Death Weavers (53 page)

T
he ground quaked. The pillars rocked. In the distance a swarm appeared. At first Cole thought of the men with gliders who had attacked him near the Farthest Mountain and outside the sanctuary where he had found Destiny. As the swarm approached, Cole saw it was a cloud of monstrous bats.

Good, you want him angry,
Prescia communicated in his mind. Glancing over his shoulder, Cole saw her standing immobile with his other companions.
It means he's not in full control.

The freakish bats dove at him, the swarm becoming narrower and longer as it targeted him. Cole debated whether to draw his sword. It would mean taking a hand off the lantern's shutter.

The Weaver's Beacon poses a problem for Ramarro,
Prescia went on.
He wanted you to serve him because it would have destroyed your protection. If you gave him your will, he would have obtained absolute power over all of us. Don't be fooled. He suggested he can destroy us at his whim. He is indeed powerful here, but he is also overconfident. Ramarro can't outright lie, but he can be wrong. Keep resisting. He can't bind you right now. He's trying to scare you. Pour on the power.

Cole forced his full power into the beacon, and once again he could see nothing. The music of the beacon sounded like a single clear note, a ringing chime near the upper threshold of apprehension. Cole braced for the bats to collide with him, but the impact never came. The quaking ceased.

“This grows tedious,” Ramarro said, his voice emanating from everywhere. “Why strive against you within my prison when I could go free?”

Thunder whinnied fiercely. Cole heard hoofbeats coming his way. He dimmed the beacon enough to see the Mare charge by him, gallop to the altar, and rear, front hoofs lashing wildly.

“Thank you for this gift, Cole,” Ramarro said. “It would have cost more time to make my escape without her power. Like the other Pemberton girls, Destiny parted willingly with her ability, at the urging of Owandell, who acted on my behalf. Here in my presence, her power must obey me.”

Thunder bucked and curveted around the altar, neighing angrily.

You need to see what is happening,
Prescia counseled.
Ramarro is masking himself and this temple in seemings. Much of his power here comes from his ability to make us believe his illusions. He is in our minds. This place is more dream than substance. Change the nature of the light from the beacon. Demand that it reveal our surroundings as they are. Don't just make the beacon bright. Command it to let you see.

Again Cole remembered the words of Dandalus. Could the Weaver's Beacon do more than shine brightly? Could it help him see farther, deeper, truer?

Still channeling his power into the lantern, Cole increased his output to maximum, concentrating on the nature of the light. The brilliant whiteness overpowered his vision. What if the whiteness were clear instead? What if it penetrated everything, revealed everything?

The blinding glare vanished.

Instead, Cole saw that he stood in a courtyard surrounded by the gray walls of a temple. Thunder reared near the altar, frozen now, the sparkling glory of her power flowing out of her like seeds on the wind. The power gathered and swirled around a human form, gigantic and demonic, with searing eyes. The more power flowed from Thunder, the more discernable the huge figure became, wreathed in a fiery whirlwind of shaping energy. The image made Cole recall how he first saw Ramarro—a devilish visage in the midst of emerald fire beneath the First Castle.

“We will meet again shortly,” Ramarro vowed. “I look forward to continuing our disagreement in a less restrained environment.”

If the slipstream was a hybrid of wind and water, the vortex around Ramarro combined wind and fire. Even though he was standing a good ten paces away, gusts of heat washed over Cole as the blazing energy whirled.

At the center of the flaming funnel, the ghostly form of Ramarro held up a small stone. Glowing white, it looked like the corner of a much larger block. It had to be the fragment of the Founding Stone! Ramarro was about to cross back to mortality. He was almost free.

Cole knew his time was running out. He had to act. Taking his hand from the shutter of the lantern for the first time since putting it there, Cole drew the Jumping Sword.

Leaping straight at Ramarro didn't feel right. The surrounding fire seemed too hot, the wind too violent. Getting blown around and barbequed wasn't going to help anyone.

Cole glanced over his shoulder to where his comrades still stood frozen. He saw the golden strand in Jace's hand, and an idea struck.

