It was all she could do to keep her hands steady on the Sprint's controls. A part of her thought simply to turn the ship around and fly another way-even as she knew this could never happen. Even aware of how impossible such a thing was.

She was suddenly awash in despair. The unfairness of what was happening was inescapable. She had gone through so much, endured so many losses and disappointments, seen so many companions die, and found so many bitter truths along the way that she could not face her situation with anything resembling grace. She should be stronger; she should be so for herself and her sister both. But all she wanted to do was to scream out the rage and hurt she was feeling.

Which was selfish, and she knew it. But even knowing she should be thinking of Arling was not enough to leaven the pity she felt for herself.

Farther ahead, visible now through the darkness, the new day was beginning to brighten the eastern sky. Were they in time? Was the old tree gone by now and the Forbidding collapsed completely? She knew that the demonkind army would be on the move again; Arishaig would have fallen and its citizens would have been destroyed or driven out. Some would survive, but many would not. That was the fate that awaited Arborlon and the Elves, too, and she had no way of knowing how much time remained before it found them.

All too soon, she thought.

Bile rose in her throat, and she forced it down. She banked the Sprint toward the treetops and in the general direction of the Gardens of Life. Her hands moved mechanically even as her brain shut down and fresh tears filled her eyes.

"Little girl," she called over her shoulder to Arling. She felt her sister lift her head. "We're almost there."

At first, there was no response. Then, clear and steady, came Arling's voice. "I'm ready, Aphen."

The words broke Aphenglow's heart, but she managed to keep it from showing. "Do you have the seed ready?"

In truth, she had not seen it since Arling had emerged from the cavern that contained the Bloodfire. She still didn't have the faintest idea what was to be done with the seed once they were on the ground and in the presence of the Ellcrys. There had been no explanation in any of the tomes she had studied or recitations she had uncovered. Arling had not said one word about what she knew. She had barely referred to her most precious possession. There was a black hole in Aphen's understanding of what was to happen next, and she felt a wrenching need to know.

"What will you do when we land?" she asked her sister.

A long silence. "Go to her."

The tree. "You will give her the seed?" Aphen pressed.

"In a manner of speaking."

"But you do have it? You brought it out from the cavern, didn't you? You can pass the seed on?"

"Aphen," Arling whispered, leaning forward again, her lips close to her sister's ear. "There will be no passing. The Ellcrys seed is inside me. The Bloodfire put it there. It is a part of me now."

Aphen squeezed her eyes shut, knowing at once what that meant. Tears leaked from her eyes, but she managed to cry silently, keeping her body still. "I will be there with you all the way," she whispered back.

Arling's voice grew softer still. "I would like that."

They descended into Arborlon, Aphen reading the terrain, seeking their destination. She found the gardens easily enough-a part of the Carolan Heights, far west at the edge of the city overlooking the Rill Song. She chose a place where the bluff was grassy and open and landed the Sprint on its billowing softness, using wind and sails to ease her into place before cutting power to the parse tubes and locking down the thrusters.

Elven Hunters placed on sentry duty swarmed the craft, but when they saw the sisters emerge, clinging to each other as if a strong wind might blow them apart, they didn't seem to know what to do. They stared at the Elessedil women and at one another as they waited to discover what was happening.

"Stand away, please," Aphen demanded, determined to care for Arling by herself. "Go back to your watch."

She helped Arling cross the Carolan to the Gardens of Life, pointing them toward a gap in the bordering hedgerow that sheltered against the strong west winds. Once inside, they made their way through the flower beds and bushes to where the Ellcrys stood on a rise near the gardens' center. The gardens were shadowed, the new day coming awake with the sunrise, and Aphen let Arling set her own pace. Her sister was unsteady on her feet; the unexpected strength she had found after emerging from the Bloodfire cavern had faded.

At one point, she stumbled and nearly fell. Aphen only just managed to catch her. "You will stay close to me, won't you?" Arling asked, lifting her face momentarily, her strange red eyes blinking rapidly.

"All the way," Aphen whispered back, repeating her earlier promise. "Do you need to rest?"

Arling's trademark smile was quick and rueful. "Lots of time for that later, Aphen."

