“How long have I been out?” he asked.
“Ten days,” Jack said.
“I need to get to my magic circle.”
“You’ll tear your wound and set your recovery back by weeks,” Jack said. “Bragador made me promise to keep you from getting up. She spent hours applying heat to your wound to kill the infection. Without her, you’d be dead. Just stay in bed and heal.”
“I need to find out where Isabel went,” Alexander said, choking back a lump in his throat.
“What if we put a circle around your bed?” Jack asked. “Would that work?”
Alexander thought about it for a moment. He’d seen magic circles of all different sizes-the only constants were the seven symbols carved between the dual circles.
“I don’t see why not,” Alexander said.
“Good,” Jack said. “You lie back and relax. Hector, Horace, and I will make a magic circle in the middle of the floor, then move your bed inside it.”
The three men worked, while Anja nosed about, trying to figure out what they were doing, but mostly just getting in the way. Alexander carefully inspected each symbol as they drew it on the floor, using the symbols inlaid in gold on his meditation table as guides. Once the circle was complete, they carefully carried Alexander’s bed into the center of it.
Before he could begin his meditation, he had an odd sensation … a knowing came over him. Bragador was coming. Moments later, she entered the room in human form.
“Anja, it’s time to feed,” she said as she entered. “Ah, Alexander you’ve woken. You had us all worried for a time there.”
“They tell me you saved my life,” Alexander said. “I’m in your debt.”
“Careful, Alexander,” Bragador said. “Dragons take debts very seriously.”
“As do I,” he said. “Thank you. For helping me and for sheltering us.”
“Perhaps we’re even,” Bragador said. “After all, you did save my troublesome daughter.” Anja frowned until she saw the genuine smile Bragador gave her. “It seems she’s been spending all of her time here when she should be feeding and learning how to fly.”
“Anja, I’ll be fine,” Alexander said, gently stroking the baby dragon’s brow. “And I’m not going anywhere. You can come see me later.”
She nuzzled his foot and then followed her mother out of the Wizard’s Den.
“I’ll be back in a while, Alexander,” Bragador said. “We have much to discuss.”
“I look forward to it,” he said as she disappeared around the corner of the door. Then he turned to Jack and asked, “Has anything else happened that I need to know about?”
“Not really,” Jack said. “Since Isabel left, everything’s been pretty quiet around here. We’re a good distance from the dragons’ main chambers so they haven’t come around much, except for Bragador and Anja. Mostly we’ve been watching over you and hoping you’d wake up.”
Alexander nodded, then turned his thoughts to the state of the world when he’d arrived at the Spires. Battles were raging all around the Seven Isles. There were so many things he needed to do and so much he didn’t know. And he’d failed in his quest to recover the keystone. From the pain in his leg, he knew it would be weeks, maybe even months, before he would be strong enough to travel. He decided to use the time wisely.
“I’m going to look in on Isabel,” he said, “maybe have a look around the Seven Isles while I’m at it. I’ll probably be a while.”
“If you have a chance, could you see how Abigail’s doing?” Jack asked.
Alexander nodded with a smile, then laid back and closed his eyes. It took some time to overcome the dull throbbing pain in his leg, but eventually he was adrift on the firmament. It seemed different somehow, more familiar.
With a thought, he was floating in the cabin of a ship at sea. Isabel was sleeping fitfully in the bunk. For several moments, Alexander just watched her sleep, grateful that she was all right but saddened that she felt it necessary to leave his side. He still didn’t quite understand. They belonged together; she knew that as well as he did.
He slipped into her dreams and found himself in his Wizard’s Den, watching Isabel stand over his restless body. She was dreaming of the night she’d left. Her eyes were vacant and distant, her hands held a dagger raised over his heart. She brought the dagger a few inches higher, preparing to strike, and then she stabbed down, hard. Just before it plunged into his heart, she woke, ejecting Alexander from her mind.
He found himself floating in the cabin once again, watching her in the darkness as she cried herself back to sleep. He felt so helpless. She was all alone and Phane’s magic was claiming her free will. He could only imagine how scared she must be, but he was coming to understand her decision to leave. He tried to put himself in her position, asking himself what he would do to protect her under similar circumstances. She’d done the only thing she could have. That left him with the question of where she was headed.
He rose up through the ship, high into the sky, until he recognized the shape of the island she was sailing toward. The shock of it was so intense that he snapped back to his body and sat up with a gasp. Pain from his wound stabbed into his leg, causing him to gasp again. Then he gently lay back down, focusing on his breathing until the agony subsided.
Jack was lying on the next bed over, staring at the ceiling. He turned to Alexander but said nothing.
“She’s going to Karth,” Alexander said quietly. “I wish I knew why.”
“I can think of two possibilities,” Jack said. “Neither is going to be easy to hear.”
Alexander turned to Jack, frowning.
“Either she’s under Phane’s power or she’s going to try to kill him,” Jack said.
Alexander sighed, nodding. “I don’t think he has control of her yet, but I saw her dream-it won’t be long before he does.”
“I’m sorry, Alexander,” Jack said.
“Me too.”
He closed his eyes and focused his mind. He knew where she was and that she was safe, that was enough for now. Several moments later he was floating on the firmament again. This time he thought of Abigail and found himself over a vast army on the march. They were escorting thousands of refugees toward FellendenCity. Abigail looked anxious but well enough. Anatoly was riding next to her.
With a flick of his mind he was at the ruined shipyards. They’d been totally burned to the ground. Huge burial mounds marked with Reishi, Ruathan, Ithilian, and Fellenden banners gave silent testimony to the losses she’d sustained. The thousands of barbarians scattered haphazardly across the battlefield, left for the scavengers to pick at, gave Alexander some measure of hope that Zuhl’s horde, while formidable, wasn’t invincible.
Next, he visited Blackstone Keep. He was alarmed to see people carrying lanterns for light. The magic of the Keep was failing, and quickly. Without its protections, it was just stone, easily destroyed by magic.
Alexander went to his message board and saw two messages. The first confirmed his fears. It read, “Keep’s magic is failing.” The second read, “Stalemate in Buckwold-Phane’s forces growing slowly.”
Alexander found Kelvin in his workshop. The large room was lit with a number of brightly glowing stones suspended from the ceiling by string. He was busy creating more of the glow stones, presumably for use by others within the Keep.
With a flick of his mind, Alexander was in Buckwold. His father’s men had built a formidable-looking berm wall that stretched from the ocean to the foothills of the Pinnacles. It looked sufficient to blunt the initial assault of the Lancers, but it probably wouldn’t hold for long once the enemy decided to attack. He thought of Warrenton and the world flickered by for an instant, then he was over the captured city. Lancers were camped all around its walls, and ships flying the Andalian banner were docked in port. Phane was managing to get some of his men through the blockade. A closer look revealed that two wizards stood guard atop towers overlooking the port. Any attack by the Sky Knights would be met with significant resistance.