Jayce ran along the hillside washed out by torrential runoff. He could hear Terryn's heavy breathing behind him.

They'd returned to camp hours ago, having witnessed the marriage of a Captain of the Quarso-- traitor Captain-- to an Aquarian princess.

Jayce stumbled again, righted himself and then stopped and looked out to sea as the rumble of thunder assailed his ears. It seemed to start in the sea and carried over the air. A huge cloud sprang from the waves, rising up like a watery version of the mountain that guarded the land passages.

"Jayce!" Terryn hissed, keeping his voice low.

"Sorry." Jayce flung his hair out of his eyes, and stared at the clouds that met over the ocean. To him, it looked as if Etrusia had just blown up.

He gazed out over the small encampments and then took off running once again. "Where are we going?"

"To find Crevan and Rion. The Quarso has never been disunified. Order must be restored. I sense only chaos."

"And when you find them who will you owe your loyalty to?"

"Whoever hates Quildor the most."

They ran for a mile and then stopped, seeing the remains of the castle, the army lined up and preparing to leave. They could see Quildor at the head shouting orders to Fontayne. Someone was tied to a post and being whipped.

"Kib said Rion contacted him in Zalez. Do you think he would have come here?"

"He wouldn't have set out for Valdemar alone. Kib was convinced that Rion intended to find his woman and go with them when they left."

"I know. And I believe that's what they were planning. I don't think he knew he would find her and marry her last night. He thought she might be being held by Quildor. Else why would he come here? I can sense him, the closer we get the more I sense him."

"He and Crevan... and someone else...."

Jayce turned and looked at Terryn curiously. "I sense it too... someone far away and very strong in Zalez. I feel as if it were my mother."

"Your mother's dead."

"I know, fluff head. But the signature of the Zalez reminds me of her. I can't quite pinpoint what it is I am sensing." He flung out a hand to ward off any more thoughts. "We must find Crevan."

They began descending into the valley, coming upon the lined up troops from behind. They were met with salutes, as they jogged ahead in the rising sunlight to the head of the Minions who were avidly engrossed in watching the whipping Quildor's executioner was administering to a man they had stripped down and tied to a post. Jayce was about to walk right up to Fontayne when Terryn pulled Jayce back and they both crouched behind a vacant tent.

"Quildor is having Rion beat!" Terryn stated, his eyes turned a deadly hue, Rion must have revealed his defection. "Where is Crevan?" They both searched the faces closest to the punishment area. It had been going on for awhile. It made them sick. They watched another few minutes and then Jayce stood, his hands clenched in furious fists.

"I can't stand watching this anymore. I demand an answer!" He started to rush up to confront Quildor, when suddenly the sign was given and the army began to march past the whipping post, the whippings stopped and Quildor could be seen taking them all ahead with Fontayne and Tyce at his side. Jayce and Terryn moved carefully down the hill toward the village, through the crowds of people gathered to watch them leave. Women and children and old men were watching solemnly, some wiping tears from their eyes. No one paid them the slightest attention, so they crept carefully through the throng to the remains of the castle and began scaling its heights.

"Why are we looking here?" Terryn demanded as he turned and watched the rest of the army marching onward past Rion's prone form. "Shouldn't we go see about Rion? I sense he is alive."

"Yes, he's alive. But so is Crevan and he's close by. I want to find him, and find out what happened here! It isn't safe to retrieve Rion right this minute, but you can be sure, he is my next priority!" The anger in his controlled whisper was deadly. Jayce walked up a pile of rubble, across some stones and what used to be a walkway between halls, and that was when he saw the broken body laying flat against a rampart.

"It's Crevan!" Terryn hissed as they climbed the balustrade quickly, scaled the closest walls and then dropped onto the ledge where Crevan had fallen. He was conscious, and injured badly.

"Crevan! It's Jayce, can you hear me? Don't try to move, we're going to get you out of here." He grabbed some splintered wood that had broken off from a door and tested it for durability. Terryn saw what he was about to do and jumped in to help. Together they lifted Crevan's body and began the slow task of getting him off the debris.

