I grabbed Victor’s arm, and my brows drew together. “Wait! What about my father? I want to see where they took him. We have to go back into the tapestry.” My eyes lit up with the possibilities. “If he is still alive, I can find him.”
Victor shook his head. “Absolutely not! It is too dangerous. I never expected the tapestry to work like this. Dragath’s power has grown within Joreth—he has become more powerful than before. It will no longer be possible to go unnoticed.”
Penelope moved past me and blocked Victor’s path. “You should have told us.” Her eyes flashed dangerously, sharp as steel. “So that we were prepared.”
Brother Victor sighed. “I would have if I knew how it worked. He shouldn’t have seen us. No one else could except Dragath himself.” He gave me a pointed look. “And it is important the Dawnstar has all the necessary information needed to defeat the Dark Lord.”
“But now you must go,” Brother Sebastian interrupted. “You need to take back the Dagger before Joreth has a chance to use it.”
“How can I if I don’t know where he is?”
Victor looked at Brother Sebastian as if trying to make a decision. “We will try the scrying table again. Come.”
We descended the stone tower, and Victor led us back to the library and to the room at the back where the scrying table was located.
“Joreth must be somewhere in the center of his army. Getting to him will be extremely difficult,” said Rafe.
“But not impossible,” I added.
“No, not impossible.” Penelope wrung her hands. “But when we saw him earlier with Andromeda, he didn’t seem to be with his army—only a few soldiers and Drakaar. If we can figure out where he is, we may be able to get to the Dagger before he rejoins his army. We need to see the area where he is camped.”
Victor waved his staff and the fog in the scrying table shifted slightly and reformed. It showed us a small encampment at the foot of a gigantic mountain range, a twilight glow blanketing the valley.
“That is dwarven territory,” gasped Penelope, inspecting the rocky landscape that lay before us. “Those are not the Cascade Mountains. They are the Silverspike Mountains.”
Rafe put his hands on the edge of the table, his sharp eyes scanning the scrying table. “Stonegate.”
Penelope rubbed her hand over her face. “What could be so important he would leave his army and go so far into dwarven territory?”
Victor waved his staff over the table, and the fog changed.
Joreth was still in his tent when the tent flap opened and a guard came in. “You have a visitor, general.”
Joreth nodded. “Send him in.”
A short, squat man with a broad chest and clipped brown beard came into the tent.
“A dwarf,” said Victor, his eyes narrowing. He rested his hands on the edge of the table and peered carefully at the scene within it.
“That’s Drimli, Ranthor’s cousin,” Rafe said, recognizing the newcomer. “What’s he doing there?”
“Maybe he has come to negotiate?” offered Brother Sebastian.
Penelope shot a dark look at the druid. “Ranthor would never negotiate. He knows Stonegate can’t be breached.”
“I think we might have a problem,” said Victor, his gaze fixated on the events unfolding hundreds of miles away.
We looked back to the table. “Wait for the signal by the western gate,” Drimli said. “You can enter from there.”
Joreth smiled. “And you are sure Ranthor has Silverthorne’s key?”
Drimli grinned. “The old mage believed this to be the best place to hide it. Once I get rid of my cousin, Ranthor, you shall have the key you seek.”
Joreth and Drimli shook hands.
“I think you will make a perfect new king for the dwarves, Drimli.”
Drimli nodded briskly and left.
I drew back as if I had been slapped. “The last key to the Book of Abraxas is in Stonegate.”
“And Joreth found the only way Stonegate can be breached,” said Rafe, his eyes sharp as he drew back from the table. “Betrayal.”
Penelope turned to Rafe and me, her eyes like ice chips. “We have to warn Ranthor. There isn’t much time. We need to leave now.”
Rafe’s eyes narrowed and he shook his head. “We will never reach them in time, Penelope. You cannot create a portal over such a distance.” He looked at me. “Aurora could have done it, but that was before . . .”
I put my hands on my hips and glared at him. “Before what?” I snapped. “Say it, Rafe, everybody else does.”
Rafe shook his head. “I wasn’t blaming you, Aurora, I was merely stating a fact. If you had all your magic, you could have portaled there immediately.”
I hung my head, disgusted with myself at my sudden and unruly outburst. I knew he wasn’t blaming me, but every time someone reminded me of what I had lost, a great sadness and pain welled up inside me in the place where my magic had been.
“Because of Dragath’s curse you cannot portal off this island anyway,” Victor interrupted. “You would have to return to the mainland by ship and then portal from there. And now that he knows where you are, all the Drakwraiths left here to keep trespassers off the island will be looking for you. They will be waiting for you near the harbor and along the coast. Your ship will not have any survivors.”
Penelope flashed a worried look at me. “If Drimli lets Joreth into the fortress, all will be lost. Once he has the last key to the Book of Abraxas, there will be nothing stopping him from raising the Dark Lord. And now that we know he has Azaren, he doesn’t need Aurora’s blood to break Dragath’s bonds. He will kill Azaren and raise the demon lord along with all his powers.”
“We have to get there somehow.” I clenched my hands into fists. “I am not going to let him kill my father.”
“Once Dragath rises, he will use the Dagger to open a portal to the
