"I knew there'd be treachery," Eladamri said coldly. "Your marksman missed me."
Belbe got up, and the elf backhanded her. She fell again. Eladamri was about to repeat the blow when Takara stayed his hand.
"She may have no other value than as a hostage," said Takara. "But she's no use at all dead."
Belbe stood and shouted, "Why do you hate me so? Is it because I represent the overlords whom you fight?"
"I don't know your overlords," said Eladamri. "All I know is this world and the evil men who rule it. Those men decreed my family should be extinguished. I am the only one of my line who still lives.
"Perhaps you really don't know, but you were once my daughter. Her name was Avila. She was killed on the orders of Volrath and her body stolen. That was five weeks ago. How long have you been here?"
"I've been on Rath three weeks. Before that, on Phyrexia, two weeks…" Belbe looked at her hands, touched her own face. "Why would the overlords command Volrath to do such a thing?"
"It's very plain. By murdering my child, they hoped to terrorize me into submission. If that failed, they counted on me becoming unmanned by the sight of my dear daughter commanding the enemy host."
You are the instrument of our study. The words of Abcaldro filled her with sudden loathing.
"I came to help you!" she said. "Volrath returned without warning. He fought Crovax and lost. Crovax is now evincar, and as long as he reigns, no one is safe-friend, foe, ally, or neutral."
"Tell them about Dominaria," said Takara. "Tell them what's going to happen when this world and that one join."
Belbe backed away from the rebels. "You know about the invasion?"
"Lady Takara was kind enough to explain it to us," Eladamri said. "I notice you didn't mention it."
"I've taken care of that! It won't happen so long as I remain on Rath!"
The elf drew his sword. His heart was pounding so loudly he thought they must be able to hear it. The enemy with his daughter's face edged away. He could not bear to see her like this, her mind empty of memories, her face mockingly free of a daughter's love. That she wore the colors of his blood foes, the livery of her own murderers, was the most unendurable fact of all.
"Wait, O Eladamri!" Kireno pleaded, trying to hold him back. He ignored him and raised his sword. Belbe turned and ran.
Thirty yards down the concourse, she stopped and faced the oncoming elf. His attack was clumsy, and she easily avoided it.
Belbe grasped Eladamri by his cuirass and threw him to the floor. She planted her foot on the wrist of his sword hand and plucked the weapon from his fingers. In one deft motion she snapped the blade over her knee and let the pieces clatter to the floor.
"The time for swords is past," she said. "I'm not your child, Eladamri. It's true I was made in the workshops of Phyrexia. I don't doubt I was made to resemble your lost child. It would suit my masters' purpose perfectly to use your loved one's face against you, but I had no choice in the matter, no more than you chose the face you were born with.
"I've come here to undo the cause for which I was created. I can get you out of here safely, if you want. That's all I'm offering."
He sat up stiffly. "On what conditions?"
"No conditions."
The rest of the rebels, including Sivi, leaning on Medd's shoulder, surrounded them.
"And how do you propose to get us out of here?" Takara asked, her voice dripping with venom.
"I have an emergency exit. Let me show you."
She slipped by Kireno and Takara and made her way to the fourth pilaster on the left side of the hall. The floor was littered with Volrath's shattered dreams, and Belbe's feet crushed the brittle shards to dust.
At the base of the half-column was a row of decorative studs. She pressed the third one from the left side, and a panel popped open, revealing a deep recess four feet high.
They crowded around. Two large boxes were stowed inside. Belbe dragged them out. The tall metal carton she tore open with her bare hands, exposing an intricately machined device three and a half feet tall and about ten inches thick. It had a square base, tall cylindrical sides ribbed with metal tubing, and a transparent dome on top.
"A weapon?" asked Kireno.
Takara's eyes shone. "No," she said, smiling. "It's a portal device."
"You've seen one before?" Belbe said.
"My father has used them in times past. This is quite a small one."
Belbe admitted it was. "It was provided to me for special purposes only. If any of Weatherlight's crew or their equipment came into my hands, I was supposed to send them to Phyrexia for closer examination."
The other box contained a single powerstone. Belbe inserted it into the base of the unit, explaining it had just enough power to transmit four hundred pounds of material to another plane.
"Four hundred pounds!" Medd protested. "All of us together weigh a lot more than that!"
"I'm not going," Belbe explained. "As for the rest of you, you'll have to work out your own arrangements."
She took out the portal control unit from her belt and clicked the activator. The dome atop the portal device flickered to life.
"Stand back," she said. "It will throw the doorway across this axis."
The rebels watched in awe as the machine began to drone. The air between them and the far end of the Dream Halls shimmered and thickened, gradually losing its normal transparency. A square seven feet high slowly formed out of gray mist and flashes of light, like lightning in a fogbank. Medd went around the edge of the square. It was as thin as paper and opaque from both sides.
"Do we go now?" asked Kireno.
"It hasn't reached travel potential yet," Belbe said. "It may take another quarter hour before the door is open. Then I have to calibrate the transmitter."
"What?"
She smiled. "Choose your destination."
"Skyshroud!" Medd said. "Send us to the Eye of Korai!"
Belbe fiddled with the tiny dials on her control unit. Ripples of color sprayed across the gray square.
"You must understand," she said emphatically. "A portal is a transplanar connection only. I cannot send you elsewhere on Rath. You'll be going to another plane-another world."
She let this astonishing revelation sink in.
Sivi roused herself. "Will we ever be able to come back to Rath?"
"I don't know. What I do know is if you remain here you'll die, and the cause you've fought for will suffer a terrible loss."
"Whatever happens, Eladamri must go," Medd said. "Are we agreed on that?" Sivi, Kireno, and Shamus solemnly concurred. Takara chewed her lip and said nothing.
"I'll never be able to live with myself if I leave anyone behind," said the elf gravely. "Is there no other choice?"
"The unit will transmit four hundred pounds, no more," Belbe said. "Anything exceeding the power limit will not go through. The consequences for a living being would be disastrous."
"You mean, a person might arrive without their legs or head?" asked Shamus.
"Exactly so."
Belbe finished her power adjustments. The portal square was now brilliant blue, free of ripples or fog. She announced the portal was stable, and all she needed was a destination to align it with.
A long pause ensued. Finally Eladamri said, "Dominaria."
Takara's eyes widened in surprise. "Why there?"
"You told us our ancestors came from there. That means there are people there like us, including, I presume, elves. Dominaria is the target of Phyrexian aggression, and people there should be warned. I'll see to it they know what's coming."
He faced the azure square. "A strange woman told me things not long ago, things I didn't understand. Prophecies
… I would be the savior of a world I'd never been to. A door would be offered to me, and I must enter it. I believe the Oracle en-Vec saw me going to Dominaria. So I will go."