“Your duties are here,” she said weakly.

“But, Priestess-“ the Master of the Guard started to protest.

“Please,” Dorothea said. “Your strength will serve me better if you remain here.” Calling in a folded piece of paper, she handed it to her Steward. “If these Queens ask to see me, arrange for an audience this afternoon.” She saw the protest in his eyes, but he said nothing.

Her coachman clucked softly to his horses.

Dorothea leaned back against the seat and closed her eyes to hide her glee. Well, you son of a whoring bitch, I’ve made the first move. And now there’s nothing you can do that can’t be used against you.

2 Terreillespan

Alexandra Angelline shivered despite the morning sun’s warmth as she waited for Philip Alexander to return from his examination of the torn bodies lying on the wooden platform. She put a warming spell on the heavy wool shawl, knowing it was useless. No outer source of heat was going to thaw the cold inside her.

It’s too soon, she thought desperately. Wilhelmina had gone through the Gate yesterday morning. She can’t be among…

Vania and Nyselle, the two Province Queens she’d brought with her, had already returned to the inn, along with their escorts. They hadn’t offered to wait with her. A few years ago-a few weeks ago-they would have. They had still believed in her then, despite the problems in her family.

But a few weeks ago, someone had sent cryptic messages to the thirty strongest witches in Chaillot-excluding herself and her daughter, Leland-inviting them to take a tour of Briarwood and promising to solve the riddle of what had happened to the young girls in their families who had been admitted to the hospital and then disappeared without a trace. Briarwood, which had been built to heal emotionally disturbed children, had been closed for several years now, ever since that mysterious illness started consuming dozens of men from the aristo families in Beldon Mor, Chaillot’s capital-an illness that had seemed linked to that place.