Flatly, he replied, “There's more to see ahead, around the corner.”

“Not more rocks?”

“No… fountains, Pella's flower garden, a petrified dragon.”

“A dragon!” I felt my heart quicken. They were creatures of legend. I'd heard stories of them my whole life.

“Yes, Locke killed it years ago. It took twenty mules and twice that many men to cart it back here. But it's a trophy worth keeping.”

“How did Locke kill it?”

“He showed it a medusa's head.”

Awed, my estimation of Locke went up yet another notch. I'd known my brother was an able military officer and a skilled swordsman, but I'd had no idea he'd gone adventuring.

“All right,” I said. “I have to know. How did he get a medusa's head?”

“I'm not really sure… he said something about a labyrinth and a golden fleece.”

I shrugged.

Aber went on, “Want to see what my mother looked like? There's a statue of her there, too. I'm told it's a good resemblance.”

“Sure.” Statues, at least, I could appreciate. But a dragon, even a petrified one, couldn't be missed.

My sudden enthusiasm seemed to cheer him up. As we walked, he kept gazing into the rock pen. Boulders small and large drifted in an intricate dance. He honestly seemed to enjoy them, like a falconer admiring his birds or a hunter showing off his hounds. And why shouldn't he? In Juniper he had been trapped in a house filled with squabbling siblings and a paranoid drunkard of a father, a mysterious enemy had been systematically murdering family members, and we were under siege from an army determined to slaughter us all to the last one. Here, at least for the moment, we appeared safe. He could relax and be himself.

“Hey! Look at that!” He stopped short and pointed at the two largest hump-backed rocks, which now circled each other like wolves in the center of the pen. “They're going to fight!”

“A fight?” I stopped and regarded them. “How can you tell?”

“Experience! Watch!”

Sighing, I leaned on the fence beside him. The two boulders wheeled and spun and circled in an intricate dance, drew apart, then suddenly raced towards each other faster than a man could run. When they struck with a loud crack!, rock chips and dust flew into the air. Then, as they drew apart, I noticed that the larger of the two had a crack running down its middle. It split in two, and each half moved off in a different direction.

Aber groaned in disappointment. “They don't usually hit that hard,” he said. “One usually backs down.”

“They look dangerous,” I said.

“Not really. If you're careful. You can even ride them, if you want. It's fun.”

I shook my head. Strange as the house seemed, everything inside looked normal by comparison. A deep sense of melancholy spread through me. I longed for Ilerium or Juniper, where I knew the rules and nothing fantastic waited around each corner to jump out at me.

Deep-blue lightning flickered overhead, bright enough to draw my attention. Then bright tongues of blue light split the sky, and a growl of thunder rumbled close at hand.

“A storm?” I asked.

He hesitated, looking up. “I don't know. I've never seen anything quite like this before.”

“Maybe we'd better get inside,” I suggested. The dragon could wait; since it was petrified, it wouldn't be going anywhere. Besides, I remembered the attack on our forces in Juniper. It had started with a storm. Our enemies had directed lightning bolts down on top of us, shattering the upper floors of Juniper Castle and killing dozens of people.

“I think we'd better,” Aber said. Turning, he headed back toward the courtyard. I hurried to keep up.

Then a finger of lightning lanced down from the sky, hitting the ground twenty feet away. Sand peppered my face and hands. I threw up my arms to protect my eyes.

“Run!” Aber screamed.

I turned and found him sprawled on the ground. The force of the lightning had knocked him down. “We're being attacked! We have to get inside!”

I hurried to him. “Attacked—here?”

“Yes! Now go on, get inside!”

“Not without you.” Instead, I pulled him to his feet. Together we sprinted for the door.

More lightning flickered over head. Thunder growled in warning. One bolt lashed down at us, but it struck the rock-pen, splintering the little wooden fence. As though sensing their chance to escape, the rocks inside began to drift toward the opening.

Side by side now, we pounded past them, circling the house. The doorway came into sight.

I let Aber pull ahead, then darted to the side. My instincts and military training told me to spread out the distance between us and move unexpectedly. That would make it harder for whoever was aiming the lightning bolts to get us both. And if he did manage to strike home, better to kill just one of us.

Before I'd taken half a dozen steps, blue lightning leaped down from the heavens. It moved faster than I could react, crackling with energy, and it struck me with a blow like a hammer to the head. Surrounding me, burning across my skin, filling my eyes with a shining blue light, I reeled to the side. Everything around me looked weird and distant.

Then I sucked in a breath—and felt the flames coil and burn inside my chest.

Chapter 14

Pain-nothing but pain—pain wrapped in more pain—

I thought my lungs would burst. I couldn't breathe, couldn't move, couldn't think. I tried to scream, but no sound came out.

—fires searing me, burning into my flesh—

Just ahead, I saw Aber starting to look back. He began to turn, but it happened so slowly, it almost seemed as though he wasn't moving at all.

Gods, the pain! Make it stop!

Aber's mouth gaped open as he shouted something to me. Crackling thunder filled my ears; I couldn't hear a word he said.

My arms, my head, my eyes.

Everything glowed from a crisp blue light that seemed to radiate away from inside me. Shadows, sharp and black, stretched dark fingers away in all directions. A sense of inevitable doom pervaded everything and everyone around me.

Pain!

My sight began to dim. I couldn't be dying here, not now… It wasn't fair—I wasn't done yet—

Dark.

Consciousness returned slowly.

A hush had fallen over everything and everyone. I had a sense of dislocation, as though I watched myself from a great distance, and yet I could see nothing but white in every direction. Detached from my body, like an observer looking through someone else's eyes, I peered into the whiteness for answers.

Though my life might be nothing more than a speck of dust on a game-board of cosmic proportions, my thoughts remained clear and sharp. I remembered the lightning. I remembered the pain, though it had vanished. An eerie calmness, like nothing I had ever felt before, began to settle over me.

A laugh, high and musical, broke the silence.

“Who's there?” I called.

A blur of white passed a hand-breadth from my eyes, then a brilliant light dazzled me. I blinked furiously and shaded my face with my hand.

That light—it moved and breathed, it ate and drank with me. Yes, it had eyes, whatever it was. But no human ever gazed out through them, these windows to the soul, so pure and perfect they made my heart ache just to be near.

“Why are you here?” the voice said. It seemed to come from below, then above, then below again.

“First, tell me where I am,” I said.

“Here, with me,” said the voice.

I licked my lips. “Am I the first one?”

Again, the laughter. “No. There have been others.”

“Where am I?”

“With your mother.”

“Then I am dead?” I licked my lips. “These are the Seven Heavens? My just reward?”

I sensed puzzlement.

“Where am I?” I asked again.

“Good-bye“ said the voice. “Good-bye“

“No!” I called. “Wait! Mother, I“