They had stumbled into a cave with two chambers that he could see. The trickle sounded as though it came from the second. He wandered forward, finding a trickle of water dropping from the ceiling. He put his head underneath and filled his mouth several times.
The water was metallic, but it was water.
After a few drinks, he lit the way for Ana, who repeated his process.
Their thirst temporarily sated, they looked at each other. Words weren’t necessary.
They couldn’t fight. They couldn’t move. Rest called to them both.
Brandt found a space to sit down in, and Ana came and squeezed herself next to him. Brandt let his fire die out, pitching them into nearly complete darkness.
Brandt pulled out his sword and lay it next to him. If the invaders came, he would do what he could. It was pitifully little, but he would die with a sword in hand. He would protect Ana until the end. He watched the direction they had come, looking for any slight variation of light and shadow that would indicate a visitor.
He didn’t even notice when he fell asleep.
But he noticed when his dream world exploded in light and sound.
The world of his dream shifted from heartbeat to heartbeat. One moment he was looking down on a green and fertile land. The next he hovered above Highkeep, watching himself train with the other monks.
Then another land, stretches of endless desert that extended as far as his eye could see.
He saw the invaders in an unfamiliar forest.
Fights broke out between different groups of the invaders.
As the scenes passed in front of him, he began to sense a connection, as though he was being pulled along a series of invisible threads.
The landscapes shifted, and his dreams were memories. He and the other wolfblades approached Landow.
Then he was there, fighting against a bandit in the woods. He was in the streets of Landow, hovering above the battle like an indifferent god. Kyler died as a building collapsed on top of him, his life ended by one with his own affinity.
He watched Lola’s life end, too. And he saw the moment Ana would regret for the rest of her life, when she gave in to fear for the first and last time as a wolfblade.
He watched his own brush with death, and this time he heard the different songs, the notes they played as he and the bandit battled with their elements. Still impassive, he observed his defeat.
Another shift, and Brandt saw Ryder and a young woman running away, pursued by a bandit far stronger than either of them. In the end, Ryder turned and fought, knowing the outcome was as good as inevitable.
That moment, perhaps more than any other, broke the emotional shield surrounding Brandt. The others had respected nobility. Their sacrifices were… expected, he guessed. Ryder hadn’t suffered from the same outlook. Yet he had given his life for another.
A wolfblade, till the last beat of his heart.
The scenes sped by. Brandt recovered from his wounds and fell in with the same young woman Ryder had protected. He left town, followed by the woman, and his dream went dark.
Some part of him knew it was a dream, but some part argued that it wasn’t, that this was true.
He heard a new song, richer than any he had heard before. It was elemental, but more.
He turned, searching for the sound in the darkness. Then he saw another man, standing still. He was dressed in rich robes, and his face was familiar, although Brandt couldn’t quite place it.
“I’m sorry that I cannot show you more, but she has protected her agent too well.”
Brandt frowned, not quite understanding, until he did. His eyes widened as realizations struck him, one after the other.
Emperor Anders I stood before him.
Dead over two hundred years, and yet somehow alive in his dream.
It couldn’t be a dream.
“It is,” Anders said. “It was a chance to pierce the veil, and a risk that needed to be taken. You must listen. Your answers are in Landow. Her agent has found the gate, and they seek to open it. If the invaders reach it, the empire may crumble.”
Brandt didn’t understand. He was just coming to terms with the idea that some manifestation of Anders I stood in front of him.
Until it didn’t.
Anders I uttered a choked-off cry as a strong cold wind swept through the dream, sending everything to blackness once again.
When Brandt opened his eyes, he saw a sliver of light penetrating through the slit into the first cavern they had entered.
Somehow, he felt wonderful.
Which didn’t make sense. He had rested, but he had just pushed his body harder than he ever had before. His muscles should be sore and exhausted. He hadn’t even eaten, yet his stomach felt like it had just finished digesting a feast.
Ana stirred, and then her eyes came wide open. She blinked at him. “What?”
“How do you feel?” Brandt asked.
She wiped at her eyes. “I thought I heard bells waking me up, as though alerting me to something.” She paused, registering Brandt’s question. “And I feel great.”
She looked up at him, confusion and a hint of fear in her gaze. “What happened?”
Brandt shook his head. “I don’t know. But I think we need to hurry to Landow.”
52
The only sight worse than battle was the aftermath of one. Alena wanted to be anyplace but here, but her obligation was here to her family. People she knew, people she had spent every day of the past several years with had made their journey to the gates.
Alena walked through the battlefield, searching for anyone she recognized from Sooni’s family. The wounded had already been escorted off for whatever healing they could receive. Only the dead remained.
Alena missed Azaleth’s presence. He had taken a deep cut during the fight and had been ordered to seek treatment so infection
