The change ricocheted through the ground, coiling out as if from the epicentre of an earthquake. Cadvan of Lirigon, Saliman of Turbansk and Hekibel, daughter of Hirean all fell to the floor as the force of the reverberation threw them off their feet. Hekibel, the first to recover, pushed herself to sit up, her eyes watching in horror as Maerad of Pellinor, the girl who had the power to save Annar and the Seven Kingdoms, fell to the floor as if death.

'Saliman,' she cried as watched Hem, Maerad's brother, crumple to his knees, his face a picture of grief so profound she could hardly look at it. She reached over to shake Saliman, but he seemed unresponsive, and thus she cast her eyes to Cadvan, who unlike Saliman, seemed to be recovering himself. 'Cadvan,' she said, watching him right himself, 'Maerad.'

He didn't seem to hear her, as his eyes fixed on the scene that Hekibel had adverted her eyes from. She watched as horror overtook the handsome features of the Bard and he pushed himself to his feet, muttering in the Speech something she didn't understand, but what she knew to be an exclamation of grief. As she turned back to Saliman, who was finally coming to, the sound of sobbing stopped. Hekibel dared to look across and a gasp of surprise escaped her lips. Maerad had sat up, her arms around Hem and Cadvan had stopped in his tracks, even from here, Hekibel could sense his amazement.

'What happened?' asked Saliman, startling Hekibel. She turned to look back at the Turbansk Bard.

'I think she did it,' replied Hekibel in amazement. 'I thought she was dead.' Hekibel pulled herself to her feet before helping Saliman to his. He looked as pale as he had when she had returned to him after his brush with the White Sickness.

Following Cadvan, Saliman started to make his way over to Maerad and Hem, with Hekibel in his wake. She was almost running to keep up with him. However, as she was more concentrating on keeping up with Saliman rather than where he was going, she walked straight into his large figure when he stopped suddenly. 'By the Light,' muttered Saliman.

Hekibel looked around Saliman, to see Cadvan showering Maerad with kisses, all reserve forgotten. Maerad opened her eyes, a surprised but delighted look was on her face before she threw her arms around him and kissed him back. Hem raised his eyebrows, before turning away, his face a bright rising red, when he saw Saliman and started to run towards his friend and guardian.

Saliman looked back Hekibel with surprise. She looked at him with a knowing smile, but his face was one of puzzlement. 'You cannot tell me you did not realise?' asked Hekibel.

'I had no idea!' exclaimed Saliman. Looking back towards Maerad and Cadvan, still embraced in their passionate kiss.

Hekibel shook her head, laughing. 'How is that, that a Bard of such great power, who would not miss a party of Hulls beyond eye distance, can miss what is right in front of him?' She smiled at him. 'I have never seen a love so deep! Had any man looked at me in such way…' but she trailed off, looking somewhat embarrassed as Hem joined them.

Saliman looked at Hekibel in surprised before he turned to Hem. 'My boy,' he said, clapping him hard on his shoulder. 'That was well done,' he smiled widely at Hem before pulling the boy into a hug. 'Although, I had my doubts, but it feels as if all is well.'

Hekibel also hugged the hugged the young Bard. 'I feared for you, Hem, and for your sister. I have grown fond of her over the past weeks,' then with a mischievous smile added, 'I don't think I'm the only one.'

Hem smiled embarrassedly, and then looked up to the sky, scanning the strangely clear sky.

'Worried for Irc?' asked Saliman.

Hem nodded. 'He won't know where to find us, and we'll soon be on the move. Also, I worry that he hasn't even got to Lirigon.'

Saliman looked serious for a moment. 'I'm sure he'll get there.' He then turned to Hekibel. 'Are you okay?'

'I should be asking you that!' replied Hekibel, 'you were the one knocked silly.' She smiled warmly, before reaching up on her tiptoes and kissing Saliman's cheek. 'I'm fine.' She gave him a warm smile, and cast a look over in the direction of Cadvan and Maerad, who had finally broke apart and where now walking hand in hand to join them.

Saliman was looking at Cadvan with his eyebrows raised; Hem was looking everywhere but at them, while Hekibel just smiled, mainly at Maerad, who she pulled into hug. 'What did I tell you,' she whispered in the young Bard's ear.

'You are nothing but a knave,' Saliman was saying to Cadvan. He was looking very doubtfully at his friend, who instead of taking note of his friend, gave Maerad a wink instead. Saliman turned from his friend to Maerad, and pulled her into a hug. 'You have given us all reason to hope again, Maerad. Although, I did fear for you,' he pushed her out to arms distance to look her over. 'You're looking very thin, we should get to safety.'

'The safest place for miles is Innail,' said Cadvan, 'but with the Black Army matching across Annar, I don't fancy it to be an easy journey.'

