I was on my feet and in my shadow form before I was even fully aware of what was happening. All around me were the sounds of confused shouting and metal striking metal. It was still very dark and the fire provided little light by which to see. Shadows gamboled about, twisting and writhing obscenely, and I could have wished that there was no light at all, had I had the time to do so.

My eyes found Cennerun first, doing battle with two strangers. Without even pausing to think about it, I summoned up some magic and blasted both of them with it. Neither of them turned immediately towards me – and why should they? How could either of them guess that the blinding pain which would soon overtake them could have been caused by me?

A flash of golden light caught my eye and I turned in place to see Blaide similarly engaged. But whereas Cennerun was clearly relying on the strength of his arms and shield to bash his foes about, Blaide's lips moved in what I could only assume were incantations meant to either defend himself or harm those he fought against.

I had time for no more than that before I was at last noticed by one of the strangers attacking our small camp. He came at me with an upraised sword, clearly intent on skewering me. Terrified, I reacted instinctively, sending up a mental scream that soon had him running back into the forest around us. As he fled, I sent my deadly magic after him as well. And then it was a matter of getting myself to a less open position. Moving quickly, I made my way to stand behind Cennerun, pressing my back against a tree.

Things were beginning to resolve into small pockets of individual conflicts by now. Cennerun had battered down two or three foeman and was grimly hewing away at another. Blaide, still glowing with fey light, was dealing with two others. Of Jyl and her mysterious pet, I could see no sign and could not help but wonder if she had fallen in battle.

And then, as suddenly as it had begun, it was over. Cennerun dispatched his last enemy and then dashed across the clearing to help Blaide. Two swift sword thrusts and it was over. Closing my eyes, I sagged in relief against the rough bark of the tree.

I opened them again in a moment to see that Blaide and Cennerun were already bending over the bodies on the ground, determining who was wounded and who was dead. I slipped out of my shadow form, feeling drained but knowing that my other skills would likely be in demand this night. There was still no sign of Jyl.

Before I could step away from the tree to inspect the supine bodies, two hands reached out from behind me, one grabbing a fistful of my hair and pulling me hard against the trunk. The other hand held a knife and this was placed with no great care against my neck. I felt a sharp sting and then the sensation of blood welling up and running down my neck.

I cried out in pain and surprise, bringing Blaide and Cennerun's heads snapping up. Cennerun's hazel eyes widened and he took two steps towards me.

"Stop right there," commanded the man who held me, his voice a low growl. "Or I'll kill her where she stands."

Both Blaide and Cennerun shot me helpless looks, but by this time I had regained some clarity of thought and I sent a gentle wave of healing through my body. Then, thinking unwillingly of Coult as I did so, I seized control of my captor's mind.

It was like plunging into a maelstrom of emotions, and I felt his anger, fear and hatred immerse me. Grappling for control, I forced him to drop his arms, mentally pried each of his fingers from their hold on the blade he carried and then compelled him to drop to his knees. Whether or not they understood what was going on, Blaide and Cennerun were swift to capitalize on this turn of events. Within seconds, they had him neatly pinioned and I was able to release his mind.

He cursed violently, and thrashed about in a bid for freedom, but he was clearly outmatched.

"Get some rope," Blaide ordered.

So I dashed to where my saddlebags lay and drew out a coil of thick rope. Between them, Cennerun and Blaide trussed their captive to a tree – the same one I had so recently been leaning against – and then sat back for a moment, considering.

"What happened?" I asked at last, in a shaky voice. I wanted to collapse on the ground, I wanted to sob my eyes out, and I wanted to understand the last chaotic fifteen minutes of my life. "Are these –" I gestured to the unmoving bodies littering the clearing "- the people you spoke of earlier?"

"Yes." Blaide answered brusquely, and then glanced around as though looking for something.

And then I remembered that Jyl was nowhere to be seen. With an effort, I drew myself up and also looked around, as though expecting her to come strolling into sight, having been fortunate enough to escape the fighting and hide herself nearby.

"Jyl!" Blaide called out, verifying that we were, indeed, working on the same set of thoughts. We all fell silent to listen for a possible response, but the only sound that came was a low chuckle from the captive.

