Prisoner of Haven

  “I can’t say I thought this would ever happen,” Dez said, watching the two at the top of the hill. “First time you told me their story…” She shook her head. “Well, it wasn’t promising.”

  Usha smiled because what Dez said was meant to make her smile. She’d rather have walked in silence until it was time to make this next farewell.

  “Lady Usha,” Madoc said when they came to the top of the hill. “It’s time.”

  He bowed over her hand, a gallant in the guise of a down-at-the-heels mage. As though she were yet his patroness, he thanked her and told her he was ever at her service.

  Aline’s sweet homely face flushed with emotion. “Usha, I will miss you.”

  Usha took her hands and held them. Between the two something passed that had no words—a history of hope and sorrow and fear, and hope again.

  The parting with Dezra was one of comrades in arms, and after Dezra said to Usha, “Down and over the next hill, we’ll see home.”

  It was so—the chimneys standing proudly above the roof of the Inn of the Last Home. What would the place be like without Caramon? Usha glanced at Dez and saw her wondering.

  “We’ve been gone a long time,” Usha said.

  Dez nodded. “Not by the calendar, but a long time.”

  They went down the last rocky slope toward the town in the vallenwood, and when they could see the smoke rising from the chimneys, Usha said, “Dez, Loren’s right. It was past time he took a stand to save what he loves.”

  Dez waited, carefully quiet.

  “And it’s past time I took a stand. Palin and I have to talk. I don’t know how things will turn out for us. I don’t know whether all the wounds we’ve inflicted on our marriage can heal. But if we’re both running away, healing has no chance at all.”

  Her eyes on the inn, Dez said, “Do you love my brother?”

  “I won’t ask forgiveness for loving Loren, Dez. Not of you or anyone. But Palin and I…” She shook her head. “All that’s gone wrong between us couldn’t hurt so much if I didn’t love him. Right now, I can’t say more than that.”

  Dez looked down the road to the inn. Usha saw her thinking. She saw her struggle with something. Patiently, she waited, as she’d waited through the days and nights when Dezra fought in battles Usha could only imagine. As then, her patience was rewarded.

  “You don’t have to say more than that to me, Usha. When all the questions pour down on us about what went on in Haven, I’m backing anything you’d like to say. Now come home, sister. Our family is waiting.”

  When the city of Haven falls to the forces of a dragon overlord, Usha and Dezra Majere find themselves prisoners in a captive city. Unable to leave, the two women become entangled in the city's struggle for freedom.

  But as family loyalties old and new rise to the surface, the two women find that their greatest battle may be against each other. New enemies and unexpected alliances are forged from the most unlikely places, and Usha and Dezra will have to put their differences aside if they are to stand a chance against the dark forces set to destroy them all.