“Since the night Toneus died,” Rhazat replied. “Despite all that went wrong, I at least snared one useful little fly in my web.”

“That’s not possible!” Zella gasped. “I’d have known if something so horrible was in me.”

“Clearly you didn’t, or anyone else.” Rhazat raised a brow at Klia. “It was so kind of you to accept her as your secretary. I’ve learned quite a lot about you and your friends, watching through her eyes.”

Zella shuddered and sank her face in her hands. “Forgive me, Highness! I didn’t know.”

“Was it you I’ve been talking to all this time?” Klia asked Rhazat. She had ridden with Zella, talked, laughed, and eaten with her. The thought of someone else looking out of those eyes made her skin crawl.

“Sometimes yes, sometimes no,” Rhazat replied with a twinkling smile. “Aren’t I clever? Even your wizard lover doesn’t know the difference.”

“How is that possible?”

Rhazat chuckled. “Oh, I have quite a few tricks up my sleeve that he wouldn’t catch. In case you haven’t guessed yet, I’m rather powerful. To me, he’s a mere child.”

“I see. Yet you said something went wrong the night you killed Toneus.”

“That wasn’t at all what I wanted. He’d have been ever so much more useful to me than Zella. You and your troublesome hunting hounds wouldn’t be here if not for that.”

“Then why slaughter him?”

“I’m telling you, I didn’t kill him or his woman. That’s where things went wrong, you see. When my dra’gorgos poke a little hole between your world and mine, sometimes nasty things appear from whatever space lies between.”

“Demons.” Klia thought of Sedge.

“That’s as good a name as any, I suppose. They can be quite troublesome, getting in my way as they did that night. It really was quite a complication, or so I thought until I began to get to know you, my dear. Really, you’re much more than I could have hoped for.”

A nasty cold feeling swept over Klia. “What do you mean by that?”

Rhazat gave her an arch smile. “That would be telling.”

She waved another sigil on the air. As Klia watched in horror, the dra’gorgos turned to mist again and billowed toward Zella. The woman screamed and tried to get up to run but tripped over her skirts. The dra’gorgos was on her in an instant and as she screamed again it flowed into her nose and mouth. Zella blinked, then gracefully rose to her feet and curtsied to Klia. “Highness, I hope I haven’t alarmed you too badly.”

Rhazat beamed at Zella. “Isn’t she wonderful, Klia? The perfect puppet.”

Klia shook her head in disbelief. “She seems so—herself.”