Kate struggled to come back to her senses and open her eyes only to find the white light of the anteroom overhead. She'd caught a glimpse of the surprised face of the High Priest as she fell from her hiding place but had no chance to break her fall before the thump on the side of her head knocked her senseless. Somehow, losing consciousness had immediately returned her to the chamber anteroom.

The light dimmed as the voice of the High Priest floated into the small room, then it flickered as a cold hand slapped at the side of her face as he urged her to wake up. If the man found the medallion, he would take it from her and feed her body to his water creature. She had to get inside the chamber!

Rolling over, Kate crawled forward until her head bumped the door and it dissolved away. Thrusting herself though the opening, she tugged the medallion from her neck, and dropped it on the floor. Its glowing symbols faded as the anteroom door snapped into place, cutting off the voice of the High Priest.

Laying on her stomach, Kate stared at the medallion beside her. It should be safe inside the chamber, but that wasn't true for her. The High Priest and Mara might go through with their plan to kill her and use her body to make it look like Tyreth was dead. The High Priest told told Mara she could not be holding the medallion, but did that mean the chain as well? Kate lightly touched a finger to the links. The medallion responded with a pale light but not with the familiar sense of comfort or connection. Pinching the chain between her thumb and forefinger, she lifted it from the floor.

With the medallion dangling from her hand, Kate got to her feet, took a step toward her anteroom door, then stopped. Going inside might allow her to hear or feel what the High Priest was doing but that could also connect her to them. It would be better to wait in the chamber for a while and think things through.

She turned around and an overpowering sense of déjà vu washed over her at the sight of the large seven-sided stone table that now dominated the center of the room. Stone stools waited along each edge and around the perimeter of the chamber, on each of the anteroom doors, a small curtain covered each of the star openings. Turning to her left she discovered the pieces of the broken door had been cleared away and a full-length black curtain covered the opening.

The fabric billowed softly towards her. Kate jumped around the table and ducked down. The fabric relaxed, then moved slowly in and out, as if the chamber itself were breathing.

A flicker of light caught her eye. The edge of the star on Morgan's door was lighting up one side that peeked out the side of the cloth cover. Moving closer, she tugged on the cloth and discovered it was fastened tightly on a thin wire that was strung across the door and pegged into the walls. She tried touching the exposed point of the star, but nothing happened. If she wanted to talk with Morgan, she would have to take a chance and hold the medallion just for a moment. Raising the medallion higher on its chain, she touched both it and the edge of the star at the same time. The familiar sensation flowed through her hand and the star shape on the door slipped open. She was just about to whisper Morgan's name when a band of light near the chamber ceiling came to life. Releasing the medallion, she let it dangle free on its chain.

"My dearest Kate. It is so good to have you back here with me," a man said from behind her but it was not the High Priest.

Kate froze in place, trying desperately to recall where she had met the owner of the familiar voice. Dropping the medallion to her side, she took a deep breath, and turned around. An old man dressed in a long white robe edged with silver tassels stood in front of the curtained doorway. A satin hood was pulled over his forehead, and a translucent veil hid his eyes. His overall appearance was dazzling against the black fabric of the curtains.

"I did not expect you back here until the night." He gestured around the chamber. "I have not finished getting everything ready for you."

He stepped forward and Kate retreated, keeping the table between them. She could just make out the outline of his face behind the veil but still did not recognize him.

"Ah, I can see I am making you nervous. I do apologize." His white gloved hands spread out in a display of regret, then one hand gestured to the table. "Come, let us sit and talk for a while." He sat awkwardly on the stool closest to his door, as if his body could barely bend at the waist. "I understand a lot has happened since you were last here."

Kate remained standing. There was a pronounced lisp in his soft voice, but Kate clearly recalled him shouting at her, his eyes full of anger. She glanced past him at the door to her own anteroom but running inside and shutting her door wouldn't work. To do that, she would need to hold the medallion and the High Priest was waiting on the other side to kill her and take it away.

The white veil rippled as the man sighed heavily. "I don't imagine you remember much about your last visit here. You were not doing well because of that terrible black bracelet Corvan put on you to make you do his bidding. It was fortunate that I was able to find you and set you free from his control."

