I slip out of my bedroom and lightfoot down the hall. The voices repeat in dark chorus, "It's time, it's time, it's time." They overlap, twisting in and out of each other. For once, I find their music thrilling rather than angering.

It is finally time.

I hit the first floor and nearly dance all the way to the secret room. Anticipation burning, I stop at the door. I quit drugging him this morning, so he should be good and awake now—a little groggy at most. I hope all the doses of the shaudacerise won't hamper his execution of my order.

I laugh. His execution.

I pause, staring at the door. He could be standing right inside. I doubt it—I double-checked the bonds this morning—but he could be. Then again, the spell demands he can't hurt anyone inside the castle. I have no reason to doubt that it went off as I desired. That enchantment built itself in my soul for years. This is what it exists for. I'm not even sure I could provoke my magic into letting me cast it on someone else.

Smiling, I open the wall. The meager hall light falls on Alaar sitting against the back of the room. The twine still wraps his arms to his chest and his ankles together. Presumably his wrists and fingers are still bound, too, though I can't see them behind his back.

I smile. It's finally time.

The thought is lightheaded and giddy. I stride forward, triumphant. "Hello, Alaar."

"Idyne." His shockingly soft voice calls back a rush of flurried memories: freezing winter nights he pulled me closer to the hearth; relief as he freed me from another shaman's grasp, threatening to kill him if he touched me again; the gentle look in his eyes as he crouched in front of me, my village falling apart, and offered me his hand.

What a fool I was to take it.

The voices whisper like death in my mind, and I shake my head to clear it.

A compassionate lilt fills his tone. "They're bothering you again, aren't they?"

"Stop. Just." I put a hand to my head. "Just stop it."

"I can help quiet them. You know I can."

The voices' whispers turn to warning shrieks, and I squeeze my eyes tighter.

"Stop it," I grit out. I know his kind of help—a soft, cozy nothingness in my head like cotton where my brain should be. I don't need him. I don't need him for anything but death and dying.

"There's no point in you sufferi—"

"You're the one that put them there!"

The voices echo my words back to me. "You're the one that put them there, you're the one, you're the one..."

"You know that's not the case." He scoots closer, and I jerk back. His sharp face droops into a frown. "Please, child. Let me help you. You've more than proven your point." He tries to meet my gaze, and when I finally give it, encouragement shines there like when I had cast a good spell and he wanted me to do it again. "You won. When the war is over, you can have whatever you like. We can put all this behind us."

You won. The words ring in my ears, a victory I didn't know I so desperately wanted until I heard it. I have won—if I get him out of this castle, he'll do what I want for once, and not even he can stop it. And he knows it.

I've won. I've earned my place. He watches me, quietly, supportively, respectfully. If the Kadranians win, they'll own Morineaux and need people to watch it for them.

If I let him go, I can still be a Lady. You can have whatever you like. I could have that plate from the hall, the shiny one with the tree and the r'meurs. I could have my own land, not just lie about having some. I could have a host of clothes, not have to cast every day just to dress myself. I could be a real Lady, if he means what he says.

Bitterness flares within me. He never means exactly what he says.

The bitterness infects my face with a smile. "What I would like is for you and the rest of your shadow scum to go to Antium."

Darkness overtakes his face. "I'll have your tongue for that, child."

I grin, madly ecstatic with my power over him. I singsong, "Not in this castle you won't."

His eyes are fire, and I revel in it. There's the Alaar I know.

"Uppity-up, now." I dance over to him. "It's time for you to be on your way."

His legs lift to lash out, but he pulls the kick at the last second.

I laugh. "I know you remember the instructions I gave you. You can't hurt me." I come beside him and pull him to his feet. "Besides, you should want to get out of here. Otherwise, how will you kill your friends?" I stare at him with wide, gleeful eyes.

"You'll die before I kill myself."

I laugh again. "No I won't." I lean down and untie his ankles, then unbind the twine around his chest.

He twists to proffer his fingers to me. I turn him back, amusement playing on my lips. "No." If I unbound him that much, he would be able to summon his little shades, and I'm not sure how the spell will interpret him making the shades hurt people. I don't want to risk it. Besides, who knows what other sorts of trouble he might cause if he could.

I lead him out, shutting the wall behind us. As I walk, he lags, steps stilted.

"I remind you," I say, "that if you don't follow me, you'll have no way of killing the other shamans."

He grimaces.

"Aw." I smile at him. "Is the thought of not completing your goal uncomfortable? You only have sixteen more days to do so."

He sneers but remains silent. I grin and walk him down the hall. We just need to get outside, to a portion of the wall that's not being watched as closely; then I can send him on his way. I had thought of using the convenient tunnel Leavi showed to us, but if I followed him out to unblindfold him, he would then be able to hurt me—I would be outside the castle wall. If I just sent him out, then he would know where the exit was and would be able to bring soldiers back to it. So this is better, if a little harder to pull off unnoticed.

We walk, and I try to figure out what excuse I'll give for his hands being tied if we run into someone. I draw a blank as we slip through corridors. I suppose we'll just need to not get caught. I pause before each corner, listening for a patrol guard or restless servant. There shouldn't be any Ladies down here this late, but I don't want to risk something getting back to one of them. Each successful corner I turn, my nerves bundle tighter, as if not running into anyone is a sign of something worse.

