Elvenbane

no longer necessary.'

'You see?' Shana said, turning back to Valyn. 'If he'd come looking for us then, Triana would have missed him, and we'd have wasted time trying to find each other.' She raised one eyebrow at Shadow, who nodded soberly.

'Exactly. I've been stupid; it wouldn't help to compound my stupidity. But we have to get out of here now...because in a little while Triana is going to discover I'm gone, and she's not going to be happy.'

Shana decided that she was not going to ask what he'd done. She had the feeling that his pride was smarting from this whole affair, and that he probably set up some surprise for Triana designed to salve that bruised pride. Unfortunately, that kind of 'surprise' generally made for a great deal of trouble.

She should know; she'd given in to that temptation to salve her own bruised pride more than once.

'Ancestors!' Valyn muttered. 'I wish you'd given us a little warning, Mero...how are we going to get...'

'We don't need a thing.' Shana interrupted him, a grin of vindicated triumph on her face. 'Just stay right where you are. I haven't been sulking in the library, like you all thought I was. I've been very busy, in fact...'

Her hand sought her globe of amber, and she closed her fingers around it tightly.

'Don't anybody move...' she warned.

Faster than a breath, she seized the power she needed from Triana, ripping it from her ruthlessly...

She fed the power through the amber, multiplying it threefold, and twisted it into the paths of the spell as she whispered the words that set the spell of transportation...

And she named the place.

'The Citadel...'

The last thing she saw was Valyn's mouth dropping open as the room filled with light as bright and sudden as a lightning-flash...

Her stomach lurched sickeningly...

...and they were gone.

Triana smoothed her pearl-white, silken dress over her breasts and flat stomach, and preened herself in the mirror. The fabric was just barely transparent, designed more to tease than to reveal. Mero had worn her ring at dinner, and she had seen to it that the meal was one loaded with purported aphrodisiacs. Between the spell, the dinner, and this dress, Mero should be ripe for the plucking.

She tapped on his door, then let herself in without waiting for his response, and flipped the lock shut as she closed the door behind her.

She didn't want to be disturbed by anyone, not tonight. Every indication was that Mero was not inexperienced; she was looking forward to putting him through his paces.

Mero wasn't waiting for her in the sitting room...which was probably not surprising. He was in the bedroom, of course, and given his romantic nature he had probably left the lights turned down low, and perhaps had perfumed the air with incense...she sniffed, and thought she detected the faint scent of flowers.

She slipped towards the bedroom, and eased the door open...

'Shadow...' she whispered, then stopped, puzzled.

The bed was still made up, the room undisturbed, and both were empty.

What...Now entirely perplexed, she pushed the door completely open, and walked normally into the bedroom.

Nothing.

Not a sign of life.

He's hiding behind the door, and he's going to jump out and catch me...

But he wasn't. He wasn't anywhere in the suite.

She turned, slowly, unable to believe that someone might make an assignation with her and then not appear for it. And as she turned, she saw the small square of paper pinned to the pillow.

She reached for it, and opened it.

Amateur, it said, in neatly formed script.

Nothing more.

It took a moment for her to understand what he meant...but the moment the meaning dawned on her, she was so startled that her mind went blank...

And by then, it was too late.

As she stood there, frozen with shock, someone reached out a magical 'hand' and ripped her power from her, wrenching it away from her with a force that was physical as well as magical.

Ancestors...

Her knees gave; she stumbled, then fell onto the bed. She tried to call for help, but could only gape like a stranded fish.

The only 'sound' was the one of the spell that took her power, a jangle of discordances like the music of mad minstrels.

Who...she thought, desperately trying to make her body work again. How...

But that magnificent creation that had served her so well for all these years was not responding. Her legs would not move; she could barely move her arms. As the last of her power bled away from her, and she began to black out from weakness, she tried to reach out with one hand for the bell to summon a slave.

Her vision narrowed, and sparks danced in front of her eyes.

She could feel the end of it...she almost had it...

Then...sound, overwhelming...the roar of an avalanche...the crash of thunder...

The transportation-spell?

And with that, she dropped into darkness.

Chapter 23

FEAR...

Shana's stomach lurched and twisted; she was disoriented, dizzy. Was she falling?

Fear...the growl of thunder...

Sound, an unending roar, a cacophony, overwhelming, surrounding her...

...where am I...

Nothing...not blackness, nothing...all around her.

Dizzy...sick...thunder pounding the senses...

She panicked; couldn't remember where...what...

...and dropped with a bump that tumbled her rump-first down to the ground onto the lawn of the Citadel cave. The others apparently had no better luck with their landings than she did; when her head stopped spinning and she could look about, she saw them sprawled in varying degrees of disorientation beside her.

She coughed, and cleared her throat. In the near distance, where the Citadel bulked against the back of the cavern, there were shouts. Surprise, alarm, confusion; the entire Citadel had been aroused.

'I...didn't claim it was a quiet spell,' she said weakly, as people poured out of the building.