The girl ran into the castle with so much anger blazing from her eyes that none of the guards dared to stop her. The shock wore off after a moment and they followed her, but every time they tried to stop her she struck out at them with arms that were suddenly monstrous, or claws which had grown long and sharp. She forced her way into the main hall and slammed the doors open. The guards barrelled towards her and wrestled her to the floor, trying to block her even as her eyes fixed on Emma.

The woman was wearing soft grey silk, and her eyes were dull and cold. "You found out, then."

"You bitch!" Daine screamed, struggling against the pile of men. Her body grew and shrank as she tried shape after shape, but she was too violently angry to focus. Panting, she spat at the woman and dug sharp bear claws deep into the floorboards. "I'll tear this place to the ground before I let you kill him!"

"Kill?" Emma looked disgusted. "He won't die. He won't even feel pain. He'll fall asleep for a few years, that's all."

"You've read the books in that tower." Daine growled. "Those poor people's minds were attacked over and over again. They were barely alive!"

"But not killed." The woman stood up and gestured to the guards. "Let her go."

"I'll rip your throat out." The girl snarled. Emma laughed mockingly.

"Threaten me again. When Numair gets his memories back, I'll make sure the first thing he hears is how I tortured you before the hangman got his turn."

The girl cursed loudly and then held up her hands, gritting her teeth as she mimed a surrender. Emma smiled thinly and gestured to the guards, who grudgingly let her go.

"I'm happy to see you're not dead." Her voice was light and friendly. "Have you eaten? Can I interest you in…"

Daine cut her off with a glare. "Is Numair here? I'm going to tell him that you…"

"He won't believe you." The woman interrupted curtly. "If he sees you again, he'll probably try to kill you."

"I'll take that risk."

"Imagine how he'll feel when he remembers that he did that to you!" Emma looked horrified. "Why would you do that to him?"

"He won't remember anything if I don't!" Daine cried, and felt tears running down her cheeks, "Please… I just want to tell him. He's so confused. You've seen him. How can you bear it? If you really did care about him then you'd tell him the truth."

"Nobody wants to hear that. It'd just frighten him?"

"More than thinking he's being hunted down by assassins?"

Emma went quiet, and then her voice came out in a low hiss: "I don't have to explain myself to you. I've been through this before. You haven't. It's going to happen either way."

Daine shook off the guards, who were trying to hold her still, "It won't. I'll make damn sure of that."

"I'm going to punch that thing in the face." Daine growled as she came into the clearing. Alanna rolled her eyes, and Cieran looked up with a half smile.

"It doesn't have a face."

"Are you talking about Emma?" Alanna asked, trying not to smile. Her joke fell flat at the white-hot anger on Daine's face. The girl scrabbled around her neck and then threaded her wedding ring onto her claw-chain.

"We'll all work together," she said, "I'm sick of tiptoeing around trying to outsmart it. You can make it weak, and Numair can finish it off. It's just another kraken… another hateful old monster. Cieran knows that, or he would have asked the higher Gods for help. It's a demon and it's hiding behind the people we love so we're too scared to fight. Well I'm not scared. I'll meet you in the tower in an hour."

"Just like that?" Alanna's smile faded, and she glanced at Cieran. Daine nodded and shrank down into a bird shape. Alanna shouted after her, "How are you going to make Numair 'finish it off'? He'll kill you!"

Daine barely knew herself. When she heard her friend cry out she wanted to fly back down and scream at her. 'Yes, I know! I know there's no way he'll listen to me! Now tell me what else I can do!'

She landed heavily on the window sill of Numair's room and hastily wiped tears from her eyes. It wouldn't do any good for him to see her crying. She didn't want him to think she was weak. She wanted to goad him. But even as she thought that, she remembered looking up at him as an enemy. The fury on his face – the hatred – made her want to curl up in a ball and never look up again. She couldn't bear to taunt him again. She fiddled with her necklace and cleared her throat, heard him freeze, and spoke before she could see the expression in his eyes.

"We've found the monster that's stealing your memories. We're going to kill it. Want to help?"

There was a sharp intake of breath, and then a disbelieving laugh.

"Why would you ask me that?"

"I'm bored." She lied, and then added more bitterly: "Didn't you want to kill me? Nothing makes you angrier than hearing the truth."

"It's not true."

"Fine," she shrugged, "Then prove it. Because I can't stand this anymore. If you really don't believe me, then you're right and I'm a spy. You should try to get rid of me. You won't be able to, but you should try. If I'm not lying then I really can save you from going insane. That's worth fighting for, isn't it? Or are you happy to stay stupid and ignorant?"

"I'm not stupid." He reddened, and she laughed.

"You're like a baby, Numair. You know nothing apart from what you wife-mama's feeding you, and she's fair set to starve you to death."

"She told me you were the one draining my memories," he said softly, poisonously, "Do you think giving them back will make me follow you? This is another trick."