Blaide rounded on him so swiftly I thought at first that he intended to do the man violence. "What do you know?" he demanded. But the man only grinned back and refused to make an answer.

Not bothering to wait and see how this drama might play out, I moved cautiously to the other side of the fire, wishing for a little more light to see by. Jyl had bedded down in this area; perhaps she had not moved very far.

It was the presence of magic that alerted me to her presence more than sight or sound. Cennerun and Blaide had swiftly left off trying to question the captive and were even now searching the area on either side of me. When I at last made out her pale form in the darkness, I could tell at once that she had been injured though I didn't consciously pick out the clues that led me to such a belief. She was crumpled on the ground, her right hand outstretched towards something I couldn't immediately make out, but which turned out to be another body.

"Here!" I yelled, sinking to my knees beside her frighteningly still form. I laid my hands on her, searching for some sign of life. It seemed as though an age had passed before I detected a thready pulse, although I discovered it before Cennerun and Blaide had also come to my side.

"I need light!" I exclaimed impatiently, even as I poured healing magic without reserve onto Jyl's still form. "I can't tell what's wrong with her."

Then Blaide was there, gathering his friend up and lifting her with ease to take her over by the fire. I very nearly yelled at him for endangering her so, but then I could see he had wrapped her in a cocoon of his own healing magic and decided he might know about as much as I did, if not more, about the healing arts.

Once her still form had been situated near enough to the fire to give us something to work with, Blaide and I knelt on either side of her. Cennerun hovered nearby briefly, but then moved off. I could hear him checking on the horses, soothing their unsettled nerves.

"It must have been magic," Blaide muttered, his hands gently searching for what his eyes might not have been able to see. "I can't find a mark on her anywhere."

I frowned because I was equally unable to detect the presence of anything – physical or magical – that might account for the state she was in. But it had been magic that had drawn me to her side through the darkness of the night. Whether it was her own or someone else's, I couldn't have said. But I was beginning to suspect that it was hers.

"Does she have magical abilities?" I asked abruptly. I hadn't seen anything to indicate one way or the other but realized that her unusual pet had made me inclined to believe that she had.

"Of course," Blaide responded, his tone utterly condescending. "She's a warlock."

I couldn't help the sharp intake of air at that revelation. I had heard of warlocks before. They mainly practiced dark magic and could control demons to do their bidding. This meant that her pet was actually a demon, a foul creature of the pit.

My revulsion, no matter how mildly I displayed it, was not unnoticed by Blaide. He said nothing, but gave me a look that was so sharp, I caught it even in the unsteady light. Swallowing, I pushed aside my reservations – and the immediate question of why a servant of the Light such as Blaide would be teamed with a warlock - and bent over Jyl's body again, trying with all my might to sense what was wrong with her.

There was nothing, not the merest flicker of color. It took a moment for me to register what that meant. The last time I had seen a person wholly devoid of any signs of life, it had been Cennerun's mother and she had been dead.

Fumbling in the dark for her wrist, I tried to find the pulse once again, but it was silenced. I looked up slowly, hardly daring to let my eyes meet Blaide's. He had mirrored my movements though, and held her other wrist gently between thumb and forefinger. His eyes were closed in grief and I spoke quietly, "She's gone."

"No," he replied, sounding fierce. "Watch."

He held up a small orb. It glittered briefly in the firelight before he crushed it in his gloved fist. An eerie blue light played briefly in the air between us and then settled over Jyl's still form. It seemed to seep into her, slowly at first, before abruptly disappearing. Nothing happened after that. After waiting for a patient minute I lifted my eyes to Blaide's face again.

"What-" I began, but he cut me off with a downward swipe of his hand.

"Watch," he said again, his voice gentler this time.

Cennerun had come back to the fire at this point, standing opposite of me so that I had a clear view of his face. We exchanged a look which spoke volumes, but kept our mouths firmly shut.

I had just trained my eyes obediently back on Jyl's body when she suddenly made a small gasping sort of sound, sucking in a lungful of air and then coughing. Blaide instantly helped her to sit up and bathed her in his fey magic light. I could only gape for a moment and then said the only thing that occurred to me: "I will be damned."

