"The hunt of your lives," Hunter Redfern said. Hewas standing handsome and erect, smiling easily. The nobles were gathered around him, and Maggieeven saw some familiar faces in the crowd.
That rough man from Delos's memories-the one who grabbed his arm, she thought dreamily. And the woman who put the first binding spell on him.
They were crowded in the courtyard, their faceseager. The first pale light was just touching thesky-not that the sun was visible, of course. But it was enough to turn the clouds pearly and cast aneerie, almost greenish luminescence over thescene below.
"Twohumans,a witch, and a renegade prince,"Hunter proclaimed. He was enjoying himself hugely, Maggie could tell. "You'll never have another chance at prey like this."
Maggie gripped Delos's hand tightly.
Shewasfrightened butatthesame time strangely proud. If the nobles around Hunter wereexpecting their prey to cower or beg, they were going to be disappointed.
They were alone, the four of them, in a littleempty space in the square. Maggie and Aradia and Jeanne in their slave clothes, Delos in his leggingsand shirtsleeves. A little wind blew and stirredMaggie's hair, but otherwise they were perfectly still.
Aradia, of course, was always dignified. Just nowher face was grave and sad, but there was no sign of anger or fear in it. She stood at her full height,her huge clear eyes turned toward the crowd, as if they were all welcome guests that she had invited.
Jeanne was more rumpled. Her red hair was disheveled and her tunic was wrinkled, but there wasa grim smile on her angular face and a wild battlelight in her green eyes. She was one prey that wasgoing to fight, Maggie knew.
Maggie herself was doing her best to live up tothe others. She stood astall as she could, knowing she would never be asimpressive as Aradia, or as devil-may-care as Jeanne, but trying at least to look asif dying came easy to her.
Delos was magnificent.
In his shirtsleeves, he was more of a prince thanHunter Redfern would ever be. He looked at thecrowd of nobles who had all promised to be loyalto him and were now thirsting for his blood-and he didn't get mad.
He tried to talk to them.
"Watch what happens here," he said, his voicecarrying easily across the square. "And don't forgetit. Are you really going to follow a man who cando this to his own great-grandson? How long is itgoing to be before he turns on you?Before you findyourselves in front of a pack of hunting animals?"
"Shut him up," Hunter said. He tried to say it jovially, but Maggie could hear thefuryunderneath.
And the command didn't seem to make much sense. Maggie could see the nobles looking at each other-who was supposed to shut him up, and how?
"There are some things thatt have to be stopped,"
Delos said. "And this man is one of them. I admitit, I was willing to go along with him-but that was because I was blind and stupid. I know betternow-and I knew better before he turned againstme. You all know me. Would I be standing here,willing to give up my life for no reason?"
There was the tiniest stirring among the nobles.
Maggie looked at them hopefully-and then herheart sank.
They simply weren't used to thinking for themselves, or maybe they were used to thinking only of themselves. But she could tell there wasn't material for a rebellion here.
And the slaves weren't going to be of any help,either. The guards had weapons, they didn't. Theywere frightened, they were unhappy, but this kind of hunt was something they'd seen before. Theyknew that it couldn't be stopped.
"This girl came to us peacefully, trying to keepthe alliance between witches and vampire," Deloswas saying, his hand on Aradia's shoulder. "And inreturn we tried to kill her. I'm telling you rightnow, that by spilling her innocent blood, you're allcommitting a crime that will come back to hauntyou."
Another little stirringamong women, Maggie thought. Witches, maybe?
"Shut him up," Hunter said, almost bellowing it.
And this time he seemed to be saying it to a specific person. Maggie followed his gaze and saw Sylvia near them.
"Some beasts have to be muzzled before they canbe hunted," Hunter said, looking straight at Sylvia."So take care of it now. The hunt is about to begin."
Sylvia stepped closer to Delos, a little uneasily.He stared back at her levelly, as if daring her towonder what he'd do when she got nearer.
"Guards!" Hunter Redfern said, sounding tired.
The guards moved in. They had two differentkinds of lances, a distant part of Maggie's mindnoted. One tipped with metal-that must be for humans and witches-and one tipped with wood.
For vampires, she thought. If Delos wasn't careful, he might get skewered in the heart before thehunt even began.
"Now shut his lying mouth," Hunter Redfernsaid.
Sylvia took her basket off her arm.
"In the new order after the millennium, we'llhave hunts like this every day," Hunter Redfernwas saying, trying to undo the damage that hisgreat-grandson had done. "Each of us will have a city of humans to hunt. A city of throats to cut, acity of flesh to eat."
Sylvia was fishing in her basket, not afraid tostand close to the vampire prince since he was surrounded by a forest of lances.
"Sylvia," Aradia said quietly.
Sylvia looked up, startled. Maggie saw her eyes,the color of violets.
"Each of us will be a prince-" Hunter Redfernwas saying.