“Karigan will come back,” he murmured.

“Karigan can take care of herself,” Dale said. “You, I’m less sure of.”

“Thanks.”

She flashed him a smile. “Ready?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be.”

He walked toward the tower without looking back, the tempes stone still wrapped in its blanket and tucked in the crook of his arm. By the time he reached the wall, the familiar notes of the wall guardians’ song drifted to him from Estral’s lute.

He tugged on the hilt of his saber to ensure it would easily clear the scabbard if needed, took a deep breath, and entered Tower of the Earth.

’WARE THE SLEEPER

As soon as Alton emerged into the tower chamber, he called upon his special ability to shield him. He was just in time as lightning forked down on him, the force knocking him to his knees. His nostrils flared at the charged air; he felt his hair rise. He remained absolutely still—more out of mortal fear than discipline—and the magic lightning dissipated. For a moment. He needed to get the tempes stone to the center of the chamber. Merdigen said it did not need to be placed on the pedestal, but it needed to be within the circle of columns.

Alton shifted his eyes, peering into the gloomy heights of the tower. He discerned no movement, no hint of the creature’s presence, but he knew it was there clinging to the shadows. He knew it must be watching him.

There was no use in delaying the inevitable. The sooner he delivered the tempes stone, the sooner he could leave the tower. He checked his shield once more, then sprinted. Lightning slammed into his shield and sizzled on the stone floor all around him. Each step brought a new discharge of power trying to blast him from existence. One jolt hit him so hard it knocked the tempes stone from his hands. He fumbled with it, the blanket that was supposed to protect it hampering his grasp.

“No!” Alton cried. He saw in his mind’s eye the green stone striking the floor and splintering into pieces.

As it tumbled from his fingers and plummeted, he dove after it and caught it—caught it soundly. His heart hammered in his chest and he closed his eyes briefly, taking a deep breath. He’d almost lost Merdigen!

He leaped the rest of the way between a pair of columns and fell into the center of the chamber, thudding to the floor beside the skeleton. Once again, as he stilled, the lightning ceased.

Like the other towers, passing between the columns seemed to transport him to some other place. But wherever this other place was and whatever it had once been, it was now a burned out ruin of blackened, seared ground and dark murky sky. Nothing lived here, not even a speck of grass. Nothing. It was a shadow land.

Alton moved carefully so as not to spark the tower’s defenses again, making a nest of the blanket and resting the tempes stone on it. Its fiery green glow sparkled with its own inner fire, adding living light to the desolation all around. He wondered if Merdigen would know he’d almost been dropped. Alton hoped not because he’d never hear the end of it.

“Tsk, tsk,” the mage said, materializing next to the pedestal and looking down on Alton. “Quite a disaster in here.”

“What do you think happened?” Alton asked.

“Give me a few minutes to look around.” Merdigen circled the pedestal with Haurris’ sickly tempes stone upon it, and then gazed down at the skeleton. He muttered to himself and shook his head.

Alton tried to lie as still as possible, but naturally he had an itch below his left shoulder he was dying to scratch. Resisting the impulse made his eyes water. It did not help he was face-to-face with the skull. He wished Merdigen would hurry up.

“Sad, very sad,” Merdigen murmured.

Alton watched out the corner of his eye as Merdigen moved beyond the columns to explore the tower chamber at large.

Where was the creature thing? he wondered. He tried to focus—to listen for stealthy movements—but he only heard Merdigen clucking to himself. All else was silence. There wasn’t even a touch of a breeze in the scorched landscape he lay in. The air was stagnant, acrid.

“Are you almost done?” Alton demanded.

“These things take time,” Merdigen said. He returned to the center of the chamber and gazed once again at the tempes stone, stroking his beard. “I believe the skeletal remains to be Haurris’. How he came to such an end is impossible to know. Unless ...”

“Unless what?”

“Unless he managed to leave a trace in his tempes stone, but from the looks of it, that’s not very likely. The spells about the chamber definitely have Haurris’ signature, both the barrier that prevented you from entering the tower the first time, and the defensive spells. I’m beginning to think he also destroyed the bridges that prevented me from coming here in the fall.”

“To what end?” Alton demanded. “Why would he want to keep us out?”

“Not just keep us out,” Merdigen replied, “but to trap something within.”

Alton shuddered. “Can you see it? The creature?”

“No, I cannot. If it is here, it is remaining utterly still in the shadows. Amazing that it has survived Haurris’ defenses. And for how long, I wonder.”

“What now?”

“I am going to take one more look around to make sure I’m not missing anything,” Merdigen replied. “Then we are going to return to my tower with Haurris’ tempes stone.”

Alton’s breath of relief raised a puff of sooty dust. He was pleased Merdigen did not insist they remain in the tower to complete his investigation of what had happened here.