feet were purple with cold. She walked with one hand gripping the cloak closed, the other holding the sphere out in front of her.
Ten feet from the first twisted trees, she stopped.
“Come out Negala, witch of the fell bog,” she called in a strong, clear voice. “Come to Ilvani, witch of Ikemmu.”
The dust storm continued to rage at the fringes of the bog. Ashok and the others waited in frozen silence. None of them had the strength to be stunned at Ilvani’s abrupt transformation. They could only stare. And hope.
Movement came from deep within the bog-a sudden, fast motion like a running deer. The trees peeled back under black shadows, and Negala the hag stood before Ilvani. Her hair curled in wet strands around her naked, withered body. She raised a spindly arm in greeting and smiled, exposing jagged teeth and an oily black tongue.
“You not called to Negala in long months, lesser one,” the hag hissed. Her amber eyes gleamed with malicious interest. “You brought a token?”
“A trade,” Ilvani said. “Your thoughts for mine.”
The hag cackled, her green skin flushing, and pranced from foot to foot in amusement. “Come forward,” she invited. “Gladly I show you my mind. How you frighten
Ilvani stepped forward and held up the glass sphere between them. Eagerly the hag put her hands on the orb. They shut their eyes and fell into a trancelike concentration.
“Can she take that?” Cree whispered. “What if the hag takes over her mind? She could be lost in a storm just like us.”
“No she won’t be,” Ashok said, understanding at last what Ilvani intended.
“How can you be sure?” Cree demanded.
Ashok didn’t answer. He saw the hag’s forehead scrunch up in consternation. Her body began to tremble. She jerked her head from side to side and spat, convulsions wracking her body.
Lightning tore across the sky, and the black winds raged. The dust blew in cutting streaks, digging into their wounds. Having no cloak, Ashok covered his face with his hands. Through his fingers, he saw the hag bite her tongue and let out a pathetic wail. Negala’s head fell back, and black blood poured from her mouth.
Her arms fell from the sphere, and she faded back into the bog as the trees and brush reached out to absorb her. The green fell into itself and pulled back from the edge of the valley, consumed by the dust storm.
Ilvani stood amid the violence with her eyes closed. She put both hands on the sphere and raised it above her head. It glowed brilliant crimson and burst forth light in a blinding nimbus. The red arc rolled across the plain and slammed into the retreating bog. Fire enveloped the trees and burned them to ash. Deep within the illusory world, they heard the hag’s scream.
Then it was over. The bog disappeared, and the clouds absorbed the storm. The black sky faded to gray, and the dust cleared. They had visibility for miles across the plain.
Ilvani lowered the dormant sphere to her side. She turned and started walking back to the group. She paused in front of the nightmare and reached up absently to stroke his neck. The beast whickered and leaned into the touch.
Struck dumb, none of them spoke for a breath. Then Skagi muttered, “Pity she couldn’t have managed that feat in the tunnel.”
“That wasn’t magic,” Ashok said quietly, watching Ilvani lean her head against the nightmare’s neck.
“What was it, then?” Skagi said.
“Just what she said,” Ashok told him. “She showed the hag her thoughts, her memories.” He glanced at Cree. “She couldn’t get lost in the storm, because she still lives in that cell.”
Despite their exhaustion and still-bleeding wounds, Vedoran got the group up and moving to put as much distance as possible between themselves and the caves. After an hour with no sign of pursuit, Vedoran stopped at a copse of kindling trees. He leaned against one of them for support.
“We’ll make camp here,” he said.
“Will we be safe?” Chanoch asked.
Vedoran barely regarded him. “We’ll be dead if we go much farther,” he said.
Ashok agreed. “They’re not coming,” he said. “With any luck the hag moved the bog as we left her.”
They made no fire but spent the time seeing to their wounds. Ilvani lay down on the ground with Ashok’s cloak spread out around her and went to sleep.
Skagi snorted when he saw her. “Can’t blame the witch for being sleepy, can you, after that show on the plain?” he said.
“You shouldn’t be so surprised,” Cree said. “She knows as much about magic as Neimal.”
“I know it,” Skagi said. “Her and Natan could rule Ikemmu, if they weren’t odd in the head.” Cree shot him a look, but Skagi just laughed. “Not like it’s a secret,” he said. “Even Uwan knows.”
“Why is she like that?” Ashok asked. He watched Ilvani sleeping. “Did something happen to her?”
Skagi shrugged. “Nobody knows for sure, but most think it’s because of the family,” he said.
Ashok remembered Vedoran telling him that Natan and Ilvani’s lineage was valuable to Ikemmu.
“They’re all dead now,” Cree spoke up, “not that there were many to begin with. Skagi’s right-the story’s well known. When the first shadar-kai came to Ikemmu, they didn’t find the city deserted. There were two shadar-kai living in the ruins, a feral man and woman. The woman was heavy with child.”
“Who were they?” Ashok said.
“No-names. They couldn’t speak any language the shadar-kai knew,” Cree said. “The man attacked the shadar-kai on sight and was killed. The woman died giving birth to a son.”
“But the child lived,” Skagi said. “Stories say he grew up half again as feral as his father, got a child on a woman before leaving the city for gods know where. Never saw him again, but the woman carried her burden and gave birth to twins.”
“Natan and Ilvani,” Ashok said, understanding. “The third generation.”
“Raised by the mother in Ikemmu,” Cree said. “She saw them grown before she died on a raid to the Underdark side. They weren’t wild like their father and grandfather, but Ilvani obviously inherited some of their strangeness. Some say”-he hesitated-“you never know what to believe, but I suppose it’s possible that those who lived in Ikemmu before the shadar-kai may have shared their city with Natan and Ilvani’s grandparents. They may have witnessed whatever disaster befell the city.”
“How could they have survived, when so many others didn’t?” Ashok said.
“We don’t know that all or any perished,” Cree said. “If they were Tempus’s servants, he could have spirited them away and protected the shadar-kai who remained. Either way, Ikemmu looks on Natan and Ilvani with great pride. They believe the twins are favored children of Tempus.”
“Except Ilvani’s as unpredictable as a dust storm, and after what she’s been through it’ll probably be worse,” Skagi said.
Chanoch, who’d been listening quietly, said, “She’ll be fine once we get her back to Ikemmu. We’ll all be fine once we’re home. What say you, Ashok?”
Ashok nodded absently. “Yes, home.”
“Get some rest, all of you,” Vedoran said from across the camp. “I’ll take first watch and wake Skagi after.”
The conversation broke up, and Ashok went to Vedoran.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to take first watch?” Ashok said. “You look like death.”
Vedoran shook his head. “I’ll be fine,” he said. “Sleep while you can.” He glanced behind him to where the nightmare hovered at the edge of the camp. “Is the beast going to stay with us?”
“I don’t know,” Ashok said. “Right now, we’re not strong enough to deny him, if that’s what he wants.”
Vedoran grunted. “Sleep then. Let him help stand the watch.”
“Very well,” Ashok said, taking a dust-covered blanket out of his pack and spreading it on the ground.
When he slept, he dreamt of fire.
