Each soul was captured. Each silent voice called to you.
Krenka-Anris,
Holy Priestess.
You came to the field of battle.
You found your three sons, most beloved,
and wept over them, one day for each.
The dragon Krishach, breathing fire and poison,
heard the grieving mother,
and flew to slay you.
Krenka-Anris,
Holy Priestess.
You cried out to your three sons, most beloved.
Each son’s soul sprang from the locket,
was like a shining sword in the belly of the dragon.
Krishach died, fell from the skies.
The Kenkari were saved.
Krenka-Anris,
Holy Priestess.
You blessed your three sons, most beloved.
You kept their spirits with you, always.
Always, their spirits fought for us, the people.
You taught us the holy secret, the capturing of souls.
Krenka-Anris,
Holy Priestess,
Give us counsel in this, our trying hour,
For lives have been taken, their deaths untimely,
To serve blind ambition.
The magic that you brought us, that was once blessed,
Is now a thing perverted, dark and unholy.
Tell us what to do,
Krenka-Anris,
Holy Priestess,
We beseech you.
The three knelt before the altar in profound silence, each waiting for the response. No word was spoken aloud. No flame flared suddenly on the altar. No shimmering vision appeared before them. But each heard the answer clearly in his or her own soul, as each heard the clang of the tongueless bell. Each rose up and stared at the others, faces pale, eyes wide, in confusion and disbelief.
“We have our answer,” said the Keeper of the Soul in awed and solemn tones.
“Do we?” whispered Door. “Who can understand it?”
“Other worlds. A gate of death that leads to life. A man who is dead but who is not dead. What are we to make of this?” asked Book.
“When the time is propitious, Krenka-Anris will make all known,” said the Soul, firmly, regaining his composure. “Until then, our way is clear. Keeper,” he said, speaking to the Door, “you know what to do.”
The Keeper bowed in acquiescence to the Soul, knelt a final time before the altar, then left upon his duty. The Keeper of the Soul and the Keeper of the Book waited in the small room, listening with inheld breath and fast-beating hearts for the sound that neither had ever thought to hear.
It came—a hollow boom. Grillwork made of gold, fashioned in the form of butterflies, had been lowered into place. Delicate, lovely, fragile-seeming, the grille was imbued with magic that made it stronger than any iron portcullis that served the same function.
The great central door that led inside the Cathedral of the Albedo had been closed.
CHAPTER 19
DEEPSKY MIDREALM
HAPLO RAGED INSIDE A PRISON CELL THAT WAS OPEN AND AIRY AND wide as the world. He tried helplessly to batter his way through bars that were flimsy as strands of silken spiderweb. He paced a floor compassed round by no walls, he pounded on an open door, guarded by no guards. Yet a man who’d been born in a prison knew no worse prison than that in which he now found himself. By setting him free, by letting him go, by granting him the privilege of doing whatever he desired, the serpents had thrown him into a cage, bolted the door, tossed away the key.
For there was nothing he could do, nowhere he could go, no way to escape.
Feverish thoughts and plans raced through his mind. He had first wakened from his sleep to find himself on one of the elven dragonships, bound—according to Sang-drax—for the elven city of Paxaris, located on the continent of Aristagon. Haplo considered killing Sang-drax, considered taking over the elven ship, considered leaping off the ship himself, to fall to his death through the empty skies. When he reviewed his plans coldly and rationally, the last seemed the only one likely of accomplishing anything constructive.
He could kill Sang-drax, but—as the serpents had told him —their evil would only return, and be twice as strong. Haplo could take over the elven ship; the Patryn’s magic was powerful, far too powerful for the puny ship’s wizard to counter. But Haplo’s magic couldn’t fly the dragonship, and where would he go anyway? Back to Drevlin? The serpents were there. Back to the Nexus? The serpents were there, too. Back to Abarrach? Most assuredly, the serpents would be there.