She raised her hands, closed her eyes, and centered herself so exactly that everything about her vanished from her attention. There was only the power within her, and the place where the Gate would begin.
She molded the power into a frame upon the physical frame of the doorway; building it layer upon layer until it was strong enough to act as an anchor to hold this place when she warped space back upon itself.
Then she began spinning out threads of energy from the framework; they drifted outward, seeking.
This is the place, she told them, silently willing them to find the real-world counterpart of the image in her mind. Where the rocks are so and the trees grow thus and the feel of the earth is in this manner -
They spun out, longer, finer, more attenuated. When they weakened, she fed them from within herself, spinning her own substance out and feeling it drawn out of her.
Now she was losing strength; it felt exactly as if she were bleeding from an open wound. And the power was not merely draining from her anymore, it was being pulled from her by the Gate itself. This was the point of greatest danger for a Herald-Mage; she was having to fight the Gate to keep from being drained right down to unconsciousness.
Then one of those questing power-threads caught on something, out beyond the farthest range of her sensing; another followed -
There was a silent explosion of light that she could see even through her closed lids, and the Gate Wove itself in an instant into a temporary, but stable, whole.
She dropped her hands, opened her eyes, and swayed with uttermost exhaustion; Kellan was there beside her in time for her to catch the pommel of her saddle to keep from falling.
The door of the Temple was no longer within the doorframe. Instead, the white marble - glowing now, even in the bright sunlight - framed a strange and twisted bit of landscape.
'That's where you're going?' Jaysen said doubtfully, looking at the weird shapes of rock, snow and sand that lay beyond the portal. It was snowing there, from black, lowering clouds; fat flakes drifting down through still, dark air. Savil nodded.
'That's it; that's the edge of the Pelagirs near Star-wind's territory. The other end is a cave entrance, so we'll have some shelter on the other side until Starwind and Moondance get there.'
'And if they don't?' Jaysen asked. 'Savil, I don't like to think of you two alone out in a place like that. The boy is next to useless, and you're exhausted.'
'Jays, it's quite possible that they'd take one look at you and kill you if they didn't see me right there with you,' she said, clinging to the saddle and trying to muster enough strength to climb into it. 'They're unbelievably territorial and secretive, and for good reasons - think for a minute, will you? They have to have known someone was tampering, stealing creatures they thought safely locked up. If they see a stranger and Sense he's Mage-Gifted, they're likely to strike first and ask questions of the corpse. And I mean that literally. I'm taking enough risk bringing the boy in, and he's plainly in need of help, and branded as mine. '
She gave up trying to be self-sufficient. 'Boost me up, will you?' she asked humbly.
Jaysen went her one better; with the help of Andrel he lifted her into place. 'Have you got everything you need?'
'I think so.' In actual fact, she was too tired to think; it was all she could do to keep her mind on the next step of the journey. 'Toss the firewood through.'
Four heavy bundles of dry, seasoned wood went through the Gate to land in the snow on the other side.
Vanyel whimpered beside her; she could see his face was creased with lines of pain. He's feeling it, like Andy thought he might. Better hurry.
'Mardic - ' she said quietly. 'Donni - '
Savil's proteges came solemnly to her stirrup; she held out her hands to them, and shared a moment of mind-melded intimacy with them that was more than 'farewell'; it was a sharing of gifts. Her pride in them and love and blessing - and their love and well-wishing for her.
'Lissa - '
The girl came to stand beside her students.
'I can't begin to thank you,' Savil began, awkward, as ever, with words.
'Thank me by bringing Van home well,' Lissa replied earnestly. 'That's all I want.' She reached up and squeezed Savil's hand once, then backed away.
The youngsters moved out of the way, and Jaysen and Andrel came to take their place without any prompting. She gave a hand to each, closing her eyes again, and opening herself to them in a melding even more intimate than she had shared with her students, for there were no secrets among the three of them, and nothing held back. What she had not told Mardic and Donni was that there might be no returning from this journey. If she failed with Vanyel, he might well destroy both of them, his Gifts were that powerful. Even now he moaned again in his drug-induced slumber, feeling the Gate energies despite a dose of narcotic that would have rendered a less sensitive Gifted unconscious for a week.
For a moment, she was angry. He could kill us, and do it without knowing what he was doing. Oh, gods. Gods, you owe him, dammit! You've taken his love - at the least give him something in return.
But she was too tired, too depleted to sustain even her anger at Fate or the gods or - whatever. Especially when this might really be farewell.
So this was a moment when she asked forgiveness of her friends for anything she might have done in the past - and they asked for and received the same from her.
When she raised her heavy, weary head, the two pairs of eyes, green and gray, that met hers were bright with tears that would not be shed - at least not now. She squeezed their hands, and let go; they stepped away from her as she straightened in her saddle, took a deep breath, and faced the Gate and the gray landscape beyond it. It
