“Keep going, Tarek,” Ian whispered again, tightening his arm around Rose.

  *******

  It was Karn who said, “We have to keep going.”

  They had heard the boom of the pine trees exploding as they burst into flames. They couldn’t see over the mountain to see what was burning, but Udore knew, and when Tarek saw his face, he figured it out and fell to his knees.

  “What’s happening?” Meg screamed.

  “It’s the Sanctuary, isn’t it?” Suzanne asked.

  Udore nodded, and Karn repeated, “We have to keep moving. We still have to get to the pendant before Stryker. And now that Sawdi is here, he will be looking for Stryker, and in the process, he will find us.”

  Karn had already started to move up the trail when Tarek yelled after him to stop. “But what about all the families, and Leon and his men, and the crew of Eos. What of them?”

  It was Udore who answered him, Karn still moving away. “There was a plan in place, Tarek. If they followed it, they are safe. If it didn’t work, we still have to do our part. All those families and our friends are counting on us.

  “Besides, you know that Stryker saw those flames. He will know that means Sawdi is here, and he’ll be moving faster, too. Come on, son. We have to go.”

  Meg reached out her hand. Tarek took it, and the three of them followed Karn up the mountain. All of them knew that there was no time to waste, but Tarek struggled with guilt and despair, hoping against hope that the massive plan that Karn, his father, and his uncle had put into place would work. Otherwise, they were all lost.

  Forty-Seven

  The seven of them hurried up the mountain, spurred on by Karn. Although they couldn’t see the fire, the smoke filled the air, making it harder to breathe. Finally, Karn, seeing everyone struggling, stopped and pointed to a small clearing a few feet from the path.

  “We’ll stop here for the night. The dragons will be tired from traveling and destroying, so Sawdi will have to let them rest. We might as well do the same.”

  Meg was delighted with the idea but asked anyway, “But what of Stryker?”

  It was Wren who answered her, gliding down out of the sky as a raven, and shifting back to herself. At least the form that they all knew.

  Karn smiled and rushed to her side, holding her hand as she answered.

  “The guides are slowing him down. In some ways, he is slowing himself down. Even though he believes that putting the pieces of the pendant together will give him all the power he needs to stop Sawdi, there is still the fear that it might not work.”

  “Will it?” Meg asked. “If he puts the pendant together, will it give him all the power he needs to rule the world?”

  Turning to Suzanne, Meg asked, “Would the bored-brothers have made something that powerful just to entertain themselves? And the ring? Were they, are they, that terrible?”

  “At this point, I don’t think the bored-brothers are around to be entertained. As far as I know, they are no longer roaming the galaxies causing trouble. But yes, they were that advanced and that terrible. At least one of them repented, but that doesn’t help this situation.

  “What they left on this planet could destroy it. Or at least that’s my understanding. Is that what the prophecies say, Udore?”

  By then, the group had moved to the clearing, each one of them having found a place to sit to rest.

  “Yes,” Udore answered. “Not that they mention bored-brothers in the silver snake-shaped space ship, but I agree, now that you have told us about them, this is their handiwork.”

  “I have a question, Udore,” Meg said. “I understand that there were people, your family especially, that knew of the prophecies, and because of that, you made choices. You made a plan. Then Karn joined in on your plan. But if you knew what Aaron-Lem was going to be about, why not put the plan into action years ago? Why wait so long to actively rebel?”

  Silke flew to Udore’s shoulder as if she was giving him the signal to answer.

  Udore looked over at Tarek, smiled, and then to Meg sitting beside him.

  “We were waiting for you,” Udore said.

  “That’s ridiculous,” Meg answered. “Why me?”

  “Well, we didn’t know it would be you. We only figured that part out for sure after you sent out that beam of light. It was seen all over Thamon, and that was the trigger.”

  “But I didn’t do that,” Meg protested. “It happened. I don’t remember it. All I remember is being surrounded by fire, and Karn pushing me into the ring of Mages. Maybe they did it.”

  “They didn’t. Karn pushed you into the center because he knew that they would help project it. Without thinking about it, that’s what they did. When Karn learned that you and your sister came from another planet, he suspected that you were the ones we have been waiting for.

  “We knew the Islands were where you would arrive, and since all the other signs, like the takeover of Aaron-Lem, pointed to this being the time, he went to the Islands to find you.

  “That’s why we were all there?” Tarek broke in, holding Meg’s hand as she squeezed her eyes shut, hoping that some of it would make sense to her soon. She didn’t feel like the reason for anything, let alone a prophecy. Her shapeshifting gifts were long gone, and although she sometimes felt the fire burning within her, she had no control over it or any beam of light. She was Ordinary now.

  Udore smiled at Meg, who had looked up to hear the answer from him. Suzanne had moved to sit on the other side of Meg, and together they waited to hear what Udore had to say.

  “Yes, that’s why you were all there. Whether you consciously chose to be there or not, you were all on the Islands for a purpose. Including Dax and Ibris, and even Stryker.”

  “But why am I here?” Meg asked. “Was it just to be used as a beam to tell you all it’s time to put the plan into action? Is that why I am not a shapeshifter anymore?”

