Why can't I leave behind this glorious lie?

And if there's no dawn beyond this dark

No secret stair to climb

Where did I learn the song that's falling from the sky?

The bells in the towers are ringing

Notes splinter beneath a half moon

The closing chime is slightly out of tune

This tapestry's torn beyond repair

Unless help comes kindly from the air

To weave us true on some enchanted loom.

Lesyl joined him in a hushed and haunted harmony.

If there's no feast for this appetite

No reason in nursery rhymes

Why can't I shake this great and glorious lie?

And if there's no dawn beyond this dark

No secret stair to climb

Where did I learn the song that shakes the sky?

As the last note resonated, the stars seemed to brighten.

Henryk emerged again from the dark beyond Partayn's shoulder. Bel Amica's heir raised his eyes and unsheathed the sword that had seemed, until now, ornamental.

"Betrayed," whispered Emeriene. "Cesylle's betrayed us. I should go to my sons."

"No, it's nothing to do with Cesylle," said Partayn. "The archers have sighted a beastman. Mother, we must get you back to your carriage."

The queen cursed and threw her cup down, spilling wine on the grass.

As fear rippled through the assembly, Cyndere took a step forward, straining to distinguish one shadow from another on the hillside. She saw a figure standing in the open with no fear. She did not hesitate. Pulling free of Emeriene, she ran between the torchbearers and up the slope, crying out, "Put away your arrows!"

"Cyndere!" Partayn came after her.

"Jordam?" she cried, both hopeful and dismayed.

The beastman put a hand to his mouth, and the trill of a shrill-whistle sounded sharply.

Partayn seized Cyndere's arm, but she pulled way, ascending. The beastman walked toward her, and as her brother's objection rang out, she fell into Jordam's embrace.

"rrBel," Jordam sighed. Cyndere could feel his rumbling voice through his chest, his massive hands pressed against her back. He was unafraid, unmoved by the fiery array that approached.

"How did you know I was here?"

"rrComing from the Core to Bel Amica. Heard the song."

Partayn stopped. "Good to see you, Jordam," he said, suspicious, sword in hand. "But why have you come?"

"rrMuch to tell."

"Bring my sister back into the circle. We're in danger here."

"rrDanger, yes," agreed the beastman. He glanced over his shoulder toward the trees, and then, with Cyndere taking his arm and leading him forward, he trudged down into the assembly of awestruck and troubled expressions. And as he stepped into the light, she began to stare herself.

Jordam, you're still changing. You're less a beastman all the time. You're a giant. A broken, battered, scarred giant. But a man.

"What do you want?" the queen asked sharply, leaning back.

"Mother," Cyndere said softly, "remember, we owe him our lives."

"Perhaps, but surely we should not lose our caution."

"rrPrisoners," said Jordam. "Bel Amican prisoners. Free."

"What? Where?" Partayn looked back up the hill. "Are they here?"

"No. rrUndergound. River. Boats. Far, far below." To Cyndere he said, "O-raya's boy found them."

"The ale boy? He's alive?"

"How do we bring them up from the river?" asked Partayn.

Jordam shrugged. "rrRiver is strange. Runs that way." He pointed south. "But they come against the water." He pointed north.

"I know this river," Cyndere whispered, remembering strange lights and the voices she'd heard during her ordeal at the bottom of Tilianpurth's well.

A hiss turned the company's attention to two small boys who had come to Emeriene's side. Cesyr had a rock in his hand, and he looked as if he might throw it at Jordam. Channy had an arrow that he must have taken from a soldier.

"No, boys," said Emeriene, kneeling. "That's Jordam. He's helping us."

"He's a lying monster," sulked Cesyr.

"Beastmen are no good," spat Channy, who was almost as big as his older brother.

"Don't let them offend you," Emeriene said to Jordam as she tried to pry the rock from Cesyr's hand. "They've had some horrible teachers."

"rrMore," said Jordam to Cyndere. "King Cal-raven."

"Is he alive?" Emeriene stood up.

"Alive," said Jordam.

"Alive!" Emeriene pressed her hands to her mouth, and her eyes sparkled. Then she seized Cyndere's arm again fiercely.

"Where is he?" asked Partayn. "Is he safe?"

"Safe," said Jordam. "He has ... a helper."

Cyndere watched his face intently. There was more to this than the beastman was saying. She was about to ask him to go on, but then Jordam looked back up the slope to the tree at the top. "rrSomething to give you."

"What is it?"

"Someone ... she needs your help."

"She?" Cyndere looked up into the darkness, having no guess at all until Jordam returned from the hilltop with a warm, squirming bundle. She drew back a fold of cloth and saw moonlight glint in the dark eyes of a small, ferocious face.

Among the trees in the hilltop copse, atop a bold eruption of stone, Ryllion crouched like a predatory cat, straining to hear the words exchanged by the beastman and the Bel Amicans in the torchlit circle.

His senses were still sharp from the Seers' influence, but the more time passed without Pretor Xa's potions, the more he felt as if his body were a separate animal revolting against him. Spasms shook his limbs, and flares of pain trumpeted in his head.

"Jordam's told them you're alive," he whispered to Cal-raven. And then he cringed to see and hear Emeriene's overjoyed response. He could not repress a jealous snarl.

"Can you still see Lesyl?" Cal-raven sat behind the same stones. "She's the one who sang with Partayn."

"She's weeping." Ryllion looked down at the singer with the corn-silk hair. "She holds Partayn's hand, and she weeps."

He watched Cal-raven dig at the boulder with his fingers, breaking it apart as if this answer upset him. "Who else is there?" the stonemaster asked.