“I would have been dead pretty damn soon if all that stuff hadn’t happened to me,” Michelle admitted. “God, I was such a mess.” She lifted a hand and brushed a strand of hair back from her face. “I know I’m not perfect now but…” She laughed and gestured to herself. “I never even dreamed I could be like this!”

“You look like a damn princess,” I said with total approval. “So, tell me what happened. Rhyzkahl took you back, but do you still live with him?” Surely I would have seen her before now, right?

She shook her head, curls bouncing. “Nope. I’m with Lord Vahl. I was a mess when I got here, and it was only a coupla days before Lord Rhyzkahl sent me to Lord Vahl, accompanied by a reyza.” She bit her lip prettily. “He’s taken real good care of me. Got my habit fixed up an’ everything. God, he treats me like a queen. Me!” She laughed. “It’s like a fairy tale.”

I peered at her. “You’re really okay?” I asked. “I mean, you’re not having to do anything you don’t want to, are you?” I narrowed my eyes. “Because if so, you let me know.” Yeah, I was totally in a position to lay down a warning to this Lord Vahl. Riiight.

Her smile widened. “Nope, nothing like that. There’s sex, y’know, but it’s all cool. I’ve never been forced or anything.” Her mouth twitched, and a faint flush crept across her face. “And the sex is damn good, too.”

“I’m really happy for you,” I said sincerely. “That’s the best news I’ve had in a while.”

“So what are you doing here?” Michelle asked, tilting her head. “Back on earth I had nooooo idea you were a summoner.” She laughed. “Or even that there was such a thing, ’cept on TV or something.”

“Yeah, I’m a summoner.” I leaned forward and rested my elbows on my knees. “In fact I’m Lord Rhyzkahl’s summoner, which, um, has made things kind of,” I paused, grimaced, “interesting. I was summoned here against my will, then got away from the lord who did that and came here.” I tugged a hand through my hair. “Honestly, I’m still trying to figure out what’s going on and what to do.”

Her smile slipped, and her forehead puckered in worry. “That sounds scary. I mean, the not knowing part.

“Yeah,” I agreed. “And I miss home.” Two days until Rhyzkahl could send me home. I could last two more days, right?

“Oh…oh! You must be ‘the girl’!” At my baffled look she continued. “Right before we left, Vahl said something about coming here because of the conclave and that Lord Rhyzkahl had gotten the girl back.” She shrugged. “No big deal, just realized that had to be you.”

I straightened, doing my best to make it seem casual instead of the somewhat startled reaction that it was. “I can’t imagine there’s anyone else it could be.” I gave her a look of oh-so-casual query. “Did he say anything else?”

“Not much,” she replied. “I asked him what girl, and he laughed and said, ‘One that Rhyzkahl really needs.’” She shrugged again. “I guess if you’re his sworn summoner that makes a lot of sense.”

“Yeah, I suppose so,” I replied. Really needs? For what? To summon him to Earth once a month?

An oddly familiar discordance, like a high-pitched mental whine, distracted me from my troubled musings. I cast my gaze around but didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. Still, I stood up, uneasy.

The shimmer repeated, and this time I remembered where I’d felt it before. “Michelle, I think you need to go find Lord Vahl.”

“Is something wrong?” Michelle asked.

“Not sure,” I lied. “Best to be safe and find your lord. I need to find Rhyzkahl.”

She gave a nervous nod. “Yeah…sure. Thanks, Kara.” She picked up her skirts and hurried off to the palace. I watched long enough to be sure she was heading back, then took off at a run down the other path.

Once inside, I stopped the first demon I encountered, a faas whose name I couldn’t remember. “Where’s Rhyzkahl?” I asked, panting for breath. “Something’s wrong.”

It peered at me. “Wrong what?”

“Anomaly,” I told it.

It let out a low squeak. “Rhyzzzzzkahl in plexus!”

“Okay. Where the hell is that?” I had no idea what it was either, but that would have to wait.

The demon took off running, and I hurried to follow. I quickly lost track of the various turnings, and ups and downs of stairs, but eventually the faas stopped at the end of a long hall in front of intricately carved double doors. Breathless, I thanked the faas, who dipped its head in acknowledgment before scurrying off. I raised my hand to pound on the door, but Rhyzkahl yanked it open before I could touch it. Behind him I caught a glimpse of shifting globes of light over a stone pedestal and basin much like the one in Szerain’s shrine. He leveled a frown at me as he stepped into the hall and grabbed my hand. “Come,” he said, closing the door and my view of whatever the orb stuff was.

