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  They were the earl’s personal guard, and each man was armed with a spear, a sword, and a small shield that was painted crimson with gold edging. The men turned and saw Lexi, Olyva, and Rafe, huddled on the ground, next to the edge of the roof. Lexi still had her dagger drawn, and Olyva picked up the spear that she had taken from the dead soldier Lexi had killed.

  “They’re out here,” one of the guards shouted back into the place, then they walked slowly toward the group.

  Lexi stood up slowly, resisting the urge to flee. She knew she could run away, climb down the palace walls, and escape into the city, but she refused to leave her friends. Besides, she thought to herself, if Tiberius was dead, she didn’t want to go on living.

  Then, to her surprise and utter relief, Tiberius hurried out onto the roof. He sprinted toward her, and she ran to him. He dashed past the guards, who merely grinned at him and watched as he caught up Lexi in his arms and spun her around.

  “You’re alive,” she said, laughing and crying at the same time.

  “Yes,” he said. “Alive and well. Are you all right?”

  “I’m fine, I’m fine,” she assured him.

  Her hand ran down his back, and she felt the hard lump of the Balestone that was lodged under his skin. He saw the question in her eyes but shook his head.

  “It’s okay, I’ll explain soon,” he told her. “Right now, I have to help Rafe.”

  “He said he thought he killed you,” Lexi said, taking Tiberius’ hand as they walked toward Olyva and Rafe.

  “He stabbed me, but he was under Brutas’ influence and the Balestone,” Tiberius said. “But Brutas isn’t a problem anymore.”

  “And the Balestone?” Lexi asked, almost afraid of the answer.

  “I have it,” Tiberius said, a dark look flashing in his eyes.

  “Are you still going to destroy it?” Lexi asked.

  “I don’t know,” Tiberius said, no longer looking Lexi in the eye. Then he whispered so that only she could hear him. “I don’t know if I can.”

  Chapter 33

  Tiberius

  He left his father just inside the Great Hall. Earl Ageus quickly took charge of the soldiers gathered in the huge room. Tiberius hurried upstairs to help Rafe. A half-dozen of the earl’s personal guard were already on their way up, and they had no issues with the sudden change of loyalty. Tiberius guessed that once the Balestone turned on Brutas, the enchantment he had over the soldiers broke, so only the few remaining soldiers of the king’s army who had come to Avondale with Brutas were still loyal to him.

  When Tiberius saw Lexi on the roof, he was so relieved. It made him happy to see that Lexi and Olyva had gone to Rafe’s aid. He might haver preferred for them to stay away from the palace and out of danger, but he also felt a swelling sense of pride. The members of the earl’s guard were loitering near the two dead soldiers that had obviously just been slain, and Tiberius knew that Lexi and Olyva had killed the soldiers to save Rafe. Not only that—they had pulled him up and gotten him safely on the rooftop.

  Tiberius hurried to his friend’s side. Rafe’s eyes were glassy with pain. He couldn’t sit up, and every breath hurt him. The blood was finally flowing into his legs again, and Tiberius knew they must be aching.

  “How is he?” Tiberius asked.

  “Not good,” Olyva said, her voice tight with worry. “It looks like they beat him.”

  “It’s … nothing,” Rafe said. “Help me … up.”

  “No,” Tiberius said. “Just lie still. Acies Intrinsecus Accipio Ceptum Sarcio Adiflictus Ossis.”

  The spell for healing broken bones stirred in the air around Tiberius, but he found he couldn’t control it. He should have been able to direct the magic easily, but it seemed to recoil from him. He could summon it, but he couldn’t focus it or apply it to anyone.

  “Damn!” he said.

  “What is it?” Lexi asked. “Are you okay?”

  “Is something wrong with Rafe?” Olyva added.

  “No, it’s me,” Tiberius said. “I can’t heal him.”

  “Why not?” Olyva asked.

  “It’s a long story, but basically Brutas fused the Balestone to me.”

  “The lump on your back?” Lexi asked.

  “Yes, it must be keeping the healing magic away from me.”

  “So you can’t help him?” Olyva asked.

  “I will be able to,” he assured her, then turned to Lexi. “But first you’re going to have to cut the Balestone out of me.”

