“So you’re saying Alec might go up against our enemy with no advantage? An ordinary arrow won’t stop a dyrmagnos, assuming we manage to lure her out. We know a sword doesn’t. Even if you dismember them, the parts will reunite.”

“I know that! We’re just going to have to hope for the best, and that Illior is on our side again.”

Seregil said quietly, “It isn’t easy, is it, when the one you love most is beyond your reach?”

“How did you stand it, when Alec died?” Thero asked, laying out golden sesters on the table.

“Sebrahn brought him back quickly. Otherwise I wouldn’t be sitting here.”

Thero turned to him. “You’d have chosen to die, too, wouldn’t you?”

Seregil nodded.

“What I saw when I held Nhandi’s arm ring. What I felt—” Thero picked up a pair of coins, held them in trembling fingers, set them down again. “I experienced the grief that destroyed Khazireen. I feel a kinship to him. I will be in the same impossible position he was in, if in the end we have to seal Klia in with that monster. I keep thinking about the skin magic Rhazat is using, and how she must have gotten it …”

“So do I. Klia showed Alec a blade she made of her gorget. It’s sharp and it’s gold, so Rhazat can’t touch it. Klia will use it if she has to.”

“Illior’s Light.” Thero rested his arms on the table and cradled his head in his hands. “What if we can’t do this? What if it doesn’t work?”

“Well, if things go seriously wrong then none of us will have to live with our mistakes, since we’ll all be dead. So that’s taken care of.”

“You’re such a comfort.”

Seregil chuckled darkly. “Alec had a talk with me on the way to the palace, the day you first examined the corridor where he disappeared. He told me in no uncertain terms that I was being overprotective, which he interpreted as my not considering him a capable equal.”

“Yes?”

“Klia survived a war, Thero. She’s as intelligent as you are, and twice as brave as the rest of us put together, not some damsel in distress. She just needs our help.” Seregil paused. “Every time Alec and I go out on a job for you, I have to accept that he might not come back with me. But if he dies a hero’s death, it’s his choice and his right.”

Thero turned to him, pale green eyes hard and angry. “If it was Alec trapped there, would you say the same?”

Seregil met his gaze steadily, grim as death. “No, I’d be the one sitting over there with my head in my hands, and you’d be saying those words to me.”