the prisoner.
“I thought so,” Nora said. “Get your hands off me, sheepfucker.” She twisted in his grip as he raised his hand again.
“Enough of that, Dorneng.” Ilissa’s voice, silvery hard, from behind him.
“I’m just tying her up, as you said.”
“Thank you, darling.” She smiled at him. “I’ll look after her now. And now I think you’d better hurry, don’t you? So that no one’s alarmed by your absence.”
“They don’t suspect anything,” Dorneng said, but he began to move toward the Avaguri’s mount. He gave Ilissa a sidelong, greedy look as he went. She blew him a kiss.
The Avaguri’s wings started their slow cadence. Nora shivered in the gust of ice air as Dorneng took flight. “Well, thank you for making him stop,” she said to Ilissa.
“You are still my daughter-in-law,” Ilissa said. “I cannot allow a wretch like that to manhandle my son’s wife. Now, do I need to tie up your hands, darling? Or can I trust you not to run away?”
“Where would I go?” Nora asked.
“I just don’t want you to do anything foolish. But you won’t, will you? You’re always so sweet, so reliable— at least when no one is filling your head with silly falsehoods. Of course I can trust you, isn’t that right, darling?”
Nora nodded, felt a giddy rush of pleasure at the thought that Ilissa still trusted her, and then the prick of shame to have ever doubted someone so beautiful and gentle. How wonderful—but how typical!—of Ilissa to forgive such monstrous ingratitude. Nora let emotion flood through her. Then, from another part of herself, high and free, she watched it slowly ebb and dry.
Nora pulled herself as straight as she could and shrugged off the rope. Then she reached inside her cloak to adjust the clothes that Dorneng had disarranged. It took her a little while. When she was finished, she wrapped the cloak around herself more tightly and finally looked up at Ilissa, her fists clenched in her lap.
Help, Nora thought. Help. I’m Ilissa’s prisoner and I need help
“I guess Aruendiel was wrong about one thing,” she said. “You can read and write. Like the note that you forged from him.”
“Those little markings on paper?” Ilissa laughed incredulously. “Oh, darling, I don’t even know what it said. But you did, and that was all that mattered.”
“Why did you kidnap me, Ilissa?” Nora asked. “Just so you can get back at Aruendiel?”
“Do you really think Aruendiel cares anything about you, my dear?” Ilissa asked. She asked the question as though it were worthy of some consideration. “He hasn’t shown many signs of it, has he? In all this time, he’s never slept with you.”
“My private life is none of your business,” Nora said. Had her months of uneasy celibacy left so obvious a mark? Or did Ilissa’s creepy intuition, the way she could so deftly find and manipulate one’s private fears and hopes, extend to literal mind reading?
“Did he not even try to seduce you once?” Ilissa asked sympathetically. “Strange. He’s a man of strong passions, as I have reason to know. But perhaps you don’t appeal to him. You are no great beauty, after all. Not now.”
No, not since Raclin had scarred Nora’s face. Not since Aruendiel removed the glamour that Ilissa had bestowed.
Nora thought frantically: If I hadn’t asked Aruendiel to take off that spell, if I’d kept the face Ilissa gave me, maybe he wouldn’t have found me so repulsive. Because Ilissa’s right, Aruendiel never showed any sign—only that one time. He’d rather be alone than sleep with me, she thought despairingly. If I were lovelier, like Ilissa—
Careful, Nora told herself.
“I know you had an affair with him, years ago,” Nora said. “And then he dumped you to marry someone else. Quite humiliating.”
“Oh, there are always two sides to these stories,” Ilissa said quickly. “Perhaps I was tiring of him. You know, he was a fine, passionate lover—well,
“Then you must be glad to be rid of him.”
“Of course. He would not leave me alone, though. The trouble that man has caused me! All these years later, and he still hates me, still won’t leave me and my people in peace.”
“Well, you also destroyed his marriage and killed him,” Nora pointed out.
“I see he has told you all sorts of hateful things about me,” Ilissa said. “Yes, he was foolish enough to face me in combat, and he had the worst of it. I only defended myself. As for his wife—well, no one, least of all me, forced him to murder her.”
There was something bracing about this conversation with Ilissa. Nora had never heard her speak so directly. “Dorneng must be a nice change for you. You don’t seem to have any trouble ordering him around.”
“Dorneng. A sweet boy, really. So clever. He has been invaluable.”
“He helped you escape, I see. And now what? Are you trying to start another war? Bring down Aruendiel for good?”
“I wouldn’t mind that at all,” Ilissa said, smiling. “If the opportunity arises, I will take it. But what I really seek is peace and freedom for my brave, suffering people. We have been prisoners for too long! All we truly want is a place where we can live undisturbed, without walls, without hatred.”
Another scheme for world domination, Nora was willing to bet. “And why do you need me?”
“That is the best part, my dear. We are going to send you home again! Back to your own world. You’ll like that, won’t you? Poor thing, you’ve had such a hard time in this one.”
“Mostly because of y—” Nora began to say, but broke off in a sudden yawn. All at once she was so exhausted she felt drunk. It was impossible to channel her thoughts properly; they flowed in every direction and disappeared.
Her head dropped forward. After a moment, she sank down onto the ground, grateful to lie down and close her eyes. The deep snow cradled her body comfortingly in its strong grip, even as the chill sent a warning to her drowsing brain.
I’ll freeze to death, she thought with some effort; I have to get up again.
“Don’t worry, my dear, I’ll see that you’re warm. We want to keep you safe for now.” Ilissa’s silken voice waved above her like a bright banner. It was not entirely reassuring, but Nora could not stay awake long enough to remember why.
Nora opened her eyes to find herself in a small room with stone walls. Light trickled reluctantly through a high, wooden-barred window. It was very cold, although Nora was lying under a couple of blankets. Sloughing them off, she tried the wooden door, but was unsurprised to find it locked.
A thought struck her, and quickly she searched through the folds of her skirt, the blankets she had slept in, and finally the straw on the floor of the cell, without finding what she sought. Discouraged, she wrapped a blanket around herself and tried to think of a plan. She tried working some magic, but she could neither break down the walls nor open the door. Perhaps because the walls were not real walls, the door was not actually a door, she thought, remembering what Aruendiel had said about Faitoren magic.
She did manage to levitate herself enough to peer out the window, but all she could see was a snow- covered flatland. Here and there the skeletal trunks of stunted trees rose in clusters. She lowered herself to the floor and waited, shivering.
Some hours later she heard movement outside. Then suddenly she was blinking in the explosive brilliance of unclouded sun on snow. The stone walls of her cell had disappeared, but now a silver chain led from Nora’s neck to Ilissa’s slim hand. Ilissa held it lightly but firmly, the way one holds the leash of a favorite small dog.
