Warrior Rising - By Pamela Palmer Page 0,4

to touch a human, a non-Sitheen, to learn all the things humans knew.

Her captor touched the small gray rectangle repeatedly with his thumb, then scowled. "Phone's dead," he muttered. "The battery was designed to last, which means the magic probably fried it."

He took the Marceil by the hand as he met Ilaria's gaze. "Let's get moving and I'll explain as we walk. If we don't find shelter soon, we're going to freeze to death." He grunted. "I'm going to freeze to death." He was the only one of the three who wasn't, from a human standpoint, immortal.

Without a second glance, the pair started off, leaving Ilaria standing in the snow. Rescued, he'd said. She hurried to catch up. "Why did you rescue me?" she demanded.

The man glanced back at her. "Were you the one who sealed the gates?"

She could deny it, but the very fact that he'd gone to such lengths to free her made it clear he already knew the answer.

"You wish me to seal them again?"

He nodded. "We have the seven stones."

She nearly stumbled with surprise. They had them all, the six stones of Orisis and her own draggon stone. Astonishing, considering the number of human lifetimes that had passed. Hope bloomed within her. Stopping Rith might not be so difficult after all.

"You'll return the stones to me, of course."

He met her gaze, something hard entering his eyes. "We need your help, Princess, but you'll forgive us if we have a hard time trusting the Esri. Any Esri. When we're certain you mean to seal the gates, we'll let you have the stones to do it. Until then, they'll remain hidden."

Her jaw compressed, anger sparking inside her. The only reason the humans had the stones was because she'd given them to them. They were hers, not theirs.

But the gleam of steel she glimpsed in the man's eyes told her that no show of temper was likely to get her what she wanted.

Trust. She was going to have to win his trust. Which would take time she might not have.

With effort, she quieted her angry tongue. "Where are we?"

"I wish I knew. If I had to guess, I'd say northern Europe. Maybe Canada. It's damn cold, wherever it is."

"If you don't know where we are, I assume that means the stones are a distance away?"

"They're with my friends back in D.C. And the one thing I'm sure of is we're not anywhere near D.C."

"What is Dee Cee?"

"Washington, D.C. In the U.S." He glanced at her and grimaced. "Hell, you don't have any idea what I'm talking about, do you?"

"I do not."

"It doesn't matter. That's where we're going."

She could ask for nothing more. "If I'm not your prisoner, then untie me, human. Walking with my hands behind my back is tedious."

"It's Charlie, not human, and this is Tarrys." His voice softened, filling with a soft wonder as he glanced at the Marceil. "My soon-to-be wife." He turned back to Ilaria, his expression hardening again. "As I'm sure you've noticed, I have a death mark or two."

"You fear I'll take your life." Esri, linked as they were, knew at once when one of their own had been killed, and by whose hand. Through the magic of their world, the killer acquired a death mark that all Esri could sense and follow. And upon which every Esri had long ago been ordered to act.

No mere human would acquire such a mark. Only a Sitheen.

"It crossed my mind," Charlie said. "It's a compulsion, isn't it? To kill those with a death mark?"

"A compulsion? No. It was a law enacted eons ago. A law I've broken more than once and have no qualms about breaking again. I don't take life unless it's absolutely necessary."

"Admirable." But the way he said the word told her he doubted her sincerity.

"Is Dee Cee where the unsealed gate came through?"

"Yes."

"How many full moons will it take us to reach it?"

A hint of amusement crinkled the corners of the human's - Charlie's - eyes. "Once I get a hold of my brother, we should be back there in a day. Two at the most."

Ilaria frowned. "How can you know that if you don't know where we are? I've been in the human realm, Charlie. I have some sense of its vastness."

"Things have changed since you were here last, Princess. With a little cash, we can get anywhere in the world in a couple of days now."

She stared at him, startled. "Humans have acquired magic."

Charlie's smile flashed white in the moonlight.