He smelled smoke, heard the roar of flames consuming a room. People screamed. The mansion walls rumbled as they split farther and farther. He looked around, confused, until part of the ceiling crashed a few feet away from him.

Fear cleared his head, and he did the only sensible thing.

He ran.

4 / Terreille

Dorothea SaDiablo, the High Priestess of Hayll, paced the length of her sitting room, the floor-length cocoon she wore over a simple dark dress billowing out behind her. She tapped her fingertips together, over and over, absently noting that her cousin Hepsabah grew more agitated as the silence and pacing continued.

Hepsabah squirmed in her chair. “You’re not really bringing him back here?” Her voice squeaked with her growing panic. She tried to keep her hands still because Dorothea found her nervous gestures annoying, but the hands were like wing-clipped birds fluttering hopelessly in her lap.

Dorothea shot a dagger glance in Hepsabah’s direction and continued pacing. “Where else can I send him?” she snapped. “It may be years before anyone is willing to sign a contract for him. And with the stories flying, I may not be able to even make a present of the bastard. With so much of that place burned beyond recognition…and Cornelia’s room untouched. Too many people saw what was in that bed. There’s been too much talk.”

“But…he’s not there, and he’s not here. Where is he?”

“Hell’s fire, how should I know. Nearby. Skulking somewhere. Maybe twisting a few other witches into shattered bones and pulped flesh.”

“You could summon him with the Ring.”

Dorothea stopped pacing and stared at her cousin through narrowed eyes. Their mothers had been sisters. The bloodline was good on that side. And the consort who’d sired Hepsabah had shown potential. How could two of Hayll’s Hundred Families have produced such a simpering idiot? Unless her dear aunt had seeded herself with a piece of gutter trash. To think Hepsabah was the best she had to work with to try to keep some rein on him. That had been a mistake. Maybe she should have let that mad Dhemlan bitch keep him. No. There were other problems with that. The Dark Priestess had warned her. As much good as it did.

Dorothea smiled at Hepsabah, pleased to see her cousin shrink farther into the chair. “So you think I should summon him? Use the Ring when the debris in that place is barely cooled? Are you willing to be the one to welcome him home if I bring him back that way?”

Hepsabah’s smooth, carefully painted face crumpled with fear. “Me?” she wailed. “You wouldn’t make me do that. You can’t make me do that. He doesn’t like me.”

“But you’re his mother, dear,” Dorothea purred.

“But you know…you know…”

“Yes, I know.” Dorothea continued pacing, but slower. “So. He’s in Hayll. He signed in this morning at one of the posting stations. He’ll be here soon enough. Let him have a day or two to vent his rage on someone else. In the meantime, I’ll have to arrange a bit of educational entertainment. And I’ll have to think about what to do with him. The Hayllian trash and the landens don’t understand what he is. They like him. They think that pittance generosity he shows them is the way he is. I should have preserved the image of Cornelia’s bedroom in a spelled crystal and shown them what he’s really like. No matter. He won’t stay long. I’ll find someone foolish enough to take him.”