The High Lord

plan to enter Kyralia in the next few days.'

His hands caught her shoulders and pushed her gently forward. She rose and stepped aside as he climbed to his feet.

'You are exiles,' Dorrien's voice was low. 'You cannot return to this land.'

Akkarin's eyebrows rose. 'Cannot?' he asked, straightening and crossing his arms.

'Do you intend to fight me?' Dorrien asked, his eyes glittering dangerously.

'No,' Akkarin replied. 'I intend to help you.'

Dorrien's eyes narrowed. 'We do not require your help,' he snapped. 'We require your absence.'

Sonea stared at Dorrien. She had never seen him like this, so cold and full of hatred. He sounded like a stranger. A foolish, angry stranger.

Then she remembered how passionate he was about caring for the people in his village. He would risk everything to protect them. And if he still regarded her as he once had, finding her sleeping in Akkarin's arms would not put him in the best of moods...

'Dorrien,' she said. 'We would not have come back if we hadn't felt we must.'

Dorrien glanced at her and scowled. 'Whether you must return or not is for the Guild to judge. I have been ordered to watch the road and turn you back if you try to return,' he said. 'If you intend to remain, you will have to kill me first.'

Sonea's heart skipped a beat. A memory of the dead slave flashed though her mind. Surely Akkarin wouldn't...

'I don't have to kill you,' Akkarin replied.

Dorrien's eyes were like two chips of ice. He opened his mouth to speak.

'We'll go back,' Sonea said quickly. 'But at least let us deliver our news first.' She laid a hand on Akkarin's arm.

- He's thinking with his heart. If we give him time to think this over, he may be more reasonable.

Akkarin frowned at her, but did not argue. She turned back to find Dorrien regarding her closely.

'Very well,' he said with obvious reluctance. 'Tell me your news.'

'You're watching the pass, so no doubt Lorlen has informed you of the threat from Sachaka. Yesterday morning, Sonea and I narrowly avoided capture by an Ichani named Parika,' Akkarin said. 'From his conversation with his slave, we learned that Kariko and his allies plan to enter Kyralia in the next few days. Sonea and I intended to stay in Sachaka until the Guild satisfied itself that the Ichani were real and a threat, but time is running out. If the Guild want us to return and assist in the coming battle, we must be close enough to Imardin to reach it before the Ichani do.'

Dorrien regarded Akkarin impassively. 'Is that all?'

Sonea opened her mouth to tell him about the Ichani in the South Pass, but then she pictured Dorrien riding up into the mountains to investigate for himself. The Ichani would kill him. She choked back the words.

'At least let us rest here for today,' she pleaded. 'We are exhausted.'

Dorrien's eyes slid to Akkarin and narrowed, then he glanced over his shoulder at the other riders.

'Gaden. Forren. Might the Guild loan your horses for a day?'

Sonea peered over the flank of Dorrien's horse at the men. They exchanged glances, then two began to dismount.

'I have no authority to grant you a day or even an hour in Kyralia,' Dorrien said stiffly, as the men led their horses forward. 'I will escort you to the Pass.'

Akkarin eyes burned dangerously. Sonea felt him tense. She tightened her grip on his arm.

- No! Let me talk to him on the way. He will listen to me.

He turned to regard her, his expression skeptical. Sonea felt her face warm.

- We were almost intimate once. I think he is angry because you took me away.

Akkarin's eyebrows rose. He regarded Dorrien appraisingly.

- Really? Then see what you can do. Just don't take too long.

As one of the men drew near, Akkarin stepped forward and took the offered reins. The man shrank away, glancing nervously up at Dorrien. The young magician said nothing as Akkarin swung up into the saddle. Sonea approached the other horse and managed to haul herself up onto its back. Akkarin turned back to regard Dorrien.

'After you,' the Healer said.

Sonea's horse followed as Akkarin turned his mount and urged it toward the road. They travelled single file, making private conversation impossible. All the way through the forest she could feel Dorrien's eyes on her back.

When they reached the road, Sonea pulled back on the reins so that her horse slowed. When it was walking beside Dorrien's, she glanced at the Healer, but suddenly could not think of what she should say. It would be so easy to anger him further.

She thought back to the days she had spent with him in the Guild. It seemed a long time ago. Had he hoped he would regain her interest one day? Though she had made no promises, she felt a pang of guilt. Her heart was Akkarin's. She had never felt this strongly about Dorrien.

'I did not believe Rothen when he first told me,' Dorrien murmured.

Sonea turned to look at him, surprised that he had broken the silence.

He was watching Akkarin. 'I still can't.' His eyebrows knit together. 'Once he told me Akkarin's reasons for taking your guardianship from him, I understood why you put a distance between us. You thought I might see how unhappy you were and start to ask questions.' He looked at her. 'That was it, wasn't it?'

She nodded.

'What happened? When did he turn you away from us?'

She felt another pang of guilt. 'About... two months ago he asked me to come with him into the city. I didn't want to go, but I thought I might learn something that the Guild could use against him. He took me to see a man - a Sachakan man - and taught me how to read the man's mind. What I saw in it could only be the truth.'

'Are you sure? If the man believed things that were wrong, you—'

'I am no fool, Dorrien.' She held his gaze. 'That man's memories could not have been false.'

He frowned. 'Go on.'

'Once I knew about these Ichani, and that their leader only needed to prove that the Guild was weak to gather enough allies to invade, I couldn't stand by and let Akkarin do all the work. I asked - no, I insisted - that he let me join him.'

'But... black magic, Sonea. How could you learn such things?'

'It was not an easy choice. I knew it was a terrible responsibility, and a great risk. But if the Ichani attacked, the Guild would be destroyed. I'd probably die anyway.'

Dorrien's nose wrinkled as if he had smelled something foul. 'But it is evil.'

She shook her head. 'The early Guild didn't think so. I'm not sure I do either. On the other hand, I wouldn't want the Guild to begin using it again. If I imagine Fergun or Regin wielding that kind of power...' she shuddered. 'Not a good idea.'

'But you consider yourself worthy?'

She frowned. The question still bothered her. 'I don't know. I hope so.'

'You admitted to using it to kill.'

'Yes.' She sighed. 'Do you believe I'd do something like that just for the sake of making myself stronger? Or do you think I had a good reason?'

He looked away, at Akkarin. 'I don't know.'

She followed his gaze. Akkarin's horse walked about twenty paces ahead.

'But you think Akkarin would kill for power, don't you?'

'Yes,' Dorrien admitted. 'He admitted that he has killed many times before.'

'If he hadn't, he'd still be a slave in Sachaka - or dead - and the Guild would have been attacked and destroyed years ago.'