There was no time to read the book, or even to think. There was only time to throw her will into the Symbol of Wholeness – the single symbol that lay at the centre of and dominant over all the others – and to fling it towards the raven-haired boy.

She felt it snag against the threads of magic flowing into his outstretched hands, and then join with them. With a dizzy, rushing lurch she suddenly saw.

She was outside the tower and above it, watching as wave after wave of flesh wolves and the dog-ape creatures descended on the main doors, only to be pushed back by washes of green and purple and gold possibility wielded by Dedora from the top of the steps. For a moment she saw little Aniela's delight, and heard her whisper, "There," as she pointed towards a single nightmare drifting across the cobbles and towards the doors.

And she was in the garden at the tower's summit, above and amongst Ruidic and Ma and the Queen; she saw Ma lift her head as Ruidic bent down over her, his stormy eyes over-flowing; and she saw Afi, a shimmering blue form where her spell still hid him from sight, his arm around the Queen's neck and his knife at her throat.

But she was also on the ground next to Captain Roschan, seeing every drop of sweat that swung out of his soaking hair he drove his spear into the flesh of one of the dog-like apes and then swung to meet another. And she was in a room full of desks and books, watching a group of terrified men in robes huddle together in counsel.

And she was high up in the tower where a ragged hole had been torn in the magicked stones, allowing a swarm of Evanescents and Nightmares to float into its undefended corridors. And she was on the ground near the base of the tower, feeling the heat of spells of fire fly past her at the hands of three men wreathed in pulsing green magic.

And more than that, she was part of the very fabric of the tower, twined around its stones and its rooms, feeling it within her own body as it shook with blasts of magic. She could feel it groaning, and straining, weak and brittle as it stood against the onslaught of cold magic.

You aren't going to stop me, she heard, and when she searched in her mind for the source of the words, she found them in a translucent form of the raven-haired boy. He stood below that great statue in the vast chamber of hills and grass, and she stood in front of him.

They've hurt me and used me, he said, his eyes large and wounded. Now I'm the one hurting them.

She felt as if her own hands were being used against her, and she saw it as a blast of power struck out at Roschan and his men. She screamed as they vanished behind it, and she pulled against it with all her might.

The wave of magic winked out, but Grace could feel her real body sweating with the effort of holding it in. Her shadow self, standing in front of the statue, watched the boy's face grow petulantly angry.

Stop it! he shouted, and she felt power shove at her instead this time, and she pushed back against it.

We're both holding it, she thought. We're both holding the link. I just have to be the stronger one...

She drew possibility to herself, though it was harder than it had ever been. It was like dragging herself along by her fingers, and it hurt somewhere deep in her chest.

What are you doing? he asked, and she realised that he could feel her clawing at the power. His pale blue eyes were wary, but they were also furious. What are you doing?

She needed the right symbol. Wholeness had drawn her into the bond, so how to drive him out of it?

The Symbol of Breaking, she thought. It's in the book.

But she was here, standing in shadow-form before the statue, and she was also fragmented throughout the tower. She needed to be there, where the book was.

I felt myself sweat, she thought. I'm still standing up there in the flesh, in the room with the boys. I just need to send my mind back there and use my own eyes.

She might never have done it if a bead of the sweat hadn't rolled down her back. The shock of it threw her right back into her own body, and with a dizzy feeling she looked around at the sleeping boys, and then back at the raven-haired one.

His head was lowered, now, and his eyes were closed in concentration. His triumphant stance had vanished now that he was fighting her for that power. She could feel him clawing back at it, trying to draw back the force she had taken from him.

Trying to hold it with part of her mind, she put her hand to the sewing-bag and pulled the book out. It was like trying to read whilst walking, but she found the page, and found the symbol: a broken circle with a jagged line drawn through it.

It was almost as hard to hold that symbol in her mind as it had been to draw the power towards her. Every time she almost had it, she felt him clutch at another part of the possibility she held, and it slipped from her mind.

Come on, Grace! she shouted at herself. Forget him for a minute and focus!

With a deep breath, she managed to draw it in her mind, and it stood there in clear blue across her vision as she felt for the power to send it at him.

But he must have sensed her moment of weakness. With a vicious tug, she felt control wrenched away from her, and suddenly she was just Grace, standing alone again, watching the web of power flow into him.

The Symbol faded and died as she watched him, full of horror at what he must be doing with the power. She saw his face draw up into a smile, and she thought of the Cold Mage she had faced, and of Afi with his knife to the Queen's throat.

"Fine," she said, aloud. "We'll do it my way instead."

She took four steps over to him, drawing the Symbol of Breaking back into her mind as she went, and then kicked him in the stomach with the full force of three years' training.

She didn't wait for him to fall. She threw all the might of her power behind that symbol and felt it deep within her as the link broke with a resonating snap.

And now wholeness, she thought, and before the threads of power could snake away, she caught them up, gathering them into her mind, until she was everywhere again, feeling each and every stone of this place, and seeing every person fighting and struggling. But now she could act as well as see.

