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As they rode away frolance tohere the castle once stood in the distance The smoke and haze had settled more heavily over the Old City than when she’d first viewed it The clouds looked to suffocate all that was left She turned her gaze aith a sigh that carried all the tiredness and sorrow she felt, and watched the path ahead

The haze hovered over theIt shortened Lhean’s breath and burned his eyes From its riainst co on hi why the people here allowed theuess that they did not care they were shortening their already short,the mount to search for the Galadheon, whoht and only got as far as the river The aura of misery, of cold brick and machine, had been too much for him, and he retreated to the re where he could consider his nextHe’d die here in these ruins just as surely as he would in the city below His array, and not just froun to flake and it ached Ached all over his body How long before it perished, and heIf he could not get hoet off this mount and find proper nourishathered a few edible wild herbs and roots growing a the ruins, but they were sparse and stunted, poisoned by the sah to sustain hiet of chocolate left in his pack The s Eating it would revive Lhean’s spirit and vitality for a while, but he’d been reserving it for a time of dire need As he weakened, he realized the need was nearly upon him There would be a point after which even chocolate would not aid hi past the craggy ri place If he ate the chocolate, he would have to take advantage of its benefits and enter the city to find the Galadheon She was no Eletian, but she was his only link to home, and perhaps between the two of them they could find a way back After all, it was the Galadheon who caused them to be here, wasn’t it? She who could cross thresholds

He would do it under cover of darkness, of course During the day thethe road and erecting a wood-framed structure at the su had not deserted him, and even now he heard voices in conversation They were not very close, and he was not in any present danger of being discovered

"I’ot some of the slaves spooked, and their overseers, too"

"These ruins are full of ghost stories," a secondthe boss none too happy They say they see a figure all in white standing there, then the next h he’d been careful in his scouting, he must have been seen How else could he find out as happening in the world if he did not scout? Just as well he was host--these ruins lent themselves to hed "Tell you what If we see a ghost, I’ll shoot it, and then we’ll see whether or not it bleeds Eh?"

The rest of the conversation faded as the two e Lhean would have to be more careful than ever to avoid discovery The men he saw on the mount--men other than the poor slaves--carried weapons Not bows and arrows, or swords, but devices that reeked of death and made him al aim at the occasional hare or rodent He’d covered his ears at the terrible noise they outs of flame that burst froets, but Lhean had seen how forceful the weapons were, how deadly they could be He could be taken down long before he ever got within sword’s length of one of these shooters

He’d heard of "concussives" used in the days of Mornhavon the Black, weapons that had helped defeat Argenthyne What he saw of these shooting weapons sounded like the concussives of old Had ti to replace the iaspen leaves, the slender white boughs of birches entwining overhead; of the len and the birds He faded into the ray air vanishing frouide ue, for I am a mariner lost, a mariner lost on the rew an nohat to expect, and so they reached the professor’s stables without incident Upon their arrival, however, Luke received a ed," he told Karigan "The boys will take care of Raven You’ve got a guest"

"A guest?"

Luke nodded "Apparently soe you to hurry"