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lockdown. Yet there was one slave who seemed to enjoy more freedom than any other. Even though she had given in to Taushin’s tortures, maybe her heart had not yet been enslaved.
    “Creator,” she said out loud. “Help me find Koren. Maybe together we can figure out how to end this madness.”
    The sound of flapping wings echoed throughout the cave — two dragons, probably Fellina and Xenith. Constance shot to her feet and brushed off her apron. She would have to pretend to be an obedient servant, at least until she could learn where Koren might be.

three
     
    K oren lifted her leg and scaled the final step. Tremors rippled through her muscles. On the landing, she halted and mopped her brow with the edge of her hood. Hunger and thirst gnawed at her stomach, and exhaustion threatened to overwhelm her, yet she had to press on. The worst part of the journey might still lie ahead. Taking a deep breath, she stepped up to the sliding door that led into the castle’s massive foyer, every sense on alert for a sign of Taushin.
    Although he had often spoken in her mind before they reached the Northlands, he had been silent ever since. Maybe the castle provided some sort of protection from his probing presence. Could he see through her eyes anymore? If he could, there would be no getting by him. He would have seen all and would know her location. If not, though, there was some chance she could slip by, or at least pass off her new direction as a continued search for Exodus. There was only one way to find out.
    Pressing her hard-soled boots down lightly, she passed by the open wall and glided through the castle’s entry room. Light poured in from the wide doorway, casting a ray of sunshine across the marred wooden floor. Without daring to peek outside, she lifted her hood over her head, turned to the right, and scooted toward a huge corridor.
    Where are you going?
    Taushin’s voice.
    Koren halted, her heart sinking. She leaned back and looked. He stood at the bottom of the portico stairs, his eyebeams locked on her. This was her only chance to learn what he could and couldn’t see. “To search the rest of the castle,” she called. “Haven’t you followed my progress?”
    She waited through Taushin’s pause, her heart pounding as she forced herself to breathe evenly.
    Continue your exploration,
he finally said.
Just remember that haste is essential.
    Koren walked into the corridor. “Why?” The word echoed through the cavernous space.
    Because I hold …
His voice died away.
    She kept walking. So, being near the door allowed Taushin access to her mind, and now he couldn’t finish his reply. Why
was
haste essential? Learning what he held might be helpful, but going back into his zone of influence wasn’t exactly her first choice. The farther away from Taushin she wandered, the better she felt.
    As she walked, her footfalls echoed in the massive hallway. For some strange reason, it seemed that a bubble of light surrounded her. Crystals embedded in the walls sparkled in an array of colors, briefly highlighting a portion of a long mural. With each step, a new portion shone. As she moved, it seemed that the mural on the right moved with her, a white dragon with shining blue eyes repositioning its wings with each new appearance as if it were flying at her pace. From mouth and nostrils, it blew a river of white crystals that sparkled like sunlit ice.
    She looked to the left. Another dragon flew on that side, a black one with red eyes. It breathed a torrent of flames with specks of orange and yellow almost too bright to behold.
    When she neared the end of the corridor, a huge, arching entryway came into view straight ahead, leading into another chamber. She stopped at the boundary and peered inside. A network of roots and vines covered the floor, or perhaps they were the floor itself.
    Her surrounding aura dimmed, but a lantern on each inner wall provided enough light to illuminate a few details. Beds lined the walls to the left