it,” he said as she disappeared around the corner of the door. Then he turned to Jack and asked, “Has anything else happened that I need to know about?”
“Not really,” Jack said. “Since Isabel left, everything’s been pretty quiet around here. We’re a good distance from the dragons’ main chambers so they haven’t come around much, except for Bragador and Anja. Mostly we’ve been watching over you and hoping you’d wake up.”
Alexander nodded, then turned his thoughts to the state of the world when he’d arrived at the Spires. Battles were raging all around the Seven Isles. There were so many things he needed to do and so much he didn’t know. And he’d failed in his quest to recover the keystone. From the pain in his leg, he knew it would be weeks, maybe even months, before he would be strong enough to travel. He decided to use the time wisely.
“I’m going to look in on Isabel,” he said, “maybe have a look around the Seven Isles while I’m at it. I’ll probably be a while.”
“If you have a chance, could you see how Abigail’s doing?” Jack asked.
Alexander nodded with a smile, then laid back and closed his eyes. It took some time to overcome the dull throbbing pain in his leg, but eventually he was adrift on the firmament. It seemed different somehow, more familiar.
With a thought, he was floating in the cabin of a ship at sea. Isabel was sleeping fitfully in the bunk. For several moments, Alexander just watched her sleep, grateful that she was all right but saddened that she felt it necessary to leave his side. He still didn’t quite understand. They belonged together; she knew that as well as he did.
He slipped into her dreams and found himself in his Wizard’s Den, watching Isabel stand over his restless body. She was dreaming of the night she’d left. Her eyes were vacant and distant, her hands held a dagger raised over his heart. She brought the dagger a few inches higher, preparing to strike, and then she stabbed down, hard. Just before it plunged into his heart, she woke, ejecting Alexander from her mind.
He found himself floating in the cabin once again, watching her in the darkness as she cried herself back to sleep. He felt so helpless. She was all alone and Phane’s magic was claiming her free will. He could only imagine how scared she must be, but he was coming to understand her decision to leave. He tried to put himself in her position, asking himself what he would do to protect her under similar circumstances. She’d done the only thing she could have. That left him with the question of where she was headed.
He rose up through the ship, high into the sky, until he recognized the shape of the island she was sailing toward. The shock of it was so intense that he snapped back to his body and sat up with a gasp. Pain from his wound stabbed into his leg, causing him to gasp again. Then he gently lay back down, focusing on his breathing until the agony subsided.
Jack was lying on the next bed over, staring at the ceiling. He turned to Alexander but said nothing.
“She’s going to Karth,” Alexander said quietly. “I wish I knew why.”
“I can think of two possibilities,” Jack said. “Neither is going to be easy to hear.”
Alexander turned to Jack, frowning.
“Either she’s under Phane’s power or she’s going to try to kill him,” Jack said.
Alexander sighed, nodding. “I don’t think he has control of her yet, but I saw her dream—it won’t be long before he does.”
“I’m sorry, Alexander,” Jack said.
“Me too.”
He closed his eyes and focused his mind. He knew where she was and that she was safe, that was enough for now. Several moments later he was floating on the firmament again. This time he thought of Abigail and found himself over a vast army on the march. They were escorting thousands of refugees toward Fellenden City. Abigail looked anxious but well enough. Anatoly was riding next to her.
With a flick of his mind he was at the ruined shipyards. They’d been totally burned to the ground. Huge burial mounds marked with Reishi, Ruathan, Ithilian, and Fellenden banners gave silent testimony to the losses she’d sustained. The thousands of barbarians scattered haphazardly across the battlefield, left for the scavengers to pick at, gave Alexander some measure of hope that Zuhl’s horde, while formidable, wasn’t invincible.