They went on again once the sun set. They were flying south along the foothills. To the east lay the Aerie Mountains, to the west the settled lands of Tara, but their destination lay in the forested land between them They stopped again that day, but the third night saw them there somewhat before midnight.

They landed in the woods a short distance from the castle. It sat on a low hill overlooking a stream that ran out into the farmlands only a mile or so away. There was forest all around it, giving the impression of isolation, but from the air they had been able to see that a good-sized village lay not far off to the west.

"Right. We're here." Aidan looked at the darkened hulk of the castle. It seemed completely deserted.

"Are you sure about going in alone?" asked Flame.

"We can't go in together, that would defeat the whole point of this," said Aidan. "And yes, I'm sure. If I don't see either of them I'll come back, and I'll give you the same password. Though..." He shook his head. "Not knowing how they find out things is frustrating. They could be listening right now. So I guess... even if you get the password, be suspicious, love. And if you don't get the password, then you'll need to talk him into coming back to Radu's with you. Though I suspect that won't be hard."

She nodded, looking worried. But he grinned at her. "Don't worry. Odds are they have no idea that we're coming, and they won't know what hit 'em!" He gave her a quick but intense kiss, then vanished into the darkened sky. She looked in the direction he'd gone for a long time, unable to keep from worrying about what might happen.

Aidan landed on the least crumbled of the upper towers. He stood still and listened. His hearing was very good, and he was quite certain that there was no one in this tower, and no one in the courtyard, and no one near any windows. But stone could muffle sound, and there could yet be someone somewhere in the central areas of the castle. So he began to descend, making his way in perfect silence. He crept down dusty stairways, through empty halls, and across rooms where ancient furniture was slowly rotting away. Eventually he saw a dim glow ahead that was too warm to be moonlight. He went even more slowly and cautiously then. He crossed what must have once been the great hall, still hung with banners that were too moth-eaten to tell what they'd once shown. On the far side he found a broad stair that went down below ground level to what had once been the cellars and dungeons, and here there were signs of life. A long hallway was swept clean of dust. Most of the doors leading off of it were heavy and barred, it had obviously once been a dungeon, but there was a door at the end that had light leaking out around it. He stopped just outside the hallway and listened. It was long, and the door was thick, but he thought he could hear someone inside it. He began to move slowly forward, one step at a time.

He passed first one barred door, then another, and then suddenly a flash of intense light filled the hall, blinding him. He bit back a cry and tried to blink his eyes clear. When he attempted to raise one hand to rub at them he found that he couldn't. He was frozen in place, unable to move at all. He could blink, and that was it.

His vision started to clear enough that he could dimly make out the door at the end of the hall opening. He blinked again, and the blurry form that had stepped through it resolved into... himself. He had been expecting it, but it was still something of a shock. Though he hadn't seem himself in the mirror in many years now, he knew well enough what he looked like, and his identical twin was now walking down the hallway towards him.

Behind Aidan's double a second person emerged from the room. Seeing her was, if anything, even more shocking than seeing himself had been. She was his wife, and yet she wasn't. Where the Flame Song he knew dressed simply and practically, this woman was wearing a green velvet gown, with her hair done up in curls that spilled over one bared shoulder. And where his wife always looked open and friendly, this woman's expression was closed, hard, and at the moment sardonically amused.

"So you were right. Amazing. I almost hadn't believed it, but here he is, just as you said." She sounded exactly like his wife, as far as her voice went. The tone she was speaking with though... that was utterly different. His wife had never had that sardonic, sarcastic sort of tone.

"Of course I was right. And now that we've caught 'me', perhaps I should go see about finding 'you.'" Aidan blinked at the other's voice. Did he sound like that? Probably.

"You should probably swap shirts with him before you go," said this other Flame Song. "And take that medallion, and the daggers too."

"Right." Aidan's double nodded. He lifted his hand and made a gesture, and Aidan's shirt and vest started removing themselves. If Aidan could have fallen over he would have. His twin was a mage? How was that possible? He didn't even have the least spark of magical talent.

The other was soon dressed, and draped the medallion around his neck. Aidan noticed that he was already wearing a black iron torc that matched the one he could never remove. Was he hunted by demons as well? But he was a mage... would that make things different?

But he didn't have any more time to think about this new surprise, because his double walked up to him and touched him on the forehead, and everything went black.