"Dob! My boy!" Aok muttered, still patting the clearly embarrassed son on the back. "You’re alive! And all of you alive!.. Praise Vaimos, praise Scarlet! They attacked us so quickly after your departure that I feared they might cut you off on the way…"

  "Calm down," Konrad waved him off. "We’re all alive. We made it to aid you—that’s what matters. Now, order your people to find a mortar and pestle, quickly! I’m sure your shaman has the necessary tools for alchemy. Remiz, get to work! Rita, search her bag, help find the right herbs…"

  Kairu sank wearily onto a stool beside the table, stretching his hands toward the fireplace. The other travelers followed his example. Aok shuffled quickly about the room, giving orders to the servants, then returned to Konrad and spread his hands apologetically:

  "We haven’t been here long, Konrad, our supplies are scarce, and it’s not clear how long they’ll last… They’ll bring soup soon—I can see you’re all barely standing, you couldn’t even hold a sword right now… How did you get here? I thought all the roads were blocked… Did you reach the shrine of Vaimos? Did you take the Star of Vaimar? And the ghosts—did you see them? They didn’t harm you?"

  "Later, later!" Konrad waved him off. "Aok, not all at once! First, tell us how you got here, and what you’re planning to do. What’s the plan? Then we’ll see how we can help."

  Aok spread his hands helplessly.

  "It’s good you came," he said. "Konrad, I’m not nearly the strategist my father Brokr was… They arrived a couple of days after you. And with them were those… things that look like armored pigs…"

  "Goblins," Yuffilis said grimly. "Of course."

  "I think they’ve formed an alliance," Aok nodded. "They’ve got muskets and gunpowder. Their numbers are far greater, even with the help the volcano gave us… I don’t know how long we can hold out."

  "And what do they want?" Konrad asked wearily. "Are they willing to bargain?"

  "They’re certain you’re hiding here. First, they demand all the humans in the outpost. And also—the Star of Vaimar. I don’t know how they got the idea we have it."

  "But we do, Aok," said Kairu. The druid stared at him in shock. "And of course, the goblins knew why we came here. Because Saelin knew. He would never abandon the hope of taking the Lake, the Star, and the Seer all at once. They came here for me."

  "Ah, so that’s it…" Aok murmured, glancing at Konrad. "Konrad, when you first came to us, you said nothing about being pursued."

  "Don’t betray us, Aok," the monk said quickly. "Please. We can fight. Our people are seasoned warriors. The centaurs are with us. And we’ve got a dragon, damn it! Aok, this is your chance to win the Clan War and secure your position in this part of Regerlim forever. And we’ll help you."

  The druid looked at him doubtfully.

  "How did you even get here?" he asked instead. "Maybe we could lead our people out the same way?"

  "I doubt it," the monk said darkly. Aok sighed in resignation. "We came through the Fire-Breathing Mountain. You remember that route? At best, you might reach the crater now, but beyond that, the way is sealed."

  "Konrad…" Ashley spoke softly. Remiz had already set a kettle on the fire, heating water, carefully measuring powders from his satchel. "Do you remember what we talked about… The passage… the underground tunnel…"

  "I remember," the monk nodded. "Atgard told us of it. He was born in this city. So where did it begin?"

  "If my memory serves—under the barracks."

  "Let’s go," Konrad said sharply. "Aok, with us. It must be here somewhere. Yuffilis, Kairu—follow me. The rest of you stay and help Remiz and Rita."

  They reached another small door, behind which a creaking, dust-choked staircase with rotting steps led downward into the earth. Torches barely cut the heavy gloom of the place, where the air was damp and cold. Around them lay crates and barrels, but Konrad and Aok pressed on, deeper into the tunnel, where old shovels and wheelbarrows still lay, once used to haul out earth long ago…

  Wooden supports for the ceiling began here. Somewhere in the distance, water dripped. The party advanced cautiously, peering into the blackness ahead, until the torchlight gleamed off a massive boulder lying across their path…

  Konrad, Aok, and the others stopped, staring silently at the landslide of stone, earth, and ice that blocked the passage. After more than thirty years, the ceiling had finally given way, collapsing and sealing the route, robbing druids and humans alike of their last hope of escape. There was no point in cursing negligent builders or rotten beams.

  A strange feeling seized Konrad—the same dread of closed spaces he’d first felt the previous night in the cave trap. And now they were just as trapped again, in the last druid outpost of northern Vaimar.

