A/N: I'm sooooooo sorry for taking forever to update. I didn't mean to take so long, I just thought I'd put it down for a week or so and then come back to it. Only, school started back up again, and then there was boy trouble and friend trouble and lit mag trouble, so it was save the day and all of my dudes from my best friend's wrath.... That and Chemistry Honors is the hardest thing in the world. Trust me, it's lots and lots of work. I'm not liking this chappy at all, but hopefully if I get it up, and it sucks, the next one will be much better. I promise. Just bug me, a lot. And thanks for the compliments on my writing, I really appreciate that. And I don't mean to abandon this, but please don't let me!

Belisaere was absolutely beautiful in the spring. Blooming roses clung to the sides of the houses, the markets bustled with people, the scent of the sea waves filled the air. Gossip flew on the wind from mouth to mouth, moving faster than even the swiftest fish underwater. Word on the street was that the heir to the throne had returned, with the Abhorsen at his side to free the city of the Dead. Some said that the two were married, others that the Abhorsen was only doing her job. Whatever the case may be, it was the overall consensus that the people of the capitol city were happy to have the authority back where it belonged, and to have the authorities back where they belonged.

It had been two weeks since Sabriel had crafted anew her bells, cleaning Astarael with utmost patience the following day. She and the king had set out for Belisaere in the Paperwing three days later, arriving at the city by nightfall. The number of Dead plaguing the city seemed to have dropped considerably since she had been here last, but it was still a large amount. She and Touchstone had stayed out of sight for the majority of their stay at the Sign of Three Lemons. Much of their time had been spent planning how to rid the city of all its unwelcome visitors, to no avail. Anything that they thought of had been tried before and had failed. They were spending yet another day planning, locked up in Sabriel's room due to rain, when the idea hit her.

"I've got it!" she cried, jumping up and nearly knocking over the warm cocoa on the table beside her.

"What? What is this brilliant idea? Is it like the other 'brilliant ideas', the ones that petered out?" Touchstone asked, peering up at her as he stabilized the stand.

"Oh, ye of little faith! This one will work, I'm sure of it," she admonished, glaring as he rolled his eyes in exaggeration. "You know how two thirds of the city is still over-run with the Dead?" It was more of a statement than a question, but he nodded anyway.

"Well, if we can get all of the people down here in the wharf to put bee's wax into their ears at dusk, then I can bind the Dead when they come out at night!"

"What about binding them all? Are you going to just walk up to each and every one of the Dead and ask it to pretty please hold still while you send it all the way to the Ninth Gate?"

"You sound like Mogget. But I have a solution for that little inconvenience too. If we can draw all of the Dead into one place that has really good acoustics, I can use a phonograph to record the sounds of Saraneth and Kibeth ringing, then play it in that one area, the sound will be amplified and then I can bind all of the Dead at once. Two birds with one stone, as they say."

"It sounds foolproof enough, but where would we be able to hold all of the Dead in one place at one time? And where would we find this 'fone-ograph' you're talking about? And," he said, holding up a finger to keep her from interrupting him. "How are we going to get them all to this one specific spot?"

"Well, we might not even need to make a phonograph, so long as the place we gather them in allows the sound of the bells to echo, that should work well enough. And we can draw them all to the Reservoir, because the sound in there is magnified ten times more than anywhere else in the city. And we'll get them there by bait."

"Bait? What are you planning on using as bait?" he bugged, still skeptical of the whole arrangement.

"What do the Dead yearn for more than anything on this entire earth?"

"To not die?"

"Life. All we need are a few daring young people, offer them a place on the Royal Guard once the palace is rebuilt and set in order, have them walk through the city near dark, head down to the Reservoir, then sneak out right before the Dead start to come down, hide somewhere, then I show up with my bells, and Wham! The dead are bound and the city is free!"

"And you expect this to work?"

"Do you have any better ideas?" He shook his head glumly and sighed.

"I guess we don't have much of a choice then. We'll get started first thing tomorrow morning."

Everything was in order, and the plan was ready to be executed. Touchstone was still grumbling about how it could go so wrong, all the flaws in the plan, and did we consider that the Dead might have plans of their own? Sabriel left him to his mumblings and gathered the things she would need for tonight.

Finding a group of people to act as bait had been much easier than she had expected it to be. With the offer of jobs in the Royal Guard and the incentive of having a city free of the lording Dead, dozens of young men and women appeared at the inn to sign up. So now they'd ended up with three groups of people, all ranging in age from eleven to twenty-four, who volunteered to distract the Dead long enough to be bound. In fact, the lot of them was brave enough to suggest going into the water of the Reservoir on the barges. Touchstone was leery of having anyone in the building near the broken stones and the open doorway into Death, but he was, yet again, overruled.

"Do you have any inkling as to the danger you're putting these people in? They could die Sabriel! Or worse, be captured by some Greater Dead trying to come through the open gate into Life, and be turned into Hands or something!"

"Dear, really. I admire your anxiety and fear for your subjects, but your kingly decorum is not needed as of yet. Let me bind the Dead first. Then I'll need you," Sabriel said dogmatically, patting him on the head and swiftly walking out of the room to meet her 'bait'.

"You all realize the risk of this endeavor?" she asked an hour later after briefing her troops. Seeing those young faces staring back at her with pure trust, the jeopardy she was putting them in settled in her mind like the weight of the world on her shoulders. And really, it was the weight of the world; the Old Kingdom's future as a free land lay in her hands now, being entirely up to her to save. What if she failed? But no, she wouldn't, she simply could not, and that was that. They were waiting for her to talk.

"Be ready by an hour before sun down to head up to the Reservoir. Charter bless you," she said, with an informal bow to the group. They filed out of the room quickly, jumping with excitement and jittery with nerves.

"Charter help us all," she whispered as she watched them go.