Travis's heart ached, but he couldn't think of that at the moment. Jack was finally there. He should head back to the saloon to get Lirith; it wasn't safe for her to walk to the boardinghouse alone at night. However, even as he had the thought, the witch walked through the front door, her arm coiled around Durge's.

Maudie smiled. "Miss Lily, Mr. Dirk, I'm so glad you're back, along with Mr. Wilder. I hate to think of any of you being out after dark these days."

"Is there something amiss in this town?" Jack said, shaggy eyebrows rising.

"I'll let these three fill you in. I'm too tired for talk about such things tonight. Miss Lily, could do me the favor of showing Mr. Graystone to his room? I think we'll put him in the blue room, on the second floor."

"Of course," Lirith said.

Maudie started to rise from the couch, and Durge hurried to help her. She gave his arm a grateful pat, then shuffled from the parlor, leaning on her cane. A few days ago, she had taken a room on the first floor near the back of the house; Travis and Durge had moved her things down from the second floor. They heard the sound of coughing, muffled as a door shut.

After making introductions, they sat, and Lirith and Durge fetched tea for them all from the kitchen.

"I must thank you for bringing me here, Mr. Wilder," Jack said, blowing on his tea. "This establishment seems a good deal more convivial than a standard hotel. And, I confess, the rate will be easier for my much-reduced wallet to bear. You see, a mishap befell my business in London, where I had made my home for quite some time. I fear I lost so much."

"You mean in the fire," Travis said.

Jack set down his teacup, his blue eyes sharp. "How did you know it was a fire that took my shop?"

There was no use waiting. Travis reached into his pocket and pulled out Sinfathisar. The Stone shimmered gray-green in the lamplight.

"Oh," Jack said in a surprised voice. And then again, this time in a deeper and far more knowing way, "Oh."

Jack reached into the pocket of his green waistcoat and pulled out a small iron box covered with runes. Travis recognized it; once he had used the very same box to keep Sinfathisar safe. Jack opened the lid. Inside the box glimmered a Stone that was the mirror image of the one on Travis's palm.

They don't just look the same, Travis. They are the same. They're both Sinfathisar. Only mine is from the future.

He remembered late-night movies about time travel he had seen as a kid. If the hero met himself, all sorts of terrible things happened, mostly involving accidentally killing his father so he'd never be born. However, the two Stones were quiescent, dull. Curious, Travis leaned forward, bringing his Sinfathisar close to the one in the box. They touched.

He felt it rather than heard it, like the vibration of a dynamite blast from a mine deep beneath the earth.

Jack snatched the iron box back and clamped the lid down. "Oh dear. This isn't good at all."

"What is it?" Travis said, throat dry.

Jack shook his head. "Something just...changed. I'm not certain what, but I don't think we should let the Stones come in contact again. Or the Stone, I suppose, in the singular. For they're both one and the same." He cast a piercing look at Travis, Durge, and Lirith. "You're from the future, aren't you?"

"We are," Travis said, fighting to keep his voice steady. "Our time is more than a hundred years from now."

"And where will you get that Stone?"

"From you."

"And I suppose you'll knock me over the head when I'm not looking and steal it from me," Jack said, scowling. "Of course, now I'll be on my guard. Come a hundred years from now, I'll be watching for you. You won't find me so easily duped this time, young man!"

Travis clenched his fingers around the Stone. "No, you don't understand. You gave it me. Or will give it to me."

"Nonsense," Jack huffed. "I shouldn't think I'd be handing out Great Stones to any Tom, Dick, or Harry."

Travis had forgotten how frustrating talking to Jack could be. "I'm not Tom, Dick, or Harry. I'm Travis, and we're best friends. Or we will be, anyway. And you had a very good reason to give me the Stone."

"Yes," Jack said, his voice quiet now. "It seems I did."

His eyes were on Travis's hand, the one which clutched the Stone. Travis looked down. Silvery light welled from between his fingers. Hastily, he shoved Sinfathisar back into his pocket. He rubbed his right hand, and the rune on his palm faded.