Across from me, Blaide smiled a gentle smile.

Stunning and shocking though the night's events had been, nothing was actually said about Jyl's resurrection until the following morning. After admonishing Jyl to sleep, Blaide had turned his attention to the aftermath of the battle, sighing tiredly at all there was to be done for decency's sake. There was still the prisoner to be dealt with. He was quietly but determinedly working at his bonds and refused, even in the face of the combined force of Blaide and Cennerun's questioning, to say a word.

For my part, I wanted nothing to do with the man after having touched his mind and so turned away instead to the gruesome task of gathering up the corpses. It was heavy and disgusting work, dragging each man by his heels to a space suitably far enough away from the horses and our camp. I had only moved two bodies by the time the men noticed what I was about and Blaide came to lend his assistance.

"Go check on Jyl," he told me, his tone making it clear that he expected me to obey instantly.

I gave him a look, but turned to do as he bade. She was sleeping peacefully and seemed to be in the most perfect health imaginable, so I was soon back at my self-appointed chore. When we had finished, there were five bodies lying neatly side-by-side. Add in the prisoner and it became evident that they – whoever they were – had come intending to slay two, but found themselves outmatched by four.

"What are we going to do with them?" I asked wearily, the burst of adrenaline having long since left me.

"Search them for anything useful and then leave them. We'll be gone at first light."

"You mean you aren't going to bury them?"

"Do you think they would have done so for us if it had been the other way around?"

"No," I admitted, but pressed on. "But it doesn't seem right to just leave them."

Blaide made no answer, which was reply enough I supposed. I watched dully as he went and began picking gingerly over each corpse. What weapons they had he put in one pile, salvageable armor went in another. And from each corpse's right hand he took a ring and pocketed it carefully.

"What are you going to do with that?" I asked, feeling more than mildly disturbed.

"Proof," Blaide grunted, sliding one stubborn ring free of its swollen finger.

I found that I had to look away and force down the bile rising in my throat, but found my head swinging back around at his next words.

"What did you say?"

"I said that I would need you and Cennerun to come with us as well."

"Why?"

He shot me another one of his looks, which was beginning to irritate me. "Veracity, for one thing. Jyl and I are getting paid for this work but we need to be able to prove all parts of it. Like it or not, you've stumbled into the middle of things and I don't intend to lose any of my share of the reward as a result."

Having finished stripping the corpses of their rings, he pushed himself up and the brushed the dirt from the palms of his hands. "Don't worry your head over it, though," he added in an offhand manner. "You'll get your share."

"I don't see why you have to mention us at all," I objected, liking the idea of traveling with this surly man and his evil companion very little.

"Don't you?" he asked, a smile playing around the corners of his wide mouth. "Blame it on the captive." He nodded in the general direction of the nameless man who sat slumped against the tree he was tied to. "My lord Halver will want to question that one and, should he decide to say anything at all, he will doubtless mention your presence. My lord Halver is a suspicious man; I have found it best in my dealings with him to be perfectly forthright with him. And before you ask, yes, he will need to actually see you and speak with you to judge for himself that what I say is true."

"Sounds like a charming man," I muttered sarcastically, but said no more. Privately, I determined to speak with Cennerun away from Blaide or Jyl and determine what to do based off that conversation. After all, I didn't believe that Blaide could compel either of us to go where we didn't want to, and I was finding it very difficult to care whether or not he received his payment.

But when I found an opportunity to speak to Cennerun it was nearly light and he only shook his head when I suggested we go our own way.

"I think we should go with them."

I gaped up at him. "But why?"

He shrugged. "Heard that we could get paid for it. Seems like we might as well since we ended up risking our lives to help them. Besides, it's not as if we have anywhere else to go or any better prospects for cash."

When he put it like that, so coolly logical, I could hardly argue. Instead, I compressed my lips into a firm line and shot Cennerun a disapproving look. "I don't like them."

"Nor do I," Cennerun agreed, laughing softly. "But nothing will compel us to keep on with them forever. It will be only a week, two at most, and then we can move on to better prospects."

I sighed, knowing when I had been beaten. "Very well," I acquiesced. "But I intend to have as little to do with them as possible."