Sitara stopped before a simple wooden door. It was identical to every other door in this seldom-used section of the lowest level of the underground palace, not far from where she and Remiel often met. She took a deep breath to steady her nerves, and then pushed the door open and stepped inside.

A large figure stood across the small room, cloaked and hooded. Sitara pushed the door closed, irritated at the concealment.

"Master," she said with a little curtsy. "Can I help you with your cloak?"

"Nice try," he mocked. "You haven't earned the right to see my face."

Of course he wouldn't reveal this most important secret easily. She yearned to demand the truth, but facing him, she realized she'd been a fool to think this would work.

"Thank you for coming," she managed.

"It made sense," he said, his voice lacking its normal mockery. "We need to talk, but maintaining a fully shielded Mindlink is becoming increasingly dangerous."

"What happened last night?" Sitara asked.

Masego made a dismissive gesture, never revealing his hand. "Look to the future, girl, not the past. Last night proved a setback, but I learned one useful thing. I know who killed Bajaran."

How could he know this was her purpose for requesting the meeting? He commanded a vast web of information, but had he learned that she'd discovered the truth?

"You look surprised," he said.

"I . . . didn't think you cared about Bajaran."

"Bajaran was a fool, but you're proving useful and this information is important to you, is it not?"

"It is."

"Then you'll be happy to know the man Kevlin killed Bajaran."

"I thought Rhea killed him." And you ordered her to do it.

Could he be speaking the truth? Ceren's memory had been so clear, but Kevlin alone had stood over Bajaran's body. Had Lady Ceren lied to the queen?

"Rhea was a useful tool," Masego said, "but the man Kevlin is the one responsible for everything that went wrong there."

"So you were Rhea's master?"

"Of course."

Could she believe him? This was too important for doubts. She wanted to avenge Bajaran's death, but she needed Kevlin for other things. She couldn't work with him to bring about the same revolution he'd killed Bajaran for starting.

Lady Ceren had no reason to lie about this, did she?

Masego did.

She knew the truth about him. His cruelty and his manipulations served only his good. His actions were not those of a true patriot like Bajaran.

He allied with Shadeleeches. That was really all she needed to know. This confirmed the rightness of her plan to destroy him in the moment of his victory over the current corrupt regime.

She needed Kevlin's help. She needed Ceren's help. She even needed Remiel's help.

Masego was responsible for Bajaran's death. It was his plan that put Rhea and Bajaran together that night in Hallvarr. Everything she'd done since first accepting Masego as her new master had been a mockery of Bajaran's death. She'd only wanted to avenge him and fulfill his vision of a better world. Instead, she'd allied with his murderer.

She should wait, bide her time, destroy him at the moment he was about to claim victory, but she couldn't. She couldn't keep up the lies.

Sitara opened herself to the power of Darkness. This time as its filth crawled into her body and stained her soul, she welcomed its power.

Masego started, as if sensing the sudden influx of power.

Sitara struck.

She formed an invisible blade of air and slashed at Masego's masked form. He cried out and staggered against the wall. The front of his cloak parted as her blade bit deep. Blood spurted across the room as a wide gash ripped open across his chest.

Masego clutched at the wound and it began to close. Before Sitara could strike again, he threw out a hand, and thick blocks of ice materialized around her feet and legs.

Sitara gasped as the ice grew up to her waist and deadly cold seeped into her legs. Her muscles cramped and she lost control of her blade of air.

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Masego snarled a word she didn't understand, and an invisible force smashed her across the room against the far wall. She struck with terrific force and the blocks of ice encasing her lower half exploded on impact.

As Sitara fell to the floor, she used fingers of power to collect those tumbling fragments of ice. She hurled them at Masego just as she had struck at that soldier in the catacombs with pieces of the dead.

Masego had started to cross the room toward her, but the shards of ice slashed into him and knocked him back again. He raised a hand, and fire encircled him, consuming the ice in a flash.

Masego pointed at her and shadowy fists of air pounded into Sitara from every side. She screamed as her body lifted into the air, pounded as if from a hundred iron-hard hands. Agony scattered her thoughts and she lost her grip on her magic. Blood sprayed from her nose and mouth, and she writhed helplessly within the deadly barrage.

Then Masego struck at her mind. His will struck her shields like an avalanche, but even in the midst of the beating she hadn't dropped her mental shields. They shook under the blow, and her outer shields shattered. He drove toward her mind, but her second layer of shields broke his attack.

Despite the brutal beating, Sitara shifted her mental shields. Nothing mattered but preserving the sanctity of her mind. She would die before allowing him to possess her again.

A second blow struck, but her shields held and she shifted the multi-faceted walls around her mind in preparation for the next blow.

It never came. Instead, the beating stopped and Sitara fell to the floor. She groaned and struggled to sit up.

Masego yanked her up by the hair. She screamed as the pressure tore at her head, her feet kicking uselessly at the air as he lifted her clear of the ground.

