Now I have you.

I twined myself around and through every particle of his being, using Anhamirak to hold him close and Ahnmik to slice through the bonds between flesh and magic. I severed the rotten, tattered remnants of magic left by the am'haj poison, and felt Salem instinctively clutch at the familiar, healthy magic in my blood. One more cut and  -

I screamed as I felt the fabric of my reality rip. I struggled not to flee from the ice storm that struck me as my power slid away from me, seeking a more comfortable home. Cold... so cold. Once, I had called Ecl cold, but that had been a blessed numbness compared to this...

Back on the ice, I felt it cut into my hands and my knees as it began to shatter, as I fell into the darkness, choking on the frozen black water.

Down, someone said to me, a voice that sounded so familiar, so comforting. Dive. Now.

The beasts that used to dwell beneath the ice, forever drawn toward Anhamirak's warmth, ignored me. As I sank into the void, images of the past fluttered before me. I

walked through the white city as a child and spoke to spirits others couldn't see. Oh, how the world shone so brilliantly. The voices of the Mercy who raised me faded as I listened to the songs the city wove. I could hear the colors of the sea and taste the moonlight and feel the shifting strands of Fate all around me.

"When might I be able to see the Empress?"

This cobra had no fear at all. Though Anjay had been carried across the ocean by Pure Diamond falcons, who could as easily have dropped him into the sea, he had held his head high from the instant he had set foot on the white island  - a place no Kiesha'ra had ever stood before.

"When she decides you are worth speaking to."

Darien replied. "How am I to convince her of my worth if you never let me so much as walk in the city?"

My lady?

Let him see our land,

Cjarsa whispered through

Darien's mind. Give him beauty. There will be none in the world to which he must return.

* * *

"I have always loved you,

Darien." Years later, and still Cjarsa and my mother argued. "Always favored you. Always bent Ahnmik's rigid laws for you, though Ecl shrieks at me every time those laws are broken. I could not let a mongrel be trained in this land. Hai would never have survived if I had tried. But have you no faith at all that I might have worked toward this hena'she?"

My mother turned her back on her Empress, though she could not close her ears to Cjarsa's words or close her heart to her own hope.

"If I had let you care for your daughter, if I had not sent Kel to bring you to me and thus forced her into exile, if I had not twisted Fate as I willed with each step of the way, this Nicias would never have been born. Your daughter would nev er have risen from the darkness  -  "

"No." I interrupted them now.

Cjarsa was not surprised that I had been present and listening.

"It is little enough," she pointed out, "compared to your machinations to save Wyvern's Court. Why does it seem so impossible that I might work to save one child-the only child of my favored companion?"

"If you dared walk the line between Mehay and Ecl, where Fate is woven... but you do not. You fear it. You have feared it since the day you saw the first of your followers slide into Ecl. Araceli's terror led her to create the avian people. Yours led you to write the laws of this land, to bind you to it so Ecl could not take you."

"Enough!"

I had spoken without thinking, as if in a trance, but Cjarsa's command snapped me back from it.

"As you wish, my lady," I whispered.

Ecl'gah.

Illusion, all of it.

"I am sorry to distress you," I said. I remembered the terror that had gripped me the day Nicias had first invaded my private illusion. His soul had stained that still and silent realm forever.

Cjarsa had no other world, no other place, and no one to call her from this white realm. I did.

"Hai? Where are you, Hai?"

* * *

I could go back to Nicias. I paused, wondering. Memories of the past and the present poured through me, but I knew I could go back to him.

"Hai, listen to my voice."

So I did. It was simple. The water was cold, and deep, and dark, but I found its center, and there... I was.

Chapter 21

I opened my eyes, though it did me little good. I thought I was still in the private room beneath the dancer's nest, but the lamps had burned out long before, leaving no light to see by. What I did know was that I was once again in Nicias's arms. I felt him stir, waking at the same time that I did.

"What happens if there comes a day when I'm not here to save you?" he asked me.

