In truth, she didn't know if she could bear to find out where the seed had gone. It wasn't in her sister's open hands, but she was certain Arling had done whatever was required to quicken it.

Yet when they had reached the far side of the cavern and were about to enter the short passageway leading back into the chamber formed of stone blocks and columns, Aphen grabbed Cymrian's arm and brought him to a halt.

"Let me have a look at her," she said.

With the Elven Hunter kneeling and Arling resting in his arms, Aphen searched through her sister's clothing, checking pockets and even the folds of her tunic, trying to find the seed.

But it wasn't there.

She exchanged a worried glance with Cymrian. "She couldn't have lost it. Not after all this."

"She was in shock, disoriented," he reminded her.

"But she mentioned the Bloodfire just before she passed out. She was aware enough to do that much."

Cymrian shook his head. "Wake her. Ask her."

Aphen was loath to do this, but she couldn't continue on without knowing. Too much was at stake. Using a healing magic with which she was intimately familiar, she brought her sister awake. Arling's eyes fluttered open, and her scarlet gaze slowly came into focus.

Aphen forced a reassuring smile. "Arling, where is the seed? Do you still have it?"

Her sister gave a small nod. "Safe inside." She lifted her hand and placed it over her heart. "She knew what was needed. She was right to tell me to come."

"Don't talk. I just needed to be sure. I was afraid you might have lost it."

"I lost other things. Not that." She rose to a sitting position. "Aphen, we have to go. We have to get back to Arborlon." Her voice was urgent. "Now, Aphen! We have to hurry! There's no time!"

She seemed to be getting stronger suddenly, her words carrying a certain force as she spoke them. Then, all at once, she was struggling to break free, trying to squirm out of Cymrian's arms and get back to her feet.

"No, Arling, don't!" Aphen cried out, trying to help Cymrian hold her down. "Stop it. You aren't ready!"

But Arlingfant Elessedil was more than ready. Stronger than both of them combined, she wrenched free of their hands, flushed and wild-eyed, a different person entirely. In seconds she was standing clear of them. "You don't know!" she screamed.

Aphen took a step back. Her sister seemed transformed. She didn't even look as if she recognized her. "Arling, it's me!"

Arling stared at her, then nodded. "I can walk by myself," she said.

Her companions exchanged a worried glance. "All right," Aphenglow agreed, holding up her hands in a placating gesture. "If that's what you want."

There was a tension between them that hadn't been there two minutes before, and it had resulted in a full-blown confrontation that Aphen didn't understand. Something had happened to Arling. She wasn't the same person. This new Arling was hard and determined in ways that the old had never been.

Aphen didn't know what to do.

They started down the passageway, moving through the darkness, following the beams of their smokeless torches, heading for the opening into the other cavern. They passed into it without another word being spoken, Cymrian in the lead again, Arling and Aphen right on his heels, almost side by side, the latter giving the former frequent sideways glances that were not returned. The stone columns rose all around them like giants frozen in place, sentinels against dangers long since forgotten, but perhaps right around the corner. The gloom absorbed the light cast by the torches so that it felt as if they were traversing a massive space in which walls had been cast down and darkness ran on forever.

They were almost to the far wall and could see its stone block surface behind soaring columns spread out before them in staggered rows when there was a flash of movement off to one side.

Cymrian wheeled toward it, and Aphen quickly moved to place herself in front of Arlingfant. But then she heard a sudden gasp, and she wheeled around to find her sister firmly clutched in the arms of Edinja Orle with a slender blade set just below Arling's chin.

Aphen, her sister mouthed silently.

Ahead, the moor cat Cinla materialized out of the darkness, long and sleek and dangerous as she advanced on Cymrian.

"Don't do anything foolish," Edinja said softly.

She emphasized her words by pressing the knife she held a little more tightly against the skin of Arling Elessedil's exposed throat.

"Why don't we take a few minutes to talk things over," she said, and gave them a satisfied smile.

