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The young Crone was bound to stop her, Milla thought She tensed, trying to resist the co to find a substitute for the Underfolk's airweed," Milla said as calmly as she could "I left soh the tunnels and find the Freefolk rebels I a plenty of airweed back, if we agree to free them from the Chosen e take the Castle"
Malen listened in silence Her eyes clouded a little, the lu with other Crones They were seeing through her eyes, listening through the young Crone's ears Any decision that came would be from all the Crones, or at least all of those who chose to participate It wouldn't be just from Malen
Even so, Milla al Milla had alanted Not to be a Crone, but to have a proper place To have the respect of the Shield Maidens To be adored by her clan"Yes," Malen said finally "We have taken too long, and there is no sign ill succeed in our search for airweed under the Ice It is best that you find the Freefolk and get the airweed I will coh airweed" but the words never cah airweed for two, if they were careful, and Malen's eyes were fixed on her own Milla knew the Crone would feel the lie"Coruffly
Milla climbed up to the heatway entrance as the Shield Maidens clapped their fists together again This tinored that, and crawled inside
CHAPTER TWO
Tal settled back into the sarcophagus, the stone cold against his back Waves of shivering rocked his whole body every few seconds He kept seeing the bea He saw the stone lintel above the door crack and co out from the cracked wallMost of all, Tal remembered Crow's sudden look of terror as the avalanche of stone, steam, and dust came down upon himCrow's face haunted him, but he had not been alone Tal had almost certainly killed Clovil, and , and reat-uncle Ebbitt They had all been directly in the path of the falling rocks and the scalding jets of steam There was no way they could have escaped the collapse of the ceiling and the rupturing of one of the Castle's major steam risersIt had only happened an hour before, but it was one of the longest hours Tal had ever experienced He'd tried to stop the falling rocks and the steam but had been driven back He'd called for help, but no one ca in their chambers, but their spirits, their essential selves, were in the Spirit World of Aenir So there was no one powerful enough to do anything The Underfolk would arrive eventually, but they could do no more than clean up… shut off the stea the bodies out of the rubbleA thin, squeaky voice interrupted Tal's awful memories He craned his neck forward to look at the Red Keystone he held in his hand, flat on his chest It glowed in the darkness of the sarcophagus Tal concentrated on it, and the ie of Lokar, the Guardian of the Red Keystone as trapped inside the Sunstone, slowly ca to hi
"Tal! Listen… you et as close to the Chosen Enclave as we can," repeated Lokar "Do you kno to focus on your arrival point in Aenir, Tal?"
"No,"on what she was saying, but he couldn't His head was full of the disaster he had caused Lokar kept talking at hi him how to focus on his Sunstone so that his spirit would cross to the right place in Aenir
Aenir was the source of Sunstones and Spirit-shadows It was also, Tal thought bitterly, the source of all his troubles He had unwittingly gotten caught up in an age-old struggle between the people of the Dark World--the Chosen and the Icecarls -and the strange creatures of the Spirit World of Aenir His eneent of the shadows of Aenir, and had trapped Tal's father inside the Orange Keystone, poisoned his er brother, Gref, and put his very small sister, Kusi, into the "care" of his awful cousins Lallek and Korrek
"So close, so close, yet far, very far," e Tal wasn't sure who she was talking to Then her voice snapped back to its normal, strident tone Tal!" Lokar ordered "There's no tiet to the Empress and report on the unlocked Keystones!"
Tal nodded weakly, but he didn't do anything Soe of his vision and he flinched, until he realized it was his Spiritshadow, Adras Adras had been a Storhty creature of cloud and air Nor Spiritshadow in the Dark World But he had been starved of light and almost destroyed when Tal had incorrectly created a miniature veil to hide them from hostile Spiritshadows It had worked, but Tal had never cast one before and had accidentally worked Adras into the Veil Without any light at all, Adras had shrunk and withered away to al Even now, he was very weak
"Odris!" whispered Adras, close to Tal's ear Odris was his fellow Storm Shepherd, a coone out onto the Ice "We should go to Odris She will help us""The Empress," repeated Lokar "The Empress! The Empress! We must cross to Aenir and inform the Empress! We must! We must--""Shut up!" Tal burst out Why couldn't they be quiet, just for a minute? He needed to lie there in silence, with just the co ht froly, Adras and Lokar both shut up Tal lay there, breathing quietly, every now and then pressing his hands against the stone lid of the sarcophagus above his head Pressing hard against the lid released soet that awful frozen second of Crow's face and the falling rock out of his h to make a firm decision They would cross to Aenir, find the E He would est and e Keystone Then Tal could tell hi out Tal felt a little better as he made the decision, until a small voice insi
de his head reminded him that no one could ain"It was Cron fault!" Tal said suddenly Sory made him feel better His head still hurt where Crow had hit him The
Underfolk boy had stolen the Red Keystone, too If Crow hadn't hit hi would have happened He would still be alive, and so would Ebbitt, Clovil, Ferenc, and Inkie
"It was his fault," Tal repeated Crow had started it The rock fall was an accident that never would have happened otherwise
CHAPTER THREE
"I will go to the Empress," Tal declared as he stared into the Red Keystone He could see Lokar in the center of the jewel, the s water, her hands and feet in constantLeaper-beast, circled her, never stopping They were both prisoners in the Keystone, trapped there when the stone was unlocked They could not be released except with Lokar's own Sunstone or the Violet Keystone of the Seventh Tower"Good! Oh, good! Excellent!" babbled Lokar "To make sure we coe of the place in your head Then you need to hold that picture there as you recite the Way to Aenir and concentrate on the correct colors You do… you do know the Way to Aenir? Please, you h he didn't kno to transfer to a particular spot He thought about it for a second Of course he could do it He was better at Light Magic now than most adult Chosen If he hadn't been he would be dead by nowHe had to pick the right part of the Enclave for his arrival They would have to be careful to avoid being seen Since the Day of Ascension had just happened, all the Chosen would be in Aenir Presumably that would include Sushin As the Dark Vizier, he was able to command any other Chosen in the naly followed Sushin, or were duped into obeying him Probably none of them knew that Sushin was secretly a servant of the free shadows of Aenir, and that his real aim was to destroy the Veil that protected the Dark World froht Sushin was some sort of shadow, one who had taken on flesh, but Tal wasn't sure about that"Where do you think we should arrive?" Tal asked