He looked at her. «What problem?»
«If I tell you this, you must promise to keep it to yourself. Do you promise?»
He nodded. «All right.»
«When I heard you tell Cinnaminson she couldn't come with us, all I could think about was how insensitive you were being to her situation. You saw it as common sense: If she came, she would be placed in danger again, and you wanted to keep her safe. I saw it through her eyes: You were casting her off as damaged and useless, no longer worthy of being a part of your life. She's in love with you, Penderrin. I warned you about this, but you paid no attention to me. You brought this on yourself, giving her so much of your time aboard ship, telling her how wonderful she was.»
He bristled instantly. «I didn't say anything I didn't mean! Anyway, I don't see—'
She held up one hand in warning. «Don't say anything more until you hear me out. Youdon't see, indeed. If you did, we wouldn't be having this conversation. Now, listen. What do you think happened to her after that monster killed her father and the other two? Do you think she was left alone? Do you think that all that happened was that she was used to track you? It was bad enough that she had to lie trussed up and helpless belowdecks and listen to the cries of her father and cousins as they died; that was damage enough for an entire lifetime. But that wasn't the end of it.»
He went cold. «What are you saying?»
Her dark eyes fixed on him. «I'm saying that she endured three days alone with that monster, and it wasn't satisfied with using her gift for night sight. It used her for other things, too. She told me. You didn't ask her if she had been abused physically, did you? It never even occurred to you that she might have been violated in other ways. This thing, this creature that took her, doesn't have any qualms about watching others suffer. It likes it. It enjoys inflicting pain. All kinds of pain.»
He stared at her. He tried to say something, but the words lodged in his throat. A wave of nausea washed through him.
«So now she views herself as despicable.» Khyber held his gaze. «When you tell her she can't go with you anymore, she sees it as an affirmation of what she already believes to be true about herself— that she is worthless, that no one could love her. It doesn't matter that you don't know the truth because she has kept it to herself. It's enough thatshe knows.»
Pen looked off into the darkness, filled with sudden rage, filled with a need to exact revenge for what had happened, but impotent to do anything but sit and fume. The images that filled his mind were so terrible that he couldn't bear them. «I didn't realize what I was doing by telling her she couldn't come,' he said quietly. «I didn't know.»
She squeezed his hand. «I wish you still didn't know. I wish I didn't have to tell you. But you still care about the girl, don't you? So you need to know what's happened to her so that you can understand what she's going through. She's fragile in ways that you don't see. She might have mind–sight, but it's not sufficient protection against the monsters of this world and not enough to make up for the loss of her family. Her father, bad as he was, loved her, and she loved him. He was the support she could fall back on when things were too much for her. Who's going to offer her that support now?»
«I am,' he said at once.
«Then you can't tell her you intend to leave her behind.» Khy–ber's voice was fierce. «You can't make her safe that way, Pen. 1 know taking her is dangerous, but leaving her is worse.»
They stared at each other in silence. In the background, the music and singing of the Troll revelers wafted through the darkness, rising above the firelight, echoing off the rock walls of the cliffs. Pen wanted to cry for what he was feeling, but no tears would come.
«I'll tell her she can come,' he said finally. «I'll tell her I was wrong, that we need her.»
She nodded. «Be careful what you say and how you say it. She wouldn't like it that I've told you what happened. She will probably want to tell you herself one day.»
He nodded. «Thank you, Khyber. Thank you for telling me. Thank you for not letting me make a mistake I couldn't correct.»
She got to her feet and stood looking at him. «I just did what I thought I had to do, Pen, but I have to tell you that it doesn't make me feel very good to have done it.»
She turned and walked away.
Acting on whispered instructions from Shadea a'Ru, the Gnome Hunters removed the heavy mesh netting and bound and gagged Bek Ohmsford. He could have struggled or used magic to save himself, but he was terrified that if he did so, they would kill Rue. Bitter with disappointment and self–recrimination, he let them take him without a struggle.
«You aren't half so clever as you believe yourself to be,' she said to him as the Gnomes carried him down into the cellars of the Keep. «I knew of your contact with your son the moment you made it. It was impossible to miss. I knew you were pretending at being ill earlier today, too, and that you would come back to the cold chamber to use the scrye waters again if you were given the chance. So I gave it to you.»
She leaned over and tapped him lightly on the nose, a taunting gesture he couldn't fail to register. «You couldn't get a clear reading of where Penderrin was from your first contact, — 1 saw that right away. So I knew you would have to come back and probe the scrye waters again when you thought we weren't around to see what you were searching for. Somehow, you found us out, didn't you? It was probably Traunt Rowan who gave us away. He lacks the finesse needed to fool someone as perceptive and experienced as you. Disappointing, if not entirely unexpected. At least 1 knew enough not to trust that you had been taken in by his explanation. I knew enough to read you the same way you must have read him.»
She was silent for a time, staring straight ahead into the darkness, keeping pace with the guards who bore him. She took big, full strides that radiated power and determination. She looked taller and broader through the shoulders than he remembered, and there was a confidence about her that suggested she was equally comfortable with weapons or words. He did not know what his sister had done to antagonize her, but Shadea a'Ru was a formidable enemy.
«Your son has turned out to be a meddlesome boy, Bek,' she continued after a while, «but no more so than Tagwen or the others who joined him to hunt for your sister. 1 took steps to put an end to their search, but until now they have managed to elude me. I tracked them all the way from Patch Run to the Elven village of Emberen and from there east to the Lazareen. Then, I lost them. But now, thanks to you, I know exactly where they are.»
She smiled down at him, enjoying the dark look on his face. «Oh, you want to know how I know, since I wasn't in the cold chamber with you? Anticipating your nocturnal visit, I marked the scrye waters with a little magic of my own before you tampered with them. They will reveal to me exactly what they revealed to you. That should tell me everything I need to know about your son's whereabouts, I expect. Then I will find him and deal with him.»
Bek listened with growing despair, aware of how completely he had been duped into doing just what Shadea had wanted him to do in the first place. Now he was a prisoner and unable to do anything to help either Pen or his sister. At least they were both alive. He could assume that much from what she had just told him. He could also assume she would try to change that.
They continued down until he smelled the damp and felt the cold of the deep underground. Somewhere not too far away, he heard water running. The heat of the Druid Fire was absent, as if that part of the Keep was far removed from the earth–warmed core.
Finally, they arrived at a corridor lined with heavy doors kept closed by iron bolts thrown through iron rings. His captors opened one of the doors and placed him in the tiny room beyond, a space barely larger than a closet. There was a wooden bed, straw, and a bucket. The floor, ceiling, and walls were rough and uneven and had been hollowed out of the bedrock.
They untied his arms and legs, but left his gag in place.
«Remove the gag when I am gone,' Shadea said. «But first, listen to what I have to say. Behave yourself, and you might come out of this alive. I am locking your beloved wife up separately, in a place far away from you, somewhere you can't find her easily. I know stone walls and iron doors can't hold you, but they can hold her. If you try to escape, if your guards eventhink you are trying to escape, she will be killed at once. Do you understand?»
