“Where’s Dahn?” Tern demanded, looking cross—and a bit scared. “Why are you wearing my memory crown? How is it that you can even see me? What do you thi—”

  Xahn snatched the diadem from his head and held it in front of him, as if it were a poisonous serpent. He gasped for breath, his eyes were wide with fear, and sweat was pouring down his face. He turned his head in every possible direction, like a trapped animal. The stairwell was dark again, lit only by Ginsook’s palms. He couldn’t hear the river running behind the walls. And there was no young woman in green standing next to him giving him a look that would wither an evergreen.

  “Memory crown,” Ginsook said, nodding towards the diadem and giving M’Randa a knowing look. “It was the crystal witch’s, right?”

  “Crystal priestess,” M’Randa corrected. “Yes, it was.”

  “Don’t worry, Xahn,” Ginsook told him. “You get used to having someone else in your head. Someday, I’ll take you to visit the Hall of the Ancestors in Hahn. That is an experience.”

  An enormous boom and crash sounded above them.

  “We don’t have time to talk about it, and Xahn, I’m afraid you don’t have time to get used to the memory crown now,” M’Randa told him. “They’re through the first door. It will only be moments before they get through the second.” She raised the Sword of Heaven and brought it to life. The sword’s yellow light shone brightly throughout the entire stairwell. Xahn found he could see even better than he could with that … that thing on his head.

  “Thanks!” Ginsook sighed, shaking both hands loosely at the wrists. Her palms dimmed and resumed their normal appearance. “It was starting to hurt. Come on, Xahn. We’ll talk about how to deal with a memory crown when we get to safety.”

  Xahn was unable to say anything. He simply followed the women down the stairs in a daze. This was all happening too fast, and he had no idea what most of it meant. He held the diadem away from his body, still leery of it.

  After a dozen steps, they entered a dark room. The fact that the room remained dark after M’Randa and the sword entered confused Xahn.

  “Did you extinguish the sword?” Ginsook asked as she tentatively ventured into the shadowy chamber.

  “No,” M’Randa told her.

  “Then why is it still dark in here?” the Hahnin woman asked.

  Evidently, Xahn thought, I’m not the only one confused. Strangely, the thought gave him some comfort.

  “It’s protected by an obfuscation spell,” M’Randa said. She was now deep inside the room and Xahn could no longer see her at all, just hear her voice and her footsteps. “It’s something the crystal priestesses used to be able to do. I haven’t met anyone—oh, not in a very long time—who could conjure it. It requires an incredible knowledge of crystal lore. And a keyword.”

  “Do you know the keyword?” Ginsook asked.

  “I do,” said the Wandering Woman. “It’s lu?éclar.”

  “Lu?éclar!” Ginsook shouted. The darkness ate up the word; there wasn’t any echo at all. Nothing changed. The Hahnin woman grunted. “I’m about as close to a crystal priestess as you’re going to find right now. Why didn’t that work?”

  “I have no idea,” M’Randa told her. Xahn imagined she was shaking her head. “I have never been able to hear the song of the crystals, and they cannot hear me. That was Maho’Ni’s ability.” She sighed heavily—there was great sadness in that sigh. “We could really use his help, right now.”

  Xahn barely heard them over the noise in the darkened room. The two women were carrying on as if it were quiet, but he would have put both hands over his ears if he weren’t holding the diadem. It sounded as if a thousand voices were shouting—screaming—at him! It was so loud that he swore he could hear individuals in the room with him. He closed his eyes and tried to calm his mind like his father had taught him to do. He concentrated on the voices.

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  Though Xahn could not understand anything they said, he could tell that they were everywhere in the room. A few hundred were straight in front of him. A thousand or more were gathering behind him from the sides. They were all moving, all the time. He gasped in surprise and pain as dozens of them entered his mouth. Xahn started to gag … then stopped. His lungs felt fine. In fact, they felt better than fine—they felt wonderful. It was as if the beings inside him were giving him breath and energy and strength and knowledge. Without thinking, he spoke M’Randa’s keyword.

