“No, she doesn’t,” Arling said quickly. “She didn’t know anything about it. When I told her about it after she gave me the drug, she kept trying to find out where it was, who might have taken it. It wasn’t the captain and crew. She’d imprisoned them in the cellars, and she’d done things to the captain, turned him into a monster so that …”
She broke off. “We have to find it, Aphen!” she said frantically. “I have to get it back!”
“I can’t find anything for her to wear in here,” Cymrian announced from across the room. “Bring her into the shop. We can search there. We need to change, as well. Look at us. We look like we’ve been attacked by feral cats.”
They moved out of the storeroom and into the front of the shop. The clothes on display were better organized and Cymrian quickly found garments they could change into. While Arling and Aphen did so, he moved to the windows and peered out.
“Quiet out there. No one about.” He scanned up and down the street. “Everyone’s gone into hiding.” He shook his head. “I don’t like their chances if they don’t get out of here soon. Or ours.”
“What do you mean?” Arling asked, lacing up her blouse and tightening the belt around her waist. She had wiped the tears and dirt away from her face and tied back her hair.
Cymrian looked at her. “We’ve watched the last two battles, and then we climbed up where we wouldn’t be noticed and took a look over the battlements. There’s an army of demonkind out there, obviously broken free of the Forbidding, and the Federation defenders aren’t going to be enough to stop it. They’ve nearly broken though Arishaig’s defenses twice.”
“So we have to get out of the city,” Aphen finished. “Escape and go back into the Westland and find the Ellcrys seed.”
“But I’m not sure what happened to it!” Arling insisted.
“I am,” Cymrian said. “The couple who found you and took you to the Federation warship took it. If you don’t have it, and Edinja and her captain and crew don’t have it, then who’s left? They must have stolen it off you when they found you.”
Aphen stared at him. “Are you sure about this?”
“Process of elimination. It’s the only possibility. The man, in particular, seemed anxious to me, even before he found out Arling was your sister. He has it, all right.”
Arling looked stricken. “But I don’t know who he is. I don’t know anything about the woman, either. How will we ever find them?”
“Before we worry about that, we have to get out of this city.” Aphen put her hands on her sister’s shoulders and looked into her eyes. “Arling, look at me. Let me see your eyes. Are you all right now? You look exhausted.”
Cymrian had moved away from the windows and stepped behind a clothes rack to change, as well. “We’ll start by finding Rushlin and see if he has any ideas. Rovers usually know one or two tricks for getting out of tight corners.”
They found a better travel cloak for Arling, and together they moved toward the storeroom door, intent on going back out the way they had come in. They had just passed through the doorway when they saw a small, exquisitely beautiful woman with silver hair and dusky skin standing at the back door, blocking the way.
Arling gave a small cry and shrank back immediately.
“Why don’t we talk about how I can help you leave all this behind,” Edinja Orle said. “Isn’t that what you want?”
Aphen’s first impulse was to attack, but she resisted it when she saw the giant moor cat crouched off to one side. It was much too close for her to stop it from springing on them, which it would likely choose to do if she tried to attack Edinja.
“I’m not here to try to take Arling back,” the sorceress said to them. “I’m just here to talk. Listen to me, and then you can go wherever you want. I won’t try to stop you. In fact, I won’t do anything to get in your way. But I can help you get to where you want to go, which ought to make what I have to say worthwhile.”
Aphen could feel Cymrian tense next to her, so she reached out and took hold of his arm in warning. “How did you find us?” she asked Edinja.
“Cinla and I tracked you. We’re very good at that sort of thing.”
“You let Arling escape, didn’t you?”
“I gave her the opportunity so that she could lead me to you and we could have this talk. I admit that, in the beginning—weeks ago—I was looking for something entirely different from what I am looking for now. As Prime Minister of the Federation, I wanted to find a way to put pressure on the Elves to form an alliance. Or on the Druids, for that matter. But now that I know what is happening with the Forbidding, I’ve decided I need to pursue a different course of action entirely.”
“You tried to kill us!” Cymrian snapped.
She shook her head. “I did not try to kill you. Stoon tried to kill you. I sent him to find you and bring you back to me so that I could discover what you were up to. He took it upon himself to do more.”
“He had the use of your creatures, Edinja.”