“One wonders who is next.”
The worldshiftedand her ears popped in sudden silence.Halithe reached her place with a sigh, trying to slow her racing heart.
Ritathan had said that this power would affect other senses, but he hadn’t mentioned anything like what she’d just experienced.She caught a few side glances from the others and tried to calm herself.
Sweat gathered on her neck.The sun was beating in the windows, and the heat was rising.The chapel wasn’t that large to begin with, and none of the colored glass windows opened.
Chanting came from the back of the room; the procession was starting down the aisle.With any luck, she’d get through the next hour without fainting or doing anything else to feed the gossip-mongers.Then she could hopefully return to her chamber, strip off this stupid dress, and throw herself naked on her bed.
She tugged her sleeve down, over the bracelet.There.She felt better, calmer, and—
The worldshifted.
Halithe would have cursed out loud, but she was caught in the vision of the quiet glow of the sun disk that hung above the marble altar.The glow seemed fainter than last time, as if her mage sense was weaker.The dull rage was there, but she had learned her lesson and wasn’t even tempted to focus on it.She looked away at the railing of the pew in front of her, at the floor of the aisle, at—
The procession moved forward, Caris stepped into view, and all rational thought fled.
Caris glowed, all silver and gold with glittering stars in her rich auburn hair.So beautiful that Halithe’s breath caught in her throat, all other thoughts banished.
She’d never seen the binding spell that held Caris before this.
A silken web of golden strands clung to Caris’s skin, tight enough to be a trap, a prison, a binding.Within the gold were flickers of red.It moved with her and restrained her at the same time.Wrapped around her was a silken cord that wound like tangled yarn and floated in the air all about her; its tail stretched out behind Caris, linking her to the Queen, who had just waddled into view.
The Queen.She wasn’t wrapped in the cords, but they all led to her; Halithe couldn’t tell if they flowed toward her or away.But they pulsed, connecting to all the other Bondmaidens.One cord trailed behind the Queen, down the velvet carpet, seeming stretched and—
Caris was moving now, with grace and poise in a way that caught Halithe’s eye and held it.The air seemed sweeter, lighter, just with her in the room.
Caris positioned herself with the others, behind the chair that had been placed for the Queen on the highest wide step.The Queen sat, looking pregnant, and with the tiniest of pouts.
Halithe waited, hoping to catch Caris’s eye.
Sure enough, Caris glanced in her direction, and for a long, sweet moment their eyes locked.Halithe’s chest expanded with joy, at those lovely eyes, so filled with…guilt?
Caris looked away.
Halithe’s mouth went dry.It wasn’t…it couldn’t be.Yet, Caris didn’t look her way again, her eyes down and shaded.The golden cord twisted and spun around her, as if aware of Halithe’s surge of pain.
Her visionshiftedand the vision drained away, leaving Halithe looking at a world that seemed dull and lifeless.
But Halithe knew damned well those golden cords still bound Caris, still twisted and restrained.
The Matriarch stepped to the altar and started the call to prayer.
Halithe joined in the response automatically.
If it had been done, if Ritathan had died at their hands, it had not been Caris’s fault.She was bound, controlled, commanded.
A surge of longing rose up in Halithe’s soul.A deep, abiding hunger to rip those restraints free.Rip her own restraints free as well.
They’d come to her, to remove the bracelet.Someone from the Guild would come, maybe even the Guildmaster himself.That might give her a chance.
The hand bells chimed and the Matriarch took up the incense and started circling the altar, chanting.Halithe knelt with the other women, but her mind was not on prayer.
I will free us, she vowed.I will find a way.
Chapter Six
In the Palace of Xy
