Travis gripped his right hand inside the left, and Beltan gave him a look of concern. Deirdre wondered what he had been about to say.
“All right,” she said, trying to get all of this straight in her mind. “I understand that Orъ’s blood is powerful, and that the Scirathi would do anything to get their hands on it. But Morindu has been lost for ages. Why is this so important now? And what does any of this have to do with me?”
“I believe this will answer both of your questions,” Vani said, setting a tetrahedron of black stone on the coffee table. “Travis?”
Travis hesitated, then reached out and touched the stone. Deirdre sucked in a breath as the image of a man appeared above the tetrahedron. She had never seen him before, but their kinship was clear in his striking, angular features, and she knew he was Vani’s brother. This was a message from Eldh.
The message was brief, and it changed everything. By the time the image of Vani’s brother vanished, Deirdre’s heart was racing.
“You bastard, Hadrian,” she murmured. “You fabulous bastard. You actually did it.”
“Did what?” Beltan said, brow furrowing.
She hugged a throw pillow to her chest. “He had a Class Zero Encounter. Translocation to another world. Something every Seeker has worked for, and something none of them has ever achieved.”
Until now.
“Maybe I should be a Seeker,” Beltan said brightly. “I’ve been to another world. This one.”
Despite the buzzing in her head, Deirdre grinned at the blond man. “Don’t be such a show‑off.”
She reminded herself that she was having multiple Class One Encounters herself at this very moment–something rare enough in the history of the Seekers. Resting her chin on a hand, she gazed at the onyx tetrahedron. What did it all mean? How had Farr gotten to Eldh? And why was he the one who had told the Mournish that Morindu had been found?
You always were a fast learner, Hadrian. They said you’re a dervish, which I gather is some sort of sorcerer. I wish I could talk to you now. I know I should do something, but I have no idea what.
The only thing she knew for certain was that this case wasn’t over. In fact, she had the feeling that–despite everything that had happened–it had only just begun.
“So now what?” Deirdre said.
“Now Travis must fulfill his fate,” Vani said as if everything had already been decided.
Beltan’s eyes narrowed. “What are you talking about?”
“Travis must return to Eldh,” Vani said, standing. “He must journey into the Morgolthi and reach Morindu before the Scirathi.”
Beltan jumped to his feet. “Why don’t you go find it yourself, you and the Mournish? It’s your bloody city.”
Vani kept her eyes on Travis. “It is his fate to do it.”
“Why?” Beltan said, cheeks ruddy. “Because you want it to be?”
Vani’s face was hard. “No, because it is. Our oracles saw it long ago: The wizard who came to Eldh to defeat a great evil in the north would also be the one to raise Morindu. This task is his.”
“Don’t you think he’s done enough already? He gave up everything to fight the Necromancer, and the Pale King, and Mohg. He’s done enough for the world. For both worlds. This is his time now. Our time. And you can’t just walk in here and take it from him. By all the gods, I won’t let you!”
Deirdre felt she should turn her head, that she shouldn’t be seeing this, only she couldn’t look away. She had never seen Beltan cry before, but he was weeping now, tears running down his cheeks, and the big man’s anguish made her own heart ache. Even Vani did not appear unmoved. The T’golcast her eyes downward, but again she said, her voice low this time, “It is his fate.”
Travis laughed, and all of them stared. It was a bitter sound. He was gazing down at his hands. “I still can’t figure out how it can be my fate to find Morindu if I’m supposed to be one of the Fateless.”
“What you say is true,” Vani said, kneeling beside him. “But it is the fate of my people to find Morindu through you.”
Beltan wiped the tears from his face with a rough gesture. “Then you have no idea what his fate really is. For all you know, you’re telling him the wrong thing. Maybe it’s because he refuses to go to Eldh that you find the city yourselves.”
Vani started a hot reply, but Travis held up a hand.
“It doesn’t matter. Even if I wanted to try to find Morindu–” he gave Vani a sharp look “–and I’m not saying I do, but even if I did, I couldn’t. There’s no way for me to get back to Eldh.”
Deirdre ran a hand through her close‑cropped hair. “What about the artifact?” However, even as she spoke, she remembered what she had learned before about the way the gate artifacts functioned.
“This is only part of the artifact,” Vani said. “With it, I can receive messages from my brother. But he has the greater part, and without it we cannot open a gate.” She gave Travis a piercing look. “But do you not have other means to travel between the worlds?”
Beltan let out a loud guffaw. “You mean you just assumed he could go back to Eldh?”
Vani gave him a dark look but said nothing, and it was clear this was exactly what she had believed.
“It’s not like he can just snap his fingers,” Beltan said, grinning, though it was a fierce expression. “By Vathris, even I know that much. True, he could use the Great Stones to travel between worlds, but he left them in Master Larad’s care. And the silver coin he has only works in one direction, to bring him to his home–and that’s here.”
Vani gave Travis a stricken look. “Is this true?”
“You doubt Beltan?” he said simply.
She hunched her shoulders and looked away.
“What about Brother Cy?” Deirdre said.
She was as surprised as the others that she had spoken–after all, they were the otherworldly travelers, not she–but now that their eyes were on her, she felt braver. In his reports, Travis had spoken of the mysterious preacher Brother Cy, and Deirdre had encountered one of his cohort, the purple‑eyed Child Samanda. According to Travis, Cy, Mirrim, and Samanda were Old Gods. A thousand years ago, they had helped to banish Mohg beyond the circle of Eldh, only in the process they were exiled with him. Then, when Travis inadvertently created a crack between the worlds by journeying back in time, Mohg was able to slip through the gap into Earth–and so were Cy and the others.
“Brother Cy helped you get to Eldh more than once,” Deirdre said. “Couldn’t he help you again?”
Travis’s face was thoughtful. “I don’t think Brother Cy is here anymore. When Larad broke the rune of Sky, Mohg was able to return to Eldh. I think Cy and Mirrim and Samanda went as well. It’s their home, after all. I don’t think we’ll be getting any help from them this time around.”
“There must be another way,” Vani said, her words imploring.
Travis laid a hand on the T’gol’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, Vani. But even if I wanted to help, I can’t. You have to face the fact that there’s no way for any of us to get back to–”
The telephone rang.
They all gazed blankly at one another for a moment, as if the sound had jarred them out of a spell, then Beltan picked up the cordless phone and held it to his ear.
He cocked his head, then held the phone out toward Deirdre. “It’s for you.”