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Princess,” he whispered, his fingers moving to brush
against her lashes as she felt her eyes close, unable to keep them open. Sleep
claimed her as the warrior lifted her into his embrace and moved for the door.
     
    “Forgive me, Trine,” Caedan murmured as he flicked his
fingers to the warrior and watched him slowly wilt to the floor in sleep.
    The powerful sleeping potion purchased from the Gnomes of
Spring Valley was one of the few properties that worked for both human as well
as the magi.
    He was aware of Daelan holding the princess in his arms now,
more tender than he had ever sensed his brother being.
    “We move,” Caedan hissed at the sound of voices moving along
the hall.
    Stepping to the cell door, he inserted the key the Ogre Mage
had bespelled before their leaving the Obsidian Fortress and turned it quickly.
    The cell door opened soundlessly as Caedan drew his sword
and allowed Daelan to pass first with his precious burden.
    Their consortress. How much more precious could any woman be
to her warriors than this one, to warriors who had never imagined they could
have such a creature for themselves? One who braved the mists to find them. One
whose powers would create an alignment of power that they had never dreamed
would be theirs.
    Pressing his palm into the stone, Caedan watched as the wall
moved slowly, far too slowly, for the voices moved closer far faster than the
wall moved.
    Finally, Daelan was squeezing through the narrow opening. As
he passed through Caedan followed, gripping the side of the door and dragging
it quickly behind as he did so. The sound of metal keys clanging and voices
calling out to Trine could be heard as the stone slid smoothly back into place.
    At the scrape of the heavy rock meeting, indicating it was
once again secured, the guards’ voices raised in alarm from the dungeon on the
other side of the stone wall.
    Standing still, silent, Caedan waited until the sounds of
the guards’ voices were loud enough to ensure any sound their passage through
the narrow tunnel made would be covered before leading the way through the
near-dark of the corridor.
    The darkness showed in shades of colorless gray as the night
sight the Ogre possessed ensured their way was clearly seen.
    “Her magick awakens, Caedan.” Tension filled his
brother’s thoughts as heated magick began to build within her as it reached out
to both Caedan and Daelan as they raced through the tunnels.
    They had hoped that using the sleeping dust would ensure her
magick slept as well. Ever when they were about her, magick touch made them
insane to have her.
    “Warh, our exit has changed, can you locate us?” Caedan
called out to the commander at arms, hoping the Ogre sense would work in the
human lands as it did in the mists.
    The gifts magick had given them for the purpose of
protecting the mists were unique among all the magicks. The gift of night
sight, apparent by the spora dust that glittered in their black eyes, and their
Ogre sense for each of those belonging to individual houses were but among the
few.
    “We await you, sire. You will exit from the fortress
along the banks of Eldorah Falls. A very clever exit.”
    “And why did we not sense these tunnels when we scryed
the area?” Caedan questioned the commander, the thought of the ease that
they could have taken her versus the intricate plan they’d been forced into
before clenching his teeth in irritation. “No magic exists in this land
supposedly, yet I find a female unlike any I have known of existing, manacles
bespelled and tunnels magickally hidden, though we cannot find the magick to
scry these places?”
    “Aye, sire, answers will be found,” Warh assured him. “Perhaps our isolation had made the humans as much a mystery to us as we are
to them. Once the princess is safe I will gauge the danger of speaking to the
one called Trine and enlisting his aid and possibly that of his house.”
    “Once we exit the falls we must ride hard for the mists,”