Erin had been following the news before they returned this week, and she knew about the three girls in the car accident, one maimed, one dead, and the other paralyzed. She knew the police had been looking for Anna and now patrolled the hospital where she lay. And she’d certainly heard about Anna then reappearing on the highway and being struck by a car. That wasn’t supposed to happen. Something was terribly wrong for several reasons, mainly because no one on Earth should have been trying to summon the Ellorian Champions a thousand years since the last time they did. All of them would have been long dead by now. But the Ellorians had also never just returned to where they had been before a summoning. They had always gone to their Home Rings from a Quest Ring. This modern world offered a horrible danger that all of them had just realized with Anna’s fate now caught in it.
After the recent events, the private investigator she used had grilled her a little about her persistent interest in the Stonehenge Four. He had helped her collect supposed magic items from around the world for years, making inquiries about a purchase on her behalf. Now he had asked her to explain about the pendant the girl Anna wore. She only said that it might have once been magical. This was true, except that she—and likely she alone—already knew what it was and what it did. Or had done. If she remembered right, the pendant’s power should be spent by now. She couldn’t tell this to her investigator because he would never understand.
Before now, she had only asked him to find addresses and biographical information of the Stonehenge Four, not hack into financial records to figure out where people might be staying. So Erin wove the truth through a story that the girl’s pendant was partly responsible for the four disappearing. It was dangerous to them and she had to warn them, but with reporters and now people after them, she couldn’t find them and needed his help. All of this was true, except that the pendant itself posed no danger. They had already set the effect of returning it to Stonehenge after a thousand years in motion.
He had grudgingly accepted the explanation, wanting to know what she was looking for. Trying to think like an old friend of hers, who was far better at this, she had reasoned that the rich one, Ryan, was likely paying for lodging somewhere but under another name. None of their parents could lend support because if they opened an investigation into Anna or the others, the same financial records Erin wanted to use would track their whereabouts. It had to be someone else.
Her hunch had been correct, but it wasn’t until Ryan’s attorney bailed him out, revealing his identity, that they got another name to check and learned of the hotel room reserved under the lawyer’s name. She had to promise her investigator that she would pay every legal bill if anyone ever found out, arrested him, and destroyed his business. That had only made him more suspicious, but there was a good reason she had spent considerable time with him over the years, earning his trust, even having a long affair with him to bewitch him as much as she could. And it had worked. She could tell he still loved her. She wondered if that would remain true once he found out who she really was.
Now she waited for that hotel room door to open, trying to look unthreatening and pleasant, which on one hand was easy because she was both. But her mind raced, for the reaction to her true name had told her something. She just wasn’t entirely sure what it meant.
Then a voice she recognized from the TV interview spoke from beyond the door. “Can you repeat that?”
“Eriana of Coreth, one of the Ellorian Champions.”
After a pause, the same voice asked, “How do we know it’s you? Eriana is in her mid to late twenties, from what we understand.”
That brought her up short and her mind raced. “Honestly, Eric, I do not know how to answer that. I have lived here for twenty years, but by my reckoning, you should not expect me to be alive at all, or I would be a thousand years old.” After a pause, she added, “I would very much like to discuss this with you, and learn what you know of me, Andier, Korrin, and Soliander, and how you came to be substituted for us. It appears clear that this has happened from the news reports, and your friend Anna in the hospital, and–”
“Open the door,” said another voice from inside.
Eriana thought it sounded like the techie, Matt. Andier had long ago taught her to memorize faces, voices, and more to aid in dealing with the considerable intrigue that had sometimes dogged them. She heard some arguing before the door suddenly opened to reveal four young men, three that she recognized. Her eyes moved between and stopped on Matt because of the intense way he was scrutinizing her face. This went on for several seconds of tense silence as she waited, eyes drifting to Eric and Ryan, then lingering on the other man, who expression spoke of attraction to her more than curiosity. Matt finally broke the silence.
“It’s her. She’s older, like you said, maybe twenty years, but it’s her. We found her. We found Eriana!”
She smiled, comforted because they were looking for her, and they seemed excited, not the least bit threatening. She relaxed a little. “It’s more like I found you,” she observed.
Eric turned to Matt. “How can you know that it’s her?”
“Soliander’s spell, remember? I recognize–”
“You’ve seen Soli?” Eriana interrupted, stepping forward. “How is he? Where is he? When did you see him?”
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