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The two asura struggled, trying to lift the five-hundred-pound block, but not moving it an inch.

Eir stood above them, arms folded.

Snaff looked up at her and tittered nervously. “I wish I had more coin to pay you to carry this.”

Eir smiled. “You have more coin. You were about to pay me in silver before I asked for gold.”

Snaff blushed around a tight-lipped smile. “Oh, all right—”

“Never mind,” interrupted Eir, stepping between the two asura and wrapping her arms around the huge statue and hoisting it off the ground. “Where do you want it?”

Snaff crooked a finger in her direction and said, “Follow me.”

Garm looked up wonderingly at his alpha. She had never followed anyone. If ever she followed anyone, it would be a creature taller and more powerful and more clever than she, not some tiny thing. But Eir did follow him. Massive bust in hand, Eir followed, as did Zojja. Garm joined in, if only to see what this asura was up to.

They paraded out of the courtyard and into the lane. “Hey, everybody,” called Snaff into the shops, “look at the new sculpture. Isn’t it a masterpiece?”

“Where do you want it?” Eir repeated as she struggled to carry the bust.

“Just up here, my lady,” Snaff said.

They passed into a plaza filled with market tents and tables loaded with fruits, scarves, iron implements, and goods of every other type. In the center of this trading den stood an ancient gate of gray stone, carved with strange runes. Just now, the arched gate flickered and, in that flicker, gave a vision of another marketplace in a port city.

“Not going to Lion’s Arch today,” Snaff said to the gate attendant, another asura. Slipping him a coin, Snaff said, “Rata Sum, if you please.”

The attendant crouched beside an array of powerstones, and a stone in his hand sent sparks leaping into the other crystals. The flickering scene in the arch changed to a rocky desert, a mountain lake, a golden meadow. At last, it showed a brief glimpse of what looked like three massive pyramids.

“Thanks,” Snaff said, straightening up and stepping through the portal.

Eir shrugged and followed, carrying her huge load. Garm came at her heels.

Passing through the portal was like plunging into a hot bath. The cold air was ripped away from their skins, replaced by stinging, sticky heat. Instead of wintry skies, there was a blazing sun. Instead of permafrost, there were cut stones and giant leaves. The group stood on a platform that jutted from the side of a huge pyramid.

Eir staggered to a stop and looked around. “Whoa.”

They stood in what seemed to be a plaza between three gigantic pyramids, except that, instead of a plaza, a chasm descended to unseeable depths. Above that chasm, giant stonework cubes seemed suspended on thin air. The lines of massive architecture were softened by palm trees planted in huge rectangular pots and pyramidal lanterns floating over the stone balustrades.

“Floating?” Eir gulped.

Snaff smiled. “Nice, eh?”

“How?”

Zojja piped up, “Even a genius-in-training knows that. It’s all held aloft by powerstone fields arrayed using the dodecaic equation of the Eternal Alchemy.”

“Dough-decay-what?”

“The twelvefold equation. It’s the most obvious expression of universal balance in base twelve.”

“Base twelve?”

Zojja turned to Snaff and muttered, “She must still count on her fingers.”

He nodded discreetly. “It’s the temptation of having ten.”

Eir hadn’t understood a word. But she did understand that this was a magical place, with purplish plasma flaring up from columns here and there, and lightning sparking along arched bridges, and powerstones glowing everywhere.

“Isn’t that bust getting heavy?” Snaff asked.

“Yes. . . . If we could just get to the spot.”

“Of course! Of course!” Snaff strode out in front, his three-toed feet scampering along at a pace that was just a lumbering stroll for Eir. He led the group down a series of stairs, ever deeper into the city. Massive walls of stone rose all around them. “I live in the old city—down below.”

“Of course you do.”

As they walked along one pyramid, an asura krewe swarmed