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“I see you know the consequences, Leonie,” said Callista. “Would that you had known them equally

well when I was made Keeper.”

Leonie ignored her, staring fixedly into Damon’s eyes.

“I will abide the ordeal and its penalties, Leonie,” Damon said, “but you do realize, Leonie, that you

invoke them on yourself and all of Arilinn, should you fail to conquer?”

She said, furiously, “I think we would all risk more than that, to punish the insolence of those who wouldbuild a forbidden Tower on our threshold!”

“
 
Enough
!” Lorill held out his hands to silence them. “I declare challenge and ordeal between Arilinn Tower and its Keeper, Leonie Hastur, and”—he hesitated a moment—“and the forbidden Tower, with him who stands self-proclaimed as its Keeper, Damon Ridenow. It shall begin at sunrise tomorrow.”

Leonie’s face was like stone. “I shall await the ordeal.”

“And I,” said Damon. “Until sunrise, Leonie.”

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He gave a hand to Ellemir, the other to Callista. Andrew paced one step behind them. Without lookingback, they left the Crystal Chamber.

Until sunrise. He had spoken bravely. But could they face Leonie, and all the forces of Arilinn?

They must, or die.

Chapter Twenty-two

«^»

Damon’s first act, when they returned to the Alton suite, was to fetch a telepathic damper and isolate

Dom
 
Esteban’s room behind it. He gently told Ferrika what he was doing.

“At sunrise there may be a… a telepathic disturbance,” he warned her, thinking how ridiculously inadequate the words were. “This will make certain he will not be drawn into it, for he is too weak for any such thing. I leave him in your care, Ferrika, I trust you.”

He found himself wishing he could isolate Ellemir too behind such a safe barrier, with her unborn baby. He told her this when he returned to the rooms they shared with Callista and Andrew, and she smiledwanly.

“Why, you are no better than the ladies of Comyn Council, my husband, feeling I must be shielded and excused because I am a woman, and bearing. Don’t you think I realize that we are all fighting together, for the right to live together and bring up our children to a better life than most Comyn sons and daughters can have? Do you think I want
 
him
 
”—she laid her hand, with that expressive gesture, on her pregnant body—“to face the crippling choice you faced, or Callista, or Leonie? Do you think I am unwilling to fight, as well as you?”

He held her close, realizing her intuition was sounder than his own. “My darling, all the Gods forbid Ishould be the one to deny you that right.”

But as they rejoined Callista and Andrew, he realized that the coming battle was more than life anddeath. If they lost—and survived—they would be worse than dead.

“It will be fought in the overworld,” he warned, “like the last battle with the Great Cat. We must all be very sure of ourselves, because only our own thoughts can defeat us.” Ellemir sent for food and wine and they dined together, trying to make it a festive occasion, forgetting they were strengthening themselves for the ordeal of their lives. Callista looked pale, but Damon was relieved to see that she ate heartily.

There were two of them Keeper-trained, he thought, Keeper-strong. But that also roused anuncomfortable thought. If they lost, it would be all the same, but if they won there was a matter stillunsettled.

“If we win,” he said, “I shall have won the right to work as I will with my chosen circle, then Ellemir as my wife, and Andrew as my sworn man, are beyond the reach of Council meddling. But you, Callista, you are close to the heirship of Comyn; nearer than you are only two children, and one is still unborn. Council will argue that my duty as regent of Alton is to have you married off to some suitable man, someone of Comyn blood. A woman of your years, Callista, unless actually working in a Tower, is

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usually married.”

“I am married,” she flared at him.

“
 
Breda
, the marriage will not stand if anyone contests it. Do you really trust Council not to contest it?

Old
Dom
 
Gabriel of Ardais has already spoken to me about marrying you to his son Kyril—”

“Kyril Ardais?” Her nostrils flared in disdain. “I had as soon marry some bandit of the Hellers and be done with it! I have not spoken with him since he was a bully intimidating us all at children’s parties, but I do not suppose he has improved by aging!”

“Still, it is a marriage Council would approved. Or they might follow through on Father’s wish and give you, as he meant to give Ellemir, to Cathal. But marry you off they certainly will. You know the law about freemate marriage as well as I do, Callista.”

She did. Freemate marriage was legal upon consummation and could be annulled by act of Council, aslong as it was childless.

“Avarra’s mercy,” she said, looking around the table at them all, “this is worse than being put to bed in

the sight of. half the Domain of Alton, and I thought
 
that
 
was embarrassing!”

She laughed, but it was not a mirthful sound. Ellemir said gently, “Why do you think a woman is put tobed so publicly? So that all may see and know that the marriage is a legal fact. But in your case aquestion has been raised. I do not doubt Dezi has talked freely on the matter, damn him!”

“I doubt not he is already damned,” Damon said, “but the mischief is done.”

“Are you telling us,” Andrew said, laying his hand over Callista’s, and noting with dread that she drew it

away, with the old automatic reflex, “that Dezi’s taunt was true after all and our marriage is not lawful?”

Reluctantly Damon nodded. “While Domenic lived and
Dom
 
Esteban was healthy, no one wouldquestion what his daughters did, far away in the Kilghard Hills. But the situation has changed. The Domain is in the hands of a child and a dying man. Even if Callista were still Keeper, legally they couldnot force her to marry, but any persuasion short of force would be used. And since she has already givenback her oath, and publicly refused to return to Arilinn, her marriage is a legitimate concern of Council.”