"Then... I'll find my way back on my own." I struggled to gather my thoughts, remembering the last scene with Cjarsa. Had I really argued with the white Lady of Ahnmik? Or had that been another vision of another future? What possible future could I have in which I would so brazenly challenge my Empress?

My head began to pound as I remembered what we had been doing here. "Salem..." I pulled away from Nicias and closed my eyes for a moment, trying to focus past the pain at my temples. The cobra wasn't here. I would have been able to sense him even with my unfocused magic.

"He's gone," Nicias said, coming to the same conclusion. My limbs ached as I pushed myself to my feet, swaying before Nicias stood beside me and steadied me.

Together we groped our way through the darkness, toward the doorway and up the stairs, until we blinked at the sudden light and noise of the dancer's nest. Before my eyes had a chance to adjust to the brightness from the central fire, Rosalind intercepted us, her posture guarded as she looked from me to Nicias.

"Salem's awake," I said. I could tell just by looking at the dancer before me. She was wearing a simple outfit made of two carefully wrapped and tied melos, one deep emerald in color, and one black with green stitching. At her temple was a symbol meaning victory.

It was not an outfit for mourning.

"He is," she replied.

Other dancers had drifted toward us, though they left Rosalind plenty of space.

"Is he... well?" I remembered a jumble of sensations and panicked thoughts. I had no idea what I had done, in my desperation, to make the cobra wake, or what the consequences might be.

She hesitated, frowning.

Nicias understood before I did. "Hai isn't your enemy," he told Rosalind. "Salem was dying. If he is up now, it is entirely through Hai's efforts. She risked more than you can possibly imagine to go after him."

Rosalind cringed, looking away and then immediately back at me. "I'm sorry. With all that has happened... I don't understand any of it. From the moment that Oliza announced that she was going to abdicate  -  " She shook her head, making her long auburn hair ripple. "No. It started long before then."

It had started the day the young serpiente Arami, Zane Cobriana, and the avian heir to the Tuuli Thea, Danica Shardae, first sat together, in a room in the Mistari homelands, and decided that they would find a way to bring peace  -  no matter the cost. Rosalind struggled to compose herself. "You were both unconscious for several days. We didn't know if you had fought, if you were responsible for Salem's recovery, or if you were our enemies. No one knew what to do. We spoke to your mother, Nicias, and she said there was probably nothing we could do, so we left you undisturbed. I am very glad that you are awake now."

"As am I," I said. "Where can we find Salem?"

"I'll bring you to him," Rosalind offered.

We found Salem in the market, making the rounds of the merchants there.

"We have been struggling to show solidarity with the avians," Rosalind explained as we approached the restored Diente. "Zane and Danica have been around to help, as well, but it has really been Sive who has done the most." I wondered if Rosalind had any doubts about Salem's relationship with the hawk, but I pushed the thoughts away as she embraced her mate. "Hai and Nicias are awake," she said unnecessarily. Salem took a moment to assess the situation before saying,

"I've heard many different theories on what happened. Do I have you to thank for my recovery, Hai?"

"Wyvern's Court needed its Diente."

His voice hardened somewhat. "I understand you briefly assumed that position in my absence."

"I had no intention of harming Oliza, nor did I desire to usurp any throne," I said frankly. "Wyvern's Court is my home. I did what I could to try to protect it." Slowly, the cobra nodded. "Oliza tried to help calm people after you fell ill, but she was even less trusted than I was. She wasn't welcome in Wyvern's Court." I winced. "I'm sorry I caused that hardship. I will make certain to clarify what happened, quickly."

Our conversation had drawn the attention of everyone in the market. Many of the people who watched us were my allies.

As odd as it felt to consider this cobra kin, it felt almost right when I let out a long breath and went down on one knee before Salem.

"Hai, this isn't necessary," he protested.

"Yes, it is," I said. "I was not behind the attempt to assassinate you, but I was the motive for it. If you were shm'

Ahnmik, you would have me killed."