Jack leaned back in the sofa. He looked haggard, and older than Travis remembered. But Jack was a century younger now than the last time Travis had seen him.

Lirith touched Jack's hand. "Are you well, my lord?"

He gave a weak smile. "I am when I look at you, my dear lady. You're from Eldh, aren't you? From the south, no? And you, good sir, are surely a knight."

Durge nodded. "I am the twelfth earl of Stonebreak."

Jack smiled. "Then I find myself in far better company than I could ever have imagined encountering in these barbarian lands. A daughter of Sia, a knight, and"-his eyes locked on Travis-"a runelord."

Travis's throat grew tight. "I've missed you, Jack. There were so many times I wanted to talk to you, times when I didn't know what to do."

Except he had talked to Jack. In his mind, at least, for Jack had given part of himself to Travis that terrible night beneath the antique shop. And maybe that's why Jack is so weak. He's just like the hero in those time-travel movies. If part of Jack is in me, then he's existing in this time in two di ferent forms.

Jack patted his shoulder. "There, there, young man... Travis, did you say? We're all here now, so it seems everything has turned out fine."

Except you're dead in my time, Travis wanted to say. However, he only nodded.

"Now," Jack said briskly, "it's late, but with the aches imparted by my rough journey, I imagine there's no sleep for me tonight, and I have the feeling from your grim looks there's much you wish to tell me. So if one of you would be kind enough to fill my teacup again, we can begin."

Lirith started to get up, but Durge bid her sit and volunteered to fetch more tea himself.

"And perhaps a scone or biscuit to nibble on, good sir," Jack called after him.

It was one of the stranger sights Travis had witnessed over the course of the past year: Durge walking gingerly into the parlor, carrying a tray laden with a steaming teapot, milk, lemon, honey, and a plate of shortbread cookies arranged in regimented formation. The knight set down the tray, and Travis imagined he wasn't supposed to notice as Durge surreptitiously placed a saucer of milk on the floor for Miss Guenivere.

"I confess," Jack said over his tea, "things are already becoming clearer to me. I thought it mere whimsy that caused me to settle on the frontier of Colorado as my destination, but I can see now it wasn't chance at all that brought me here. It was you and your Stone that pulled me, Travis, whether I knew it or not."

"There's more you need to know, Jack." Travis glanced at Durge and Lirith. "Much more. About how we got here, to Castle City. And about what else-who else-came with us."

Jack set down his cup, his face solemn. "I think it's time you told me your story."

Travis drew in a deep breath. He wasn't certain what he should and shouldn't tell Jack. After all, couldn't giving Jack too much knowledge change the future? However, once Travis began, the words gushed out of him. He told Jack everything, starting with that late-October night when Brother Cy blew into Castle City, and everything changed. Finally, he told about what had happened to them since arriving in Castle City, and how they now knew that one of the Scirathi had followed them through the gate.

Jack sat bolt upright, eyes wide, and his teacup-which had been balanced on his knee-would have gone flying if Lirith hadn't deftly snatched it away.

"By Hades Himself!" Jack pounded a fist on the arm of his chair. "So that's who attacked my shop-a sorcerer. I wasn't able to catch a glimpse of him-I only had time to flee-but I should have known the noisome odor of his blood magic. Only I never expected I would encounter one of his kind, not here, so far from Eldh."

Travis leaned forward. "Tell us, Jack. Tell us what happened to you in London."

"I fear it caught me-he caught me-by surprise." Jack slumped back into the chair, his eyes haunted. "But I had been ill, you see. Not that I've been ill in seven centuries, mind you, not since taking up the burden of the Stone. All the same, perhaps a month and a half ago, I felt a terrible weakness come upon me, as if half my life had suddenly drained away."

Lirith's dark eyes were concerned as she glanced at Travis. "That would have been the same time we arrived here."

"I think it's me, Jack," Travis said. "I think I'm the reason you feel so weak. You gave me so much of what you were, and now-"

"And now here you are," Jack said softly. "Of course-my magic can't be in two places at once."

Durge cleared his throat. "How did the Scirathi make his attack, Lord Graystone?"

