Jow led us stealthily around the curve of a river, which parted the palace grounds. Above the water on trellises was a garden: sweet smelling ivy vines with small white flowers hanging in sprays out of a series of earthenware pots. Something about them made me uncomfortable; they were too well-tended to be beautiful.

Ariel's house had red stone colonnades which ringed the building in a kind of open courtyard or veranda, with large windows on one side looking out to the desert dunes beyond. Smaller windows faced back towards the palace, where there was much shouting and flickering light. Jow and Gilaine had been itching to assist Dragon in the rising and to make sure the rest of their Talented friends and rebels were okay, but I had assured them that the fate of all was at stake if we did not rescue Dameon. Privately, I felt that, having seen the whole thing rumble to life, there was no stopping Dragon's ascension now; they did not need our help. Another prophecy had been fulfilled.

In a way, it made me feel old, like one chapter of my life was finally closed. No doubt Dragon and Matthew would stay on in the Red Land, restoring order and peace, doing good work – far away from Obernewtyn, and far away from my quest. Here, I had to leave Matthew and Dragon behind: losing two so dear to me, two that I had already endured losing once.

But they were free, with a full life of love ahead of them, if I had understood the way they had looked at each other on the dais. I could wish them no more than that.

Over the static buzz of the running water, I could sense there were living things watching us from inside the house. "I think Ariel keeps dogs." I sent to Jow.

Jow shook his head. "Wild dogs. Jackyls"

My heart sank. It was much harder to win the affection of a wild creature, especially those that ran in packs. The image Jow had shown me in my mind was of a sleek black-furred animal similar to the Brildane but with larger ears. They seemed generally smaller than the wolves, but if Ariel had tortured them they might be just as fierce…

I heard a low howl. It was as despairing as the moon's face, a lamentation.

Then the jackyls ran straight for us. They had somehow gotten outside! As we ran down the leeside of the stronghold, I tried to beastspeak the jackyl pursuing me, but it just gave off a nervous sort of energy, like breathy laughter.

Analivia yelled at me. "Get inside Elspeth! We'll draw them out and then double-back." She circled me and tried to draw my jackal's attention. Instead of trying to beastspeak, I coerced the jackyl to make it not see or smell me for a moment. It blinked, and then plunged after Analivia and the others over the hill.

As I got up to the doors of the house, I noticed a flap of wood on a hinge in the wall which must have allowed the jackyls out. I kept alert for other traps or surprises. Ariel would know I was coming now, and perhaps I jeopardised all of humanity by wandering into his house like a fly into the web of a spider. But if I did not reclaim Dameon, our quest was already forfeited, so what did it matter? Fate would assure that I would succeed, or else I had already lost and nothing would ever matter again.

It felt queer to be so brazen in the face of danger. I looked around Ariel's stronghold, and saw a lavishly decorated parlour with tapestries and fruit in guilded bowls. But there were also touches that were uniquely Ariel – a dog-sized skull, perfectly assembled on a shelf, a coiled whip over a private bar, and a few books which looked to me to be purloined from his days with the Faction.

There were several bedrooms, two washing chambers, one with a deep pool, lined with painted pottery squares, and a room that looked as though it had been recently vacated by slaves – there were several sleeping mats and a privy pot in the corner.

It took me several searchings of the house to find a trapdoor in one of the bedrooms, leading down into a cellar. The walls were lit with fiery torches, which told me that I was not alone in this part of the house. Instinctively I cloaked myself so that I would be undetectable by sensitive minds.

As the cellar branched into two corridors, I cursed Ariel's love of underground lairs, and tried tentatively to send out my mind. Surprisingly, these walls of grey stone were less tainted than the red stone used in the walls of the Red City, and I wondered if Ariel had once again managed to sniff out the ruins of an old Beforetime seat of power to build on.

I pressed my ear to a heavy wooden door, and heard shrill sounds of panic inside. I tried to make my mind go through the door at the keyhole.

Dameon's long form was tied into a chair. Blood on his clothes and the floor around him told me that he had been tortured. But it was the sound of his soft voice babbling and cracking in hysteria that swelled me with pity.

His head seemed to jerk towards the door for a moment.

"Elspethlove, no! He will hurt you, he's hurting you… Don't touch her!" His voice became wrathful and loud for a moment, then his voice dropped again and became gentle. "Please, leave her now, try me instead. I am strong; I will be fun to break."

I could see no one in the room that he might have been talking to. Carefully, I scanned the room, but could find no signs of life other than Dameon.

I stole into the room, still trembling in expectation of a trap. I looked for trip-wires or depressions in the floor, or evidence of weaponmachines or Beforetime poisons, but I could see nothing. It was just a cellar, with some tools attached to a board on the wall.

Torture implements.

