There was silence. And a nothingness, except for a hall of mirrors before her. Elizabeth's agony didn't come from the wounds. Her whole body hurt. And, in the mirrors from which there was no escaping, she could see that the body was old. Not even that of a crone. So decrepit it almost looked like a corpse.
And then Crocell came stumping forward.
"This was not my bargain," she croaked.
"Oh, I think you will find that it was," said Crocell.
"I was going to be young and beautiful forever! You betrayed me. You lied."
"Of course. That is what we do. This is the way all such bargains end."
"But I was his loyal servant! You were too!"
Crocell shrugged. "In our master's house there are many slave kennels. There is nothing else. You should know that Mindaug had betrayed you anyway."
"Curse him!"
"He is accursed, but your curses no longer have any effect."
"What did he do?"
"You set about a great binding spell. One of deep demonic compulsion, with the perquisite sacrifices and atrocities that you humans require. Vlad and his sister are not ordinary mortals to be easily bound to your will. But he had successfully arranged for you to perform the rite of Cthasares, which nullifies all workings of magic and the drawing on powers within the sphere of protection. Of course all workings performed outside, even on objects within the sphere, still work. But not spells cast within it. You should have been outside, but in your folly, you were inside with them. Therefore your binding of their will would not have worked, despite you following all the forms and rituals precisely. The moment that Vlad and his sister were out of there, they would have both drawn on their bond with the land. I think they might possibly have been driven mad by what you planned them to witness. They would have woken the wildfire. Called the winds down. Shaken the earth. Probably killed themselves, and you. But under no circumstances would they have gone near the place of stones. And for them to stay away was precisely what Count Mindaug wanted."
"But he wanted a corrupted compact. He showed me how to do it!"
"No. He wanted to destroy the compact that already exists. End the truce between the forest, earth and fire and man. The old ones would lose eventually, of course. In the process, he found rituals and spells to take control of members of each faerie group. But they are protected thus far by the compact, because they share."
Crocell waved his hand. "However, that is all behind you now. It is time to begin your eternity of beauty."
Elizabeth looked at herself in the endless hall of mirrors, knowing that what was to come would be torment without relief. "The prisoners cannot leave the sphere of Cthasares without me. They are trapped there until they join me here. The place is bespelled to resist the Knights of the Holy Trinity too."
The thought did not offer her any comfort. And soon she was hardly thinking at all.