Disclaimer: No profit is being made from my playtime in the world of Mercedes Lackey.

Anyway. I'm at two hundred reviews, which is madly exciting to me, even though fanfiction seems to have eaten at least one so far. This last chapter got more reviews than any other one that I remember. I should totally have my main characters dragged off by evil Holderkin more often if this is what I get for it!

Fireblade: Oops. I guess FF ate the review after all. Oh well. And yes, fairly bad. They'll get wind of it in Haven soon and there shall be interesting plot developments.

Lurks in Shadows: What, the old sandbag to the head shanghai-ing? You didn't see it? I hope I made everything happen in a believable way. I was worried that it might seem a bit too dramatic but then, it is the Holderkin we're talking about.

Raynsong: As usual, someone else will end up coming to Treet's rescue. Many someones, in fact.

dbookluvr17: Glad you're enjoying my story. Hopefully the next few chapters'll be a little bit easier to write than this one was.

Alacaeriel: Treet's father isn't going to be happy. I'm thinking of serving up a little royal justice. I think everyone'll agree that it's richly deserved.

Wishing: Yup, large mess, but of course its obvious that he's going to get out of it and I guess its not too hard to get some idea of how. But hopefully its still interesting to read about.

Oceanmate: Ah, have a little faith in the author. I'm not about to kill off my main character. I like him too much.

Anyway. I had issues with the last chapter, as I mentioned, but I already have a vision for this next chapter, so maybe it'll get better. It is, after all, chapter 30, which seems to me to be a fairly auspicious number for a chapter.

Chapter 30: Night

Lirain had felt desperately uneasy all day and Rith had finally had to give her the day off, since she had been good for absolutely nothing in the way of Mindhealing. Having finally gotten to sleep, she tossed and turned restlessly. A soft sound of sobbing called out to her, pulling at her, just below the level at which she would actually awaken, but too loudly for her to actually sleep. She hovered between the two extremes for what seemed like an eternity as waves of pain and despair washed over her, so deep within herself that she could almost believe they were her own.

At last she managed to pull herself out of her restive doze. She covered her ears, but it was no good. The insistent sound was coming from within her, although it wasn't hers. Sleep fogged, she had a hard time thinking of who it could be. As a powerful Empath, she had been awakened by many such occurrences over the years, usually someone within the Collegia who needed help. Never before, however, had they been so faint. This one was so faint she had a hard time even concentrating on it. As though it were coming from the border or something, she thought with a laugh. Then she froze. The border! Treet had been gone long enough to reach the Holderkin lands.

Without a thought to the fact that she was wearing nothing but a nightgown and that it was well before dawn, Lirain ran outside, hoping the faint almost-Mindspeech would become clearer in the open air. Once outside, she sat down in the damp grass just outside of the House of Healing and concentrated with all of her strength.

As soon as she did, she knew without a doubt that it was Treet and that he was in trouble. Her MindSpeech was very weak, but their Lifebond would hopefully boost it far enough. :Treet: She sent, hoping that he would hear her.

:What…: The voice that answered her, although so bleak that Lirain wanted to cry, was most definitely that of her beloved. Although not prone to fainting, Lirain's relief right then was so great that she almost swooned.

Lirain cast through and rejected several possible responses. An I-told-you-so was certainly out of the question. Asking if he was alright would be fairly redundant, since it was obvious that he wasn't. She could barely hear him and after having been called out of her bed after approximately two candlemarks of sleep, Lirain was hardly in the mood to be anything other than blunt. :I'll get you out of whatever it is. Tell me everything.: She demanded.

When Treet first came back to consciousness surrounded by root vegetables and scratchy burlap sacks, it took him a second to remember what he was doing there. All the memories of his disastrous attempt at reconciliation came back to him, aided by various ugly bruises already beginning to swell and turn livid and a persistent throbbing in his shoulder. He simultaneously moaned and cringed in humiliation and panic. How could he have been so stupid? If he had brought away one lesson from his childhood, it would have been never, never ever to trust anyone in his family. Apparently, he hadn't even managed to bring away that. How idiotic was he, how unworthy of all the training he had been given? He was almost glad that he would never return home again, never see his teachers, his classmates, never Heal, never see Lirain…

This last thought nearly broke his heart and it was only years of iron discipline that kept him from simply collapsing on the floor and sobbing his heart out. The first and only time he had allowed his father to see him crying had been the prelude to one of the harshest punishments of his life.

He had no idea what time it was or what was happening outside and he didn't really care. He knew that if he didn't marry Bessa, someone older and more brutal probably would, but he couldn't stomach the thought of spending the remainder of his life with that blank eyed cow. It was probably his punishment for getting himself caught up in such a mess in the first place, he thought. Who would want him back anyway? Oh, they all pretended to like him well enough, but how could they? How could they like someone like him?

When he heard Lirain's voice, he assumed it was some kind of hallucination induced by emotional stress. He had read about those. But he wanted her so badly and he was so afraid. What harm could it do to respond? It was better, after all, that the real Lirain couldn't reach him. She would only be disgusted.

He hesitated a moment before spilling the entire story of his situation, but then he figured that talking to a figment of his own imagination couldn't do any harm. It would certainly pass the time.

:I think I did something monumentally stupid, actually. I walked into a trap, I suppose. A large snare. They took my horse. And locked me in a cellar. They want me to get married. And be one of them again. They want it so badly that I'm apparently stuck in the family potato cellar until I agree to it. I think my wedding is sometime tomorrow.: He replied to her demand for information.

