Luck in the Shadows

her best not to laugh at the expression of shocked realization spreading hotly over his face.
    Mortified, Alec hastily flung it on. In the excitement of the moment he had not anticipated such complications. Taking the ring back from her, he turned to Seregil, who was kneeling beside the older wizard.
    "I lost the papers with my clothes, but I still have this."
    "And another," Seregil gasped, cradling his head in his hands as the usual wave of post-magic nausea swept over him. "The Consort's seal.
    Micum has it—Nysander, we found it There's a room below the ruined tower. We have to—We—Tell him, Alec!"
    Retching, he staggered off into the shadows.
    "Kassarie's a Leran for certain," Alec continued excitedly. "She's still got some of the stolen gold and the body of Lord Corruth!"
    "Poor fellow. I always feared something of the sort had happened to him," sighed Nysander. "But what is this about rings and papers?"
    "We took Corruth's rings and some papers to prove what we found," Alec explained, handing the wizard the heavy Aurлnfaie ring. "Micum has the Consort's seal, but we lost everything else when—" Alec paused with a stricken gasp. "My sword! Oh hell, that went, too, and my black dagger."
    These, along with his bow, were chief among the very few material possessions he felt any attachment to; they had been the first things Seregil had outfitted him with at Wolde.
    "We shall do our best to recover them, dear boy, and all the rest," Nysander assured him.
    "We have to get back in there, and quickly," said Seregil, returning to the fire looking haggard but determined. One of the riders held out a cloak and he wrapped himself in it. "She'll destroy everything, Nysander; she may have already. Even with the ring, our word won't be enough against her!"
    "He's right," Thero agreed.
    "She's the head of the serpent, I'm certain of it,"
    Seregil continued emphatically. "Get her and you get them all! But Klia and the others will never find that room on their own. I've got to go back in!"
    "Not without me, you're not!" declared Alec.
    Nysander assented with a weary nod. "Sergeant Talmir, please get these men clothing, horses, and weapons."
    Beka stepped forward. "Let me go with them."
    The wizard shook his head firmly. "It is not for me to countermand Commander Klia's orders. She stationed you here."
    "But—"
    "You stay put," Seregil warned. "It's worth your commission to leave your post. You haven't even been invested yet!"
    Alec stepped away with his usual modesty to dress, while Seregil threw his cloak off with no thought but haste. As he did so, Alec was dismayed to see that the obscuration spell covering the scar had failed again; the strange scar was clearly visible. Nysander saw it, too, and shook his head slightly at Alec. Fortunately, Seregil pulled on his borrowed tabard before anyone else noticed.
    Beka, who'd kindly looked away until Alec had gotten his breeches on, offered him her sword.
    "Take it," she urged. "I'll feel better, knowing you have a blade I trust."
    Alec accepted the sword gratefully, hearing the echo of her father's words to Seregil when they'd left Watermead.
    Clasping hands hastily with her, he said, "It's one I trust, too." He hesitated, suddenly awkward; he felt as if he ought to say something more, but he couldn't think what.
    "Take good care of Nysander and Thero," he said at last, "in case they have to turn us into something else to get us out again."
    She gave him a playful cuff on the arm. "Good thing he didn't make you into stags and otters that time, eh?"
    Outfitted again, Seregil and Alec leapt onto fresh horses and galloped back to the keep.
    The main gate stood open now. Looking around, Seregil guessed that their earlier capture had disrupted the usual discipline of the place, and the garrison had been caught off guard by Klia's attack.
    In the courtyard a handful of Guards were standing watch over a knot of captured servants. Stamie huddled miserably among the prisoners and refused to meet Alec's eye when he attempted to speak to her.
    The rest of the raiders had stormed inside.
    Overhead, flames licked out of a second-floor window.
    "Looks like we can go in the front way this time,"
    Seregil said with a dark grin, pointing to the shattered doors.
    Scattered sounds of fighting rang through the halls as they ran for the northeast stairway. Bodies littered the stairs, but the main battle had been pressed back to the third floor.
    Coming out in the upper passageway, they could