Reah flapped her wings and spread them wide as she caught an updraft. While she flew northward over the forests, she repeated the message Gehn had given her over and over in her mind, trying to decipher its meaning.

  Eventually, she dropped down into the rich foliage below her and perched on a branch. Hopping from branch to branch, she made her way down until she reached her destination. A small but sturdy wooden shack hidden behind a wall of brush. On one wall was an open window. It was here that she entered the home of her teacher.

  Rolen was sitting on his bed when Reah entered, stringing his longbow. When he heard the flapping of wings at the window, he looked up. 'You're back early, Reah,' he said, identifying the Caa instantly. 'I thought that you were going into Solace.'

  'Reah goes, she did!' she replied. 'Reah hears Leeda faint she does, then Gehn gives message for teacher Rolen he did!'

  Rolen's posture stiffened. One who wasn't paying attention might not have noticed, but Reah was looking for any sign of reaction to tell her what was going on if her teacher didn't want to say. 'What was the message, Reah?'

  Reah took a deep breath. 'Gehn says 'Tell Rolen to get his ass down here, and tell him to remember what happened ten years ago. If you don't, I'll twist your damn beak off and peck out your own eyes with it', he did.' She clacked her beak in anger and irritation. 'Reah thinks Gehn would do that, he wouldn't, but Gehn needed to say that he didn't.'

  Rolen said nothing to this as he looked down at his longbow. 'Ten years ago...' After a moment's rememberance, he finished stringing the bow and stood up. As he walked to the door, he said to the Caa without looking at her, 'Wait here, Reah. And tell your brothers that I have gone to Solace. You can all follow me then, if you wish, or stay here.'

  Reah opened her beak to protest as he opened the door, but sensed that she would get no answer. Normally, this wouldn't stop her anyway, but there was a look in her teacher's eyes. A very haunted look of regret.

  Rolen closed the door of the shack behind him and started walking through the forest toward Solace. Each step was automatic, independant of conscious thought, which was far away. Not in terms of distance, but ten years of time.

-     -     -

- Interlude

  "Another Potato Platter, uncle!"

  Hal was already in the process of pulling the last batch out of the oven. "Thank you, Jenny," he called out. He sighed faintly as he placed the cheese-filled baked potatoes that were his specialty onto a large plate. Amazing that she's working today, after yesterday, he thought to himself. He couldn't place why, but even though nothing really bad had been given the chance to happen, he was still nervous about the merchant's two bodyguards.

  The merchant...Lowe, was it? He had mentioned that hiring only two bodyguards was a matter of knowing which two to hire. The red-haired one must have been hired solely for his skill. It was a known fact that fire Talents were wild-natured and short-tempered, and Bleyz had certainly shown that to be true in his case.

  Even more unsettling, though, was the smaller one. Nader. After the shock of the aborted attack on Jenny, both she and Hal had gone to thank the wiry bodyguard for the way he helped prevent Bleyz from doing anything worse.

  He just looked at us. I swear, I've seen lizards that showed more basic human emotion than his eyes did. And then he said... he said, "My associate and I were paid not to make trouble. He stepped over the line." And I just got this feeling... for a piece of copper the size of my thumbnail, he'd have cut both our throats right there without showing any more emotion than he did right then.

  Hal shuddered as he picked up the large plate and started carrying it to the counter where Jenny would take it and serve their customers. What had happened yesterday was over and done with, anyway. And the merchant had promised that there would be no more trouble until they left. At least he seemed trustworthy. He'd also given them both a pick of his goods. Jenny now sported a crystal pendant, while he'd selected a few jars of foreign spices.

  Still, I'll be damn glad when they're gone.

-     -     -

  Bleyz glowered as he stood by Lowe's wagon while the merchant did business. It was bad enough that he had to just stand around all day while the fat bastard sold his wares to a bunch of slack-jawed shitkickers. It was bad enough that he had to listen to Lowe sell his snake oil act, pawning off cheap trinkets and raggedy fabric as precious gems and fine silk over and over again. Nah, that wasn't enough. He had to do all that while pretending that he wouldn't much rather just boil every one of these stupid, inbred, worthless hicks from the inside out.

  Every time he even thought about it, though, he'd feel that cold, icy glare digging into the back of his head, and a thin line of pressure drawn against his throat. He would turn his head, but all he would see would be that snake bastard Nader standing on the opposite side of the wagon, looking for all the world like he could stand in that same position for a week. The fucker. How could a guy able to move almost faster than sight look so calm?

  Well, he'd see to it personally. Nothing he could do about it now, but the first chance he got after leaving this pissant shitkicker town, he'd show Nader not to mess with him. Even that little bastard had to sleep sometime.

  And the fat one'd be next, after he got a chance to talk to his boss.

-     -     -

  Karn smiled faintly as he stepped back and looked at his work. The first smile he'd allowed himself since Leeda had kicked him out. Whatever was wrong... well, it was really wrong, and there was nothing he could do about it. Not even figure out what it was.

  That was why, after a few hours of thought, he had returned to his sculpture. Perhaps, if he could cheer Leeda up with this gift, she might open up enough to tell him what was wrong. The Guardian Rosalia was taking shape nicely, and it would only be another day or two of work before she could be finished with the amount of detail befitting the Spirit of Life.

  He frowned a bit. A day or two. Hopefully Leeda wouldn't be bothered by nightmares in that time.

-     -     -

  Leeda stared out the window of her bedroom and tried to ignore the faint knocking on her door. She was trapped in a self-made prison, and was not in the mood to let anyone visit the prisoner. It had been hard enough to convince Karn to leave, and she had had the advantage that time. He had been trying so hard to express his concern for her without accidentally dredging up something better left buried, he had been unable to plead his case effectively. Eventually, he had... gone... defeated....

  She blinked, and noticed that her view of the village was blurred. She wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her robe, and it came away damp. She hadn't wanted him to go. The presence of an old friend could have been comforting. Perhaps it would have been, but he would have asked questions that she simply could not answer.

  She knew there was something wrong with her. Something terrifying. But how could she be expected to open up, when she did not even know what was happening, herself? She had nightmares, she knew, but their memory never lasted long upon waking. The only thing she could recall from the last one, aside from the bone-deep horror that accompanied every one, was an intense feeling of relief at seeing Karn alive and whole.

  What can it mean? Why should I be dreaming such things? As she absently stared out the window, she curled up her legs and rested her chin on her knees.

  What scared her most was the thought that when she did finally understand, it would be because whatever she was dreaming would be made real. And by then, it would be too late.

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