  ***

  They were back in the firelit room, the bright yellow flame glowing under the kettle of hot water, while Remiz and Rita rubbed Ashley’s leg, adding herbs and berries into the pot so that a heady, spicy fragrance filled the air. Everyone automatically reached for the life-giving warmth, listening tensely to the sinister silence outside, all stubbornly fighting off sleep, for they had to be ready for an assault. Octarus burned within, giving Kairu strength, but it wasn’t enough. The waiting seemed endless.

  "Ashley, how are you?" Rita asked desperately.

  The leg was swollen and blue, every bruise and scratch from the sorceress’s journey starkly visible. No one dared say it aloud, but all knew it would have been better to leave Ashley in Vairad to await Roger. What had this doomed gamble accomplished?

  "I’m fine," the sorceress forced out. It was clear she was holding on by sheer will, fighting, but weakening with every minute. "Rub deeper… higher… Remiz, in the satchel—there’s a pouch with yarrow and woundwort, mix three to one, brew it in boiling water with strawberry leaves… It might help stop the infection."

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Remiz only gave a curt nod, working nonstop, mixing herbs, roots, and powders, tossing now one thing, now another into the kettle, changing poultices, muttering spells. By cruel chance, neither druids nor centaurs had brought any Fire Runes.

  The firelight flickered on damp walls. Kairu was silent, as were Viggo, Norton, Yuffilis, Konrad, Dob, and Demetra, and Rodrigo Antan brooded silently as well. Only Aok spoke.

  "I was young then, like my son is now… We controlled vast lands—it was the golden age of the Wolf Clan, my father Brokr’s time. Father sent me for a while to the city of Steiling, in Central Regerlim, to seek new opportunities for trade with humans. In the city, there were always those willing to pay druids for passage through the forest, or into some remote places. That’s how I met Petros. He came there with Konrad, Ashley, and the rest of the expedition."

  They paid well for me to guide them. They sought a shrine—not Vaimos’s shrine, we knew little of it then. Another one, southwest of here. I led them to the search area, and sure enough, there was an underground passage… and we went inside. Werewolves attacked us… Saelin was wounded. And when we returned to the aerostat, it was gone. I led Petros, Saelin, and Vergilius to Ardrai, and only there we learned that the aerostat had been taken by the Lynx Clan. They kidnapped Hector."

  "Why him?" Kairu asked tensely. "And why did Saelin accuse Petros of his son’s death?"

  "Druids seldom meddle in human affairs—unless there’s profit, or a matter of blood vengeance," Aok said. "If it had been vengeance, Hector would have been killed immediately… But we know for certain he was held hostage until the very end. I believe they only killed him after realizing that everyone who might pay ransom was already dead."

  "Someone needed this badly," Kairu muttered. "Someone deliberately tracked the expedition to strike at the right moment, when you had gone into the shrine—someone hired the druids to abduct one specific person—and afterward, Saelin blamed it all on Petros… What if Hector had lived?"

  He swept his gaze over the others. His thoughts were tangled, it was hard to think—yet it had to be done.

  "Would Saelin really have seen Petros as his enemy? Would he have started this war? One thing I’m certain of: he would never have sent Cassander into the past to kill Petros."

  "Kairu, the war would have started anyway," Konrad said quietly. "It’s the prophecy of the ancient Nocturns… They foresaw all this…"

  "To hell with prophecy!" Kairu shouted. "I don’t want to hear another word about it! So the future is predetermined, and even with a time machine, we’re not supposed to try to change anything? Petros didn’t think that way, and he tried! He just made a mistake. But we can correct that mistake for him!"

  He glared at Konrad.

  "What happens to reality when someone goes into the past and creates an Interference? What happens to the future that doesn’t come to pass? Does it just… vanish? Can the Seer still see it?"

  "Can you?" Konrad asked mockingly.

  Kairu fell silent, closed his eyes, and tried once more to grasp the thread of time. Strangely enough, his mortal exhaustion of body and mind seemed to help in that process, the one that required emptying the mind of all thought, simply seeing. Seeing not what his imagination invented, but what truly was… He felt the thread, felt it unspool in his mind. Now he could even sense the knots upon it—places where several strands had tangled too tightly to ever separate again, impossible to study on their own. But he saw nothing. All images dissolved into the swirling black mist.

  And then, with a chill, he realized that he himself was right now inside one of those knots.