"It was a fortnight ago," Jack said. "I was in my bookshop. It was the dead of the night, and I was working on a small volume I've been writing on and off for centuries. It's a treatise concerning the magics of Falengarth. I've got it in my satchel-it's one of the few things I managed to save from the shop. Would you like to see it, Lord Stonebreak?"

Durge nodded. "But not now. You were saying..."

"Ah, yes. The attack. It was quite sudden, completely out of nowhere." Jack's eyes grew bright, and he sat back up, as if now that it was all over it seemed more like an adventure. "The windows shattered, and glass went everywhere. Then a swarm of bats flew in, swirling all around me, and by their odor I knew they were quite dead for all their fluttering and scratching. That should have been my first clue that it was a sorcerer. But really, there was no time to think. Usually I would have spoken a rune and"-he gestured with his fists-"those creatures would have been nothing but dust. Only then I felt..." The light in his eyes faded, his hands fell into his lap.

Lirith touched his arm. "What did you feel?"

"Death." He sighed. "I felt a presence-dark and full of hate-and it was as if a hand gripped my heart, squeezing it, forcing it to cease beating. I was too feeble-I couldn't fight. It was all I could do to whisper the rune of fire. That was enough to break the spell of my attacker for a moment. I managed to flee into the night as my bookshop went up in flames. After that, I knew I couldn't stay in London, that my attacker would only find me again. So I boarded a ship, then a train, and now I find myself here. No doubt exactly where the sorcerer intended for me to come."

Travis hadn't thought of that. The sorcerer must have left Castle City not long after overhearing their conversation in the old cabin. He must have traveled to London, where he tracked Jack down. But why go to so much trouble to find Jack and attack him? The sorcerer could have just waited like they did for Jack to come to Castle City.

Don't you see, Travis. This is how Jack came to Castle City in 1883. It was all because of you. And the sorcerer. And it's because Jack came here that, over a hundred years from now, you'll go to Eldh.

The thought made his head spin. However, he could wonder about it later. Jack was in town, but so was the sorcerer, and he was planning something. What it was, Travis wasn't certain, only that the Scirathi no doubt wanted to use Jack to find a way to return to the future. And that the sorcerer intended to kill Sareth before he left.

"May I see it, Travis?" Jack said, his expression eager. "The scarab you spoke of? I've heard of such artifacts, but I've never witnessed one with my own eyes."

Travis reached into his pocket and drew out the golden spider. The drop of blood that lay within was their key back to Eldh, along with the gate artifact hidden in the rafters up in their room.

"Hold out your hand," Travis said. He let the spider crawl to his fingertip, then over onto Jack's hand.

"Why, it tickles!" Jack said, laughing.

Lirith smiled. "I think it likes you."

"Yes, I suppose it does." He lifted his hand, studying the scarab. "How marvelous, to think that in my hand I hold the blood of a god."

Durge glowered at this. "King Oru was not a true god. We heard the tale from the Mournish, who are descendants of his people. Oru was a sorcerer into whose veins entered thirteen spirits. He was powerful, yes, but he was only a man, not a god like Jorus or Yrsaia or Vathris."

"My good man," Jack said, looking up, "it was from the blood of Oru that Jorus, Yrsaia, and Vathris arose. They and all of the New Gods of the mystery cults."

Durge's mustaches pulled down. "But that's impossible."

"And have you made a particular study of the origins of gods, Lord Stonebreak? Do tell me more of your studies concerning gods."

Durge clamped his mouth shut.

Lirith reached out and stroked the scarab with a finger. "How can it be, Lord Graystone? How can Oru have been the father of the New Gods?"

Jack smiled at the witch. "I'm afraid I don't have all the answers, my dear. It was all very long ago, and well before my time. And it wasn't just Oru-it was all the sorcerers. Do you know of the cities of Amun, which were raised in the far south eons ago?"

