borlon was lit as bright as day. Wren tried to watch what was
happening, but the intensity of the light grew until it blinded
her and she was forced to look away. The white fire flooded to
the parapets of the Keel and began to churn. Wren could feel
it happen more than she could see it, her eyes closed against
the glare. Without, the demons began to shriek. There was a
rush of wind that came out of nowhere and grew into a howl.
Wren dropped to her knees, feeling Garth’s strong arm come
up about her shoulders and hearing Gavilan’s voice call to her.
Images formed in her mind, triggered by Ellenroh’s summoning,
wild and erratic visions of a world in chaos. The magic was
racing past her, a brushing of fingers that whispered and sang.
It ended in a shriek, a sound that no voice could have
made, and then the light rushed away, whipping back into the
black, withdrawing as if sucked down into a whirlpool. Wren’s
eyes jerked up, following the motion, trying to see She wac juct
quick enough to catch the last of it as it disappeared into
the Loden’s brilliant orb. She blinked once, and it was gone.
The city of Arborlon was gone as well-the people, the
buildings, the streets and walkways, the gardens and lawns, the
trees, everything from wall to wall within the Keel, disappeared.
All that remained was a shallow crater in the earth-as if a giant
hand had simply scooped Arborlon up and spirited it away.
Ellenroh Elessedil stood alone at the edge of what had once
been the moat and was now the lip of the crater, leaning heavily
on the Ruhk Staff, her own energy drained. Above her, the
Loden was a prism of many-colored fire. The queen stirred her-
self, tried to move and failed, stumbled, and fell to her knees.
Triss raced back for her instantly, lifted her as if she were a
weary child, and started back again. It was then that Wren re
alized that the magic that had protected the Keel had faded as
well, just as her grandmother had forewarned, its glow vanished
completely. Overhead, the sky was enveloped in a haze of vog
and the sunrise was a sullen lightening of the eastern skies barely
able to penetrate the night’s blackness. Wren drew a breath and
found the stench of sulfur had returned. All that had been of
Arborlon’s shelter had vanished.
The silence of a moment earlier gave way to a cacophony
of demon howls and shrieks as the realization of what had hap-
pened set in. The sound of bodies scrambling onto the walls and
of claws digging in rose from every quarter.
Triss had reached them, the queen and the Ruhk Staff
clutched in his arms.
“Inside, quickly!” the Owl shouted, hurrying ahead.
Hastening to follow after him, the others of the little com-
pany charged with the safe delivery of Arborlon and its Elves
disappeared through the open door and down into the black.
CHAPTER
14
IN A WORLD OF LIGHT and shadows where truths were a
shimmer of inconsistency, of life stolen out of substance
and made over into transparency, of nonbeing and mist,
Walker Bob was brought face to face with the impos-
sible.
“I have been waiting a long time, Walker, hoping you would
come,” the ghost before him whispered.
Cogline-he had been dead weeks now, killed by the Shad-
owen at Hearthstone, destroyed by Rimmer Dali-and Rumor
with him. Walker had seen it happen, sick almost beyond re-
covery from the poison of the Asphinx, crouched helplessly in
his bedroom as the old man and the moor cat fought their last
battle. He had seen it all, the final rush of the monsters created
of the dark magic, the fire of the old man’s magic as it flared in
retaliation, and the explosion that had consumed everyone
within reach. Cogline and Rumor had disappeared in the con-
flagration along with dozens of their attackers. None had sur-
vived save Rimmer Dali and a handful who had been thrown
clear.
Yet here was Cogline and the cat, come somehow into Par-
anor, shades out of death.