“Enough!” My voice tore out of my throat higher than usual. “You’ve won! For mercy’s sake, put it out!”

But the girl’s eyes were fire, and flames ran down her hair. If she understood me, she made no sign of it. The blue fire gnawed at the stones around her feet. Hunger unsatisfied, it expanded as if the flagstones were grass.

I recognized it at last: balefire. I’d read of it in Orsenne’s Fall of Celantis.

Grace of Mercy preserve us all. That stuff would burn anything—water, metal, stone. It could light up the city like a dry corncrib. I hugged my book to my chest.

“You have to stop this!” I pleaded.

“She can’t,” a strained voice said. “She’s lost control.”

I turned to find a tall, lean young man at my shoulder, staring at the burning girl with understandable apprehension. His wavy black hair brushed the collar of the uniform I wanted to see most in the world at the moment: the scarlet-and-gold doublet of the Falconers. The very company that existed to control magic so things like this wouldn’t happen.

“Thank the Graces you’re here! Can you stop her?”

“No.” He drew in a deep, unsteady breath. “But you can, if you have the courage.”

“What?” It was more madness, piled on top of the horror of the balefire. “But I’m not a Falconer!”

“That’s why you can do it.” Something delicate gleamed in his offering hand. “Do you think you can slip this onto her wrist?”

It was a complex weave of gold wire and scarlet beads, designed to tighten with a tug. I recognized the pattern from a woodcut in one of my books: a Falconer’s jess. Named after the tethers used in falconry, it could place a seal on magic.

“She’s on fire,” I objected.

“I know. I won’t deny it’s dangerous.” His intent green eyes clouded. “I can’t do it myself; I’m already linked to another. I wouldn’t ask if it weren’t an emergency. The more lives the balefire consumes, the more it spreads. It could swallow all of Raverra.”

I hesitated. The jess sagged in his hand. “Never mind. I shouldn’t have—”

“I’ll do it.” I snatched the bracelet from him before I could think twice.

“Thank you.” He flashed me an oddly wistful smile. “I’ll distract her while you get close. Wits and courage. You can do it.”

The Falconer sprinted toward the spreading flames, leaving the jess dangling from my hand like an unanswered question.

He circled to the canal’s edge, calling to get the girl’s attention. “You! Warlock!”

She turned toward him. Flame trailed behind her like a queen’s mantua. The spreading edges crawled up the brick walls of the nearest house in blazing tendrils.