She drove her power at the wolves and dog-creatures at the doors, first, adding to a rain of icicles that Dedora was lacerating them with. It should have been difficult to avoid the men and women in Palace scarlet, but it seemed like the easiest thing in the world to make her magic dance around them.

And while she did it, she looked down at the dark-haired boy, his pale blue eyes closed while he lay curled up and coughing, and she felt a rush of pity for him. But she still knew that she had to bind him somehow, and she turned her mind towards Afi and said, silently, I'm with the boys and could use a little brute force, and maybe a fane stone or two.

She saw him tense in surprise and then nod. There was the slightest twist of a smile to his mouth as he said, "So you're in charge now, I guess?"

Looks like it, she told him. He drew his arm away from the Queen's throat, and she formed herself a hand out of shadow and tried to brush it against his shoulder. But she met something hard and unyielding.

Fane stones, she said, nodding, and bent her shadow self down to look at the little black shapes in the grass. They won't let this version of me through. But you can cross it and stay invisible. There's more to these things than I thought, she said, and then she shook her head. How did you think of using them?

"Sheer genius," he said. "And you thought I was some poor, stupid country-boy."

A poor, stupid country-boy with muscles, she answered, and he laughed as he began to jog away over the grass. I'll tell Ruidic and Ma to deal with the Queen, she added.

It was strange how she could see them even while she watched Afi run towards the intention wind disc. She could in fact see them, and Afi, and also the fight outside the Palace and direct her magic towards it; and with no more time passing she could find Roschan, who was oozing blood from a cut on his forehead but gloriously alive and still fighting; and at once she could also see every creature within the Tower's walls both good and bad alike, and how they struggled and fought together.

But watching men and women suffer was to Grace no worse just then than seeing the way Ruidic held Ma against his chest and stroked her hair; and the way Ma leaned against him with her eyes closed as if she had finally come home to him.

You need to control the Queen, she said, speaking to both of them, when what she really wanted was to shout, What about Dad?

But some of what she was thinking must have communicated itself, because Ma started up, her face flushing a deeper red than Grace had ever seen it. Ruidic let her rise, reluctantly and awkwardly.

She's surrounded by fane stones, she added, looking back at the strange emptiness in the Queen's expression and wondering if taking her child and her power away had snuffed something out in her. The lovely face was slack and vacant, and Grace's real body shivered as she looked at her. She seems quiet now, but she might not stay that way. You need to do something to stop her taking control back.

She didn't add the rest of that thought, either: that it was desperately urgent, now, that she didn't take the link back. Because Grace could feel something approaching, and she knew that they – or it – were more powerful than she was; more powerful than Ma was, even. She only hoped that with the link she could wield enough power to win.

She sensed Afi approaching her real body, and remembered to lift the spell of turning now so that his gleaming form became solid. She saw the dark-haired boy jump as he appeared out of air. He scrambled backwards away from Afi, and she couldn't help feeling a surge of satisfaction at his fear.

With her eyes still seeing the battle outside, she spared only a moment to throw a cone of fire after some of the few remaining flesh wolves, and to communicate to Roschan that there was a breach in the upper storeys.

"Grace?" the Captain asked, and when she sent a message of agreement, he let out a shout. "And there I was thinking the Queen must have had a change of heart..."

She could see him shouting to the other Captains, his hand to his ear, and the surge of energy and hope in him gave her such a rush of pride that she almost felt like the hero he thought her. She smiled, and was still smiling as she looked at Afi with her own eyes where he was staring down at the raven-haired boy.

"Right on time," she said. "I need you to fasten a fane stone on him until this is all over, and stop him killing any more of Roschan's men."

But Afi wasn't smiling. He stood rooted to the spot, and then knelt down next to the boy so quickly it looked as though he'd collapsed.

As his knees touched the stone floor, a blow of power struck at the magic of the link so hard that Grace felt it all through her like a shock-wave. Only the wave went on and on, tearing into her ears and into her head until she wanted to scream.

He's here, she thought, knowing from that very first assault that he was a riezehn, and that he was stronger than she and the linked boys were together.

Roschan and Dedora paused, seeming to hear her, and then they began to sound a retreat while Grace put her hands to her head and tried to drive away the pain of that deafening attack. She heard Roschan order the doors closed behind them as if he stood miles away, and she saw a squad of soldiers armed with flaming guns launch into battle with Evanescents in the upper storeys through a fog in her head.

But even through the reverberating noise, she heard Afi say, "Edin," and she saw the way his hand shook as he reached out towards the black-haired boy.

Oh, no, Grace thought, and realised as Roschan paused on the steps of the palace that she had communicated the thought to all of them.

The boy flinched away.

"Take that stone away from me," he hissed. "You can't stop me that way."

Afi sat back on his heels. "Edin? It's Afi. It's Afi. What's happened to you?"

The heartache and the care in his voice tore into her as hard as the magic had. But Afi's younger brother looked up at him with pale blue eyes that glittered with nothing but hatred.

Keep going, get inside, Grace told Roschan, feeling the pain build and realising that he was closer now.

"He's here, and he's going to kill all of them," the boy said, with a sudden lunatic delight rising in his voice. "And then I'll be King. I'll be King."