Her thoughts jumped to the bag she’d packed and prepared for her escape. Upstairs and useless to her. She didn’t have time to get it. The patrols were coming, coming soon. How soon? How much time did she have?

Not enough.

She staggered to her feet, still clutching the weapon in one hand.

Where could she go? It didn’t matter. It just had to be now.

She ran for the entrance hall, heart pounding wildly as she looked around for the enforcers. Trying to guess the time and the part of their patrol. How long had she been there? How long-?

I don’t have time to figure it out.

Taking a wild chance, born from desperation rather than careful thought, she dashed across the empty hall and to the front door. Her hands shook wildly as she one handedly worked to open the bar and finally push it aside.

The door was big but not as heavy as it looked.

With a silent sob she pulled it open just enough to squeeze through and run.

At first she started for the front gates then switched directions, heading for the garden. She imagined she heard shouts behind her. Maybe she did. Or maybe she was just scared out of her mind.

Through the tears and terror, she could barely see where she was going and finally tripped at the other end of the garden. Nearly banging head first into the gate she’d taken Dalius through a few nights ago.

Why hadn’t I just gone with Dalius? I’d be safe!

Her sobs weren’t quite so silent now. It took everything she had to hold them back until she’d gotten through the gate and down into the residential areas near the Palace.

Finally, she found a clean alley where stone containers had been placed on either side of a burning pit. At the moment the coffin sized containers were half full of garbage, waiting to be burned sometime soon.

It was there, hiding from the street on the other side of the garbage container, that she finally sat down. Put her head between her knees. And cried.

I killed him. I killed Clophas.

Oh, Lord of the Void. It was an accident. I swear, it was an accident!

***

She was wandering, first aimless and then with a desperate energy, through the darkened tunnels of a long dead sewer.

Instead of sewage what stank was the puddles of water that had been stagnant for an eternity. She stepped in one, the smell clinging to her as she pushed aside endless roots and moved around and through scores of scurrying creatures that hurried out of her way.

She couldn’t see. Not really. Even changing her eyes to their other form she was nearly blind in this lightless place.

But, up ahead, there was light. Her little shelter.

As lonely as it was, it was the only place that had ever felt like home.

And she was desperate to reach it as something came pounding after her. Making so much noise that it shook the walls and roots as it got closer.

It took Diana Veran a moment to realize she’d been dreaming. And another moment to understand that the pounding had continued. Sitting up, she stared blankly in the direction of the blanketed doorway.

It wasn’t really pounding. It was the knocker, being tapped insistently and with far more force than it was designed to take.

“Voids, I’m coming!”

Snatching up a robe from the bottom of her bed, she pulled it on over her shift as she walked. Then with a bad tempered jerk she yanked open the curtain.

“What?”

The word was out of her mouth before she registered Lloyd’s face and grim expression. Immediately her bad temper vanished and anxiety gripped her chest.

“What happened? What’s wrong?”

He opened his mouth, hesitated, the troubled look deepening. “I think you’d better come see.”

Without bothering to change she stepped into the hallway and gestured for him to lead.

The instant she stepped into the training room her senses were flooded with information. Puke, two fetid pools on the mat near the central pillar. And a blackened statue illuminated by the lamps of several enforcers along with the main lamp.

She could smell the fading scent of Clophas and knew, before rounding the statue, what she would see.

“We checked his bedchambers.” Lloyd’s expression had gone blank, revealing nothing of his thoughts. She could smell a combination of curiosity, horror and satisfaction. Likely the man didn’t know what to feel about this.

Diana Veran pinched her forehead then turned to look at the weapon’s rack. She didn’t have to look far. Laying abandoned on the ground was the casing for the damned weapon.

“Voids!” She spun around. “How long do you think it’s been?”

Lloyd, well, all of them, studied her for an instant, but it was Lloyd who answered.

“No longer than an hour, Mistress. We always check this room as part of the patrol.” He gestured toward the doorway. “Someone also went out the front doors. Actually, that’s why we found out when we did. Demitri heard the front doors open.”

For a long moment she stood there, taking deep breaths as she sorted out what to do.

“Is it really Master Clophas?”

What a damnable mess. She began rubbing her forehead where she’d been pinching it.

“Alright, this is what we’re going to do.” She dropped her hand and straightened her shoulders. “Hide him away somewhere. I don’t care where. The council chamber, that’s close enough. Don’t let anyone else see him. Wake the third division, have someone lead them to all the places I was having you investigate. Arrest everyone.”

“Everyone, Mistress? Even the children?”

She fixed Lloyd with a hard stare.

“All of them. Try to be quiet about it. I don’t want Aridon involved if I can help it. Just put them in the dungeons and I’ll interrogate them myself.”

She’d an idea of how to do that. Which she now had a chance to test.