  This time it was Silke who answered Meg. Still sitting on Udore’s shoulder, she said, “No. It’s more than that.

  “Yes, the light beam shielded the Islands. Sawdi thought everyone had died. And the beam also told everyone watching for it that you had arrived. But no, your job is not over.

  “It’s you, Meg, who has to destroy the pendant, and the ring. At least that is what the prophecies have told us. ‘A young woman from another planet will destroy the two symbols of evil, freeing Thamon from the hold of a false religion and the three men who conspired together to be all-powerful.’ That’s you.”

  “But how?” Meg wailed.

  “That’s where faith comes in, my dear,” Udore said. “We don’t know. All we know is that we have to get the ring and the pendant to, or near you, so you can destroy them.”

  Meg dropped her head and whispered to herself, “Oh my gods.”

  Suzanne put her arm around Meg and addressed Udore. “That’s what this is all about? You want Stryker and Sawdi to be in the same place at the same time, and then you expect Meg to destroy the pendant and the ring, and probably kill them in the process? Are you zonking crazy?”

  “Not crazy,” Karn answered. “And yes, that is what we are trying to do. It will work. It has to.”

  The seven of them stared at Meg slumped against her sister, her eyes closed, trying not to cry, and hoped that they were doing the right thing.

  No one hoped more than Meg did. There was no way this was going to work. They were all going to die, and it would be her fault.

  Forty-Eight

  “We were waiting for you, too, Suzanne,” Karn said. “Or at least, we knew that there would be two of you. Your role wasn’t— isn’t—so clearly defined.”

  Udore added, “Perhaps it was to let us know about the story of the bored brothers. We had always wondered who had written the prophecies. Even if the brothers were not the authors, someone else could have written it.”

  Meg’s head had snapped up at the mention that Suzanne was part of the prophecies. “Even if what you say is true, how would anyone have possibly known all this was going to happen? It doesn’t make any sense. No one can make a whole planet follow a story that they wrote out. And no one has a crystal ball into the future.”

  Everyone was silent, thinking about what Meg had said when Tarek spoke up. “But what if this has happened before, and they wrote it down knowing it would happen again?”

  “What?” Meg said. “Wouldn’t I remember that? Or all of you remember doing this before. Do you? I know that I don’t.”

  “Well, I don’t,” Wren said, speaking for the first time. “But it doesn’t have to be a conscious memory, does it? I know things that I can’t answer how I know.

  “But then, I have lived a long time, so perhaps that is because I have had so much experience.”

  “That could be one answer,” Silke said. “I, too, have many things that I know, yet I don’t remember how I learned them. But I have also lived a long time, through many generations of wizards, so it seems likely that I have accumulated some stories and knowledge from all of that.”’

  “Well, there is another possibility,” Suzanne said, joining in on the conversation. “Perhaps it happened in another dimension on this planet. In Erda, we know how to travel between dimensions. The same kind of portal that brought me here to this world could have also transported me to another dimension.”

  “Like when you used to travel between the dimensions of Earth and Erda,” Meg broke in.

  “Yes, like that. That may be how the prophecies were written,” Suzanne answered.

  “Well then, why not tell us how to destroy the pendant and ring?” Meg asked. “It would make this so much easier.”

  “But then that wouldn’t fulfill the brother’s terms of the experiment, would it?” Karn said.

  “Whether this happened before and is repeating itself here on Thamon, or whether it happened in another dimension, I don’t want it ever to happen again anywhere,” Meg said. “If I am required to destroy them to stop it forever, then I am willing to do what needs to be done.”

  “Well, what needs to be done right now is rest,” Wren said. “Everyone will need all their strength and ability to think clearly tomorrow. Ian, Rose, Joseph, and Fionn are watching over Yeal Thalor tonight so that I can stay here. I’ll take the first watch. I haven’t been climbing mountains all day.”

  “I’ll watch with you,” Karn said, and Wren smiled at him in gratitude. Everyone pulled sleeping bags and some dried fruit out of their packs and settled down for the night. They still had the element of surprise on their side, so there could be no fire or anything else that might alert either Stryker or Sawdi to their presence.

  *******

  Further down on the mountain, Stryker pulled his cloak tighter and tried not to feel sorry for himself. The guides had told him that they could not light a fire because the dragons might see them.

  Then they had proceeded to ask Stryker so many questions he wanted to throw them off the mountain.

  “How could there be dragons? Weren’t dragons outlawed in Thamon? Weren’t they all dead? Who were those dragons, and why would they set part of the mountain on fire?

  “What was there that they destroyed? Why were they here? Would the dragons come after them?”

  Stryker had told them he didn’t know the answers to any of those questions but agreed that it was safer not to light a fire. After that, he just glared at them until they shut up.

  Now the three of them were huddled inside a hollow tree that they had found. It was better than being out in the open, but the two men were so close to him it made Stryker want to scream. The sooner he found the pendant, the better. Then he would never have to be around anyone inferior to him again.

  He pulled the hood of his cloak up over his head and lowered his forehead to his knees. He needed to sleep. When Sawdi found him, and he did not doubt that he would, he needed every one of his senses awake and alert.

