Stone grated against stone, jolting Iris out of a restless sleep to sit bolt upright in the cot. She shrank back against the wall, pulling her knees to her chest and the blankets up to her neck, her heart pounding as the stone door rolled away. The lighting was dimmer than usual, but she easily recognized the man who stood in the doorway. It was Char. His green eyes met hers for just a moment, and then he scanned the room, stopping briefly when he saw her dinner, untouched in a tray on the floor. He looked back at her and walked over to stand above the cot.

"What have they done to you?" he asked quietly.

She hesitated and then pushed the blanket back, showing him her golden hands and the gold encrusted amulet. "It's to keep me from using magic," she explained cautiously. The muscle was pulsing in Char's jaw again. He was angry, but not with her.

"Those idiots," he finally muttered under his breath. "Come on." He took her hand and pulled her up from the cot.

"Wait," she said, planting her feet when he started walking. "I don't want to get you in more trouble."

He turned back to her, his green eyes intense. "You can heal Srot?"

"I...I don't know," she said nervously. "Maybe before, but now..."

"'Maybe' is better than 'no.' Come on. We don't have much time," he said insistently, turning away and tugging her along again.

Iris let him pull her out of the cell. The stone hallway was dim, too. She wondered why everything wasn't bright anymore. Did the light level correlate with the time of day? She looked at Char's broad back in front of her, the occasional glimpse of his stern face in profile as they reached an intersection and he paused just briefly to glance around before resuming his silent, purposeful journey. The winding path they took through the varied caves was very intentional, and very deserted. Was it the middle of the night?

He stopped and cursed under his breath, stepping back and pushing her against the wall behind him. She didn't speak a word. It wasn't long before she heard the muted voices that made him stop, coming closer and closer. Char didn't move, his hand resting lightly on her arm behind him to hold her in place, his back pressing into her chest.

"Won't be long now, not if they can't get the bleeding to stop."

"I would've thought our mage could do something."

"He's done everything he can. They sent for another mage, but I doubt he'll make it in time."

The voices faded away again. Char's hand tightened around Iris' arm, and he started walking at a much more brisk pace. She had to trot to keep up. Her stomach twisted as the two men's words replayed in her mind. The mage who sealed her magic couldn't do anything for the dying man. Why did Char think she could? This was just going to end in three people dying: Srot, Char, and her.

A horrible moaning reached her ears. Her heart stopped, her eyes widened, and the whispers burst through the golden wall around the amulet, loud and intelligible.

Iris, heal him. You can heal him.

Char cursed again. "Kelnor..."

She pulled free from him, ignoring his surprised shout, and ran into the darkened room. Her eyes immediately focused on the man lying on the bed. His head turned from side to side, moaning and groaning, his face slick with sweat. Blood stained the bandages on his arms, soaking through the layers of cloth someone was pressing to his stomach. The voices on the outside were a dull murmur that she didn't care to make out. She shoved somebody aside, tearing the bloodied rags from the open wound. It was deep. So deep. She gagged, but the whispers wouldn't let her look away. They were telling her what to do. She lay her left hand flat on the gaping hole, taking the amulet in her right hand. Searing pain shot up her right arm, temporarily muting the whispers. She cried out and squeezed her eyes shut, clenching her fingers tightly around the blazingly hot stone, forcing the heat up her arm, across her chest, and down her left arm. The man on the bed cried out, too, and she flattened her fingers against the wound.

She was him. She was there, on the battlefield, flying up in the sky, distracted by Char's steep dive to the wide-eyed young woman at the tree line. What was he doing? There was a human child down there, too, in the middle of the battlefield, scrambling to her feet behind the white shield the woman conjured. The little girl bolted toward the stone church down below, and the shield disappeared as Char spewed a line of fire in front of the human woman. He was inches from the ground, too close to the mage and the archers. She dove in, spewing her own fire to distract them, and metal glanced off her scales, occasionally finding an opening and scraping unprotected skin. She pulled up, too late, roaring in anger and pain as one hit at just the right angle to penetrate between two scales on her stomach. Then she was the blue flame licking the penetrating metal, and she was following it back with the arrow, back through time, through the blue barrier to the cold blue eyes on the horse down below. The mage's eyes locked onto hers, widening with momentary surprise, and then narrowing suddenly with sadistic satisfaction.

So, that's where you're hiding.

She backed away, up the line of blue flames, trying to get away from those eyes. He could see her. Not then, but now. In the cave. Then somebody yanked her away from the man on the bed and threw her across the room, and the blue eyes were gone. She hit the stone wall hard and slumped to the floor, the breath knocked out of her lungs from the impact. Her head was throbbing, her arms were itching, her stomach was on fire. She was struggling to hold on to consciousness.

"That's it," someone said angrily, grabbing her by the collar and yanking her up off the floor to slam her back against the stone wall. She forced her heavy eyes open and got her first look at the leader, Kelnor, and his angry red eye.

"Don't you see? She just healed him!" Char said vehemently, wrenching Kelnor away from Iris. She crumpled to the floor again, pressing her hand to her side and moaning in pain.

"What I see is a witch who-"

"Wait! He's stopped bleeding!" someone else shouted, interrupting Kelnor. His footsteps retreated across the room.

"Iris. Iris!"

Char was shaking her shoulders. It was harder to open her eyes this time. So hard. She managed to do it, but darkness crowded the edges of her vision, making it difficult to focus on his frantic green eyes. Her hand was warm. She held it up, and it wasn't golden anymore. It was red. Bright red. Covered in Srot's blood and hers, pouring from the open wound at her side.

"His wounds have closed," somebody said off in the distance.

"It's - fine," she said with difficulty. Char was pressing something to her side, trying to stop the bleeding.

"Stop talking," he muttered. "I need some help over here!"

"I just - need some sleep," she mumbled, her hand falling limply to her side.

"Stay with me, Iris!"

She couldn't keep her eyes open anymore. "I can't...stay here..."

Voices were swirling around her, Char's, Kelnor's, others she didn't recognize. The whispers told her to go to sleep. The voices told her to stay awake. She fought both, trying to clear her head of the chaos as someone scooped her up on the outside. The mage's cold blue eyes flashed into her vision again.

That was very foolish of you, Iris.

She felt his touch in her mind, pushing into her head, and now she had a third force to fight, one that wanted to hear and see and feel what was going on. "Go away," she moaned, pushing back on him. The air was snapping and crackling again, or maybe it was just in her head, but it stung, it burned. She fumbled for the amulet and clutched it tightly in her bloody hand. The whispers were beside her and behind her, working with her to fight him, and his eyes narrowed angrily as she forced him back. Sweat beaded on her forehead; fire ripped across her skin. She cried out and pushed herself up into a sitting position with her left hand, digging her fingers into her scalp.

"Get out!" she screamed.

Blinding white light shot through the cracks in her fingers, filling the room and forcing everybody around her to take several steps back. When the light faded, she was lying unconscious on the bed. Blood dripped from her side, pooling on the floor, and the amulet was cold and lifeless in her limp hand.