When Lloyd nodded and picked one of the enforcers standing around to send the orders, she continued.

“Next, we need to wake all the servants and take a role call. All absences must be investigated. I want you to personally see to that, Captain.”

He bowed his head in acknowledgement.

“Do you want a role call on the resident demons, Mistress?”

She looked at the dead statue of Clophas and hesitated. “I’ll make a list of demons who might’ve done this.” She sighed. “But, I don’t want them alerted until morning if it can be helped. So have someone just peek in and make sure someone is in the bed.”

“Yes, Mistress. You two, carry this thing to the council chamber. The rest of you, wake the second division and meet me in the servants wing.”

When the enforcers all left Diana stood there for a long moment. She already knew she wouldn’t find any trace of the other person but she still walked over and picked up the hollow club. She sniffed it all over.

Nothing.

With a grimace she glanced at the puke pool. If the actual bile hadn’t been so strong that should’ve helped her identify the other person.

Head pounding with a stress headache, she tucked the club under her arm, and left the training hall.

It was going to be a long, long night.

***

“Be ready.”

Kellus opened his eyes. It didn’t matter. When the old devil had left he’d turned out all the lights and there was nothing but blackness.

He didn’t need to be able to see to ponder on the clear command that had woken him.

Well, sort of clear.

Can the Void’s Lord be more vague?, he thought wryly to himself as he put his hands under his head. Yes, of course he could. Ready for what?

It only took him a moment for his mind to stray to where it always went. The hope he’d been cultivating for… years?... ignited and he sat up. His heart began to pound and his empty stomach twisted in anticipation.

Was this finally it?

There was a chance that his prayers would be denied. That he was heading to death rather than freedom. That he’d never see his family again.

He knew that.

But, what if? What if the Void’s Lord had decided to intervene for him? To reward his hope and prayers? What if-?

He had no idea how to be ready. So he stretched, crawled to the only place he was allowed to stand and relieved himself before getting back to his mat.

And waited. And waited.

He’d gotten very, very good at waiting.

Finally he saw light coming from the outer corridor. At first he thought his eyes were playing tricks on him, as they sometimes did in this utter blackness. They’d try to tell him he was seeing the breaking of sunlight and his soul would weep when he realized he was just dreaming.

The light grew steadily brighter until she stepped into the room.

Diana Veran, holding a lantern that his light hungry eyes latched onto. She lifted it higher and scowled at the dark room.

“Be helpful.”

Ah. Right. How-?

“He’s not here,” Kellus tried. His voice was so hoarse that he immediately coughed on the words.

She shot him a look but said nothing. Instead she turned away, pressing her lips together and tapping her foot.

How else could Kellus be helpful?

“He took a map with him. I think of the building,” cough, “building above us.”

She stopped tapping and suddenly had her full attention on him. “How do you know that? Aridon isn’t one to tell his prisoners what he’s doing.”

Ahh… yes. He’d been trying to avoid them remembering. It would be inconvenient to him if they demanded things he couldn’t do anymore. He grimaced and debated on keeping silent.

“Tell her.”

Really, Lord? A wash of fear invaded his mind and he had to take a deep breath to push it away.

If this meant he might get out… he hoped, he only had hope…

“I’m a priest, m’lady. Sometimes I don’t need,” cough, cough. “Need to be told anything.”

His throat hurt and his eyes watered. How long had it been since he’d spoken? Not since the last time he’d seen that boy. How long ago was that?

She was silent for a long, long time. “Then I know what he’s doing,” she muttered viciously and spun around.

The demoness was leaving. Panicked he rolled to his knees, unable to get to his feet with that voided ring around his forearm and the command to stay down. She was leaving!

“Perhaps I can help?” he rasped.

“What can you do?” she spat furiously. “I’ll not be indebted to the Void if I can help it.”

Then she was gone. Taking the light with her. Taking his hope with her.

Confused, he sat back against the wall and stared upward. The ceiling was just as black as the rest of the room. Tears of sudden frustration welled in his eyes and he clenched his fists in his blanket. He was cold but he didn’t want to move enough to wrap himself up again.

What was the point of that?

“Can you at least tell me if something has changed?”

He didn’t expect an answer.

He’d been unable to See for himself since his niece turned eight. When his control over his own gift was the demanded price for opening her gift.

That’s why he was startled when his question was answered. With a blaze of certainty that penetrated to the center of his being.

“She now remembers you’re here. It’ll be soon.”

His hands slowly unclenched.

Calm returned and he waited a moment, leaning his head back against the wall. Then, calmly, peacefully, he crawled under the blankets again. Felt the cold seeping through his mat from the stone floor beneath.

Let it be as the Void’s Lord says.

Life or death, he was pretty sure it was almost over.

He went back to sleep.