“Move aside for the prince,” Kem snapped. He flinched, hearing how surly and rude he sounded, and added in an undertone, as if to himself, “She’s not my aunt.”

He strode past with such seething anger that Elen stumbled aside to get out of his way. Her back bumped up against a statue, thanks be to the High Heavens, because otherwise she was so rattled she would literally have stepped backward off the cliff.

She thought about taking that step deliberately and just falling. She already felt as if she were falling. She’s not my aunt.

Footsteps pounded up from the camp.

“Out of my way!” Simo burst past Kem and Ipis, racing toward the Spires with Jirvy and Xilsi at his heels. He flung more words over his shoulder as he ran. “Ipis! Wait there!”

He reached the big man, gesticulating wildly as he spoke to the warden who had accompanied the prince. Jirvy and Xilsi started up the stone staircase, but the other warden shouted at them, and they reversed course and followed the others as they hurried back toward the carriages.

Simo came first, leading the way past Elen, who hadn’t moved from among the statues. Behind him, the big man lumbered, the prince slack in his arms. Just as the menial passed Elen, the prince’s eyes fluttered open. He looked straight onto her face where the moonlight poured over it. His gaze widened as if in surprised recognition. A smile flickered on his lips. Then he gasped and shut his eyes, retching as if something had caught in his throat that he couldn’t expel.

“Hurry! Hurry!” cried Simo. “Take him to Hemerlin.”

Kem and Ipis moved back to let the big menial through with the prince.

Simo halted in front of Ipis. “Was he struck? Was there Spore? What happened?”

Ipis said, “No, Captain. The ruins are uncontaminated. They’re empty of all life. It was so strange. We stood on the central pavement, as Novice Kem suggested we do. His Highness wanted to explore, and he walked around the courtyard, gesturing and speaking words none of us could make out, as if he were in conversation with himself. Then he collapsed in a faint.”

Elen said urgently, “Kem, what happened?”

Kem halted as if her voice hit him like a blow. His lip curled with anger, but for whom, she wasn’t sure. He said, in a low voice, “I told everyone to stay on the holystone pavement, since you don’t trust me to have thought of that. But the prince didn’t listen.”

Simo glanced back. “Kem! Move along! Hurry!”