  He didn’t plan to fight Sawdi. He planned to outsmart him. But if he had to fight, he would. One thing Stryker was glad about: he didn’t see or hear a single Warrior Monk. There would be no reasoning with the Monks. There might be with Sawdi. However, what would solve all his problems was getting to the pendant before Sawdi and his zonking dragons found him.

  The two guides waited until Stryker had dropped his head to his knees before looking at each other. They both looked down at the sleeping man and winked at one another. Of course, they knew all the answers to all the questions they had asked.

  Their goal had been to get under his skin, which had turned out to be marvelously easy. Now they just had to stay away from Sawdi and the dragons until the girl and the others reached the cliff. Ian had told them that the solution to destroying the pendant and Stryker would be there waiting for them.

  Yes, they were leading Stryker to his death. Perhaps their own too, but it would be worth it if they could free Thamon.

  Just before falling asleep, one of the men glanced up inside the hollow tree trunk and realized that he could see the stars shining through a hole in the tree.

  He took it as a good sign when one star shot through the sky. He would take every good sign that he could get that all would be well. He sighed, leaned back, and forced himself to fall asleep.

  Forty-Nine

  “Are you ready?” Ruth asked Dax and Roar.

  Dax nodded yes and then did something that surprised even him. He shook hands with both of them. Nothing needed to be said. No matter what their pasts had been, no matter what Dax had done to them and their friends and family, that was then. This was now. They needed to be a team without any divisions between them for their mission to work.

  Ruth put her arms out and gathered both men into a hug. Dax almost cried. He couldn’t remember the last time someone had hugged him. It was certainly not part of the daily curriculum at Stryker’s training camp.

  Ibris had tried a few times, but Dax had pushed him away. Afraid then, as he was now, that he would start crying and never stop.

  Since the moment his parents died, his life had never been the same. What would his dad, Jori, say to him now if he were still alive? Dax wondered. He hoped that his father would forgive his past sins and think of him as someone who, in the end, tried to do the right thing.

  Roar shifted into a dragon and Ruth into a tiny mouse. She would need to stay hidden on the journey to the Palace, and close enough that she could mask both Roar and Dax’s identity until they were inside.

  On the way, in their own way, all three of them prayed that the Warrior Monks would think they were Bolong and Sawdi. As they neared the Palace, they could hear the angry hum of the Monks.

  If the Warrior Monks didn’t believe the deception, the Monks would suck them down into the writhing mass of white beings and absorb them. It had to be painful. They had all heard what happened that night when the Monks sucked up the birds and animals who had not made it to a shelter on Lopel.

  None of them would forget the terror of that night as they huddled together, hoping that the Mages would shield them. But there was no Mage or wizard or light beam to protect them now. It was just them.

  The humming grew louder, and then the Warrior Monks began to shriek. The sound raised both terror in their hearts and hope. If they were shrieking because they thought it was Sawdi, it was a good thing.

  Roar did what Bolong had told him to do. He dipped his wings, and the shrieking got louder. It was working. With only a few feet to go to the roof, the sound was so loud Roar thought he would faint and fall out of the sky, but he managed to land. Dax slid off him while Ruth scurried away to the edge of the roof where no one would see her, but she could watch the sky.

  Dax walked across the roof, and when he was hidden from view, he turned to Roar and raised his hand to the dragon, who nodded his massive head in return. Roar could not come with them. Bolong would not have remained on the roof. He would have returned to the cave. They had to do exactly what the Warrior Monks would expect.

  Ruth gathered every bit of reserve energy that she had and kept Roar looking like Bolong as he flew back to the cave. Once there, he would return to the Palace in another disguise.

  If he could find a way in, he would. Otherwise, his orders were to stay safe. Ruth’s job was to protect Dax as he went to stop Aaron. But none of them knew what to do about the Warrior Monks. The only person who could control them was no longer on Edes.

  However, they would cross that bridge when they came to it. Perhaps if the other team on Turva were successful and destroyed the ring, that would also destroy the Warrior Monks. Only time would tell.

  Ruth sent one last blessing out to Roar and turned to Dax, who was standing at the top of the stairs that led down into the heart of the Palace. Facing him was another man Ruth had never seen before. Based on what they had heard about him, it had to be Baywolf.

  The two men didn’t turn to look at Ruth as she shifted back into herself. They were too busy sizing each other up. Ruth waited, and when it seemed as if they were going to stare at each other forever, she finally sighed and said, “Good gods, could you two get over yourselves. We have a job to do.”

  Ruth reached out a hand to Baywolf, who grasped her hand between his two hands that were as big as her face and bowed to her.

  “Thank you for coming, Ruth, I have heard of you.”

  Ruth wanted to ask how, but then thought of all that Udore and Karn had known and decided that was probably a story for another time. If they survived this, they would have plenty of time to catch up with what they both knew.

  “We know very little about you, Baywolf. Bolong only told us that you were trained by Aaron to be Stryker’s or Dax’s replacement. But despite that, you are on the side of the resistance? Before we face Aaron, could you tell us why? Bolong trusted you, but should we?”