  “Here, Rafe,” Olyva said, giving Rafe a pinch of the soft, brown growth from a patch on her arm. “This will help with the pain.”

  He took the pinch of woody growth and chewed it. In less than a minute, he was asleep. Tiberius had the guards fetch a stretcher to carry Rafe down on. Olyva stayed with Rafe while Tiberius and Lexi went back into the palace. They were met at the bottom of the grand staircase by a worried-looking Robere.

  “Master Tiberius,” the elderly servant said. “I’m so glad you’re alive.”

  “Me too,” Ti said. “How are you feeling?”

  “Much better thanks to you. I can help now. I want to help.”

  “Good,” Ti replied. “I need your help. Go and fetch a long pair of coal tongs and meet us in my old room.”

  “Sir?” Robere asked.

  “Look, I don’t really have time to explain everything. There’s a stone in my back that must be removed. You can’t touch it with your hands, so get some tongs.”

  “I could get a healer,” Robere argued.

  “No,” Tiberius said. “Just the tongs and meet us in my old room.”

  “Of course,” Robere said with a bow.

  Tiberius watched him hurry away and was surprised to see that there was a spring in his step. He couldn’t remember the last time he had seen his old servant moving so quickly.

  “Tell me what happened,” Lexi said.

  “Brutas had some kind of enchantment over whoever heard his voice,” Tiberius began. “We made our way to the Great Hall, but then Brutas confronted us. He ordered his men to stop me, and I didn’t even fathom that the soldiers with Rafe and me might turn on us. I was distracted by the king’s soldiers, and Rafe stabbed me from behind. I was out of it for a while, and when I woke up, Brutas was waiting for me. I tried to heal the wound, but before I could, Brutas thrust the Balestone into my back. He was trying to hurt me, but he hurt himself instead. The stone must have turned on him. It burned his hand terribly but healed my back, sealing itself inside.”

  “The rock did that on its own?” Lexi asked.

  “Yes,” Tiberius explained. “It’s full of terrible beings. I can hear their tortured moans and screams in my head. They keep trying to seduce me into hurting people.”

  “Oh, Ti, that’s horrible.”

  “I know. I have to get it out.”

  “But shouldn’t we let someone do it that knows what they’re doing?” Lexi asked.

  “There isn’t anyone who knows about the Balestone,” Tiberius explained. “A healer could make the incision, but for all I know, the Balestone could fight back again. I don’t want you to touch it. Just cut my back and let Robere pull the stone out with the tongs.”

  “But won’t it hurt?” Lexi said.

  “Yes, but that can’t be helped.”

  “You could take some of Olyva’s herbs, like she gave to Rafe to ease his pain. Then we could cut it out while you were sleeping.”

  “That’s a good idea,” Tiberius said. “But I want to be conscious. I’ll need to heal the wound as soon as the Balestone comes out.”

  Lexi nodded, but Tiberius could see that she was worried. He was nervous, too. The prospect of cutting something out of his body while he was awake and fully aware of the pain wasn’t something he was looking forward to. And he was afraid of how the Balestone might react to him, but he couldn’t let that keep him from getting rid of it. The Balestone had been distracting when it was wrapped in a cheesecloth and stowed in his saddle bag, but now that
it was in his body, he could feel the stone’s evil intent spreading through him like a disease. He wanted to be rid of the stone, forever.

  His old room was just as he had left it. Robere had made the bed and set out fresh clothes. There was water in a tall pitcher on the table and towels in the wash basin. Tiberius wanted to lie on the bed, but after thinking things through, he decided that sitting backward on one of the straight-backed wooden chairs would be the better option. His shirt was ripped and bloodstained. He took the soiled garment off, and Lexi washed the area she was about to cut open. Then they waited for Robere to return.

  To Tiberius, the wait was torturous. He just wanted to get the ordeal over with. Lexi tried to lighten the mood with small talk, but Tiberius had trouble keeping up with the conversation. His mind kept going back to seeing Lexi on the rooftop with the wig on. She had looked so much older, so refined. She could be the wife of an earl—for that matter, he thought, she could be a queen. Yet he hated seeing her in courtier garb. Lexi was a free spirit, not bound by the rules of etiquette or the current fads that seemed to change more often than the seasons. He loved that she knew who she was and what she wanted.

