It was the old way, the only way: evil for evil, tenfold. And she'd promisedhell to pay, visited upon this town for its of-fenses and its slights.

There remained only to touch flesh and nail to the globe spinning larger,closer, right before her eyes.

She reached out and braced herself, for a demon lover would come with contact:One did have to pay as one went, even if one was Nisibis's finest witch.

Her nail screeched into the high peaks' clay, and a demon screeched intoexistence between her knees, and a hellish gale whose like was known as wizardweather up and down the land stretched from Sanctuary's southernmost tip upalong the Ran-kan seaboard where the imperial ship was under way.

And everywhere men remarked that, even for wizard weather, the gale was fierceand loud, and full of sounds the like of a goddess being raped in some forgottenpassion play.

Sanctuary promised nothing of the sort to Critias, who'd ridden downcountry atan ungodly rate with Tempus and his inhuman consort, Jihan, daughter of theprimal power men called Stormbringer (when they were so unlucky as to have tocall Him anything at all).

The ride-across No Man's Land, a shortcut full of shades and mirages through adesert the party shouldn't have been able to cross in twice the time-hadn't beenthe sort of trip Crit liked. It was too fast, too easy, too full of magic-orwhatever the equivalent was when power was fielded not by a human mage, but byJihan, daughter of Stormbringer, lord of wind and wave.

Now that they'd nearly reached the town, it was too late for Crit to ask hiscommander questions-whether, as rumor had it, Abarsis had really appeared to theRiddler in Theron's palace; why, even if that were true, Tempus had seen fit tosplit his forces: the three of them were worth more than the score of fighters