After talking with Calondir, Dragos called Miguel over to him and sent him off with another Elf. Within ten minutes, Miguel returned, carrying exquisitely tooled leather armor suitable for a female of Pia’s height and frame. Pia’s slim runner’s build was very compatible with an Elven body type, and the peanut bump wasn’t obtrusive enough to cause a problem.

The armor was lined with a finely crafted, tough chain mail and padded with cotton, and it was heavier than it looked. Pia liked to think she recognized good sense when she saw it, though, and she didn’t complain about the weight.

“It’s a gift from the High Lord,” Miguel said. His dark eyes were filled with admiration as he ran a hand down one piece. “This is really fine. It’s got an aversion spell woven into the chain mail.”

Pia stood, and Miguel and Eva helped to strap it into place on her, adjusting each buckle to make sure of the fit. She squatted when they asked, and twisted and turned. She said, “It doesn’t feel as bad as I thought it would.”

“It shouldn’t,” Eva told her. “You’re wearing about fifty thousand dollars’ worth of battle bling.”

She almost fell over. “You’re kidding.”

“Nope. Elven armor is kinda like those wafers of wayfarer bread that you like so much—it’s top-of-the-line and hard to come by. This stuff is not only resistant to sword cuts and knife throws, but it can block a bullet as long as it isn’t an armor-piercing round fired point-blank at you. It’s water repellant and lightweight too. With a little training in it, you shouldn’t have any impairment in speed or stamina when you run.” After tugging one last time on a shin plate, Eva slapped Pia’s leg lightly and stood.

Pia felt a little like one of the horses that had just been saddled. She gave Eva a leery glance. “Training.”

“Yep, and that’s first on our agenda when we get back home.”

“What are you talking about?”

Eva stood hipshot with her arms crossed as she looked over the clearing. She said, “Fact is, you need somebody on you, Tink, and it can’t be the sentinels who take time off their regular work to do it piecemeal. It needs to be someone full time who has the ability to work with your schedule and needs, and who can coordinate the right staff for each occasion. So I put in a quick word with the Old Man earlier, about the possibility of a job transfer.” Eva’s gaze slid sideways to her. “If you would be amenable to working with me, that is.”

Pia blinked rapidly. Evil Eva had asked for a job transfer to work with her? “I had no idea,” she said inanely. “He never said anything.”

Eva lifted one shoulder. “Well, we just barely had time for me to bring it up telepathically. Why don’t you think about it, see how it sits? Nobody’s deciding nuthin’ without you.”

“Why’d you ask?” The words burst out of her before she could stop it.

A small smile played around the edges of the captain’s bold mouth. “First, I like you,” Eva said bluntly. “I didn’t want to, and I didn’t expect it, but I do. Second, I’ve been doing the same thing for a while now. Sometimes you just need a change of pace, know what I mean?” Pia nodded as she watched the other woman’s face. “Third, you’re a challenge, and I need that too. You’re always going to be facing something. You’re always going to be in the public eye, and always going to be a target. Plus, you’re gifted, and you’re smart, but I gotta tell you, Tink, sometimes you’re kind of stupid too.”

She scowled. “I’m not stupid.”

Eva said, “Crossbow.”

“Fuck you.”

Eva laughed softly, and after a moment she joined in. “Fourth,” Eva said. “It may take me a while, because sometimes I’m kind of stupid too, but I recognize a top dog when I see one. And that’s what you are. You surprised me with it, and I’m not talking about you kicking my ass, or Aryal’s ass, or anything like that, because I haven’t even seen you fight yet, so clearly I’m going on faith about that bit.”

Pia toed a clump of grass. She muttered, “I can too kick your ass.”

“Beside the point. Being an alpha is much more than kicking someone’s ass.” Eva grinned. “I watched you order the Lord of the Wyr—the Old Man himself—out of the room, and he went. You don’t get more top dog than that. Shit, girl, I damn near genuflected, and I’m not even sure what that word means.”

