“Herald! Lady Herald!” The voice sounded vaguely familiar.

“Herald!” It was coming from a small opening in the ceiling.

She crawled on hands and knees across the dirt floor to lie beneath it, for her legs trembled so much she doubted they’d hold her, and coughed several times before she could speak.

“I’m—here.”

“Lady Herald, it’s me, Evan—Evan, the trader from Westmark in Valdemar. The one you talked to a day ago.”

As she reached out tentatively with her Gift she wondered briefly if this, too, was a trap.

Gods—if it is—but what do I have to lose? Please, Lady—

She nearly fainted with relief when her Gift confirmed that it was the same man.

“Oh, gods—Evan, Evan, Lady bless you—” she gulped and got control over her babbling. “Where are you?”

“Outside the walls in the dry moat. Some of my acquaintances have worked in the Palace and Guard and told me of these ventilation holes. I arrived after you, late this evening—I was drinking with some of the Guard when—there were screams. They told me some of what was happening, and warned me to hold my tongue if I wanted to live. They aren’t bad men, but they are afraid, Herald, very much afraid. The Prince is making no secret now that he has evil magicians, and an entire army that answers only to him.”

—if only I’d overruled Kris—he’d be alive now—

“Later they told me they’d captured you—I—couldn’t leave you without trying to help. I bribed a guard to learn which cell they had taken for you. Lady—” he seemed to be groping for words. “Lady, your friend is dead.”

“Yes—I—I know.” She bowed her head as the tears fell anew and she did not try to hold them back.

He was silent for a long moment. “Lady, you saved my life; I am still in your life-debt. Is there some way I can help you? The Prince means to keep you living; I am told he has plans for you.”

Hope rose to faltering life. “Can you help me escape this place?”

And died. “No, Lady,” he said sadly. “That would require an army. I would gladly try alone—but it would not serve you. You would still be here, and I would be quite dead.”

Half a dozen ideas flitted through her mind; one stayed.

“Are these holes straight? Could you lower something to me, or bring something up?”

“If it were something small, yes, Lady; easily done. My guide told me that they were quite straight, and unobstructed.”

“Can you find me two arrows—if you can, see that the barbs of the fletching are heavy—and—” She faltered, and forced herself to continue. “—and at least ten drams of argonel.”

“Have they hurt you, Lady? There are safer ways to ease pain than argonel. And Lady, that much—”