“You feel it too?” I asked, trotting along as he moved quickly down the corridor.

“Not yet. Olihr notified me. He and the rest of the syraza—” He gave me a sharp look without breaking stride. “You can feel the anomaly?”

“Yeah, I felt it when I was out in the gardens and ran in here to find you.”

“How did you feel it?” he asked, near bounding up the stairs and forcing me to break into a jog.

“I, uh, the grove told me,” I said, instantly feeling silly for saying it that way, though I didn’t know how else to explain it.

His grip tightened on my hand. “The grove told you—how?”

I winced at his grip and struggled to keep up. “I don’t know. I felt something weird, like an imbalance.” I scowled. “It’s not like it called me up and said, ‘Yo, Kara, some weird shit’s going down. Deal with it, girl!’”

We reached a main corridor but by this point I was so hopelessly lost I didn’t know if we were on the ground floor or the damn attic. This place really could have used some signs with maps and You are here arrows on them.

Rhyzkahl pulled me next to the wall, released my hand, and gave me a hard look. “Stay right here and do not move. The anomaly is within the palace and has the potential for catastrophic damage.” He moved off, then stopped and looked back at me. “Stay there,” he commanded again, as if suspecting I might have a tendency to do my own thing.

I put my hands on my hips and gave him a sour look.

He narrowed his eyes, perhaps sensing my capacity for obstinance, then turned and headed rapidly off.

A few seconds later I heard voices coming down the corridor behind me, conversing rapidly in demon. I remained where I was at the side of the corridor and folded my hands over my chest as the voices approached. I didn’t have long to wait before a pair of lords turned a corner and proceeded toward me. Rayst and Seretis, the last two lords to arrive.

Seretis gave me a quick glance and smile as he moved swiftly past, but Rayst motioned to me.

“Come, it is this way,” he said. “You can help lay the structure.”

I moved to follow but caught myself just in time, grimacing. “Rhyzkahl told me to stay here.”

He stopped. “Here? Now?” He shook his head and gave me a smile. “You are needed elsewhere. It will help much to have you anchor the foundation.”

I hadn’t the faintest clue what he was talking about. I really wanted to see what was going on, but at the same time I did try hard not to be extraordinarily stupid. “Rhyzkahl will kick my ass if I move. For real.”

Rayst chuckled, then muttered something in demon that had Rhyzkahl’s name in it. He flicked a lasso of potency around my wrist and raised an eyebrow. “It is simple. You will tell him I ordered you to come, bound you in potency, and dragged you with me.”

“Okay, okay! No dragging necessary.” I grinned, but there was a teensy part of me that wondered if he would.

“Excellent. Now come!” He headed off down the corridor, and I followed. He still had the lasso lightly wrapped around my wrist, but he had yet to so much as tug on it.

“I am Rayst,” he told me as we walked. “And the one who flew by you, Seretis.”

“I’m Kara Gillian,” I replied with a smile. “It’s an honor to meet you.”

“Honor and greetings to you, Kara Gillian.” He stopped at a cross corridor, brow creasing as if trying to determine which way to go.

“This way,” I said, pointing to the right. I could sense the anomaly, like a knot in an otherwise smooth thread.

Rayst glanced that way, nodded. “You can feel it. Excellent perception.”

I led the way now, taking a left at yet another corridor, finally coming out into an indoor courtyard. The ceiling was four stories above, and mezzanines encircled the open space. Half in and half out of a wood-paneled wall, a soccer ball-sized anomaly pulsed and spun. Like the tiny one I’d seen with Ilana at Szerain’s place, it alternately radiated and sucked light back into itself, each shift sending a shiver of discordance through me.

Rayst eyed the aberration warily as he recalled the lasso from my wrist. “The syraza are aloft working the vertex. We will construct the binder here.” He swept his arm in an arc a few feet from the thing. “Set a quadrant of portal anchors. That will be very useful.”

Portal anchors. I could handle that. Maybe. I mean, I was pretty sure I could, though I’d never done them in a quadrant before. I started to turn toward the perimeter, then grimaced. “Wait, I can’t.” Sighing, I tapped the damn collar. “I can’t touch the arcane.”

Rayst snorted softly, reached and slid his hands around my neck, then slipped the collar off.

“Thanks,” I said, smiling in relief as my sense of the arcane flowed in. “But you know I have to blame that on you as well, right? I’ll throw you right under the bus, I’m warning you now.”