Poor Keth. She moves so gracefully no one ever guesses how much her bones ache.

:We are not what we were, mind-mate,: Warrl acknowledged ruefully. He had flung himself down beside the cool stone wall where he lay panting after his run. Now that he was in the light, he was even more impressive; not even a wolfhound or the grasscats of the Dhorisha Plains could best him for size. He could—and had—snapped a man’s leg in half with those formidable jaws.

“Your timing couldn’t have been better, she‘enedra,” the sorceress said, as her mare heaved herself to her feet. “I saw you were almost home when I checked this morning, then when I sensed the trouble in the valley, I checked on you first, and caught your little conversation with Kerowyn.” She checked all the fastenings on the packs as she spoke, making sure nothing was going to come loose. “I’m going to the Keep to see what I can do—”

“Don’t worry, I just came down here to tell you I’ll be playing guardian to the girl,” Tarma interrupted. “You didn’t have to ask.”

“She isn’t as helpless as you might think,” Kethry said, knotting her long silver hair up on the back of her head and pinning it there securely. She turned her emerald eyes on her partner, and Tarma for once could not read them.

“So?” She raised an eyebrow.

“I—Need woke for her.”

Silence. Four daughters, a host of granddaughters and fosterlings—not to mention all the students—not one of which woke even a spark from that piece of tin. Dear and most precious gods. For once the damned thing picked a good time to poke its nose in!

If a sword has a nose.

Tarma took a deep breath, quite well aware that her oathbound sister was waiting for some kind of reaction. “She’s neither fighter nor mage. So what’s it going to do for her?”

Kethry wheeled her mare and got her head pointed toward the tunnel. “Whatever it has to. Protect her from magic, make her fight like a hellcat. Probably more than that, things I didn’t know it could do. All I do know for certain is that with the lives of not one, but two young women depending on it, Need is going to stretch to its limits.”

Tarma considered that for a moment. “In that case, I’d better get on my way. And young Lordan isn’t getting any better for you standing there.”

When Kethry didn’t move, Tarma frowned. “There’s something you’re not telling me.”

The sorceress grimaced. “I think Rathgar was betrayed. I told Kero that whoever hired the mage and the bandits to pull this raid was probably one of Rathgar’s enemies, but I lied to her. I think it was Dierna’s uncle. That Reichert bastard.”

Tarma blinked—and swore an oath strong enough to make the witch-lights dim for a moment. “It all makes sense, doesn’t it—the fact that the raiders knew about the feast tonight and that almost everyone would be unarmed. That they knew where everything was. And that bastard has wanted the Keep since I can’t remember when. I didn’t like Rathgar, but he deserved better than that.”