Wiping his eyes with the sleeve of his cloak, Corvan turned and guided Kate cautiously into the crack. Holding the long firestick in front of them, he watched as flickers of light shot through the rock and disappeared. This part of the Cor shield was much thicker than where he had come through when Tsarek had broken his colrbone. At first the crack was wide enough for the two of them to walk side by side, but it quickly narrowed. Getting through without touching the walls would be difficult—or impossible. He shuddered at the thought of being entombed in the Cor shield, like two bees encased in amber.

  “I need to go ahead of you and lead the way,” Corvan said stepping in front of Kate. “But remember what Jorad said, we must not touch the walls.”

  “I can’t breathe in here,” Kate said, shaking her head. “The walls are moving closer. I want to go back.” Her breath came in shallow gasps as her hand waved frantically in front of her face. He had forgotten how much she hated enclosed spaces. Twisting about, she tried to turn back, but with his free hand, Corvan pulled her in close against his chest.

  “Look into my eyes.”

  Kate raised her head and her eyes focused on his.

  “Try taking a deep breath,” Corvan urged, all the while working to keep his own fears from overrunning him. He felt her take a shallow breath, her heart beating madly against him. “I promise you Kate, there is enough air in here for both of us.”

  “Where’s my light?” Kate asked. “Can I have it back now?”

  “Yes. Let me get it for you.” Fumbling inside his tunic, Corvan retrieved the glowing medallion and pressed it into her hand. Immediately she rexed against him and breathed deeply.

  Tugging Tyreth’s scarf from under his cloak he held it out. “Remember how we used to py Blind Man’s Bluff around the Castle Rock? If you tie this over your eyes, I’ll hold your hands and lead you through the crack to the open space on other side. Is that okay?” Even as he said the words, he wondered if a passage back to their home was actually on the other side. They said the boy reported a tunnel leading up, but what is if it was a dead end?

  Kate nodded faintly, then tied the scarf over her eyes. Taking her by the hand, he thrust the firestick out far front of them. The back stone edges at the end of the crack were visible a short distance ahead. “We are almost there,” he said calmly, but the way the crack shimmered and appeared to move even closer choked back his confidence.

  A shout from behind them in the ruined Mokar gardens jerked Corvan’s head around. Beyond Kate’s head, firesticks were moving toward them between the stone columns. Kate strained against his hand and tried to turn back, her free hand tugging at the scarf.

  Corvan pulled her on. “We need to keep moving Kate. We’ve got to get away from here.”

  Through the crack, Corvan caught sight of the captain from the council meeting leading a troupe of red cloaked guards past a assembly of green cloaked priests.

  The voices from out in the cavern echoed around them as the company drew nearer.

  Something bounced off the toe of his slipper and Kate twisted her hand free from his.

  “I dropped my light,” she said, panic rising in her voice. Raising the scarf, Kate dropped to her knees, crawing back to follow the medallion as it rolled along the floor, its glow fading as it bumped along on its points toward the approaching soldiers.

  The captain’s deep voice called out, “Something is coming through the Cor shield! Shoot it! Shoot at the firestick!”

  Tossing the firestick into the void behind him, Corvan dropped to the ground as arrows whistled overhead. Grabbing Kate’s ankle, he desperately dragged her backwards, but Kate screamed and tried to sp his hand away.

  “It’s going to attack!” a man shouted, and more arrows cttered off the walls overhead.

  Reaching behind him, Corvan grabbed ahold of the rocky floor and yanked hard on Kate’s leg, dragging her along the ground, then tumbling them both out into the shadows on the far side of the crack.

  They y in a heap, the fire stick hissing behind them in the rocks as it sputtered and burrowed its way into the molten stone, slowly plunging the open space around them into near darkness.

  The noise from the soldiers died away at a terse command from the Captain.

  “Where’s my light?” Kate asked loudly.

  Corvan leaned close and whispered in her ear. “We must stay quiet, Kate. Don’t move or talk. I will find your medallion and bring it to you.”

  Kate nodded and he pulled the scarf back down over her eyes, then crept back to the crack. If Tsarek was correct, with one touch he could seal the crack in the Cor shield. They would be safe from the soldiers, but also stranded with no way to go back if this passage turned out to be a dead end. Besides, it would be next to impossible to get Kate to leave without her medallion.

  He peered into the crack. Most of the firesticks on the other side had been extinguished but the glow of the medallion was nowhere to be seen. A shadow shifted on the floor and in the soft light of the Cor shield he could see someone crawling toward him.

  Corvan moved his hand closer to the wall. If the people from the Cor made it through to his world, there was no telling what creatures like the Rakash might do. Medallion or not, he needed to close the crack and keep everyone safe.

  The man in the crack coughed and crept closer. Corvan’s hand faltered. The soldier was just obeying orders. He should at least be given a chance to escape.

  “You need to go back,” Corvan hissed. “I’m going to seal the crack now.”

  The man kept coming until he was just a few feet away, then he looked up.

