'Each one is a lightning djinn,' the prince said. 'They are forming a barrier between me and Palodad's lair. Soon they will move forward to attack us here. Your tongue must not only be glib but quick as well.'
'The risk is a great one.' Kestrel heard Alodar's words come from Elezar's lips. The contact had been established far quicker than he had hoped, but, as he glanced out the entrance of the lair, he wondered if even what he proposed would make any great difference. The pinpoints of light had intensified to eye-stabbing glows. Their number had increased until it looked as if a continuous arc streaked across the black sky. With each passing moment, it grew thicker and longer, arcing outward to surround Astron's lair so that there would be no escape.
'But if it is not taken,' Kestrel shot back, 'then the loss is certain.' Somehow the archimage was able to hear because of his contact with Elezar's mind. It was as if the two were together in the confines of the hollow stone, rather than an indescribable distance apart.
'When you agreed to help send Phoebe and me through the flames before,' Kestrel continued, 'it was because of what would happen to the realm of men if Elezar should fall. Nothing has changed to alter the validity of your decision.'
'I still am not totally sure of the truth of your words,' Alodar said. 'And if I and the wizards of other realms come forward and fail, there will be no defenses left to be sure.'
'Would you rather wait and take on Gaspar's might one by one?' Kestrel said. 'Which strategy offers you the better chance to turn aside the threat?'
For a moment, there was silence. Elezar sat on the cushion, unblinking, with his hands folded into the lap of his tattered robe. 'Your arguments are most persuasive,' the demon mouthed Alodar's words at last. 'They ring true despite whatever other doubts I might have.'
Kestrel felt a slight prickle of amazement mingle with the urgency that bubbled within him. He was using no deception at all. He did not have sufficient composure to think through all the twists and turns that would be necessary for one such as the archimage. And yet it was working. He was speaking the truth and Alodar was taking him at his word.
'But perhaps most telling is the fact that you are there,' Alodar said. 'There and willing to take the risks along with the rest. It is the mark of a hero, rather than one looking out only for himself.'
Kestrel's thoughts jerked to the side. 'No, not a hero,' he said. 'Not me. I am not concerned about helping to save the baseness of other men. It is only for myself, only for-'
Kestrel stopped and slammed shut his mouth. Only for Phoebe, he thought-and for the reticulate warriors, for Nimbia's underbill, and even for any of the unlucky aleators who still survived-any who had to endure the tortures of their fellows who did not care.
The injustices that had befallen him were not unique; they extended through seven realms as well. And they would continue to do so until someone came forward and took the cause of many as his own, until someone like the archimage felt the duty to look beyond himself and to strive against the Prydwins, Jelilacs, and Gaspars to save the worthy and unworthy alike.
The feeling of amazement grew. Was what he had been striving for on this quest really anything less? He could not turn aside now, regardless of what escape he suddenly was offered. If that was what constituted being a hero, then perhaps it was not such a foolish role after all.
'Yes, I think that we will need someone to coordinate all of the contingents,' Kestrel heard himself say. 'Someone with experience in all the realms on which we will call for aid. I am ready to serve. Even though it might be hopeless, I will carry out what clearly is my duty and that of no one else.'
'Then it is decided,' Alodar said. 'Send what demons through the flame that you can, Elezar. I will have the wizards ready to be ferried back for your aid.'
'Next the fey,' Kestrel said to Elezar as Alodar's presence faded. 'And then the reticulates and perhaps the skyskirr as well.'
A hint of annoyance at being ordered about washed across Elezar's twisted face, but Kestrel hardly noticed. Despite the growing terror outside, he felt far better about himself than he had in a long, long time.
'Nimbia, Nimbia are you safe?' Astron shouted as he squeezed through the vanishing opening between the realms. He felt the chill of nothingness on his legs and barely managed to pull them through with a loud pop just in time. What had been the realm of aleators was completely vanished, collapsed into nonexistence by the pressure of the void.
Astron sagged to the familiar stone flooring of his lair in a heap. The struggle against Byron had been most draining and his body cried out to rest. But his stembrain still bubbled in agitation. He knew he could not stop, not until he was sure Nimbia was safe and his alone. Immediately, he must carry the harebell pollen to-
Astron stopped. His lair was empty. They had gone on ahead without him. He rose to his feet, looking about wildly for some clue, and spotted the pen and ink next to the pile of fishbones where he had left them in what seemed like long ago. Hastily, he scooped the scrap of parchment from the ground and read the script that had been added to his own.
Almost in disbelief, Astron looked out of the open portal to his lair and saw the glowing sky that confirmed that the words were true. Phoebe and Nimbia had been transported safely to Palodad, but Gaspar now assembled all of his might to strike a final blow. Elezar had gone to direct his resistance, while Kestrel, carried by a broad-winged devil, led the wizards assembled from many realms.
As Astron slowly let the scrap fall back to the floor, a swarm of imps buzzed up from the stairwell, but he paid them no heed. The sky was almost as bright as day in the realm of men, so many djinns had Gaspar rallied to his side. With what meager forces Elezar had left, it was doubtful he would have any more need for his tiny entertainers.
Only if Palodad were swift enough to test the pollen and show it blazing in triumph would any who followed Gaspar pause and reconsider that the basis for the confrontation had indeed been won. Otherwise Elezar was lost, and, in the end, all who strove for him as well.
Astron looked at the sphere of bright lights converging on the darker knot of men and beings from other realms, now standing off in the distance and awaiting the strike. He reached out once with his empty hand, then pounded his sides in frustration. Astron, wingless Astron, the one who walked! In the end, he was reduced to being a mere spectator while others decided the fate of the realm.
Astron pushed against the tug of his stembrain. It continued to stir and boil. There was something that still bothered him, some additional conclusion that could be drawn from all that he had learned. He settled on the cushion, not bothering to bat away the imps as they swarmed about his head.
'Reality is a bubble,' he muttered. 'I have seen realms created, merged, and destroyed. Aleators like Centuron believe that such destruction is preordained. Either the will to believe decays the pressure within or the bubble is pierced from-'
Astron stopped. The already high state of agitation of his stembrain grew with a deep terror he had never felt before. Why the knowledge of fire in the realm of daemon held such power suddenly became clear. He knew why it was the ultimate precept, the greatest of them all.
Astron bolted to his feet and ran back to the open portal. 'There is a reason why there is no fire in our realm,' he shouted in panic, 'a reason most profound. Fire breaks down the barrier that keeps a bubble whole; it creates an opening in the surface that protects it from the void.'
Astron looked at the still brightening sky. He knew that the distances were still far too great for his voice to carry, but he felt he had to continue on. The battle between Elezar and Gaspar suddenly was of insignificant consequence compared to what really was at stake.
'For all the other realms, the opening is to our very own,' he yelled. 'The pressure on both sides of the breach is the same. Except for creating a portal of transport, nothing else happens as a result.
'But a flame in the realm of daemon-think of it! When it pierces the skin of the bubble, where then will it lead? Not to another of the realms; other flames already provide those connections. No, it can only be to the void. Like the spheres of the aleators that surrounded the talismans, a small rupture lets out the essence inside. The realm of daemon would collapse into nothingness just as surely as if we had ceased to believe.
'It is not only our own universe that would wither away,' Astron said. 'All the other realms are connected to ours by the other flames. Like the merged realms of symmetry, they would all vanish as well, first oozing into ours
