Heritage Of The Xandim

7

THE EVANESAR

The grinding, creaking, rumbling voice of Taku was the sound of the glacier. ‘Who comes here, where no stranger has dared to tread for many a long age?’

Corisand staggered and almost fell, her mind blank with shock. All her equine instincts were screaming at her to flee, while the reasoning, human side of her was determined to stand its ground. This awesome being might look terrifying, but so far it had made no move to hurt her. How could she ever hope to save her people if she ran away from every challenge?

She took a deep breath and tried to control the knocking of her knees. ‘My name is Corisand,’ she said in a loud, clear voice, ‘and I am the Windeye, Shaman of the lost race of the Xandim, and Seeker of the Truth.’

Though the serpent’s expression did not alter, its voice took on a more kindly note. ‘I judge that you are also a speaker of the truth, O Corisand. I already knew you were the Windeye of the Xandim, for it was I who sensed your presence in the mundane world, and brought you here. It came as a great revelation, not to mention something of a shock, to discover that the Xandim race, despite all my fears, was still in existence. What is this truth that you seek, Shaman? The accursed Phaerie Lord--’ His voice sank to a menacing growl. ‘Has he finally loosed his tyrant’s grasp upon your kind?’

Now it was Corisand’s turn to be astounded. ‘You know about that?’ she gasped. ‘But how?’

The glittering blue stare of the serpent fixed upon her greedily. ‘There was a time when I was known to each Windeye, through all the generations. They were welcomed among myself and my fellow Elementals, granted access to this world through our powers, and honoured by us for their wisdom and their skills. Then Hellorin subjugated the Xandim, and without their magic, we were unable to connect with your Shamans.’

‘You say “we”,’ Corisand interrupted. ‘So there are more of you?’

‘Indeed there are.’ Light flooded the sky from horizon to horizon. Rippling veils and bands of colour drifted, a jewel-box of hues all pulsing, streaming and mingling in wild and spectacular abandon; green bleeding into pink, spun with blue and lavender and gold. The air hummed and crackled with energy, a roaring whisper right on the edge of hearing. And in that sound was a voice. As the Windeye watched, open-mouthed, the form of an eagle emerged within the drifts of liquid light, its vast, glimmering wings of drifting colour spreading across the sky. Fierce golden eyes transfixed her with their piercing gaze.

‘What in the name of all Creation do you think you’re doing, Taku, bringing her here? She has no business in this world.’

The great serpent reared up to face the eagle’s glare. ‘She is the first Windeye in many generations who has been able to venture here, and I brought her because she does have business in this world. The Lord of the Phaerie is here, Aurora. Did you not know?’

‘What?’ Corisand gasped. ‘But that can’t be. His Wild Hunt was ambushed in the forest by a pack of feral mortals. He was wounded, almost dead, and to preserve his life, his daughter took him out of time.’

‘And left his spirit in oblivion, lost and disembodied. The Moldan Aerillia, an ancient ally of the Forest Lord, sensed his presence and succeeded in bringing him here. He still holds Corisand’s people in slavery. This world is the only place she can fight him.’

‘That has nothing to do with the Evanesar.’

‘How can you say that? The Windeyes of the Xandim have been our friends and allies down all the long ages, just as Hellorin has been our foe.’

‘Your friends and allies, you mean.’ There was an edge of mockery in her voice. ‘Most of us outgrew the need for pets long ago. What use could she possibly be against a being with the powers of the Forest Lord? What use were any of them? They couldn’t even protect their own people.’

‘This one may surprise you.’

Corisand, who had been listening with mounting annoyance to the argument going back and forth over her head, decided she’d had enough. Gathering a double handful of glimmering air, she moulded it into a missile and hurled it down with all her force. As it struck the magic that held up her bridge, it exploded with a resounding bang, and a fountain of light shot up into the sky, spreading out in a canopy far above and raining down again in sizzling spatters of silver.

Taku and Aurora shut up abruptly. Two pairs of fearsome eyes, one blue and one gold, pinned her, but the Windeye was too angry to be cowed. ‘I’ll thank you to talk to me, not over the top of my head,’ she snapped. ‘You may be ancient and powerful, but that’s no excuse for rank discourtesy. And as for protecting my people, I’ll cherish and defend them to my last dying breath. Why do you think I’m here? And Taku: you may have brought me here for your own reasons, but if I can use this place to free my race, I won’t let anything get in my way.’