Treet was proud of the humorous twist he had put on his predicament, but he knew it wouldn't fool anyone for a minute, much less himself.

Lirain snorted at this message, despite her worry. He was absolutely maddening. He thought he was talking to his imagination. She had no objections to using this to get information, however. :Are you hurt:

:Not too badly. Yet. Does it matter: Treet replied.

If Lirain had had mental hands, they would have been shaking. She had known that Treet had never been confident, but he was reacting as if all of his months at the Collegium had never happened at all, and most worrisome of all, the tang of physical pain as well as emotional flavored their bond. He could have Healed himself. The fact that he hadn't was almost as worrying as the fact that he was in physical pain in the first place.

:Of course it matters! You have the power to Heal yourself, at least fix whatever's serious. You can hardly escape with your wits fractured by injury.: Lirain suggested.

:Escape? Why:

:So you can come home, of course: Lirain shouted. Much as she loved him, and she could now identify what she felt as love, he was an idiot sometimes. He had probably convinced himself that he was better off staying there.

:Home. My own family doesn't want me, what else can I have? I may as well stay here, I'll do less harm. I'm useless out in the world anyway. Who would care about me enough to have me back:

:Your teacher, for one. If nothing else, she's invested enough time teaching you to want your return.:

:There are other students.:

Treet could hardly believe that the callous voice he heard within himself was truly his. It was as though the darker portion of his soul, all but quashed, had surged up in revolt and plunged him into such depths of despair that he couldn't even try to pull himself out.

:What about me: Lirain asked desperately. :I care about you. I love you and I want you back more than anything.: She knew she couldn't reveal the truth, but she could come close, for a worthy cause.

This reply stopped Treet short. He wanted desperately to believe it. :Really:

:Yes, really: Lirain assured him, confident that she was beginning to get through to him.

:No, you aren't real. You're just my imagination, telling me what I want to hear. The real you would never love someone like me, someone too stupid to realize that even their own family could never care for them.:

Lirain could have screamed. :I'm not your imagination, I'm Lirain, Mindspeaking you. I know you know about the Gift of Mindspeaking.:

:Enough to know that the real you doesn't have it: Treet said suspiciously.

Lirain decided that it was about time to abandon all sense and drum some reality into Treet's head. No matter what Rith said, she knew him better. :I don't need it. You and I are lifebonded. We're tied together, soul bound, so deeply that I knew you were in trouble all the way from Haven. I love you, the Collegium and Valdemar need you. Do you think you could get that into your head so that I can leave you long enough to do something about getting you out of there:

Treet grinned in spite of himself. That certainly sounded like Lirain, but lifebonded? He had read about it in the tales he had been learning to enjoy reading. It would certainly explain why he had felt so peculiarly attached to Lirain when he was still holding the rest of the Collegium at arms length. Perhaps he was worth something to someone after all. Perhaps, just perhaps.

Lirain could feel Treet just on the verge of believing. He didn't seem to be at all upset by the notion of being lifebonded to her. All told, he had taken the news even better than she had, although perhaps that was because he didn't fully believe it. She supposed he would have issues with it later, but for now no price was too high to pay for his belief in her.

At this inopportune moment Treet's father, who didn't believe in doing anything quietly, crashed through the door of the cellar with rage in his face, causing Treet to cringe back into the potatoes, heedless of his injured shoulder.

"Because of your display of ungodliness yesterday, the father of your future bride has significantly reduced the dower he was providing. You couldn't even do that one thing well enough to be an asset to your family. I own you as surely as if you were a horse or draft animal, until you have your own family, and it is your responsibility to provide me with a worthwhile reason to keep you."

"I don't want you to keep me," Treet said unthinkingly. He couldn't seem to agree with anyone. He had told Lirain that he wanted to stay and not he was telling his father he didn't. He had managed to upset everyone.

"Do you suppose I care what you want? I'll teach you to be defiant." His father was on the verge of flying into a furious rage. He advanced on Treet, who cowered, covering his face. His father kicked him in the stomach, knocking almost all of the wind out of him. Treet lay rag doll limp.

Lirain couldn't see what was happening, but she could feel the fear which suddenly consumed Treet and their fragile link began to waver. :Treet, you have to hang on, keep talking to me or I'll lose you.: She said frantically.

:Don't…care. Whoever you are, stay out of this. I don't care if you're Lirain or not or if you love me, you don't deserve my punishment.:

:And you do: Lirain practically screamed, hoping to use volume to shove some sense into him.

All she heard from Treet was a feeling of assent.

He was fading in and out; Lirain could tell that someone was beating him. Anger rose within her, hot and furious. She would find them, find them herself and she would deal with them, who laid hands on a Healer Trainee, who so harmed her lifebonded. At the same time, she was nearly doubled over with misery and pain not her own and she could barely hold onto him.

:Don't watch this, if you are you. I want you to remember me as better than this. You would be braver than me. You wouldn't be here.: Treet formulated the thought, using all of the concentration he had learned to ignore his father, ignore his brothers who had come to join in the fun, ignore everything. He carefully shut down the mental link as well as he could, blockading his mind as he had before he had come to the Collegium.

Lirain was flung out of the link and she leaned forwards to the grass, heaving with the pain. No matter how she tried, she couldn't find any trace of Treet. His feelings continued to torment her but she couldn't mindspeak.

"Remember, horseshit!" She exclaimed once she could speak aloud again. "If I have to drag you home myself I'll get you out of this!"

She staggered towards the House of Healing and then to Rith's office, ignoring the strange looks she got from passersby.