* * * * *

After a couple of hours, Cortin could no longer ignore a niggling
feeling she'd had since entering the dungeon; she broke off her
interrogation, signaling Odeon and Blackfeather to join her in the
suite's office.

"You feel him too, huh?" Odeon asked, as soon as the door closed behind
him.

"I feel something like being watched, yes. It's not Sara, but she's
the only other person here--what 'he' are you talking about, and how
could he be watching anything?"

"Shayan," Odeon said flatly. "There's a different feel to his
mind-touch--I couldn't sense any menace from him--but after what he did
to me, I can't mistake his identity."

"Shayan!" Cortin and Blackfeather exclaimed in unison.

"But I didn't sense anything," Blackfeather continued. "I would've
thought any time he was around, physically or otherwise, I'd know it."

Odeon shrugged. "I can't say about that, Sara--all I know is what I've
just told you. He's watching us, for whatever reason, yet I feel very
strongly that he's not going to interfere." He rubbed the scar across
his mouth, frowning in puzzlement. "Impossible as it sounds, I get the
impression he intends to help us somehow. Not that he likes us--any
but Sara, anyway. The feeling's more like . . . it's vague, not based
on deliberate communication, but I'd call it something like a
determined, if reluctant, alliance."

Cortin frowned. "Are you sure?"

"It's vague, like I said, but I'm as sure as I can be under the
circumstances. I don't think it's possible to lie, mind to mind--could
be your truthsense is a special form of telepathy."

"Shayan helping us. That doesn't sound possible." Cortin paused,
still frowning. "I hate to ask, Mike, and I'll understand if you don't
want to--"

"But you'd like me to ask him directly." Odeon rubbed the back of his
neck, sighing. "Okay. Just don't be surprised if I go into another
funk." He turned his attention to the Hell-King. *You've been
listening; you know what I want.*

*You are quite correct about both the alliance and the reluctance,*
came the reply. *This, however, is not the time to go into that; the
discussion we need to have will take longer than Cortin should give her
prisoner to regroup. I am observing primarily so I will know when you
are free for that discussion; I will not continue it now. For the
moment, suffice it to say I will be pleased if her efforts to obtain
this one's repentance are