Maggie stared at her wildly.
"You...what?"
"I shouldhave told you earlier," Aradia said. "ButI didn't realize he was your brother until my mind became clearer. You're a lot alike, but I couldn'tthink properly to put it together." She added,quickly and with terrible gentleness, "But, Maggie, I don't want to get your hopes up. I don't thinkthere's much chance he's all right."
Maggie went still. "Tell me."
"He actually saved me before you ever did. I wascoming to this valley, but I wasn't alone-therewere several other witches with me. We didn'tknow where the pass was exactly-we'd only man aged to get incomplete information from our spiesin Hunter Redfern's household."
Maggie controlled her breathing and nodded.
"It was Samhain evening-Halloween. We werewandering around in the general area of the pass,trying to find a spell that would reveal it. All wedid was set off an avalanche."
Maggie stopped breathing entirely. "An avalanche?"
"It didn't hurt your brother. He was on the road,the place we should have been, if we'd only known.But it did kill the others in my party."
"Oh,"Maggie whispered. "Oh, I'm sorry..."
"I wasn't seriously hurt, but I was completely dazed. I could feel that the others were dead, butI wasn't sure where I was anymore. And that waswhen I heard your brother shouting. He and Sylvia had heard the avalanche, of course, and they cameto see if anyone was caught in it."
"Miles would always stop to help people," Maggiesaid, still almost in a whisper. "Even if they only needed batteries or socks or things."
"I can't tell you how grateful I was to hear him.He saved my life, I'm sure-I would have wandered around dazed until I froze. And I was so happy torecognize that the girl with him was a witch ... "She grimaced.
"Huh," Jeanne said, but not unsympathetically."I bet that didn't last."
"She recognized me, too, immediately," Aradiasaid. "She knew what she had. A hostage to bargainwith all the other witches. And to buy credit withHunter Redfern. And of course, she knew that she could stop me from seeing Delos."
"All she cares about is power," Maggie said quietly. "I heard hertalking-it'sall about her, and how the witches have given her a bad deal becauseshe's not a Harman or something."
Aradia smiled very faintly. "I'm not a Harman byname, either. But all true witches are daughters of Hellewise Hearth-Woman-if they would just realize it." She shook her head slightly. "Sylvia was so excited about finding me that she couldn't resist explaining it all to your brother. And he ... wasn't happy."
"No," Maggie said, burning with such fierce pride that for a moment the cold cell seemed warm to her.
"She'd only told him before that she was taking him to some secret place where legends were stillalive. But now she told him the truth about theDark Kingdom, and how she wanted him to be apart of it. She told him that it could be theirstheir own private haven-after Delos left with Hunter Redfern. He could become a vampire orshapeshifter, whichever he liked better. They wouldboth be part of the Night World, and they couldrule here without any interference."
Maggie lifted her hands helplessly, waving themin agitation because she couldn't find words. How stupid could Sylvia be? Didn't she know Miles atall?
"Miles wouldn't care about any of that," she finally got out in a choked voice.
"He didn't. He told her so. And I knew right awaythat he was in trouble with her." Aradia sighed."But there was nothing I could do. Sylvia played it very cool until they got me down the mountain.She pretended all she cared about was getting meto a doctor and telling the rangers about my friends. But once we were in her apartment, everything changed."
"I remember her apartment," Maggie said slowly."The people there were weird."
"They were Night People," Aradia said. "And Sylvia's friends. As soon as we were inside she toldthem what to do. I was trying to explain to Miles,to see if we both could get away, but there weretoo many of them. He put himself in between meand them, Maggie. He said they'd have to kill himbefore getting to me."
Maggie's chest felt not so much tight now asswollen, like a drum barrel full of water. She couldfeel her heart thudding slowly inside, and the wayit echoed all through her.
She steadied her voice and said, "Did they killhim?"
"No. Not then. And maybe not ever-but that'sthe part that I don't know. All I know is that theyknocked him out, and then the two slave tradersarrived. Bern and Gavin. Sylvia had sent for them."
And they must have come fresh from kidnappingP.J., Maggie thought. What wonderful guys.
"They knocked me out. And then Sylvia boundme with spells and practiced with her truth potions on me. She didn't get much information, becauseI didn't have much information. There was no armyof witches coming to invade the Dark Kingdomright now, I wish there were. And she already knew that I was coming to see Delos."
