“Wait here. I’ll go get some together for you.” Micum went out.
“If I do go through, I’ll be careful and I won’t let her fool me again, I promise, Seregil.”
Seregil reached out and gave his disheveled braid a light tug. “It may not be your choice, given her apparent powers.”
“Tell me about the cave again while we wait,” said Thero with thinly disguised impatience.
“The one she took me to looked similar to the innermost one Seregil and I saw, except there was no water, no dripstone, and the pictures of the animals were evil. At the back was the black opal set in gold and it glowed. When I reached out to touch it, I didn’t feel anything but suddenly I was in the other cave, the one with the water. There was a ghost who spoke Aurënfaie. He was terribly sad, weeping and calling out.”
“What did he call out?”
Alec sighed. “As I told you, he called on Aura to protect a woman.”
“But he didn’t say who?” asked Thero.
“No—No, wait, he did say something else. ‘Nölienai talía.’ Something beloved.”
“Beloved Black Pearl,” said Seregil.
“But it wasn’t a pearl, it was an opal.”
Seregil gave his braid another tug. “It’s a term of endearment for a women. A darkly favored one, I’d say.”
“The necromancer?”
“Possibly,” said Thero.
“Then the ghost is evil, too.”
“Let’s not jump to conclusions.” Seregil yawned. “We might speculate, however, that it is his skull bolted to that pillar, since he’s haunting the cave. I think I’ll have another look there, tomorrow.”
“I don’t think you’ll be in any shape for exploring.” Alec looked at the stitches in Seregil’s scalp. “The drysian did a good job but you must have lost a lot of blood.”
“Head wounds always bleed a lot. It looks worse than it is, I’m sure. I’m just hoping I can get the blood out of the hair that’s left. I’m in no hurry to be bald.”
“Come along, Alec,” said Thero. “Seregil, if we don’t get back tonight, tell Micum to keep an eye out for Klia’s messenger tomorrow for me.”
The pack of food Micum had readied for them was heavy, but this time they were taking horses as far as the grove. When they arrived at the oracle’s precinct, Thero silently handed his bag to Alec to carry and shouldered the heavier load.
Thero cast a moving light and they followed it from chamber to chamber and down to the innermost cave. It was steep as Alec had described and Thero slid the last few yards into cold water, barely managing to stay on his feet. Alec slid out after him with the pack and bag. Thero enlarged the light to illuminate the whole cave and what he saw amazed him, even though he’d already heard it described.
The artwork was stunning, as were the dripstone formations. There was no time to admire them, however, as Alec splashed across the chamber and showed him the stone-encrusted skull surrounded by stalagmites.
“Do you know what the symbols painted on the skull say?” asked Alec.
Thero leaned over it, studying the markings. “They’re hard to make out, but it looks like it might be some sort of curse, although the boss holding the skull to the pillar appears to be made of silver, which doesn’t make any sense, magically.”
Alec was still showing the effects of the other plane, despite the food he’d had. His face looked skull-like as he turned to face Thero. It was a bit unsettling. “What kind of curse?”
“Parts of the pattern are too obscured to make out. Given the placement, though, the spirit attached to this skull may have been condemned to stay near it, which would explain the ghost.”
As if on cue, a deep sigh echoed around the chamber, followed by the sound of whispering, though Thero could not make out the words.
“That’s him,” whispered Alec, looking around nervously.
It was strange to see Alec looking frightened of anything, but Thero remembered what Seregil had once told him of Alec’s fears: heights and ghosts. “Are you with me, Alec?”
Alec nodded. “Let’s find that seal. Move the light in front of the skull.”
“Why?” Thero asked as he did so.
“Because it’s not facing the entrance of the cave, the way you’d expect. I want to see what it’s looking at,” Alec replied, sighting over the top of the skull’s head.
“Ah, of course.” Thero stepped in beside him and found himself looking at the section of wall that had fallen away. In the eye line of the skull, something glinted with the unmistakable color of gold against the naked stone. Threading his way through the formations, Thero brought the light to bear on the rock face and saw what appeared to be the remains of a rod of gold set into the stone. Something made of gold had been affixed to the wall long before the dripstone formed, then had apparently been dislodged in the rockslide. Reaching up, he pressed his fingers to the rough surface of the metal and gasped at the rich echo of Aurënfaie magic still contained there. With it came the hazy vision of two people, a man and a woman, standing exactly where he was. There was no dripstone around them, just the deeper darkness of the cave. He could not make out their faces or who they had been, but the impression of their presence was clear. He pressed his hands to the damp stone on either side of it.
“A Great Seal was here!” he said. “It must have sheared off when the rock face fell. Help me look through this broken pile of stone.”
“Thero.” Alec’s voice was low, but charged with emotion.
The wizard turned and found Alec facing a tall, amorphous black figure. It was only a few feet from his friend, but it was not a dra’gorgos, though he guessed Alec wasn’t so certain, given the way he was clutching his amulet. As the three of them stood there, the deep, troubled sigh echoed around the chamber again, and seemed to emanate from the very stones themselves.
Thero pointed to the skull and asked in Aurënfaie, “Is this yours?”
