It is not of this place, he replied.
Flames flickered down Valdis’s sides, and an answering hum came from Amaya. Whatever that noise was, the two swords were anticipating meeting it.
Have you any idea where it’s coming from?
From the star-shaped door. He glanced over his shoulder. There is movement inside. Be ready to fight.
My grip tightened against Amaya’s hilt, and her humming ratcheted up several notches. Is it our sorceress?
It is not a reaper or Aedh, so I would think it must be.>I nodded. “The minute I appear on the gray fields, they’re going to know. We need a distraction.”
“I could —”
“Not you,” I cut in. “My father. He keeps telling me how mighty and powerful he is, so how about we give him a chance to prove it?”
“Neither he nor the Raziq will be fooled for long. As you have noted, they will feel your presence on the field.”
“Perhaps, but we can always hope they’re too busy fighting each other to immediately do anything about our presence. Besides, what other option have we got?”
“None.” His voice was grim. “You had better contact your father quickly, as the sorceress might already be on the fields with the four items.”
I spun around and headed for my bedroom to retrieve the communication ward my father had given me. Azriel appeared, a knife he’d found who knows where held in one hand, as I sat cross-legged on the floor and placed the ward in front of me. The rainbow colors within it seemed to run faster, as if it knew what was coming.
“Thanks,” I said, accepting the knife. With little ceremony, I jabbed the point into my finger, then, as blood began to well, turned my finger upside down and let the blood drip onto the communication ward. As the droplet hit, the rainbow stopped moving, and everything was still. Silent.
Then light erupted from the center of the stone and briefly blinded me. When I was able to see again, I was encased in a cylinder of white.
“Father, are you out there?”
There was a pause, and then he said, “You have found the second key?”
“Yes, but I need your help to retrieve it.”
“I cannot interact with your world – it is the reason you were bred.”
I snorted softly. Nice to know the only reason I existed was because my father had a feeling he’d need an extra pair of hands here on Earth. “The problem isn’t here on Earth. It’s on the gray fields.”
“Explain.”
“We suspect the sorceress has two gateways onto the fields. The Raziq currently guard one. The other, however, is in your rooms —”
“Impossible. No one can get into my temple residences without the proper —”
“Lucian could,” I cut in. “And he was working with the sorcerers.”
“He would not —”
“You keep saying that,” I interrupted again. “Trouble is, time and again he was doing exactly what you said he shouldn’t or wouldn’t be.”
Annoyance swirled around me, thick and heavy. But all he said was, “What is it that you want?”
“The location of the gate the Raziq guard is -37.7925000, 144.98635. We need you to provide some sort of distraction.”
“Such as?”
“I don’t know, and I don’t particularly care. Hell, you can take the bastards out for all I care. You keep saying you’re far more powerful than either Malin or her people will ever be, so how about proving it?”
“That is a truth not even she would deny.”