“Then she’s gone,” Kindan declared in a flat, dead voice. The others looked up at him. “She went with Drith and K’tan.” He pursed his lips grimly. “That’s why she gave the vial to Nuella. She knew there is no hope, so she went as best she could.”

“No!” Fiona’s word was loud, clear and defiant. “She didn’t do that.”

Kindan frowned at her and shook his head. “Your problem, Fiona, is that you don’t know when to quit.”

“Of course I don’t,” Fiona agreed, her eyes flashing angrily. “You taught me that!”

“Me?”

“‘Step by step, moment by moment,’” Fiona said, repeating the words of Kindan’s song from the Plague. “Vaxoram said those words to you. You remembered them; you didn’t give in when the Plague threatened to kill us all.” She jabbed a finger at him, her eyes welling with tears. “You saved my life when even my father had given in to despair.” She reached out and grabbed his chin in her hand, forcing him to meet her eyes. “I won’t let you give in.”

“She’s dead, Fiona!” Kindan shouted, jerking out of her grasp. “She’s gone between, her grief too great, and she’s left us. She knows we’re doomed and she couldn’t bear to keep watching us all die slowly, dragon by dragon.” He turned to Tullea. “So she kept her word to you and then she left.” He turned back to Fiona. “She’s gone. You can’t hear her, can you?”

Fiona shook her head, lips quivering. “No, I can’t.” She looked up at him again, declaring stoutly, “But just because I can’t doesn’t mean she isn’t alive, Kindan.

“She won’t give up, she loves you too much.”

“She’s left me you,” Kindan said bitterly. “She could leave me knowing that you’re still here. In fact, she probably left because of you.”

Fiona’s eyes flashed and her hand leaped up, the sound of her slap startling everyone.

“Don’t ever say that,” Fiona told him savagely. “Don’t ever think that.”

“Because the truth hurts too much?” Kindan asked, raising a hand to massage his stinging cheek.

“It’s not the truth,” Fiona said quietly. “The truth is that she loves us both.”

“She loved her brother and sister, too, Fiona,” Kindan replied, his anger suddenly gone, his voice matching hers. “She couldn’t save them, either.”

“She wouldn’t give up,” Fiona declared. She looked up at him. “She learned it from you, just as I did.” Kindan’s eyes widened and his head jerked up at her words, as though stung once again. Fiona shook her head. “She’ll pay any price, Kindan, she’s already—oh!”

“What?”

“Oh, no!” Fiona sobbed, her legs sagging. Kindan and T’mar rushed to grab her and she wrapped her arms around them feebly for support.