I try to shake off the feeling. This is going well. It's good that I haven't had to take any detours. It's good that I can't find anyon—

Two hulking soldiers turn onto the other end of this hall. My eyes go wide, and Alaar laughs.

The Kadranians glare down at us, and one pulls his axe off his back, hand halfway up the shaft. The axe starts swinging in figure-eights, and the men step forward. The other one draws his sword. Alaar still grins.

For some reason, he doesn't seem to realize they'll kill his little Morineause body too, and I shove him. Unable to break his fall with his hands, he topples to the ground. He's less likely to get me killed from there, and I pull my silverglass.

Just me against two giants. I take another step back.

The axe crashes toward me. I duck beneath it, stepping inside his reach. As I push up from the crouch, the silverglass plunges under his ribs and up behind them. My hand meets his torn flesh. I jerk the blade back out, shoving my other hand against him.

As he falls, the tang of his blood assaults my nostrils. I grin at the other soldier.

Anger twists his face as he stares at his dead comrade. "You'll die, wench."

He charges me. I twist to the side and step behind him. The silverglass slams into his back and back out. He roars with pain. Slipping on his friend's blood, he hits the ground. I step forward and finish him.

Alaar has nearly maneuvered into a sitting position, and I step over the body to yank him to his feet. As I lean over, my dress flicks into view, and I frown. There's blood on it again.

If there are Kadranians in the castle, then someone needs to let the people that deal with that sort of thing know. But I don't want to drag Alaar up to the third floor just so I can warn Aster.

An idea clicks, and I pull the shaman along, course unaltered. Hurrying through the first-floor halls, it's not long before I run into another pair of soldiers.

Before they advance, I raise my hands. "For life and land." I know I'm speaking my home tongue—there's no way the soldier I killed wasn't speaking Kadranian.

The men pull up short.

"I'm a plant," I explain, "and this man—"

"She's a liar—" Alaar begins, and I backhand him in the face.

"This man is a traitor to our cause."

They eye me, gaze flicking between us. "Then let's kill him here and now," one growls.

My head shakes. "I have orders on how to deal with him."

"She's fooling you, idiots. She—"

"How pathetic," I spit, "that you would lie your way out of this. You live with no honor—do you intend to die a coward's death too?"

He growls, which plays perfectly for me. I face the soldiers again. "Where are you headed?"

"We're one of the groups sent up to ensure the Stellry-spawn died."

I grin. "Oh, they're dead."

"She's lying to you fools!"

I ignore him, so they do too. "You would be better off to head back out of the castle, to the nearest building on the right as you're leaving. They have a stockpile of supplies there—if you can set fire to them somehow, you'll be heroes."

They glance at each other.

"Trust me, the brats are dead."

They nod but still hesitate.

"If you wait too much longer, they'll get guards up on the supplies." They confer quickly, one of them still making for the third floor. The other turns, eagerly following my instructions straight to the army barracks.

Pleased, I continue on my way. If that doesn't alert the Morineause there's been a break in, they deserve to lose.

Right as I reach the servant's exit, another Kadranian steps through. He startles as he sees me, and I step in with my silverglass.

Somehow, he dodges and slams a fist into my face. I stagger to the side, vision starry, and collide with the wall. When I look up, his sword is raised, arcing toward me. I scramble back, ear ringing where he boxed me. His sword is fast, already turning and slicing toward me again. My silverglass isn't strong enough to parry, and I dance back.

I sprawl over Alaar's outstretched foot. The soldier towers over me.

My feet kick up between his legs, and he shouts. I spring up as he collapses and skirt around him to lower the chance of him retaliating. He's curled up on the ground, and a quick thrust puts him out of his misery.

Alaar glares at me.

I lean forward and hiss, "Don't think you're getting out of this that easily."

"I should kill you."

I smile, teeth bared. "But you won't." I pull him along, and we cross the dead grass behind the castle. Distantly, shouts echo around the grounds. Chills run over my skin.

Once we reach the wall, I rejoice again that the Morineause are so obsessed with building everything out of stone. The spell the Retran miners taught me will work here. With a tight grip on Alaar, I close my eyes.

In my mind's eye, the outline of a doorway forms on the stone. Then, the rocks inside melt into thin air. The outline retraces itself, and the rocks reform. The magic swells in me, ready.

I relinquish Alaar, eyes opening, and begin to cast. Once the doorway and runes are drawn, the magic surges, and the stone inside the outline teleports away, cut perfectly. A small pop sounds as the air rushes in where the rock was.

My hands find Alaar's shoulders, and I shove him through. He twists and tries to catch his bound arms over my head, to drag me through too, but I dodge, and he falls to the other side of the wall.

Then the wall blips back into place, and weariness washes over me. I slump against the stone. That was more rock than I thought was going to be there.

Victory trembles in my chest. The shamans will all die within sixteen days.

My joy is muted by exhaustion. I curl up, here in the cold, cradled by the shadows. Even if a Kadranian finds me and kills me, I'll dance my way through Antium.

The shamans are all going to die.