Maybe it could devour a torivor.
How exactly is the vortex like the slipstream? Ramarro asked.
Cole had fallen into the vortex, and he had fallen into a slipstream. In the vortex, he had his physical body. In the slipstream, he was an echo. Still, they sounded similar, felt similar. The silvery material inside seemed somewhere between a liquid and a gas. Cole could remember it rushing around him. The homesong had been loud and clear in the slipstream. Almost irresistible. Had he heard it in the vortex? Not that he recalled.
Cole tried to think about flamingos. He pictured Dalton cannonballing into a swimming pool. He envisioned a guy playing the piano.
He tried not to think about vortexes and slipstreams.
He kept failing.
Let’s take this fight elsewhere, Ramarro spoke to his mind.
Nothing changed. Statues kept attacking Ramarro.
Yes, Ramarro thought. I see. It is difficult to open a wayport here. Even for me. The intent is to hold me here. You are wrong about the vortex. Wrong about this castle. Nothing in this flimsy realm can contain me.
“That prison in the echolands held for a long time,” Cole muttered.
Ramarro roared. Damaged statues went flying.
Cole heaved a flood of statues at Ramarro from one direction, forcing him back and to one side. Though fighting hard against the tide of stone figures, Ramarro was losing ground. More statues emerged. Cole kept hurling them.
I prefer to fight on my own terms, Ramarro conveyed harshly.
Leaping high into the air, Ramarro transformed into a huge eagle and began flying upward. Atop the castle and the surrounding walls, statues slung stones, launched arrows, and hurled javelins. The eagle swerved adroitly. The few projectiles that connected did no visible damage.
Ramarro gained altitude.
He was escaping.
Cole focused on one of the largest statues, a thick-limbed giant with enormous hands. Cole connected with his power and hastily levitated the giant toward the eagle. The giant caught up, but the eagle expertly steered away from the outstretched hands again and again.
Then the eagle seemed to smack against an invisible ceiling. After losing some altitude, the eagle rose again, only to bump once more against an unseen barrier. After the second impact, Cole guided the giant close, and it got hold of a wing.
Cole let the giant fall. The eagle came with it. As the statue and the eagle plummeted, the bird transformed into the robed albino. The impact with the ground blasted the statue to pieces, but Ramarro arose unruffled. Cole wondered if anything could harm him.
I chose an incredibly durable form, Ramarro spoke to his mind.
As other statues converged on Ramarro, Cole focused on one of the towers of the castle. Connecting to it, Cole hurled it down at Ramarro. The avalanche of beams and stone blocks arrived even as statues swarmed the torivor. Billowing dust plumes gusted outward from the tumultuous rubble.
Cole connected to as much of the island as he could mentally embrace and heaved it toward the cloudwall. The pace only increased slightly.
Battered blocks of stone shifted, and Ramarro climbed from the wreckage. Statues continued to attack him.
Vehement words entered Cole’s mind like a physical blow. You will not hold me here!
Ramarro pointed at Cole and connected to him. Suddenly Cole was submerged in the vast ocean of Ramarro’s power. He could not feel or hear or see. He could barely think. The power was all around him, trying to force a way into him. With all of his might, he held it off.
What could he do now? He had not sought this connection and had no idea how to break it. He had reached out to connect to others on many occasions. This time Ramarro was holding him.
Holding him.
Although overwhelming power enveloped Cole, the aggressive power sustaining the connection came from a specific source. Cole desperately focused all of his attention in that direction, and the connection from Ramarro began to feel like a lifeline in a storm-tossed sea. As power surged around him, Cole clung to the connection and traced it back to a blazing nexus.
There was no time for planning. Cole attacked the nexus, determined to rend it apart. The effort proved too great, like trying to pick up an ocean liner while swimming beside it. He began trying to crush it, but the surface felt too dense, as if he were trying to pummel his way into a bank vault with his fists.
