Rose let out a deep sigh of relief as she dropped to the ground beside the stairs, her sword falling beside her.

"How are you holding up, Rose?" Rihan asked her.

"I'll live," she said, closing her eyes. She put a hand to her shoulder, wincing. Blood oozed from the wound, but her armor had served her well. The shoulder plate had taken the brunt of the damage, with only a couple puncture marks in the leather beneath. And while each puncture was bleeding, her shoulder was still attached. A far cry from fine, but far better than dead.

"Did I hear more when this started?" Aaryn asked. He had wrapped his left forearm in a strip of cloth that looked suspiciously like it had come from his tunic hem.

"I thought so too," Rose agreed. "Any chance we scared them off by taking out this lot?"

Rihan shook his head. "They're the banshee's pets. They'll defend her to their last breath."

Rose sighed. "Any chance we'll find Kat again before we run into more hounds?"

"With our luck?" Aaryn laughed.

Rose smiled bitterly. "Right, of course."

"Then again, I think I heard Daud upstairs," Rihan said.

Aaryn nodded. "Yeah, I heard that scream too."

"And we all know that where Kat is..." Rihan started.

"...Daud is certainly not far," Aaryn finished with a grin.

"So upstairs?" Rose asked with a sigh. "Where we also heard the banshee?"

Rihan shrugged. "Better than wandering around here."

Rose shook her head with a sigh. "Yes, I suppose."

So, she pushed herself back up to her feet and retrieved her shield, strapping it to her back. It was unlikely she'd be able to use it again today with her shoulder injured the way it was, but it would be expensive to replace later if she left it.

The three crept up the stairs, coming to a long hall extending perpendicular in either direction.

"Split up?" Aaryn asked.

Rihan shook his head. "We're already scattered."

Aaryn nodded. "Left or right then?"

A haunting song floated down the hall from the right, as if to answer that question. It made Rose's skin crawl and a cold seemed to seep deeper into her body, making the hair on her arms stand on end.

"Left," Rihan said decisively, but in a far lowered voice. "We'll need Kat or Kerrie if we're going to have any chance of putting her to rest."

"You don't think I can do it?" Aaryn asked.

"Just 'cuz you can trick priests into thinking you're one, doesn't mean for a second I believe any of the goddesses favor you."

"Yee of such little faith," Aaryn said but didn't argue further.

Silently as they could, they crept down the hall away from the unnatural singing. Aaryn put an ear to each door before carefully opening them and peering with in. Three doors down he pushed one open all the way and waved the rest of the party in.

"Ri!" a blond-haired girl exclaimed as they entered the room. It was Kat, Rihan's older sister. Even at fourteen, she was already a true beauty. Even in leather armor, carrying a mace, with blood splattered across her cheek, she radiated elegance.

Just as Aaryn and Rihan had predicted, Daud stood beside Kat. Like Rose, he wore leather armor reinforced with iron plates and carried a sword and shield. He stood well under a foot shorter than Kat and had a round face with thick eyebrows. At age twelve, there was no sign of the broad shoulders or solid chin he'd one day sport.

On the ground of the room lay another frost hound corpse.

Kat's blue-green eyes widened as she noticed their wounds. "Are you all, all right?"

"Nothing your healing magic can't fix," Aaryn said with a pained smile.

"Of course! Come over here, all of you." She waved them over.

"I'm fine, Kat," Rihan said, stepping back.

She raised an eyebrow at him.

"Really, I promise."

"If he says he's fine, he's fine, Kat," Aaryn said, slapping Rihan on the back as he passed. "We all know he's the biggest baby when he's hurt. If he got so much as a scratch, we all know he'd be the first in line to get fixed up."

"I don't know," Daud said. "When it's something serious, it seems like we're always the last to know."

Rose could only nod in agreement. In general, Rihan was good about delegating tasks to the one most suited to it. He knew each person's strengths and weaknesses, and, more importantly, he possessed unmatched skill in making the most of both and minimizing complications from either. However, he had an annoying habit of hiding his own weaknesses, even when they could help him. If he could avoid "inconveniencing" anyone, as he liked to say, he would. It wasn't something he was going to outgrow, unfortunately.

