Bone, Fog, Ash & Star (The Last Days of Tian Di #3)(10)

The whiteness closed about them, until they could not see one another at all, and then blew away all at once. They were sailing on the green lake of the Crossing, the fiery sky of Tian Xia blazing above them. Around the lake curved the great black cliffs, carved with images of unrecognizable beings and unreadable symbols.

Nell woke up and put her papers back into her folder in a hurry. She looked a bit green.

“This is your third time, aye,” said Charlie gently. “Shouldnay be so bad.”

Eliza handed her a little sack of herbs from the Sorma. Nell held them close to her face and inhaled deeply.

“Not an easy journey for a human,” noted Foss.

“Or anyone going where they dinnay belong,” said Charlie. “I got hellishly sick crossing over to Di Shang the first time, but it seems like after a few times you build an immunity. Like you have enough of that world in you to make you belong a little more. Then there’re people like Eliza, aye, who dinnay get sick at all, either way. Belonging to both worlds, I spec.”

“There are no people like Eliza,” Nell said, glancing up from her sack of herbs for a moment. “Oh, the Ancients, I feel awful.”

“And the Mancers?” asked Foss.

“Lah, you’re really Tian Xia worlders, nay?” said Charlie. “But you live in Di Shang. So you should be all right either way, I spec.”

Foss looked thoughtful. As they drew closer to the towering black cliff that frightened Eliza every time, Foss became very interested in the symbols carved there.

“If only I had the Book of Symbols with me!” he cried. “I do not think all of these have been deciphered, you know…though it ought to be possible, with the book.” His face fell, light fading from his eyes slightly. “It is one of the Books Nia drained. It has been a tremendous job, Eliza, trying to repair the Old Library, and we have only made the smallest beginning in a year’s time. We have repaired the Book of the Ancients and many other Great Texts. But the Book of Symbols is still empty. Such a shame.”

Nell curled into a ball and whimpered, clutching the bag of herbs to her face.

“Almost there,” said Eliza, squeezing her shoulder. “Just hang on a little longer.”

“Are the Thanatosi crossing also?” Foss asked the Boatman.

The Boatman grinned hideously and did not reply.

“You cannot tell me?” asked Foss. “Fascinating. I have much to learn about the way of things. Not everything can be learned from books! Well, we must assume they are. I will prepare a barrier.”

“Crossing at the same time?” Nell asked, giving him a white-faced, miserable stare. “How?”

“The Boatman, as I understand it, is not constrained by time and space in the same manner that beings more rooted in the worlds are,” said Foss. “But it is quite beyond our minds to comprehend it.”

Nell groaned and shut her eyes again. Eliza held her hand. Foss knelt aft and murmured to himself, preparing a barrier. The black cliff loomed up before them and then opened into steps.

“Come quickly,” said Foss, rising. They followed him off the boat and up the steps while the boat faded away to nothing behind them. Eliza and Charlie supported Nell between them.

At the top of the steps they faced the temples of the Faithful, great red-earth domes still being repaired since Nia had destroyed them. The Ravening Forest scooped around the eastern horizon, a green half-ring. The very land and air here seemed to thrum with Magic.

“I wonder if they’ve chosen a new Oracle yet,” said Charlie, looking at the temples.

“Should we take shelter?” Eliza asked. “We could go to the Faithful but I hate to put them at risk after everything they’ve been through.”

“We will stay in the open,” said Foss. “We want to see our enemy approaching. First, do what you must to contact the Faery.”

Nell turned the crystal in her ring and said, “Jalo, please come and help me. It’s Nell, aye. Thank you.” She looked around at them all, suddenly doubtful. “What if it doesnay work?”

“It will take him time to reach us,” said Foss. “But the gemstones of the Faeries are known to possess a great variety of powers and I am sure the ring does what you have said.”

He paced out the outer limits of the barrier he had prepared and uttered the final words of the spell. It formed a dome over the little group and their dragon, visible only by the slightest shimmer in the air. Nell sat down on the dry red earth and pulled her folder out of her satchel again. Moments later she was entirely lost in a physics problem. Foss looked over her shoulder curiously.

“Ah, but you see, this neglects the Magic element,” he said, pointing at the problem with his long, golden index finger. “If you look at this problem from the perspective of Deep Physics it becomes much clearer. Matter is not only matter, it is imbued, one might say…”

“I dinnay need to know about Deep physics,” said Nell impatiently. “That’s nay going to be on the test.”

“Not on the test?” cried Foss. “At Austermon? The most prestigious university in Di Shang? I myself have written a letter to the President of the University, commending him. It is outrageous that they should not require any knowledge at all of the Deep Sciences. I shall have to write to him again.”

Eliza’s heart gave a thud and a raven appeared on Nell’s head with a squawk.