There was no time to scheme and debate. Cole could not afford to second-guess his instincts. He leveled his Jumping Sword at the ground beside Jace and shouted, “Away.”

Cole streaked low and fast to the point near Jace, landing at a run and stumbling several steps past his friend before returning to his side. After sheathing the Jumping Sword, Cole yanked the golden strand from Jace's grasp and dashed back toward Ramarro.

Power no longer exited Thunder to unite with the blazing vortex around Ramarro. The Mare's coat was now a flat gray, having lost the bewitching appearance of churning clouds. Eyes ablaze, Ramarro held the white fragment of the Founding Stone above his head, the stone perhaps twenty feet above the temple floor.

“Until we meet again,” Ramarro said, his voice triumphant. “It will not be long.”

The fiery whirlwind around the torivor sped up. Ramarro appeared more tangible than ever, his form solid and dark except for those incandescent eyes.

Beacon in one hand, borrowed strand in the other, Cole focused on the piece of the Founding Stone and commanded the rope toward it. The golden rope flashed forward like a striking serpent, stretching through the firestorm and curling around the white stone. Upon contact, Cole flooded his power into the rope, willing it toward the fragment.

Everything stopped.

Ramarro no longer moved. The flames no longer whirled. No music rang out.

This had happened to Cole once before.

Still forcing his power into the Founding Stone through the rope, Cole focused on the intense white glare of the little fragment. For a moment whiteness saturated his vision, and then Cole stood before an elderly man in an elegant maroon robe trimmed with gold. It had not been long since Cole had last seen his friendly face.

“Hello,” Cole said. He could still feel the golden rope in his hand, although in this vision his hands were free.

Dandalus smiled. “We meet again. You have a definite knack for getting into predicaments.”

“Ramarro has a piece of the Founding Stone,” Cole said.

“I am aware of that much,” Dandalus replied. “Would you open your mind to me? It makes it easier for me to catch up.”

“Sure,” Cole said.

“Oh my,” Dandalus said. “This is worse than I thought. I see you met my living echo.”

“You were very helpful,” Cole said.

“So I gather,” Dandalus replied. “And you are very brave and resourceful. Thank you for your many efforts. I feared the day would come when one of the torivors would breach our defenses. And now it has.”

“Can you stop him?” Cole asked. “Can I? Can we?”

“It's too late to prevent Ramarro's escape from the Fallen Temple. He is already on his way to the physical world. Destiny's power provided the bridge he needed. Once in the Outskirts, his chunk of the Founding Stone will enable him to travel elsewhere.”

“Last time I energized the Founding Stone, didn't you banish him?” Cole asked.

“When we met previously, Ramarro was using the Founding Stone to communicate,” Dandalus said. “When you energized me, I was able to interrupt that communication. Ramarro could not bring his power to bear against me from his prison in the echolands. But once part of him crosses to the physical world, I will not be strong enough to stop him from using the stone to transport himself out of the Fallen Temple.”

“Can I get the stone from him?” Cole asked.

“Too late,” Dandalus said. “Ramarro is already more in the physical Outskirts than the echolands. When I return you to the timestream, Ramarro will be gone before you can act.”

Cole slumped. “Then we lost?”

Dandalus smiled. “Not yet. Though I can't stop Ramarro from using the Founding Stone to exit the Fallen Temple, he is now in a somewhat precarious situation. Having brought that piece of the Founding Stone to the echolands, it cannot return. He must use it with one foot in the physical world, and one in the echolands. As soon as he uses the stone to exit the Fallen Temple, he will lose his hold of the fragment. If you keep the fragment energized, at that crucial instant, I should be able to alter his destination.”

Cole got excited. “Could you change his destination right back to the Fallen Temple?”

“Perhaps, but it would be the Fallen Temple in physical Necronum,” Dandalus said. “The connections of the Founding Stone do not extend into the afterlife. The temple was designed to hold Ramarro on the echolands side. If a disciple brought him another piece of the Founding Stone, he would be able to go anywhere. It would not take long to do so.”

“Isn't trapping him for a little while better than nothing?” Cole asked.