Kate struggled to think back to when she had first picked up the black band. She could recall at that time she had refused to show it to Corvan and wanted it for herself. A more recent memory pushed the old one aside. Later on, Corvan had also been with her when the black bracelet came off. She touched the side of her head. Hitting it on the rock in the High Priest's lair seemed to be bringing her memories back.

"You should sit down, Kate. You look tired."

Kate cautious lowered herself on the nearest stool. Although his voice wasn't demanding, she felt an innate desire to obey him, to please him. A painful memory of the time she had lived with her own grandfather caught her off guard. What was that about? Now was not the time to be thinking about those difficult days but the memory only loomed larger with all its associated fears. Why was this all tangling together in her mind? Fighting back the rising panic of being trapped in the small chamber with the veiled old man, she worked to calm herself down.

The man touched the veil over his face. "I am sorry I have to wear my veil at this time, but I am having some problems with my eyes." He pointed to her. "But, tell me what has happened to your clothes? When I saw you last in here, you were dressed in brilliant white, the queen of the council chamber. Now you are looking somewhat grey. Has Corvan been unkind to you? Why don't you tell me what he has done."

"Corvan has eaten lumien seeds and they've changed him but I'm sure it's not all his fault." Kate touched her lips. Why did she feel such a strong urge to tell this man everything that had been happening to her?

"I am sorry to hear that. The power of the lumien seeds changes a person and that makes it difficult to believe what he tells you. Has that happened between you and Corvan?"

"I'm . . . I'm not sure I can trust him."

"Has he broken your heart again and gone after Tyreth?"

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The soft note of sympathy in the old man's voice brought tears to Kate's eyes. "Not Tyreth. Now he is interested in a different girl." She swallowed. "But she is nice, and very brave; one of the sisters."

"Ah yes. Madam Toreg has trained them well. A young man who loves the power of the lumien seeds might find the strength of the sisters quite attractive."

His words made her heart ache and Kate down looked at the table. The symbols around its edge matched the ones on her medallion. She lowered it by its chain onto the table and as it touched down, the symbols began to light up, their glow spreading out from the medallion in both directions. The soft light reached the man, and he lovingly stroked the passing glow.

"You are to be commending for protecting the chamber master," the man said. "I was hoping you had not given it to Corvan. He is not ready for that responsibility. It must be given to someone with enough wisdom to use it correctly."

"Everyone seems to think they should take it but there is no one I can trust."

He looked up. "Including me?"

"I don't know who you are."

The man pushed himself to his feet and clasped a hand to his chest. "I am the rightful ruler of the Cor, but I too have been cheated by those around me. They have stolen away my ability to govern my people." He rested his gloved fingers on the surface of the table and leaned toward her. "It was done by Corvan's past-father a long time ago. He stole my medallion, the one you are now holding, and took it to the surface where I could not reach it. That is why I cannot trust Corvan. I believe he has been told many lies about the medallion and that he will try to take it from me once again."

Kate lifted the medallion off the table. "Corvan hasn't tried to take it away, but the others all have." She pointed to her entry door. "The High Priest is waiting in there for me and if I go through that door, he'll kill me for it."

The white head nodded. "Ahh, so he is still scheming to take over the Cor. Such a great tragedy when the people cannot trust their own priests." He tapped a finger on the table. "We will have to do something about that. We can't have you trapped here. No doubt you desire to return to your own home."

"I was planning to give the medallion to the High Priest if he would help me find a way home."

The man shook his head. "He can't help you get home but if you give it to me, I will help you." He rose to his feet and pointed to the ceiling. "I know of ways to the surface world that others have not discovered. I can help you, Kate, if you will give the medallion back to me."

He held out a gloved hand and Kate was startled by a vivid memory of being pulled into the broken door by those same gloved hands. As he moved towards her around the table, Kate jumped up, running in the opposite direction toward her entry room.

"Stop!" His command pulled her up short in front of her anteroom door. "If you go back there the High Priest will certainly kill you. You know that for certain."

Kate turned around.

The man sat down on the stool she had just left. "Please, come sit at the table with me. I need to tell you something."

Reluctantly Kate returned to the table and eased herself onto to the stool nearest her door.

