"Is that so?" The hair stood up a little on Kiril's neck. "Maybe we should bury that little package here and now." Thormud shook his head.

"No, I think we can learn more from it before we do that." Kiril looked at the dwarf and said, "I had better not see that crystal again, understand?" "We'll see, Kiril. It is for me to decide."

"Why did you follow me?" The vengeance taker hung in the chamber, his prison a blaze of slowly churning light. "Release me, and I'll tell you all you want to know, and more." Ususi shook her head.

"Wrong. Tell me, then I decide your fate. I know your kind doesn't like to be dictated to, but you're in no position to insist. Tell me why I shouldn't just leave you to rot." The man shrugged, unfazed by Ususi's threat. "Then listen. Crisis has reached Deep Imaskar. If you do not return immediately, our hidden stronghold may fall. It may have fallen already." Ususi blinked. A plea for help was the last thing she anticipated from her tracker. "By the Purple Throne, what are you trying at? You can't trick me with crazy yarns! Why have you come after me now, after so many years? Why can't the Hidden City let me go? You know I'll not betray its secrets!" The man tried to wipe his brow, but the magical trap prevented him from completing the action.

He shrugged instead, and said, "You expect reprisal for bypassing the Great Seal without permission and leaving behind Deep Imaskar? At any other time, you would be right to fear punishment. But think. You said it yourself-if it had been deemed a worthwhile expenditure of our resources, we would have had you back long ago, Ususi Manaallin." He fixed her with his large eyes, whose depths were as bleak and colorless as a winter sky. Despite his helplessness, Ususi shivered under that ruthless gaze. Could such eyes even consider lies? She cleared her throat. Despite his abilities, he was her prisoner now and couldn't hurt her. "What is your name?" "I am Iahn Qoyllor, and I first heard the Voice of Damos fifteen years ago." Ususi's eyes flicked to the relic strapped to the man's right hand. She suppressed a shiver. "All right, Iahn. Tell me your disaster story and why you were sent to find me." "Darkness hammers against the Great Seal, a supernatural force that we cannot identify. Horror stalks the streets, and even the Hidden City's most stalwart defenders fall before its onslaught. The lord apprehender says we have but one hope: Ususi Manaallin. To this end, I was dispatched." Ususi couldn't suppress a yelp of protest. "Huh? That's gibberish! What hope? And what do you mean, darkness?" "The lord apprehender bid me tell you this.

'Retribution seeks the descendants of ancient Imaskar. Something old has awakened, something with no love for the long dead god kings.

Since they are long gone, it comes for us. It reaches forth from the lost Celestial Nadir.'" Ususi felt as if she'd been punched in the stomach. "The Celestial Nadir?" "The lord apprehender said more. 'This threat arises from where we cannot go-we cannot find access to the Celestial Nadir. We have no knowledge of how the great Imaskari of elder days entered their legendary place behind the world. We can't find our foe. No one can, except Ususi Manaallin. Her life's study is the Celestial Nadir, and she defied the edicts of the Great Seal to expand her research on it. For the sake of all surviving Imaskari, we pray her search has yielded fruit all these years since we let her go.'" "Riiiiiight." Equal parts praise and threat, mixed with a call for help. It might just be a message from the lord apprehender. Iahn slowly spun in his prison. Then again, this was a vengeance taker's story. Ususi knew countless tales of vengeance taker guile. This man's words were no doubt a ploy calculated to make her release him.

Vengeance taker deviousness was legendary. "Here's what I think," offered Ususi. "I think you finally did decide to track me down, and here you are. But you got a little too eager when you caught sight of me. And here you linger, caught. A fly in amber." The man narrowed his eyes. Anger? Probably not the wisest choice, taunting a vengeance taker. But his talk of darkness reminded her of her unsettling dream.

And of the darkness growing at the heart of her keystone, and of the Celestial Nadir crystal she'd found in Two Stars. She reached into her purse and brought out the crystal. Ususi gasped. The darkness at its heart had grown threefold since she gazed at it last night. The keystone, on the other hand, seemed unchanged. Seeing the crystal, Iahn drew in his breath quickly, almost hissing. "Where did you get that?" "Why do you care?" "The creatures that I dispatched near your travel coach all wore pendants of the same crystal. They were hunting you." "Creatures hunting me?" Ususi laughed, almost relieved. "All right, you're really off the cliff edge. Nothing is hunting me-I haven't seen a soul for tendays. I can't believe a word you are saying, can I?" "Why don't you go out and see for yourself? Perhaps then you'll cut me down from this confinement and apologize for doubting I spoke the truth." "Why don't I, indeed?" What she would actually do, she told herself as she slipped carefully beneath the floating form, careful not to become entangled in the snaring magic, would be to pack up the travel coach and drive hell-bent for the nearest big city-Assur, probably-where she could charter a ship. With any luck, the vengeance taker would never free himself. But her luck may have been pushed too far already. By all rights, the vengeance taker should have found her and dealt with her without falling afoul of a trap.

When Ususi returned to the chamber where Iahn still floated, she merely made a slashing gesture and spoke a magical phrase of negation.

The white light faded, and Iahn dropped to the floor. He gracefully spun as he fell and landed poised on his hands and feet, then stood to his full height. Iahn broke the silence. "You see I speak the truth.

They were trailing you for days. I saw their sign on your trail as I caught up to you in the wilds." Ususi nodded. In her hands were three more chunks of Celestial Nadir crystal, each crudely attached to a leather thong. She said, "There was one more pendant, but it was burnt and crumbled. This truly is Celestial Nadir crystal. Or, as it's called in these parts, 'Datharathi crystal.' " "Are you sure they're safe to touch?" "Why wouldn't they be?" Ususi wondered. "These pendants bound the creatures together and provided guidance. Or controlled them. The infernal one drew great strength from his, before it killed him. When I stripped the pendant from one of the still-breathing archers, she died as quickly as if I'd removed her heart." Ususi involuntarily flinched and thrust the pendants out to arm's length. Yet she didn't drop the crystals. Instead, she quickly stuffed them into her shoulder bag. She coughed, recovered her dignity, and said, "Perhaps they'll yield their secrets to me, then. I can probe their nature more fully when I return to my coach. After I clean up the mess those creatures made." She'd nearly cried when she'd seen what the creatures had done to her home on wheels. Iahn nodded.

"And then we return to Deep Imaskar. We should get started immediately. Even with your travel coach, it will be a journey of many tendays, maybe a month or more." Ususi swiveled her head and fixed the vengeance taker with a frown. "If things are as dire as you say, then we may not have that much time. I believe I am on the cusp of discovering a new access point into the Celestial Nadir-a local access point." "Here, in this complex?" Ususi sighed. "I'm afraid not. But I've been traveling south ever since I purchased the Datharathi crystal in Two Stars. That crystal is from Durpar, and even now we straddle that country's border. It is only a few days' travel to Vaelan, where we can inquire about the crystal. I want to know who mines it and where the mine is located. The mine is an access to the Celestial Nadir. Of this I am certain." Iahn cocked his head. "If you believe this, why waste time here in this derelict ruin, still dangerous after all these years?" "I possess a map that reveals ancient Imaskaran sites such as this one. It seemed reasonable to check out the sites that fell along my path to Durpar. Legends claim that there are twenty gates in all, and I'd like to find every one."