Ramarro’s power closed in around him, constricting, intensifying. Cole knew that no matter how fiercely he resisted, it would soon overwhelm him. He would be consumed. Ramarro would escape. His friends would die. The world would perish.
But it had not happened yet. This was his only chance. Ignoring the hostile power encroaching from every side, Cole stopped trying to damage the nexus and instead reached into it. The effort was excruciating, but as he pushed with all he had, he felt beneath the surface. Having established that contact, Cole drew upon his hopes, his fears, and his ardent desire to survive, and hit the nexus with everything he had, tearing and shredding with the frantic energy of desperation.
Explosive shock waves quaked through the power around him.
Sharpening his focus like a blade, like a drill, Cole reached deeper into the damaged nexus and savaged it again. Everything around him roared in agony.
The power suddenly withdrew.
Cole stood again in the courtyard, his faculties restored.
Down on one knee, head bowed, Ramarro clutched his chest. Then he looked up, fury in his gaze.
Impossible! The word struck Cole’s mind like an explosion.
“Come get more!” Cole yelled, though he could hardly stand.
Fog washed over Cole and Ramarro as the castle entered the cloudwall. The ground lurched, and the speed of the forward motion increased. Cole fell onto his side. He could no longer see Ramarro.
You will die too, Ramarro conveyed.
“I don’t care,” Cole cried.
Dandalus sent you to your death, Ramarro said.
“At least he gave me a chance to die bravely!” Cole yelled.
Ramarro connected to Cole again. Power washed over Cole, but he immediately followed the connection to the nexus, drove inward, and hit it with everything he had.
Ramarro’s power recoiled from Cole. The connection broke. Thick mist gushed across the courtyard as the castle bucked and plunged. Cole sailed into the air as the ground fell away, then smashed against it when it returned.
I’m leaving, Ramarro declared. This construct cannot resist my full concentration. Die alone.
Ramarro ducked his head and clenched his fists.
The statue of Dandalus cried out, “Can’t . . . hold . . . him!”
Ramarro was about to open a wayport. Or just teleport. He was using his power to dismantle the trap holding him here. At any moment he would vanish. Cole balled his hands into fists.
Ramarro was right. No trap Dandalus had fashioned had ever managed to destroy him.
But this time was different. Ramarro was not alone in this trap.
Cole reached out to Ramarro’s power. Connecting to that ocean of shaping prowess, Cole searched the vastness for the blazing nexus he had touched twice before. The area was staggering, but Cole remembered what the nexus had felt like, and as he stretched out with his mental faculties, he caught traces, hints, and followed them.
Until he found it.
Bracing himself as if he were about to use his bare hands to scoop hot coals from a fire, Cole reached deep into the nexus and started twisting and kneading and ripping. Fireworks erupted in his mind, but he held on and kept tearing.
At last he could take no more, and the connection broke.
Ramarro lay sprawled on his face. The torivor looked up, head swaying unsteadily.
How dare you!
“Want more?” Cole yelled.
This will not destroy me, Ramarro warned. You will pay. This whole world will pay.
“You’re wrong!” Cole yelled.
Even if this leads to the
slipstream, I will be fine, Ramarro conveyed. You survived it. I saw it in your memories. I will escape without a problem.
“Are you sure?” Cole asked. “I belong in time.”
Great fissures opened in the ground. Sections of the walls collapsed, and portions of the castle came down as well. The stones that bounced near Cole kept turning to dust. Several chunks of masonry pummeled the torivor.
For the first time, Ramarro looked afraid.
Suddenly Cole stood on a dark field of volcanic rock. Rivers of lava flowed on either side of him, the searing heat almost too much to bear. The tops of mountains exploded in the distance as lava fountained into a sky saturated with ash.
“We need to talk, Cole,” Ramarro said.
“This seems like a nice place,” Cole said.
“I’m not in a pleasant mood,” Ramarro said. “We have all the time I need. You would be astonished by how long I can make a second last.”
“And at the end of it you’ll die,” Cole said.
