During one of their brief stops, Mik took the time to properly bandage Trip’s leg wound. The kender didn’t complain, but his friends noticed that he wasn’t swimming with his usual verve. The captain treated Karista’s cuts and scrapes as well.
All went well until they came to a three-way branch in the corridor. Shimmer closed his orangish eyes a moment and concentrated before declaring that he detected no preferable route among the three.
“Perhaps they all lead to the surface,” Mik said hopefully.
“These corridors are part of the Maze,” Shimmer replied, his deep voice clear, even through the water. “They’re designed to confuse people and keep them from passing beyond the Veil. Chances are that two of these corridors lead to deadly traps.”
Karista cursed and leaned against the corridor’s rough coral wall. She looked pale and weary.
“Trip,” Mik said, “Give Karista some of that extra seaweed I gave hack to you.”
“Yes,” Karista said. “The magic is fading.”
Trip nodded and took the small wad out of his pocket. He divided it and gave the larger portion to Lady Meinor.
Mik took a deep breath and leaned hack. He felt tired, and slightly dizzy. A warm, almost burning sensation had sprung up in his gut. He slumped to his knees and felt something dig into his thigh.
He fished the diamond artifact out of his belt pocket and held it up. The golden loops felt very warm, and the black gem shone with a dim luminescence.
“A diamond key!” Shimmer said, his eyes shining with fascination. “Where did you get it?”
“Diving on an old wreck,” Mik replied. “Ula said it would lead us to the isles. Could it still he working?”
“Yes!” Ula and Shimanloreth said at the same time.
“Hold it up before the passages, Mik,” Ula said.
The captain nodded and got to his feet, holding the diamond in his outstretched hand. As he slowly approached each of the three corridors, the artifact sparked slightly toward the one on their left. Mik smiled.
Trip and Karista looked at each other in disbelief.
“The crystal is attuned to the barrier at the end of the maze,” Ula explained.
“It’s leading us toward the Dragon Isles,” Mik added. “Just as it was aboard the ship.”
“This way,” Ula said, starting up the chosen corridor.
The passage sloped gradually upward and, soon, the way ahead grew brighter.
“Is that moonlight?” Trip asked.
“Not moonlight,” Shimmer replied soberly. “The Veil.”
“Once we’re beyond the Veil,” Ula said, “we’ll be out of the sea dragon’s reach. It’ll be trickier for Lakuda to catch us as well.”
“If you make it through,” added Shimmer.
“We?” asked Trip. “Aren’t you coming?”
“The Veil is designed to keep unwanted visitors out,” Shimmer replied, ignoring his question. “If you are not born of this place, if you are not meant to be here, if you do not have the secret of passage, then you will go no further.”
In Mik’s mind, the image formed of an immense blue-white diamond waiting somewhere beyond the Veil. He couldn’t believe that he’d come so far, only to fail. Somehow, they would pass the Veil.
As they swam cautiously over a rise in the tunnel, the barrier appeared before them. The Veil glittered like diamonds in the moonlight-a whirling phantasm of pale colors. The enchantment reached from the tunnel’s floor to the ceiling. The magic seeped down through the reef into the earth below and high into the heavens above. The Veil permeated the isles, insulating it from the world outside.
Being so close to the barrier made the fugitives’ skin tingle and the hair on the backs of their necks stand up. Karista swayed woozily as though she might faint. Mik and Trip took her arms and guided her forward.
“Sleek!” Trip gasped.
Even Ula and Shimmer seemed affected as they drew near the enchantment. The sea elf blinked, the glow of the Veil reflecting off her green eyes. The bronze knight appeared to shrink slightly as he approached the barrier.
Mik rubbed his head, trying to remember where he was going or why he’d come to this place. He looked at Trip, wide-eyed and fascinated, then at Karista, more drowsy and confused-looking than either of them.
He felt a burning sensation in his palm and realized that he was still holding the artifact. Opening his fingers, he saw the black diamond glittering brightly within. Its radiance almost matched that of the Veil now.
The diamond’s light grew in his mind. He felt his head clear. His resolve to go forward grew firm once more.
“The artifact!” he gasped. “It fights the barrier’s effects!” He held the black diamond out before his friends’ befuddled faces.
The light of the diamond gleamed in Trip and Karista’s staring eyes. The blue-white light danced across their blank faces. The two light forms whirled around each other, finally merging to become pure white brilliance. The Veil’s enchantment slipped from the faces of the kender and the aristocrat. They rubbed their heads as though awaking from a deep sleep.
“Beautiful,” Karista said.
Trip looked puzzled. “Didn’t see it from die ship,” he said, then paused to gasp for breath.
“The Veil is only visible when you’re very close,” Ula replied. “And sometimes, not even then.” Mik noticed she kept her eyes averted as she approached the glistening shield.
Shimmer held out one armored palm to the others. “Link hands,” he said. “I maybe able to lead you through.”
Ula took his hand, and Trip took hers. Mik grasped the kender’s palm, and Meinor laced her fingers around Mik’s hand.
Shimanloreth stepped into the Veil. As he did, a jolt shot through the bodies of the entire group. As the magic surrounded him, the bronze knight flickered and changed-first large, then small, scaly, then spiky. For a moment, he barely looked human, then he appeared as a perfect, glittering knight. He passed through and vanished from the sight of the rest.
Ula followed quickly behind, fighting the barrier’s distorting effects. She looked oddly fish-like, before vanishing as she passed through. Trip grew tall and thin, laurels decorating his hair-like a young god returned to Krynn. He pushed beyond the swirling lights and disappeared.
Mik felt the magic assaulting him as he entered. Unseen winds pulled at his hair, and fire burned in his breast. His skin tingled as though he had touched an electric ray. He wondered if his appearance had changed; wondered what he looked like to the others. The kender’s strong grip kept pulling him through the barrier. Then something went wrong.
A jolt shot up Mik’s arm and he stopped, frozen, in the middle of the Veil. The magic howled around him. Looking back, he saw Karista, wide-eyed and afraid. A huge ball of white fire engulfed their clasped hands.
Mik felt his trapped hand, hot and tingling, but it seemed a very long distance away. In his mind, he heard Karista screaming-though no sound escaped her lips. Her voice sounded shrill and inhuman.
Summoning all his strength, he pushed forward one final time, dragging Karista Meinor with him.
The barrier gave way. Karista surged through the magical eddy, crashing hard into Mik, and they both tumbled out of the Veil on the far side.
They floated there a moment, dazed and exhausted. Karista gasped for breath.
“What happened?” Shimanloreth snapped. “What did you do?”
Behind them, the Veil wavered and rippled, like the surface of a glassy pond into which a large stone has been dropped. In the center of the ripples, the magic seemed to have vanished altogether-though it was slowly reforming at the edges.
“I used the diamond to push my way through,” Mik panted. He opened his fingers, revealing the dark form of the diamond artifact.