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Passion and Jon,’ she explained. ‘I thought it best that we go there first.’ She met Chase’s gaze. ‘If we need to go somewhere from there, we will.’
    She turned to Erin who was seated at a table at the rear of the chamber, a pile of books before him. Whisper was perched on his lap. ‘Sooner or later the Seers will learn that I’m alive. I am both valuable and dangerous to them,’ she said, ‘and they will hunt for me. For that reason, we will use portals as often as we can to move from place to place—to confuse and elude them. We’ll achieve much more that way.’
    She returned her gaze to her three companions. ‘When we reach the village, you can choose whether or not you want any further part of what I intend to do. I can’t be responsible for leading you into any more danger, and what I have to do hereafter will be much more dangerous than anything so far.’
    ‘I just need to find my children,’ said Swift. ‘When I know they are safe, I want to help you.’
    ‘And I need to know that Passion and Jon are safe,’ said Chase. ‘I’m also in this, wherever it takes us.’
    ‘Me?’ said Wahim when Meg looked to him. ‘I’ll help in whatever way I can. You’ve told us what the Seers plan. If they succeed, all of us will be dead. If I am to die, I would rather do it fighting to stay alive.’
    Meg felt tears rising at their answers. She forced them down, saying, ‘I don’t know where this will go next. Erin has shown me a great deal, taught me more about what I can do—and we know that a weapon exists that could be used against the Demon Horsemen, if it comes to that.’
    ‘Without Elvenaar blood the blade cannot be reforged,’ Erin reminded her. ‘You must find another way.’
    She smiled grimly. ‘Then I will find that other way before the Seers succeed in releasing the Demon Horsemen.’
    ‘Why don’t you come too?’ Chase asked, turning to Erin.
    Erin shook his head. ‘The outside world and I parted company a long time ago. When I used the amber toseal myself in here, I gave up the right to walk above ground. I can’t help you, even if I wanted to.’
    ‘But you went outside two days ago to scare off the Kerwyn,’ said Wahim.
    ‘At a cost,’ Erin replied.
    ‘What cost?’ asked Swift.
    Erin stood and approached the group. ‘How old would you say that I am?’ he asked Chase.
    ‘Thirty,’ Chase said. ‘No older.’
    ‘I am very much older than that,’ he said. He pointed to his dark hair. ‘Before I went above ground two days ago there was not a single grey hair on my head. Now look closely.’
    Chase, Swift and Wahim leaned forward and saw the streaks of grey scattered through the darker strands. ‘They came when I was outside,’ Erin went on.
    ‘How?’ Chase asked.
    Erin looked at Meg before he explained. ‘You know that time moves slowly in here, very slowly, due to a powerful spell. Meg thought I had created a place like the Dragonlords’ Se’Treya, but I had not read about that place before I entombed myself. Now that I have, I realise that creating Se’Treya involved a much more potent and imaginative spell. The spell I used protects the library and me from outside time, but it doesn’t negate the effects of outside ageing. If I spent a day in your world, all the years of ageing that I have cheated down here would catch up with me, and I would die and become dust. If you took with you any of the books preserved down here, they too would quickly age. They would not turn to dust, of course. Books have a much greater longevity than human life. But that is how it works, so I cannot leave here.’ He saw Chase’s astonishment and added, ‘We all make choices. Sometimes we guess at the outcome and call it a planned choice; sometimes it turns out to be nothinglike we expected. The point is that we have the ability to make choices, and once we’ve made them we should be resolute and accept the outcomes.’
    ‘Erin will be here if we need him,’ Meg said.