I shuddered. Moving over to Dameon, I was overwhelmed by helpless fury at the sight of him. He had been cut and burned in so many places under his clothes. I smoothed his hair and pressed my lips against his forehead.

"Not this." Dameon said in a low voice, pulling away from me. "I will not be undone by this! I am not some fond fool, Ariel!"

I began to weep, my tears falling forward on his shirt. I cupped his face in my hands gently and tried not to startle him. "Dameon." I said as softly as I could. "Dear Dameon, it's me, Elspeth. Come on now, we have to go." He seemed to look into my eyes searchingly, a look black with longing, and then shook his head sadly."

"This is not my Elspeth." He said simply, to the empty space of the cellar. "She does not know I love her; so she has no cause to be so gentle. And with her burden, she cannot come to rescue me."

My ears rang at his reasoning. I barely knew where to begin: should I be horrified that he thought I would leave him so easily to this fate, or glad, or sad to know that my dear friend loved me? I began to rationalise it away; Dameon had clearly been tortured and was delusional still, and could not be held accountable for what he was saying. But something in me sang with awareness – the hundred looks that had passed between Rushton and he, his long sojourn in the desert lands, the wall he kept up permanently between us.

"I cannot lead you to what you seek, Ariel, so there is no point in playing these mindgames. Kill me and have done with it." Dameon said with the air of having closed a guildmerge discussion.

I undid his bindings, but he refused to move from the chair. I could coerce him to walk if I got past his shield, but his feet might have been damaged in torture session. It was all I could do not to blubber at his ridiculous bravery and refusal to believe I was here.

I had no choice: I entered his mind.

Bypassing the strong outer emotional wall, I could see he was using the idea that I had abandoned him, that I always would abandon him, to resist Ariel's special, sick brand of coercive torture. He had convinced himself that it was not possible that I would ever be in this cellar, so that he would not believe the images of Ariel torturing me, or raping me, or even me offering myself to him that Ariel had played and replayed in his mind.

I found I could not crack his subconscious shield; as an empath guildmaster, his ability to read and use the subconscious far outweighed mine. There was only one more thing I could think of to make Dameon recognise me.

I opened my mind to him.

I felt the familiar rush of thoughts and images that I now knew to associate with mindbonding. I tried to make myself a passive conduit between us. I felt Dameon's fascination with the gritty sands of Sador, the way the earth brushed his face as though it was coming up to greet him. I smelled the warm hay of the Obernewtyn farms, and felt Faraf's fur between my fingers, marvelling at her true gentleness. I felt his desire while kissing the white arch of my neck. I felt his deep agony at the death of the Kasanda, and how it had entangled itself with his despair at my choice of Rushton over him. Finally, I felt, somewhere in the depths of my soul, Dameon's knowledge that I had never really known he loved me, and that I had never seen him as a man or a lover – which he seemed to believe was because he was blind.

Staggering, I was suddenly in some place inside Dameon's mind that smelled of minerals and salt, and heard the gentle shushing of water lapping in and out. We must be on a beach. Someone reached out and took my hand.

"It is beautiful to be here with you." Dameon whispered. He kissed the back of my hand softly.
"You know this is no dream." I told him.
"I know." Dameon sighed. "I am about to enter the mindstream. Maryon told me about it. Nothing else could give this wondrous singing feeling."

"No, Dameon." I said sharply. "There is something else that sings with memories. Mindbonding. All the memories you experienced were memories of mine, weren't they?"
"Yes, but I would expect that thinking of you brought them to the surface." He paused. "The alternative, my dear, is that you mindbonded with me, and we both know that would not happen."
"Wouldn't it?" I asked, hurt all of a sudden by his surety of my lack of feeling. "Do you believe I am so callous that I am incapable of loving you?"
"No." He laughed and reached out to touch my hair fondly, as though it were an old familiar gesture. "There is nothing callous about you, my girl, for all they believe you are hard and cold. You pulse with fire for those that you love. But you love Rushton. Not me."

"Rushton is my past." I said bitterly. "Matthew and Dragon are gone. Obernewtyn is gone. You are the only one I love who is part of my future." Startling myself, I reached out into the darkness for him. He put his arms around me and I let all my fears and bitter loves pour out into our kiss.

"Elspeth?" Dameon's tone of voice told me he had only just recognised me. "Where are we?"
"Come, love." I said. "We have to wake."

My eyes watered as I adjusted to having sight again. Dameon was on his feet, grimacing with pain. I put a hand down to his wounds but his face turned sharply towards the door.

"Run." He breathed.

Before me stood the most beautiful man I had ever seen. His sultry lips had a delicious pout, his gold-spun hair was short with a wave or two soft on the crown of his head. His eyes sparkled with genuine joy at seeing me.

"Why Elspeth." Ariel's voice purred. "How nice of you to come."