near the middle of the long side.
Lightning etched shadows of the entire row of columns into the inner wall, and thunder shook the ground in the same instant. Jedra and Kayan piled through the doorway just as another lightning bolt hit close enough to light up the inside of the building, revealing a double row of columns with statues interspersed between them.
This is the same building we were in with Kitarak in the ruined city, Jedra thought, picking himself up off the marble floor.
Another lightning flash confirmed it. The same columns flanked the wide center aisle, and the same statues, once smashed to rubble, now stood whole. Jedra reached out to one of them and touched its nose. Was this the one he had tossed casually into the pile of debris? Evidently the crystal world was modeled after the real city during its height. Lightning flashed again and again and thunder shook the building, but they were safe inside its massive stone walls. They waited out the storm just inside the door, wincing at the lightning and thunder and watching the rain spatter into puddles on the stone streets.
This is too much to believe, Jedra said after the worst of the storm had passed. Rivers and oceans and thunderstorms all in one day.
Has it been just a day? Kayan asked. It seem longer. She leaned her head against his chest. I’m tired.
You’re just hungry, he said. You didn’t eat any of the sea creature. Let’s find you something to eat, and I’ll bet you’ll feel better.
Maybe, she said. Why don’t we just go back home for dinner?
The rain was letting up now. Jedra led her back outside to the covered colonnade, saying, “Oh, we can’t leave yet. There’s so much to see! Have you noticed that this is the same city as the one where we met Kitarak?”
“No, I hadn’t.” Kayan looked out at the buildings up and down the street, some of them seven or eight stories high.
Jedra said, “It looks different because none of them have fallen down yet, but that one down there”—he pointed to one of the tall ones—“is the one we pushed over. And that means the courtyard with the fountain should be over there.” He shifted his arm to the right.
“What difference does that make?”
“There should be trees there,” he said. “And if we start wishing for it now, at least one of them should have food on it.”
“Not something that cooks itself, I hope,” Kayan said.
“Now that you’ve said not, I bet it won’t.”
They walked out into the last of the rain, enjoying the sharp stings of cold drops on their skin. They walked down the street half a block, crossed over and went through the gap between two tall buildings, and sure enough, there was the open courtyard with the fountain. And surrounding the fountain was a ring of trees, each one bearing a different kind of fruit.
“There you go,” Jedra said proudly. “Whatever you like, the crystal world provides.”
“How about warmth?” Kayan said. “I like rain, but it’s kind of cold.”
A moment later the clouds began to break up, and the unnaturally bright sun shone through again.
“Good enough?” Jedra asked.
“It’ll do,” Kayan said, but she was smiling again.
They strolled from tree to tree, sampling the exotic fruits. When they had eaten their fill, Kayan lay back in the soft green grass and said, “Nap time.”
Jedra felt a little tired, too. “That’s a good idea,” he said, lying down beside her. He cast about psionically for danger but didn’t detect anything, so he folded his arms behind his head and closed his eyes and listened to the gurgling fountain and the peep of birds in the trees until he fell asleep.
* * *
The sun was going down when he woke; it was the cold that had awakened him. Jedra sat up groggily and rubbed his eyes, then gently shook Kayan’s shoulder.
“Time to get up,” he said.
Kayan didn’t stir.
“Come on,” he said, shaking harder. “There’s still plenty of city to explore.” He didn’t really feel like it—he mostly wanted to just go back to sleep—but he supposed they would perk up if they ate again.
Kayan still didn’t move.
“Kayan?” Suddenly afraid, Jedra looked to see if she was breathing, and he relaxed a little when he saw her chest rise and fall. Her breaths were very shallow, though, and far apart.
Kayan, he mindsent. No response. He tried linking with her, but they had already been linked before they came into this world, and nothing