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lived in Savar’s house
my whole life, but he was not always there.” She gave the girls a wistful
smile. “All I really know is the woodland. But I learn quickly.”
    Atan sent a look at Lilah that the latter had no difficulty
interpreting: more evidence of how time had warped the people in this kingdom,
then she asked, “And so what brought you here?”
    “Savar sent me,” Merewen said. “He said
you would come, and I was to meet you here—” She pointed up at
Point Adan, staring up at it. “He described it just so. I would know you
for a Landis at once, and he showed me a portrait. You look very like.” Her
smile was tentative. “But he did not mention two girls.” Merewen’s
brow puckered again as she considered Lilah’s short hair and her gown. “You
are a girl?”
    “Yup. I came along to help.” Lilah couldn’t
help snickering. “I’m Lilah Selenna. I was disguised as a boy all
summer.”
    “Oh!” Merewen’s eyes rounded with surprise.
    “Tsauderei told me that there was a mage named Savar
who might help.” Atan glanced down the road into the shadowy haze. The
thick clouds overhead had darkened; the sun was setting.
    Merewen ducked her head in a nod. “I am to show you
the way back to Shendoral. Though the way is easy enough, following alongside
the River Luyos, and no one else is on it.” She waved to the west. “But
Savar was very serious about my coming to find you. And those in my dreams said
you must make your way first to Shendoral alongside the river, where the
enchantment is weakest, and from there to the capital, and there you must break
the enchantment binding the Loi beyond time. Savar could not do it. Though he
was going to try again, I believe.” She frowned at her dusty toes. “I
don’t know, but I think he did not want me there when he tried.”
    Atan considered all these things, then said, “Shall we
get started on our road?”
    Merewen and Lilah fell in step on either side.
    Presently Atan said, “Merewen. Is it a family name?”
    “Yes, my mother’s,” Merewen replied.
    Atan drew in a deep breath, sounding almost as if she’d
taken an unexpected blow. “She was that Merewen Dei? So you too
have been beyond time?”
    Lilah had no idea who Merewen Dei was, and didn’t
really care, if she was a grown-up. She did not like the atmosphere, though the
road was indeed empty, the dusty farmland around them silent. But she couldn’t
see very far. The haze was both unpleasant and uncanny. She felt—well,
she felt she was being watched .
    Merewen didn’t seem to mind, but then she’d
apparently spent her whole life in this atmosphere. A hundred years of life, or
just a few? It made Lilah’s head hurt to try to figure it out.
    Atan had been counting generations outside and inside the
enchantment. She said to Merewen, “You could have a claim to the throne,”
she observed.
    Merewen skipped over some rubble. “That’s what
Savar said. I don’t know what it means. Not really. He said that people
would expect it of me if you didn’t come, or if you were gone.”
    “Claim to the throne?” Lilah repeated, walking
backwards so she could see both girls. “I know the Dei family is
famous—I love the writings of Lasva Dei—but aren’t they
forbidden to sit on thrones, or something? I remember some saying about how
they have birthed kings and queens but never wore crowns. So for one thing, she
can’t break the spell. Or can she? And uh, speaking of the spell, I guess
the first part of the spell really and truly broke?” She glanced around
doubtfully.
    “Soon as I crossed the border.” Atan grinned. “You
did! You expected flashes of lightning.”
    Lilah flung her arms wide. “It makes sense. Big magic
ought to make a big noise, or light, or something , don’t you
think?”
    “Against Norsunder, invisible and imperceptible is
best.” Atan looked about warily in the gathering darkness, where brambles
and hedgerows made sinister shapes, and trees, so majestic in