we still have the same problem,” answered Kashkari, his voice hoarse but steady. “We still can’t get up that cliff face.”
Iolanthe grimaced. Did they fly around? They had no idea how far the escarpment stretched in either direction. Certainly beyond the range of their far-seeing spells.
Into their impotent silence came agitated clicks.
“What’s that?” she asked.
“Sorry,” said Kashkari. The noise stopped. “The last time we all left the Crucible together, Titus told me to take a small stone from the meadow, to keep the book ‘open.’”
Kashkari had become their keeper of the last resort, as he had seemed destined to outlive them all. Since the Coastal Range, he had been the one to carry the Crucible on his person. Titus had taught him all the passwords and countersigns for the Crucible, and Iolanthe had given him the words to unseal the connection between their copy of the Crucible and the one they’d left behind in the Domain—in the unlikely event he left the Commander’s Palace alive and needed to get out of Atlantis in a hurry.
“I was jangling the contents of my pocket,” he went on, “and the stone was knocking against Durga Devi’s prayer beads.”
Kashkari, like the prince, almost never fidgeted. For him to be reduced to such nervous motions told her everything she needed to know about his frame of mind. She sighed.
The next moment she grabbed him by the front of his tunic. “I know how we can get our hands on a pair of wyverns—or at least I know where we can try.”
Iolanthe murmured the words to undisguise the Crucible and felt about on the rubble-strewn floor of the cave until she had the book in hand. Next she had Kashkari “close” the book. Then she took him to visit the Oracle of Still Waters.
The oracle’s pool captured the image of those who last looked into it. This was how Titus had circumvented the Irreproducible Charm, captured her image, and given Sleeping Beauty her face. She hadn’t known whether to give him a swift kick or to kiss him silly—she would worry about that later, if there was to be a later. Now she busied herself pitching her tent in the middle of the cave—once the tent had been sealed, light on the inside could not be seen from the outside.
With Kashkari standing guard at the mouth of the cave, she huddled in the tent, under a smidgen of mage light, and made changes to several stories in the Crucible. When she was satisfied with her modifications, she extinguished the light, packed away the tent, and entered the Crucible once again, Kashkari at her side.
Since the Crucible had just been “reopened,” the meadow was quiet and peaceful, no treasure hunters trampling across the long grass yet. They flew toward Sleeping Beauty’s castle.
“I’m carrying a two-way notebook that lets me communicate with Dalbert,” she told Kashkari. “If something happens to me, you take it. The password is ‘conservatory.’”
“Wouldn’t be much use, would it?”
“You might think differently if you were to survive—let’s not only prepare to die.”
She didn’t cling to any hope, but as long as she breathed, she would act.
They shot past the ring of impenetrable briar that surrounded Sleeping Beauty’s castle and came to a stop. Below, by the gate of the castle, lay two wyverns, sleeping, their hind limbs in chains.
It was possible to bring out objects from the Crucible. In fact, it was necessary to keep the book “open” and instantly accessible. But until now, they had brought out only small, inanimate items: a jewel belonging to Helgira or a rock from the meadow before Sleeping Beauty’s castle.
Now for something different.
“I’ve made it as easy as possible for us,” said Iolanthe. “If we can’t get the better of these wyverns, we don’t deserve to ride them.”
Kashkari exhaled. “Then what are we waiting for?”
“We meet again at last, Fairfax. Welcome to my not-so-humble abode,” said the Bane, all graciousness and suave manners.
The woman who looked exactly like Fairfax regarded him with loathing.
“Are you all right?” Titus shouted. “Are you hurt?”
Briefly she closed her eyes. Of course she had been in pain—the Bane had tortured her in his effort to rouse her. But she had willed herself to remain perfectly silent and still to buy more time, giving up the pretense only to save Titus from certain mutilation.
“Hmm, you don’t seem as delighted by our reunion,” said the Bane. “I suppose I can’t really blame you, considering what is about to happen.”
Fairfax shuddered but did not speak.
“As