“He’s awfully still,” Richenda said, kneeling down and reaching to touch Warin’s brow. “Warin? Lord Warin, can you hear me?”

As she tried to turn his face toward the light, she suddenly recoiled as she found herself staring at a mouth that bulged with a gag hastily applied. Suddenly she knew the reason for the odd angle of Warin’s shoulders beneath the cloak. The hands were bound.

Aghast, she raised her eyes to search for Derry and found him backing purposefully away from the sleeping Brendan, no longer aware of her presence. She stiffened as he stepped into shadow and a faint glow appeared around his head.

“Derry!”

Abruptly she knew his intent, sensed the Transfer Portal beginning to glow around her son. She sprang to her feet and brushed past Derry, reaching the Portal just as the energies began to shift. The Portal stabilized as she exerted her will to stop it, but only until Derry streaked onto the Portal behind her, pinning her against his chest and dragging her from the circle.

She tried to scream the boy’s name to wake him, but Derry’s hand was clapped tightly across her mouth. Even as the first guard stuck his head through the doorway in response to her cry, she saw there was a second shadowy figure silhouetted in the circle, and then a ghostly third who bent toward the sleeping child.

“No!” Richenda shrieked, wrenching halfway away from Derry as the man scooped up her son. “Bran, no!”

Power began to stream toward the man from her fingertips, but she could not control its direction with Derry pulling at her, and the guards seemed woefully slow. Helpless to stop it, she saw the circle flare with light and then dim. She cried out, “Brendan!” once more, as the guards pulled Derry away from her and tried to subdue him. But it was too late to save her son. The boy was gone.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

“Thou art a priest for ever…”

PSALMS 110:4

BY the time Kelson could be summoned, the royal pavilion was swarming with guardsmen. A hush descended as the king entered the chamber, accompanied by Morgan, Duncan, and Arilan. Then the only sounds were the forlorn sobs of Richenda, slumped in the center of the empty Portal, and Derry still struggling against his restraints. Several soldiers stood helplessly beside the lady, unable to offer any comfort, and others were attending to the unconscious Warin and untying the overpowered guard. Derry continued to make periodic shambles out of his side of the chamber, sometimes taxing the ability of five guards to hold him.

Kelson assessed the situation in a glance, and in the same motion waved the excess guards out of the tent. There were murmurs of consternation, but the men obeyed. When they had gone, Kelson and Morgan started to move toward Richenda. The lady looked up briefly, then turned her head away.

“Do not approach me, Sire. There is evil in this circle. They have taken away my son, and I cannot find him.”