“ ‘The Sleeping Ones,’ ” Beltan said, scratching the tuft of blond hair on his chin. “That doesn’t really sound familiar. What does it mean?”
No one, not even Vani, offered an answer.
Deirdre slipped the ring back on her finger. “The inscription talks about blood, and traces of blood were found on the keystone–blood with DNA similar to Glinda’s. Whoever they were, these Sleeping Ones were important to the folk at Surrender Dorothy for some reason.” Though why that was, they would never know, thanks to Duratek.
“This all seems a small complication,” Vani said, standing and stalking around the table. “True, the gate will not be complete without this keystone. However, it could be in a vault in this very building. Cannot this Philosopher ally of yours deliver the keystone to us?”
Deirdre opened her mouth, not certain how she was going to answer that. Would the unknown Philosopher really respond to a direct request for help? Before she could speak, there was a knock at the door, and the butler entered. On the silver tray he carried was not another pot of coffee but a manila envelope.
“A message just arrived for you, Miss Falling Hawk,” he said, holding the tray toward Deirdre.
She stared at the envelope. “Who’s it from?”
“I have no idea, miss.” The butler looked slightly ruffled, as if she were accusing him of snooping.
She took the envelope off the tray. “Thank you, Lewis.”
The butler retreated from the parlor; the door shut.
“It’s from him, isn’t it?” Travis said. “Your Philosopher friend.”
Anders thumped the table. “Well, that was right on cue. He’s an eerie fellow, but you can’t fault his timing, now can you?”
Deirdre was beyond words. She forced her trembling fingers to open the envelope. Inside was a folded up sheet of newsprint. Trying not to tear it, she unfolded the sheet and spread it on the table. It was a page taken from the Times–the coming day’s edition, according to the date. It must have come right off the presses.
They all leaned over the page. At the top was a large article about Variance X, the growing stellar anomaly that astronomers had observed beyond the boundaries of the solar system. However, the article didn’t hold Deirdre’s attention. Nor did the headlines about devastating typhoons in India, or the jittery United States stock markets. Instead, her eyes were drawn to the small headline at the bottom of the page: DARING ARCHAEOLOGICAL THEFT ON CRETE.
Numb, she scanned the article. It described how a stone archway was stolen mere hours after it had been revealed live on the program Archaeology Now!There was no clue as to the perpetrators, but one worker at the site reported seeing men dressed in black and wearing masks.
Gold masks.
Vani looked up, her own face becoming a mask: one of fury. “Sacred Mahonadra, they have taken it!”
Beltan and Travis exchanged a grave look, and Deirdre understood what it meant. Somehow, the Scirathi had taken the gate, and without it there was no way to open a doorway to Eldh. But the gate wouldn’t do the Scirathi any good either, not without–
A sound like the crackle of electricity permeated the air, along with the metallic scent of ozone. Deirdre turned, and her heart became stone. On the other side of the parlor, a circle of darkness hung in midair, rimmed by blue fire. Nim was no longer on the sofa. Instead the girl padded across the carpet on bare feet, approaching the mouth of the portal.
Vani sprang forward. “Nim, get away from that!”
Fast as she was, Beltan was ahead of her, leaping over the back of the sofa. Travis scrambled after them.
Nim stopped before the dark circle and gazed into it. After a moment she nodded, the way a child might when obeying an adult’s instructions. She held her chubby arms out.
“No!” Beltan shouted.
A pair of black‑gloved hands reached out of the circle of blue sparks, snatching up Nim. The girl screamed.
“Mother!” she cried, twisting in the gloved hands that gripped her, looking back, her eyes large with fear.
Beltan dived forward, lunging for the girl. His arms closed around empty air, and he crashed against an end table. The hands pulled Nim into the blazing iris of the portal, and both they and the girl vanished. At once the gate began to shrink in on itself, a blue eye winking shut.
Travis thrust a hand into the rapidly dwindling circle. Azure magic crackled around his wrist, biting his hand like a hungry maw.
“You must not let the gate close,” Vani said, her voice hard as steel. “There is no other way we can follow her.”
Travis nodded, his face lined with pain. However, the blue circle constricted more tightly about his wrist. Beltan lay on the floor. He wasn’t moving.
“Anders, help me,” Deirdre said as she knelt beside the blond man. Anders helped her roll him over. He was breathing, but his eyes were shut, and there was a bruise forming on his forehead. Anders helped her haul his limp body onto the sofa.
“Vani,” Travis gritted between clenched teeth. “My bandage. Take it off. I think it was my blood they used to open this gate. They must have gotten it from the stomach of the dead gorleth.”
Her eyes blazed. “What fools we are! We should have known they would do this.”
Travis flinched as she jerked the bandage off his wound. Blood began to ooze forth.
“More,” he said.
She dug her fingers into the wound, and a moan escaped him. Blood flowed freely from the gorleth’sbite marks, running down his arm. When it reached his wrist, the circle of blue sparks flared, then began to expand outward. Travis stuck his other hand into the opening, gripping its blazing edges, straining as he forced it wider. More blood flowed down his arm, and it vanished as it reached his wrist. The gate was consuming it.
Travis staggered. His face was white, and alarm coursed through Deirdre. He’s lost too much blood. He’s going to pass out.
“Do not stop!” Vani said, her voice a cruel slap.
Again Travis strained. The gate expanded a fraction; it was as wide as his shoulders now.
“Hello there, mate,” Anders said as Beltan drew in a shuddering breath and sat up on the sofa.
“What’s going–?” The blond man’s eyes went wide. “Travis!”
Travis cast a look of pain, sorrow, and love over his shoulder, his eyes locking on Beltan’s.
“Now, Vani. Help me.”
In a single motion, the T’golgripped his shoulders and pushed him forward, into the mouth of the gate. However, she did not loosen her grasp on him, and his momentum carried her forward as she dived into the circle after him. Travis’s feet vanished, then Vani’s, as the ring of azure magic rapidly contracted.
“No!” Beltan shouted, pushing himself free of Deirdre and Anders, throwing himself forward. However, before he could reach it, the blue circle collapsed into a single point, then disappeared.
The gate had closed.
PART TWO
MASKS
15.
“So, dear,” Melia said, regarding Grace over the rim of a steaming cup of maddok, “I hear you had a chat with a dragon.”
The amber‑eyed lady sat beside the window in the chamber she and Falken shared. The chamber was small, but it was the sunniest in the keep, and that was why Melia had chosen it over grander rooms. She had been born long ago in a land far warmer than this, and her bronze skin seemed to absorb the morning light that streamed through the window.