“All right,” he said. “Do you want to start tonight?”

She tilted her head. “What do you…?”

“I’m going to try to speak with Hunts Alone, using magic,” Dancer said. “I’ll be in a kind of trance, and helpless. Could you watch over me?”

Her dark eyes widened. “You would trust me with that?”

“I have always trusted you, cousin,” Dancer said. He lay back, cradled his amulet between his hands, and crossed into Aediion.

Dancer knew that the odds of Han’s being in Aediion, looking for him, were infinitesimal. But then, so were the odds that they could win against two large armies in a surprise attack.

He chose Mystwerk Tower, where they’d met before, guessing Han would be there if anywhere.

The bell tower was dusty, deserted, the bell pulls dangling, limp in the heat. It was a late-summer southern evening, thunder rumbling in the distance. Dancer breathed in the steamy air, smelling rain.

He waited, shifting his weight from foot to foot, impatient. Looking down, he saw that he was wearing clan garb, his amulet, and the Bayar stoles. Frowning, he made the stoles disappear.

“Han?” he said aloud, as if that would help call his friend to him. “Hunts Alone?”

Like raindrops catching sunlight, the air shimmered and coalesced. But it wasn’t Han Alister standing in front of him. It was Crow, looking pale and haggard and anxious.

“You!” Dancer said. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m nearly always here, remember?” Crow snapped. “Actually, I was waiting for you. Alister needs your help.”

“He does?” Dancer couldn’t help looking around. “Where is he?”

“He’s in the dungeon at Aerie House,” Crow said, grimacing as if it pained him to say it.

“What?” Dancer whispered. “How did that happen? And how do you know?”

Crow looked evasive. “It’s a long story, but I was…ah…with him when he was taken.”

“What do you mean, you were with him?” An ugly suspicion crowded into Dancer’s head. “You mean you possessed him?” He could imagine Crow using Han to take revenge on the Bayars, and the attack going wrong.

Crow shook his head. “No, he got into trouble all on his own. I was…navigating for him, in the tunnels under the Vale.”

“What was he doing there?” Dancer said, folding his arms.

“He was hiding in the tunnels, and the Bayars caught him.” Crow’s image frayed into ragged tendrils, then solidified again.

For a demon, Crow is not a very good liar, Dancer thought. He was definitely omitting some details. Han had said it was difficult to lie in Aediion because your emotions were more likely to show on your conjured face.