Klia ate in grim silence. When her plate was empty she sat back and looked at Rhazat.

“Please,” she whispered, blinking away more tears. “Can’t we just get it over with now?”

“Tomorrow, my dear. Who would have thought you’d be in such a rush to betray your people?”

The following morning Klia looked more dispirited than ever, but she ate heartily without being coaxed and rose as soon as she was finished. “I’m ready.”

“Come along, then. Would you care to ride your horse one last time?”

That struck a spark of feeling. “No,” Klia muttered, and said no more.

Thero’s first act of preparation the previous day, after casting another light, had been to dry the floor of the cave. He sealed the cracks where water was leaking through, then translocated the water.

“That was a necessary risk.” He sat down on a bedroll. “I mustn’t do anything else that uses a significant amount of my strength, apart from setting the wards, and that won’t take much.”

He set out a large crystal box he’d summoned from his workroom, and two smaller ones he’d brought with him. Without head or hands, the rest of the dyrmagnos’s body would be little more than a useless revenant, incapable of much harm. Next, he took out two sacks, one containing gold dust, the other salt. With these he laid out the lines and patterns of the threshold spell. Even if Rhazat broke through the one at the wall, it might wound her so much that she would not be able to break through the one blocking the mouth of the tunnel.

The rest of the salt and gold he sprinkled over their heads. It clung glittering in Seregil’s hair that hung beneath the head scarf and sparkled in Micum’s bushy eyebrows and moustache. He could only imagine what he looked like.

“What does this do?” asked Micum.

“I don’t know how much it takes to affect her, but this can’t hurt.”

“I’ll take all the protection I can get.” Micum looked around the cave. “It’s bigger than I thought, but still close quarters.”

Seregil’s dark laugh echoed among the dripstone formations. “All the more reason to make it a short battle.”

They took watches after that. Micum went first and though Seregil tried to sleep, too many thoughts were racing through his mind as he tried to mentally prepare for the battle ahead. It was difficult to do, since no one knew what would happen when Klia broke the seal; perhaps they’d all end up crushed by a cave-in. When he finally did go to sleep, he dreamed of Alec, lost in darkness and calling his name. Seregil felt his way down an endless tunnel until he stumbled over something large and soft. Reaching down, he felt a head and a long braid, sticky with blood.