"Where have you been?" The black teeth clicked sloppily, and the blue veined eyes glared at Corvan through the chamber door. "Kate was calling for you. You obviously do not care about her as much as you claim, or I would not be forced to hurt her just to get you to respond to me."

Corvan squinted at the man. It may have been Saray's strength holding onto him, but the man appeared shorter and weaker this time. What was before him was a rather pathetic old man trying too hard to hold on to life, the exact opposite of Rayu.

"Aren't you going to say something?" the old man demanded. "Do you enjoy seeing her in pain?" He stepped to one side to reveal Kate's form lying on the table, her face turned away to the wall.

Corvan pressed toward the barrier in the door and the man waved him in. "Come on in, Cor-Van." His tone mocked the title. "We would be most honored to have you join us."

Corvan pushed hard against the barrier, but it barely flexed. The old man chuckled, his bony shoulders shaking beneath his robe. "Ah yes, I forgot to mention, I cannot allow you to enter the chamber until all the members have gathered for council." He waved a hand in Kate's direction. "But we can still have a discussion, a meeting of minds."

Kate's turned toward him, her eyes full of sorrow and her voice weak and quiet. "I'm sorry you had to come back. I was hoping you had made it home."

"No Kate. I am the one who was wrong," Corvan said.

Kate smiled. "I heard what you said in the tomb earlier. I forgive you, Corvan. Whatever you do and whoever you choose to love, I will always care about you."

The words washed over Corvan like a hot shower after a long grimy night in the darkest reaches of the coal mine. He wanted to speak, to tell her what he felt, but he could only look into her eyes and accept the love they held for him.

"Enough!" The harsh voice hissed out the command and Kate cried out as invisible bonds yanked her down. The old man raised his medallion, its green light crackling in his blackened hand, hurling Corvan against the far wall of his anteroom. The barrier sparked as the man pushed through it and the overhead light faded as the shrouded face drew near, breathing hard. The power he was using to push Corvan around was exhausting him.

"She cannot forgive you," he croaked. "Make no mistake about it. You are what you are, and you will never change. It's in your blood, boy. Look at you, you're nothing but a . . ." The old man's voice faltered.

Corvan looked down and found himself dressed in a fresh tunic. Not as brilliant white as the dress Kate wore, but it was clean and embroidered in gold letters over his heart were the twin circles from the hammer and the three words. One word glowed brightly, the word for compassion. He touched the word with growing understanding that his appearance was not his doing. It was Kate's love and forgiveness the that had clothed him. Tears filled his eyes.

"Where are you?" The old man spat the words at him along with a spray of saliva. "Who are you with and what have they done to you?"

Saray's voice whispered in Corvan's ear. "Do not tell him where you are or that you have seen me. He cannot sense I am here with you."

"Answer me now! Are you on your way back to your home? Have you found the scepter?" The old man's voice pitched higher and higher, like a screaming pinwheel firecracker about to explode.

Saray's voice remained calm. "Tell him you are near the Cor shield, but you must take the medallion off and leave it in the Cor to keep it safe."

The angry eyes drew closer and the hand with the medallion rose up, sparkling with green fury. Behind him in the chamber, Kate's body writhed in pain.

"I made it through the first door into the passages outside Kadir," Corvan blurted out and the advance slowed. "I'm about to go through the Cor shield to find the scepter."

The medallion lowered and the hunched-up shoulders relaxed. Kate's body slumped back on the table. The dark-rimmed eyes blinked inside the bobbing hood. "That is good. How soon can you return?"

"I'm not sure," Corvan said. "My father hid the scepter, but he didn't tell me where."

The old man pointed both hands toward him and a spark shot out from one of the medallion's points, stabbing into Corvan's chest. The old man's voice shook with a rage that gripped Corvan's heart. "Your father should have died when I sent her to kill him and bring it back. None of this would have happened if she had not betrayed me. I hate her for that!"

"I can find the scepter." Corvan gasped. "Our home is small."

