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By Root 730 0

parents.“ ”What about the gold Elhazir was giving me? That's what interested my parents. They didn't want me.“ Confusion clouded Zacharius's handsome face. ”I thought you wanted to live with them again.“ Andreana bit her lip. 'They'll just send me somewhere else. I might have to work for someone just like Elhazir again. Maybe even worse.” “But your concern for them-” “I didn't want them hurt. I still don't. That doesn't mean I want to go back there.” Walcott stepped forward. “I could use some help. She could apprentice to me.” Lord Zacharius raised one eyebrow. “Would that suit you?” “If I was getting paid,” she whispered. “And if no one calls me a halfwit.” “Demanding, aren't you?” Zacharius said with a smile. “Very well. Your skills as a negotiator show you are a girl of rare intelligence, Andreana.” The girl's face lit up. Myrmeen looked at the crowd of cat lords outside the doorway, then stared into Zacharius's emerald eyes. “I may not be able to stop you from leaving here tonight, but you cannot seriously expect there to be no repercussions. The lot of you have confessed to premeditated murder. There are laws to be upheld.” “Yes,” Lord Zacharius said. “There is justice and there are laws. The two are not always the same. The choice is yours, Myrmeen. You can turn us into fugitives, or you can keep what has transpired within this room a secret. We have done what should have been done a long time ago. I have no regrets.” Myrmeen looked to Stralana. He was staring into Siobban's gray-blue eyes. “Evon?” "If we had caught Othmann and Volney-or whatever they were calling

themselves-at the time of the assault, their sentence would have been death,“ Stralana said. ”They got what they deserved.“ Siobhan nodded silently. There was gratitude in her eyes. Stralana regarded the woman lying at Andreana's feet. ”As for Elhazir,“ he noted coldly, ”I have too often been called upon to have my men collect the bodies of children who have been beaten, then discarded by such as this woman. I have no sympathy for her, either.“ ”You've described my feelings exactly,“ Myrmeen said. ”Lord Zacharius, you are free to leave, on one condition: I want you to never return to my city. Is that understood?“ ”Damn,“ he hissed. ”I was going to recommend Arabel as a vacation spot for my kind.“ Despite herself, Myrmeen almost smiled. Lord Zacharius lowered his gaze. ”I am sorry for the pain this ordeal has caused you.“ ”So am I,“ Myrmeen said. The knowledge and shared pain of Siobhan's ordeal now tainted her memory of her once-beloved gazebo. Like the blood on Haverstrom's phoenix, she knew it would never quite fade. The sanctuary it had once offered was gone forever. * * * * * On the walk back to the palace, after Zacharius and his people had departed, Myrmeen came upon a cat who had trapped a bird and was slowly torturing it to death. She stopped and stared at the gruesome spectacle. Evon Stralana, who was walking beside her, touched her arm. ”Are you all right?“ he asked. Myrmeen thought of the agony Siobhan had suffered at the hands of her attackers and recalled the slight glow in each half of the woman's amulet. Penn Othmann and Russka Volney had not only wounded the cat lord, they had also taken something private and extremely precious away from Myrmeen. She felt nothing but hatred for them. ”It's strange,“ Myrmeen said as she watched the cat slowly tear the life from its prey, ”but somehow I feel comforted by the knowledge that all cats like to play with their kills…“ King's Tear Mark Anthony The spirits of the three sages writhed in the flickering, poisonous green flames rising from the copper brazier. The necromancer Kelshara prowled catlike about them, here in the highest chamber of her tower that stood among the dark, jagged peaks of the southernmost Sunset Mountains. ”Please, sorceress, we do not know the answer you seek!“ one of the spirits moaned. ”We beg you,“ pleaded another. ”Release us from this torment.1"

“Very well,” Kelshara hissed. Her features were pale and flawless, her long hair as dark as polished onyx, yet she was anything but