"Me? Hide an injury?" Rihan shook his head. "Perish the thought."

"Just let me look, please." Kat looked at her little brother with drooping eyes and pouting lips.

Rihan sighed. "After you look at the other two. Then, you can poke me all you want if it'll make you stop worrying."

She brightened immediately, turning her attention to Aaryn. He unwrapped the bandage on his arm, revealing a deep bite wound

Rihan just shook his head, looking to the ceiling.

"Anyway," Rihan said to Daud. "You two survived."

Daud nodded. "We dodged some frost hounds until we got cornered by this one." He nudged the corpse on the floor with one foot. "We took care of it and we've been holed up here since then. Kinda just been waiting for you guys."

Closing her eyes, Kat put her hands together in prayer. Aaryn held his injured arm out in front of her. A faint yellow light glowed around her hands and his arm and

Rihan nodded. "Good. Any sign of Kerrie?"

Daud shook his head. "Was hoping she was with you."

"She'll be fine," Aaryn said as his wound finished closing. "She's tougher than the rest of us." He shot Kat a grin. "Thanks, Kat."

"You're not thinking of just leaving her out there alone, are you?" Kat asked, glaring at her brother and Aaryn.

Aaryn flexed his wrist as he walked away from Kat and toward the door. He patted Rose's good shoulder as he passed her, whispering to her, "Your turn."

"No," Rihan assured her. "Just, she has a better chance finding us than we do finding her."

"Plus, with her talents, she can avoid the banshee and her pets much better than we can," Aaryn added as he took his place by the door. He stood with an eye to the slit between the door and its frame, keeping look out.

Kat frowned, but didn't argue further, instead focusing on Rose. "Where are you hurt?"

"The left shoulder," Rose said.

Kat explored the injury with a finger. Rose winced at the touch. Kat frowned. "You'll need to take off the tunic."

"Okay," Rose said, but she hesitated a moment before unlacing her leather tunic, her gaze shifting over Kat's shoulder, where Daud and Rihan stood talking.

Kat followed her gaze, her frown deepening. She slapped Rose's hand down. "Wait."

She turned to the boys.

"Kat," Rose grabbed Kat's sleeve, pulling her back. "Please, don't."

Kat shook her off. Undaunted, she said, "I don't suppose I could ask you three to wait outside?"

The boys all stared at her. Daud just blinked.

"What?" Rihan looked at the two girls, an eyebrow raised.

"The banshee could walk down the corridor any second," Aaryn said.

Kat stared back, her eyes flicking from Rose's wound to her brother.

Rihan followed his sister's eyes to Rose with a third of her tunic's lace undone.

"Oh."

"Oh?" Kat repeated, gesturing for them to step out the door.

"Um..." Rose didn't look at any of them as she spoke. "They could all just face the wall?"

"But, we're ladies!"

Rose shook her head. "It's fine, Kat."

She had chosen this path. It wasn't for her to care about a lady's dignity now. She needed her arm to fight. And that meant Kat needed to heal it. And if that meant she'd be shirtless, then so be it.

Kat opened her mouth to protest further, but Rose put up a hand. "We trust them in fights against monsters, with our lives on the line. I think we can trust them not to peek."

"Fine," Kat said. "But if you think for a second, I'll heal any of you three again if you so much as flinch in this direction, you—"

"Yes, yes. Fire and brimstones upon us all," Rihan said, as he turned his back to the wall. "I think you've forgotten we're gentlemen. We would never."

Kat snorted, but began the chant for her healing spell rather than argue further.

"Gentlemen?" Rose asked as she finished unlacing her tunic. "Who? You?"

"Rose, you wound me."

Rose's shoulder exposed with her tunic off, Kat bathed the injury in the golden glow of her spell. A warmth spread through the shoulder, radiating from each gash out and down Rose's arm and back.

"You're always saying that," Daud said. "You're pretty easily hurt, aren't you?"

