Don Bassinghtwaite - The Binding Stone

Dandra's presence stretched horribly, her being expanding, then contracting. Her connection to Tetkashtai seemed to twist, to turn inside out. The kalashtar was wailing, screaming as she had never screamed before. When the power of the mind flayers' energy faded, though, Dandra realized that she was the one screaming. That she was breathing and physically struggling against her bonds. That Tetkashtai rested across the laboratory, her presence locked away in the yellow-green psicrystal.

The mind flayers retreated. The dolgaunts returned, and for the first time, Dandra felt pain directly.

On the hillside overlooking the Eldeen Reaches, she opened her eyes to sunlight. Singe and Geth were staring at her. Both men's faces were pale. Within her, Tetkashtai hung silent and still, a ghost. No one said anything for a long, long time, until finally Singe ran a tongue across his lips and croaked. "You escaped?"

The thought-link was growing tenuous, worn away by the horrors that had flowed across it and stretched thin as Dandra's powers flagged. She managed to send one last memory across it, a memory of waking in near-darkness, her spirit pared down to a lean core trapped in aching flesh. She shifted, writhing in agony-and realized that the dolgaunts hadn't bound her, perhaps thinking her too weak to escape. In Dandra's spirit, the core of her being steadied and grew strong. Although it sent new pain tearing through her, she sat up.

"When a psion creates a psicrystal," Dandra told Geth and Singe as she watched the memory play out, "she splits off some part of her own psyche to give personality to the intelligence that she creates. The psicrystal grows out of that simple personality."

In her mind's eye, she felt herself climb to her feet and, with single-minded focus, shuffle across the laboratory toward a seemingly distant yellow-green glow. At the time she had been conscious of nothing but reaching the source of that glow-her crystal-but as she focused on the memory, she became aware of other things. Of how slow and painful her progress had been. Of the two crystals that rested on either side of her own, one a violet ember, the other a dead blue shell. She could have taken them. She could have turned her head, sought out Virikhad's and Medalashana's bodies. She hadn't. She had one goal and no other.

"The core of my personality," she said, her voice thick, "was determination. That's what saved me."

The hand of her memory-self closed on the yellow-green crystal-and Tetkashtai exploded into her head. Maddened kalashtar and determined psicrystal combined with a single, wild instinct- escape. Their powers-once Tetkashtai's alone, now Dandra's as well-flared. A thought spun out a line of vayhatana and Tetkashtai's spear, carelessly thrown aside by Dah'mir's servants, soared through the air to Dandra's hand. Her feet floated free of the ground and she glided out of the laboratory. Dolgrims moved to confront her. She summoned whitefire out of the air and flung it against them. Her heart thundering, she raced on through half remembered tunnels as roars of outrage at her flight shook the mound behind her…

The thought-link finally collapsed, fading away and leaving her breathless at her own memories. She staggered, but caught herself. One hand, she realized was clutching her crystal so tight that the bronze wire that bound it pressed painfully into her skin. Dandra forced her fingers open and looked up at Singe and Geth.

"The rest," she said, "you know. I've told you the truth about that. The Bonetree hunters were after us before that first night was over. I was lucky that I could skim over obstacles that they had to wade through." She touched her belly. "And I can sustain myself with psionic energy, where they had to find food. But even with my powers, I could barely stay ahead of them. I just ran. I knew Yrlag was on the north edge of the Shadow Marches and I would have gone there, but clearly I went too far. If I'd gone a different way, I probably would have ended up in Droaam or lost in the mountains somewhere. When you and Adolan found me, Geth, I was exhausted. If I'd kept going, I probably would have killed myself-if those displacer beasts didn't kill me first."

She pressed her palms together and bent her body toward the shifter. "Thank you," she said sincerely.

Geth stared at her, his eyes wide, but Singe drew a deep breath. "Virikhad?" he asked. "Medalashana?"

"Dead if they're lucky."

"Why did Dah'mir do this to you? Why does he want you back so badly?"

Dandra's stomach clenched. "I've asked myself that a thousand times." She felt her cheeks burn. "I don't know!"

"Maybe," growled Geth, "we should go and ask him."

He said it so bluntly that for a moment all Dandra could do was blink and stare at him. "Revenge?" she asked finally. Geth nodded. Dandra felt numb-even Tetkashtai flinched at the idea. "Geth, you can't do that. Dah'mir is… powerful." She touched her chest. "He held three kalashtar in his grasp!"

"I'm not a kalashtar. I'll put my steel against whatever power he has. And I can't think of a better memorial to Adolan and the other Hollowers than snuffing out a cult of the Dragon Below!" The shifter closed his gauntleted fist with a clash of metal.

Dandra flung up her arm to point behind them. "But the hunters and the dolgrims are still after us!"

"I haven't seen a sign of them since dawn and even that was a long way back." Geth's lips curled back from his teeth. "We hurt them last night and they don't have horses. They'll need to rest and regroup. We'll ride through the day and be well ahead of them."

"I don't know where the Bonetree camp and the mound are!" she blurted. "Dah'mir had us all in a daze on the way there and I was lost on the way out."

"Then we'll start where you met Dah'mir-Zarash'ak." Singe stepped forward. "I'm with Geth."

Geth shot a dark look at him. "No," he growled.

"You're going to do this yourself?" the Aundairian asked. "You're not that good, Geth. I owe this to Toller." His eyes narrowed. "Not to mention that I've been looking for you since Narath. Do you think I'm going to let you out of my sight now?"

Dandra heard the growl that rose in Geth's throat, but she also caught the flash of white as his eyes opened-just for a moment-wide in fear. Singe leaned a little closer to him. "You need me for this, Geth. And I need you. Neither of us has any choice."

They're both mad, thought Tetkashtai. The presence was trembling, her emotions raw from the flood of memories. Dandra, when they have you well away from the Bonetree hunters, leave these fools to get themselves killed.

No, said Dandra. They're not mad. There was a new fire growing inside her. She had been running for so long that there hadn't seemed to be any other choice. But she had stood against the Bonetree at the circle of the Bull Hole and faced down Hruucan at Bull Hollow.

She looked up at both Singe and Geth. "I'm coming, too."

Tetkashtai's presence radiated shock. Dandra, you can't do that!

After what Dah'mir has done? How can I not?

I'm not going back to that mound!

Dandra's jaw tightened. Tetkashtai, running didn't get us away from the Bonetree hunters or the dolgrims. This isn't just revenge for us. Dah'mir isn't going to give up unless we make him. He'll keep hunting us. You know he will. I'm not running any more.

Tetkashtai wavered, fear tearing at her.

What if, Dandra suggested, there was something at the mound that could show us how to reverse what Dah'mir's mind flayers did to us?

The question left the presence speechless. With a grim sense of triumph, Dandra looked back to Geth. "What are we waiting for?" she asked. "An escort from the Bonetree hunters?"

The shifter gave her a thin smile and turned to his horse, swinging up into the saddle. "We'll head to Yrlag," he said, nodding to the southwest. "It's a little more than week's ride and we should be able to find a ship there that will take us to Zarash'ak."