Aradia squeezed her hand again. "I believe you,"she said gently.
"So, you're some kind of bigwig of the witches,huh?" Jeanne said.
Aradia turned toward her and laughed. "I'm theirMaiden, the representative of the young witches. If I live long enough, I'll be their Mother one day, and then their Crone."
"What fun. But with all that, you still can't thinkof any way to get us out of here?"
Aradia sobered. "I can't. I'm sorry. If-this isn'tmuch use, but if I can do anything, it's only to givea prophecy."
Maggie made an involuntary noise in her throat.
"It came while I was asleep in the healers hut,"Aradia said apologetically. "And it was just athought, a concept. That if there was to be any helpin this valley, it was through appealing to people's true hearts."
Jeanne made a much louder and ruder noisethan Maggie's.
"There is one more thing," Aradia said, turningher wide unfocused eyes toward Maggie and speaking as gently asever. "I should have mentioned thisearlier. I can tell you about your brother."
Chapter 18
Maggie stared at her wildly.
"You...what?"
"I shouldhave told you earlier," Aradia said. "ButI didn't realize he was your brother until my mind became clearer. You're a lot alike, but I couldn'tthink properly to put it together." She added,quickly and with terrible gentleness, "But, Maggie, I don't want to get your hopes up. I don't thinkthere's much chance he's all right."
Maggie went still. "Tell me."
"He actually saved me before you ever did. I wascoming to this valley, but I wasn't alone-therewere several other witches with me. We didn'tknow where the pass was exactly-we'd only man aged to get incomplete information from our spiesin Hunter Redfern's household."
Maggie controlled her breathing and nodded.
"It was Samhain evening-Halloween. We werewandering around in the general area of the pass,trying to find a spell that would reveal it. All wedid was set off an avalanche."
Maggie stopped breathing entirely. "An avalanche?"
"It didn't hurt your brother. He was on the road,the place we should have been, if we'd only known.But it did kill the others in my party."
"Oh,"Maggie whispered. "Oh, I'm sorry..."
"I wasn't seriously hurt, but I was completely dazed. I could feel that the others were dead, butI wasn't sure where I was anymore. And that waswhen I heard your brother shouting. He and Sylvia had heard the avalanche, of course, and they cameto see if anyone was caught in it."
"Miles would always stop to help people," Maggiesaid, still almost in a whisper. "Even if they only needed batteries or socks or things."
"I can't tell you how grateful I was to hear him.He saved my life, I'm sure-I would have wandered around dazed until I froze. And I was so happy torecognize that the girl with him was a witch ... "She grimaced.
"Huh," Jeanne said, but not unsympathetically."I bet that didn't last."
"She recognized me, too, immediately," Aradiasaid. "She knew what she had. A hostage to bargainwith all the other witches. And to buy credit withHunter Redfern. And of course, she knew that she could stop me from seeing Delos."
"All she cares about is power," Maggie said quietly. "I heard hertalking-it'sall about her, and how the witches have given her a bad deal becauseshe's not a Harman or something."
Aradia smiled very faintly. "I'm not a Harman byname, either. But all true witches are daughters of Hellewise Hearth-Woman-if they would just realize it." She shook her head slightly. "Sylvia was so excited about finding me that she couldn't resist explaining it all to your brother. And he ... wasn't happy."
"No," Maggie said, burning with such fierce pride that for a moment the cold cell seemed warm to her.
"She'd only told him before that she was taking him to some secret place where legends were stillalive. But now she told him the truth about theDark Kingdom, and how she wanted him to be apart of it. She told him that it could be theirstheir own private haven-after Delos left with Hunter Redfern. He could become a vampire orshapeshifter, whichever he liked better. They wouldboth be part of the Night World, and they couldrule here without any interference."
Maggie lifted her hands helplessly, waving themin agitation because she couldn't find words. How stupid could Sylvia be? Didn't she know Miles atall?
"Miles wouldn't care about any of that," she finally got out in a choked voice.
"He didn't. He told her so. And I knew right awaythat he was in trouble with her." Aradia sighed."But there was nothing I could do. Sylvia played it very cool until they got me down the mountain.She pretended all she cared about was getting meto a doctor and telling the rangers about my friends. But once we were in her apartment, everything changed."
"I remember her apartment," Maggie said slowly."The people there were weird."
"They were Night People," Aradia said. "And Sylvia's friends. As soon as we were inside she toldthem what to do. I was trying to explain to Miles,to see if we both could get away, but there weretoo many of them. He put himself in between meand them, Maggie. He said they'd have to kill himbefore getting to me."
Maggie's chest felt not so much tight now asswollen, like a drum barrel full of water. She couldfeel her heart thudding slowly inside, and the wayit echoed all through her.
She steadied her voice and said, "Did they killhim?"
"No. Not then. And maybe not ever-but that'sthe part that I don't know. All I know is that theyknocked him out, and then the two slave tradersarrived. Bern and Gavin. Sylvia had sent for them."