When they reached the gardens, they found the other Chosen gathered, but it was hard to tell for certain if they had just arrived or had perhaps been there all night. They ringed the tree, preparing for the morning greeting. It was clear they had done what they could, but none of their efforts seemed to have been even the least bit effective. The Ellcrys was a skeleton by now, a shadow of what she had been. Emaciated, withered, her bark turned crusty and her scarlet leaves black, she was in the final stages of her life. In the retreating darkness, lit only by the first rays of the rising sun, she seemed diminished to the point of nonexistence.

Freershan and the others saw the sisters approach and, after a moment of shock, leapt to their feet and came running. They gathered around, all talking at once, trying to find out where Arling had been and what had happened to her. But Arling said nothing. She didn't even look at them, her head lowered and her scarlet eyes closed.

"She can't speak with you now," Aphen said quickly, realizing her sister lacked the strength and perhaps the desire to communicate with others. "Please move back. Let us go ahead alone. We are here to help the tree."

She badly wanted to ask about her grandfather, about the city and its danger, about a dozen other concerns that crowded to the forefront of her mind. But she knew that any discussions would only slow them further. And in point of fact, what difference did it make? All that mattered now was restoring the tree.

Rebuilding the Forbidding and hastening Arling toward the end of her human life.

The words burned in her mind like live coals, but she endured them, facing the truth about what she was doing. There was no point in turning away. That would be disrespectful and cowardly, and a clear attempt to repudiate her sister's decision.

The Chosen fell away, and she moved Arling ahead again, advancing on the skeletal form of the Ellcrys. The sun was cresting the horizon, its brilliant light splashing across the sky, penetrating the shadows and layering the tree in golden streaks. But the effect simply revealed even more of her damage.

When they reached the base of the rise, Arling stopped. "I must go alone from here, Aphen."

"I can help you a little farther ...," Aphen started to say, but stopped when she felt Arling's fingers dig into her arm.

"No. You must wait here." Her sister's head lifted, and the scarlet orbs of her eyes stared out from her stricken face. "I love you, Aphen. I always will, wherever I am, whatever happens to me."

Aphen tried to speak and couldn't. Instead, she wrapped her arms about Arling and held her close.

Her sister was crying now. "I wish we had more time. I wanted so much to be with you in Paranor. To be Druids together, you and I. I wanted nothing more than to be like you."

"No." Aphen shook her head, still holding her sister tight. "You were always better than me. Always."

"Tell Mother, Aphen. Try to be there for her when she finds out. Be kind to her, no matter ..."

She trailed off uncertainly. "I will," Aphen promised.

They held on, unable to let go, unwilling to break the connection. Seconds slipped by, and Aphenglow felt the hurt of what was about to happen so badly it was physically painful. Even without knowing the details, even as uncertain as she was about what she would witness, she could hardly bear it.

"Come see me often?" Arling whispered, making it a question.

"Yes," Aphen answered, and broke down completely, crying openly.

Arling hugged her once more and then pushed her away. She stumbled up the rise, a frail figure in the growing light of the sunrise, making her uncertain way toward the Ellcrys. Aphen watched helplessly, a part of her screaming that she should go after her sister. But she did as she was told and remained where Arling had left her, watching and waiting.

At the crest of the rise, Arling paused for a moment, staring at the desiccated tree. Then she moved closer, reaching out her hand and touching the blackened trunk. The Ellcrys shivered, more dead leaves falling away, more bark sloughing off. But it seemed to Aphen the tree was responding, recognizing who Arling was and what it meant to have her there.

Arling held her ground for a long moment, then moved close to the Ellcrys and wrapped her arms around her, leaning in.

A second later, the tree disintegrated completely, turning into a fine dust that showered down on Arling until she was completely covered.

Arling stood where she was for another few seconds, becoming a gray ghost, before lifting her arms skyward and uttering a long, mournful cry.

Then she began to change.

On the blood-soaked plains fronting the entrance to the Valley of Rhenn, the brothers Ohmsford stood face-to-face. It was, for Railing, the culmination of everything he had hoped to accomplish since the onset of his long, disappointing search for Grianne Ohmsford, begun all those weeks ago. Finding and returning his brother had been the driving force behind his efforts, and he had never stopped believing-even in his darkest, most despairing moments-that he would make that happen. But to have it come to pass so abruptly, with no warning whatsoever, was shocking.