There was a protracted moment of silence - then, just as Corisand was having serious doubts about the wisdom of her outburst, Aurora began to laugh, sending waves of rose-coloured light flickering across the sky. ‘You may be right,’ she said to Taku. ‘She has already surprised me. And she does not lack for courage.’ She turned to fix the Windeye with her glittering gaze. ‘Very well, little sister. Let us talk.’

‘Thank you,’ said Corisand. ‘When you came, Taku was just telling me about the Elementals.’

‘As you should already know,’ said Aurora severely, ‘there are four Elementals of the Old Magic dwelling in this world. Taku, Elemental of Water and Master of the Cold Magic; myself, Aurora, Elemental of Air and Mistress of the Wild Magic; Katmai, Elemental of Fire and Master of the Death Magic; Denali, the Mother, the Great One, Elemental of Earth and Mistress of the Old Magic. In the Elsewhere, we are known as the Evanesar.’

‘But I didn’t know any of that,’ Corisand replied. ‘That’s why I need answers. Where am I? What is this Elsewhere that you mentioned?’

‘It is, if you like, a sister world to your own,’ Taku replied. ‘An alternative realm in which the Old Magic reigns supreme.’

‘But how did I get here?’

‘I brought you,’ he answered brusquely. ‘And now it is time for you to answer some of my questions. I will repeat what I asked you before. Has Hellorin released your people from their bondage?’

Corisand sighed. ‘No, that has not changed. I have only recently come into my powers, and because we have been trapped as horses, my predecessor was unable to explain anything to me; nor could I access my magic. I have no idea how or why you brought me here, but I count it the greatest stroke of good fortune. Surely this could not have happened by chance. I’m hoping desperately that it means I might be the one Windeye, out of so many lost generations, who could save her people.’

Taku regarded her thoughtfully. ‘It would certainly explain why, after such a lengthy absence, I was able to call a Shaman of the Xandim back to this place. Perhaps you are right, Corisand. Your coming here can be no coincidence. This realm, like your own, is governed by a number of natural laws. In your mundane world, the laws are mainly physical, dealing with the forces and energies of objects interacting upon one another. Here, however, those natural laws are mainly magical. Before today, I would have been unable to bring you here, for in your equine form you lacked the magic to make that initial connection with me. But now something has changed. When Hellorin was brought through from your own world by Aerilia, one of the Moldai, that created the portal through which I could reach you.’

The Windeye frowned. ‘But who is Aerillia? And you mentioned the Moldai before. Who or what are they?’ she asked.

Aurora sighed pointedly at a further interruption.

‘It’s not my fault,’ Corisand protested. ‘This is all new to me, remember? It seems that I can draw upon the knowledge of my predecessors to give me an understanding of my own world, so I knew what a glacier was, for instance, though I have never seen one. But when it comes to this place, I have not the scantest knowledge about anything. So far, I have just been going on my instincts.’

‘And very good instincts they are,’ said Taku. ‘I imagine that the wisdom of your predecessors regarding this place is no use to you because such a tremendous length of time has passed since your forebears were able to access their powers and come here. The knowledge, useless to the Windeyes in their equine state, must have been lost during the intervening years.’

‘Will you help me reclaim it, Taku? I must learn to understand these things. As Windeye, the knowledge is my birthright, but it goes much deeper than that. If I am to free my people, I will need every advantage I can find.’

The serpent dipped his head. ‘Very well. Ask. I will do what I can.’

‘Why ask only him?’ There was an edge to Aurora’s voice.

A number of excuses raced through Corisand’s mind. Then she decided to stick with honesty. ‘Taku brought me here,’ she said, ‘and so far, he has been much more friendly.’

A flash of red lit up the sky. ‘I give my trust and friendship where and when they are merited. But I am willing to help you for now. Who knows? Trust and friendship may follow. I certainly would not be offering my assistance if I did not believe that.’

Corisand smiled. ‘I also believe that we could become friends, and I am glad of it.’ Addressing both now, she added, ‘You said Hellorin’s spirit was brought here. Does that mean I am only here as a spirit, too?’ She ran a hand down her body. ‘This certainly feels like solid flesh and bone to me.’

