I think it was the way I saw the Bane that made me realize that I was looking at it through Jakoven’s eyes. The cloud of darkness that I’d seen in it was not there, though my hand, Jakoven’s hand, still vibrated with its power.

I took out a flask and dropped a very small drop of blood on the black gem. The stone flared red and when I touched the dragon’s head lightly, I took the power and created a magelight from it—and I still had magic left over.

I took a clean boar bristle brush like those used by artists and painted the stone with blood. Momentarily power filled my body as it had the night I, Ward, destroyed Hurog keep. I reached out with a hand and the leather table, its iron manacles, and metal base disappeared, leaving behind only a bare spot on the stone floor.

“So the Hurogs are descended from dragons,” murmured Arten’s voice behind me. “Do you know what happened to the boy?”

My lips curled as I answered the archmage. “Garranon happened. Rode out of the stables and through the gates this morning with the boy and an extra mount, heading north.”

“North?” Arten’s question held no urgency.

“Where else would you take a Hurog brat and be certain they wouldn’t let me pay them for his return? Garranon’s not stupid.”

“Really? He betrayed you.”

“The spells don’t hold him as well anymore,” I said, staring at the power that bled through my hand, not noticeably diminished from the energy expended from the destruction of the table. “It was always so much fun seducing the body while the boy writhed in guilt.”

“You’ll not find Jade Eyes writhing in guilt,” said Arten dryly.

I laughed. “More likely to find him writhing in blood. Jade Eyes has his own charms, don’t get me wrong. But I always thought when the spell I kept to insure Garranon’s loyalty faded, he’d break.”

“Maybe he still will,” suggested Arten. “I wonder how he feels betraying the man he’s loved for so long.”

I smiled at the thought. “I hope he weeps and hates himself for it as he did when he was a boy. I hope he thinks of me as he futters his wife. I . . .”

“Jakoven?”

“I have just had a marvelous idea,” I said. “Tell my guardsmen to bring me the stable master who let Garranon ride through the gates.”

“Ward!”

I sat up gasping and saw my breath gather in front of my face in the predawn light. Tosten crouched before me with a cup of something hot in his hands.

“Were you dreaming of the Asylum?” he asked.