Over in the opposite corner, Marcia stirred. Nightmare, probably, but who wouldn't have a nightmare? But that dream, so real and in it he had been so sure of the Krak's vulnerability. And now that was gone.
He drifted off to sleep again.
When he awakened, he was surprised. It had not been by Shel Lur's dainty hoof. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he turned toward Marcia's corner.
Instantly he was on his feet. She was gone! He darted from the bare room, through the door into Shel Lur's chamber.
Striding into the center of the Krak's sleeping chamber, Sean McKenna halted abruptly, almost as if he had bumped up against an unseen, immovable force.
A woman's laughter, dancing on joyous toes, stopped him. Marcia's laughter! Then his heart froze into a lump of dry ice within his chest. Only for fleeting moments had that laughter been joyous, now it was a mad, maudlin thing, twisted by the frightening fingers of hysteria.
Sean sprinted across the huge sleeping room, blasted through the door of the dressing chamber.