The old man released his grip on his medallion and let it fall back against his robe. He hunched his shoulders and allowed his wide sleeves to fall over his hands, gripping their folds to staunch the flow of blood from his pierced palms. "You had better find it." The dark mouth clipped out the words. "Or everyone you love will suffer." The evil smile returned, and the eyes narrowed in their black caverns. "Yes, my boy, I know you love another woman even more than Kate. Cheat me and she will not be spared. Go now, but do not return without my scepter."

Saray's voice was urgent in his ear and Corvan quickly repeated her words. "I need to leave the medallion in the Cor while I'm gone."

The robe swirled about. "No! You must wear it at all times."

"It won't be safe. There are people who are spying on our family. They broke into our home to search for the medallion and will be waiting for me to return."

"Who are these people? What do they know about the Cor? Have they been here before?"

"No, they don't know anything about the Cor. They think the medallion is a valuable treasure and they want to steal it."

Stolen story; please report.

After a long pause, the darkened hood floated toward him along with the stench from the rotten mouth. "I will give you until the next night of deepest dark to return with my scepter. If you are not back by then, Kate will suffer until she is in such pain she will beg for her life to end." A boney hand came up to sharply smack the side of Corvan's face. "And it will all be your fault. All--your--fault." Each of the words was accented by another slap to Corvan's face. Corvan blinked back the stinging tears. He had never felt so humiliated, or so guilty. The old man locked eyes with him for one long moment then turned around and stalked away, his hand flipping up to dismiss Corvan as the anteroom door closed.

The sound of running water and the comforting light from the lumiens in Saray's garden quickly expelled the fear wound around Corvan's heart. Saray was embracing him from behind and wiping his cheek with her hand. Turning her palm out she examined the smear of blackened blood across her fingers then got up to wash her hand in the pond. After wetting her sleeve in the water she washed Corvan's face, then pulled the medallion's chain from around his neck and dropped the silver disk to the ground.

Saray grinned. "I've smelled rotten stuff before, but that man's breath could knock out a burak."

Corvan barely managed a smile as he stared down at the medallion.

"You are safe," Saray said. "He can only hear you when you are wearing it. That is why we needed to convince him it would not be safe for you to take it home with you."

"How did you know he would agree to let me take it off?"

"As people age, they become increasingly fearful of anything that might hasten their own death. He could not let you take your medallion to the surface if there was any chance it might not come back or that you might not make it back with the scepter. He is completely convinced that having all three will keep him from dying."

"You don't seem to be afraid of getting old."

"Everyone has to battle fears, Corvan, but when you are with people you love, like my Jokten, you win more battles than you lose. And when those you love have bravely gone on ahead, it is easier to pass that way yourself."

Corvan pointed at the medallion. "Didn't that old man have anyone who loved him?"

Saray gazed over his head and her eyes softened. "When he was young, he had a wife and two children, and they were all quite happy in Dubok Kholm. But everything changed when he became seriously ill and tried to prolong his life by experimenting with the lumien seeds. He was wise enough to not just eat the seeds so he made a deal with those who knew how to distill lumien seeds into a powerful potion that could heal him. It took a great many lumiens to create that potion. His own people were dying of starvation, but he did not care, he only wanted to save himself. His son tried to convince him to turn away from his terrible quest, but the old man would not listen, so his son stole that potion and fled to Bandur with this own son, Kael."

"I met Kael," Corvan interrupted. "He is holding my father for ransom."

She frowned. "I don't think Kael would do that. Unlike his grandfather, he is an honorable man."

Corvan shook his head. "But Kael put my father in a tank of the gatekeepers elixir and wouldn't let me talk to him. He also accused Jokten of stealing the hammer. How can that be true?"

