Estian glowed with a thousand torches as we approached. Seen from above, the confusing twists of the main streets spiraling away from the palace took on a pattern. I could see where streets had been closed off in ages past or new ones opened, but the original layout of the streets had circled a place not far from the current castle where there was an open market now.

I could see the low stone walls of the market, where children perched to eat their meat pies or baked apples in the daytime. From above the pattern of the walls looked like a three-towered keep, and I wondered how long ago it had been brought down.

Oreg swooped suddenly and brought us to ground just behind the Asylum in a small park that belonged to a wealthy merchant’s house. I slipped off his back and he regained his own form.

“I’ll have to transport us in,” he said.

I nodded. He stepped behind me and put his hands on my shoulders. Hurog magic, dragon magic flooded me and blocked my senses from everything but its presence. When I could see again, we were in a cell in the Asylum. The smell of the place raised the hair on the back of my neck, so I concentrated on other things.

A cold crystal magelight hung suspended from the ceiling, too far away for the cell’s occupant to reach it and cover the light to give himself some privacy. Guards could look through the slit in the door at any time and see the whole small cell. Abruptly I recalled that the laboratory had been lit the same way.

“Ward?” said Kellen, seated on the bench.

I turned away from the door and dropped to my knee. Oreg, I noticed, remained standing. “My lord.”

Kellen came to his feet and strode over to me. I bit my lip to keep from voicing my dismay—I’ve seen healthier people die from starvation.

“So they did get you out.”

I could hear nothing in his voice, but I wondered how it would feel to be caged for a decade and then released. A man who’d been a prisoner for so long would know how to hide fear very well, but that didn’t mean he didn’t feel it.

“Yes, my lord. And we have come here to free you as we should have a long time ago.”

He waved away my apologies and began to pace, muttering to himself. Each moment brought the chances of drawing the attention of the guard, but I said nothing.

Finally he turned to Oreg and said, “From what Rosem told me, you must be the wizard Oreg. Can you destroy this board?” He waved his hand to the board that served him as a bench—and a gameboard. “I don’t want to leave it behind.”