faring.”
“Hah!” Karleah chortled. “Had you really been concerned about me, you would have come to see me.” She tapped his knee again, suddenly serious. “Why are you here, Flinn?” She gestured toward the door with her staff. “I appreciate your bringing the boy to me, for I am fond of him. But you could have let him make his way here on his own. He would have found me. You came for another reason.”
Flinn nodded. “Yes. I… need answers.”
“To…?” Karleah queried.
Flinn pulled out his pouch of abelaat stones and spilled the crystals into his hand. “To these-and more.” He looked at the wizardess and then asked calmly, “What do you take in payment?”
The old woman’s eyes were lost in the wrinkles of her face. Flinn grew increasingly uncomfortable in the silence. “The payment is usually in blood, Fain Flinn, for answers like those you seek,” she said slowly. “But from you I want something else. Give me four of the crystals made with Johauna Menhir’s blood.”
Flinn looked at her curiously. “Granted, provided you tell me why you want those stones in particular. And further, how did you know that some of these stones were made with Jo’s blood?” he asked.
“The vail vine is more than a toll. It also ‘reads’ a person’s history so that I know who enters my valley. But the vine couldn’t read much of your squire’s life, save that she’d been bitten by an abelaat.” Karleah warmed to the subject. “There’s something about abelaat spittle that defies detection. It’s very difficult to spy on someone like Jo, even using crystals made with the abelaat’s own blood.”
Karleah reached over and took four of the dark red crystals from Flinn’s hand. “These were inside your squire a long time. They are well made and probably more powerful than most other human-blood crystals I’ve seen. Johauna nearly lost her life in making these. Although these stones won’t allow communication like those made of the abelaat’s blood-”
“But we heard Verdilith through one of Jo’s crystals when she saw him in his lair,” Flinn interjected.
“So the vines told me,” the old woman nodded. “The vision was too tiny for you to see in the stone, but I believe Verdilith was using a crystal to spy on you at the same time. If two stones are used simultaneously between two parties, communication is possible.” Karleah paused. “However, there is a second explanation for your hearing the dragon through the stone.”
“What is the second? And is this the reason why you want Jo’s crystals as opposed to the abelaat’s?” Flinn held up the remaining amber crystals.
The old woman sighed and looked at the crystals she held. “The stones made from Johauna’s blood may be used only to communicate with Johauna, or for her to communicate with someone else-which is what she did with Verdilith.” Karleah paused unexpectedly, then chewed her lower lip. “Furthermore,” she continued slowly, “there is a possibility-however slight-of using these crystals to communicate whenever you choose.”
“ Whenever I choose?” Flinn asked sharply. “What do you mean, Karleah? I don’t understand.”
The old woman was quiet, as if weighing her words. Flinn moved to speak, but she held up a hand warningly. “Do not hurry me, Fain Flinn,” Karleah said. She pursed her lips, blowing air through them in a soundless whistle. At last she spoke. “It is true that some crystals can cut across not only the barriers of space but those of time as well. They allow communication across the years,” she said slowly, “even with someone who is dead… Yes, some of the stones are that powerful. But the effort to make such contact is immense and requires much skill.”
Flinn stared at the crystals in his hand. “Tomorrow I am going to the Castle of the Three Suns to right a wrong done to me seven years ago. Can the crystals be used to see an event that happened in the past?” Slowly he looked over to the wizardess.
“You wish to prove your innocence, is that it?” Karleah asked sharply. Flinn only nodded, and the old woman shook her head in response. “Flinn, look to your heart when you confront those who wronged you. You don’t need magic when you have truth,” she said solemnly.
Flinn continued to gaze at her. He sighed lightly. “You’re right, Karleah Kunzay, and I thank you for that. Truth is on my side, and with words I will make the council see that truth.” He tucked the remaining crystals back into his purse. “You have the gift of second sight, don’t you?” he asked quietly a moment later.
