I ran.

Along the hall, past amazed guards, past my mother's healers -- directly to the nursery wing.

Leon was close behind me, His voice a continuous growl, to hold others off.

no scent-trail, he said. “Whoever he or she was, he or she disguised himself or herself.”

I did not hear him much. Tunnels vision, heart thumping. The nearer I approached the stronger the attraction, until it was not fear, not pain, but something primeval, more deep-seated. Instincts changed in me.

It was not a matter of survival only.

This was the lineage protecting itself.

We break into the nursery.

The cradle stood unused in the midst of the...