As he spoke, Kelson’s eyelids fluttered briefly, then closed, and his breathing once again slowed to that of deep slumber. Morgan smiled and smoothed the tousled hair tenderly, then helped Duncan pull off the boy’s boots. When they had covered him against the night’s cold, Duncan blew out all but one of the lights in the sleeping area, then followed Morgan to the fireplace.

Shivering slightly, Morgan leaned his arms and forehead against the mantel and stared into the flames at his feet.

“Something strange is happening,” he whispered as Duncan came up behind him. “I would be willing to bet that I know what other face Kelson saw during the ritual.”

“Saint Camber?” Duncan replied. He stepped back and stood with hands clasped behind his back as Morgan raised his head to run a weary hand across his eyes.

“Yes,” Morgan said. “And here’s another thing that will chill you to the soul. Derry was gravely wounded out there in the corridor. He was near death when I reached him, with a hole in his side big enough to put your fist into. And I healed him.”

“You what?”

“I know, it sounds ridiculous,” Morgan continued. “But I had this vague recollection about an ancient healing power that some Deryni were supposed to have had in the nether times. And some—wild hope, or something—I don’t know—anyway, I had to try it, for Derry’s sake. I didn’t think it would work. How could it, after so many years, in a Deryni half-breed who has never even been free to use the powers he has to the proper degree, much less . . .

“At any rate, I tried. I used my gryphon seal as a point of concentration, the same way I did when I was searching for clues in the library. I had my hands over his wound, with my eyes closed. And then, suddenly, I could feel another presence with me, another pair of hands resting on mine, power surging through me, yet not really coming from me.”

He paused and took a deep breath. “Duncan, I swear to you by all I hold sacred, I’ve never seen anything like it. As I opened my eyes—startled out of my wits, believe me—Derry started breathing normally, as though he were just asleep! I uncovered the wound, and it was gone! Vanished without a trace!”

Duncan was staring at his companion open-mouthed.

“I swear it, Duncan,” Morgan continued, almost to himself. “He was healed, completely, without a mark to show for it. Even his wrist was healed. I—” His voice faltered. “You’re the expert on miracles, Father. Suppose you tell me what happened.”

Duncan recovered his presence of mind sufficiently to close his mouth, then shook his head in disbelief. “I can’t explain it, Alaric. You—you think it was the same presence as in your vision?”