And saw the lance coming just before it piercecSylvia's heart.
Then,as if everything came into focus at once
she realized what Hunter had been shouting in i
voice so distorted it was barely recognizable. "Kill her! Kill her!" And that's just what they'd done, Maggie thoughther mind oddly clear, evenasa wave of horror andpity seemed to engulf her body. The lance wen right through Sylvia. It knocked her backwardaway from Delos, and blood spurted all over thefront of Sylvia's beautiful green dress.
And Sylvia looked toward Hunter Redfern andsmiled. This time Maggie could read the words orher lips.
"Too late."
Delos turned. There was red blood on his whiteshirthis own, Maggie realized. He'd tried to getin the way of the guard's killing Sylvia. But nowhe had eyes only for his greatgrandfather.
"It stops here!"
She had seen the blue fire before, but never likethis. The blast was like a nuclear explosion. Itstruck where Hunter Redfern was standing with hismost loyal nobles around him, and then it shot upinto the sky in a pillar of electric blue. And it wenton and on, from sky to earth and back again, as ifthe sun were falling in front of the castle.
Chapter 20
Maggie held Sylvia gently. Or at least, she knelt by her and tried to hold herasbest she could without disturbing the piece of broken spear that wasstill lodged in Sylvia's body.
It was all over. Where Hunter Redfern and hismost trusted nobles had been, there was a large scorched crater in the earth. Maggie vaguely recalled seeing a few people running for the hillsGavin the slave trader had been among them. But Hunter hadn't been one of them. He had been at ground zero when the blue fire struck, and nowthere wasn't even a wisp of red hair to show thathe had existed.
Except for Delos, there weren't any Night Peopleleft in the courtyard atall.
The slaves were just barely peeking out againfrom their huts.
"It's all right," Jeanne was yelling. "Yeah, youheard me it's all right!Delos isn't dangerous. Notto us, anyway. Come on, you, get out of therewhat are you doing hiding behind that pig?"
"She's good at this," a grim voice murmured.
Maggie looked up and saw a tall, gaunt figure,with a very small girl clasped to her side.
"Laundress!" she said. "Oh, and PJ.-I'm so glad you're all right. But, Laundress, please... ."
The healing woman knelt. But even as she did, alook passed between her and Sylvia. Sylvia's facewas a strange, chalky color, with shadows thatlooked like bruises under her eyes. There was alittle blood at the corner of her mouth.
"It's no good," she said thickly.
"She's right," Laundress said bluntly. "There'snothing you can do to help this one, Deliverer, andnothing I can do, either."
"I'm not anybody's Deliverer," Maggie said. Tearsprickled behind her eyes.
"You could have fooled me," Laundress said, andgot up again. "I see you sitting here, and I see allthe slaves over there, free. You came and it happened-the prophecies were fulfilled. If you didn'tdo it, it's a strange coincidence."
The look in her dark eyes, although as unsentimental as ever, made Maggie's cheeks burn suddenly. She looked back down at Sylvia.
"But she's the one who saved us," she said, hardlyaware that she was speaking out loud. "She deserves some kind of dignity...."
"She's not the only one who saved us," a voicesaid quietly, and Maggie looked up gratefully atDelos.
"No, you did, too."
"That's not what I meant," he said, and kneltwhere Laundress had. One of his hands touched Maggie's shoulder lightly, but the other one wentto Sylvia's.
"There's only one thing I can do to help you," hesaid. "Do you want it?"
"To become a vampire?" Sylvia's head movedslightly in a negative. "No. And since there's woodnext to my heart right now, I don't think it would work anyway."
Maggie gulped and looked at the spear, whichhad cracked in the confusion when the guards ran. "We could take it out - !"
I wouldn't live through it. Give up for once, will you?" Sylvia's head moved slightly again in disgust. Maggie had to admire her, even dying, she still hadthe strength to be nasty. Witches were tough.
"Listen," Sylvia said, staring at her. "There'ssomething I want to tell you." She drew a painfulbreath.
"About your brother."
Maggie swallowed, braced to hear the terrible details "Yes."
"It really bugged me, you know? I would put on my nicest clothes, do my hair, we would go out ...and then he'd talk about you."
Maggie blinked, utterly nonplussed. This wasn't at all what she had expected. "He would?"
"About his sister.How brave she was. How smartshe was. How stubborn she was."
Maggie kept blinking. She'd heard Miles accuse her of lots of things, but never of being smart. Shefelt her eyelids prickle again and her throat swellpainfully.
"He couldn't stand to hear a bad word about you," Sylvia was saying. Her purple-shadowed eyes narrowed suddenly, the color of bittersweet nightshade. "And I hated you for that. But him ... I liked him."
Her voice was getting much weaker. Aradia knelton her other side and touched the shimmering silvery hair.
"You don't have long," she said quietly, as if giving a warning.
Sylvia's eyes blinked once, as if to say she understood. Then she turned her eyes on Maggie.
"I told Delos I killed him," she whispered."But ...I lied."
Maggie felt her eyes fly open. Then all at onceher heart was beating so hard that it shook herentire body.
"You didn'tkill him? He's alive?"
"I wanted to punish him... but I wanted himnear me, too...."