And thus Tempus slept, and when he woke, Abarsis was long gone and preparationsfor Theron, Tempus, and a hand-picked contingent to depart for Sanctuary werewell under way.

Trouble was coming to Sanctuary; Roxane could feel it in her bones. Thepremonition cut like a knife to the very quick of the Nisibisi witch, oncecalled Death's Queen, who now huddled in her shrouded hovel on Sanctuary's WhiteFoal River, beset from within and without.

Once she had been nearly all powerful; once she had been a perpetrator, not avictim; once she had decreed Suffering and marshalled Woe upon human cattle fromSanctuary's sorry spit to Wizardwall's wildest peaks.

But that was before she'd fallen in love with a mortal and paid the ancientprice. Perhaps if that mortal had not been Stealth, called Nikodemos, SacredBander and member in good standing ofTempus's blood-drenched cadre of Stepsons,it would not seem so foolish now to have traded in immortality for the abilityto shed a woman's tears and feel a woman's fleeting joy.

But Niko had betrayed her. She should have known; if she'd been a human womanshe would have-no man, and most especially no thrice-paired fighter who'd takenthe Sacred Band oath, would feel loyalty or honor toward a woman when itconflicted with his bond with men.

She should have known, but she hadn't even guessed. For Niko was the tenderestof souls where women were concerned; he loved them as a class, as he lovedfine horses and young children-not lasciviously, but honestly and freely.Now that she understood, it was an insult: She was no waif, no fuddle-headed twat, no inconsequential piece of fluff. And there was injury toadd to insult's sting: Roxane had given up immortality to love a mortal whowasn't capable of appreciating such a gift.

She had been betrayed by her "beloved" over a matter that should have been