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allowed you to come here?"
    Ariana smiled. It was a nice smile, bright and real in spite of the dangers she was about to face. "They didn't so much
allow
me as not tie me down when I told them what I wanted to do. They did send my brother Duran with me, and they said if I ever decided I wanted to come home, he would be my escort. I think in their mind I'm still six years old and helpless."
    "I suspect they simply wanted something different for you."
    Ariana sighed. "My mother was certain that the only way I would be happy was if I lived as she did. She wanted me to marry and have children. Lots of them, if she had her way. She said I could use my talents as a healer right there in Shandley. When I told her I wanted to do more with my life, she didn't understand. My father simply didn't want me out of his sight. He's rather overly protective."
    As many fathers were, where daughters were concerned. Sian wondered, momentarily, if he would have been such a father. Best not to allow his mind to wander there. "I thought every woman desired above all what your mother wanted for you."
    "That goes to show how very little you know about women," Ariana teased.
    "True enough," Sian admitted.
    After a few more steps, Ariana turned her head to look at him. "Are you married?"
    "What difference does it make?"
    "It doesn't. I'm just curious."
    They reached Level One, and thankfully that put an end to the questioning.
    These days, the once fine hallways of Level One were deserted. Not only deserted, but very obviously abandoned. Anything that might be of use had been carted off long ago. Spiderwebs and the scurrying of small critters made the long dearth of human residence quite plain.
    Ariana did not seem to be bothered by the conditions of Level One. As she walked toward an uncovered window and the light it allowed to fall onto the stone floor, she trailed her fingertips along the walls and gazed about curiously. She was not squeamish, and that was good.
    He still couldn't imagine this woman fighting battles of any kind. His mother and his long-deceased wife were the only women he had ever known well. Others came and went, but he didn't
know
them. He didn't understand them at all. Nor did he want to. In spite of their varying circumstances, females were all delicate and fragile and given to moments of weakness. Even his mother, who had been quite strong when it had been required of her.
    Did Ariana have that sort of strength inside her? For her sake, he hoped so.
    The hallways were eerie, but were nothing to compare to the vast emptiness of the grand ballroom. Side by side, Sian and Ariana walked through the opened double doors. If the tales were true, it was here that Emperor Sebestyen had tortured and killed the men and women who displeased him. If evil could linger in the walls, in the air, then it was very possible the darkness they had yet to fight had taken root here.
    Ariana walked to the center of the room and looked up. Sian copied her move, wondering what she was searching for. A large section of the ceiling had obviously been patched. The stones there were smaller in size, and the grout had not aged in just the same way.
    The wild-haired healer pointed up and smiled. "My mother did that. She stood face to face with the emperor, when he was trying to force her to marry him, and blew a hole in the ceiling."
    "Did she, now?" If her mother was that powerful, it was no wonder Emperor Arik had immediately thought of the woman when he'd heard the word "fine." "And then what?"
    Ariana shrugged. "I don't know. Poppy would never let her tell us the rest. I can guess, though. Mama's talent is fertility."
    "Then I suppose the fact that she has only nine children is a blessing."
    "I suppose," Ariana said absently as she glanced around the cavernous room. "We're here. Now what?"
    Sian crossed the room to join Ariana. "Have you ever studied the gift of healing, or do you simply accept what comes naturally to you?"
    "I've studied the design and