"How did this happen?" asked Takara.
"I don't know. It's some awful ploy of Volrath's, I believe."
"Eladamri," Belbe called. "Time is short. Let me in."
He grasped the floor bolt. "Stand ready. There may be treachery."
*****
The door opened a few inches. Ten yards away, Crovax leveled the discharger. He'd discovered that Belbe's story about it not firing for anyone but her was a lie. His earlier failure was simply a case of not knowing what button to push. He'd remedied his ignorance since then.
Eladamri's eye met Belbe's. "Send in Sivi."
Belbe steadied the Vec warrior and eased her into the gap.
"Now give me your hand," he said.
Belbe raised her right hand.
Crovax squinted through the sight pins at the back of Belbe's skull. Greven saw the evincar raise the weapon and take aim at her.
"Stop!" cried the warrior.
In one smooth motion, Eladamri jerked Belbe through. She stumbled, which was fortunate; in the next second a searing blast of plasma hit the door. The substance burst with a loud crackle, and glowing fragments showered in all directions. Yelling with alarm, Medd and Kireno shoved the door shut, and Shamus snapped the bolts back in place.
*****
Belbe stumbled against Eladamri, but instead of catching her, he tripped her with his outstretched foot. She landed hard on her belly.
"I knew there'd be treachery," Eladamri said coldly. "Your marksman missed me."
Belbe got up, and the elf backhanded her. She fell again. Eladamri was about to repeat the blow when Takara stayed his hand.
"She may have no other value than as a hostage," said Takara. "But she's no use at all dead."
Belbe stood and shouted, "Why do you hate me so? Is it because I represent the overlords whom you fight?"
"I don't know your overlords," said Eladamri. "All I know is this world and the evil men who rule it. Those men decreed my family should be extinguished. I am the only one of my line who still lives.
"Perhaps you really don't know, but you were once my daughter. Her name was Avila. She was killed on the orders of Volrath and her body stolen. That was five weeks ago. How long have you been here?"
"I've been on Rath three weeks. Before that, on Phyrexia, two weeks…" Belbe looked at her hands, touched her own face. "Why would the overlords command Volrath to do such a thing?"
"It's very plain. By murdering my child, they hoped to terrorize me into submission. If that failed, they counted on me becoming unmanned by the sight of my dear daughter commanding the enemy host."
You are the instrument of our study. The words of Abcaldro filled her with sudden loathing.
"I came to help you!" she said. "Volrath returned without warning. He fought Crovax and lost. Crovax is now evincar, and as long as he reigns, no one is safe-friend, foe, ally, or neutral."
"Tell them about Dominaria," said Takara. "Tell them what's going to happen when this world and that one join."
Belbe backed away from the rebels. "You know about the invasion?"
"Lady Takara was kind enough to explain it to us," Eladamri said. "I notice you didn't mention it."
"I've taken care of that! It won't happen so long as I remain on Rath!"
*****
The elf drew his sword. His heart was pounding so loudly he thought they must be able to hear it. The enemy with his daughter's face edged away. He could not bear to see her like this, her mind empty of memories, her face mockingly free of a daughter's love. That she wore the colors of his blood foes, the livery of her own murderers, was the most unendurable fact of all.
"Wait, O Eladamri!" Kireno pleaded, trying to hold him back. He ignored him and raised his sword. Belbe turned and ran.
Thirty yards down the concourse, she stopped and faced the oncoming elf. His attack was clumsy, and she easily avoided it.
Belbe grasped Eladamri by his cuirass and threw him to the floor. She planted her foot on the wrist of his sword hand and plucked the weapon from his fingers. In one deft motion she snapped the blade over her knee and let the pieces clatter to the floor.
"The time for swords is past," she said. "I'm not your child, Eladamri. It's true I was made in the workshops of Phyrexia. I don't doubt I was made to resemble your lost child. It would suit my masters' purpose perfectly to use your loved one's face against you, but I had no choice in the matter, no more than you chose the face you were born with.