‘To all intents and purposes, it is solid flesh and bone,’ Taku told her. ‘Conditions in this world are formed by our powers and will and imagination, and can even extend to our physical forms. Here magic rules, and only those possessing magic can come here. Things are less rigid, less certain, more malleable. But though the body you are wearing now is a reality in this world, I was only able to bring your spirit here, Windeye. Your true physical form is back in the mundane world, in a semblance of sleep.’

Corisand felt crushing disappointment. ‘Then this human form - it isn’t even real.’

‘No.’ This time, Aurora answered. ‘There you are mistaken. It is real, and it belongs to you. If you finally succeed in freeing yourself and your people, and regain your human aspect in your own world, you will find it to be just as it is here and now.’

‘But what happens if the Horsemistress, or one of the other Phaerie, comes along while my spirit is here? Surely they’ll try to awaken me. What will become of me when they cannot? Or would their attempts to wake my body drag my spirit back there?’

‘Be easy,’ Taku said. ‘Time here runs very differently, relative to the world in which you live. We can return you very shortly after you left, so that there will be no opportunity for the Phaerie to be suspicious.’

‘Well, that’s a relief. But why did I assume this shape in the first place? Why not take the one to which I’m most accustomed?’

‘Ever since you became Windeye, and learned what you could be, your mind has yearned after this alternative form.’ Taku’s voice was kind and patient, as though he could sense just how much this meant to her. ‘Also, you have all the courage and wisdom of your forebears, Corisand. It was only natural that you would choose the more powerful aspect of your being - the one in which you could think and communicate clearly. The one in which you would be most useful to your people. The one in which you could fulfil your dreams, and access your true powers at long last.’

All at once, the serpent’s voice turned grave. ‘But I give you warning, Corisand. Heed me well. Other beings dwell here. Their will, their thoughts, their magic can influence and mould reality just as well as your own, and if it comes to a clash of wills, the most powerful will prevail. So a conflict here will not be won by physical strength, but by the power of magic and imagination. Always keep that in mind. One day it may save your life.’

A chill crawled up her spine. ‘And if I were to die here?’ she asked quietly. ‘What would happen to the Corisand of the mundane world?’

‘If you die here, you die in all realities.’

Aurora’s stark words were as shocking as a physical slap. The dreamlike sense of unreality that had beset her since her arrival in this strange new world burst like a bubble. She knew, however, that she could not afford to let herself be daunted. This miraculous opportunity had somehow been granted her, and she could not afford to let it go to waste. She straightened her shoulders and lifted her chin. ‘In that case, it is all the more important that you teach me what I need to know.’

‘Indeed.’ There was new respect in the serpent’s mien. ‘Then let us return to the association between the Moldai and the Forest Lord. The Moldai are an ancient, elemental race who dwell simultaneously in this realm and the mundane world. Here, they usually take the form of giants, and though they can change their shape as they choose, they are inevitably very large in scale. In the mundane world, their aspect is tremendous mountains of living stone. Originally, they were the offspring of Denali-- ’

‘Who can’t say that the rest of us didn’t warn her,’ Aurora interrupted in acid tones.

‘Be that as it may,’ Taku said, and resumed his tale. ‘The Moldai belonged solely here in this Elsewhere, but as they grew in power they became ambitious and, like the Forest Lord, desired the conquest of other realms. However, unlike Hellorin, who quit one place for the other, the Moldai wished for a foothold in both worlds, and in order to achieve this, they were prepared to stop at nothing.

‘They discovered that they would need a tremendous amount of power to achieve their ends. Something that could both store magic and magnify it. But they lacked sufficient lore to complete the task. For that, they needed the help of the Phaerie, a different race with a different form of magic. Hellorin agreed, and so, between the two ancient races, the Fialan, the Stone of Fate, was created.’

Corisand discovered that she had been listening with such attention that she’d been holding her breath. ‘What did it look like?’ she asked.

‘What a very female sort of question,’ Taku scoffed, ignoring the red flare that emanated from Aurora, and flashed across the sky. ‘Considering its vast power, the Fialan was small, and quite innocuous-looking. I expect, however, that you would have thought it very pretty. It was simply a glittering green crystal, about the size of your circled finger and thumb, but it was one of the most powerful implements in this world, and Hellorin’s price for his assistance in its creation was very high. After they had used the Fialan to gain their footholds in both worlds, the Moldai had to give custody of the Stone over to the Phaerie.’

