This incredibly rare diamond was a gift from the celestial empress. Each ruler of a mythic land who had taken the oath of alliance with the empress had received one. They were extremely powerful artifacts. Which meant that any of several more local rulers could have been summoned, Nikos thought—and his unicorn reappeared to say, Our mate has gone inside a building.
I don’t have a mate, not if I do nothing about it. Did you just snort at me?
Nikos resisted the impulse to clap his hand over his face, and exerted his mental shield to slam, lock, and bolt the inner door against his unicorn, who was clearly entering his second adolescence.
Joey’s friendly, helpful voice said at his shoulder, “Problem, Nikos? If there is anything I can do . . .”
Nikos exhaled sharply, and shut out everything except that blasted ward he could sense somewhere buried under tons and tons of rock.
The tiny glow deep within the diamond pulsed with light as he reached with an invisible tendril past the heavy stone slabs, through the fissures and cracks.
The oracle stone was like a pinpoint of blue-white light, caught in a protective sphere within the collapsed cavern. Mikhail had set his ward well: the glow was steady, strong. No one without the ability to deal with imperial wards was touching whatever that ward guarded, even if they used dynamite to blast down into the collapsed cave.
And Cang, Nikos thought grimly, had to know that.
Nikos drew a breath, steadied himself, and sent his questing tendril inside that ward. A pause, as his diamond flared. Then the ward recognized the diamond’s bearer as an ally, and the sense of pressure eased around his skull.
He braced himself again. Now came the trickiest part of an investigation from such a distance. It would take him hours to actually move that oracle stone, as he’d have to manipulate it from a distance, holding it steady between two dimensions. Getting a reading would be quicker.
He cautiously poked his mental tendril toward the pearly, glowing orb . . . . and a pulse of power snapped back at him, so strong that he felt it ring outward, as if a mighty boulder had dropped into a lake the size of the moon, sending a wave surging out in a widening circle.
Was that an echo . . . or a reflection?
Impossible. Impossible.
He withdrew with a snap, steadying himself against the rock as he regained his physical senses. He opened his eyes, and discovered Mikhail and Joey waiting. “You didn’t feel that?” he was about to say, except of course they hadn’t felt it, or they’d be demanding explanations.
Joey spoke, this time calm and steady. “You all right?”
The vertigo was already fading, leaving Nikos aware that he was the right person, after all, damn and blast. Why couldn’t things be simple for once?
You’re the one making it complicated, came the helpful comment from the unicorn—who had seeped past the bolted inner door. Exasperated, Nikos slammed the door again, this time imagining it as a steel vault. Boom. Lock. Shoot the key into space.
Then he dragged his mind back to the two waiting faces. Mikhail knew artifacts. Joey knew . . . people. This kind of power—whatever its precise nature—probably wasn’t part of either of their experience. Should he tell them what he thought he saw? But it was impossible—irresponsible to even mention it without being more certain.
Nikos opened his eyes. “I would have to be closer to determine what exactly is in that stone. But I can tell you this much. It’s not one of your old recording artifacts.”
He glanced around. The gleaming sand, the plashing waves in the calm sea, the wheeling and diving sea birds were all the very picture of peace. But instinct sharpened into the sense of danger unseen. Someone—probably whoever was behind Cang—had felt that concussion in the mythic realm. He hated this sense of lurking malice. He preferred to face enemies head on.
Instinctively he spoke on the mythic plane. There’s power there. A great deal of power. You’d have to have an imperial ring more potent than mine to penetrate the ward. He held up his ring, the red diamond catching the sunlight and throwing out brilliant lances of pure ruby light.
In fact, whatever that oracle stone contained was so powerful that he wondered who might be listening on the mythic plane. That required the mental equivalent of sitting by a radio, hoping to catch a signal. But someone very, very determined could be doing exactly that.
So he went back to speaking aloud, though in a low voice. “But anyone good at sensing artifacts such as this would know there’s something very strong here.”
“Then we had better set guards,” Mikhail answered. “Until we can plan extraction.”
Nikos glanced up, surprised to discover that while he’d been concentrating, the sun had jumped a finger’s width across the sky.
“You were focused for about an hour,” Joey said. “Your students will probably be finished with their class by now.” And then his mental voice spoke in the mythic realm, We both found our mates right here in this town. And you—
The unicorn tossed his head within Nikos, rejoicing in the rightness of this balance, three friends, three mates. All known to one another.
“No,” Nikos said aloud.
“No?” Joey repeated, his eyes wide.
Nikos struggled mentally, thrusting a hand through his hair as if to hold his skull together. “It was a splendid sparring match. Nothing more,” he said. “Will you make this report to the celestial empress or shall I?”