The buzz of magic stopped abruptly. Dannyl and Rothen exchanged a glance, then hurried on. Reaching a crossroads, they saw Fergun standing in one of the alleys, looking through a grille in a nearby wall.
'She's gone,' he told them.
Dannyl hurried to the grille, opened it and looked inside the passage.
'What happened?' Rothen asked.
Fergun replied. 'I was waiting for Kerrin to meet me when I heard noises through the grille.'
Dannyl rose to his feet. 'So you went in by yourself and frightened her off.'
Fergun narrowed his eyes at the tall magician. 'No. I remained here, as ordered.'
'Did she see you watching and become frightened?' Rothen asked. 'Was that why she started using her powers?'
'Yes.' Fergun shrugged. 'Until her friends knocked her out and ran.'
'You didn't follow them?' Dannyl asked.
Fergun brows rose. 'No. I stayed here, as ordered,' he repeated.
Dannyl muttered something under his breath and stalked back down the alley. As the other magicians arrived, Rothen walked forward to meet them. He explained what had happened, then sent them and Fergun back to the Guild.
He found Dannyl sitting on a doorstep, shaping a handful of snow into a ball.
'She's losing control.'
'Yes,' Rothen agreed. 'I'll have to call off the search. A chase or a confrontation will probably undo the little control she has.'
'What can we do, now?'
Rothen looked at his friend pointedly. 'Negotiate.'
The smell of smoke was heavy and rough in Cery's lungs. He hurried along the passage, dodging half-seen shapes of other men travelling the Road. Coming to a stop outside a door, he paused to catch his breath.
The guard who opened the door nodded as he recognized Cery. Hurrying up the narrow wooden stairs beyond, Cery pushed open the trapdoor at the top and climbed into a dimly lit room.
He quickly took in the three bulky guards lurking in the shadows, the dark-skinned man standing at the window, and the figure lying asleep in a chair.
'What happened?'
Faren turned to regard him.
'We gave her a drug to put her to sleep. She was worried she would do more damage.'
Moving to the chair, Cery bent to examine Sonea's face. A dark, swollen bruise marked her temple. Her skin was pale and her hair slick with sweat. Looking down, he saw that the hem of her sleeve was charred, and her hand was bandaged.
'The fire is spreading,' Faren observed.
Rising, Cery joined the Thief at the window. Three of the houses across the street were afire, flames making glowing eyes out of the windows and rising like wild orange hair where the roofs had once been. Smoke had begun to billow out of the windows of another house.
'She said she was dreaming - a nightmare,' Faren told him. 'When she woke up there were fires in her room. Too many to put out. The more frightened she became, the more fires started.' Faren sighed. For a long time they remained silent, then Cery took a deep breath and turned to regard the Thief.
'What will you do now?'
To his surprise, Faren smiled. 'Introduce her to the friend of an old acquaintance of ours.' He turned and pointed to one of the men lurking in the shadows. 'Jarin, carry her.'
A large, muscular man moved out of the shadows and into the orange light cast by the fires. He bent to pick up Sonea, but as he grasped her shoulders her eyes fluttered open. Snatching his hands back, Jarin quickly backed away.
'Cery?' she murmured.
Cery hurried to her side. She blinked slowly, her eyes struggling to focus on him.
'Hello,' he said, smiling.
Her eyes closed again. 'They didn't follow, Cery. They let us go. Isn't that strange?'
She opened her eyes again and her gaze shifted over her shoulder. 'Faren?'
'You're awake.' Faren observed. 'You should have slept for at least another two hours.'
She yawned. 'I don't feel awake.'
Cery chuckled. 'You don't look real awake either. Go back to sleep. You need the rest. We're going to take you somewhere safe.'
She nodded and closed her eyes, and her breathing returned to the slow rhythm of sleep. Faren looked at Jarin, then nodded at the unconscious girl.
The big man reluctantly gathered her into his arms. Sonea's eyes fluttered once, but she remained asleep. Picking up a lamp, Faren strode to the trapdoor, kicked it open and started down the stairs.
They wove through the passages in silence. Looking up at Sonea's face, Cery felt his heart twist. The old, familiar uneasiness had become something more powerful than anything he had ever felt before. It kept him awake at night and tormented him through the day, and he found it hard to remember a time when he didn't feel sick with it.
Mostly he feared for her, but lately he had begun to fear being around her. The magic within her had slipped beyond her grasp. Every day, sometimes every hour, something near her exploded into flames or shattered. She had laughed about it that morning, joking that she was getting plenty of practice extinguishing fires and dodging flying objects.
Each time her magic slipped out, magicians came running from all over the city. Constantly on the move, spending more times in the passages than in Faren's hideouts, she was exhausted and miserable.
Lost in his thoughts, Cery paid little attention to the journey. At one point they descended down a steep staircase, then passed under an enormous slab of stone. Recognizing the base of the Outer Wall, he knew they were entering the North Quarter, and he wondered who Faren's mysterious friend was.
Not long after, Faren stopped and ordered the guard to set Sonea down. She woke, and this time, she seemed more aware of her surroundings. Faren took off his coat and, with Jarin's help, slipped Sonea's arms into the sleeves and pulled up the hood.
'Do you think you can walk?' he asked her.
She shrugged. 'I'll try.'
'If we meet anyone, try to keep out of sight,' he told her.
At first she needed assistance, but within a few minutes she had regained her balance. They walked for another half an hour, gradually encountering more people in the passages. Faren stopped before a door and knocked. A guard opened it and let them into a small room, before knocking on a second door.
A small, swarthy man with a pointy nose opened the door and regarded the Thief.
'Faren,' he said. 'What brings you?'
'Business,' Faren answered.
Cery frowned. There was something familiar about the voice. The man's beady eyes narrowed.
'Come in then.'
Faren stepped into the doorway, then paused and pointed at his guards.
'You stay,' he said. He pointed at Cery, then Sonea. 'You both come with me.'
The man frowned. 'I don't...' He hesitated, narrowed his eyes at Cery, then smiled. 'Ah, it's little Ceryni. So you've kept Torrin's urchin, Faren. I wondered if you would.'
Cery smiled as he realized who the man was. 'Hello, Ravi.'
'Come in.'
As Cery moved into the room, Sonea followed. Glancing around, Cery's gaze was met by an old man sitting in a chair to one side, stroking his long white beard. Cery nodded, but the man did not return the polite greeting.
'And who's this?' Ravi asked, nodding at Sonea.
Faren pulled her hood down. Sonea gazed at Ravi, her pupils large and black from the effects of the