"I've come here to undo the cause for which I was created. I can get you out of here safely, if you want. That's all I'm offering."
He sat up stiffly. "On what conditions?"
"No conditions."
The rest of the rebels, including Sivi, leaning on Medd's shoulder, surrounded them.
"And how do you propose to get us out of here?" Takara asked, her voice dripping with venom.
"I have an emergency exit. Let me show you."
She slipped by Kireno and Takara and made her way to the fourth pilaster on the left side of the hall. The floor was littered with Volrath's shattered dreams, and Belbe's feet crushed the brittle shards to dust.
At the base of the half-column was a row of decorative studs. She pressed the third one from the left side, and a panel popped open, revealing a deep recess four feet high.
They crowded around. Two large boxes were stowed inside. Belbe dragged them out. The tall metal carton she tore open with her bare hands, exposing an intricately machined device three and a half feet tall and about ten inches thick. It had a square base, tall cylindrical sides ribbed with metal tubing, and a transparent dome on top.
"A weapon?" asked Kireno.
Takara's eyes shone. "No," she said, smiling. "It's a portal device."
"You've seen one before?" Belbe said.
"My father has used them in times past. This is quite a small one."
Belbe admitted it was. "It was provided to me for special purposes only. If any of Weatherlight's crew or their equipment came into my hands, I was supposed to send them to Phyrexia for closer examination."
The other box contained a single powerstone. Belbe inserted it into the base of the unit, explaining it had just enough power to transmit four hundred pounds of material to another plane.
"Four hundred pounds!" Medd protested. "All of us together weigh a lot more than that!"
"I'm not going," Belbe explained. "As for the rest of you, you'll have to work out your own arrangements."
She took out the portal control unit from her belt and clicked the activator. The dome atop the portal device flickered to life.
"Stand back," she said. "It will throw the doorway across this axis."
The rebels watched in awe as the machine began to drone. The air between them and the far end of the Dream Halls shimmered and thickened, gradually losing its normal transparency. A square seven feet high slowly formed out of gray mist and flashes of light, like lightning in a fogbank. Medd went around the edge of the square. It was as thin as paper and opaque from both sides.
"Do we go now?" asked Kireno.
"It hasn't reached travel potential yet," Belbe said. "It may take another quarter hour before the door is open. Then I have to calibrate the transmitter."
"What?"
She smiled. "Choose your destination."
"Skyshroud!" Medd said. "Send us to the Eye of Korai!"
Belbe fiddled with the tiny dials on her control unit. Ripples of color sprayed across the gray square.
"You must understand," she said emphatically. "A portal is a transplanar connection only. I cannot send you elsewhere on Rath. You'll be going to another plane-another world."
She let this astonishing revelation sink in.
Sivi roused herself. "Will we ever be able to come back to Rath?"
"I don't know. What I do know is if you remain here you'll die, and the cause you've fought for will suffer a terrible loss."
"Whatever happens, Eladamri must go," Medd said. "Are we agreed on that?" Sivi, Kiren
o, and Shamus solemnly concurred. Takara chewed her lip and said nothing.
"I'll never be able to live with myself if I leave anyone behind," said the elf gravely. "Is there no other choice?"
"The unit will transmit four hundred pounds, no more," Belbe said. "Anything exceeding the power limit will not go through. The consequences for a living being would be disastrous."
"You mean, a person might arrive without their legs or head?" asked Shamus.
"Exactly so."
Belbe finished her power adjustments. The portal square was now brilliant blue, free of ripples or fog. She announced the portal was stable, and all she needed was a destination to align it with.
A long pause ensued. Finally Eladamri said, "Dominaria."
Takara's eyes widened in surprise. "Why there?"
"You told us our ancestors came from there. That means there are people there like us, including, I presume, elves. Dominaria is the target of Phyrexian aggression, and people there should be warned. I'll see to it they know what's coming."
