wagon took me for a while, then they put me on a boat. I’ve been here ever since. They don’t talk to me, even when they bring me food. Why are they doing this to me?” she sobbed again, breaking down in tears.
“I don’t know, but I’m going to find out and I’m going to send help,” Alexander said. “I have to go now. I need you to be strong, Wren. Help is on the way.”
She nodded, sniffing back her tears as he vanished.
He shifted his awareness to Blackstone’s sleeping room in a blink. Three Rangers awaited his message. He slipped into the dreams of the nearest, manifesting on a battlefield as the Ranger fought to defend the walls of New Ruatha. The enemy was mounting a charge and Alexander could feel the fear and hopelessness of the Ranger as his nightmare threatened to overwhelm him.
Alexander imposed his will on the man’s dream and cleared the field of everyone save himself and the Ranger. The man was confused at first but gathered his wits quickly once the unreality of the dream set in and he remembered that he was the vessel for Alexander’s messages.
“Lord Reishi, I stand ready to deliver your orders.”
“Tell Mage Gamaliel to send all of the explosive weapons he has to the Gate immediately. I’ll have Lord Abel open it as soon as they arrive. Tell Mage Alabrand to prepare to leave for Glen Morillian in the morning. Instruct Captain Alaric to send a thousand Rangers to escort him, then tell Mage Gamaliel to send as many wizards as he can spare and all of the Sky Knights still in the Keep as well. Lucky must arrive there safely as soon as possible.
“Tell Captain Alaric to send message riders to Southport immediately. Wren has been abducted and is aboard a ship sailing along the coastline toward the city. Have him instruct the Southport Navy to locate this ship and rescue the girl.”
“I will deliver your messages immediately,” the Ranger said.
Alexander slipped out of his dreams and back into the firmament. The source of all things had become a familiar place to him. He was comfortable floating on the ocean of potential that created each moment anew, listening to the song of creation as it unfolded.
Again, he wondered about Siduri. There was so much potential and so much danger bound up in his story. His mere existence was beyond reason, and yet Alexander had no doubt—Siduri was real. He’d accomplished feats of magic beyond anything that even the most accomplished arch mage had ever considered, and yet he’d withdrawn from the world, content to observe … until Alexander’s desperation had given him cause to act.
With a flick of his mind, Alexander was in the chamber where he’d found the blood of the earth. He floated above the crystal bowl filled with the potent liquid and pondered its purpose. It screamed of puissance, power beyond mortal comprehension, yet real enough to scoop up and put in a vial.
Not for the first time, he considered putting the small amount he’d taken back, but the thought of giving up even one chance of saving Isabel caused desperation to well up within him, driving out the idea and confirming his resolve.
If it came to it, he would use the blood of the earth to save his wife, come what may. Thoughts of Siduri evoked his worries about the shades. Even if Alexander managed to banish the last of them, they were eternal, existing in the netherworld, outside of time and substance and they were determined to unmake reality.
And now they knew how.
Even if he destroyed the Nether Gate, they now knew such a thing was possible—for that matter, the Taker knew it as well. Yet, if the Taker could manifest in this world, he would have, so it stood to reason that he needed agents to do his bidding in the world of time and substance. The shades were the real problem—the threat that could end all things.
As he floated there, pondering the nature of his most dangerous enemy, a thought occurred to him. The shades were nothing but disembodied souls, empowered by the Taker to exist unbound to flesh.
What if they could be bound to something else?
He had in his possession a book that detailed the process for placing one’s soul within a specially prepared item so that the caster of the spell could become an immortal undead. What if he could use the principles within that book to create a