"You stupid girl." Even hanging so close to him, she couldn't see through the darkness cloaking his face.

He shook her like a rat. "Why did you do this?"

"You did it," Sitara whispered through broken lips. She tried to spit blood at him, but lacked the strength. It only dribbled down her chin. "You killed Bajaran."

Masego threw her from him. She struck the wall and fell in a crumpled heap. "Of course I did. Bajaran was an idiot, and he made it all too easy for Rhea to murder him at my command."

He actually admitted it! Rage gave Sitara the strength to sit up.

"You think Bajaran was some kind of saint?" he demanded. "Far from it. Rhea took him to her bed and she controlled that idiot and everything he did."

"You lie!" Sitara reached for her gift, but nothing came. Why would the Sentinels block her now when she needed her gift the most?

"Believe what you want, but know this. You've outgrown Bajaran's memory. He lacked vision, but you have real potential."

Sitara couldn't believe it. He was complimenting her? He hurt too much to keep up.

Masego took a step toward her. "You have discipline. You have drive. You could be so much more than Bajaran set you up for."

"I'll kill you," Sitara said. Somehow she found the strength to struggle to her feet and face him.

"No. You will serve me."

Masego pointed at her and a mighty whirlwind erupted into the room. The wind tore at her hair and lifted her from the floor. Sitara struggled within the wind, but it held her fast.

The wind grew dark until she could barely see Masego. Then it condensed around her and began crawling under her skin.

Sitara screamed and thrashed within Masego's power as the darkness bored into her, all the way to the center of her bones. It felt like thousands of worms crawling through her skin until they writhed in the very center of her being. Sitara screamed again, and madness tore at her mind as she struggled to fight against the torture.

The sensation abruptly faded, as if the worms had found new homes and bedded down to stay. Sitara ripped at her skin with her nails and drew bloody gashes along her arms as she vainly tried to dig out the horror that consumed her.

"Get it out!" Sitara shrieked, slumping back against the ground. Tears burned her eyes and sobs wracked her petite frame.

Masego took a step closer. "You are bound to me now, just as Rhea was. You will do my bidding, just as she did."

"Never!" Sitara reached again for her gift, and this time she connected with the power of darkness. She drank in its filth greedily and focused the power on Masego.

As she drew in her will to strike at him, every bone in her body burst into agony. Sitara screamed and writhed on the floor, but still tried to direct an attack against Masego.

The pain intensified until it felt like her bones were burning. The horrifying feeling of darkness worming through her body commenced again, and it felt like the worms of dark magic were crawling toward her mind.

She couldn't hold her will any longer. Her power bled away and she tore at her chest and throat with her fingers until blood ran freely. As madness yawned before her, she yearned for death to stop the agony.

Then the pain stopped.

Sitara sobbed, hugging herself. She couldn't feel anything, as if her skin had turned to ice.

Masego stood over her. "You cannot attack me, slave. You are mine, body and soul. Should you attempt to betray me, you will die before you can speak my name."

Sitara looked up at Masego through her tears and managed to ask, "What do you want from me."

"Everything."

He leaned over her. "Know this. Should you attempt to betray me, or should you fail me again, you will die. It won't be a quick or an easy death. You have tasted a fraction of the pain you'll suffer before I release you to the eternal worlds."

What could she say? She had failed, so completely she couldn't yet grasp the magnitude of what had just happened to her. She cast her thoughts wide, trying to figure out a way to escape this nightmare.

"Kevlin," said Masego.

"What?" Had he been reading her mind again?

Masego motioned for Sitara to rise. It took several tries before she managed to stand.

"We must take the man Kevlin. Through him we can obtain the stone. He must have it."

"How can you be so sure?"

"It has to be him. He is protected in a way I've never seen before. It can only mean he's somehow still important, even though he's no longer Steward."

"What are you going to do?"

She didn't want to kill Kevlin. Masego hadn't been reading her thoughts after all, but had he provided the answer unwittingly? He was right. Kevlin was the key. If she could win him, she could escape her slavery and defeat Masego. Kevlin could bring so many forces to bear for her, if she could but explain the truth to him.

"I'm going to teach you two new spells," Masego said, "and you, my slave, are going to take the man Kevlin."

"Why don't you take him?"

"Consider it a final test to prove your worth. Time is short. You have twenty-four hours to bring him to me."

"How can you demand this?" Masego had failed after days of planning. She needed more time to orchestrate Kevlin's conversion.

"I have no use for unprofitable servants. Do this for me, and you may yet win a seat of glory with me."

The arrogant fool. He imagined she would willingly obey? She would do what she had to, but she would bend her entire will tirelessly into efforts to bring him down.

"Now," he continued brusquely. "On to the lesson. Today I will teach you how to force your will onto another."

"Then I will teach you Rogue Fire."