“It would be,” Dandalus said. “But I have another destination in mind.”

“Oh!” Cole said. “The Lost Palace?”

“No,” Dandalus said. “We worked a lot of specific holdings and bindings to keep Trillian at the Lost Palace. If I just drop Ramarro in there, he would escape in no time.”

“Then where?”

“Back when we were dealing with the torivors, one of my fellow framers of the Outskirts was a man called Kendo Rattan. He was the first Grand Shaper of Creon, and he created a vault called the Void as a possible prison for one of the torivors. In the end, we went with the Lost Palace and the Fallen Temple.”

“Will the Void hold him?” Cole asked, his hopes resurging.

“It will for a time,” Dandalus said. “We never combined our efforts to perfect it, but it remains a unique and effective container. Ramarro will find himself floating at the center of an empty space, with no way to set himself in motion, reliving the same looping millisecond over and over again. If he gets himself moving, the space in that vacuum is designed to always return him to the center, no matter what direction he travels. And each millisecond, he would return to the center as well.”

“That sounds pretty good,” Cole said.

“Kendo was extremely talented,” Dandalus said. “There would be no material within reach for Ramarro to shape, and all his efforts would be undone each millisecond. But he would be in the physical Outskirts, with access to the fullness of his powers. If he can learn to reshape time or space fast enough, he could theoretically work his way free. He would have as long as he needed to practice.”

“How long will the Void hold him?” Cole asked.

“I can't say,” Dandalus said. “Unless I'm a fool, days certainly. Weeks probably. Months possibly. Years if we're lucky. Almost anyone else would have no chance of ever escaping unless they had outside assistance.”

“Will his followers break him out?” Cole asked.

“We'll have a couple of advantages,” Dandalus said. “The first is his followers won't know where he is. The second is the Void is deliberately located in the farthest reaches of Creon, in a location both secret and difficult to access. I have all the physical Outskirts at my disposal. If I could move Ramarro anywhere, I would put him in the Void.”

“Sounds good to me,” Cole said.

“There is a chance I will fail,” Dandalus said. “But I believe I can do it. After I return you to the timestream, use the piece of the Founding Stone to converse with me again. I can tell you whether I succeeded, and we can form plans together.”

“Okay,” Cole said. “To make sure I have it all clear, you'll send me back to the timestream, and I'll try to keep the piece of the Founding Stone energized.”

“Yes,” Dandalus said. “Without your power, I will be unable to interfere. Are you ready?”

“No pressure,” Cole muttered. “Yeah, we better do it.”

“I'm counting on you,” Dandalus said. “Keep the rope in contact with the stone and keep the power flowing.”

“You got it,” Cole said.

Dandalus winked. “See you soon.”

Cole was back. Ramarro vanished almost instantly. Cole wasn't sure if he actually saw him for a split second, or just remembered seeing him before taking his break with Dandalus. The flames snuffed out, but the sparkling wind of Destiny's power kept twirling. The golden rope still clung to the piece of the Founding Stone. Still pushing his power into the fragment, Cole willed the rope to retract, bringing the stone to him.

“What happened?” Jace cried out. “Is he gone?”

Looking over his shoulder, Cole found that all his friends were unfrozen. He supposed that made sense. Ramarro was no longer there to bind them.

“He escaped,” Cole said. “But we may have sent him to a new prison. Let me check.”

Cole focused on the stone fragment and returned to the white vision where Dandalus awaited.

“Well done,” Dandalus said. “Ramarro is in the Void. He will be baffled for the first while. I wish I could see his face, but after placing him inside, I severed all contact between the Founding Stone and the interior of the Void. It should help ensure he has no foothold to the outside world.”

“Great,” Cole said. “What now?”

“Find the princesses and any friends you wish to rescue and then return to me,” Dandalus said. “If they touch the fragment of the Founding Stone while you energize it, we should all be able to converse. I have urgent news that involves you, Honor, Desmond, and Destiny.”

“You can't tell me now?” Cole asked.

“Enjoy this moment,” Dandalus said. “You earned it. Release the prisoners. Then we'll talk.”