Leesa’a fears proved well-founded. The first thing she did when she awakened the following morning, after giving Rave a quick good morning kiss, was to check on Ralin’s arm. She swung her legs over the side of the bed and headed directly to his crib. Pale daylight leaked into the bedroom through the thin curtains, but she called forth a golden illumination sphere as she crossed the room to provide better light for her examination.
She found Ralin lying on his back, eyes open. He smiled happily up at her. She reached down and tickled his ribs for a long moment, drawing an extended series of playful giggles from him. The sound warmed her maternal heart even more than usual. Finally, she pulled her hands away from his sides and turned her attention to his arm.
At first glance, everything appeared fine, and she let out a soft sigh of relief. A closer look, however, showed her that the tips of his fingers were beginning to darken. The bluish hue wasn’t all
Even though Leesa realized that time was of the essence, she knew she had to be completely prepared before she put her plan into action. And before she could even begin, she needed to rid herself of the grim anxiety still gripping her.She closed her eyes and drew in several slow, deep breaths, slipping into her familiar everywhere/nowhere state. In took a bit longer than the instant relaxation she was accustomed to, but finally she felt calm and centered.“Keep an eye on Ralin,” she told Rave. “I’ll be right back.”She turned and headed toward the back door. Without breaking stride, she walked right through the closed door. Dematerialization would play an important role in what was to come, and she wanted to be sure she was fully ready.Inside, she turned her attention to the old table she had rescued from the side of the road with Cali so long ago. Even back then, Leesa suspected she might one day have a use for the scarred
Leesa didn't waste any time. She had already rehearsed what she was about to do countless times in her mind. The time for thinking and rehearsing was over—now was the time to do it for real.She walked alongside the table toward the rope swing, the fingers of her left hand trailing lightly across the table’s slick surface. As before, she felt no trace of the dark powers locked within its black depths. She didn’t let that fool her, though. What she was about to do was probably the most dangerous thing she had ever attempted or faced.When she reached the swing, she stepped quickly up onto the thick board that served as the seat. She took a moment to clear her mind then began slowly swinging the rope out toward the table. As the swing brought her closer and closer to a position above the tabletop, she began focusing on her ability to dematerialize.In one strange way, she was less worried about this part of her task than when she was trying to le
She shoved the ring deep into the pocket of her jeans, where it would stay until she found him.Now that she had taken care of the ring business, she was back where she started—suspended in the void without knowing what to do next. Without much hope for success, she tried walking, but as in her dreams, she felt like she was merely swinging her feet in the air, getting nowhere. Next, she tried a breaststroke-like swimming motion, but once again had no sense that the effort was taking her anywhere.Her frustration mounted. She had managed get inside the table easily enough, but seemed unable to do anything now that she was here. Floating in the darkness for the rest of her life was definitely not what she had in mind when she jumped into the table. Breathing deeply, she centered herself again with everywhere/nowhere, banishing her frustration.If she couldn’t move—and for now, she had to accept that she couldn’t—then perhaps she could
“Think”, Leesa told herself again.She could imagine any number of different ways this dark void inside the table might be separated from the outside world—energy walls, solid matter of some sort, even magical barriers could do the trick. Abstract possibilities were of no use to her, however. She needed something she could visualize clearly enough to cast her telekinesis at.Only one kind of boundary came to mind that fit her needs—the smooth black material the table had been fashioned out of.She felt her heartbeat quicken at the thought. The marble-like stuff was not only a logical choice to make up the boundaries of this place, but it was also one she could visualize in clear detail, having seen it up close just a short while before.She forced herself to calm down, centering herself once again. Excitement here could only get in her way. When she felt ready, she opened her eyes.One direction was as good as another, so sh
Leesa had no more time to spend on the bloated corpse of the Necromancer. The dead wizard was a thing of the past—her concerns lay in the immediate future, with doing everything she could do to save her son.Invigorated by the knowledge that Dominic had emerged victorious over their hated foe and thus was probably still alive somewhere in this godforsaken place, Leesa cast her telekinesis out into the darkness once again. For the first time since she entered the world inside the table, real hope flared in her breast. Her optimism was further buoyed by the thought that if Dominic had indeed destroyed the Necromancer, he might not be too far away.As she drifted past the Necromancer’s body, Leesa realized she needed a way to make sure she was moving in the right direction. The last thing she wanted to do was to head off at an angle that might carry her farther away from Dominic.Reaching into her pocket, she took out her ring. What she saw surprised he
Dominic thought for a moment, stroking his pointy beard as he did so. “Perhaps I could. But that assumes we can get out of this place. I don’t suppose your book taught you a way to accomplish that, did it?”“No, it didn’t,” Leesa admitted. “I was kind of hoping you and I would be able to figure a way out together.”Dominic shook his head slowly, a wry smile playing upon his lips. “If I could escape this place, don’t you think I would have done it long ago? My magic has grown weak. Something about this place seems to absorb it. The more you use, the less you have left. I had to employ quite a bit to destroy the Necromancer, but it was a necessary sacrifice.”The last thing Leesa wanted to hear was how weak Dominic’s magic had become. She watched as he sat down again, his legs dangling over the invisible edge the way they had when she first came upon him.“What’s that you&rs
Rave sat on the thickest limb of one of the backyard trees, his legs dangling into the empty air, watching Ralin play in the branches above. His son was scampering about the upper reaches of the tree a little less aggressively than usual, and Rave guessed it was because his hand was beginning to bother him to the point where he was now favoring it. Even from here, Rave could see that the discoloration continued to darken.As he had done so many times already in the past two hours, he glanced down at the black table below, hoping to see some kind of light or movement in its dull black surface. Once again, his eyes found nothing but the same frustrating empty blackness. He didn’t let his gaze linger upon the tabletop—doing so was pointless, and he didn’t want Ralin noticing how much attention his father was paying to the table. Ralin had no idea his mother was somewhere inside its dark depths, searching for the man Leesa and Rave both hoped could fix their son’s hand.Using only his goo
Dominic rested his hand on the table’s edge.“We’re going to destroy it, that’s what we’re going to do.”Leesa didn’t hide her surprise. “Can we? Do we really have the power to destroy it, especially after what we just went through? With our magic weakened and everything?”“We can and we will. With the Necromancer dead, the table’s defenses are weakened. And now that we are outside, our magic should be back to full strength.”Leesa hadn’t tried to use any magic since escaping the table. She was glad to hear that her weakened power was only a factor of being inside the table.“What about the eyes inside the table? They were your comrades. If we destroy the table, don’t we destroy them as well? Can’t you do anything to help them?”Dominic shook his head sadly. “No. They are beyond any power to save. They are long dead—only their ma