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As if called upon by the need to save the lives of the islanders, her ability had blossoh, she could feel the vegetation beneath her feet sucking up er service, if she had never become a Green Rider, she would have re, but as a Rider, her brooch augmented her ability, made her more sure, more sensitive, and most important, completely accurate

That day on the island she’d discovered a previously unknown spring that would tide the people over till the drought ended She had also told the neells, and how deep In the end, she had left behind islanders relieved they would not have to be uprooted from the lives they knew and ell pleased by this e Zachary’s

The water that now played over her hand ca of dark earth and pure sand and pebbles, of subterranean strea as it drained froe, she surmised, had called the water to flow in this tohen beckoned, and over the millennia, it heeded his call Such a feat required power far beyond her own er ability

Reluctantly she withdrew her hand and shook off the water She had work to do She had to find this Merdigen, the ical whatsit She looked around A table stood nearby with an unfinished gaue on it, the pieces draped with cobwebs, but there was no Merdigen in sight

She turned toward the center of the cha the shadowed ceiling, and on either side archways gaped with blackness What drew her attention the most, however, was the pedestal in the center of the circle A geleaht, viewed it with her peripheral vision, she could alreens and blues of grass and sky It was there, but not, hovering on the edge of her vision

Still she saw no sign of Merdigen, and she recalled Garth hadthe toure, considering she just walked through a wall of granite

She strode toward the center of the chamber and between a pair of columns and—

With a yelp she leaped backward, her heart trying to pound its way out of her chest She took a few moments to calm herself, surrounded by the ordinary cha the water, she stuck her toe between the colu dire happened, she folloith the rest of her body, and found herself arassland

Sunshine flowed down on her at the sarasses hissed as a breeze flowed over theh, there were no other structures or signs of civilization, and no D’Yer Wall within sight All that re, the arches east and west, the table with its dusty gaemstone

So this hat Garth had rasslands in the tower But was she still in the tower? Her boot scuffed on stones, the same stone floor she had stood upon in the tower The blocks that forrasses beyond the colu reclaimed by nature

She stepped back through the columns, and found herself surrounded by the stone of the tower charuity She paused between the columns with one foot on each side to see ould happen It was like standing in a doorway, she decided When she looked at the foot outside the columns, she saw the tower chamber like the interior of a house When she looked at the other foot, she saw the grasslands beyond stretching to the horizon

Eventually she gave up the ga for her to report back She advanced on the pedestal and circled it The stone on top was pretty, she thought, sparkling in the sun, and looked harh What had Garth called it? The tempes stone

She shrugged and put her hand on it At first nothing happened, then a green glow rose froers Fascinated, Dale rey crackled within the stone, like lightning sealed in green amber