so. 'How would he feel about a Seraph who was all those things?'
The blood went cold in Malik's veins, and he swung his gaze to Yder.
'What was your question again?'
CHAPTER TWELVE
1 Eleasias, the Year of Wild Magic
In the dim light of the cell, the link was easier for Vala to feel than to see, even with skin numbed by cold and calluses. She worked her foot up the chain until she felt pit-roughened metal, then pinched the loop between her toes and lifted it toward her mouth. Even flexible as she had grown over the past couple of months, she could not bring it all the way to her face. Once the chain went taut, she used her leg muscles to pull herself closer. She let her toes slide down one link then spit a mouthful of saliva onto the pitted surface.
Vala had her doubts about whether she could actually spit her way to freedom, but with her hands manacled behind her back and no other tools to work with, it was the best she could do, and it gave her something to focus on when she was not being abused by Escanor or his retainers. She could not just sit there in the dark, waiting between sessions. She had to keep trying, to know she was at least attempting to escape.
Besides, when she had started, there had been no pits in the link at all. Vala let the chain go slack, then wrapped her toes into it and began to jerk downward against the eye hook that secured it to the wall. A hundred times, then find the link and spit. If she just kept working at it, something would give. The hook would loosen in the wall, or the link would grow rusty and break, or a guard would think she had lost her mind and grow careless enough to let her kill him. Something would happen. It had to, if she was ever to see her son again.
A voice whispered, 'Vala?'
Vala hit the end of the chain and was back on the floor before she realized she had jumped. She spun on her seat, her legs cocked for thrust kicks, and found no one there.
Great, she thought. Something has happened. I've started to hear things.
'We're not going to hurt you,' the voice said.
Vala squinted toward the voice and saw nothing but murk, then a tiny man in black robes hopped onto her foot. She wasn't just hearing things. The man-the delusion, she corrected herself-had an unruly black beard and dark eyes, but his face and arms were too light to be Shadovar.
'No need to cower, my dear,' he said. 'We're friends of-'
Vala flicked the figure off her foot and heard it hit a wall with a real-sounding thud. She was cowering, frightened of her tortured mind's own phantasms.
'I won't let this happen,' she said to herself. Vala straightened her shoulders and raised her chin-but she did not lower her leg. 'Go away!'
'Softly, child!' This time the voice was female, and it came from over near the door. 'Mind the guard.'
Another voice, on her other side, began what sounded like a spell. The bearded figure returned, this time flanked by two female figures with flowing silver hair, and Vala realized that, phantasms or not, they were all around her. There could be hundreds of them out there in the dark, swarming over the floor. Thousands, maybe, an army of dark little shadow faeries come to feast now that her flesh was suitably battered and bruised. She screamed. She could not help herself, the sound just erupted as she let out her next breath.
The shadow faeries cringed and looked toward the door, and in the next moment Vala was silent. Her mouth remained open and her throat continued to vibrate, but there was no more sound.
The male faerie looked toward the door and asked, 'The guard?'
'Still thinking about it,' the female voice whispered. 'He's curious, but not alarmed.'
Vala could see her, another silver-haired faerie down on the floor, peering around the corner of the archway.
'Keep an eye on him,' the male said.
Followed by the two silver-haired females, he circled toward Vala's head. They were joined by a third female, which fluttered over from behind Vala and settled on the floor next to them. Vala tried to spin around to bring her feet toward them but one of the females made a motion with a sliver-sized wand, and she found herself unable to move.
'I'm sorry we frightened you,' the male said. 'Clearly, your ordeal has taken more of a toll than we imagined.'
Had Vala been able to talk, she would have suggested that they change places and see what kind of toll being a Shadovar slave took on him.
'Can you stop screaming?' asked one of the women. 'We have some questions.'
Vala grew aware of her aching jaw and realized that her mouth continued to gape open, that her throat was raw from screaming. She clamped her mouth shut and glared at the black-clad faeries beside her. They certainly looked solid enough.
The woman nodded, made a dismissive gesture, and a whimpering, rasping sound came to Vala's ears. It took a moment to identify the source as her own throat.
'Good,' the man said. He held his hand out and moved it in a placating motion that made Vala want to kick him. 'We're friends of Galaer-'
'Galaeron?' Vala finished for him.
She brought her breath under control. Phantasms or not, she could not have these faeries telling Galaeron that she had whimpered when they came for her.
'He sent you?' she asked.
The women looked at each other. They looked uncomfortable.
'What's wrong?' Vala demanded. 'Is he hurt?'
'We wouldn't know,' the man, whose manner was gruff, said.
One of the faerie women stepped in front of the male and said, 'Galaeron is on a mission of the utmost importance to all of Faer?n.'
'As are we,' said the second woman, also stepping in front of the male. 'Perhaps it would help if we introduced ourselves. I am Storm Silverhand.'
'I'm Dove Falconhand,' said the woman at the door.
'I am Alustriel Silverhand,' said the woman who had cast the spells. She motioned at the last woman, who was still standing beside the black-bearded man. 'This is our sister Laeral.'
'And that would make me Khelben Arunsun.' The faerie man pushed his way between the two women who had stepped in front of him. 'Now that you're properly awed, maybe you'd care to answer a question or two and help us save the Heartlands.'
Vala scowled down at the male, quite certain that she had lost her mind.
When she didn't say anything, Khelben rolled his eyes and turned to the one who had introduced herself as Alustriel.
'How can she not know who we are?' he asked. 'Is Vaasa so backward?'
'We know of the Chosen even in Vaasa,' Vala said. 'We also know the difference between flesh and phantasm. Why would the five of you show up in my cell, the size of dolls, unless I were mad?'
'Because we need your help,' Alustriel said. She stepped over and placed a hand on Vala's jaw. Her touch felt real enough, solid and warm. 'We must find the mythallar, and you're the only one who can help.'
'Trouble!' hissed the woman by the door. 'The guard's coming.'
The faeries vanished as quickly as they had appeared, leaving Vala alone in her cell.
'Wait!' She felt more isolated than ever-and more certain that she was losing her mind, more frightened. 'Don't!'
The guard appeared in the doorway, a hulking shadow lord with ruby eyes and filed teeth. Vala thought he was Feslath, one of Escanor's favorites.
'Don't what?' Feslath demanded. 'Who are you talking to?'
Though his Shadovar eyes could see in the dark as easily as Vala could see in daylight, he did not even bother glancing around the cell. He knew as well as she did that there was no one in the room, that her mind had
