"He's right," Thero agreed.
"She's the head of the serpent, I'm certain of it,"
Seregil continued emphatically. "Get her and you get them all! But Klia and the others will never find that room on their own. I've got to go back in!"
"Not without me, you're not!" declared Alec.
Nysander assented with a weary nod. "Sergeant Talmir, please get these men clothing, horses, and weapons."
Beka stepped forward. "Let me go with them."
The wizard shook his head firmly. "It is not for me to countermand Commander Klia's orders. She stationed you here."
"But—"
"You stay put," Seregil warned. "It's worth your commission to leave your post. You haven't even been invested yet!"
Alec stepped away with his usual modesty to dress, while Seregil threw his cloak off with no thought but haste. As he did so, Alec was dismayed to see that the obscuration spell covering the scar had failed again; the strange scar was clearly visible. Nysander saw it, too, and shook his head slightly at Alec. Fortunately, Seregil pulled on his borrowed tabard before anyone else noticed.
Beka, who'd kindly looked away until Alec had gotten his breeches on, offered him her sword.
"Take it," she urged. "I'll feel better, knowing you have a blade I trust."
Alec accepted the sword gratefully, hearing the echo of her father's words to Seregil when they'd left Watermead.
Clasping hands hastily with her, he said, "It's one I trust, too." He hesitated, suddenly awkward; he felt as if he ought to say something more, but he couldn't think what.
"Take good care of Nysander and Thero," he said at last, "in case they have to turn us into something else to get us out again."
She gave him a playful cuff on the arm. "Good thing he didn't make you into stags and otters that time, eh?"
Outfitted again, Seregil and Alec leapt onto fresh horses and galloped back to the keep.
The main gate stood open now. Looking around, Seregil guessed that their earlier capture had disrupted the usual discipline of the place, and the garrison had been caught off guard by Klia's attack.
In the courtyard a handful of Guards were standing watch over a knot of captured servants. Stamie huddled miserably among the prisoners and refused to meet Alec's eye when he attempted to speak to her.
The rest of the raiders had stormed inside.
Overhead, flames licked out of a second-floor window.
"Looks like we can go in the front way this time,"
Seregil said with a dark grin, pointing to the shattered doors.
Scattered sounds of fighting rang through the halls as they ran for the northeast stairway. Bodies littered the stairs, but the main battle had been pressed back to the third floor.
Coming out in the upper passageway, they could hear Kassarie's remaining men making a stand at the door to the ruined tower. The halls were impossibly narrow for a pitched battle, and the fighting had spread into side rooms. Passing the open doorways, they caught sight of bodies sagging across costly, overturned furniture. The clash of swords seemed to come from every direction at once. Fresh blood spattered the elegant frescoes and the floor was treacherous with it in places.
They found Micum in the thick of the fight in the southeast corridor.
"Has Kassarie been taken yet?"
Seregil shouted, trying to make himself heard over the din.
"Last I heard they were still looking for her," Micum yelled back.
"There's a door behind that hanging." Seregil pointed down the hall at the tapestry. "Pass the word forward; we have to take it!"
A few moments later, Klia's war cry echoed off the walls as the last of Kassarie's fighters threw down their weapons and fell to their knees.
Thrusting his way through the confusion, Seregil reached the princess. "Through here," he called, tearing down the tapestry to expose the door. Trying the handle, he found it locked.
"Braknil, Tomas, get this open!" barked Klia.
Two sturdy Guards threw their shoulders against the door, wrenching it off its hinges, and Seregil and Alec led the way to the trap door. Klia followed with Micum, Myrhini, and several soldiers.
The trap door had been pulled shut again, and the sand smoothed back into place. Seregil found the ring and heaved the door open, then led the way down to the wooden stairs. Careful to avoid the tilting landing, they reached the subterranean corridor to find the final door standing open. The chamber beyond was brightly lit.
Kassarie was waiting for them. She stood by the table at the center of the room, blocking the corpse of Corruth from sight. She held a small lamp in one hand, as if to light their way, and its glow threw her harsh features into imperious relief. The room smelled hotly of wax and oil. Beside him, Alec sniffed the air, frowning.
A prickle of apprehension ran up Seregil's spine; Kassarie looked like a great serpent poised to strike. How long had she stood waiting there?
"So, you're back again, are you?" she observed with a bitter smile as he and Alec stepped into view.
Klia moved up between them. Reckless and pretty as she might be under other circumstances, at this moment she was a commander and moved with her mother's austere assurance.
"Kassarie a Moirian, I arrest you in the name of Idrilain the Second," she announced with no trace of emotion. "The charge against you is high treason."
Kassarie bowed gravely. "Clearly you have the advantage. I yield, Your Highness, with the understanding that it is to your greater strength and not to your misbegotten right."
"As you will," replied Klia, stepping toward her.
"You will find all that you seek here." Kassarie gestured around her. "Perhaps, like Lord Seregil, you would also be interested in meeting your mutual forebear."
She stepped aside and lifted her lamp with a dramatic flourish. "Allow me to present Lord Corruth i Glamien Yanari Meringil Bokthersa. Your curs there have already pilfered the body, but I think they will bear out that I speak the truth."
Too late Seregil realized that he had failed to tell Klia what they'd found. She gave a soft, startled exclamation and stepped closer.
Micum and the others were equally taken aback; all eyes fixed on the grisly sight as Klia bent to study the ravaged face.
All, that is, except Alec's.
He'd seen more than enough of corpses over the past few weeks. Avoiding the dried husk in the chair, he looked instead at Kassarie, and so was the only one to notice the gloating smile that spread across her face as she lifted the lamp still higher.
That smell. It was too strong to be just lamps.
There was no time to warn Klia. Knocking Seregil aside, he lunged forward into the room as Kassarie dashed the lamp to the floor at Klia's feet. The room was doused with oil and something else, something far more flammbale.
Searing heat sucked the air from his lungs and scorched his skin. Reaching wildly, he found Klia's arm and hauled her backward with all his strength. Behind him other hands reached out, yanking him roughly into the blessed coolness of the corridor.
"Get them down!" shouted Micum.
Alec was shoved to the floor and half smothered with cloaks and bodies. Hands pounded down across his back. Somewhere above him, Seregil was cursing frantically.
When they finally uncovered him, Alec saw that they'd dragged him back to the base of the stairs. Heat
rolled down the little passage from the open door of the chamber beyond. Inside, solid sheets of flame obscured everything from view. There was no sign of Kassarie.
Klia was lying next to him, her beautiful, heart-shaped face streaked red and black and half her braid singed away.
"You saved my life!" she croaked, reaching for his hand; the back of her own was a welter of angry blisters where oil had splashed.
"While the rest of us had our heads up our arses," Myrhini glowered, wiping a sleeve across her eyes as she knelt by Klia.