  “I’m glad you lost the wig,” he said.

  “You didn’t like it?” she said, acting as if she were hurt by his criticism.

  “I didn’t mean—” he started saying, but she giggled and kissed him.

  “I hated that thing,” she said. “I don’t care for the dress, either.”

  “Take it off,” Tiberius teased.

  “I doubt your man servant would approve,” she said in a mocking voice.

  Tiberius had only been teasing about Lexi’s dress, but he felt a sudden rush of desire. He wanted Lexi, but not simply to be with her—he wanted to dominate her, to subdue her and bend her to his will.

  “What?” she asked.

  “Nothing,” he said, forcing himself to look away from her. “Let’s just get this over with.”

  “Robere isn’t back with the tongs,” Lexi argued.

  “Then pry the damn thing out with your knife. Just get it out of me.”

  “Tiberius, what’s wrong?”

  “The Balestone wants me to do things,” Tiberius explained. “Horrible things. You have to get it out of me.”

  Just then the door opened, and Robere came in with a long pair of cast iron tongs. He was followed by the earl, who looked distressed.

  “Tiberius,” Earl Ageus said. “This is madness. I won’t let Robere cut something out of you.”

  “You don’t understand,” Tiberius said. “We have to get it out.”

  “You could die,” his father argued.

  “No,” Tiberius said. “I can heal the wound, but I have to get the Balestone out of me. I can’t do anything else until we get the stone out of my back.”

  “I don’t understand,” the earl complained.

  “Just do it, Lexi!” Tiberius said loudly.

  She stepped forward and used her Wangorian dagger. The blade cut through the skin and muscle easily. Tiberius had to grind his teeth so hard his jaw ached to keep from screaming. He arched his back when Lexi made the cut, then slumped onto the back of the chair, gasping for breath.

  “Master Tiberius,” Robere said, his voice shaking.

  “Give her the tongs,” Tiberius said through clenched teeth. “Hurry.”

  It felt to Tiberius as if Lexi had stabbed him with the tongs. She forced the cold metal into his back, which was torturous, but then the Balestone began to move. To Tiberius it felt as if the stone were trying to burrow further into his back.

  He screamed, but Lexi didn’t stop. Tiberius couldn’t see the look of fear and doubt on his father’s face, but he could hear Robere weeping. Then Lexi began pulling the Balestone out of him. The powerful stone didn’t want to budge. Tiberius screamed in pain again, his back arching and his body swaying back as Lexi pulled. Then Tiberius felt his father’s boot on his back, and Robere came around the chair to hold his shoulders. There was an excruciating wrench, then the pain subsided, and Tiberius passed out.

  Chapter 34

  Lexi

  Lexi felt the stone’s power pulsing up the metal tongs. It seemed to be calling to her. It was covered with blood, and she stared at it for a moment through her tears. Then she suddenly cast it across the room.

  “What’s wrong?” the earl asked her.

  “It’s evil. Don’t let anyone touch it,” she said. “Robere, get some water. We need to rouse Tiberius so he can heal the wound.”

  Robere poured water across Tiberius’ back, washing the blood away from the open wound. Lexi pressed one of the towels into the cut. She had made a clean, straight incision, but the tongs had torn the edges of his skin, and pulling the stone out had pulled muscle fibers out of the wound as well. It looked like raw meat and blood continued to seep steadily from the wound. The towel was turning red under Lexi’s hand.

  “Pour some over his head,” she told Robere. “We have to bring him around.”

  Robere poured the water gently over Tiberius’ head. He groaned and sputtered but didn’t wake up.

  “I’m sending for a healer,” Ageus said loudly, but Robere and Lexi ignored him.

  “More water,” Lexi said. “Splash it in his face.”

  Robere grimaced but slung water from the pitcher up into Ti’s face. He woke up with a gasp that turned into a groan.

  “Tiberius!” Lexi said loudly. “Tiberius, you have to heal your back. Do it now!”

  Tiberius’ head slumped down again, but his eyes were open. His mouth moved, forming the strange words of his spell, but no sound came out. Tears were springing from his eyes, and his breathing was ragged.