Daine's heart sank seconds before she saw power glittering around his hands. She yelped and fell backwards out of the window, trusting her growing wings to save her from the rocks. When she looked up she saw Numair leaning out of the window, watching her as she flew away. Something glittered in his hand – her wedding ring. She had dropped it there on purpose, with a very deliberate thumbprint on the band.

There wasn't a stronger focus in all of Tortall.

She made it to the tower and scooped up her bow just as a hard, percussive blow struck the foundations. She heard a scream, and caught the arm of the woman who was running down the steps.

"Wait outside!" Daine told Idama breathlessly, "Don't come back until it's quiet."

"Quiet! There's a woman throwing fire around!"

Daine looked up. There were flames licking out of the upstairs windows. The books were burning. As they exploded into smoke and fire, a grotesque snarling rang out in the air. Daine ran upstairs and heaved the door open with her shoulder. The paper burned quickly, and was mostly ash already, but the heat made sweat burst out of her forehead and into her eyes. She wiped it away blindly, and felt a second percussive thud close beside her.

A hand fell on her shoulder. She shrieked and pulled herself away. Numair's furious grip pulled the stitches free on her sleeve, and he cursed and tried to grab her again. His face was torn between anger and smugness – hadn't he been clever, to use her ring as a focus!

"Alanna!" Daine shouted, "We're here!" and then she dove to the side to dodge a wave of rippling magic that Numair threw at her. The floorboards twisted and bucked under her hands, and she cried out and ran for the walls. If the floor gave out then they were all dead.

"Don't be an idiot, Numair!" She screamed, "It'll kill you, too!"

"What will?" he snarled, completely oblivious to the huge wavering shape that was looming in the smoke. Alanna was pouring violet magic into it. Sparks and bolts of lightning illuminated the shape of a huge, hulking creature. Daine trembled and stared at it, but when Numair looked around all he could see was smoke.

He laughed wildly and pointed at the frozen girl. She screamed as invisible iron hands grabbed her wrists and slammed them into the wall. As much as she struggled against the manacles, she couldn't move. She frantically tried to shapeshift, to make her hands small enough to slip free, but the magical ties shrank with her.

A sudden surge of power made the shape ripple and cave in at the middle. It shrieked, and for a moment the pressure in the air was so heavy it tasted like salt. Then it let up so suddenly that they all fell to the ground. Numair caught himself on his elbows, pushed himself upright, and froze when he saw the girl stuck to the wall.

"Daine?" He asked uncertainly, "Is that you?"

"Of course it's me!" She shrieked, "Let me go, you utter dolt!"

He inhaled sharply and waved his hand, watching in disbelief as the black power was drawn back into his body, "It's my magic?"

"Oh, for Mithros's sake!" The girl muttered, rubbing sensation back into her shoulders. Numair stepped towards her. He stopped short when she snatched up her dagger and held it out. Her hand didn't even tremble.

"I'm sorry," said Daine, "but it prob'ly won't last long."

"What's going..." he choked and then pressed his long fingertips to his head. Daine nodded wearily as he shuddered and cursed.

"Thought so."

"Daine, what are you playing at?" Alanna cried, circling around to stand between them and the creature. The mass was shuddering and rocking now, making sounds that were disquietingly close to laughter. Daine cursed and pushed the knight away.

"He's changing back, Alanna! You'd better keep blasting that thing, and stay away from us! If he..." she stopped short as a dart of silver whistled past them and shattered against the ground. Huge chunks of sharp ice clinked over their boots. The women looked around to see Numair wrapped in his aura, his face furious and betrayed.

"Oh, come on! Can't you see the massive great demon we're fighting?" Alanna bellowed. Daine laughed and darted away. She knew that Numair would follow her.

"Keep fighting! We need him if we're going to kill it."

She was aware of the knight nodding and turning back to the monster. Then she was running from the man whose hands burned with fire.

"How did you escape?" He growled, "Tell me!"

"You let me go!" she yelled back, making her voice deliberately taunting: "You can't remember anything!"

He swore and raised his hands. Daine tensed, waiting for him to make the first move. When the ice shards materialised in the air she changed into a bird and flew safely up to the roof.

"Wild mage!" Numair's mouth fell open, and then he laughed hollowly, "I should be impressed. It's a shame it's wasted on a creature like you."

She squeaked down at him and then made her beak into a clumsy mouth, "I can't hear you! Why don't you fly up and insult me face to face?"

"I can't fly."

"Now who's the liar? Turn into a hawk. I've seen you do it hundreds of times."

He blinked, pressed his thumbs to his forehead, and shrank down into a tiny shape. Daine laughed wildly and flew out of the window. She heard the flap of heavy wings behind her and sped up. Why had she chosen a sparrow shape? it was far too slow - an insectivore, not a hunter. She mentally cursed herself and beat her wings up and down ferociously. Her wings were already tired.

"Hurry up, Alanna!" She shouted through the window.

Alanna didn't hear her. The woman was too busy keeping the creature cowering on the floor. Her attacks were like tiny, sharp pins - things that the creature would cringe away from enough to stop it from attacking, but she knew that as soon as she stopped it would strike back. She bit her lip and pushed her power forward, reeling giddily as her magic waned.

