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  “We know who sent ye,” he said, with quiet menace in his voice. “An’ we know why. What we don’t know—what I don’t know—is why me? Why’d ye come after me? I ain’t anythin’ but good at a game.”

  Stone stared at him, face impassive. And then, suddenly, his expression changed—from impassive to resigned.

  What?

  Mags sensed the shields stir; sensed them—poise to strike! Dallen threw his strength between the shields and Mags, but Mags knew that he wasn’t the target—

  He had no time to do anything but fling himself on Stone, frantically tearing at the man’s garments in a futile effort to find that talisman before—

  —Stone’s eyes rolled up into his head as the shield contracted suddenly, viciously, around his mind, like a hand crushing a grape—

  —it was too late.

  Stone just . . . snuffed out, heart and breathing stopping immediately as his mind vanished. Ice followed a heartbeat later.

  —And they were left with two rapidly cooling bodies, far too many questions, and no answers for any of them.

  EPILOGUE

  “Heyla,” Mags said softly, as Amily’s eyelids fluttered, and she finally woke up.

  She smiled up at him. “Heyla,” she said. “Is it good news or not so good news?”

  “ ’Tis all good,” he said, sitting down at her bedside and taking her hand in his. “Ever’thin’ went jest like Bear wanted. ’E says not t’worry thet ye cain’t feel nothin’. One’a th’ others figgered out how t’shut some pain stuff off fer a liddle so’s ye kin git some sleep. He says ’tis better nor givin’ ye Bear’s nasty drinks.”

  She just smiled sleepily, then her eyelids drifted shut.

  Mags continued to hold her hand, savoring the momentary peace. Nikolas had already looked in on his daughter, and been satisfied, and everyone else seemed to have agreed to leave Mags alone with her for a while.

  And Mags was not particularly eager to leave.

  Outside this room, there was more activity going on than the Palace had seen in quite some time. Mags knew about only part of it, and not a huge part, either.

  Marchand was already on his way to a permanent assignment as the Bard and Chronicler for a Guard Headquarters at the Iftel Border. He was never to be allowed to leave—under house arrest for the rest of his life. Lita had wanted to burn his Gift out and send him to real imprisonment, but Truth Spell wielded ruthlessly could not prove him to be anything worse than foolish and greedy. Cuburn was on his way to a similar fate, as the permanent Healer-in-residence to prisoners at Greyscarp Prison. He was never to be allowed to leave either, and the only difference between him and the prisoners he cared for would be that there were no bars on his windows.

  Security at the Palace and Collegia—well, it was not going to be anything like the same. Someone had sent down to the Ambassador to the Shin’a’in to try to find out if they had ever heard of anyone who was at all like Ice and Stone. If the little hints that Mags had picked up were even remotely true, there were sleeper-agents of their own on the Karsite side who were going to be activated with the sole purpose of discovering how the Karsites had found these men, and perhaps where they came from.

  The bodies had been carefully preserved and were going to be delivered to a Karsite border post—a very unsubtle message that the best that Karse could send was no match for the people of Valdemar.

  Sedric had been assigned to study the stone, because no one had ever guessed it was semialive. That was fine with Mags; if he never had to “talk” to it again, it would be too soon.

  Working on the assumption that it was only a matter of time before more of these mysterious assassins turned up in Haven, pretty much everyone had decided that getting Amily ambulatory and trained to defend herself should be a priority right along with reinforcing Palace security. So Bear and his team had gone into intense and detailed practice—so much so that the actual work on her leg turned out to be anticlimactic. Everything had gone well; the result was everything anyone could have wanted.

  Outside this room, the Hill buzzed with so much activity that it looked like a hive preparing for winter.

  In here . . . in here was momentary peace.

  It would not last past the moment he crossed the threshold, but for now, at least, peace held Mags and his love in the shelter of its hands.

  And for right now, this moment, that was enough.

  Click here for more titles from this author.

  Titles by MERCEDES LACKEY

  available from DAW Books:

  THE NOVELS OF VALDEMAR:

  THE HERALDS OF VALDEMAR

  ARROWS OF THE QUEEN

  ARROW’S FLIGHT

  ARROW’S FALL

  THE LAST HERALD-MAGE

  MAGIC’S PAWN

  MAGIC’S PROMISE

  MAGIC’S PRICE

  THE MAGE WINDS

  WINDS OF FATE

  WINDS OF CHANGE

  WINDS OF FURY

  THE MAGE STORMS

  STORM WARNING

  STORM RISING

  STORM BREAKING

  VOWS AND HONOR

  THE OATHBOUND

  OATHBREAKERS

  OATHBLOOD

  THE COLLEGIUM CHRONICLES

  FOUNDATION

  INTRIGUES

  CHANGES

  BY THE SWORD

  BRIGHTLY BURNING

  TAKE A THIEF

  EXILE’S HONOR

  EXILE’S VALOR

  VALDEMAR ANTHOLOGIES

  SWORD OF ICE

  SUN IN GLORY

  CROSSROADS

  MOVING TARGETS

  CHANGING THE WORLD

  FINDING THE WAY

  UNDER THE VALE*

  WRITTEN WITH LARRY DIXON:

  THE MAGE WARS

  THE BLACK GRYPHON

  THE WHITE GRYPHON

  THE SILVER GRYPHON

  DARIAN’S TALE

  OWLFLIGHT

  OWLSIGHT

  OWLKNIGHT

  OTHER NOVELS:

  GWENHWYFAR

  THE BLACK SWAN

  THE DRAGON JOUSTERS

  JOUST

  ALTA

  SANCTUARY

  AERIE

  THE ELEMENTAL MASTERS

  THE SERPENT’S SHADOW

  THE GATES OF SLEEP

  PHOENIX AND ASHES

  THE WIZARD OF LONDON

  RESERVED FOR THE CAT

  UNNATURAL ISSUE

  *COMING SOON FROM DAW BOOKS

  AND DON’T MISS:

  THE VALDEMAR COMPANION

  EDITED BY JOHN HELFERS AND DENISE LITTLE

  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Also by Mercedes Lackey

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Epilogue