“Yet you will not tell me where it is,” Demont stated simply, his look piercing.

“Not yet, my lord Earl. Continue to send your knights throughout the realm. Those who will listen must come to Muirwood. If our enemies learned where the rallying point was, our escape would be compromised. Bring them to Muirwood.”

“What of my niece?” Demont asked, stepping closer, his voice more firm.

Lia’s heart throbbed painfully.

“Lord Colvin is an able maston. He is her guardian.”

Demont said nothing for a moment. He rubbed his jaw, causing a scratching sound from the bristles on his chin. “Until tomorrow then, Aldermaston. I beg leave of you. It is time to rotate the guard over Pareigis. Even without the kystrel she is dangerous.”

The Aldermaston nodded. “You are wise not to underestimate her. Until tomorrow.”

Demont strode from the room and shut the door softly behind him. Lia watched him go, her stomach sick with worry. She turned back to the Aldermaston.

“Send me to Dochte Abbey,” she said in a low voice.

“You are not fully recovered, Lia. It is a long journey.”

She frowned deeply and approached his desk. “I will use the Apse Veil. I can be there tonight and warn him. The orb would show me the way.”

The Aldermaston studied her carefully, his expression guarded. “None of Demont’s mastons have successfully crossed the Apse Veil to Dochte Abbey. If it were a matter of strength in the Medium, I would suggest you try yourself. But my heart tells me that Dochte has already fallen.”

“What?” Lia demanded, planting her palms on the desk. “It is the oldest Abbey in Dahomey. If it has fallen, why have we not heard?”

He twisted the tips of his beard. “I have asked myself that question. If the Abbey were burned, we would have heard. But if it were corrupted from within?” He raised his eyebrow at her. “If the Aldermaston succumbed? Dahomey is an ancient kingdom. If Pareigis is a hetaera, then we must assume her family is as well and that the king of Dahomey has been seduced as well as the royal family. Their show of ability with the Medium is done by kystrels. The missives that I have received may have been sent deliberately to put my mind at ease – to assure me that they have not fallen when they already have. Perhaps I have been ignoring the signs all along.” His words sent a chill through her body and she shivered. “Perhaps we are the last kingdom to fall.”

“The last?” she whispered.

“I fear it may be,” he replied softly.

She swallowed, bewildered. Then she looked at him pointedly. “Why did you not tell me?”

“Tell you what, Lia?” he asked, his eyes narrowing.

She was about to say Ellowyn Demont, but her jaw froze and her tongue clove in her mouth again. She struggled against the surge of the Medium. But moving her mouth was like trying to lift a boulder with a spoon. She grit her teeth in frustration, unable to say the words.

The Aldermaston leaned back in his chair, his shoulders slumping with exhaustion. “Now do you understand?” he whispered. “I cannot speak of what we both know to be true. Neither can you.”

Lia surrendered against the feeling. “But you are an Aldermaston,” she said. “Why will the Medium bind us in such a way? It is not…natural.”

“Is it any less natural than how Colvin used the Medium to bind Seth’s tongue? The curse was removed eventually, but he went without speaking for a year. Imagine what Martin and I endured these many long years. Seth should be grateful that an irrevocare sigil was not used with the binding or he would never have spoken again, in this life or the next.” His eyes were serious.

Lia wanted to ask who had performed the binding sigil, but again she was prevented. Angrily, she thought of another question. “How is a binding performed?”

The Aldermaston smirked at her persistence. “A binding sigil, or a binding rune, can be engraved in a tome. A band of aurichalcum is then forged that seals the pages together. The band cannot be opened except by the password. What is written on those pages cannot be spoken. They cannot be uttered by anyone. When someone has the gift of Seering, they employ the binding runes on their tomes, to prevent others from learning the future. Some with the gift write their visions in language that is difficult to understand or can be interpreted in more than one way. That protects the knowledge from those who cannot use the Medium. But when the words are plain and easy to understand, they can be sealed with a binding rune to protect them.”

Lia studied him carefully. “Do you know how to do this yourself or were you taught?”