Recovery of the seed was too important to allow for mistakes at this point. With the Forbidding crumbling badly and the demons already breaking free in force, protecting the seed was their foremost concern until it was back in Arling's hands.

It was a huge relief for all of them to have gotten clear of Arishaig. For hours after they fled the besieged city they found themselves glancing over their shoulders, unable to banish the images of the battle from their minds. Aphen could not stop thinking about what Edinja had said just before their departure-that perhaps the Straken Lord and his demons had found out that Arling was the bearer of the Ellcrys seed and would come after her. That would explain their decision to attack Arishaig instead of Arborlon.

She could already imagine what it would mean to the people of the Federation home city if the demons found a way to break through, and that, in turn, suggested Arborlon's fate was grim, should the enemy then come north to the Elven home city, which she thought likely. Destroying the Ellcrys utterly would permanently secure freedom for the creatures of the Forbidding, and the Straken Lord would actively seek this end. If he could track Arling, he would do so. Hundreds of years ago, the same effort had been made and had very nearly succeeded. It was only the desperate efforts of an Ohmsford boy and an Elessedil girl and a handful of companions that had prevented it from happening.

History was repeating itself, she thought darkly, and wondered anew about the Ohmsford twins and their allies.

"Why do you think she let us go?" Arling asked as the landscape sped by beneath them.

Neither of the other two had to ask who she was talking about. "She had nothing to gain by keeping us," Cymrian offered. He was slumped back in the rear of the cockpit, stretched out as best he could in the cramped space.

"She knows what's at stake," Aphen added, hands on the controls, eyes forward. "If we don't find and quicken the seed, the whole of the Four Lands will be overrun. Edinja would suffer the same fate as the rest of us."

Arling shook her head. "You didn't spend time with her like I did. You didn't see those creatures she keeps, locked away like animals. She wouldn't help us if she didn't have something else in mind."

"You mean something besides saving her own skin?" Cymrian said.

"She likes controlling things. And people. Yet she just gave us this ship and let us go. It doesn't feel right."

Aphen had to agree. It didn't. But she couldn't figure out either what Edinja had to gain by letting them go, or how she thought she could manage to gain it. They had escaped Arishaig, had possession of the Elfstones, were on their way to finding the missing Ellcrys seed, and had told Edinja nothing that would help her find them if for some reason she decided to come after them.

"She's a complicated person," she said quietly.

"She's a dangerous person," Cymrian declared with a snort. "She's probably behind the attacks you suffered in Arborlon. She's probably responsible for us being shot down by that Federation warship in the first place."

"She told me she had taken me and was keeping me to lure you to Arishaig," Arling added. "She drugged me to make me tell her everything about what we were doing."

The other two said nothing for a moment. "But she didn't say why she was doing this?" Aphen's hands rested lightly on the controls as she turned around to look at her sister. "She didn't say what it was she was trying to accomplish?"

Arling looked miserable. "No."

"Maybe everything changed once she found out about the collapse of the Forbidding and saw the demonkind knocking on the gates of her city," Cymrian offered. "She didn't know about any of that before, and it might have made her change her plans. Not because she wanted to, but because she had to."

"Cymrian's right," Aphen agreed. "Nothing's the way it was a week ago. Even Edinja Orle would have to take a second look at what she was thinking to see if it still had relevance."

Arling nodded, but didn't say anything in response, and Aphen let the matter drop. She could tell her sister was not convinced, her doubts and fears of Edinja Orle deep-seated and troubling. Letting a little time pass was probably best. Arling had been through a lot-and unless Aphen was badly mistaken, the worst was still to come. Edinja was likely to turn out to be the least of her sister's problems.

They piloted the Sprint for several more hours through the darkening night. Close to the the southern fringes of the Duln Forests, Aphen decided they should stop; none of them had slept for more than a few hours in days, and all were exhausted. They would moor their vessel for the night, take turns standing watch, and set out again at daybreak.

Arling curled up in the aft cushions of the cockpit and was asleep within seconds. Aphen sat with Cymrian in the bow, looking out at the night. The Sprint was anchored perhaps two dozen feet off the ground, and the landscape about them was grassy and flat and open for miles. The sky was clear this night, its dark bowl bright with stars even in the absence of moonlight. The madness they had witnessed in Arishaig had begun to recede into the background.

"She's handling all this better than I would," Cymrian whispered, nodding toward Arling. "I don't know how."

"She's stronger than she looks."

"A lot is being asked of her."

Aphen didn't respond.

"What do you think is going to happen once we get the seed back and find the Bloodfire?"

"I don't know."

"She'll have to decide."

"I know."

"If there's even a decision left to be made."

"Stop talking about it."

"Because maybe there isn't."

She glared at him. "I'm aware of all this. I'm sure she's aware of it, too. It doesn't help to talk about it further. There's no point in speculating. We don't even know what's going to happen when we find the Bloodfire. We don't know how the quickening of the seed works."

Cymrian was quiet for a few moments, speculating. "I didn't think about that."

"Well, I did. I've thought about everything that could possibly happen and then some. I've thought about everything I might do to try to help Arling. Everything. But there's nothing to be done until we reach the moment of reckoning."

"I guess not." He went silent again, and this time he stayed silent. They sat together, shoulder-to-shoulder, looking back at the sleeping girl and thinking their separate thoughts.

"Remember when this all began?" she said finally. "You were my protector against whoever was attacking me in Arborlon. That seems a lifetime ago. It doesn't even seem connected to what's happening now."

"Like the missing Elfstones. This started because of them, and now they don't have anything to do with anything."

She shook her head. "We don't even talk about them anymore. We don't even think about them. But hunting for them destroyed the Druid order. Hunting for them changed everything."

"It seemed the right thing to do at the time."

"It was a mistake."

He glanced over. "Hard to know that for sure. Events are connected-sometimes in ways we don't see. One thing leads to another, but the path isn't always recognizable. I don't think you can second-guess yourself."

"I can do anything I want. Especially second-guess myself."

"It's pointless, Aphen."

"I'm feeling pointless. Everything in my life is feeling pointless-in spite of what I'm trying to do for Arling and the Elves and the Druid order and everyone else in the Four Lands. Pointless and hopeless and overwhelming."

"You've done pretty well so far."

"Have I?"

"As well as you could. Anyway, that's the past, and what matters is the future. That's how life works, because it's short and precious and kind of doubtful."

She looked over at him. He met her gaze and held it. "You constantly surprise me," she said.

"You mean that in a good way?"