“Debatable,” Ramarro said. “I can make you suffer.”
Pyroclastic explosions erupted around Cole. Lava splashed dangerously close. As the dazzling glare faded and the blistering heat subsided, Cole found he was encased to the waist in warm, black stone.
“I can torture you to death in a million ways, Cole,” Ramarro said. “Across a billion landscapes. How long before you break?”
Cole sensed power radiating from Ramarro and realized the torivor was still trying to get free. He was buying himself time with this conversation.
Once again, Cole reached for Ramarro with his mind and found the increasingly familiar location of the torivor’s nexus with little trouble. Penetrating the nexus first, then mangling with all his might, Cole fell out of the dream state. Volcanic rock gave way to the courtyard of the quaking, crumbling castle.
Ramarro finally looked desperate. You have rattled me, he confessed, weariness behind the words. Ludicrous as it seems, you’re right—I cannot escape with you harassing me. I don’t have time. You don’t know what you are destroying. You can’t begin to imagine all I am. Spare me, Cole.
“So you can torture me to death in a million ways?” Cole yelled. “So you can destroy my friends? No way!”
The ground was heaving. Ramarro stretched a hand toward him. Stop fighting me. Work with me, Cole, and we can both still survive. I don’t want to risk ending. I will grant whatever you desire.
“Dream on!” Cole cried.
The courtyard tipped forward and split apart. Everything was falling. Cole plunged through the mist in a hailstorm of shattered stone. And then all the stone became dust. And the mist parted. And the maelstrom yawned below him, a wild vortex that whirled down toward forever.
Off to one side, Cole saw Ramarro falling, arms and legs flailing.
Unbelievable! Ramarro cried.
They hit the swirling surface of the vortex simultaneously, perhaps twenty yards apart. Cole tumbled and spun in the hurricane currents, a banshee choir wailing in his ears. He remembered this experience. It was horrifying and familiar.
Somewhere behind all the commotion, Cole could faintly hear the homesong. As he focused on that beckoning music, the tumult seemed to fade.
It was all right.
He could go.
He could die this way.
He had stopped Ramarro.
It had seemed impossible, but he had stopped him.
Cole finally understood the sky castles.
The whole setup had been a trap all along.
A trap set in case the torivors got free.
Dandalus had prepared a battleground that had given Cole a chance.
Cole had made the most of the opportunity. He had fought to keep Ramarro at the doomed castle. And he had won.
He had succeeded.
Now it was up to the vortex. Would it be enough?
Trillian had seen the slipstream in Cole’s memory. He had told Cole that he could not have resisted the homesong. And torivors could not lie.
Ramarro would perish. The homesong seemed to promise it.
Cole had saved his friends.
He would miss everyone.
They would miss him.
He was sure they would be proud of him.
He would follow the homesong.
It would lead him to a good place.
A better place than he had ever known.
He was certain. He could feel it so clearly.
Something wrapped around his chest, yanking tight.
He was suddenly hauled free from the screaming currents.
A young man on a flying disk was holding a golden rope. The rope had wrapped around Cole’s chest. The young man was Liam.
That couldn’t be right.
Cole’s vision was fading.
Liam was long gone.
Cole realized he must be dreaming.
And then darkness engulfed him.
CHAPTER
34
RECOVERY
Cole woke up on a soft bed in an elegantly furnished room. Veins of gray streaked the white marble walls and ceiling. He turned to find Mira seated on a nearby chair, gazing at him tenderly.
“Are we dead?” Cole asked, his throat dry.
“Nope,” Mira said.
“Did we get him?”
“You got him.”
Cole thought hard. “We fell into the vortex.”
“Liam fished you out,” Mira said.
Cole propped himself up on one elbow. His body felt stiff. “I remember Liam. I didn’t think that could be real. Why was Liam there? We haven’t seen him since we fought Carnag.”
“The echo of Dandalus sent for him through Jenna.”
“That must have happened before I went to get her.”