“Have I no more rights in the matter than a horse led to the marketplace?” Callista demanded.

“Callie, I did not make the laws,” he said tenderly. “I will unmake some of them, if I can, but I cannot do

it overnight. The law is what it is.”

“Callista’s father agreed to give her to me,” Andrew said. “Does that decision have no legal merit?”

“But he is a dying man, Andrew. He may die tonight, and I am only warden of Alton under the Council, no more.” He looked deeply troubled. “Only if we could go to Council with an established marriage under the Law of Valeron—”

“What is
 
that
 
?” Andrew demanded, and Callista said tonelessly, “A woman of the Aillard Domain, from the plains of Valeron, won a Council decision which has served as a precedent ever since. Whether the marriage is freemate or otherwise, no woman can be separated unwilling from the father of her child. Damon means that if you could take me to bed—and preferably make me pregnant at once—we would

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have a way to contest the Council.” She made a face. “I do not want a child yet—still less do I want it at the bidding of Council like this, like a mare being taken to stud—but better that, than that I should marry someone chosen by Council for political reasons, and to bear
 
his
 
children.” She looked miserably from Damon to Andrew and said, “But you know that it is impossible.”

Damon said quietly, “No, Callista. This marriage, and you know it, stands or falls on whether you can gobefore Council tomorrow and swear that the marriage has been consummated.”

She cried out, trapped, terrified, “Do you want me to kill him this time?” and buried her face in herhands.

Damon came around the table, gently turned Callista to face him. “There is another way, Callista. No,look at me. Andrew and I are
 
bredin
 
. And I am stronger than you. You could hit me with everythingyou threw at Andrew, and more, and you could not hurt me!”

She turned away, sobbing, “If I must. If I must. But, oh, merciful Avarra, I wanted that to come in love,when I was ready, not in a battle to the death!”

There was a long silence, with only Callista’s stifled weeping. The sound tore at Andrew’s heart, but heknew he must trust Damon to find a way for them. At last Damon said quietly, “Then there is only oneway, Callista. Varzil told me that the answer for you was to free your mind from the imprint of years as Keeper on your body. I can free your mind, and your body will be freed, as it was in the winterblooming.”

“You told me that was only an illusion…” She faltered.

“I was wrong,” Damon said quietly. “I did not put everything together until a little while ago. I wish, for your sake, that you and Andrew had been able to trust your instincts. But now… I have some
 
kireseth
 
flowers, Callista.”

Her hands flew to her mouth in apprehension, terror, understanding. “It is taboo, forbidden to anyone

Tower-trained!”

“But,” Damon said, and his voice was very gentle, “
 
our
Tower does not live by the laws of Arilinn,
 
breda
 
, and I am not a Keeper by
 
those
 
laws. Why do you think it became taboo, Callista? Because, under the impact of the
 
kireseth
 
—as you have seen—even a Keeper could not retain her immunity to passion, desire, human need. It is a telepathic catalyst drug, but it is much, much more than that. After the training given to Keepers in the Towers, it is frightening, unthinkable, to admit that there is no
 
reason
 
for a Keeper to be chaste, except temporarily, for strenuous work. Certainly there is no need for such lifetime loneliness and withdrawal. The Towers have imposed cruel and needless laws on their Keepers, Callista, from the Ages of Chaos, when the Year’s End ritual was lost. I think it must have been at the time of Midsummer festival then. At our festival, all through the Domains, women are given flowers and fruit in commemoration of Cassilda’s gift to Hastur. but how is the Lady of the Domains always pictured? With the golden bell of
Kireseth
 
in her hands. This was the ancient ritual, so that a woman might work as Keeper in the matrix circles, with her channels clear, and then return to normal womanhood when she chose.”

He took her two hands in his. She tried, in the old, automatic way, to draw them away, but he held themfirmly in his own, controlling her. “Callista, have you the courage to turn your back on Arilinn andexplore, with us, a tradition which will allow you to be Keeper and woman at once?”

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He had struck the right note when he appealed to her courage. Together they had tested it to theoutermost limits. She bowed her head, consenting. But when he brought the
 
kireseth
 
flowers, folded intoa cloth, she hesitated, holding the bundle in her hands.

“I have broken every law of Arilinn save this. Now I am truly outcaste,” she said, near to tears again.

Damon said, “They have called us both renegades. I will not ask you to do anything I am not willing todo first, Callista.”

He took the cloth from her hand, unfolded it and raised it to his face, deeply inhaling the dizzying scent.

Fear rushed through him— the forbidden thing, the taboo— but he recalled Varzil’s words:

“This is why we instituted the old sacramental rite of Year’s End. You are her Keeper; it is for you to be

responsible.

Callista was white and shaking, but she took the
 
kireseth
 
from Damon’s hands, breathing in deeply. Damon meanwhile thought of the Arilinn circle, which would strike them at sunrise. Was he making atragic mistake?

During his years there, when serious work was contemplated any kind of stress was prohibited, anythinglike sexual contact above all.
 
They
 
would spend this night in solitary concentration, preparing for thebattle ahead of them.