Mercedes Lackey - Elvenbane

"Well, my lord," Triana said slowly, "there is certainly someone living in my woods...if not your renegades, then certainly some other wild humans. I confess, they are too clever for me or my men, and I would appreciate your help in flushing them out."

Shadow touched carefully at her thoughts, and heard her thinking,: I'll put together a hunting party, and lose them, then double back and meet Cheynar's people. I probably ought to put Mero to sleep though, and hide him somewhere until they've gone. He'd probably try to rush to the rescue, or something equally heroic and stupid. And he hasn't even begun to outlive his usefulness to me.:

"That's easily done," Cheynar replied. "I can be there in two days. Is that soon enough?"

"Perfect, my lord," Triana told him, her voice bright with satisfaction. And thought: :That's more than enough time to set everything up, including a campsite for Cheynar's men to find, so that it looks as if three of them been living there for some time. I wonder how Dyran is going to react to discovering his son is a renegade ?:

"Then I will see you in two days' time, my lady," Cheynar said.

"You certainly will, my lord," Triana told him. "You certainly will."

Outside, a full moon sailed peacefully and serenely over the treetops. Inside, in the suite shared by Shana and Keman, there was anything but peace.

"I'm not being stupid, and I'm not being overly sensitive," Shana said patiently, doing her level best not to fly into a temper in the face of Valyn's skepticism. "And I swear to you, I am absolutely not saying these things because I'm jealous of Triana. You heard Keman! You heard what Mero told him! He is completely unbiased, and he certainly doesn't have any reason to feel threatened just because Triana has a pretty face."

"I would have said,'seductive nature,'" Keman put in, unhelpfully.

Shana stifled a groan. She had been trying to keep that particular aspect of their erstwhile hostess out of the conversation, knowing what it would do to her credibility.

Valyn reacted predictably. He put on that superior expression she hated so much, and said, in a tone that just oozed sweet reason, "But you do, Shana; you couldn't help it. It's a perfectly natural reaction. And after all, you're a guest in her house; of course that puts you on an uneasy footing with her. You feel you have to compete with her, and yet you can't. I understand that. But it doesn't make Triana bad."

Shana wanted to shake his shoulders and scream at him: I'm not some animal, to be set off just because I'm on another female's territory ! But she kept her temper in check and repeated what he evidently had not heard. "Keman isn't a female, and he isn't in the least threatened by her and he..."

She was interrupted...by an odd sound that made her look over Valyn's shoulder, and the completely unexpected sight of a door appearing in the wall next to the fireplace and swinging open. She stopped dead in midsentence, her mouth hanging open as she stared. Valyn turned in his seat just in time to see Shadow emerge from the half-height door, beating dust from his clothing and coughing.

Her first thought was... How did he get back there ? And her second was accompanied by a queasy feeling in the pit of her stomach. Did every room in this place have hidden doors in it? Was that the way all elven buildings were made? If so...she would never feel comfortable in a building again! Not when someone could creep up on you unseen and pop out of the blank walls!

Valyn recovered first. "What were you doing in there?" he demanded, astonished. "And why did you..."

"I had to find something out," Shadow said, interrupting him. "Listen, I am really sorry...we're in trouble, I've been an idiot, and Shana's been right all along." His expression was a grim one, but he met all of their eyes without flinching. "Triana's been after me, and I fell right into her trap with a grin on my face and my arms wide open. She put a glamorie on me to make into her own little tame wizard...and she intends to throw the rest of you to Cheynar's people. I overheard her on the teleson this afternoon." He paused for a breath, and absently rubbed his temple, as if his head hurt. "I'm sorry. I apologize. Now, we have to get out of here; how are we going to do it?"

"Wait a moment...if you overheard her this after noon, why did you wait until now to tell us?" Valyn asked, accusation in his voice and eyes.

"I couldn't get away until now," Shadow replied unhappily. "I didn't want her to know I'd overheard her, so I had to keep on as if nothing had changed. Cheynar won't be here for another two days. I didn't think a couple of hours would matter one way or the other."

"He's right," Shana said, surprising even herself, as all eyes turned towards her. "If he'd come running to one of us this afternoon, and Triana had been expecting him to be with her, she'd have known something was wrong. Valyn, you were out riding, I was in the library, and Keman was..."

"Spying among the slaves," Keman supplied. "Looking for information that would prove to Valyn that you were not being unduly sensitive, Shana." He smiled sheepishly. "I found any number of things, but it would seem they are no longer necessary."

"You see?" Shana said, turning back to Valyn. "If he'd come looking for us then, Triana would have missed him, and we'd have wasted time trying to find each other." She raised one eyebrow at Shadow, who nodded soberly.

"Exactly. I've been stupid; it wouldn't help to compound my stupidity. But we have to get out of here now ...because in a little while Triana is going to discover I'm gone, and she's not going to be happy."

Shana decided that she was not going to ask what he'd done. She had the feeling that his pride was smarting from this whole affair, and that he probably set up some surprise for Triana designed to salve that bruised pride. Unfortunately, that kind of "surprise" generally made for a great deal of trouble.

She should know; she'd given in to that temptation to salve her own bruised pride more than once.

"Ancestors!" Valyn muttered. "I wish you'd given us a little warning, Mero...how are we going to get..."

"We don't need a thing." Shana interrupted him, a grin of vindicated triumph on her face. "Just stay right where you are. I haven't been sulking in the library, like you all thought I was. I've been very busy, in fact..."

Her hand sought her globe of amber, and she closed her fingers around it tightly.

"Don't anybody move..." she warned.

Faster than a breath, she seized the power she needed from Triana, ripping it from her ruthlessly...

She fed the power through the amber, multiplying it threefold, and twisted it into the paths of the spell as she whispered the words that set the spell of transportation...

And she named the place.

"The Citadel..."

The last thing she saw was Valyn's mouth dropping open as the room filled with light as bright and sudden as a lightning-flash...

Her stomach lurched sickeningly...

...and they were gone.

Triana smoothed her pearl-white, silken dress over her breasts and flat stomach, and preened herself in the mirror. The fabric was just barely transparent, designed more to tease than to reveal. Mero had worn her ring at dinner, and she had seen to it that the meal was one loaded with purported aphrodisiacs. Between the spell, the dinner, and this dress, Mero should be ripe for the plucking.

She tapped on his door, then let herself in without waiting for his response, and flipped the lock shut as she closed the door behind her.

She didn't want to be disturbed by anyone, not tonight. Every indication was that Mero was not inexperienced; she was looking forward to putting him through his paces.