It growled and writhed, and then let out an odd bark. A puddle of something leaked out of it and pooled between the floorboards. Before Alanna could make it out the liquid drained away, and she saw it creeping towards the open windows. A black shadow fluttered past, and the living liquid reached out to it as if magnetised.

"Daine!" Alanna shouted, "Make him touch the wall!"

A little sparrow looked down and momentarily lost its balance. It dropped a few feet - enough to miss the hawk's attack, but the other bird's claws slit the edge of her wing. She shrieked and made her way desperately to the window, fluttering through clumsily and landing in a puff of dust on the floor. The hawk followed her, and she rolled away from it. Her grip on her magic failed, and she raised her human body on trembling, bloody arms.

The hawk landed beside her and started to grow. Its black talons didn't shrink back into human nails; the man raised them over her and laughed raggedly, "You can't trick your way out of this, girl."

Daine shivered and closed her eyes. She refused to cry. She didn't want him to have to remember that. His shadow was cold over her, and she felt him drawing closer.

Then he gasped, and she tore her eyes open to see black liquid crawling like spiders up his body. It sank into his skin and he shivered, gasping for breath and finally falling to his knees. He sobbed out a rough cry and then reached out to touch his head. He flinched back when his talons scratched his skull and stared wildly at them.

Then he looked up and his face went white, "Daine! Are you hurt?"

She clutched her arm with a trembling hand, barely feeling it, tearfully looking away, "You're such a dolt!"

He leapt forward and closed her in his arms, kissing her forehead, "I'm so sorry, love. I thought you were an assassin."

"Of course you did," she muttered, shoving him away, "I'm fine. Go help Alanna before that thing rips your memory away again!"

Then she pushed herself back against the wall, felt her fingers slide away from the slippery arm, and closed her eyes.

Daine woke up and wondered why the bed was moving. After a confused moment, she recognised the odd swaying of a boat. Her bed was narrow and bordered by wooden boards so that the mattress would not fall out during storms. A waterskin lay beside her, and she thirstily drained it. She recognised that kind of thirst: she must have been asleep for days.

After so long, nobody would be expecting her to be awake. She dragged herself out of bed and ran her fingers over the smooth scar on her shoulder. She could already hear her husband blaming himself for it for the next hundred years.

Speaking of which... she wrapped the blanket around her shoulders and made her way out of the cabin, shivering and yawning in what turned out to be the evening air. She greeted the sailors until she caught sight of a familiar-looking passenger, and tapped him on the shoulder.

"Daine!" he exclaimed, turning around, "I thought you'd still be sleeping. You lost a lot of blood by the time Alanna healed you."

"Never mind that," she beamed up at him, "You know who I am now, right?"

He nodded, and she reached up and kissed him. Then she scowled, "I should hate you for forgetting me."

"I didn't mean to hurt you,"

"Oh, I don't mean that. I can always make more blood. But how dare you forget me?" She watched him struggle for an apology for a moment, and then smiled wanly, "It wasn't your fault. I just needed to get that out of my system. You remembered Emma, for Mithros' sake!"

"She made sure of it."

"She did." Daine agreed more seriously, and then took his hand and kissed it, "I'm glad you're you again. I was scared for a while that I wouldn't get you back. What… what happened?"

"Well, you decided to forego serious thought and plans, and just… what was the phrase? 'Punch that thing in the face'?"

She blushed, "I was angry."

"And you were right." He squeezed her hand, "Emma was trying to goad you into doing it from the second that demon sniffed me out."

"Don't make her into a nice person. She would have won whatever happened. Even if we failed, she would have had her sister back, and made the tower safe again, and had a nice little mindless slave…"

"I didn't say she was right. I just said she was trying to make you angry." He glanced out at the riverbank and his jaw tightened, "I refused to speak to her. She called me in for an audience and Alanna laughed in the courier's face. We're both done with that woman's stories. She sent a letter." He pulled out a piece of paper, "I didn't look. Do you want to read it?"

"No."

He smiled and tore it up before throwing it over the side. Daine cuddled up to him and felt his arm sliding around her shoulders.

"It's good to have you back." She whispered, "I missed you."

"I'm so sorry for the things I did." He replied, shamefaced. The girl shook her head and kissed his cheek.

"I got to see what you would have turned into if you hadn't met me. I'm a fair good influence on you, you know."

"I know." he laughed and kissed her nose, "But remembering that I'm not being hunted down for treason is also important. You felt like a very dangerous woman, Veralidaine Sarrasri."

"Salmalin," she reminded him, "I got married."

"I'm glad to see your memory is as good as ever," he said with a wink, then he sobered: "I'm a bit... shaky, Daine. It might take me a while to sew everything back together. I was teasing you now but... I won't always be."

"I'm fair forgetful myself when I get tired."

"That's not - "

"I'm saying you don't need to worry. I'm here to fill in the gaps until you can remember them. I'll even promise not to tease you."

"I remember you well enough to call you a liar, magelet." he pointed out, and she laughed.