“If this is about Johnny, I don’t want you to change careers because you feel like you might owe me something.”

“I won’t lie to you,” Eva said quietly. “This is partly about Johnny, but I wouldn’t change careers because I feel like I owe you. I could always find some other way to repay you. It’s everything, Pia. It’s the total package.”

A strange feeling pressed against her chest and made her eyes prickle. She whispered, “You figured it out, didn’t you? What I am.”

“I think so,” Eva murmured in reply. “But in the end, that stuff don’t matter. It’s who you are, not what you are. That’s what matters.”

She nodded, thinking. “We could give it a trial basis,” she said. “We should find out if you even like the change. If I talk to Dragos about it, I think he’d see to it that your old job was kept open until you were sure.”

“If you asked him, I’m sure he would,” Eva said, smiling. “Okay, that’d work. But I can tell you right now, I’ll like the change. If you don’t mind, I’d like to start talking to my crew about it. Some of them might be interested in making the switch with me, but most of them won’t. I’ll let you know what they have to say.”

“Sounds good.” She smiled. “Thank you, Eva.”

“My pleasure. I’m glad you listened.” Eva tugged at one of the side straps between the breast and the back plates, rather unnecessarily, she thought. “How’s that feel? Think you could run in it?”

She looked down sourly at the thirty extra pounds tied onto her body. “I wouldn’t want to,” she said.

“But you could if you had to, right?” Eva stressed.

“I suppose,” she grumbled.

“Now, here’s the real question,” Eva said. “Do you think you could run in it without dropping your crossbow?”

She rolled her eyes and threatened, “I’m not going to hire you if you keep bringing that up.”

“Are you kidding?” Eva said. “That’s totally why you’re gonna hire me. I’m never gonna let you forget it, and someday that may just save your life.”

A horn blew, the sharp blast of sound soaring over the snatches of conversation in the clearing, and Pia shivered. She turned, looking for Dragos, and found him watching her with a frown. She pointed to the chest plate and gave him a thumbs-up. He just shook his head, his face grim.

Then he turned to look around the fighters in the clearing, who had all quieted. “Calondir and I have agreed to lead together,” he said, his deep, powerful voice pitched to carry. “We will share command decisions and bring down Amras Gaeleval in partnership with each other. The heavier Wyr and all the avians will come after us. Then Wyr and Elves will follow together.” As he looked at Pia, he added telepathically, That’s where you and your guards will be, in the middle. Do you understand?

Of course, she said. Don’t waste your time worrying about me. Do what you have to do.

He said to those nearby, “Stand back.”

When everyone had retreated to give him sufficient room, he shimmered into a change, and expanded, until the massive bronze-and-black dragon appeared once again and dominated the clearing. The dragon arched his long, serpentine neck and looked down at Calondir, who stood in front of him.

“Now,” Dragos told him.

The plate armor that Calondir wore didn’t hamper him in the slightest as he leaped onto Dragos’s back and settled into place at the base of his neck. The tall stern figure of the High Lord shone like bright silver against the dragon’s duskier colors.

Pia stared, unable to look away or blink. Even considering how long she might live, she knew she was looking at a unique sight. A great roar welled up around her from the throats of Wyr and Elves alike. Dragos mantled, bared his teeth and roared back, the deep-chested, Powerful sound ripping the air, until every hair on her body raised and gooseflesh rippled along her skin.

Hell’s bells, it almost made her want to bash somebody in the head.

She looked around. Many of the Wyr had changed into their animal forms too, including the harpy, the pegasus and all the gryphons. This time, like Dragos, the pegasus and gryphons each carried one rider. As she had expected, Quentin rode the pegasus, and Carling was astride Rune. She wasn’t familiar with the fighters that Bayne, Constantine and Graydon had chosen to carry, although Bayne’s rider was a tall male with weather-beaten features and military-short white blond hair. He looked familiar enough that she thought she had seen him around the Tower once or twice.