She nodded. "They were home to sorcerers and ruled by the god-kings. One of the most powerful cities was Morindu the Dark, which was ruled by Oru. But after the thirteen morndari entered his body, Oru fell into an endless slumber, and his priests ruled in his name. And then there was a great conflict, in which the sorcerers rose up against the god-kings, and the god-kings tried to smite them, and all of Amun was laid waste."

"Yes, that's right," Jack said. "And in the destruction of Amun, the blood of countless sorcerers was spilled, so that the great river Emyr ran red with it, and the land was stained dark. In the end, the course of the Emyr was changed, so that it flowed north, not south, and Amun became a desert, and those who survived fled. But the blood of power remained in the soil. And the soil became dust. And the dust blew out over the world, and people breathed it, and ate it, and took it inside them grain by grain over the centuries."

Lirith's eyes were wide with wonder. "But what did it do to them, to the people?"

"I think it gave them the power to believe." Jack let the scarab crawl into his other hand. "Of course, one person alone could never have breathed enough dust to amount to anything much. Nor a dozen people, or even a hundred. But when thousands came together and believed in the same thing...well, my dear, that was when magic happened."

Understanding sizzled in Travis's brain. "So when enough people believed in a god, that god became real."

"In a way," Jack said. "Although I think it's a bit more complicated than that. You see, the mystery of each cult tells how one man or woman was transformed into a god. I think those people must have been different somehow. Perhaps they were more sensitive to the ancient dust, or consumed more of it. People like King Vathris, and the young huntress Yrsaia."

And Melia, Travis thought, who escaped betrothal to a tyrant by marrying the moon.

The gold spider perched on the tip of Jack's finger. "The blood of the mysteries is right here in my hand," he said softly. "And it's in every one of us, just waiting to become something wonderful, if only we believe."

Travis felt a tingling course through him. He glanced at Lirith and Durge, but the witch seemed lost in thought, a hand to her breast, and the knight gazed down at his gnarled hands. Travis reached out, and the scarab crawled back onto his palm.

"Jack, there's something we need to know-is there a way we can get back to our own time?"

"Why, don't you like this one?"

Travis bit his lip. "It's fine. It's just not ours, that's all. There are people who will miss us." In his mind he pictured a tall blond man with a brilliant smile. However, the image kept wavering, becoming a woman with golden eyes before flickering back. "Please."

"Well, it's simple enough. You're a runelord, Travis. And a good one, I might add, since it's my ability you've got in you. All you have to do is break the rune of time."

"And where could I find the rune of time?"

"You don't have one?"

"I'm fresh out," Travis said through clenched teeth.

"Oh, dear," Jack said. "That was always a tricky one to make. It took a good number of us to bind, so we never had many of them. Let me think." He tapped his brow. "It was all so long ago-things can get a bit foggy after seven centuries. And it was not long after we all fled Malachor that I used the Stone to come here, to Earth. But I did manage to speak with a band of apprentices, those who favored the art of runebreaking. They told me they were going to raise a tower at the western tip of the Fal Sinfath. They had a good number of artifacts in their possession. I'm quite certain a bound rune of time was among them. You could go to their tower."

"To the Black Tower of the Runebreakers?" Travis said, and Lirith shot him a startled look.

"Weren't they evil?" the witch said. "The Runebreakers. Didn't they destroy things?"

Jack gave her a sharp look. "Really, my dear, I would think a daughter of Sia of all people would know there can be no sowing without reaping, and no creation without destruction."

Lirith said nothing, but Travis could still feel her eyes boring into him.

"Is it not dangerous to break runes?" Durge said.

"Oh, yes," Jack said excitedly. "Quite dangerous. Why, the apprentices I met, the ones who were going to raise the tower and study runebreaking, had some artifacts of terrible power and peril. It's a wonder, really, that they didn't do something horrible."

Durge scowled. "Like what?"

"Like breaking the rune of sky and opening a crack in the world. Trust me, my good man, that's something you don't want to do. All sorts of horrible and nameless things lurk just beyond the boundaries of the world. They've been there for eons, only waiting for a chance to get in."

Travis looked at Durge and Lirith. "We have to go to the Black Tower of the Runebreakers. If the rune of time is anywhere, that's where it'll-"