“Not necessarily,” Saetan said, still keeping his voice mild. “If Daemon was well treated, was handled with care—which I’m sure was part of the agreement—he would have had no reason not to use the strength of his Jewels against an enemy who was threatening the Queen he served. And after the first unleashing of the Black, there would have been no turning back. The lines would have been drawn.”

Daemon stared at him.

“What does it matter?” Lucivar said, looking at the two of them uneasily. “Daemon’s with us.”

“Yes,” Saetan said softly, “he is. But where are the other men whose names disappeared from those lists?”

8 / Kaeleer

The golden spider studied the two tangled webs of dreams and visions.

More deaths. Many deaths.

It was time.

Remember this web. Remember every strand, every thread.

Throughout the cold season, she had been pulled away from her own dreaming, compelled to study the web that had shaped this living myth, the Queen who was Witch. And she had realized it would not be enough, because living inside the flesh had changed this dream. It was more now. And, somehow, she needed to add that “more” to the web. Without it, Kaeleer’s Heart would be gone for too many seasons—and would not be quite the same when the dream returned.

She continued to study the webs.

The brown dog, Ladvarian, was the key. He would be able to bring her the “more” she needed.

Yes. It was time.

She returned to the chamber within the sacred caves, and began to weave the web for dreams that were already made flesh.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

1 / Kaeleer

The First Circle of the Dark Court gathered at the Keep.

At least, the humans in the First Circle had gathered, Saetan amended as he listened to Khardeen’s grim report about the attacks that had taken place in Scelt during the past three weeks. There had been attacks everywhere in the last three weeks. Maybe that was why the kindred hadn’t answered Jaenelle’s summons to come to the Keep. Maybe the kindred Queens and Warlord Princes didn’t dare withdraw their strength away from their own lands. Or maybe it was the beginning of a rift between humans and kindred. Maybe they were withdrawing from what they considered a human conflict in order to save themselves.

But he would have thought Ladvarian, at the very least, would have come so that he could explain things to the rest of the kindred. He would have realized the conflict wouldn’t be confined to humans. Hell’s fire, kindred had already been attacked.

But Ladvarian wasn’t there—and it worried him.