Lendill, deciding to humor me, pulled up the star map of Tykl on Norian's huge vidscreen. Then he asked the computer to make the radius drawing around it, highlighting any of the worlds we'd entered so far. There weren't any.

"Crap," I muttered. "And there isn't anything strange going on with any of the planets inside that radius?" Lendill went to take a closer look.

"Just that abnormality on Mazareal—those climate fluctuations I told you about, Norian." Lendill looked at us for a moment before wiping out the map.

"Wait. Did you say climate fluctuations?" Erland was frightened, and I'd never heard his voice sound that way. He was always smooth and confident. Not this time.

"They wanted us to check on it, but I told them to get with the Science and Technology Department," Lendill said. "We don't have time to research why their weather is hotter than it should be, or why the plants and trees are dying."

"Holy fuck," Erland borrowed one of my favorite phrases and dropped like a rock into my desk chair.

* * *

Wylend was in my office fretting, Norian was on the communicator with Ildevar Wyyld, Lendill was on the communicator with the RAA—Regular Alliance Army, and also speaking with the Governor of Mazareal. Things didn't look so good. If Erland and Wylend were correct, then Zellar had turned to the blackest of wizardry to do what he'd done for Black Mist—he'd tapped into the energy at the core of the planet and drained it to enhance his power.

According to Erland and Wylend, once the process started, the remaining energy would drain away from the planet at an accelerated rate with nothing to stop it. Mazareal was gasping its last. That's why Black Mist had gone looking at Darthin—Zellar was about to run out of his power source. Wylend seemed to think that Mazareal might have ten years left—if that much. Then everything would die. Unless the population could find another home, the swift death of Trell would look like a kindness by comparison. Zellar's draining of Mazareal's core also told me how Black Mist had blocked me from finding them when I Looked—so much power in a warlock's hands had accomplished that feat for them.

"But where could they be on Mazareal? Pearlina said a gray stone building, with a basement or dungeon, obviously—we've got vampires plus Solar Red, missing children, a sandwich cart outside, reptanoids and it was hot eleven moon turns ago." I wanted to rake my hands through my hair, but it would look so much worse than Norian's if I did that.

"We're looking, deah-mul," Norian muttered as he and Lendill went through city after city on Mazareal, trying to match everything up. "Why don't you go the kitchen and find something to drink? You look worn out."

"Fine." I walked out of Norian's office, heading for the kitchen. It was late—Norian had sent for sandwiches ages ago and we'd eaten those as we researched locations and argued. I was thirsty, that much was certainly true. I was digging around in the cold keeper and pulling out a bottle of fruit juice when he walked in.

He looked as if I could reach out and touch him, though I knew I couldn't. He smiled at me; something that I hadn't seen very often from him over the years. It twisted my heart.

"Lissa, they sent me back for only a little while," he said.

"I know." I looked up at Rolfe's square jaw and larger than life features.

"I didn't want you to suffer. Didn't think that you would, actually," he said.

"Honey, I love you. How could it be otherwise?"

"I didn't expect Giff to do what she did."

"I know that too."

"They tell me that Giff, well, it wasn't supposed to turn out like that, so they'll keep her for a while." Rolfe shrugged his wide shoulders. "And it won't be the same, ever again."

"Does that upset you?" I looked up at him.

"No, that's not a problem for me where I am."

"I understand," I nodded slightly. I was almost afraid to blink—afraid that he'd disappear.

"I brought something for you," Rolfe was smiling again. I didn't understand; he couldn't carry anything from where he'd come. In fact, I could see through him now; he was fading away from me already.

"What's that, honey?"

"Libadia." Rolfe vanished before my eyes.

* * *

While carrying my juice back to Norian's office, I went over and over what Rolfe had said. What did he mean? I had no idea. I had to go Looking eventually to see that the word he'd given me was Greek—it meant meadows. When I walked inside my study, Norian and Lendill were still no closer to our goal than they'd been when I left. I sat and listened while they bounced ideas off one another, still going through lists and lists of cities, towns and villages on Mazareal.

Erland came to sit beside me as he yawned. It was likely we wouldn't puzzle this out before daybreak, the way things were going. Wylend had gone home while I'd been gone. I didn't blame him—if I weren't personally involved in this, I might go looking for my bed, too.

