“Thank you for the warning,” Thero replied, looking shaken despite the success of his spell.

“Get any sense out of ’im?” the tall man asked as he led them downstairs.

“Hard to say,” Seregil told him.

Seregil waited until they were safely outside before asking, “What else did you get from his thoughts?”

“Terror mostly, but also just a glimpse of a young woman’s bloody face disappearing into darkness.”

“He said Phania was ‘pulled.’ What do you make of that? Ghosts?”

“I don’t know. It’s like someone has built a wall around the man’s memories.”

“There are still Plenimarans on the island. One of them could be a necromancer,” said Seregil.

“If we can heal Sedge’s mind, he may be able to tell us. We need a strong healer, someone who can calm him enough for me to brush his mind more deeply.”

“So far the only one we’ve heard of is this Doctor Kordira. And she’s Plenimaran. For all we know, she’s the one who put the curse on him.”

“Now who’s jumping to conclusions? I’ll pay the good doctor a visit tomorrow.”

Micum and Alec stayed with Klia for a few rounds of Blue Goose, then bid her good night and went to their own rooms.

Micum opened his door and shook his head. “I could fit the whole family in here, along with the household, dogs, and horses!” he whispered, careful not to wake Mika, who was asleep in a trundle bed by the fire.

Alec followed him inside. The chamber was as large as Klia’s, with the same antique appointments. Micum tested the mattress of the massive poster bed. “We might as well sleep out on the ledges.”

Alec chuckled and went back to his own chamber, which seemed even less welcoming now, even with the lamps lit and a fire crackling on the hearth. The monsters on the bedposts and mantelpiece took on a life of their own in the flickering firelight. The idea of ghosts seemed less amusing here than it had in the sunny Wheel Street dining room. Alec wandered over to one of the tall windows that faced out over the town. Lights glimmered there through halos of fog. A dog howled somewhere close by, and another answered—a lonely sound.

A tall tree stood near the window, fretting the darkness with its branches. As he watched, a huge owl glided out of the fog and landed on a branch right in front of him. It hooted loudly, then set to work eating the mouse clutched in its talons. The lucky sign lightened his heart a little, and Alec bowed his head respectfully to Illior’s bird, breathing a prayer that their own prey was as easily caught and dispatched.

With nothing else to do, he explored the room, looking into the wardrobes and chests and checking the paneled walls for secret doors, but found nothing more alarming than a few spiders.

What was keeping Seregil? He sat up for a while poking the fire, then blew out the lamps and stretched out on the hard bed. Lying with his hands behind his head, he watched the shadows dance and listened to the crackling of the fire, expecting it to lull him to sleep.