"I'm no falcon," he whispered.

"I have allies in your kingdom, Diente."

"So do I  -  but I wouldn't if I went about executing everyone who could possibly be a threat. You're innocent, Hai. You're more than innocent; you saved my life. Please, cousin, stand up."

It was the first time he had ever acknowledged any relationship between us. I didn't know how to reply.

He took my hands as I stood.

"Wyvern's Court has gone through a lot. Your help  -  and the help of your allies  -

would be greatly appreciated," Salem admitted. "When I stepped out of the dancer's nest without you beside me, even people who had protested your taking the crown were horrified. There was no way to convince them that we had not harmed you. Hopefully you will be able to calm them, now that you are awake."

"Have Salokin and Arqueete come to trial?" I asked.

"They both confessed," he said. "Out of loyalty to you, they said."

"And Prentice?"

"I asked that he be returned to the avians for trial. He was convicted of treason, grounded and exiled." Salem shook his head and moved on. "Those trials were the easiest part of the last few days. Most of our hours have been devoted to keeping people from rioting. If a few of your followers  -  the candlemaker, and a handful of others  -  had not stepped forward to speak to your loyalists, I do not think we would have been able to keep control at all."

"Gren?" Nicias asked. He had been so quiet behind me all this time that his voice startled me.

Salem nodded. "Maya was actually the one who spoke to me first. She had a few questions."

"You know who she is, then?" I asked.

"We spoke at length," he answered discreetly. "I don't know that I can do anything for her  -  I don't dare risk inciting Ahnmik's wrath  -  but at some point I would appreciate your council on the subject. Maya, Gren, Opal and Spark worked to keep Wyvern's Court from falling apart while you were gone. I don't want to ignore them now." I admitted, "If I had not spoken to them, it is quite possible that all four of them would have participated in the plot to have you killed. On Ahnmik, they would all be guilty of treason."

"And in Wyvern's Court, they are responsible only for the crimes they have committed, and for their actions, I owe them thanks." His tone clearly said he considered the discussion over and further debate irrelevant. "Though I am glad you convinced them to be on my side, and not the other."

I shrugged, still not used to his gratitude.

From above came a shriek  -  a sound that both chilled me and made my heart race. Salem, Nicias and I lifted our eyes to take in a quartet of falcons: three gyrfalcons and a peregrine.

The group banked, circling once before it dove, and then the Empress Cjarsa's Mercy landed before us.

Chapter 22

Nicias started to draw his blade but hesitated as he beheld the gyrfalcon in the front. My mother. In Wyvern's Court. I started to step forward, but Nicias stopped me with a hand on my shoulder. His eyes focused upon the peregrine beside Darien, and I heard the ring of steel as he drew his weapon defensively upon seeing Lillian, the woman who only a few months before had been his lover.

The falcons fell back into formal postures, with their feet planted slightly apart and their right hands grasping their left wrists behind their backs, under the wings of their Demi forms. They did not acknowledge Nicias or me, focusing first on Salem.

"Salem Cobriana," Darien said, "I understand you are Diente now?" Two of Salem's guards had materialized from the surrounding market, drawn by the falcons' cries, and stood beside him now as he said, "I am. And you are?" The gyrfalcon answered,

"Shm'Aknmtk'la'Dar ien'jaes'-oisna'ona'saniet'mana'Leonecl'mana'heah. And this is my working partner,

Lillian'jaes'mael'ona'sam'et'mana'heah."

Darien and Lillian, working together?

Why were the Empress's elite messengers here? They had not come when Oliza had abdicated or when Salem had nearly been killed. Why now?

I did not know whether to be overjoyed or frightened. The presence of the Empress's Mercy in this land could not be good.

Salem glanced at Nicias.

"What is the white Lady's Mercy doing in Wyvern's Court?" Nicias asked. Only now did the two women turn to him. "You speak for the Diente?"