"The truth hurts," Rose said.

The warmth and Kat's light faded, and with it the pain. Rose rolled her shoulder, just as surprised to find it as good as new as she had the first time Kat had healed her.

"Don't use your shield just yet," Kat warned. "You'll just tear the muscle there again."

Rose nodded and pulled her tunic back on. When she'd re-laced it, she called to Rihan, "Your turn."

Rihan crossed his arms as he turned to face them. "I really am perfectly fine."

Kat strode across the room and pushed him against the wall. He winced on impact.

"Really?" she asked him.

Rihan smiled, but the corner of his lips wavered, betraying his nerves. He tried to bluff it out anyway, "Really."

Kat jabbed her finger into his right thigh. Rihan didn't quite scream.

"Really?" she repeated.

Rihan nodded, but his eyes were closed and his jaw clenched.

In Kat's place, Rose would have thrown her hands up in anger and demanded he quit the tough act or she'd ignore the injury completely, telling him to blame himself if he died. But Kat could never ignore someone in pain. If she could she'd heal everyone, whether they wanted it or not. Kat could never turn down a person in need. It didn't matter to her who they were or what they might have done, or what they might do in the future.

In a whimpering voice, she said, "Rihan..."

Her brother's head drooped.

"Are you really going to lie to me?"

He sighed.

"Are you really going to pretend to be fine and not let your wound be treated and then, in your next battle, be unable to fight at full strength, forcing Rose or Daud to leap to protect you, injuring themselves terribly in the process, leaving you to blame yourself, and then, unable to focus on the current dangers because of the weight of your guilt, you will miss an important fact, leaving the plan incomplete, and we'll all be killed in a encounter you otherwise would have planned so perfectly none of us would have even been hurt? Is that what you want? For us to all die?"

"Kat..."

"Yes, Ri?"

"I seem to have hurt my leg in the last engagement."

"That's what I thought," Kat said, crossing her arms. Kat had long since mastered the art of guilt tripping her brother while simultaneously milking his pride, this was but one of many such examples. "Come on. Let's look at it." She glanced at Rose and added, "Your turn to face the wall."

Rose nodded and found an interesting patch of wall to stare at as Rihan was pulled along by his sister.

"What's the plan from here," Rose asked Rihan without turning.

"That depends," he said. "Mostly on how much energy Kat has left after this."

"Let's pretend she has none," Rose said.

"We go find Kerrie."

"We're in that bad a place?"

"I'm sure Kat'll be okay," Daud said.

"Did she need to heal you before we got here?" Rihan asked.

"Yeah, but, it was nothing major." From the defensive tone in Daud's voice, Rose was sure he'd crossed his arms in front of his chest. He rarely got defensive of himself, but for Kat, that was a different story entirely.

"Well, to quiet the banshee, someone is going to need to cast Purify. Of the six of us, only Kat and Kerrie are able."

"I can," Kat said, although her voice seemed faint to Rose's ear.

"You sure?" Daud asked. There was worry in those words. Rose hadn't been the only one to notice Kat's creeping exhaustion.

"You can stop staring at the wall, Rose," Rihan said. "And, Kat, you sure you are up to it?"

Kat bit her lip but nodded. "I think so. Kerrie would be better. Her Purify is much stronger."

"But you have better affinity for it," Rihan said. Purify was a Compassionate spell, the same school of magic as the healing spells Kat had been using only moments before. Kerrie's specialty was the combat oriented Conviction magic.

Kat shook her head. "I can't keep it up for long, and it takes me several seconds to activate it. Kerrie has the energy to do it forever it seems. And it's almost instantaneous, her cast."

Rihan frowned.

"You sure we shouldn't go find her?" Daud asked.

Rihan shook his head. "If she hasn't found us, it means she's doing something else. I trust she'll find us when she can."

"Then what are we going to do?" Aaryn asked.

Rihan thought for a moment. It did not take long for his pensive stare to turn into his mischievous smile though. With that grin of his he said, "Listen close, this is the plan."