The dark figure wavered a moment, then faded away. “What was that?” Alec managed, and Thero could hear his voice shaking. “I believe that may have been your sad ghost.”
“That’s what I think, too.”
“If he meant to harm you, he’s certainly had adequate chances to do so.”
“So what does that mean? He didn’t claim the skull.”
“I don’t know. Some ghosts communicate with the living, while others ignore them.”
“This one spoke right next to my ear last time, so I think he was trying to communicate something.”
“Ah yes. His ‘Nölienai talía’—”
A sudden raw scream echoed horribly around the cave, and with it a sudden gust of wind that buffeted their faces.
“Aura Elustri málreil!” shouted Alec.
The wind stopped, and in the silence that followed they heard a muttering just below the threshold of hearing, then the words “Nölienai talía.”
Thero’s sphere of light went out, plunging them into darkness.
“Thero?” whispered Alec.
“That shouldn’t have happened.” Thero cast another ball of light and found Alec looking wide-eyed and nervous.
“Should we get out of here?”
Thero shook his head. “I don’t feel any evil here.”
“What about the curse on the skull?”
“First the seal.”
Together they sorted through all the stone lying on the cave floor at the base of the wall, but there was no sign of the golden seal or its gem.
“A workman could have taken it,” said Alec.
“That’s quite likely.” Thero sighed. “Of course it couldn’t be this easy. Remind me, what did the tablet that sealed this cave say?”
“ ‘Grief resides here.’ That’s all.”
“I wonder if the tablet and the seal were somehow linked? If so, then when the tablet was removed, it might have triggered the rockslide. I can only imagine that very complex magic had been set in place to guard the lower cave, magic that might well have faded over the years.”
/> “All right. So someone probably stole the seal after the wall fell. A workman sent in to clear the rubble, wouldn’t you say?”
“Yes, that seems likely.”
“So we need to find the person and get it back. Now, what about the skull?”
“What, indeed?” Thero made his way back to the skull and bent over it for a moment. There was nothing obvious emanating from it. He held a hand over it, but there was still nothing. “I’d have to touch bone to get anything from it, if that’s even possible, and that would mean removing the stone coating it.”
“What about the eye sockets?” asked Alec.
“Ah, good observation.” Thero touched the delicate stalactites that veiled the left eye; they fell away with a tiny tinkling sound. Reaching in with one finger, he felt for bare bone and found it at the top of the socket …
A tall, handsome ’faie man with flowing dark brown hair stood here with a beautiful black-haired woman. They were both naked and had just made hurried love on the cave floor surrounded by the whispering spirits of the ancients who’d made this place a sanctuary. She wore only a familiar-looking golden arm ring and now she took it off and gave it to him. He pressed it to his lips as a tear slid down his cheek—
“Thero! Thero, are you all right? Say something.”
The wizard opened his eyes slowly to find himself sitting on the uneven ground next to the pillar, with Alec gripping him by the shoulders. “What’s wrong?”
“You fell over.”
“How long after I touched the skull?”
“About half a second.”
“Interesting. I had an extended vision just now. I think I saw our ghost, and a woman with him.” Thero explained the vision. “The golden arm ring she wore—I think it was the same one Lady Zella showed us at the governor’s house. I must have another look at it, and see if any impressions remain as to who the woman was. She was black-haired, like the one you described. May I?”
Alec nodded. Thero brushed his mind and saw the same woman he’d just witnessed in his vision, though in Alec’s mind she was clothed in a red gown. “Yes, it was her.”
Alec frowned. “The necromancer was the ’faie man’s lover?”
“That’s how it appeared, but it was a very brief vision.”
“Does that make any sense to you? I mean, did she help him seal her in?”
“It’s more likely he tricked her.”
“That doesn’t explain who set the seal on the other side.”
“No, it doesn’t.” Thero stood and approached the skull again. Reaching into the eye socket, he closed his eyes …
He was looking down into her eyes. Deep blue eyes the color of the summer sky. She was clearly Tírfaie, but she spoke Aurënfaie as she looked up at him and said, “I love you, Khazireen. Watch over them.” With that she took off the arm ring and Thero felt it placed in his hand, the gold still warm from her body …
This time he found himself in Alec’s arms. Regaining his footing, he stepped back. “How long that time?”
“About the same. You touch it and your legs go out from under you. I managed to catch you.”
“Thank you. I saw her more closely this time. It’s most certainly the same woman. She called the man Khazireen and asked him to watch over someone.”
“Well, that’s a start if she’s his beloved Black Pearl. But who would a necromancer want him to look after?”
“I can’t imagine.” He looked up at the gold embedded in stone. “The seal you saw brought you here, right?”
“I guess so.”
“Well, nothing bad happened when I touched this, assuming it is part of the other seal. I need you to try, Alec.”
“All right, but I’d better hang on to you, in case I do get across. You probably won’t be able to go through without me.”
“Or even with you, I suspect.”
Shouldering the pack and giving Alec the bag again, Thero joined hands with him and Alec touched the gold.
Nothing happened. Alec pulled his hand away and tried again. He did not disappear.
“Maybe it’s like the portal that appeared at the palace,” said Thero. “Do you see anything around the chamber?”
