figure veiled in black shadows.
“Bad,” Chandra agreed, aware of a chill in her blood as she studied the silently watchful creature.
“Kill,” Jurl repeated.
This thing seemed familiar… She realized that it reminded her of the ghost warden she had destroyed on Regatha.
That wasn’t the sort of incident she wanted to repeat here. She intended to leave Diraden unnoticed, not create a commotion and attract attention. And she wanted to enter the?ther in a sane and steady manner, not to reenact her frantic and nearly fatal departure from Kephalai.
“No,” she said to Jurl. “I won’t kill it. All that thing has seen is a woman and a goblin drinking water. So what if it tells? Let’s go quietly now.”
As she turned to go, the goblin grunted, obviously dissatisfied.
When they had traveled some distance, Jurl said, “Now eat?”
She thought of his recent meal, which she had interrupted, and said truthfully, “I’m not that hungry.”
“Sleep?”
“No, I’m going to leave,” she said decisively. Diraden was no place to linger.
“Leave where?”
“It’s complicated.”
“Leave now?”
“Soon.” And since she didn’t want the goblin asking questions while she prepared to planeswalk, it was time to bid him farewell. “Thank you for taking me to water, Jurl. You’ve been, um, a good host.”
“Still hungry.” Jurl nodded at some nearby bushes. “Hunt.”
“Enjoy.” She tried not to think about it. “Goodbye.”
“Wait here. Jurl bring food.”
Jurl turned and entered the nearby thicket. Chandra had been wrong in her initial assumption that his long arms would drag on the ground. He walked with them bent sharply at the elbows, shoulders wide and forearms dangling at his sides, and he could move with surprising speed and silence.
Chandra turned away and continued walking as she considered her options. Not wanting to be there if the Jurl did return, she decided it would be best to return to the ruins where she had arrived, since the crumbling walls offered a little cover. It also made sense to her to open a path to the Blind Eternities at same spot she had entered the plane.
Fortunately, the journey to water had not taken her very far from the place she sought. She retraced her steps without difficulty and arrived back at the ruins before long. The crumbling, lichen-covered walls looked stark and foreboding in the eerie, eternal night.
As her gaze traveled over her stony destination, Chandra was surprised to see a flash of bright white light explode silently from within the ruins, although she couldn’t see what had caused it. A stone wall stood between her and the source of the sudden, bold flare.
She froze in her tracks. She didn’t think this source of bright light had anything to do with this dark Prince Velrav, but wanted to be cautious, none the less.
She stretched out her senses in order to call on the mana of the Keralian Mountains as a means to protect herself. A flash of panic washed through her when she realized she could scarcely feel it.
Breathe, she told herself, smothering the fear. Breathe.
She concentrated. She focused on her memory of other planes, of other sources, but she still couldn’t feel that flow of red mana. How was that possible? She was feeling stronger, better than she had a while ago, but she couldn’t establish a mana bond.
Stop. Think.
She squared her shoulders and moved forward, her footfalls silent on the damp ground. Whatever was going on inside these stony ruins, she needed this space to commence her planeswalk back to Regatha. And, if necessary, she would make her temporary claim on these ruins clear to others. With or without the use of magic.
She crept up to the walls of the ruins, stepped quietly over some fallen stones, and peered around a corner, looking to the spot where the burst of light seemed to have originated.
She saw a man rising slowly to his feet as he seemed to gather himself and reconnoiter his surroundings.
Chandra saw two dark smudges on his tan leggings where he had been kneeling in the mud. His long, tousled hair hung in his face as he turned toward Chandra.
When the man saw her staring at him, he went still.
After a brief pause, he said, “Hello, Chandra.”
Cold shock washed through her. “Gideon.”
I wasn’t sure you’d still be alive. That was some walk you took.” Gideon’s voice was dry.
“How did you…” Chandra’s heart was pounding as she realized what the answer had to be. “You followed me? You followed my trail through the Blind Eternities?”
He nodded. Just one small, downward movement of his chin. No motion wasted.
“Planeswalker,” she breathed, still stunned. She hadn’t forgotten the promises she’d made to herself about what she’d do if she ever found him again, but this revelation changed things a bit.
There was no wonder he had been able to catch her off guard and capture her so easily in that street back on Kephalai. A planeswalker! He would be at least as powerful as she was. And he was a little older than she, so he was probably more experienced, more skilled at using his power, given that he’d had more time to learn and practice.
Gideon’s gaze traveled over her. “I see that you’re all right now.”
Apart from looking like he’d taken a tumble when he entered this plane, his appearance was exactly the same as it had been.
She said, “Apparently that walk didn’t do you any harm.”
He gave a small, dismissive shrug. “I had time to prepare.”
And he evidently knew that she hadn’t.
Chandra was impressed that he had been able to follow the erratic trail of her confused wandering through the Blind Eternities. That had certainly taken skill.
Impressed-and disturbed. Why had he bothered?
She doubted she’d like his reasons, whatever they were.
“Where are we?” Gideon asked.
“You don’t know?”
“I was following you,” he reminded her.
“I got lost,” she said irritably.
“I could tell.” He looked around. “So you don’t know where we are?”
“It’s called Diraden. What are you doing here?”
He walked past her, moving beyond the ruined stone walls to look out over the landscape. “Like I said, I followed you.”
“Why?”
“Everything’s dying here,” he observed.
“Where’s my scroll?” Chandra demanded, noticing that he didn’t have it on him in any obvious place.
“It’s not your scroll.” Gideon walked over to a tree, examined the naked branches, and used his foot to brush aside some loose dirt.
“It’s not yours, either!” Chandra said.
“No,” he agreed absently as he knelt down to touch the ground. He picked up a handful of damp soil, closed his fist around it, and inhaled deeply as he looked up at the sky.
“Where is it?” Chandra demanded.
Gideon was scarcely paying attention to her, which irked her. He stood upright again, looked into the distance, and said quietly, “Everything is wrong here.”
“I asked you a question,” she said with gritted teeth.
Ignoring her comment, he brushed past her and walked back into the ruins. Chandra followed him. When she started to speak again, he held up a hand to silence her. He was circling the spot where he had arrived on this