As Pia glanced at her own psychos to see how they reacted to it all, she discovered half of them had shifted too. Eva, Miguel and Hugh remained in their human form, while Andrea, Johnny and James circled them. Johnny was a lean wolf with a shaggy pelt, while James looked more like a German shepherd mix, heavier in the chest and haunches. The biggest surprise, to Pia, was that Andrea in her Wyr form looked like an Irish wolfhound and stood taller than the other two. They all held their heads low to the ground, showing sharp, white fangs as their alert gazes roamed restlessly over the area.

Pia asked Eva, “Just out of curiosity, what do the rest of you look like?”

“I’m kinda like a Rottweiler,” Eva said. “Miguel’s another wolf. He’s darker than Johnny.”

“I look like a gargoyle,” Hugh offered in a helpful tone.

Pia laughed.

“Since the Elves and the Wyr are supposed to fall in together, do you mind if I stick with you guys?” a light, feminine voice asked. “Thought you might find it useful to have someone with you who knows what to expect on the other side.”

Pia, Eva and the others turned to face Linwe. The Elf wore leather armor much like Pia’s, only hers bore scrapes from obvious use. Like many of the other Elven warriors, she had a sword strapped to her back, along with a full quiver of arrows, and she carried a longbow that was as tall as she was.

Pia opened her mouth, but Eva spoke first. “I don’t mind if you hang with us, as long as you know, we’ve got just one agenda.” The captain jerked her thumb at Pia. “And she’s it. Don’t get in our way, and we won’t have any problems.”

“I understand,” Linwe said. Like so many other Elves, she still looked hollow-eyed from grief but otherwise was calm and alert.

“I’m glad you asked,” Pia said to her, just as, out of the corner of her eye, the gigantic wall of bronze-and-black flesh that filled the clearing suddenly moved.

Pia’s heart jerked as she looked up. Dragos strode out of the clearing, and all the larger Wyr followed.

Time was a funny thing, she thought. Instead of marching on in a measured pace, it seemed to flow like a river. Quiet days pooled together, languid with a sense of sameness, and events swirled and eddied, and time seemed to pick up its pace. Then there was the tumbling, dangerous rush of white water over rocks, and the heart-stopping terror of relentless inevitability as the water fell over the edge, and you knew that no matter what you might do or wish, you could not stop that flow from falling.

All you could do was surrender to the experience and flow with it.

When it came their turn to move, Pia and others fell into place and followed all the others to the crossover passageway that led to the Elven Other land.

• • •

When Dragos came to the Elven crossover passageway, he noticed for the first time how every inch of the floor and sides were carved, and he curled a lip in disgust. The passage was a symbol of everything he hated about the Elves, their arrogance and their Power to change the landscape around them. How like them to take something that already had so much natural Power and beauty and warp it into a vision of their own making.

He snapped his wings closed against his back, uncaring if he jostled the imperious gnat that he allowed to temporarily perch on his back, and he stalked through the passage. Frigid wind howled around his head and shoulders, as the surrounding scene flickered and changed. The burned husk of night lightened into indeterminate day, and in another first experience, he came into the Elven Other land.

Metal scraped as Calondir drew his sword, and Dragos had to control his impulse to snatch the Elf off his back and fling him away. Tensed for battle he looked around, taking in details quickly.

Like the other end, the passageway on this side was surrounded by a cluster of trees, but these were snow laden. Evergreens sprinkled a white landscape that was broken with scattered rock. The temperature was well below freezing. The cold didn’t bother Dragos in the slightest, and Wyr were, as a general rule, a hardy race with many natural defenses, but his thoughts winged to Pia and the baby anyway. Would they be warm enough? He should have made sure she had a lined cloak to go with the armor.

No one was in sight, and the acrid taint of smoke swirled on the biting wind, along with the scent of Elves. Had the smell blown over the passageway from Lirithriel Wood, or had something else burned here too? His gaze ran along the visible tree line, which was intact. The snow was trampled at the passageway entrance, which was no surprise, and footprints led away on a path that wound through a break in the trees.