“May we go inside?” I asked.
“Of course,” Eyrin said. We crossed over a glass-tiled bridge. A stream ran beneath us, and its musical sound echoed through the forest. We reached a set of double doors. An image of two goddesses, each holding jars, had been carved into the doors. Eyrin pushed the doors open, and we entered a domed room built inside the trees’ hollowed trunks.
Sounds of chanting voices came from ahead as we crossed a wooden floor with the mosaic of a tree surrounded by a gold-leafed sun depicted on its surface, and then entered a chapel. Several benches carved from the living trees lined the walls. A raised dais with a podium sat atop the platform.
The light in the room was muted in soft tones, coming from moonlight that drifted through the windows and sconces that grew from the walls. Housed within each were round orbs that glowed turquoise. The dancing lights reflected around the room, making it seem as if we were underwater.
At the room’s center, a group of elves wearing white robes stood around a pool surrounded by a low stone wall. Glancing at my ring, I couldn’t help but notice the similarities between the circular wall here and the one I’d found in the wild lands—the wall surrounding the magical plant where Kull had gotten the jewels in my ring.
The elves standing around the pool chanted, their voices mingling to create a haunting melody.
“Is that a scrying pool?” I asked quietly.
“Yes,” Eyrin answered. “We keep watch on the heavens at the moment.”
Watching the heavens? Did they know about the asteroid? “What are you watching for?” I asked.
“A piece of star directed toward our world—possibly headed for our world.”
“You can see it in the scrying pool?”
Eyrin nodded. “Do you know of the star I speak of?”
“I’ve heard of it.”
He cocked his head. “We weren’t aware that anyone knew of it. How do you?”
Because I’m the one who sent it on a collision course for our world. Of course, I couldn’t say that out loud. “It’s a lengthy explanation.”
“I see.”
As I stared at the pool, its magic reached out, calling to me. I’d felt magic like that before—but only a few times. Is it possible?
“May I look into the pool?” I asked.
He eyed me. “I don’t believe I’ve ever known an outsider to ask such a question, but yes, you may look.”
The pool’s magic called more urgently to me as I walked toward it. Shimmering lights of green and blue formed on the water’s surface, and the water’s gentle power warmed me. The chanting stopped as I reached it.
The elves glanced curiously at me as I knelt at the water’s edge and held my hand just above the surface. The stones in my engagement ring glowed a soft blue as the jewels interacted with the magic.
I glanced up at the elves. “Is this pure magic?”
“Once it was,” an older female elf answered. “The power in this pool is all that is left of the pure magic that once thrived on this island. Although its essence has been diluted, there is still a portion of its power that remains.”
“Your ring,” a male elf said. “Is it also powered with pure magic?”
“I’m not sure,” I said, keeping my hand just above the surface. Lucretian’s words resounded in my mind. “…powered by pure magic.”
As I studied the water, an image of the heavens formed. I saw the asteroid flying toward Earth, shockingly close, much closer than I had assumed.
Gasping, I looked up at the elves. “How long until it reaches us?”
“No more than three days,” the man said. “But you have nothing to fear; the star fragment will only pass by our world.”
Pass by us? That wasn’t likely while Theht controlled me. She would make sure it hit our planet. I knew that for sure.
And three days? How could that be possible? We should’ve had a week at least. Unless crossing through the portal from Earth to Faythander had taken more time than Kull and I realized. My heart raced as I watched the asteroid rush toward our world.
I lightly touched my fingertip to the water’s surface. A buzzing sensation filled my head, and I felt Theht’s presence awake before it retreated to the darkest corners of my mind where I couldn’t detect her.
I stood and backed away from the pool. Dizziness clouded my vision, and I had to breathe deeply to keep from passing out.
“You okay?” Kull asked, standing behind me.
I wasn’t sure how to answer. The asteroid would arrive in three days, and I felt no closer to finding a way to stop it. The only option we had left was to find Dracon’s sword, but then what? Did I let Kull kill me with it so we could destroy Theht in the process? There had to be another way.
Lucretian’s words came back to me.
Time was the one element that could be used to manipulate prophecy. Could we create another portal and manipulate time somehow? But as I pondered our situation, the dizziness didn’t seem to want to go away. Thinking through the brain fog was becoming impossible.
Kull rested his hand on my shoulder. His steady strength comforted me as he led me to one of the benches where we sat.
Frustration welled up inside me. It seemed time was now my enemy, as if I needed one more thing to compound my problems.
“What do we do, Kull?” I asked. “How do we stop this? How do we save the world now?”
He didn’t answer for a moment as he stared up toward the windows. “Olive, have you ever considered that perhaps, this time, we do nothing?”
I eyed him. “Nothing?”
He nodded.
“But we can’t just do nothing. If we do nothing, Theht wins.”
He shrugged. “She won’t win right this moment. Our answers will come—they always do. For now, I say we do nothing.”
“You sound like you’re giving up.” I had to admit—after all we’d been through, after saving the world