He faced the azure square. "A strange woman told me things not long ago, things I didn't understand. Prophecies
… I would be the savior of a world I'd never been to. A door would be offered to me, and I must enter it. I believe the Oracle en-Vec saw me going to Dominaria. So I will go."
Belbe set the coordinates for Rath's parallel world. The patient blue door began to flash and flicker again as the barrier between the planes was subverted.
*****
Ertai jumped up from the infuser. He'd dialed in a double dose of dark energy, and got off the crystal platform bursting with newfound vigor. He'd had no time to warn the four servants who'd brought him to the laboratory. A silent wave of energy washed over them, transmuting them in minutes. They were now flapping around the room on fleshy wings or clinging to the walls with multiple pairs of legs. As he lay on the infuser and the dark glow flooded his anguished mind, the truth had burst upon him like a bolt from Belbe's plasma discharger.
She'd hidden her portal device in the Dream Halls. It was the perfect place to hide it. The ordinary inhabitants of the Citadel never went there, as they feared Volrath even in his absence. Crovax thought the halls were a vain, empty monument, so he never deigned to go there either. By luck, or fate, the rebels had chosen this room for their last stand-and Belbe was going in to "talk" to Eladamri…
He had the good fortune to encounter Greven first. Crovax might have slain him on sight.
"Dread Lord!" he said, actually grasping the fearsome warrior by his broad shoulders. "Has Belbe gone into the Dream Halls yet?"
"Some time ago. It's been very quiet since."
Ertai was frantic. He could feel the weight of death or permanent exile on Rath settling over his shoulders. Fear, and perhaps too much decadent energy, warped his morals and loosened his tongue.
"We must do something, Dread Lord!" he said. "She has a portal device in there!" Which I need to use! was the part he dared not say out loud.
Greven shoved him away. "You'd better not be lying, Boy!"
"Why would I lie? We have to stop her!"
Greven roused his idle troops and had them stand to arms. "Come," he said, taking Ertai roughly by the collar. "We must report this to the evincar."
The stir among the soldiers spread ahead of Greven, and by the time he found Crovax sitting in an elaborate chair drawn from the flowstone, the new Evincar of Rath knew something was amiss. His expression hardened when he saw Ertai.
"What's this corpse doing here?" he said.
"Your Highness, the emissary brought a portal device with her from Phyrexia. According to the boy, she hid it in the Dream Halls," explained Greven.
Crovax bolted from the chair, which subsided into the floor. "A portal? Are you sure?"
"She told me so when we… I believe her," Ertai replied, his face burning.
"Would she use it to help Eladamri?" Crovax stopped himself. "It doesn't matter. Everyone in that room is hereby condemned to death," he announced. "Let's put an end to this game."
The chosen storming squad fell in step behind Crovax, Greven, and Ertai. The evincar strode to within a dozen paces of the locked doors.
"Will you summon them to surrender?" said Ertai.
"Why should I? They're dead as of this moment."
Crovax handed the plasma discharger to a guardsman, then pressed his palms together in an awful parody of prayer. He slowly raised his hands, spreading them wider as they rose.
A large hump appeared in the floor. Soldiers fell back as the cubic shape mounted higher. So much of the floor was drawn into the rising shape that the floor joists appeared as if shoals around the edges of the room. The summoned form took on the shape of a truncated pyramid fifteen feet high and twelve feet wide at the base.
"What's he-?" Ertai's question was cut off when the pyramid heaved itself forward and slammed against the doors. The entire Citadel quaked from the shock.
*****
The sudden impact startled the rebels. "Crovax is tired of waiting," Eladamri said. "Is the portal ready?"
Belbe made some hasty calculations. "No, it's not fixed on the destination yet."
The massive ram hit the doors again. Loose dream catching machinery rained down, and for the first time the huge doors showed damage. The center was dented inward eight inches, and the gap at the top and bottom was admitting more of the bright light from outside.
"How much longer?" Takara asked anxiously.
"I don't know exactly-the unit's never been used before. It has no settings to compare to."