Saliman nodded in agreement, forgetting his slight disapproval of his friend.

Maerad looked out over the landscape, now just the dull, deathly Hutmoors covered the expanse. She could no longer see Afinil as it once was, she turned to Cadvan and Saliman. 'I should like to leave here,' she stated almost expressionless, 'and properly never return.'

Beside her, Hem nodded in agreement, before once again, his eyes searched skyward. He wished that Irc was nearby and once again sent out his prayers to the Light that his small, yet boastful companion would return from his mission successful and safe. He attempted to mind touch the small bird, but found he was so spent from the singing that he wearily made his way over to Keru, instead. As he mounted, he suddenly looked about. 'What about Hulls?' he asked, turning to look at his friends.

Cadvan looked from Maerad, to Hem and back again. 'Hulls were bound to Sharma; it is likely that they have been destroyed as well. We should be safe from that threat, but doesn't mean to say that there are other things out there which are just as dangerous.' Again he glanced over at Maerad who was becoming steadily even paler. Until ten minutes ago, she had been the most dangerous thing in all of Annar and the Seven Kingdoms. 'But we should get away from here all the same,' he continued, as he mounted Darsor and held out a hand for Maerad to take so that she could get up behind him.

Saliman and Hekibel followed Hem and Cadvan's lead and mounted their steeds and they set back out the way they came. Both Saliman and Cadvan wove complicated glimmerspells and shields over the party, so that they might be able to pass though the lands unnoticed by all but Bards.

As they started off, Maerad wrapped her arms around Cadvan's waist and leaned into him, closing her eyes. He hadn't given up on her once, not even when she had wanted to use the darkest power she possessed to find and summon Hem. Perhaps, she wondered to herself, her mind being clearer than it had been since she and Cadvan had left Gent, this was what love truly was. She looked over at Hekibel, who was riding close to Saliman, and realised that she had done exactly what Cadvan had done – walked blindly into danger to remain with the one they loved. She looked away from Hekibel and closed her eyes. As she sat on the jolting horse, in blissful nothingness, she became aware that it was simply that, nothing. There was nothing inside her, no power bubbling just beyond the surface anymore. She opened her eyes in panic and opened her mouth as if to say something to Cadvan, but before the words formed in her mouth, she stopped, closed her mouth and her eyes again. What did it matter if she wasn't a Bard anymore, she had her life, which was more than she expected.

It was nearing dawn when the companions stopped, the four horses as tired as the riders. They made a small camp without fire in the shelter of a rare stone formation. They were few and far between in the Hutmoors, with the glimmerspells to protect them, they ate and then Saliman took the first watch. It wasn't long before he realised that Hekibel had chose to sleep closely to him. He looked down at the young woman, almost a child in his eyes, but she was beautiful and clever and she had come back for him and Hem. If it hadn't been for her, they would never have got as far as they had. For a moment, he thought about the small kiss she had given him after the Singing, to think about it had his skin tingle. She had followed him without hesitation into a battle that by rights, she should have missed, but as he looked at her, he knew that if they had not encounter each other on the road to Til Amon, then her fate would have been similar to that of her friends. He smiled to himself, how strange to find love when one isn't looking, and realised that the same thing had happened to Cadvan. He knew for sure that when he had first met Maerad in Innail, nearly a year ago, the Cadvan felt no attraction to her, and yet, something had changed, even since Norloch.

How Hekibel had noticed was beyond him, Cadvan certainly had a way of keeping such things to himself, but in the relief of finding Maerad still breathing he had forgotten his reserve. Saliman smiled to himself, it was about time too, and he firmly believed his friend deserved some happiness and love after all he had done to right the wrongs of his past.

As the sun rose higher in the sky, Saliman felt a hand on his shoulder. 'You should rest my friend,' said Cadvan, sitting down beside his friend. 'You are still looking unwell after your bout of White Sickness.'

At his words Saliman looked over to his young charge, Hem. 'That boy worked a miracle,' he muttered back, before looking back around at Cadvan. 'He showed great aptitude for Healing in Turbansk, if not anything else.'

Cadvan raised his eyebrows in question and Saliman chuckled in his low voice. 'He did not fit in well at the school,' he elaborated, 'the boy can do amazing feats of magery, even your disguising spell to a degree that I cannot, yet, he would not learn his lettering.'

'We all go though a rebellious stage,' replied Cadvan wisely. 'I'm sure he'll apply himself better, now, without the threat of war hanging over him.'

Saliman nodded in agreement, before excusing himself to his makeshift bed, which he moved closer to Hekibel. He was fast into sleep before he could even dwell on his actions to be closer to this beautiful woman.