  A smile spread across the wrinkled face of Rayu. “You’ve kept this old man running all over Kadir trying to catch up with you. It was lucky I happened to be in the soldier’s barracks when the call came to come out to Mokar. Given all the excitement, I was certain it had to be you.”

  Rayu pointed back to the Mokar cavern. “They are arguing about what to do,” he said quietly, “and that usually takes quite a while. The captain wants the crack left open for the time being, but Jorad wants it sealed immediately. I was listening in on their conversation when Saray found me. I haven’t seen her or Jokten for a very long time. I was sorry to hear that Jokten had passed from the Cor. He was a great man.”

  Rayu came closer, his gaze on the darkness beyond the Cor shield. “Saray told me where you are going and that I had should come check to make sure you made it through. She said I must do whatever it takes to keep them from following you or getting their hands on this.”

  Rayu opened his hand and the medallions green glow lit up his kind face. “It’s a good thing I did because I found it on the ground. It would be very bad for the Cor if Jorad or the captain were to get their hands on this one. Saray said you were to take it with you and keep it safe until you returned.”

  He held out the medallion. Corvan leaned forward and as he took it from Rayu, its light flowed right through him, warming his hand and his heart.

  Rayu pointed past him to where Kate sat on the ground, the scarf over her eyes. “I’m gd you found your counterpart again.”

  “Yes, but she’s not doing well. That bck band did something to her before she decided to choose the medallion instead.”

  “She will recover, in time,” Rayu said. “She is strong, and you will need her beside you when you return to help us restore Kadir and the rest of the Cor.”

  Corvan shook his head and thrust the medallion back to the old man. “I’m not coming back. Tyreth has the hammer, and she can lead the Cor. You need to take the medallion to her instead.”

  The old man began to tell him something about Tyreth, but shouts from the far side of the crack drowned him out. Fire sticks bzed to life, their light pushing through the crack. The csh of swords mingled with the cries of “the Rakash! the Rakash!”

  Rayu pointed at Corvan’s chest. “As I expected, the leader of the Rakash does not want you to leave until he gets that cloak back.” Rayu patted Corvan’s forearm. “But do not be afraid. I will not permit the Rakash to follow you.”

  Pulling his hand back, Rayu shoved himself deeper inside the Cor shield. “It my time to say good-bye, Cor-Van. May your love for others always be guided by the truth.”

  Before Corvan could say anything, Rayu smiled at him, reached out, then patted the exposed edge of the shield wall.

  A soft hiss of escaping air, like a pop bottle being opened, flowed past Corvan. He blinked and he was looking at a glossy smooth wall.

  He sat in the dead silence for a long moment, staring as the amber rock faded to dark stone. Had Rayu just sealed himself inside the rock or had only the leading edge closed off? He hoped it was the tter.

  “Who were you talking to?” Kate asked from behind him. “Did you find my medallion?”

  Crawling back to her, Corvan removed the scarf from her face and pced the glowing medallion in her outstretched hand. She studied it a moment, then wrapped her fingers around it and looked up at him. “Can we go home now?”

  “Yes, Kate. Now we can go home,” he replied.

  The firestick was deeply embedded in the floor, but he managed to ease it free without breaking it. Helping Kate to her feet, he led her away from the Cor shield and up a passage that was heading steeply upward. If it kept climbing this way, it had to eventually come out at the surface.

  “I can’t see the stars,” Kate said.

  “We’ll find them, but first we need to go on a long walk.”

  The corridor before them was shaped like a squashed tube, the floor was rippled from when an ancient stream had slowly carved its way through the rock. No water flowed in the channel now, and Corvan was keenly aware that they didn’t have any with them.

  Corvan had no doubt that the journey out would take just as long as the days it took to reach the Cor. Kate didn’t have much strength, and they had to stop often to rest.

  When the fire stick finally died out, they moved on, ever upwards by the light of Kate’s medallion.

  “I need to sit for a few minutes,” Kate said quietly.

  “Here’s a good spot,” Corvan said and helped her recline against the sloped wall. Kate nestled in beside him and shivered. Pulling out Tyreth’s scarf he draped it over her shoulders, then removed his cloak and spread it over her. She snuggled in closer and fell into a deep sleep.

  The medallion slipped from her hand, and this time, when he picked it up, it kept glowing for him. Tsarek said that in the days when he had worn the bck band, the medallion gave him a feeling of hope for the future, and right now Corvan had to agree. Its light grew even stronger as he studied the markings, turning the words around, flowing them from truth to compassion to justice, then back to truth. It made sense that the medallion would be connected to the hammer. To be a good leader you had to hold all three attributes in tension. If any of them were missing, you would make a mess of things.

  His thoughts went above to the long bck box his father has shown him on the Castle Rock. The hammer represented truth and the medallion was about compassion so whatever the third item was, it must bring justice to a situation. He would ask his father about it when they got back.

  Kate groaned in her sleep and Corvan brushed her long bangs away from her eyes. A faint smile fluttered across her face.

  Lifting the edge of the grey cloak, he y down behind her and put his arm around her. Her hand reached for the medallion and closed about his own.

  Corvan took a deep breath and drifted off to sleep.