“Yes. She contacted the Unseen in Necronum, who got a message to Liam in hiding. He came here and waited for you. I guess Dandalus expected the fight to end up here.”
“Where are we?” Cole asked.
“Inside the castle behind the cloudwall,” Mira said. “You know, where Declan lived before he was chased away. It was abandoned until we arrived.”
“How did you get here?” Cole asked.
“Lorenzo opened a wayport to here for me, Jace, Twitch, Dalton, Jenna, Hunter, and Violet right after Ramarro followed you to the sky castle. Jace lent Liam the golden rope.”
“It didn’t need my power to work here,” Cole said. “Sambria.”
“I’ve been practicing with my powers since we arrived,” Mira said.
“Did you make any walking mudballs?”
Mira broke eye contact. “Maybe.”
“How long was I out?”
“Three days.”
Cole nodded. His mouth felt dry and tasted funny. “Do you have water?”
She handed him a glass. He took a small sip of the lukewarm fluid. The lining of his mouth seemed to absorb half of it before he could swallow. He took another sip.
“Is your power all right?” Mira asked.
Cole searched inside himself, and his power felt okay but a little unsteady. Cole connected to Mira’s power and gave her some energy.
She sat up straighter. “Good!”
“My power felt injured in the fight,” Cole said. “Still kind of does. At least it still works. More strained than torn. Ramarro came after me with his power. Since he was reaching for me, I found my way to his center and hurt him back. You’re sure the vortex got him?”
“Liam seemed sure,” Mira said. “He saw him descending, round and round, deeper and deeper. Ramarro wasn’t fighting. He just drifted with the flow. Liam watched until he disappeared. We haven’t heard from Ramarro since.”
Cole thought for a moment. “You guys can’t leave here.”
“Not without you. Unless we’re ready for a really long walk.”
“Violet can only open a wayport here with my help. You were betting on me to survive.”
“We bet right,” Mira said. “I should get the others.”
She hurried away.
Before long, Dalton raced into the room. “I knew it!” he cried, running to give Cole a hug. Cole winced as he hugged back, shoulders aching. He felt a little fragile. “I knew you would be all right. How is your power?”
“Working,” Cole said.
“That is a lot more than Ramarro can say,” Jace said as he entered with Twitch. “You realize you’re a legend now.”
Violet, Mira, and Jenna came next, and Hunter and Liam entered last. Cole became the center of smiling attention. He could see they had been worried and were now relieved.
“Thanks for sending Liam,” Cole told Jenna. His eyes shifted to Liam. “Thanks for coming to my rescue.”
“Least I could do after you saved all of us,” Liam said. “It’s a little hard to believe when you get a message from one of the long-dead founders of your world.”
“I know the feeling,” Cole said.
“I guess you do,” Liam said. “Thank Jace, too. Without that golden rope it would have been dodgy.”
“Thanks, Jace,” Cole said.
“Don’t you dare thank me,” Jace said. “Not after what you did. You took Ramarro in a straight fight. All I can do now is thank you forever.”
“The battleground was rigged,” Cole said. “The sky castle was set to respond to my abilities and not to his. He tried to figure out how to escape. I did my best to get in the way.”
“You fought him,” Jace said. “Alone. Dandalus told us where he sent you after Ramarro disappeared. He told us all he could give you was a chance.”
“And you did it, Cole,” Dalton said.
“I fought him hard,” Cole said. “Threw statues at him. Threw the castle at him. I even got to his nexus with my power and hurt him.”
“And don’t forget that you defeated the Perennial Serpent in seconds,” Mira said. “Like it was nothing. Elegance has her power back.”
“I had practice,” Cole said. “Once I knew what to do, that one was easy.”
“And you destroyed Owandell,” Hunter said. “You made that look easy too.”
“It kind of was,” Cole said. “He wasn’t too scary. I knew I could take him with my power. The Jumping Sword was just an experiment.”
“Style points for the sword,” Jace said.