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The king nodded. "Then that is all we need, Lady Alena. Thank you very much for your trouble."

He nodded his head respectfully at her, and she curtsied low. "You are welcome, Your Majesty," she replied. "I only wish I could provide more answers."

The king smiled. "We will find them out," he said confidently. "Good night, Lady Alena."

"Good night." Alena turned to Lin and Earendil. "Good night to the both of you."

Earendil bid her goodnight before she returned to her room for the night, then turned to Lin.

"I know there's not much we can do tonight yet," he began, "but I do still want to see Daeron tonight, just for my own peace of mind."

He hesitated a moment. "If you want to get Andarien and Miyuki, I can go on my own ..."

He didn't want to make her come if she didn't want to, after all.

Earendil smiled widely at Lin. He was glad that she would come with him.

Then he turned to the king. "If you would, Uncle," he said hesitantly. "I'm afraid we haven't been to your prison, and we don't know where to go."

"I will take you," the king promised. "Come."

He led them down to the main floor again, and down a long corridor that they'd never been through before. Then he took them down a set of stairs to a level below ground, and after one final corridor, they arrived at a row of cells of various sizes.

Iorlas was standing just outside one of the cells, hugging herself and weeping as she looked into the cell she was near. Daeron was only a step away, his hands clasped behind his back, but his eyes were on Iorlas, and it looked like her sorrow was paining him.

When they stepped closer, they could see inside the cell. Ioreth was in there, lying on a small cot, and Ethan, the healer, was sitting next to her, dabbing at some deep scratches across her face that were bleeding.

Iorlas didn't even glance at Lin, so entirely was she focused on watching the healer working with her sister. She wiped tears from her eyes, only because they were blurring her vision, leaving the tears on her cheeks.

Daeron put one hand on Lin's shoulder. "She's not responding to anyone or anything right now," he told her quietly, his voice strained. "It's no use trying to talk to her."

Earendil studied his brother for a moment, but he kept his thoughts to himself. Then he looked at Ioreth to see what other damage had been done.

Apart from the slashes across her face, one arm was bent at an unnatural angle, and there were bruises beginning to show on her face and arms.

Daeron looked at Lin, his face pale. "Bad enough. She'll live, she'll be fine ... but ..."

He cursed and looked away. "Dammit, Lin, that was supposed to be me. She went to the dinner to do that to me. No one touched her except to bring her down here, and by that time she was nearly complacent because of her injuries. How does something like that happen? How can a person be filled with so much hatred?"

Daeron exhaled slowly. "I know there are downsides to being immortal. But after living in anger and violence for thousands of years, wouldn't anyone take advantage of a period of peace? When they can live without fear of people trying to kill them without reason?"

He looked back at Lin, his eyes sad. "It's as if she's trying to get someone to kill her."

"That's because the heart and the mind are two different things," Daeron replied cryptically. He eyed Iorlas briefly, then looked at his feet. "I can't help but feel that I'm to blame for this."

After all, Ioreth had been after him when it had happened. Perhaps if he hadn't been paying so much attention to Iorlas, Ioreth wouldn't have gone crazy.

Daeron grimaced. "I enjoy her company, at least, and I try to help her enjoy herself," he said bitterly. "But that's as far as it goes."

He glared at Iorlas who was still deaf to everything that was going on around her, solely intent on her sister.

"As long as Ioreth is a part of her life, she will never enjoy a single moment," he told Lin flatly. "I've been trying and trying to distract her, to get her to enjoy something - anything! - but she's always thinking about her sister, worried about her ... she's trapped by her, not physically, but in her mind. And why? For something like this to happen?"

"That doesn't explain anything," Daeron replied, his patience wearing thin. "I love my family. You love my brother. You love your children. But you don't ignore the world around you, cut yourself off from it, from the people in it, just because you have someone that you love."

He knew his grandmother had tried that, back before she had told his grandfather the truth about her being a shapeshifter. But when she finally told him the truth about what she was - about her ability, he should say - they had been happy for a long time before his grandfather had been killed.