Coming Home

The man was silent for a long time. The wind in the valley made a low, sobbing sound over the surface of the rocks, forming faint echoes against the valley walls.

"What if I don't agree?" he finally said.

"Then there's nothing to be done," Vivi said. "I'm here, close enough to you that you won't be able to complete the operation before I finish. Your forty-eight-hour window will run out before you reach Node Twenty-Two. You can choose to leave now and go back to reconsider your plan, or you can choose to stand here until the window closes."

The man still had not drawn his hand out from inside his robe, but his shoulders relaxed slightly. He stood where he was, his gaze moving from Vivi's face to Harry's, then back to Vivi's face.

"You won't keep watch here forever."

"Why not?" Vivi said. "We can wait anywhere, including here."

The man finally pulled his hand out from inside his robe. It was empty.

He stood there like an ice sculpture slowly melting, and then he turned and walked back along the way he had come, toward the valley entrance.

His footsteps bounced again and again between the valley walls, fading and weakening, gradually growing lighter, farther away, until they vanished completely.

The valley fell quiet again, leaving only the moan of the wind over the rock walls and the calls of birds.

Harry drew the platinum magic back into his palm and stood before the entrance to the fissure, glancing at the narrow crack. "Will he come back?"

"No," Vivi said. "If he's a core member of the Eye of the Sand, he won't risk forcing his way into Node Twenty-Two when he knows he's being blocked. They'll reassess the plan, or simply abandon this node. Either