“But you’re already receiving some assistance from the Dark Priestess,” Kartane guessed. When Hobart paled, he crossed two fingers and held them up. “Perhaps you’re not aware that my mother and the Dark Priestess are like that.”

Hobart swallowed hard. Jorval merely drank his wine and watched them out of dark eyes filled with sly glee.

“I see,” Hobart finally said. “In that case, your help is most welcome.”

CHAPTER NINE

1 / Kaeleer

Andulvar settled into a chair in front of Saetan’s blackwood desk. “Karla says you’ve been in here sulking for the past two hours, ever since you got a message from Lady Zhara.”

Saetan gave his longtime friend his iciest stare. “I. Am. Not. Sulking.”

“All right.” Andulvar waited. “Then what are you doing?”

Saetan leaned back in his chair. “Answer me this: if I were to run away from home, is there anywhere in any of the Realms I could go and not be found?”

Andulvar scratched his chin. “Well, if you wanted to hide from the Dhemlan Queens or the coven, there are quite a few places you could go to ground. If you wanted to hide from your male offspring, there are a few places in the Dark Realm that would take even Mephis a while to think of. But if Jaenelle was looking for you…”

“Which is precisely why I’m still sitting here.” Saetan rubbed his forehead and sighed. “Zhara has summoned me to Amdarh to take care of a problem for her.”

Andulvar frowned. “Lucivar’s in Amdarh, isn’t he? If Zhara needs help from a male stronger than the ones who serve in her court, why didn’t she ask him?”

Saetan narrowed his golden eyes and let the words fall like precisely dropped stones. “Lucivar is in Amdarh with Jaenelle.”

The silence thickened into a solid curtain.

“Ah,” Andulvar finally said. “Well, Daemon—”

“Is in Amdarh with Lucivar and Jaenelle.”

“Mother Night,” Andulvar muttered, then added warily, “What did Zhara say?”

Saetan picked up the message and read in a funereal voice, “‘Your children are having a wonderful time. Come and get them.’”

2 / Kaeleer

Daemon braced his head in his hands and closed his eyes.

“Mother Night,” Lucivar said, enunciating very carefully.

“I’ve never been this drunk,” Daemon moaned quietly.

Lucivar stared at him with bloodshot eyes. “Sure you have.”

“Maybe a couple of times in the stupid phase of my youth, but not since I’ve worn the Black. My body burns it up too fast to get drunk.”

“Not this time,” Lucivar said, then added after a long, possibly thoughtful, pause, “I’ve been this drunk.”

“Really? When?”

“Last time I went on a crawl with Jaenelle. Big mistake. Should have remembered it. Would have, too, if I’d been sober when I did remember it.”