He nodded to her. "I promise you that I will not take the medallion away from you by force. You are a truthful person and that is how you can be certain that what I tell you now is also true. The master medallion absorbs the compassion of its bearer, and it has never glowed as strongly for any of the past council leaders as it does for you. Search your heart and let that same compassion tell you if you should save this old man, for if I don't hold my medallion soon, I will most certainly die."

Kate glanced across the table. His words had a ring of truth to them but without touching the medallion she could not know for sure if he was lying to her. It certainly appeared that the old man was ill and weak from the way he was hunched up on the stool.

"Please help me, Kate. I won't last much longer."

Beyond where the old man was now sitting, a sliver of light ran along the covering over the star on Morgan's door. She couldn't go out her own anteroom door but she could quickly touch the medallion, open Morgan's door and escape into his anteroom instead. She rose to her feet and studied the light.

"If you could bring the medallion to me I would be grateful. It is difficult to move when you are as old as I."

Kate came slowly around the table.

"Be very careful not to touch the medallion," the old man said faintly. "We can't let the High Priest know you are here."

Kate's steps faltered as the old man sat more upright on his stool. Was he actually as weak as he appeared?

As she drew closer the old man dropped his veiled face into his gloved hands. His shoulders shook as he cried silently.

Kate stepped in behind him, reaching behind her for Morgan's door as she wound up the chain until the medallion came within reach of her fingers. Another inch and she could touch both at the same time. The old man reached up and pulled her free hand onto his shoulder. He drew in a deep breath, and she felt the rasp of his lungs.

His head rose slightly. "Are you giving it back to me?"

Kate reached her hand toward Morgan's door but now it was just out of reach.

"Please answer me, Kate. Will you give the medallion to me?"

Kate tried to get closer to Morgan's door but the old man held her hand tight against his shoulder.

"If I have the medallion I can help you, Kate. Do you want to give it to me? Do you want to go home?"

Home. The word turned Kate's face from Morgan's door. She held the medallion close and stared through its intricate interwoven design. The High Priest might kill her body at any time. Maybe the only way to get home was to give it to this old man.

She shifted towards the table and the medallion dangled in close to his hood. "Yes. I do want to . . ."

A glove flashed in the air and the medallion's chain bit into Kate's hand, jerking her forward onto the table. The medallion was yanked from her grasp and her head swirled as the man shoved her toward the center of the table. Flipping her over onto her back he stood over her, the medallion clutched in a wrinkled hand.

"You . . . cheated. . . me." It took all of Kate's will to force each word out.

He laughed. "No, my dear. What I said was true. I need the medallion to live, and I needed you to be willing to give it to me so the power you have stored inside it would not be lost. Unfortunately, what will save my life will cost you yours. Now that I hold the medallion your connection to the place where your body lies is severed and your spirit is trapped here."

"Am I...dying?" Kate raised a hand toward the man; it was translucent, the bones showing through like an x-ray.

"Yes. Your body will eventually die but I believe your spirit will slowly fade away here for some time. I am not completely sure how it works. No one has ever come back from death to tell us what happens on the other side, and I am not ready to find out. That is why I needed you to give me the medallion."

"You stole it from me."

"No Kate. This medallion belonged to me, and you have given it back to its rightful owner. I could never make it glow on my own for as you now so clearly understand, I have no compassion left in my soul."

Kate turned her face away from him. With the medallion gone, she felt no compassion either. She hated him for what he had just done.

"Don't give up hope, Kate. I need you to stay strong while we wait to see if Corvan will come to your rescue. He is the only one who can help you now. The question is, will he run to save Tyreth's life, or will he come to you? The boy does struggle with loyalty."

"He will help those he loves," Kate murmured.

The old man cackled. "And I know exactly who that is. Like me, he loves himself more than anyone else. He may pretend to care about you, he might even do something nice for you every so often, but it is all calculated to get him more of what he wants for himself. None of us can be trusted, not one."

His footsteps echoed as he walked around the table and Kate closed her eyes. She didn't even want to look at him.

"Ah, that's a good girl. You need to save your strength while we wait for Corvan. You rest and I will stay close by." His cloak rustled past her followed by the swish of the curtains over the broken door.

Kate opened her eyes in time to see the sliver of the glowing star on Morgan's door fade away.

The lights in the chamber died off and Kate was left alone in the darkened room.

Her only hope was that Morgan had been listening in and would find some way to rescue her.

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