The curtain over the broken door swished aside and Kate turned her face to the wall of the chamber. On his last visit, the old man had removed his veil and the grotesque sight of blue veins pulsing in the ragged craters where patches of his wrinkled skin had eroded away turned her stomach. When she had looked into his cold blue eyes, his intense stare made her skin crawl.

"Ah, Kate, I see you are still angry at me for causing you pain," he said as he drew near. "I would tell you I am sorry, but that would be untrue, for if I had not hurt you, Corvan would not have agreed bring me the scepter and you would have died for no reason. It was necessary to be cruel to save your life, Kate. Perhaps you will thank me later."

The sound of his loose teeth clicking together sent an involuntary shiver through her. Maybe, if she refused to talk to him, he would go inside the curtain and leave her alone.

"I must say it is good to have someone here who fully understands the fear of dying, even at such a young age." He walked around the table, and Kate closed her eyes. "And you are afraid of death, aren't you Kate?"

She lay still, trying to push his words away, but it was no use. Although she had thought about dying in the past, it seemed that death itself had joined her in chamber, draining her remaining energy away, and replacing it with a terrifying, intimate sense that her time was quickly running out.

The old man stopped in front of her and leaned closer. "But you don't need to die, Kate," he said quietly. "If Corvan will do as I have asked, I will set you free. Afterall, you do not belong here in the Cor and even if you did have a place among our people, your kind have no place in the chamber."

Kate had heard those same words about not belonging many times in her life but down here it was true, for she was not connected to the Cor in any way.

A clammy hand patted her cheek and she stiffened, resisting the urge to pull away. It would likely only make him angry again.

"I must say that the first time you arrived, I was quite surprised to see you in the chamber, wearing a medallion as we no longer accept females to be part of the council. They are not permitted to be here anymore. I made sure of that a long time ago."

Kate opened her eyes but looked past him to the nearest anteroom door and the small black curtain tied over its darkened star. If he was so willing to talk it would be best to see what information he would share. I could come in useful later on. "Why did you do that?" she asked.

He snorted out a partial laugh. "Because women do not belong in a place of power; never have and never will. You see things differently than the men and your sex are easily confused by the complexity of the decisions that must be made here in the council chamber. In days gone by, the women on the council would claim that they could see subtle differences in how some of the men were dressed but the rest of us couldn't make out what they were talking about. It was nonsense and obvious that the women lacked the ability to comprehend that there are subtleties in how we men present ourselves that must be respected. Some things are better left unsaid, but the women would not fall into line as we asked. They kept pressing the point and would not let it go."

He sat on the stool in front of her blocking her view and forcing her to look into his eyes. The blue lines running like icy cracks on winter pond grew even more pronounced as he squinted at her, then spoke. "That was when I decided to remove all the women from the council. One by one I returned the rulership of our cities to the men of the Cor." He smiled proudly, black teeth glinting in the light of the medallion hanging on his chest. "The last woman," he pointed to the door that had not yet opened, "was the most difficult one to eliminate, so I made sure she would never return. When her position was not filled, her city was lost, and the council began to crumble. It fit my plans so well, don't you agree?" He grinned at her in self-satisfaction.

Kate did not move or reply, and his smile vanished. "What are you thinking Kate. Talk to me. I would be interested in how you view all of this. It's been a long time since I have had a good talk with another person."

Kate thought a moment before responding. "You talk about how you beat everyone and won, but it looks to me like you are the one who lost everyone and everything. I think you are much closer to dying than I am."

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His thin lips curled into a snarl. "Only because those I trusted the most betrayed me. My closest allies and my own family. There is no one left I can trust, including your precious Corvan. Speaking of which, do you know where he is?"

Kate turned her attention to the ceiling overhead.

"Talk to me," he spit out the command. "Where is Corvan taking your body?"

