Keith Baker - The Gates of Night

“Yes,” Lei said. “It wants to be destroyed . It’s a weapon. It was made to shatter, to break the bonds between the planes. All I need to do is find the right path. Just another moment …”

Her face was caked with blood, her clothes were torn, her skin scabbed and burnt. But she was still the most beautiful woman Daine had ever seen, and the light in her eyes gave him the strength to fight the storm.

And then she vanished.

The sphere was glowing, pulsing in her hand, and then it fell to the floor. Lei and Pierce were gone. Daine saw a shadow in Pierce’s place, then it was drawn away into the swirling mass around them.

“No!” he cried. Despair overwhelmed him, shattering his emotional shield. The floor crumbled around them, and Daine and Jode fell toward the darkness, horror howling in triumph.

But as they fell, the moon fell with them.

Cracks appeared, fine at first, then growing and spreading. And as the darkness rose to meet them, the crystal moon shattered into a thousand pieces. The orb became a sphere of pure energy, glowing like the sun, then it burst, flowing out and over Daine and Jode, engulfing them in brilliance.

Daine felt the dragonfire surge once more. The power rose within him, tearing at flesh and spirit, and pulling .

And the dream faded away.

Light.

Sunlight.

A desert. He was lying on desert sand, beneath a brilliant sun.

No … two brilliant suns.

“Daine?” Jode pushed himself to his feet and looked around. “Are you hurt?”

“I don’t think so,” Daine said. He sat up. Something was wrong. Something was missing. The dragonfire . That sense of burning energy, the strange presence within-it was gone.

Suddenly the earth shook and everything changed. Air, sand, even the suns; for a moment they seemed to flicker and almost fade away.

“Where are we?” Daine whispered.

“This is a dream,” Jode said, looking around. “We’re on the fringes of Dal Quor.”

“It’s no dream of mine,” Daine said, looking at the two suns.

“No, I don’t think it is.” Jode put his hand on Daine’s chest, and his dragonmark glowed. “I don’t know what’s happened. But I don’t think you’re dreaming any more.”

“What are you talking about?” Daine said. The ripple came again, stronger this time. When it passed, the sand had become a sheet of red glass.

“These quakes-I think they’re because of what we did. The plane is falling out of alignment with Eberron. I don’t know if that’s the reason or not, but you’ve become like me. You’ve lost your connection to your body.”

“No.”

“Then wake up.” Jode held out his hand.

Daine took it, and he thought about that first dream in Karul’tash, remembering what he’d done.

Wake up .

He opened his eyes … and the desert remained.

“Lei,” he said. “Pierce. Are they-”

“They should be fine,” Jode said. “Pierce said their connection was failing. They disappeared before the moon shattered. There’s no reason their spirits wouldn’t have returned to their bodies.”

Lei . He saw her in his mind, bloody and beautiful, proud and strong. Challenging the Woodsman. Looking at him in the night of Thelanis, with the moon in her eyes. He remembered her warmth in his arms. There’ll be time for us later , he’d told her.

“No,” Daine said. “No. I don’t accept this. There’s a way out of here. There’s got to be. And we’re going to find it.” He looked down at Jode. “For both of us.”

Another tremor. Fractures ran across the surface of glass desert.

“We’re not alone here,” Jode said. “We may have stopped the Dreaming Dark from opening its gates, but the quori still rule this realm. We’ll need to stay on the fringes, to keep moving.”

“Whatever we need to do. But I will find my way back to her, Jode.”

“Even if you have to face a thousand nightmares to do it?”

Daine nodded. “I believe that we just saved the world. How hard can this be?”

Jode smiled and held out his hand. “Then let’s go, my friend. If the right woman is dreaming, I know an inn with a tribex stew the likes of which you’ll never find in the waking world.”

Daine clasped his hand, and the two of them faded away.

Lei opened her eyes.

Did it work? Even as her spirit was being torn from the crystal orb, she’d found the proper thread and sent the command. Had she acted in time?

She forced herself to her feet and staggered toward the nearest opening. Her chest ached with phantom pain, but there was no blood on her skin, no broken bones. She was awake, back in the Riedran monolith.

She reached the arch and peered out into the night. The moons had barely moved. It seemed that time passed more quickly in Dal Quor than it did on Eberron. She searched the sky, looking …

There! The dark orb was still in the sky, just barely visible. The thirteenth moon. Her heart sank.

Then the moon simply faded away.

We did it . There was no doubt in her mind. She knew the power that lay in the crystal orb. She’d felt it, merged with it. If the moon was pulled away, Dal Quor was trapped once more. Now they just had to return to Thelanis and find a gateway that would take them back to Khorvaire. With the help of the Dusk Queen, they could be home by morning.

Lei. Return. There is danger . Pierce’s thoughts flowed into her mind, and his concern shattered her sense of elation. She turned, and walked over to Pierce … and stopped short in surprise.

Xu’sasar was sprawled on the ground.

“What happened?” Lei said.

“I do not know. She is alive, but unconscious. Kin is nowhere to be seen.”

“What about … Shira?”

Pierce looked away. “Shira is no more. We have other concerns. Look to Daine.”

Lei’s heart raced. She looked across the floor and saw him still stretched out on the ground. Panic rose as she moved to his side, but she could see his chest rising and falling. He was alive.

Then Lei saw what Pierce was talking about. There was a circle around Daine, a pattern painted in silver and gold. It was a summoning circle, designed to aid in the conjuring or binding of spirits. Then Lei noticed something else. Daine’s sword … his scabbard had been replaced, and his sword now rested in the jeweled sheath Daine had taken from the Bier of the Sleeper.

Daine stirred. His eyes opened and he sat up with a start, glancing about wildly. Lei reached out to him, and he seized her hand as if it were a rope that might pull him from a stormy sea. Then he took a deep breath and smiled at her.

“It’s good to be home,” he said.