Maggie held Sylvia gently. Or at least, she knelt by her and tried to hold herasbest she could without disturbing the piece of broken spear that wasstill lodged in Sylvia's body.
It was all over. Where Hunter Redfern and hismost trusted nobles had been, there was a large scorched crater in the earth. Maggie vaguely recalled seeing a few people running for the hillsGavin the slave trader had been among them. But Hunter hadn't been one of them. He had been at ground zero when the blue fire struck, and nowthere wasn't even a wisp of red hair to show thathe had existed.
Except for Delos, there weren't any Night Peopleleft in the courtyard atall.
The slaves were just barely peeking out againfrom their huts.
"It's all right," Jeanne was yelling. "Yeah, youheard me it's all right!Delos isn't dangerous. Notto us, anyway. Come on, you, get out of therewhat are you doing hiding behind that pig?"
"She's good at this," a grim voice murmured.
Maggie looked up and saw a tall, gaunt figure,with a very small girl clasped to her side.
"Laundress!" she said. "Oh, and PJ.-I'm so glad you're all right. But, Laundress, please... ."
The healing woman knelt. But even as she did, alook passed between her and Sylvia. Sylvia's facewas a strange, chalky color, with shadows thatlooked like bruises under her eyes. There was alittle blood at the corner of her mouth.
"It's no good," she said thickly.
"She's right," Laundress said bluntly. "There'snothing you can do to help this one, Deliverer, andnothing I can do, either."
"I'm not anybody's Deliverer," Maggie said. Tearsprickled behind her eyes.
"You could have fooled me," Laundress said, andgot up again. "I see you sitting here, and I see allthe slaves over there, free. You came and it happened-the prophecies were fulfilled. If you didn'tdo it, it's a strange coincidence."
The look in her dark eyes, although as unsentimental as ever, made Maggie's cheeks burn suddenly. She looked back down at Sylvia.
"But she's the one who saved us," she said, hardlyaware that she was speaking out loud. "She deserves some kind of dignity...."
"She's not the only one who saved us," a voicesaid quietly, and Maggie looked up gratefully atDelos.
"No, you did, too."
"That's not what I meant," he said, and kneltwhere Laundress had. One of his hands touched Maggie's shoulder lightly, but the other one wentto Sylvia's.
"There's only one thing I can do to help you," hesaid. "Do you want it?"
"To become a vampire?" Sylvia's head movedslightly in a negative. "No. And since there's woodnext to my heart right now, I don't think it would work anyway."
Maggie gulped and looked at the spear, whichhad cracked in the confusion when the guards ran. "We could take it out - !"
I wouldn't live through it. Give up for once, will you?" Sylvia's head moved slightly again in disgust. Maggie had to admire her, even dying, she still hadthe strength to be nasty. Witches were tough.
"Listen," Sylvia said, staring at her. "There'ssomething I want to tell you." She drew a painfulbreath.
"About your brother."
Maggie swallowed, braced to hear the terrible details "Yes."
"It really bugged me, you know? I would put on my nicest clothes, do my hair, we would go out ...and then he'd talk about you."
Maggie blinked, utterly nonplussed. This wasn't at all what she had expected. "He would?"
"About his sister.How brave she was. How smartshe was. How stubborn she was."
Maggie kept blinking. She'd heard Miles accuse her of lots of things, but never of being smart. Shefelt her eyelids prickle again and her throat swellpainfully.
"He couldn't stand to hear a bad word about you," Sylvia was saying. Her purple-shadowed eyes narrowed suddenly, the color of bittersweet nightshade. "And I hated you for that. But him ... I liked him."
Her voice was getting much weaker. Aradia knelton her other side and touched the shimmering silvery hair.
"You don't have long," she said quietly, as if giving a warning.
Sylvia's eyes blinked once, as if to say she understood. Then she turned her eyes on Maggie.
"I told Delos I killed him," she whispered."But ...I lied."
Maggie felt her eyes fly open. Then all at onceher heart was beating so hard that it shook herentire body.
"You didn'tkill him? He's alive?"
"I wanted to punish him... but I wanted himnear me, too...."
A wave of dizziness broke over Maggie. She bentover Sylvia, trying not to clutch at the slender shoulders. All she could see was Sylvia's pale face.
"Please tell me what you did," she whisperedwith passionate intensity. "Please tell me."
"I had him ... changed." The musical voice wasonly a distant murmur now. "Made him a shapeshifter ... and added a spell. So he wouldn'tbe human again until I wanted ..."
"What kind of spell?" Aradia prompted quietly.
Sylvia made a sound like the most faraway ofsighs. "Not anything that you need to deal with,Maiden.... Just take the leather band off his leg.He'll always be a shapeshifter ...but he won't be lost to you...."
Suddenly her voice swelled up a little stronger,and Maggie realized that the bruised eyes werelooking at her with something like Sylvia's oldmalice.
"You're so smart ... I'm sure you can figure outwhich animal ..."
After that a strange sound came out of herthroat, one that Maggie had never heard before.Somehow she knew without being told that itmeant Sylvia was dying-right then.
The body in the green dress arched up once andwent still. Sylvia's head fell back. Her eyes, the color of tear-drenched violets, were open, staringup at the sky, but they seemed oddly flat.
Aradia put a slender dark hand on the paleforehead.
"Goddess of Life, receive this daughter of Hellewise," she said in her soft, ageless voice. "Guideher to the other world." She added, in a whisper,"She takes with her the blessing of all the witches."
Maggie looked up almost fearfully to see if theshining figure who had surrounded Aradia like anaura would come back. But all she saw was Aradia's beautiful face, with its smooth skin the color of coffee with cream and its compassionate blindgaze.
Then Aradia gently moved her hand down to shutSylvia's eyes.
Maggie clenched her teeth, but it was no use.She gasped once, and then somehow she was in the middle of sobbing violently, unable to stop it.But Delos's arms were around her, and she buriedher face in his neck, and that helped. When she gotcontrol of herself a few minutes later, she realizedthat in his arms she felt almost what she had inher dream, that inexpressible sense of peace and security. Of belonging, utterly.
As long as her soulmate was alive, and they weretogether, she would be all right.