The Darkness Before the Dawn (Dark Sun: Chronicles of Athas 2)

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."

"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 more happened.

She couldn't have been poisoned; she had checked the food carefully before she ate any of it. So what was the problem?

Jedra wasn't doing so well, either. He felt faint, and his vision swirled as if someone had stirred the world with a spoon. A couple of deep breaths helped, but not for long; the moment he tried to stand, his eyes went dark and he fell back down.

Kayan! he mindsent again. "Kayan!" He knelt beside her and shook her shoulder, pinched her arm, even rugged her into a semi-upright position, but the effort nearly tumbled him into unconsciousness again.

They both fell back to the grass. Jedra tried to sit up again, but he couldn't manage even that. He tried to break their mental link with the crystal, but there was none to break. Once they had burst through into this world, they had stayed without effort. It would probably take a similar effort to leave, but they were too exhausted now to do it.

The world swirled around him. Fighting disorientation, he tried again to mindlink with Kayan, attempting to cut through the mysterious lethargy with a burst of psionic power, but he couldn't feel her presence. He felt something out there, some flicker of response far away in the vast crystal world, but he couldn't maintain it for more than a second.

The effort d

rained him even further, but that in itself provided an idea. If trying to mindlink tired him, then breaking the existing link with Kayan might give him more energy.