‘Give such tremendous power into Hellorin’s hands?’ Corisand gasped. ‘They would be mad to do such a thing.’

‘Nevertheless,’ said Aurora, ‘that is exactly what they did. The Moldai had no choice, and in truth, they had little need for the Fialan once they had achieved their ends. But it rankled that the Phaerie should possess this priceless artefact that was partly their handiwork. So, before they gave up the Stone, they put an additional charm of their own into it, without the knowledge of the Phaerie. It was half a spell: in order for the Stone to be used, the spell must be completed - and only the Moldai knew how.’

‘But surely Hellorin would have found that out straight away?’

‘Why would he? They had designed the Stone to create a portal between the worlds, and at first the Phaerie were content here in the Elsewhere. But as their race grew and prospered, we Evanesar decided to set curbs on their ambition. At that point, Hellorin decided that he too wished to take his people to the mundane world, so that he would be free of us, and his ambition could no longer be shackled.’

‘He tried to use the Stone and failed? He must have been absolutely livid.’ Corisand’s eyes sparkled. ‘Oh, how I wish I could have seen that.’

Taku’s eyes glittered with amusement. ‘As you say. And worse was to come for the Forest Lord. The Moldai knew that the opportunity for which they had waited so long had finally come to pass. They withheld the spell of completion until the Lord of the Phaerie had met their price - the return of the Stone of Fate into their custody. He agreed, seemingly readily enough, though inside he was raging. The Stone was given back to the Moldai and placed in the custody of Ghabal, one of their most powerful magicians, also known as Steelclaw in the mundane world. He had been nominated as the one who would act as focus for the spell of completion; the one who would combine his magic with that of Hellorin in order to allow the portal to form.’

‘But Hellorin had a treacherous plan to take back the Fialan.’ Aurora’s voice grew harsh with anger. ‘Even as the portal opened and his people passed through, he tried one last, desperate act of magic to wrest back the crystal from the Moldai. The result was catastrophic. The portal spell required tremendous amounts of two differing sorts of magic - that of the Phaerie and that of the Moldai - all bound together in a delicate and precarious equilibrium of force and counter-force, and Hellorin’s additional spell shattered that balance.’

Taku’s voice was a growl. ‘The resulting explosion almost destroyed the Elsewhere, and brought death and havoc to many of its inhabitants. The worst fate, however, befell Ghabal. Since he had been using the Fialan to help Hellorin form the portal, he caught the direct recoil of the spell and was dreadfully injured. In the mundane world, his body was shattered, the living rock of the mountain peak riven and melted. Here in the Elsewhere, he suffered hideous disfigurement, and was driven hopelessly insane. Yet he managed to retain the Stone, and still holds it, to this day. All that power and potential is now in the hands of a violent, mad and unpredictable creature.’

Corisand’s mind was racing, almost too fast for her to keep up with the welter of ideas and possibilities. ‘If Ghabal has the Stone of Fate, and the Moldai can dwell in both realities, does that mean he could use it in either world?’

Taku nodded solemnly. ‘I suspect that may be the case. Your own world is in danger, as well as this one.’

‘That’s not my consideration at present. I’m wondering...’ The Windeye took a deep breath. ‘I wonder if there is any way the Stone could be used to free my people? If I could only negotiate with this Ghabal, and somehow persuade him to help us. After all, his great enemy, the Forest Lord, is also my foe. Might that not be enough to convince him?’

‘It would be sheer madness even to attempt such a thing,’ Aurora snapped. ‘Put any idea of bargaining with Ghabal out of your mind. His people made a covenant with Hellorin once, and it cost him almost everything. He will never negotiate with anyone else. Approach him with that end in mind and he will strike you down.’

Corisand scarcely knew whether to be relieved or disappointed. Though it had seemed such a simple, elegant plan, the thought of actually trying to form an alliance with the crazed Moldan had filled her with misgiving. Yet if she could not be his ally, she would have to take the Fialan away from him, and that alternative was far worse. Nevertheless, she would have to do it, and she meant to. The fact that she hadn’t worked out how she could possibly achieve such a thing was simply a trifling detail. She fixed the serpent with her gaze. ‘But if I possessed it, I could use the Stone?’

