“What do they want from me, Remmie? That incant was the best I could do. I gave it everything. I have nothing left. So unless you agree to release Morgan, there’s no more I—”

“No,” he said, and pressed his fingers to her lips. “We can’t risk that. As for what they want, Venette wouldn’t say.”

Rolling away from him, she pushed her face into the pillow.

Go away, Remmie. Leave me alone. I’ve wrecked Dorana and I can’t fix it. Leave me alone.

Ruthless, he stripped off the blankets then hauled her from the cot.

“I don’t care what you’re feeling,” he said, his fingers cruel on her arm. “When this is over, however it ends, you can crawl into a hole if you like and never show your face again. But right now, Barl, we are going to see the General Council.”

Shocked, she stared at him. Searched in vain for her brother. Saw only a stranger with cold, fathomless eyes.

“Now get dressed,” he said. “Quickly. We’ve wasted enough time.”

By some miracle, and a great deal of magework, the Hall of Knowledge still stood… while many of Elvado’s other beautiful buildings were ruined.

Declining the offer of a seat at the Council table, Venette instead stood by the chamber’s boarded-up window with Remmie Lindin, and watched the faces of Dreen’s councillors as the unpalatable truth sank in. There should have been fifteen of them, some ranked, some not—but death had thinned the herd to eight. Nine, counting Dreen.

“You can do nothing?” Councillor Horbeck echoed, staring at Barl Lindin. From the baggy fit of his clothing, the Fourth district’s representative had been a robust man, once. Now his tired silk tunic hung in limp folds. “Nothing at all?”

Hunched in her own chair, barely respectable in stained, patched linens, Remmie’s sister looked like a chastened child.

“No, Councillor. I’m sorry. Ever since the borders were warded I have been working, almost without respite, to knit together Dorana’s tattered magic. I’ve had a little success, it’s true, but not enough. What Dorana needs is time for the imbalance to right itself, which it will do. I am sure of it. Only time is the one thing we don’t have any more.”

“No, no. You must be mistaken,” Horbeck persisted, sweating. “You are Barl Lindin. There must be something you can do!”

Venette felt Remmie flinch. For everyone’s sake, not least his sister’s, though some might say she deserved no such consideration, none of the councillors had been told of her part in their strife. All they knew was that Mage Lindin retained her magework, and that she’d used it to ward Dorana’s borders and save them from a bloody invasion.

“I’m sorry,” Barl said again. “I know you don’t want to hear this, but there’s no point giving you false hope.”