"I saw Rolfe," I leaned against Erland.

"What?" Erland woke at my words.

"Sorry, honey, forget I said anything," I mumbled. I was nearly asleep when Lendill's voice penetrated my brain.

"That's not it—that's in the middle of a poverty-stricken area. I don't know why they call it The Meadows, there's nothing green there for clicks."

* * *

Night had fallen on that portion of Mazareal as we prepared for our attack. "Lissa Beth, tell me you're not sending us on an imaginary duck hunt." Norian blew out a breath as I dressed in the black leathers Drake and Drew had gotten me for our stint on Falchan.

"Norian, you have permission to tease me unmercifully about this for the rest of our lives if I'm wrong," I said. "And we say wild goose chase where I come from. Do we need all these people?" He'd hauled in thirty ASD agents, some of whom I was sure weren't completely humanoid.

"We have to locate the building, Cheah-mul. We can't be everywhere."

"I can cover quite a bit of ground as mist," I grumped. "And take them too, if you want." Norian stopped dead in his tracks.

"How many can you take at once?" He looked at me speculatively.

"Honestly, Norian, those records you found were worthless," I snapped. "Didn't you get that information from Refizan?"

"No, I did not get that information from Refizan," he mimicked me while wiggling his hips.

"I don't wiggle my hips like that," I poked him in the chest.

"I'd like it better if you did."

"Norian, we're about to go looking for Black Mist and the head honcho for Solar Red, and you're joking around?"

"Yes. I want them dead. Orders are shoot to kill, except for Black Mist's leader. I want to question him personally."

"Honey, you're not going to take vampires out that easily. Or the warlocks. I can't imagine that the reptanoids or the shapeshifters are going to go down any faster."

"But we have these." Norian lifted a pistol from the holster he wore.

"Uh-huh." I gave him a skeptical look.

"Breah-mul, only the ASD is allowed these legally. Ranos pistols."

"Holy crap, Norian!"

"Now, tell me again how many troops you can carry."

"How many do you have?"

"Can you set us down where I say?"

"As long as you listen to what I have to say too, Norian Keef."

"I'll listen."

"Sure you will. Like every other male I know."

"Lissa Beth, are you going to argue with me for the next thirty years?"

"Norian Keef, how long do you plan to stay married to me?"

"Well, there is that," he shrugged slightly, mischief showing in his green eyes.

"Honey, do you always get this excited about things like this?"

"Most of the time."

"Great. Are you ready?"

"We all are."

Lifting thirty agents into my mist, in addition to Norian and Lendill, I went flying over the tops of buildings in what was referred to as The Meadows near Mazareal's capital city. The area was large and overpopulated—more and more of Mazareal's residents were relocating there for various reasons, most of it having to do with failed crops, dying businesses and the economic instability that followed. The fate of the planet was affecting the fate of everything. My skin doesn't itch while I'm mist—but I feel a twitch of some kind, indicating the wrongness. I homed in on that—it was near the eastern edge of The Meadows.

Lissa Beth, are you getting something? I could feel the discomfort of Norian's thirty agents—they were ready to become corporeal again. Some of them were frightened out of their wits. I wasn't going to point that out to Norian.

On the northeast side, I sent back to Norian. Moving faster, streets and buildings blurred beneath us. Something was wrong. Something was very wrong. When I found the gray stone building Pearlina described to me, I hesitated, although Norian, who'd seen it too, was shouting at me to get inside. If I'd been solid, my skin would have itched furiously. I rose higher, even as Norian's mental shout became louder. Get us down there! Norian's mindspeech hurt, it was so full of anger.

* * *

"You're sure about this?" Viregruz trusted Zellar.

"Oh, yes. They're close. Very close." Zellar was smiling. He'd set up a perimeter spell around the gray stone building they'd previously occupied, and then ordered everyone moved to the warehouse across the street, leaving their former headquarters empty. The warehouse across the street had become a temporary home and hasty preparations were made; the vampires had to have their underground accommodations built and light-sealed first. The warehouse's upper floors were currently under renovation; Viregruz planned to stay there until a new home on another world could be located.