm clouds she had sensed were rolling in, covering the sky like blue-black clouds of ink.

She'd better get ready to use this...because that wasn't the only storm that was moving in.

'Indeed, Lord Cheynar,' Triana said smoothly to the image on her wall. Let others put their teleson screens in their desktops; she preferred to lounge when she spoke to someone. 'I have seen some signs that the wizards you seek are on my property. Can you tell me again exactly what the reward is if I happen to find them?' She batted her eyelashes at him. 'I'm afraid it's quite gone out of my head. The idea of wizards loose is terribly frightening, you know.'

Cheynar sighed impatiently and explained the relatively simple reward structure all over again. Triana widened her eyes innocently, and feigned attentiveness. 'I'll have my hunters look for them most diligently, my lord,' she told him. 'I really do think they must have slipped past you and gotten onto my estate. There are too many odd occurrences...missing livestock, that sort of thing...that make a great deal of sense if you assume someone is hiding here.'

Before Cheynar could take the initiative and suggest that his men come look for the renegades, she pleaded exhaustion, and cut the communication.

Well, she thought, with a smile of satisfaction, that was certainly a good day's work. The seeds were now nicely planted. The crop should be ready to harvest at any time.

Now for Mero...

She rose to her feet and sought him in his new quarters, the spacious, private suite she had assigned him