‘I think,’ said Taku cautiously, ‘that with some training, you might learn to use it and bend it to your will. Hellorin and the Moldai made the Fialan for a specific reason: to use as a gateway between the worlds. But the Stone itself is not the portal. It is simply a way to store and magnify their magical power. I have the feeling, however, that other, alternative forms of magic - say the power of a Windeye or a Wizard - may achieve additional and far different ends.’

‘But we do not know for certain,’ Aurora added hastily, ‘and you would risk a great deal in trying to master such forces single-handed - if indeed you ever got that far. If you are determined to proceed along that path, you must first take the Stone from Ghabal. How do you propose to achieve that? Others have tried before you. None have succeeded. None have survived.’

At Aurora’s dark words, Corisand felt dread rising up like a dark miasma from her belly to her brain. With a struggle, she held it back. ‘You think I can do it, don’t you?’ she said to Taku. ‘That is why you brought me here, is it not?’

‘I brought you here on a gamble, nothing more,’ he said, with a wary glance at Aurora. ‘When I felt a Windeye abroad in the mundane world again, it seemed that there was one last chance, one faint hope, to regain the Stone. But when I brought you here, I did not know your mettle. Now that we understand one another a little better, I begin to see the faintest gleam of hope for all of us, and I am prepared to help in any way I can.’

‘Taku.’ Aurora sounded shocked. ‘What have you done? You brought this innocent here, and I have watched as you cleverly manipulated her into thinking she could recover the Stone. This is all wrong. How dare you give her hope where none exists, only to further our ends? She has no idea what she would be facing.’

‘I have simply made the most of an opportunity. She is a Windeye. Their powers are different from ours. It has been so long since Hellorin or Ghabal faced one of her kind that she might be able to take them by surprise. Some of the old Windeyes were very strong.’

‘That didn’t stop the Forest Lord from enslaving her race,’ Aurora snapped. ‘What you ask is beyond her, Taku. It is beyond any of us. How can we ask her to do what we cannot?’ The clear, golden gaze of the eagle turned in Corisand’s direction. ‘Windeye, be warned: what Taku asks of you is not reasonable. Let me send you back to your own world.’

Corisand stretched up a hand towards the shimmering vision in the sky. ‘Thank you, Aurora, for trying to protect me. I know you have my interests at heart. But can’t you see that Taku is right? This is my only chance to free my people, and I can’t turn away while that one small hope exists. If I succeed, then we all win, and if I fail . . . Well, there will be another Windeye to follow me, and carry on in my place.’

‘There.’ Aurora turned on Taku. ‘Now see what you’ve done.’

‘I have done what I intended to do. What I had to do.’ His voice was implacable, and his stare as level as her own. ‘This meeting was no accident, sister. This was fate at work. I have no idea how we can bring such a thing about, but I have a feeling that the days of both Ghabal and Hellorin as threats to the world are numbered, and that their power is finally about to meet its match.’

‘You’d risk everything on a feeling—’ Aurora began.

Corisand cut her short. ‘Please, stop this. Surely we should all be on the same side. The two of you can dispute this until the end of time, but that won’t get us anywhere. Whatever Taku may have done, however he may have manipulated me, I am here now, and I want to make the most of it.’ She paused. ‘One thing puzzles me, however.’ All at once, there was a new edge, hard and cold, to her voice. ‘Why do you need to involve me in this? If you Evanesar are such an ancient, powerful race - strong enough, even, to set bounds on the ambitions of the Phaerie - why can’t you take the Stone for yourselves?’

‘When the Phaerie and the Moldai were creating the Fialan, the same thought occurred to them.’ Taku’s voice was a low, angry growl. ‘No matter how they planned to cheat one another, they were absolutely united on one thing: the Evanesar must never get control of the Stone. So between them they set a ward upon it. If one of the Evanesar so much as touches the Fialan, it would not only destroy itself, but the violent implosion of forces would destroy both worlds.’

‘Fools!’ Aurora said. ‘For their Guardian Magic cannot be undone - it is part of the very form and structure of the crystal. And now that the stone has fallen into unsafe hands, we are powerless to intervene.’

‘As you will always be powerless against me and mine.’

The voice was like a blade being turned in Corisand’s guts. ‘Hellorin!’ She spun to see the Forest Lord standing on the apex of her own bridge. Anger blazed up within her to consume the terror. How dare he set his filthy, treacherous feet on her beautiful construct? How dare he sully the shining purity of her first magic with his foul touch?

