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given by the wizard. His disdain for her all-but-useless abilities was evident, as he ascertained everything which she could not do. He made notes on a sheet of paper, perhaps planning for her lessons in the days to come. When the sheet was full, he turned it over and began again, scribbling on the backside and muttering to himself.
    "Shouldn't our first order of business be to identify that which we will be fighting?" she asked as Sian set the very full sheet of paper aside.
    "That would be helpful. How do you propose we accomplish that?"
    Ariana placed one hand on the table. Her fingers touched the colorful and elaborate inlay. "I have been studying this while you were interrogating me."
    Sian's eyebrows arched slightly at the word "interrogating," but he didn't respond.
    "It's difficult to tell until you know what this is, but what we have here on the table is a map."
    Sian grunted, and the sound seemed to be affirmative. Perhaps he could now see what she had discovered as she'd stared at the table. "I understand that at one time Emperor Sebestyen concocted battle plans for his generals using this very table."
    Sian cocked his head to one side and studied the inlay. Precious and semiprecious stones were set here and there in colorful polished marble. Tryfyn was green stone; the land of the Anwyn was in gray, as was all the unexplored land beyond the known borders. Columbyana was represented in a soft pink, with cities and lakes and rivers marked in other stones of varying colors. It was quite beautiful.
    "Who told you that tale? A smitten sentinel?"
    Ariana smiled. "A smitten grandfather. Maddox Sulyen was once Sebestyen's Minister of Defense."
    "Until he joined Arik in the revolution," Sian said. "Sulyen is your grandfather?"
    "Yes. His fighting days are behind him, of course. He's well and married and lives near my parents. Before I came here, he told me many secrets about this palace. He told me to look for this table if I had the chance. He found it quite beautiful. A work of art, he said."
    "It is a fine work of art," Sian agreed sharply. "How does it help us in our work?"
    "This is the palace." She pointed to a red gem near the center of the map.
    "I see," he responded, his voice low as usual.
    "All evening, I have been thinking about what you said. The plague, the emperor's illness, the… other incidents." Even though war was coming, according to the wizard, she could not bring herself to speak about a mother killing her children or a husband eating his wife's heart. "I did of course hear about those incidents when they occurred. The emperor is informed regularly of the happenings in his country, and in the past several months I have been spending more and more time in his company."
    "As he grows more infirm," Sian added unnecessarily.
    "Yes." Ariana pointed to the palace, and then drew her finger out along a thin road that headed almost straight north. "Here is the village where the plague killed everyone and then vanished." Her finger returned to the gem that indicated the location of the palace where she and Sian now worked. Again, it trailed along a road—south, this time. "It was here that the man murdered his wife so violently." She did not feel the need to say more as once again her fingertip returned to the palace. "The woman who… the mother…" Again, she traced a road east and stopped. "Here."
    She had Sian's full attention. "They are an equal distance from the palace, though in diverse directions."
    "Yes. And all three incidents occurred at about the same time, not long after Prince Ciro disappeared and Emperor Arik fell ill. I'm going to imagine that whatever it is I'm meant to fight, it started somewhere and grew. A darkness creeping, your grandfather called it."
    "Yes."
    Ariana once again placed her fingertip on the red gem that marked the location of the palace. "I think it started here."
     
    Fynnian sat back in his favorite chair and watched the boy, as he did most evenings. Ciro favored his