Brightly Woven

disgusted snarl, jumping over the side of the wagon.
    “Take her back up to Arcadia,” he said in a low voice. “Tell Pascal what’s happened.”
    The boys nodded, and before I could protest, the wagon began to turn around on the narrow path. He’s leaving me behind again , I thought. Watching him walk toward Dorwan, I felt sick, but not paralyzed.
    I climbed out of the wagon, and Peter reached for my arm. I pulled away.
    “Go back to Arcadia and tell them what’s happened,” I told the boys. “I need to stay with North. Lady Aphra will understand. Tell Pascal.”
    I waited until the wagon had cleared the pass before I tooka deep breath and walked toward the two wizards. Dorwan’s eyes bore into mine, just as penetrating as I remembered.
    “Why are you here?” I asked, already knowing the answer. My hand came to rest behind North’s back.
    “To see you again, of course,” he said. Oh, that disgusting smile, that thinly layered malice. “I was so sorry to lose you in Dellark.”
    “Sorry enough to poison me,” I said. I looked at North, but I couldn’t read his expression.
    “The poison wasn’t meant for you,” Dorwan said in his quiet, silky voice. “An unfortunate mistake. If he had taken it, we could have been together without this trouble.”
    North finally moved, blocking me from the other wizard’s view. “You’ll have to find your own assistant, Dorwan,” he said.
    Dorwan clucked his tongue. “Assistant? I take it she doesn’t know, then?”
    “Know what?” I asked.
    “If I had your affliction, I would have experimented, too,” Dorwan said, crossing his arms over his chest. “Though I don’t think I would have stopped so short of a cure. Your magister had the right idea.”
    “You don’t even know what you’re talking about!” North’s voice exploded through the pass. I winced.
    “So you deny that you took her because you wanted to study her?” Dorwan peered around North’s shoulder.
    Don’t believe that , North’s look seemed to say. But why couldn’t he just say that aloud? What did he mean, study me?
    “Sydelle, you’d better come with me now,” Dorwan said. “It would be a shame for you to witness what I’m going to do to Wayland if you don’t.”
    “You disgust me,” I spat. “I’d lie in a bed of snakes and spiders for all eternity before leaving this place with you. We’re going to Provincia to stop this war, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
    “Are you honestly stupid enough to think you have a choice?” Dorwan said. “There’s no stopping the wheels of chaos now that they’ve been set in motion. It’s a glorious time to be alive in this world! I’ve seen to it that the wizards will be destroyed in this war, and you, dear girl, will help me to establish the new regime.”
    North’s fingers tugged at the knots holding his cloaks in place, and time slowed around us. All of the cloaks fluttered down silently, ripples of color in the air, landing in a puddle of fabric between the two men.
    “What are you doing?” I cried.
    “What makes you believe I’d ever agree to a wizarding duel?” Dorwan’s smile made my skin crawl. “Those rules are antiquated and useless to me.”
    “But you love a challenge, don’t you? You’d love nothing more than a chance to use whatever dark magic you’ve created to end my life,” North said. “If you give me time to take Sydelle to safety, that’s the only rule I need.”
    Dorwan nodded, obviously reluctant. “There’s no room for nobility in battle, Wayland. You’re too soft.”
    “If I win, you’ll leave us be. You’ll never look at Sydelle again, or think about her, or try to stop us from going to Provincia,” North said.
    “If I win,” Dorwan said slowly, looking straight at me, “the same terms apply, only I demand the surrender of your talisman as well.”
    “Fine,” North said. “Are we in agreement, then?”
    “Don’t you request my talisman if you win?” Dorwan asked, seemingly confused.
    “Why would I ever want such a piece of rot?” North said. “No, thank you.”
    Dorwan was silent, pulling a long, thin dagger from its sheath. Its hilt, worn with use, was wrapped with blue string; one long braid of strings, ranging in color from midnight to sky blue, hung down from the hilt.
    Dorwan opened his hand, letting the dagger fall on top of North’s cloaks. A palpable buzz of energy filled the air, touching my skin with a slight shock. When the sensation finally