Ignoring his question, Kate studied the ceiling of the chamber. It had only been since she was forced to lay on the table that she had noticed the ceiling was not a dome but rather seven intersecting panels of rock that converged into the familiar seven-sided intertwined design in the center, much like the arrangement of the interwoven web around the medallion. Also, whenever the old man used the medallion against her, the pattern in the ceiling would come to life around its edges. Was using up the medallion's power also how he was tracking Corvan's location? If so, why would he be asking her where Corvan was right now if he already knew? Unless, of course, he was using her sense of Corvan to avoid using the medallion's energy. She needed to keep her wits about her and find out as much as she could before Corvan returned with the scepter. She doubted the old actually intended to let her leave the chamber, especially since had just admitted to murdering the woman who would have used the yet unopened chamber door.

"I asked you a question!" the man snapped, sending a spray of spittle into the air over Kate.

Without turning to him, Kate pointed overhead. "You said you are connected through the medallions, so you already know where he is."

"Don't repeat what I said. I am aware he is on the far side of Kadir, somewhere near the edge of the Cor but I have lost my connection to him and the person he travels with."

"But can't you hear what they are saying?" Kate kept her tone even, hoping to find out more about how the linked medallions worked.

He stood to his feet and walk around the table. "He is close to the Cor shield. Someone else is helping him carry your body, and I have heard Corvan ask them questions, but I can't hear them responding to him, so I am not sure who it is. I can tell you this for certain, Corvan had better not be planning to double-cross me. That would be unfortunate for you. Make sure you tell that if he contacts you."

"Why don't you contact him directly?"

"Use your head, Kate! Obviously, it's because I don't want to use up the power you stored in my medallion. I need to save it for later in case there is further complications and others of your sex arrive in the chamber. It's always more difficult working to control the women."

Kate stole a quick glance at the man. His smoldering gaze was fixed on the anteroom door where Corvan had last appeared, and he was biting on his lower lip. The man was concerned about others coming to the chamber. That was why he had covered the star-shaped peepholes. There were limits to his power and if Corvan contacted her she would let him know that the old man's ability to track him was growing weaker. She took another look at him, and the blue-veined eyes caught her own and bored into her.

"You know this boy better than anyone and you care deeply for him, otherwise you would not still want to help him, despite what he has done to you. Do you believe he will obey me and bring me the scepter, or will he seek for other medallion bearers to help him find the way to this chamber in order to rescue you?"

His voice was growing more intense, and Kate looked overhead at the lines of the medallion in the ceiling. Thankfully they remained dark.

"Answer me." The old man snapped.

The chamber fell silent expect for his shallow breaths. Why should she set the old man's heart at ease? Let him worry and make more mistakes. "Corvan is very smart," she said, "but he is also stubborn. I'm not always sure what he is going to do next."

The old man's hand slapped the table next to Kate's head and her head twisted to look into his blue-shot eyes. "You'd better warn him to follow my instructions, or you will feel greater pain than ever before." He brought out the medallion, wrapped his bony black hands around it gave it a squeeze.

A shaft of searing heat ripped through Kate. "Please, stop," she gasped, but the old man only stared at her and squeezed the medallion again. "Okay, I will talk to him," Kate groaned."

"Good girl." A shaky hand rested on her head. "Now we will wait for him to respond." Breathing hard, he turned away from her. "Remember that if you call for me and I do not answer right away, call me again. You must not leave the chamber. This is the only place your spirit can live without a connection to your body so you must not leave here. Do you understand me?"

Kate nodded and closed her eyes. The note of desperation in the quavering voice betrayed his worry, or his lie. She listened carefully until the curtain fell back into position over the broken door.

Kate lay still and tried to sense anything that might indicate that Corvan was coming to her, but the chamber was quiet. As the pain ebbed away, invasive fingers of death probed her once more. When the old man used the medallion against her it was her life, he was squeezing out of it. That's why it hurt so much and left her more vulnerable. When the medallion was wrung dry, her defense against death would be gone.

She could only that Corvan was already out of the Cor and had not heard her call out. There was no point in his coming back to the chamber without the scepter. The old man would continue to use the medallion's power on her to force Corvan's hand.

She was as good as dead already.

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