  He tried to follow further—one year, ten years, a hundred years ahead—but the mist still choked his sight. He felt he couldn’t hold on, that his strength was draining, so he pulled himself back to the present, tried instead to glimpse what should be happening right now—but wasn’t, because of all the changes already wrought…

  He opened his eyes. The half-darkened room was around him again, torch flames flickering on the walls. Everyone stared at him anxiously.

  "Petros knew he had made a mistake," Kairu murmured. "He knew… Mainor burned, drenched in blood. Aktida was dying. That wasn’t the future Petros had wanted. And he knew from that moment onward, everything would only get worse. That’s why he went into the past. I helped him. In that reality, we too found Darius and Octarus—but it was too late.

  When the Lake of Aktida comes to light, it can only be wielded by the Seer. Only then can the world recover after the war, and history move toward Elysium. In all other cases, this war will end in the defeat of humanity. Simply put, we’ll destroy ourselves. So long as the diamond remains in Saelin’s hands, we cannot stay on the sidelines. Otherwise, a few years from now, we’ll find ourselves alone in a wasteland. And most likely, if the Lake of Aktida doesn’t end up in Kairu’s hands, we’re all going to die.

  "It is happening again," Kairu said. "Aktida has once more turned to ashes… Petros corrected his mistake, but it wasn’t enough. That means we must use our chance now. We must start from the beginning, understand what happened, why history bent the way it did… Konrad, what is Elysium?"

  "It’s one of the cornerstones of ancient Nocturn religion," the monk answered with a faint smile. "If you had finished reading the Vaimarakirian, you’d know. It is the age the Nocturns foresaw, when they first acquired Darius and Octarus, and the first Seer gazed into the future. According to their sacred texts, it is a magical world of harmony and joy, coming thousands of years hence, when all sickness and war will vanish, and humankind will live in happiness forever… Among the Nocturns, fierce disputes raged: whether using Darius and Octarus to create crossroads of time could bring Elysium closer, or, on the contrary, push it further away. Some claimed the time machine was a divine gift, allowing those in power to correct their errors, using the same stretch of time over and over until they found the best path forward. Others argued that every change made before Elysium only reduced the likelihood of it ever arriving, and that it would be better never to use the machine at all."

  "But they used it anyway…" Kairu said slowly. "And this war we’re fighting now… is it a necessary part of the road to Elysium?"

  "There have always been wars, and there always will be," Aok shook his head. "Humans cannot live otherwise. There will always be those with greater strength, wanting something from those weaker. If all cannot be made equal, all wars cannot end. I do not believe in Elysium."

  "Nor do I," Kairu said. "But what I do believe is that right now we have a chance to change everything. And if we don’t take it, we’ll regret it for the rest of our lives… If this war can be undone, and the price is the road to Elysium—then let Elysium burn, I don’t care."

  "You risk making everything far worse," Konrad said grimly. "Perhaps you can delay the war. But then it will come anyway, and claim far more lives in the next generation. Aktida is not yet destroyed, the Cassians are still gathering their army to strike Saelin and retake Mainor… Perhaps, in truth, Petros did everything right this time, and humanity does have a chance to survive without annihilating itself. That chance may not come again—especially if you truly plan to bring Octarus and Darius to the First Temple."

  "Even so—I want to try," Kairu said stubbornly.

  "Ah." Yuffilis suddenly perked up. "Kairu. I can see on your face that you’ve cooked up another mad scheme. Go on, admit it! Don’t worry, I’m used to your crazy ideas by now. And besides, they sometimes lead to astonishing results. So—suggest it… only, for Aktos’s sake, think it through carefully first… because with every step toward the goal, there are fewer and fewer of us left."

  "Your sarcasm is wasted," Kairu snapped. "This time, I can manage alone. This is not up for discussion!" he added, seeing Viggo open his mouth. "Now listen to me—all of you—just for Aktos’s sake, don’t interrupt. This is very important. Aok, Konrad, you will help me work everything out and form a precise plan of action, with every second accounted for…"

  Yuf let out a heavy sigh.

  "Kairu, just say it straight. Then we’ll try to calculate how impossible and insane this plan of yours is—and how much more impossible and insane than all your previous plans."

  Kairu didn’t smile.

  "Viggo, Remiz, Rita, Yuf, Norton," he said. "I ask you—hold off the Lynx Clan and the goblins for as long as you can. Konrad—and you… You will teach me how to create a crossroads of time."