Karleah nodded. “It’s true I have the gift-or the curse, as the case may be. It has become a fickle one of late.” She paused and then continued, her eyes intent on the warrior. “However, it would be a simple matter to see what lies in your future, for it is a short one, Fain Flinn.” Her expression didn’t change.
Flinn’s brows drew together in a knot. He had expected nothing else. He shoved the thought aside for now and looked down at his hands. “And… and the girl’s future?” he asked tightly.
The old woman’s eyes glazed over. She spoke a moment later, her voice low and deep. “You meet your doom, Fain Flinn, the day you join Verdilith in battle. If your friends are with you, they will share your fate.” Karleah’s tiny eyes focused again on Flinn.
The warrior rubbed a callus on his left hand. “Your prophecies of doom interest me little, old woman,” he said, his voice deliberately distant. “If I must fight the wyrm, I must fight it.”
“Yes, but must your comrades?” she rejoined.
Flinn knew the answer to that question. He couldn’t bear to see Johauna die because of him, but neither could he bear to live without her. Not just yet, he thought, then closed his mind to the subject. Flinn considered what other questions he would ask the witch. He opened his mouth, intending to ask whether the slaying of Verdilith would restore Wyrmblight. Somehow the words, “What will happen if I don’t seek Verdilith?” came out instead. Flinn hadn’t even been aware of the thought, and he was ashamed he had voiced it.
The old woman smiled gently at him. “You know the answer to that question as well as I, Fain Flinn. The question is moot because you will hunt the dragon.” She shrugged.
Flinn returned her look, and after a while his lips grew rueful. Karleah Kunzay was right. He could no longer live a life without honor, without following the Quadrivial. Slaying Verdilith and avenging both Bywater and himself would ensure that he attained all the points of the Quadrivial.
His thoughts took a different turn. For Jo’s sake, he could live without following his knightly code of ethics. They could build another cabin-a larger one. They could forget about vows of honor and live a blissful life, cut off from the troubled world. A blissful life? he thought. I am a fool. A fool and a coward. I cannot turn back from the path now. I cannot betray Johauna’s faith and belief in me. I must slay Verdilith.
Karleah Kunzay coughed once, discreetly, to draw his attention. “I think it’s time, Flinn, for you to use the abelaat’s crystals,” the old woman’s voice was sharp and high-pitched. Her thin hand trembled before she rested it on her staff.
Flinn stared at her. “For what purpose?” His voice was singularly gruff, and he fixed his gaze on the wizardess.
“To see what you are to face. It’s time you take a look at your enemy.”
“The dragon will see us as well, Karleah,” Flinn argued. “And I won’t put you in jeopardy for an action of mine, not as I did the town of Bywater.” He shook his head.
The crone held up a hand, halting Flinn’s refusal. “The wyrm won’t see us, for this valley is protected well from such as he. But we will see what he is planning, and thus you will be forewarned.” Karleah brought out a copper brazier and filled it with small embers from the hearth’s fire. When the brazier was ready, she asked Flinn for one of the abelaat’s stones. She looked at it closely.
“Hastily made. I’d say they won’t be good for much. But let’s see what we’ll find out with this one. Hopefully we’ll learn enough so we don’t have to use another.” She placed the crystal in the brazier, and both she and Flinn peered into the basin. “Concentrate on the dragon, but don’t call out his name. We can talk because the dragon won’t be able to see or hear us through my wards unless we say his name.” After a pause, Karleah said, “It’s starting.”
The old wizardess drew some powdered quartz from a pouch and sprinkled it over the burning embers, taking care not to scatter any on the crystal itself. “I’ve enlarged the crystal so we won’t have to peer so closely into it. Ahhh, here we are.”
Flinn looked at the crystal, which Karleah’s magicks had enlarged ten times. As before, he caught the sensation of movement first. Then the images shimmered and coalesced into a coherent vision.
Flinn gave one anguished cry, “No!” and jumped to his feet, knocking over the bench behind him. The warrior leaped across the floor and out the door.