“No, but maybe we should walk around in case I have to be near it to see it.”
After considerable splashing around, Alec shook his head. “I don’t see anything. I’m going back to the palace.”
With some magical assistance they got their baggage back up the tunnel and rode back toward the palace. Judging by the stars, it was after midnight.
“Are you sure you’re up to this?” asked Thero.
The younger man’s face was hidden in shadow, but his voice carried pain as he replied, “What would I do, sleep? Not with Mika gone.”
Thero rode silently along for a long moment, then sighed. “I’m sorry I shouted at you. I realize you did all you could before she bewitched you. I doubt Seregil would have fared any differently.”
“But you would have?”
“I would have known what she was, yes, and that might have changed things. We have to find a way to get me into that place.”
“The lightstone didn’t work there. What makes you think your magic will?”
“It does for the woman, obviously, since you witnessed her levitating Mika.”
“Maybe only her magic works there.”
“There’s only one way to find out.”
At the palace Alec and Thero revisited the two places he’d found portals, but there was nothing there now. They tried the surrounding corridors, but with no luck.
“How does something like that move?” Alec wondered as dawn light seeped in the windows of the first corridor he’d disappeared in.
“This plane is in some contact with ours, but it’s likely not solid, like two walls meeting at a corner. It may be more like a curtain waving in the breeze. That’s more like what you described, the first time you came back.”
“Then there’s no way to know where it’s going to be?”
Thero shook his head grimly. “No.”
SEREGIL was awake in bed when Alec returned to their tent.
“Well?”
Alec sat down on the edge of the cot and told him of the skull and Thero’s visions.
“Khazireen, eh?” said Seregil. “That was a good night’s work, Alec. It’s good to have a name, at least.”
“How are you?”
Seregil grinned his crooked grin. “Oh, I’ve been better and worse. So I’d say middling. You’re not looking too chipper yourself. Get some rest. Daylight will be here soon.”
Alec stretched out on the other cot, not expecting to sleep after all he’d seen tonight. But he did, and dreamed of trying and failing to get to Mika. Sometimes it was Seregil he was trying to save, only to find him in a pool of blood, head split open.
The sun was just up when he was shaken awake and opened his eyes to find Thero kneeling beside him, looking frantic.
“What is it?” Alec mumbled, sitting up and pushing his hair out of his eyes.
“Klia is missing!”
That knocked the sleep out of Alec’s head. “When?”
“She never made it to Deep Harbor. She’s been missing for two days and no one knew!”
“Who brought word?” asked Seregil from his cot.
“I did.”
Looking past Thero, Alec saw a beautiful, raven-haired woman in a simple brown gown and green silk scarf standing by the tent door. For an instant his belly clenched; she didn’t really look like the woman he’d seen yesterday—for one thing, her eyes were so dark they were nearly black, rather than blue—but there were enough common features of color and build to make him look twice.
“Who are you?” It came out more rudely than he’d intended, but the shock of Klia’s loss blasted everything else from his mind.
“I’m Doctor Kordira. I examined Lady Zella and thought you’d like a report firsthand.” She looked past him to Seregil. “Perhaps my skills are needed, as well?”
/>
“What about Lady Zella and Klia?” asked Seregil.
“Zella was found lying by the bridge on the highroad below Mirror Moon. She was taken to your estate and I was sent for. I haven’t been able to get much sense out of her, except her claim that she was attacked by demons.”
“What sort of demons?” asked Thero, who’d gone deathly pale.
“She raved of shadows and no faces and being surrounded by them.”
“Shadows with no faces,” Thero groaned as he took out a blood-spotted linen handkerchief and clutched it. He saw Alec’s questioning look. “Klia.” He performed the spell and his whole body sagged. “She’s gone.”
“What do you mean, gone?” asked Seregil.
“There’s no sign of her, which means—” He stopped himself from speaking in front of Kordira, but Alec guessed that he was thinking she was either dead or in the same place that Mika was. If either of them was dead on this side, Thero would know it.
“The dra’gorgos must have taken her and her escort,” said Alec.
“But not Zella,” Seregil noted with icy calm.
“Dra’gorgos? Forgive me, my lords, but I don’t understand,” said Kordira.
Seregil managed to sit up and swing his legs over the side of the bed, blankets wadded across his lap. “Hand me my breeches, Alec.”
“No.”
Kordira looked around at them, perhaps gauging the sudden increase in tension, then said, “I think I’ll go find something to drink. Send for me if you need me.”
“I said give me my breeches,” Seregil said again as soon as she was gone.
Alec locked eyes with him. “No. You’re not up to it yet.”
Seregil gave him a disbelieving look. “I’m going with you.”
“No, you’re not. I’m in good shape and I could have died in there if I didn’t have a little food with me. The state you’re in, I don’t think we could carry enough to keep you going, and we’d probably end up having to carry you, too. I’m sorry, Seregil, but you’d be a liability right now.”
Anger flared in Seregil’s grey eyes, but only for an instant. “You’re probably right.”
“You know I am, talí.” Alec pulled on his boots and stood up, looking for his sword belt and bow.