  Lexi waited for the spell to work, but after several minutes she began to worry. Her towel was soaked with blood, and when she lifted it, the wound seemed no better.

  “It’s not working,” Tiberius said. “The Balestone’s magic blocks my healing spell.”

  “What does that mean?” Lexi asked.

  “I can’t…” But Tiberius passed out again before he could finish speaking.

  “What do we do?” Robere said.

  “We have to stop the bleeding,” Lexi said. A tremor of fear made her voice shake.

  The door to the room swung open again, and Earl Ageus stepped in, followed by two healers. Lexi looked away from the earl’s angry gaze.

  “Lord, we need help,” Robere said. “Master Tiberius is too weak to work his magic.”

  At the word magic, both of the healers looked terrified, but Earl Ageus ignored them.

  “Has he come to at all?” he demanded.

  “For a moment,” Lexi said. “He tried to heal it but said he couldn’t.”

  The earl turned to the healers. “Well? What are you waiting for? Do something.”

  The men hurried forward and quickly examined the wound. Then one went hurrying back out.

  “Where’s he going?” the earl asked.

  “We have to cauterize the wound, my lord,” the healer said. “To stop the bleeding.”

  “Then what?” Lexi asked.

  “We’ll have to stitch the muscle back together and then close the wound,” he explained.

  In the time it took the other healer to return, the first healer probed Tiberius’ wound with his fingers. The other healer, a plump man with a thick gray beard, returned with a brazier, what looked like metal poker that would be used to move logs around in any fireplace, and a bottle of clear liquid.

  Lexi could feel the heat coming from the brazier and she felt a sense of revulsion as she realized what the healers were about to do. They were going to burn Tiberius to stop the bleeding. She couldn’t stand the thought of such a torturous treatment. She had grown accustomed to Tiberius being able to heal people so effortlessly.

  “Wait!” she said. “He can heal himself. We just need to wake him.”

  “I thought you tried that,” Earl Ageus said.

  “We did, but he has to try again. Please.”


  “Fine—Robere, wake him,” the earl commanded.

  Robere patted Tiberius’ face with a wet hand. Ti’s eyes fluttered open, and Lexi knelt down in front of him.

  “Tiberius,” she said gently. “You have to wake up and heal your back.”

  “Can’t,” he managed to say.

  “You have to,” Lexi urged him. “The healers are here—they want to cauterize your wound. You have to heal it. Do you understand me?”

  Tiberius’ blinked slowly, then slumped forward.

  “He’s losing too much blood, my lord,” said the first healer.

  “Do what you have to,” the earl said.

  “No!” Lexi shouted.

  “Stand aside, woman, or I’ll have you removed,” the earl growled.

  The first healer poured some of the clear liquid onto Tiberius’ back. Lexi could smell the astringent twang of strong spirits. She guessed that the clear liquid had been distilled for just such a purpose. The metal poker had been nestled in the coals as soon as the brazier had been brought into the room. Lexi felt sweat break out all over her body when the gray bearded man pulled the iron from the coals, revealing the glowing red tip.

  The first healer stood up, took the poker, and carefully inserted it into Tiberius’ back. The sound of sizzling flesh was almost immediately joined by the stench that billowed out of the wound. Tiberius woke up screaming in complete agony. Tears flooded Lexi’s eyes, and she turned away. She could see the earl watching; the muscles in his jaw were flexed, but otherwise his face was completely impassive.

  Once the healers had the wound cauterized, they began stitching the muscle back together. Tiberius had passed out from the pain again and so was mercifully unaware of the surgery taking place. When the wound was completely closed, the healers applied a thick bandage, wrapping it completely around Tiberius’ body. He was moved to the bed, and the healers left, along with Earl Ageus. Robere and Lexi sat near Tiberius’ bedside, waiting for him wake up.

  “He was sick once,” the elderly servant said. “The poor thing could hardly breathe. I had to keep him propped up on pillows. The healers brought in steaming cauldrons steeped with eucalyptus. It was the most stressful week of my life,” Robere said. “But he recovered. He was always stronger than people gave him credit for.”