There were things he should have said that night in Amdarh. He’d never really told her how much she meant to him, how much he loved her. He should have. Now he could give her nothing but words, but at least he could give her that much.

Turning away from the window, he sat at the desk and began to write.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

1 / Kaeleer

“I need a favor,” Jaenelle said as she moved stiffly to her worktable and picked up two small glass jars.

“You have only to ask,” Titian replied. She’s been channeling too much power without giving her body time to recover. What is she planning that demands so much?

“A discreet favor.”

“Understood.”

“I need blood from two people who have been tainted by Dorothea or Hekatah. Preferably one of each.”

Titian thought for a very brief moment. “Lord Jorval lives in the capital of Little Terreille, does he not?”

Jaenelle swallowed. Even that seemed to take effort. “Yes, Jorval is in Goth. And so, at the moment, is Kartane SaDiablo.”

“Ah.” Looking at the exhausted woman, Titian remembered the child Jaenelle had been. And she remembered other things. “Will it matter if neither of them sees the next sunrise?”

A deadly cold filled Jaenelle’s sapphire eyes. “No.”

Titian smiled. “In that case, with your permission, I’ll take Surreal with me. It’s time to pay some debts.”

2 / Kaeleer

In the enormous chamber where the Dark Throne resided, Ladvarian trembled as he looked at Lorn. It wasn’t that he was afraid of Lorn—at least, not usually. It was just that Lorn was the Prince of the Dragons, the legendary race who had created the Blood. Lorn was very, very old, and very wise, and very big. Ladvarian was smaller than one of Lorn’s midnight eyes. Just then, that made him feel very small.

And then there was Draca, the Keep’s Seneschal, who had been Lorn’s mate and the Dragon Queen before she had sacrificed her true form in order to give other creatures the Craft.

Sacrifices. No, he would not think about sacrifices. There was not going to be a sacrifice. The kindred would not allow it.

But being summoned here by Lorn and Draca when the Arachnian Queen was so close to finishing that special web of dreams…It frightened him. If they forbade the kindred from doing this…The kindred would do it anyway, whatever the cost.

*Little Brother,* Lorn said in his deep, quiet, thundering voice.

*Prince Lorn.* Ladvarian was trembling enough for them to see it.

*I have a gift for you, little Brother. Give thiss to the Weaver of Dreamss.*

A flat, beautifully carved box appeared in the air before Ladvarian. When it opened, he saw a simply designed pendant made of white and yellow gold and an equally simple ring. But it was the Jewel in those pieces that made his hackles rise and his ears flatten tight to his head.