The Gates of Night_ The Dreaming Dark - Keith Baker [117]
“There’s no more time.” Aleisa was kneeling beside Talin, and her robe was soaked with his blood. “I’ve set the circle to take you where you need to go. Leave. Quickly.”
“Mother …” Lei said. She knelt next to her, reaching out to touch her. “I can’t just leave you. You don’t know what’s coming. You don’t—”
“I do, my child, more than you know. Talin didn’t want it to happen like this, but he knew it was inevitable. All that is flesh must die, after all.” She smiled, a weary smile, and kissed her daughter on the cheek. “My work here is done, Lei. As long as you are alive, we will be with you.” She stood, holding Lei’s hand, and brought her to the circle. When she spoke again, there was something different in her voice, and even her face. It seemed as though she were younger, more like Lei with each passing moment. “Remember, Lei. It wants to be destroyed. That is its purpose. Look within, and follow the path.”
“Mother?” Lei asked, confused.
Aleisa turned to Daine. “At this moment, you have more power than you know, and it is that power that will take you where you need to be. In this place, you have been bound by your own memories. Where you are going, you will need to use your gift, and to its fullest measure.”
“One moment, my lady,” Jode said. “Do you mean that you’re—”
“There is no more time!” Aleisa said. As she spoke, there was a change in the air, a sickly chill that seemed to twist at Lei’s flesh and her thoughts. “Go!” Aleisa pushed, shoving them back into the silver circle. Even as she did, the room behind her began to fill with dead-gray mist.
“MOTHER!” Lei cried.
And they were gone.
This isn’t the Dorn Plateau,” Daine said.
You have teleported, Shira reported. You remain within Dal Quor. Your current position … is impossible.
Pierce felt pure astonishment radiating from Shira, an uncharacteristic burst of emotion. Why? Their surroundings seemed mundane enough. They were on a plateau, a butte raised high above canyon lands. A lone moon hung above them, full but strangely faint.
You have entered the heart of Dal Quor. No simple spell could allow such motion.
“Clearly history has been altered,” Jode said. “I think that much of what we saw actually happened at Keldan Ridge. That would explain Lei’s father not recognizing her at first, and why you had as much trouble as you did with the second warforged.”
“Fourth,” Pierce said.
“As you wish,” Jode said. “At the end, the woman was clearly addressing us now. She wasn’t talking about our history. She must have sent us here … ‘where we need to go.’”
“And she said she was using Daine’s own strength to do it,” Pierce observed.
Most likely a reference to the energy of the draconic eidolon, Shira observed. I underestimated this power. I believe an exponential effect is at work.
“So why didn’t we remember any of it?” Daine said.
“You saw the mist filling the room at the end,” Jode replied. “We’ve seen that mist before, marking the barrier of the Mourning. Perhaps, when it really happened, we were trapped just a little longer, and our amnesia was a result of a brief exposure to the energies of the Mourning.”
“Or perhaps Lei’s parents made us forget,” Daine said. “We still don’t know what they were doing there! They—”
Daine paused, and a slight flush reddened his cheeks. Pierce was puzzled. Then he realized that Lei had just watched her parents die, and dream or not, that was surely a difficult experience. Normally she would be in the midst of any discussion on arcane and planar theory, and her silence spoke volumes. In fact, she had wandered away from the others and was walking toward the edge of the plateau.
Pierce and Daine exchanged glances. “Captain,” Pierce said, “while I recognize the strength of your feelings, at this moment I believe my presence will offer greater comfort.”
Daine sighed. “Go.”
Pierce quickly caught up with Lei. She stared out over the barren land far below, all but hidden in the gloom