‘So. We have a new Windeye.’ His voice was soft with menace. ‘I might have guessed it would be you. You were always stubborn, recalcitrant and disobedient. Always the rebel.’ He smiled, and the cold, cruel contempt in his eyes sent chills crawling through her body. ‘But as I am sure you recall, I mastered you then. And I can master you now.’

Corisand gritted her teeth, gladly embracing the anger that burned within her. Taking care to keep any sign of it from her face, she half-turned away with a dismissive shrug. ‘That was in another time, another world. Things are different here. In your own realm, you mastered a dumb, powerless animal. Are you so proud of that? It’s not much of an achievement. Not much to brag about.’

Hellorin’s face paled with anger. ‘You delude yourself if you think that anything has changed. Despite your current guise, you are still nothing more than an animal, spawned of a primitive, barbaric race.’ His voice dropped into a snarl. ‘Human or equine, when I have finished with you, your body will go to feed my hounds, and your hide will make a fetching carpet for my floor.’ As the last words left his mouth he struck at her, his body suddenly towering high overhead, a bolt of dark lightning sizzling from his outstretched hand.

Everything happened at once. Taku flung a vast wall of ice between Corisand and the Forest Lord. Aurora swept down a wing, and the Windeye was shielded by a many-hued curtain of energy. And Corisand herself, acting on some bone-deep instinct, created an illusion of herself as a vast colossus and stepped into that image, so that she grew as tall as her foe. At the same time, she formed the air into a shining, mirrored shield and threw it in front of her, so that she reflected Hellorin’s magic back at him. With a vicious curse, the Forest Lord vanished, and Corisand felt triumph swell within her. The first blow had gone to her.

The serpent and the eagle, however, did not drop their shields. ‘It is time to send you home, little sister,’ Aurora said softly. ‘Hellorin will soon be back, and this time he will be prepared. You are not ready to face him yet.’

Corisand’s heart plummeted. ‘But I don’t want to go back,’ she protested. ‘I can learn more, do more, help more if I stay here, in this body. I’m only just getting started.’

‘You can always return,’ Taku said kindly. ‘We will bring you back when it is safe, and Hellorin’s attention is elsewhere. Then there will be time to help and teach you.’

‘But how can I come back? You said yourself it was only the coincidence of the portal opening that allowed you to bring me here in the first place.’

‘Now that you are here, however,’ Taku told her, ‘we can create a link that will let us bring you here whenever it is safe.’ With alarming speed, he struck with his fangs at the edge of the glacier. Chips and shards of the glittering blue ice flew up, and Corisand reflexively put out a hand and caught a piece. About the size of a walnut, it glistened on her palm like a jewel, and she could feel the intense cold beat against her skin.

‘When you get back to your own world,’ Taku told her, ‘the ice will go with you. Swallow it quickly, before it melts, and that will provide the link between us. Three times you will be able to come; three times the spell will last. And remember this: time runs differently in this world, it swirls and flows like a river. At this moment we cannot say how soon we will be able to bring you back, but do not fear. As soon as it is possible, we shall send out the summons.’

The serpent dipped his head to her. ‘Farewell, Windeye. Go with our blessing.’

Aurora spread wide her wings as if to embrace Corisand, sending veils of colour rippling across the sky. ‘Farewell, little sister. We have faith in you.’

Then there was that sudden slippage, that same sideways jolt as before. Corisand found herself back in her stable, on four feet instead of two, the glorious fire of her magic nothing but inert ashes. Her mind was a dreamlike world of bright impressions filled with colours that were no longer clear to her eyes, and she fought in vain to recapture that clarity and complexity of thought that had come so easily to her human form. She shook her head, no longer certain whether the events of that other world had been reality or a dream.

Then her eye caught sight of something glinting, down at her feet in the straw. Her heart leapt. The ice! Taku’s ice, and in this world, it was melting fast. Quickly she bent her head and licked it up, together with dust and bits of straw from the stable floor, and swallowed the cold, hard fragment.

All at once, it was as if a window had opened, and she caught a brief glimpse of Taku’s glistening form, and Aurora’s colours glimmering and shifting as her wings stretched out across the sky. Joy flooded her entire being with light. Not imagination, then. Not a dream. And she would see them again. She had their promise. Sooner or later, she would go back to that world of magic and miracles and deepest peril, to set about reclaiming her birthright as Windeye of the Xandim.