I had to get to Jeremiah. I had to get inside that tower.
The figures dispersed.
On the few occasions I’d seen these beings, I’d been baffled as to who or what they were. There weren’t any species in Faythander that fit their description.
Ulizet’s voice filled my head. They are from the world yet undiscovered. Come, you will see what lies ahead.
I didn’t want to leave. I wanted to rush to Jeremiah and pull those awful tubes out of his head, but the scene shifted. Instead of standing inside a tower, I stood on a plain of barren rocks. I’d been here before—when I’d spellcasted the dream catcher.
Yet, this time, the vision seemed more real. A bitter taste of iron coated my tongue. A stiff breeze gusted past, chilling my exposed face and arms.
The vision I’d seen before replayed.
A woman stood on a mound at the center of the battlefield. Corpses were piled beneath her feet. Again, I was stricken by her unnatural beauty and her otherworldly presence. Her dark hair fell in a shimmery wave over her shoulders. Her armor looked pliable, yet impenetrable. Her eyes made me shudder. Three pupils fanned out from the center of her irises. She didn’t smile, she didn’t move, yet again, I got the impression that she was responsible for the deaths of thousands—millions, perhaps.
Theht, Ulizet whispered.
My mind reeled. How could this be Theht? Wasn’t he supposed to be male? But that concern was nothing compared with the horror I beheld. This was clearly a vision of the future.
The closer I scrutinized the scene, the more faces I recognized. My father’s eye peered from the tangle of bodies. I saw Kull, half his face ripped apart, part of his skull peeking through, buried beneath the bodies.
Under Theht’s feet, I saw myself. My scalp had been ripped away. Pieces of brain matter leaked from gashes in my cranium. My mouth slacked open in a soundless scream.
That’s when the smell hit me.
Nausea churned through my stomach. I wanted to gag. Stop, I pleaded with Ulizet. Please, make it stop.
When the scene finally shifted, the tree swayed overhead, though it did nothing to calm my heaving stomach. I rolled onto my side and vomited onto the spongy ground. When I finished, I crawled away, wishing I could erase the scene from my memory. I knew I never would. A picture like that is one you never forget.
“Theht,” I whispered. “She killed them.”
“Yes,” came Ulizet’s voice.
The stirring branches filled the silence. Somewhere far in the distance echoed the sound of chimes. I closed my eyes, but still the images played over and over. I saw my mother. I saw my godson. I saw myself.
“Are you certain this is the future?” I asked.
“The events are already in motion. Theht will destroy your world. She will destroy all who inhabit it.”
I wanted to vomit again but found my stomach empty. I rose onto my hands and knees. Ulizet stared at me with an expressionless face.
“When?” I asked her.
“I cannot say, but the events of her return are already set in motion.”
“What if I stop it? What if I rescue the children first?”
She pursed her lips as if deep in thought. “Stopping her summoning will delay what is to happen.”
“That’s better than nothing,” I sighed. I rose, feeling the spongy ground cushion my feet. A cold sweat slicked my skin as if I’d awoken from a nightmare. I tapped my pocket and felt the pure magic tucked inside. Hopelessness tried to overwhelm me, but one thought drove me forward. I had to rescue those kids.
“Can you transport me to Mog’s Keep?”
Ulizet’s voice remained even. “To do so would require another payment. I will not risk your life, Deathbringer.”
“I’ll pay. Whatever the price, I’ll pay it.”
“I cannot.”
“Not even to save those children?”
“I cannot,” she repeated.
I wanted to collapse. I wanted to curl up on the ground and sleep for three weeks. What good could I do now? The pixie kingdom lay on the opposite side of the world from the goblin lands. It might as well be on Mars. It would take days of constant travel just to reach it by the end of the week.
Judging by the vision I’d had in the tower, I estimated I had hours.
“Please,” I pleaded with Ulizet. “Isn’t there some way?”
“I dare not help you.”
“But those kids will die. My godson will die!”
She didn’t answer.
“You know how important this is. You’ve seen the vision. You know the consequences.”
“Preserving your life is of greater importance.”
I was getting nowhere. Time for a new approach. “All right, you can’t help me. I get it. I’ll find another way. Is there some way you could point me in the right direction?”
She didn’t say no immediately, which I took as a good sign. “You have the ability within you.”
“I do?”
She nodded.
This was news to me. “How do I find it?”
“Look within yourself. In your memory, you hold the key to defying the barriers of space.”
Her words reminded me of something. Peerling’s text. What had it said exactly? I closed my eyes, recalling the words. It was easier for me to do than one might expect. My power lay within words. I took them seriously. The text came to me as if from a dream.
The possibilities of where your imagination might take you are limitless. There is no wall or barrier your own thoughts cannot penetrate.
When I’d first read the passage, I’d assumed he’d meant that the imagination could help you view worlds and places you’d never been, but strictly within the boundaries of one’s own mind. Yet, did he hint at something else? Was it possible to use the power of the imagination to actually transport your physical body? If so, then how?
I pulled my mother’s ring from my pocket. In the silvery light of the tree, the diamond looked ethereal. I held the ring in my palm. I’d already discovered its magical word. Enter. I’d used it to kill a beast.
