“Frantic enough to be willing to try draining a Healer by touch,” Ari said, with a nod. “And knowing they could lure some of us there by putting the Healers under siege is probably why they didn’t just lure a few of the Healers by touch out and have their men seize some of them. When they discovered who the Jouster was that they had captured, they must have been beside themselves with glee.”

Kiron gritted his teeth. He could well imagine it, especially the couple of Magi that had personally given Aket-ten trouble in the past. “Or because the Healers aren’t going anywhere alone anymore, not after some of them have been drained by stealth in the past.”

“They only have to clear the clouds for a little while,” Kaleth went on. “For that, given how strong Aket-ten is, and that she hasn’t been drained over and over—well, they probably only need her to give them open skies for as long as they want. They’re going to allow the Tian army to close in, then close the jaws of the trap on them and wipe them out with the Eye.”

“And then—then they can take Tia at their leisure,” Lord Khumun said somberly. “Aket-ten is their key. Small wonder they want to use her now, before the Tian Magi know they have her. And the Tians’ greed has made them play right into the Altan Magi’s hands.”

“We have to get to her before—” he couldn’t finish the sentence; he choked on the words. “But—where?”

“Ah. That part I know,” Kaleth said, much to his relief. “The Tian priests came to me with the news of the invasion, then, when I sent Jousters to scout, turned their attention back to the Magi of Alta. The Tian Far-Sighted Priestesses didn’t see much, but one of them did see the single piece of information that was crucial—one of those who sees the future got a brief glimpse of Aket-ten in what I suspect must be the Tower of Wisdom, in a chamber with some mechanism holding an enormous piece of crystal. We believe, the Haras priests and I, that in that future moment they were preparing to clear the sky, then somehow tie her power into the Eye.”

All in an instant, his mind went from grief-clouded and leaden to alert and sharp as a shard of obsidian. Hope! Now he had it; now he could think again.