“What do you know?” Alena asked, unable to keep the curiosity or eagerness out of her voice.
“There is much knowledge that could be traded,” Dunne said.
Alena held up a hand, sensing the direction of the conversation. No, she signed. “There is no trade. Not for this. If I may aid you, I will. I ask for nothing in return.”
Dunne shared a glance with Sooni. Though Sooni’s posture had barely changed, Alena thought she detected a hint of pride there.
Agreed, Dunne signed. “Sooni raised you well.”
“The credit is hers,” Alena replied. She felt her own flush of pride. Something about this family of hers made her want to impress them. She wanted them to know she was worth the risk they had taken with her so many years ago.
“Our gate is failing,” Dunne announced.
Alena took several heartbeats to work that statement out, but she couldn’t unravel Dunne’s meaning. “Isn’t the gate shattered?”
“Shattered and broken aren’t necessarily the same thing,” Dunne replied. “Perhaps it would be easier to show than to tell.” She came to her feet smoothly, moving like a woman half her age.
Dunne led Sooni and Alena deeper into Cardon, toward the tent at the center of the city.
Alena’s heart raced. She’d seen one gate in person and it had changed her life. The objects were the most powerful in the land, and few even knew they existed, at least in the empire.
Another bit of pride made her grin. Not bad for a child from Landow. All she had ever wanted was to escape, and now her emperor knew her by name and she was summoned by the elders of the Etari. She had done well for herself, and if she learned more about the gates, there was no telling what she might accomplish.
She squashed the thoughts before long. Her brother was near, and her actions had torn his life into shreds for years. Accomplishment meant nothing if it required such sacrifices.
Dunne passed the layers of guards around the tent without slowing, Alena and Sooni having to step faster just to keep up.
Alena whispered to Sooni, “Have you ever seen it?”
No, she signed. Alena wasn’t surprised. Sooni would be an elder one day, but hadn’t earned that honor yet.
The three women entered the tent together. Two men sat within, but Alena barely noticed them. The broken gate at the heart of the tent claimed her entire attention.
That the gate was here had been nothing but a guess on Alena’s part. In her years with the clans, no one had mentioned it. But Cardon made sense. It had been Alena’s guess from the moment she learned the Etari possessed a gate. Cardon was the only permanent settlement in Etar. One clan was always responsible for guarding Cardon, though the responsibility shifted between clans. When she’d lived among the Etari, she’d assumed Cardon had some cultural or religious significance.
But it was always the gate.
The shattered gate.
At first glance, it had much in common with the one outside Landow. It was made of diamond, lit by a dim blue glow.
The glow surprised her.
The gate was active.
Even though it had been shattered.
The gate outside Landow had been an arch, a shape shared by this one. But only a fragment remained here, jutting from the ground at a slight angle. Where the other foundation of the arch should have been there was nothing but a hole.
A hole that glowed with pale blue light.
Alena glanced over at Dunne for permission. The elder gave her an affirmative hand sign.
Alena stepped closer, looking down into the hole.
It was deeper than she imagined. If she climbed in, it would have swallowed her and then some. At the bottom of the hole she saw the now-familiar glowing blue diamond.
Alena took a step back and kneeled down. She closed her eyes and brushed the world of souls. She sensed the gate, bright against her senses.
Alena opened her eyes and looked over at Dunne. “It’s not an arch. It’s an oval.”
Dunne grunted and turned to Sooni. “Is she always this observant?” The jest was made without malice.
Sooni chuckled.
Alena defended herself. “The one I encountered before was embedded in stone. I never imagined it was anything more than an arch.”
“A closed loop is more powerful than a broken one,” Dunne replied. Her words sounded like something she’d memorized long ago.
The light in the tent suddenly dimmed. Again, it took Alena a heartbeat to understand. Then she saw the glow had faded from the gate.
Dunne spoke before Alena could ask a question. “Try to use your gatestone.”
Alena frowned but obeyed. She focused on the stone embedded near her navel, focusing her affinity through it.
Nothing happened.
The light in the gate returned.
Alena felt the power in her gatestone return with the light.
She turned to Dunne. “Your gate is failing.”
The elder arched an eyebrow. “That is what I said.”
Alena had a dozen questions, but she started with the easiest. “How?”
“If I knew the answer to that I wouldn’t have had Sooni summon you. Soulwalking has been outlawed from our land for generations. This is a problem far beyond our skill.”
Alena forgot herself and nodded. Her mind was already working on the problem. As much as she wished otherwise, it had to be the queen. Somehow she attacked the Etari as well as the empire.
“Can you repair it?”
“I don’t know,” Alena admitted. “But I’ll try.”
15
The mountains of Falar reached for the sky before them. During their breaks, Brandt stared at the pristine peaks, considering it a pity that such a beautiful sight only pulled terrible memories from his past.
He’d been sent to the Falari border as one of his first assignments, long before his acceptance as a candidate for wolfblade training. He’d been young, filled with both excitement and fear, like nearly everyone in his unit.
The empire rotated almost all its troops through service at the border. The army believed it important for all active warriors to possess
