second time by passageways that ran beneath the city and the
cliffs backing the old palace to the cellars beneath. Those pas-
sageways might still exist, giving us access to the ravine from
the palace side.”
Coil looked away wordlessly, disgust registering on his blocky
features. Cleariy, he had hoped for better than this from Dam-
son.
Par hesitated, then said carefully, “That all happened more
than four hundred years ago. I had forgotten about those pas-
sageways completely-even telling the stories as often as I do.”
He hesitated again. “Do you know anything about them-where
they are, how to get into them, whether they can be traversed
anymore?”
Damson shook her head slowly, ignoring the deliberate lift of
Coil’s eyebrows. She said, “But I know someone who might. If
he will talk to us.” Then she met Coil’s gaze and held it. There
was a sudden softness in her face that surprised Par. “We all
have a right to make our own choices,” she said quietly.
Coil’s eyes seemed haunted. Par studied his brother momen-
tarily, debating whether to say anything to him, then turned
abruptly to Damson. “Will you take me to this person-
tonight?”
She stood up then, and both Valemen rose with her. She
looked small between them, almost delicate; but Par knew the
perception was a false one. She seemed to deliberate before
saying, “That depends. ‘You must first promise me something.
When you go back into the Pit, however you manage it, you will
take Coil and me with you.”
There was a stunned silence. It was hard to tell which of the
Valemen was more astonished. Damson gave them a moment
to recover, then said to Par, “I’m not giving you any choice in
the matter, I’m afraid. I cannot. You would feel compelled to
do the right thing and leave us both behind to keep us safe-
which would be exactly the wrong thing. You need us with you.’
The she turned to Coil. “And we need to be there. Coil.
Don’t you see? This won’t end, any of it, not Federation op-
pression or Shadowen evil or the sickness that infects all the
Lands, until someone makes it end. Par may have a chance to
do that. But we cannot let him try it alone. We have to do
whatever we can to help because this is our fight, too. We cannot
just sit back and wait for someone else to come along and help
us. No one will. If I’ve learned anything in this life, it’s that.”
She waited, looking from one to the other. Coil looked con-
fused, as if he thought there ought to be an obvious alternative
to his choices but couldn’t for the life of him recognize what it
was. He glanced briefly at Par and away again. Par had gone
blank, his gaze focused on the floor, his face devoid of expres-
sion.
“It is bad enough that I must go,” he said finally.
“Worse than bad,” Coil muttered.
Par ignored him, looking instead at Damson. “What if it
turns out that only I can go in? ”
Damson came up to him, took his hands in her own and
squeezed them. “That won’t happen. You know it won’t.” She
leaned up and kissed him softly. “Are we agreed?”
Par took a deep breath, and a frightening sense of inevitability
welled up inside him. Coil and Damson Rhee-he was risking
both their lives by going after the Sword. He was being stubborn
beyond reason, intractable to the point of foolhardiness; he was
letting himself be caught up in his own self-perceived needs and
ambitions. There was every reason to believe that his insistence
would kill them all.
Then give it up, he whispered fiercely to himself. Just walk
away.
But even as he thought it, he knew he wouldn’t.
“Agreed,” he said.
There was a brief silence. Coil looked up and shrugged.
“Agreed,” he echoed quietly.
Damson reached up to touch Par’s face, then stepped over to
Coil and hugged him. Par was more than a little surprised whsn
his brother hugged her back.
XXV
It was dusk on the following day when Padishar Creel and