For a moment Saray only stared at the medallion. "Kael believes it is true, and I have to admit I wondered about the wisdom of Jokten's scheme at the time. Jokten was the youngest person to ever govern Kadir or any other city for that matter. The old man in the chamber put him in charge of our city because the thought he could control him and use him to accomplish his goal to take over all the cities of the Cor. But Jokten saw through his plans, and he believed the best course of action would be to take the hammer, the master medallion and the scepter and hide them away. Jokten was aware of another person on the council who had his own plans to take over the Cor. I think he may have been referring to man who used to be the governor of Anamir city before the Great Destruction. Some say he is still alive."

"In Anamir I met a very old man in a wheelchair. He was covered in black, and they called him the Gatekeeper. He's training an army of the Rakash to attack Kadir."

Saray frowned. "I had heard the people of Anamir city had banished that one to the dead city of Katay Alba."

"Not if it's the same person. The Gatekeeper lives in the powerhouse in Anamir where he creates new Rakash with his elixir, then sends them to through to Katay Alba. He wants the leader of the Rakash, the one who kidnapped my father, to lead an attack on Kadir. He sends the new recruits to Katay Alba to prepare for the attack, but Kael is living in the library of Katay Alba and he has made a new deal with the Gatekeeper's Rakash. Kael has asked the leader of the Rakash is to join him instead and to attack his father in another city."

Saray pushed a strand of grey hair from her face. "That would be Dubok Kholm, the deepest city of the Cor. It looks like Jokten was right, everyone has their own plans for the future of the Cor." She picked up the medallion by its chain. "Perhaps it's time for me to make one of my own, now that I have my strength back." She gestured towards the garden entry. "We need to prepare some fruit nectar so I can keep Kate's body alive while you retrieve the scepter. We won't be giving it to the old man, but I think we will need it to save the Cor from all the men who seek to control it."

Saray led the way back up through the garden, pointing out various shapes hanging from the plants for Corvan to pick. At one spot she had him dig under a prickly bush and pull out a long white root with green hairs growing over its surface. He then followed her to the dock, where Saray had him wash everything in the lake.

Gavyn appeared from behind the immense lumien, his face glowing with pleasure and dripping with juice. Saray laughed and tousled his hair. "You would have to eat for the rest of your life to put a dent in that one, little mouse." Gavyn ducked away from her hand and ran over to examine each of the items Corvan was washing.

Looking up to Saray, he motioned her over and pulled a small pouch from inside his cloak. Tugging the drawstrings apart he poured the contents on the dock and stepped back. To Corvan it was just a pile of various-sized pebbles, but Saray was impressed. She picked through and held up a tiny black one. "Where did you ever find this? Nobody has seen a Lita bush since I was a young. If Jokten were here, he would personally watch it grow until we could pick the berries, grind the seeds and bake a fresh Lita seed loaf. He always said the taste of a Lita loaf was one of the things he missed the most." She winked at Corvan. "No doubt for its other special properties as well as the great taste."

Gavyn nodded and closed her hand around the seed.

"Thank you, Gavyn. I will plant this over by my home to remind me of Jokten."

The young boy pulled out the largest of the objects, a wrinkled brown seed the size of a walnut, and held it up to her. Saray examined it closely. "I'm afraid I don't know what that one is."

Gavyn pointed over to the cave where they had left Kate, then lay down on the dock as if he were sleeping and traced out a shape on his chest.

Saray shook her head. "That's not possible, Gavyn. There was only one tree like that in all the Cor and it never produced any fruit."

Gavyn jumped up, shaking his head, and gesturing in grand fashion to the seed, then to the ceiling of the cavern.

Saray gave the seed back to the boy. "Maybe you should plant it here, near the mother plant, and see what happens."

Gavyn jumped down from the dock with the seed clutched high over his head. He walked around the edge of the lake, kicking at patches of dirt until he found the spot he was looking for. Kneeling, the boy dug a shallow hole, dropped in the seed, and covered it up. Using his hands he mounded the dirt around it in a ring, then ran to the lake to scoop up water and fill the trench.

Saray touched Corvan's shoulder. "Let's go see Kate. I think Gavyn will be busy with his seeds for a while."

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