CHAPTER Twenty-five

Inside the Forbidding, the light was hazy and gray and the air tasted of metal and damp. Tesla Dart led Oriantha and Redden Ohmsford through the wilderness they had found upon returning to the land of the Jarka Ruus, skittering here and there as she went, constantly in motion. Fugitives from the Straken Lord's Catcher, Tarwick, and his minions, they were constantly looking over their shoulders for unwelcome pursuit. They had tried to disguise all evidence of their passing before coming back into the Forbidding, wading through creek waters and even traveling the trampled pathway left by the passing of Tael Riverine's massive army, hoping their few footprints would disappear amid the many. But they understood that Tarwick was Catcher for a reason, and that even these efforts might not be enough to fool him.

Still, it would be unexpected for them to return to a place they had struggled so hard to escape, so there was reason to believe Tarwick might confine his search to the Four Lands. He could not know of Tesla Dart's presence or suspect the help she would give the two outlanders with whom she traveled. Diverting their escape route from the obvious to the unlikely might throw him off sufficiently to allow them to complete a swift journey through the Forbidding and then to escape back into the Four Lands by means of another portal before their hunter knew what they were about.

It was a dangerous game they were playing, and Redden couldn't be certain how the odds were stacked. Because they had fled so suddenly and made the decision to come back into the Forbidding so abruptly, there had been no time to gather up water and food, and they had almost nothing of either. Nor did the boy think that Tesla Dart-for all her knowledge of her own country and its creatures-knew exactly where they could find another way back into the Four Lands. She acted as if she did; she even insisted that she did. But something about the way she phrased it suggested it wasn't as settled as she tried to make it sound. She might have confidence such an opening existed because the imprisoning wall was crumbling, but that didn't meant she had a road map of its location imprinted in her mind.

What she did have was Lada, and the presence of the odd little creature provided the boy with a small glimmer of hope. The Chzyk seemed capable of finding its way in any territory and under any conditions, racing all over the place at blinding speed, never seeming to tire, a lizard imbued with innate instincts. Even if Tesla Dart wasn't certain of the path they should take, he thought maybe Lada might be.

He thought, too, that something had better happen soon to resolve their situation. His strength was almost gone, and his state of mind was still precarious. He remained mired in memories of his imprisonment at Kraal Reach, of the sounds and stench and discomforts of the rolling cage that had brought him back into the Four Lands, imprisoned like some exotic creature. He still flinched at the thought of the abuse and taunts he had received from his captors and was still devastated by images of Khyber Elessedil's terrible death. And it felt to him as if his newfound freedom was an illusion that could fade as swiftly as a mirage. He had no faith in its solidity, no confidence in its permanence. He had a sense of impending collapse, as if everything might go back to the way it had been in a single instant.

He slogged on because he had no choice in the matter, but it was working at him, gnawing at his sanity and eroding his emotional and psychological balance. He could feel it happening and he had no defense against it.

The day wore on, and their journey across miles of barren emptiness continued. They were moving in a mostly northerly direction, trying to get to a hole in the wall of the Forbidding that would bring them out much farther north of where they had started and presumably closer to where Redden and Oriantha both thought they should be when they reentered the Four Lands.

When they finally stopped for a rest, Oriantha waited until Tesla Dart was chittering away with Lada before kneeling beside a dejected Redden.

"How are you holding up?" she asked quietly.

Redden shook his head, his wild red hair falling over his eyes. "Not well."

"Can you keep walking?"

"Probably. But I feel like I'm coming apart inside. I can't seem to stop it from happening."

She put her hands on his shoulders. "Remember what I said. I won't leave you, no matter what."

"I know that."

"I will stay with you, and I will find a way to get us both safely back into the Four Lands and to Arborlon and to your brother. I know these are only words, but they are a promise. You will not be returned to Tael Riverine while I am still alive."

He was crying again, and he brushed at his tears angrily. "It just feels like there's no end to any this. I keep thinking about all the others. All of the dead. I feel as if I'm being drawn to them. I can feel their hands closing on me. I can't make myself believe I won't end up like them."