Aradia sighed again and finished quickly. "Thetruth potion poisoned me, so that for days afterwards I was delirious. I couldn't really understandwhat was going on around me -I just faded in andout. I knew that I was being kept ina warehouse until the weather cleared enough to take me to thevalley. And I knew that Miles had already been disposed of-Sylvia mentioned that before she left mein the warehouse. But I didn't know what she haddone with him-and I still don't."
Maggie swallowed. Her heart was still thumping in that slow, heavy way. "What I don't understandis why she had to set up a whole scenario to explainwhere he went. She let some rangers find her onthe mountain, and she said that he fell down acrevasse. But if he was dead, why not just let himdisappear?"
"I think I know the answer to that, at least," Aradia said. "When Miles was fighting them off he saidthat his roommates knew he'd gone climbing withher. He said that if he didn't come back, they'dremember that."
Yes. It made sense. Everything made sense-except that Maggie still didn't know what had becomeof him.
There was a long silence.
`"Well, he was brave," Jeanne said finally, andwith unexpected seriousness. "If he did die, he wentout the right way. We just ought to hope we cando the same."
Maggie glanced at her, trying to read the angularfeatures in the darkness. There was no trace ofmockery or sarcasm that she could see.
Well, Cady's changed into Aradia, Maiden of allthe witches, and I've changed into the Deliverernot that I've been much good at it, she thought. But I think maybe you've changed the most afterall, Jeanne
"You know, I don't even know your last name,"
she said to Jeanne, so abruptly and so much offthe subject that Jeanne reared back a little.
"Uh-McCartney. It was-it is�CMcCartney." Sheadded, "I was fourteen when they got me. I was at the mall playing Fist of Death at the arcade. And Iwent to go to the bathroom, and it was down this long empty corridor, and the next thing I knew Iwas waking up in a slave trader's cart. And now you know everything," she said.
Maggie put out a hand in the dimness, "Hi,Jeanne McCartney." She felt the cold grip of slen der, callused fingers, and she shook Jeanne's hand.And then she just held on to it, and to Aradia's soft warm fingers on the other side. The three of themsat together in the dark cell, slave, human, andwitch Maiden-except that we're really all just girls,Maggie thought.
"You didn't tell me one thing," Maggie said suddenly. "What'd they callyou when you started working here? What was your job?"
Jeanne snorted. "Second Assistant Stable Sweeper.And. now you know everything. "
Maggie didn't think she could possibly sleep in aplace like this, but after the three of them had sat quietly for a long time she found herself dozing. And when the rattle of the dungeon door startledher, she realized that she'd been asleep.
She had no idea what time it was-the flare wasburning low. She could feel Aradia and Jeannecome awake beside her.
"Dinner?" Jeanne muttered.
"I just hope it's not PJ.-" Maggie began, and
then broke off as firm, determined steps sounded on the stone floor of the corridor.
She recognized the stride and she stood up tomeet Delos.
He stood outside the cell, the dying torchlightflickering on his dark hair, catching occasionalsparks off his golden eyes. He was alone.
And he didn't waste time getting to the point.
"I came to see if you've decided to be reasonable," he said.
"I've been reasonable from the beginning," Maggie said quietly and completely seriously. She was searching his face and the slight link she felt between their minds at this distance, hoping to findsome change in him. But although she felt turmoilthat was almost anguish, she also felt the steel ofhis resolve.
I won't let you be killed. Nothing else matters.
Maggie felt her shoulders sag.
She turned slightly. Aradia and Jeanne were stillsitting on the bench, Aradia motionless, Jeannecoiled and wary. But she could tell that they bothfelt this was her fight.
And they're right. If I can't do it, nobody can...But how?
"They're people," she said, gesturing toward theother girls, but watching Delos's face. "I don't knowhow to get you to see that. They matter, too."
He hardly glanced back at them. "In the time ofdarkness that is coming," he said, as carefully as ifreciting a lesson, "only the Night People will survive. The ancient forces of magic are rising. They'vebeen asleep for ten thousand years, but they'rewaking up again."
A low voice, not belligerent, but not afraid either,came from the back of the cell. "Some of us believethat humans can learn to live with magic."
"Some of you are idiots and fools and are goingto die," Delos said, without even looking.
He stared at Maggie. She stared back at him.They were willing each other ashard as possible to understand.