Eladamri grabbed Belbe by the hair and jerked her head back. "Hurry," he said. "If I find out you're delaying-"
"You're delaying me now," she said. He released her.
The remaining rebel fighters placed themselves between the doors and the portal with drawn swords. Sivi tried to take her place beside Medd, but he gently pushed her away.
"I'm still good enough to fight with you!" she said. Her words were slurred and her movements shaky.
"You've had a hard knock on the head, Sivi," Medd replied. "You can hardly stand. Go with Eladamri. He needs someone to protect him."
"I won't leave you here to die!"
A third powerful impact caused more debris to shower down from the heights of the Dream Halls. The heavy shocks caused the portal unit to topple over. Belbe let out a yelp of horror.
She and Takara returned the device upright.
Takara was concerned. "Is it damaged?"
Belbe ran the test commands on two sides of her control unit. All the responses were normal. "No! But we'd better brace it- another fall could ruin everything."
*****
Outside, Crovax was reeling. The battle with Volrath had depleted his strength, and the effort required to raise and move several tons of flowstone strained him to his limits. He gathered his power for a fourth attack, but he couldn't finish it. The giant battering ram froze inches from the doors when Crovax passed out. He pitched face down on the floor. No one attempted to catch him.
Greven closed the visor on his helmet. "Tenth Company, to the right! Sixth Company, on the left. At the double, charge!"
Hurrahing, the soldiers swarmed against the doors.
*****
The feral shouting from the storming troops chilled Belbe's artificial blood. She tapped in the final coordinates, and the transplanar unit whined loudly. The portal locked onto a destination, and an image formed, filling the square top to bottom, side to side.
Weeping silently, Takara walked toward the portal. "Is that it? Is that Dominaria?"
The scene through the portal was of a verdant plain, green in the lush growth of summer. A few trees dotted the rolling savanna. The sky was blue-not so blue as the open portal, but a warm, living shade never seen in Rath's gray skies.
Eladamri was transfixed by the beauty of the view. "Is that it, Avila?"
Belbe didn't notice what he called her. "It should be."
Four hundred men
pushed and pounded on the sagging doors. Medd, Kireno, and Shamus clasped hands. The interlaced hinges of the right-hand door began to squeal as the metal was torn apart.
Takara could stand it no longer. She pushed Eladamri aside and ran at the portal. Where she touched it, the image distorted in concentric ripples, like a pool of water after a pebble falls in. Then she was gone. Half a second later Belbe saw Takara's back as she ran through the chest high grass, away from the open portal. Away from Rath.
"Go, Eladamri," Belbe said.
"Not yet. I have something for you."
"What?"
The upper hinge gave way and crashed to the floor. The right hand door slowly fell, twisting the lower hinge as it went. Soldiers and guards, fired by their success, didn't wait for the door to fall, but clambered over it. Kireno shouted a Vec war cry and ran at them. Shamus followed, leaving Medd alone to ward off attackers trying to reach the portal.
Kireno stabbed two soldiers before they could leap clear of the door, but more poured over the sides, and he was soon enveloped in hostile blades. He traded cuts with foes on two fronts for several breathtaking seconds, then he was cut down from behind. A swarm of Rathi soldiers trampled the fallen rebel and overran Shamus. The nimble young Dal drew off at least forty guards as he retreated to the wall. He fought on, killing two and wounding four before the press became too great. He was impaled on no less than six swords at once and pinned to the wall. The soldiers drew back, leaving Shamus dead at the base of one of Volrath's pilasters.
"Eladamri, hurry!" Belbe cried. She wasn't armed, but she was prepared to use her considerable skills to safeguard his departure.
She watched the elf remove the wooden fetish from around his neck. It was a knobby little carving of a sprite, an ancestral spirit revered by elderly elves. Eladamri wasn't religious. The fetish had another purpose.
He snapped the figure's waist. The fetish was hollow. Inside the cavity was a small glass vial, closed with a cut glass plug and sealed with wax. It was the vial left in Avila's bed the night she died.
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