The Hidden City

to a thin white line that became fainter and fainter and finally disappeared entirely.
    Sephrenia began to cough. It was a gurgling, liquid kind of cough such as a nearly drowned man might make.
    ‘Hand me that basin, Sparhawk,’ Aphrael instructed. ‘She has to clear the blood out of her lungs.’
    Sparhawk reached out and took the large, shallow basin from the nightstand and handed it to her.
    ‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘You can have this back now.’ She gave him back the gold box, took the basin, and held it under Sephrenia’s mouth. That’s right,’ she said encouragingly to her sister as the woman began coughing up chunks of clotted blood. ‘Get it all out.’
    Sparhawk looked away. The procedure was not very pretty.
    ‘Put thy mind at rest, Anakha,’ Bhelliom’s voice told him softly. ‘Thine enemies are unaware of what hath come to pass.’ The jewel paused. ‘I have not given Edaemus his due, for he is very shrewd. Methinks none other could have perceived the true import of what he hath done. To curse his children as he hath was the only true way to conceal them. I shudder to imagine the pain it must have caused him.’
    ‘I do not understand,’ Sparhawk confessed.
    ‘A blessing rings and shimmers in the lucid air like bell-sound, Anakha, but a curse is dark and silent. Were the light which doth emanate from Anarae Xanetia a blessing, all the world would hear and feel its o’erwhelming love, but Edaemus hath made it a curse instead. Therein lay his wisdom. The accursed are cast out and hidden, and no one—man or God—can hear or feel their comings and goings up and down the land. When she did take the box in her hands, Anarae Xanetia did smother all sound and sense of my presence, and when she did embrace Aphrael and Sephrenia and enfold them in her luminous darkness, none living could detect me. Thy mate is safe—for now. Thine enemies have no knowledge of what hath come to pass.’
    Sparhawk’s heart soared. ‘I do sorely repent my lack of trust, Blue Rose,’ he apologized.
    ‘Thou wert distraught, Anakha. I do freely forgive thee.’
    ‘Sparhawk.’ Sephrenia’s voice was little more than a whisper.
    ‘Yes, little mother?’ He went quickly to the side of the bed.
    ‘You shouldn’t have agreed to this. You’ve put Ehlana in terrible danger. I thought you were stronger.’
    ‘Everything’s all right, Sephrenia,’ he assured her. ‘Bhelliom just explained it to me. Nobody heard or felt a thing while you were being healed.’
    ‘How is that possible?’
    ‘It was Xanetia’s presence—and her touch. Bhelliom says she easily muffled what was going on. It has to do with the difference between a blessing and a curse, as I understand it. However it works, what just happened didn’t put Ehlana in any danger. How are you feeling?’
    ‘Like a half-drowned kitten, if you really want to know,’ she smiled weakly. Then she sighed. ‘I would never have believed that Zalasta could be capable of what he did.’
    ‘I’ll make him wish he’d never thought of it,’ Sparhawk said grimly. ‘I’m going to tear out his heart, roast it on a spit, and then serve it up to Aphrael on a silver plate.’
    ‘Isn’t he a nice boy?’ Aphrael said fondly.
    ‘No.’ Sephrenia’s voice was surprisingly firm. ‘I appreciate the thought, dear ones, but I don’t want either of you to do anything to Zalasta. I’m the one he stabbed, so I want to be the one who decides who gets him.’
    ‘I suppose that’s fair,’ Sparhawk conceded.
    ‘What have you got in mind, Sephrenia?’ Aphrael asked.
    ‘Vanion’s going to be dreadfully upset when he hears about this. I don’t want him raging and breaking up the furniture, so I’m going to give Zalasta to him—all tied up in a bright red ribbon.’
    ‘I still get his heart, though,’ Aphrael insisted.

Chapter 13
    The sky was overcast with sullen cloud, and a chill, arid wind eooiaiLd the empty floor of the Desert of Cynesga as Vanion and the army retreated eastward. Fully half of his armored knights had perished in the encounter with Klael’s soldiers, and very few of the survivors had escaped serious injury. Vanion had ridden out from Sama with an army. He was returning at the head of a column of groaning invalids, battered and dented, after what had really been no more than a skirmish.
    Four Atans carried Engessa on a litter, and Queen Betuana walked along at his side, her face ravaged with grief. Vanion bed. Engessa was still