  “Lu?éclar,” Xahn breathed. He had the distinct impression that the thousands of beings around and inside him froze in place, then bowed to him. Xahn opened his eyes and was shocked find to the small room brilliantly lit by large white crystals embedded in the rock walls. The clamor of myriad voices was gone, replaced by a babbling sound like a small brook. He was also surprised to see M’Randa and Ginsook staring at him like he’d just eaten a bug.

  “How did you do that?” Ginsook asked slowly. She turned to M’Randa. “How did he do that?”

  “I’m not sure,” M’Randa started, “but … Xahn, you look so much like Maho’Ni. I wonder if there is more of Maho’Ni to you than just your appearance?”

  “Wait a second,” Xahn protested. “I look like wh—?”

  He was interrupted by another thundering crash sounded from above.

  “No time to discuss!” M’Randa said quickly. She pulled Xahn all the way to the far side of the small, cube-shaped room. Xahn could see that this place was not like the stairwell, which had been constructed of rocks and mortar like the fences in Hylan. This room was hewn directly out of gray mountain stone. And unlike the moss and scum that had built up over decades on the walls and steps in the stairwell, this room was spotlessly clean. The white light crystals in the walls looked to have been uncovered during the excavation rather than placed. The cube itself was only a few paces in every direction, and in the corner—where M’Randa was dragging him—was the stream of water he’d been hearing. It came directly out of a circle carved like a leafy vine, twisting around a hole about two feet wide, high up on the wall. The water spilled out of the hole and down a narrow stone trough into a …

  It was a hand. A huge, cupped hand large enough for a person to sit in the palm. It was carved from a single glowing turquoise crystal with the stream of clear mountain water flowing into the cupped fingers. The glistening water had flecks of silver and gold in it and did not spill out of the large crystal hand. Xahn assumed there was a drain of some kind inside. He felt a strange sensation of familiarity in this bizarre room.

  “I’ve seen this before!” he shouted. “It was a giant statue! A woman in a waterfall. I sat in the hand and I saw—” Xahn paused, then looked directly at M’Randa, finally realizing why he knew her face the first time he met her. “I saw you!”

  “Wait! You are Crying Queen of Calosia?” Ginsook demanded of M’Randa, incredulous.

  “It’s a long story,” M’Randa said, softly. “And there is no time to tell it. The demonspawn are on their way.”

  As she spoke, Xahn could hear the door to the stairwell burst open and the snarls of the black-scaled lizard men as they began to descend.

  “Remove your clothing,” M’Randa told him. “Don’t look at me like that, you don’t have time.” Xahn complied in a daze. “Nothing but living beings and crystals can use the Aquapassage,” she explained. Then she looked directly at Ginsook and said, “I don’t know at which location he’ll emerge. He may need protection if it’s Calosia or Hahn. And I cannot leave this behind.” M’Randa raised the Sword of Heaven.

  “Are you asking me to undress in front of a fourteen-year-old boy?” Ginsook asked with a wink at Xahn, even as she was disrobing. “Not that it’s uncommon among Hahn nobles, but I thought there were laws against that kind of thing in Glish.” The Hahnin woman left her dress and, reluctantly, her staff in a pile on the floor and went behind Xahn, who had removed his clothes and was standing sheepishly by the Font.

  “Don’t worry, Xahn,” Ginsook whispered in his ear from behind. “You’re not exactly my type.”

  “Enough teasing,” M’Randa chided her, a slight smile on her face. “Get moving. They will be here in seconds.”

  “Ensure the … the baby is protected,” Ginsook urged in a more serious tone.

  “I shall,” promised the Wandering Woman.

  “You aren’t coming?” Xahn demanded in a panic as Ginsook took his arm and nearly dragged him into the freezing water.

  “I cannot, child,” the dark-skinned woman told him. “Trust the Daughter, she will protect you. I will be fine. After all, you saw the statue: I’m a goddess.”

  M’Randa smiled kindly at Xahn, then whirled about to face the demonspawn who poured into the room like a torrent of shadows. She lifted the Sword of Heaven over her head, screamed and charged toward them. Behind him, Ginsook put her arms around Xahn and dragged him under the water with her.

  Then everything vanished and Xahn heard nothing but water and saw nothing but bright turquoise light.

  Aquapassage is? Don’t worry… answers are coming soon. A few of them, anyway!