Part 52 (1/2)

She rose into the air, then saw something that made her throat close.

A troop of men was moving through the woods. They were dressed like people from this world. But she recognized some of them as Falcone's soldiers. And some of his adepts.

Her pulse pounding, she scanned the group and saw Falcone himself. From above, she fought a sick, dizzy feeling. But she felt even sicker when she saw who was in front of him-leading the line of men.

It was Haig.

The man who had been like a father to her since she had been taken away from her mother eighteen years ago.

Great Mother! Haig had argued with her for months that there were no portals to a world like their own. But here he was, on the other side.

As she watched, he stopped with a quick, jerky motion and pointed into the air-right at her, then he dropped his hand and stood with his head bowed. He looked like a man captured by utter defeat. Yet he had just told Falcone, her worst enemy, that she was right above them.

Every instinct urged her to fly as far away as she could get.

But she needed more information. Knowing she must understand the situation, she circled the men, her heart in her throat. One of them broke from the group and launched a spear, and it flew past her.

She heard Falcone shout, ”No! Hold your fire, you Carfolian idiot.” And she wondered if he knew the soldiers by the river had fired at her.

As he leaped toward the back of the line, the men moved swiftly out of his way. Falcone brushed past them as he raised a hand, pointing it at the man who had thrown the spear.

The soldier fell to the ground, writhing in pain, clamping his hands to his ears as though that could block the psychic bolt that had just crashed into his brain.

Falcone stood over him, coolly administering more pain. Then he raised his head and looked at two of the soldiers. ”Con, Rugar, get him on his feet!”

The warriors obeyed their leader's command, pulling their companion up and supporting him as he swayed on unsteady legs.

”If he can't go on with us, kill him.”

The whole incident told Rinna something important. Falcone wanted to capture her alive-if he could. Maybe she was even the reason he had come through the portal with this squad of soldiers.

He knew where she had gone, he wanted her back, and he was willing to go to great lengths to get her.

As though he were reading her mind, he looked up and stared directly at her. For a moment their eyes met.

”Don't bother to try and escape. Wherever you go, I'll hunt you down.”

She beat the air with her wings, thinking that if she could take him by surprise now, she could claw his eyes out.

But he had too many men. They would come to his rescue. And that would be the end of her.

He gave her one more defiant look, as though he had read her mind. Then he went straight to Haig's side where he bent toward the old man's ear, speaking in a tone that she couldn't hear.

Haig's head jerked.

When he looked up at her, she felt the old pull that had existed between them. Long ago, when the monitors had taken her to the school, she had been scared and confused. During the day, she had held her head high and pretended that her insides weren't raw and bleeding. She'd listened to the teachers tell her that she had escaped from a life of slavery.

But she knew it wasn't really true. She might live in a better house, eat better food, and be excused from manual labor, but she would still be expected to do someone else's work.

Not for a conventional master. But the council. Or someone powerful on the council.