“Hold my hand,” Yolandhe instructed, and Amberhill did. Though he enjoyed holding Yolandhe’s hand, he didn’t see what it had to do with anything. Until he did. The presences were suddenly there, slumbering away in his waking mind.

“The ruby is your key to their awakening, to commanding them. But I do not advise it.”

“No? Why? Can you at least tell me what they are?”

“Think deep into the heartstone and you will discern their shape.”

Heartstone—that is what the Berry sisters had called the ruby on his ring. And he was to think deep into it? He wanted to snap his irritation at Yolandhe for giving him no concrete answers, but he took a deep breath instead and settled. Yolandhe might come at things from an odd angle, but she had not been wrong about arcane matters so far. It was just her way to be abstruse. If she said he should think deep into the ruby to get his answers, well, then he should.

He was not sure how to go about it, but he figured asking Yolandhe would accomplish little, so he took another deep breath and gazed at his ring, at the ruby. He stared at it till his eyes watered. Nothing happened.

Think into it. The words came to him on a breath of air or in a stream of memory, and then something, a knowing, clicked inside him. He fought the urge to resist the knowing, for it came from his infestation. He closed his eyes, and saw red. Red bathed his inner eye, deep and glistening. Before he could repress it, the part of him that was Akarion issued a non-verbal command, more a force of personality, an order for the shadows to awaken.

Glowing, faceted eyes snapped open and stared into Amberhill’s mind. He recoiled as a sense of the shadows’ raw, primal nature washed over him, their cold intelligence, their anger at his intrusion.

When he opened his eyes, the surface of the water around the nearest islands roiled with waves and counter-waves, for the islands were moving.

BREAKING BONDS

Karigan sat in the chair by her window. The morning mist and fog appeared to be burning off, but sunlight fell through it in a dull haze. It was going to be a warm and humid day.

She wondered how Lhean fared, where he was being held, and if it was true he was going to be moved to the Capital. She gazed at the creased map spread on her lap. Roughly, the Capital was comprised of L’Petrie Province; and the Capital’s city, Gossham, had replaced Corsa, her home. It was a Corsa she would not recognize with its many waterways and realigned streets, all emanating outward in circles from the city’s central point, the emperor’s palace. The palace and its grounds were situated on an island in a lake that had not existed in her own time. Lake Scalus was fed by a diverted Grandgent River, now the River Scale, which then emptied into Corsa Harbor, also renamed. It was called the Great Harbor, and of all the changes, she found this the least offensive.

When she had browsed the atlas on previous occasions, it had pained her to look too closely at what once had been her home. Her father’s estate was in Corsa’s countryside, but if she was measuring the scale right, it appeared to have been swallowed up by Gossham.

Gossham? What kind of name was that? It did not inspire greatness if that was what Amberhill had wanted for his capital city.

She wondered once again what had happened to her father and aunts, to the extended Clan G’ladheon. She had guessed that many of her Rider friends had perished on the field of battle, or when Sacor City and the castle had been demolished by Amberhill’s great weapon. But her family? She still believed it was best that she not know, but she couldn’t help but wonder. She prayed they had died peacefully of old age despite the turmoil Amberhill’s victory must have wrought.

She glanced again at the map. It appeared that the Corsa Road remained, though it was now named the Capital Way. The map did not encompass enough of the surrounding countryside to show the Kingway, but when she flipped it over, there was the wider view. The Kingway had simply been renamed the East-West Road, and the Corsa Road split off where it always had. Names may have changed, but at least the essential layout of some of the roads remained. She would find her way to Gossham.

Someone tapped on her door. She folded up the map and concealed it up her sleeve.

“Yes, come in.”

To her surprise, it was the professor who entered. He closed the door behind him. “I wish to apologize for Arhys’ abominable behavior,” he announced.

“I’m not sure you are the one who should be apologizing.” Karigan replied.

“I know, I know. She is a difficult girl. Still, I am not sure what brought on this destructive behavior.”

Karigan raised an eyebrow.

“All right,” he admitted. “I know that she has been terribly jealous of you since your arrival, but I’ve had a, hmm, talk with her, and I think she’ll behave much better now.”

Karigan was, needless to say, skeptical. “What did you tell her?”

“First of all, she is confined to her room without supper.”

Karigan did not expect that this was likely to change the girl’s attitude anytime soon. “And?”

“And second, I promised to pay her more attention and to buy her some pretty dresses.”

Karigan couldn’t help herself. She laughed and shook her head. He was hopeless.

“I know. I should be more firm with her.” Then he leaned close to her ear and in an almost inaudible whisper said, “The dresses are a bribe so she won’t give away our secret door in the library.”

“You can trust her with that?” Karigan whispered back.