“Why didn’t you tell me Larad had come with you?” Travis said, glancing at Grace.

“I thought it would be a fun surprise.”

Larad gave her a sharp look. No doubt the Runelord was not used to being considered in any way fun. “The storm has ceased. And Master Wilder has been successfully retrieved. It is time we talked.”

Travis felt stronger in both body and spirit as they gathered around a table, drank maddok, ate dried figs, and spoke of their respective journeys to this place. Travis couldn’t help but think this was probably one of the oddest parties this—or any village—had ever seen: a witch, an assassin, a dervish, and two wizards.

They listened first as Grace described her and Larad’s journey south. Over the last month they had traveled to the southern tip of Falengarth, then had sailed across the Summer Sea, to Al-Amún, and with three T’golas guards had taken camels into the desert, to this village.

When she was done, Travis shivered. “It’s on Earth, too—the rift in the sky. Scientists are calling it Variance X. They know it lies just outside the solar system, but they have no idea what it is or why it’s growing.”

“It’s the end of everything,” Grace said. “That’s what Sfithrisir said. The end of all possibility.”

“It’s only just now visible to the naked eye on Earth,” Travis said. “It sounds like it’s bigger here.”

Grace nodded. “Just like the moon is bigger than on Earth, and the stars brighter. I think the heavens are closer here on Eldh. The rift must be closer, too.” She reached across the table, touching his hand. “Only the Last Rune can stop it. That’s what the dragon said.”

Travis didn’t understand that part. “You mean the rune Eldh?”

She shook her head. “That was the last rune spoken at the end of the world. Sfithrisir said that only the last rune spoken at the end of everything can heal the rift.”

“And did he maybe happen to mention what it was?”

“The dragon said you’d know what the Last Rune was. That’s why I came here to find you.” She squeezed his hand, her expression troubled. “Only you have no idea what the Last Rune is, do you?”

He sighed, then shook his head.

“It does not matter,” Larad said. “Dragons can only speak the truth. You willfind the Last Rune.” However, the Runelord’s eyes were not as certain as his words.

Farr turned his dark gaze on Travis. “If you didn’t come here to look for the Last Rune, then why have you come to Eldh?”

“To find my daughter, Nim,” Vani said before Travis could reply.

Travis took a sip of maddok, gathering his thoughts, then did his best to recount everything that had happened during their last hours on Earth. When he spoke of Deirdre and their conversation at the Charterhouse, Farr got up and paced, as if excited or agitated. Finally, Travis described how the gate crackled open and hands reached through, snatching Nim. He and Vani had managed to follow, but not Beltan. His throat grew tight, and he could no longer speak. Vani was gazing at her hands.

Oh, Travis. . . .

Grace’s voice spoke in his mind. He felt her love, and her sorrow, enfold him like an embrace.

“It’s all right,” he said aloud. “We’re going to get Nim back. That’s why we came here.”

And I will return to Beltan, he added silently.

He felt Grace’s resolve flowing into him. Yes, you will.

Farr stopped his pacing. “Do you know why the Scirathi captured your daughter?” he said to Vani.

“I was not certain before. All I knew was that powerful lines of fate gather around her. But now we suspect it is her blood they want. They seek to use it as a key. Nor do we believe it was a coincidence that the sorcerers have pursued her even as Morindu the Dark has been found.”

“I imagine you’re right,” Farr said. “The Scirathi are remarkably single-minded. At any given time, they will pursue only one goal, so that all their powers are focused on it. Right now that goal is Morindu. Somehow your daughter must be a part of their plans.”

“I think we figured that much out,” Travis said dryly.

Vani turned her gold eyes toward Farr. “I believe it is time we heard your tale, Seeker.”

“Seeker,” he said with a husky laugh. “I haven’t been called that in a long time.”

He fell silent, and Travis began to think that was all Farr was going to tell them. At last he spoke in a low voice.

“It began with the man in black.”

Travis shivered despite the stifling air.

“I found him in Istanbul,” Farr said. “Or rather, he found me, for I doubt I would have come upon him had he not wished it. He wore the black robe of an imam, and his skin was dark rather than pale, but all the same I knew at once who he was. I had read your descriptions of him many times over, Travis.”

“Brother Cy.”

“Yes.”

Travis should have known that was how Farr had gotten to Eldh. But why had the Old God—who seemed to favor the garb of a holy man no matter what land he was in—transported Farr here?

“I wasn’t even certain why I had gone to Istanbul,” Farr went on. “I had investigated rumors of an otherworldly portal there once. I had never found any evidence of a door, but I always felt there were a few leads that I had not followed as fully as I might have, so I took the Orient Express from Paris. However, I never had the chance to perform any research, for he found me almost the moment I stepped off the train.

“He told me to meet him the following evening beneath the dome of the Hagia Sophia, then vanished. I went to my hotel, phoned Deirdre and left her a message, spent a sleepless night, then went to the museum to meet him, hardly expecting him to be there. Only he was, along with the other two—the girl and the blind woman. I knew it was them, though they were robed and veiled.”

“Samanda and Mirrim,” Grace murmured. “What happened then?”

The dervish shook his head. “The imam—Brother Cy—said he could show me the way to what I searched for. I said I didn’t know what that was, but the girl said that was a lie. And she was right, because I hadgone to Istanbul looking for something. I was looking for a door to Eldh. I wanted to stop searching for those who had traveled to other worlds and instead go there myself.

“The blind woman whispered something in my ear, something that made no sense to me, then suddenly they were gone. I thought that was it, that nothing else was going to happen. In despair, I left the Hagia Sophia. Only when I stepped out of the door, I found myself not on a street in Istanbul, but rather standing among ruined stone columns in the middle of a desert. The sun was blazing, and I had no water. There was no sign of a doorway behind me. Vultures circled above, and I laughed bitterly, because I had finally gotten what I wanted—I had traveled to another world. And I was going to die there.” Farr sighed. “Only then . . .”

“Then what?” Travis said, fascinated, even envious. He remembered what it was like to first come to Eldh.

“Then I was found,” Farr said.

For the next hour, they listened as Farr told them what had befallen him during his last three years on Eldh—although Travis was certain the former Seeker was not telling them everything. In the ruins he was found by a dervish, much as Travis had been found by Falken in the Winter Wood the first time he journeyed to Eldh. In both cases, Brother Cy had chosen their destinations with care.

The ruins where the dervish discovered him turned out to be all that was left of Usyr, once the greatest city of ancient Amún, and now little more than a few heaps of stone that jutted out of the desert like the bones of giants. The old dervish had come to Usyr to find secrets of sorcery. Instead he had found death. While opening a box of scrolls, he had sprung an ancient trap, releasing a cloud of poisonous dust, and even as he stumbled upon Farr he was dying.