******

Kara landed where Rion had first taken her when he brought her out of the mountain. She was weak, too weak to fly any further, and too heartsick to attempt to go back.

Tears blinded her and she tumbled the way she had when she was learning to fly. Disappointment flared at her own lack of stamina. She skidded to a halt, scraped and bruised, and dug her fingers into the earth, feeling it slide up her arms. She screeched as her face hit the loosely packed wet sand of the shoreline away from the crystal field and was glad she hadn't lost her momentum over the field.

Laying prone, her entire body in touch with the ground, she let the wind wash over her. It was full daylight now. Storm clouds were coming over the ocean, she hadn't eaten, and she'd barely slept. The earth had shaken, her Zalez had been disturbed from the moment she'd become cognizant. And now, to have seen her beloved beaten and tortured right before her eyes!

Her cries rent the silence. She pounded dirty fists into the ground, listening to the earth send forth its tiny crystals far to her side.

Why had Rion run off to confront Quildor right then? Why had he tried to take him alone in the midst of his whole army? Why had he left her knowing she was weak?

The love they shared was so rare and personal. Why would he have revealed himself and jeopardized their life together?

In the hours ensuing after their gentle and beautiful lovemaking, his mind had been open to her, she'd seen the plans he'd made with his brothers from the village and from the Quarso. It would mean leaving her family, and those she loved, but perhaps if they went to Valdemar she would get some answers to questions.

Shock registered like a clap of thunder in her veins. When she turned and buried her face in her hands to cry for this tragic loss, the pain moved to her heart, deep and lasting and breathtaking. It reeled into her system, and she imagined her Aunt, Belakane on board a shuttle, bound for Aquaria, and Dmitri holding her as she drew her last breath.

Kara screamed.

"Because of Belakane's death, you advance to take your rightful place among the Ladies of the Council."

The smooth voice seemed to shine within her and she knew she wasn't alone, but wasn't sure, at the same time, that the voice existed anywhere but inside of herself. A strange phenomenon was taking place. Kara didn't feel afraid, but disquieted would have described the anxious tremor in her hands.

The vision opened inside her Zalez and punctuated her grief and understanding. She saw Nimiane and comprehended her death. 

She saw Adara Sebille's death and comprehended her life as well. Saw the young woman who had abandoned husband and son... Korlon was her son!

Kara stared next, at a new face she'd stared at many times. She studied her shallowly, noting the white gauze of Harpyiae, her long unbound hair was straight and white. Her limbs were slender, her eyes full of intelligence and the future. Her lips were mauve, closed in perfect symmetry. And Kara knew....

"Mother..." She said it not with gladness, but with wonder. "Mother...."

She gazed over the names of Adara, and Belakane, and Nimiane. The people shown to her weren't three-dimensional, they didn't move, their eyes were closed. They were gone.

But Ondrea was not.

She looked across Ondrea and saw her nurse, Avarona, and knew her. She was not just her nurse but another daughter of Ondrea, a child who carried Ondrea's blood.

And then she turned and saw Jerrika, running, flying, moving fast. She didn't know she'd been called to the council yet. Kara realized it took some concentration to comprehend things this way. If she'd still been flying, still been trying to free Rion, still been frantically moving in any way, the Zalez would not have opened to her .

And right now, she was becoming a Council Lady of Folara.

She transformed into Harpyiae form and flew to the top of Sentinel. She could see in the distance the army of Quildor like ants marching toward the hills and valleys of Valdemar in the far distance.

She looked out to the sea and it was as if she could see through the water and the sun glare to the domes themselves, to Etrusia, and Aquaria. She turned and looked inside the Mountain.

No one had been this high, it took a Harpyiae to actually get this high. She stood on a ledge looking into the depths.

"Hello, Talisman." She whispered aloud, feeling his acceptance of her in every fiber of her being.

"Talisman is to protect the blood of Ondrea Aquaria."

"I am Kara." She said slowly and distinctly. "I carry the blood of the planet. Tell me what to do."

*******