Quite suddenly, she flung the rod against the coral, and it broke in a cloudy flame and a tinkling of crystal shards. Then, one by one, she broke the crowns.
She stood still for a long moment. Then she whispered, "Now only I am left."
Again there was silence, and Stark was shaken by the magnitude of the thing that she had done. Her slim girl's body somehow took on the stature of a goddess.
After a while he went to her and said awkwardly, "I have not thanked you, Fianna. You brought me here, you saved me...."
"Kiss me once, then," she answered, and raised her lips to his. "For I love you, Eric John Stark—and that is the pity of it. Because I am not for you, nor for any man."
He kissed her, very tenderly, and there was the bitter taste of tears on her soft lips.
"Now come," she whispered, and took his hand.
She led him back through the labyrinth, into the palace, and then out again into the streets of Sinharat. Stark saw that it was sunset, and that the city was deserted. The tribes of Kesh and Shun had broken camp and gone.
There was a beast ready for him, supplied with food and water. Fianna asked him where he wished to go, and pointed the way to Tarak.
"And you?" he asked. "Where will you go, little one?"