I took the rope, laid it on the deck, and then turned back to him. “Tell me, how long have you been acting? Since you met me?”
“What?” He laughed. “Of course not.” He held out his hand. “Time to board. Are you ready to go home?”
I paused before taking his hand. Did I really need him? Wasn’t there any possible way to get home without him? My heart was getting too involved, and I feared I no longer exercised clear judgment when I was around him.
But once I got home, none of this would matter anyway. I would remember nothing, like it had never happened. That final thought gave me hope as I took his hand and stepped into the skiff.
I took a seat on one of the white-cushioned benches as Maveryck cranked the engine and then steered us away from the harbor. Again, I was clueless at his ability to control a motorized boat.
“How do you know how to drive this?” I asked him.
“It’s not so different from a Faythander vessel. Elven engines function with many of the same principles as the engines here, albeit their fuel is different—but that doesn’t seem to make much of a difference.”
“Yet you seem uncannily comfortable in this world. Why?”
“You’re right,” he agreed. “I’ve spent some time on Earth.”
“You must have been here for years to know as much as you do.”
He only smiled, and then he glanced behind us. His constant watchfulness was starting to annoy me.
“Do you see something?” I asked.
“No… I don’t see anything. It’s just—something else. Something feels wrong.”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know.”
“Is the wraith following us?”
He shook his head as if to clear his mind. “I wish I knew.”
I tapped my fingers on the knife concealed under my jacket, feeling uncomfortable that we hadn’t seen the wraith since we began our journey. If he was following us, he was doing a good job of it. Hopefully he’d died from his injuries and we would never have to confront him again, but I doubted it. The most likely explanation was that he’d used magic to conceal his whereabouts. He could be right behind us and we’d never know until he slaughtered us both and stole the crystal.
The rushing wind and sea spray made the air uncomfortably cool, and I rubbed my arms together for warmth. Our boat’s lantern cast a beam of light over the dark water, and in the distance, I spotted rolling hills in front of a backdrop of stars. The roaring engine echoed through the harbor until we finally made it away from the small port, leaving the shelter of the cliffs, and continued out to the open ocean.
After a short time, Maveryck slowed the boat as he studied a map he’d pulled from his pack. Small waves lapped against the boat’s hull as we waited. Soon, Maveryck rolled the paper and continued forward.
Hours passed with nothing but the biting cold as our constant companion. The wind picked up with a shrill howl when we finally spotted the island. The jagged landmass seemed to cut through the sky.
Maveryck circled the island several times before finding a place to dock the boat.
“You’re sure this is the right place?” I asked as we stepped off the boat and onto the sand.
“Yes. There aren’t any other islands out here except this one.”
I stared across the beach—at the swaying palm trees, the rocky cliffs, and at the moon reflecting over the ocean. “How will we find the portal?”
“Naturally occurring portals usually form in water or in caves. The map shows the entrance to a cave in this horseshoe-shaped cove. Let’s hope we find it.” He glanced around the beach, his newly acquired nervous gesture that bothered me to no end, and then he switched on an Earth lantern and walked toward the cliffs. Except for our footsteps shifting in the sand, there was no sound—no night birds or boat engines, no lights at all except for our own.
Eventually, we walked into a grassy field. Up ahead, the dark shapes of cliffs loomed. Sharp grass cut my legs as we walked, making me wish I’d worn my leather pants. This was why Maveryck had no sense. When going on a quest, never let your companion wear a flimsy dress.
We reached the bottom of the cliff face. The crumbling rock and large boulders spread across the ground, as if half the mountain had recently collapsed. I picked my way over the stones, my feet crunching stray pebbles, until Maveryck stopped and shone his light at an opening.
It was too dark to see inside the cave, but even from this distance, I felt a chill emanating from it.
“Is this it?” I asked.
“Let’s hope so.” We climbed a small hill, and then we entered the cave. The mountain soon blocked out the moonlight, leaving us in darkness except for the lantern.
“Do the Earthlanders know about this cave?” I asked.
“It’s possible, but even if they did, most Earthlanders avoid places where Faythander magic bleeds through. Faythander and Earth magic don’t cooperate well, and in an area like this, where the two are connected, the combination usually makes for a pretty unstable place. I’d bet there have been plenty of tremors and rockslides in this area.”
Up ahead, a faint blue light glowed. We followed the source of the light until we entered a domed chamber with a large pool of glowing water at its center.
“Is this the portal?” I asked.
Maveryck knelt over the pool and held his hand above the water. “There’s magic in the water, but it feels distant.”
“What do you mean?”
“I think the portal is somewhere else. There might be a river underground, but I can’t be sure unless I dive under there and look.”
I paced along the edge of the shore. White sand covered the ground, and the
