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"Where are we going?"
Tal shook his head. He felt incredibly tired again.
"I don't know. Away from here before that boat lands."
"Too late for that," said Adras.
"It just did."
"It can't have," said Tal. He didn't bother to look.
"It was hundreds of stretches away."
"No," explained Adras patiently.
"The other ship. The one I didn't see before."
Tal looked. Another boat full of Guards had grounded on the western shore. The first Chosen were jumping off the bow. They saw him, and an angry shout went up.
Tal's tiredness disappeared. He turned to run, tugging at Adras's hand.
"Come on," he shouted, holding up both arms.
"Running takeoff!"
"I feel sick," announced Adras. But he pushed off the ground and grabbed Tal's arms as he lifted him into the sky. The very low part of the sky. Tal was dragged along the ground, and only saved from being sliced apart because two flower-creatures leaned over backward to let him past.
"Higher!" Tal screamed. For a moment his feet rested on the shoulders of a golden statue. He jumped off and they gained a bit of height, only to lose it again as Adras groaned and dipped.
They were almost at the lake on the far side of the island when Adras finally managed to get properly airborne. He kept heading toward the crater rim, mindful of all the Chosen and their Sunstones that were behind him. Tal breathed a sigh of relief, only to lose it in panic as he realized something truly horrible.
He'd dropped the Red Keystone when they were knocked over back in the courtyard.
CHAPTER TWENTY
"Take us high," said Tal bitterly. "Then you can drop me." "How high?" asked Adras.
"High enough," muttered Tal. How could he have been so stupid? He'd been so careful not to lose the Red Keystone. That Icecarl Crone had prophesied truly when she said, "Sunstones fall from you, yet into other's hands."
"Um, Tal, why am I going to drop you?" asked Adras. "You're not," said Tal shortly.
"I'm just angry at myself. I don't really mean for you to drop me. Is that cloud up there? Let's join that for a while."
"Sure," said Adras. There was a long strand of cloud drifting over the crater. "Why are you angry at yourself?"
Tal bit back an angry response. There was no point in yelling at Adras.
"I dropped the Red Keystone," he said dully. "I've practically killed Lokar, just like everyone else."
"The Red Keystone?" asked Adras.
"Is that the red Sunstone?"
Tal took a deep, slow breath. "Yes, it is the red Sunstone."
"Oh, I picked that up," said Adras.
"I thought you'd want it."
"You picked it up?" Tal repeated. He looked up at the Storm Shepherd, who was smiling down at him.
"Where is it?"
"I put it in my pocket."
"Your pocket? You haven't got a pocket… um… have you?"
"When I want to have a pocket I have a pocket," replied Adras proudly.
"Look!"
He let go of one of Tal's arms and the Chosen boy swung wildly underneath. But Tal didn't panic. He just gripped a little tighter himself.
Adras reached into his stomach area and two big puffy fingers pulled out a small red-glowing Sun-stone. He started to hand it over to Tal. "No, you keep it for now," said Tal urgently. "You've earned the right to look after it."
He didn't add that the last thing he wanted to do while hanging beneath a Storm Shepherd a thousand stretches up was take an irreplaceable Sunstone from two oversized cloud fingers and try to tie it in his shirt.
When they rendezvoused with the cloud, Tal had Adras stay a fraction beneath it, so he could watch what was going on down below. There was a lot of activity, not only on the Empress's island, but all over the Chosen Enclave. Sunstones were flaring brightly everywhere, in houses and on walkways and bridges. It was a colorful sight from a safe distance.
While the death of the Empress was bound to cause a stir, Tal couldn't figure out why absolutely everybody was dashing around. There were even Chosen running back from the tunnel that went through the crater wall.
Tal and Adras stayed with the cloud for some time. The sun had risen and the last of the night darkness was slipping from the crater below when Tal finally figured out what was going on.
"They're going back," he said, disbelief in his voice. "The Chosen are going back to the Castle. But it's months yet to Dark Return!"
Even the death of the Empress would not prompt a return to the Castle. It was unheard of. From the Day of Ascension to the Day of Dark Return, all
Chosen were in Aenir. It was as simple as that. But there was no mistaking what was going on below. The Orders were gathering in their respective areas. Tal could see the different colors in their Sunstones as they assembled along the major bridges. There was his Orange Order on the West Bridge, every single one of them.
Tal peered down. He wished he had a telescope. There were a number of litters with the Orange Order, for the sick and the infirm. His mother would be lying on one. She had to be. He refused to consider that she might now be dead.
A bunch of Chosen around the edge of the Orange ranks suddenly disappeared, leaving a prismatic afterimage. Tal blinked. That was even more unusual than the fact that the Chosen were returning. There was a set order to going back to the Castle. Red went first, from lowest to highest, and then it went in order of seniorit
y through the other colors.
A group of Blue Chosen suddenly shone and then they were gone, too. Then a couple of Indigo, and a bunch of Yellows.
"Let's go lower," Tal instructed. "I need to see this." They sank lower, but no one looked up. They were all too intent on getting back to the Castle. Tal watched as the transfers became even more confused. People seemed to be transferring back as soon as they were ready. A lot of children and sick Chosen were being sent back even when they weren't ready. Tal saw one little boy running away from his mother when he was struck by a kaleidoscopic whorl that signaled the transfer.
It took Tal a few minutes to realize that what he was seeing was a panic. The Chosen were desperate to return to the Castle and the Dark World. But why? Had the Spiritshadows already revolted? Surely that would be accompanied by an attack here in Aenir as well?
Whatever was going on, Tal knew it was an opportunity for him. He looked down at the steadily thinning ranks of the Chosen. If it was chaos here, with everyone translating back, it would be even worse in the Castle.
Now was the time to go back and give the water spider antidote to his mother… if he hadn't lost it. Tal felt the other knot in his shirt, the one he had never undone. Two vials of precious antidote were there. Provided they weren't harmed by the transfer to Aenir and then back, they should bring Graile out of her coma and make her well.
"Take us to the crater wall," said Tal.
"We're going back home."
"This is home," said Adras.
"The Dark World," said Tal.
"You'll be a Spiritshadow again."
"Hhmmph," snorted Adras. But he headed for the crater wall.
Home, thought Tal. Where was home now? Almost everything he had thought was true about the Chosen and the Castle was a lie. The Empress had proved to be a usurper and a coward, her Light Vizier likewise. The Dark Vizier was the puppet of a shadow.
