Chapter 10 | Part 4

After three hours, the lamp was smoking and Balin had shifted from one foot to the other until Dulint told him to sit.

The cube’s heat came in steps. Dulint felt each change from a little farther away.

Dulint held his hand near it.

“Warmer again.”

Balin looked down to the street.

“Nothing.”

“Street isn’t the only approach,” Eldric said.

He checked the stairs.

Xandor kept one copied fragment open beside the cube.

“Anything useful?” Eldric asked.

“One account claims a Sense artifact changed behavior during hostile contact.”

“Claims?”

“Damaged text. Uncertain translation. I wouldn’t stake a life on it.”

“Good.”

Xandor looked at him.

“You have asked me that three times. The page has not improved.”

“Tell me if it does. I need to know whether to draw steel.”

Footsteps sounded below. One dragged slightly after the other.

Eldric’s hand went to his knife.

The cube heated sharply.

Dulint stepped back.

Balin turned from the window.

The footsteps climbed.

No rush.

No attempt at silence.

Eldric moved half a pace away from the doorframe, keeping his knife hand clear.

The door, still ajar, moved against Eldric’s hand.

A young woman stood there with grass in her hair and mud dried along one sleeve.

She looked exhausted enough to fall.

“You’re the source,” she said.

No one answered.

“The screaming.” Her eyes found the cube. “That’s it.”

The heat coming from the metal increased.

Xandor looked from the woman to the cube, then put his copied fragment face down.

“Who are you?” Dulint asked.

“Maris.”

“You followed that here?”

“I followed the thing screaming in my head.”

“Are you a seer?” Dulint asked.

Maris looked at him.

“I’m a woman who falls over and sees things.”

Dulint accepted the correction.

“What do you see?” Eldric asked.

Maris looked at him.

“Black water. There’s a boat, and someone going under beside it.”

“Same vision?”

“Again and again.”

“When?”

“I don’t know.”

“Past?”

“I don’t know.”

“Future?”

“I said I don’t know.”

Eldric nodded.

He took his hand away from the knife.

Xandor looked at the cube.

“It turned toward the stairs before you arrived.”

“Toward her?” Eldric asked.

Maris followed their gaze.

“What?”

“We were trying to find what it followed,” Xandor said. “It grew hotter while you approached. I would like to know whether it cools when you move away.”

Maris rubbed both hands over her face.

“I don’t care what your books call it. I want it to stop.”

The cube pulsed once.

Maris gripped the doorframe. Her face drained; she had to swallow twice before she could breathe evenly.

“So do I,” Dulint said. He moved the cube to the far end of the table.

Balin pulled out a chair.

Maris looked at it as though sitting might be a trap.

Her legs shook when she let go of the frame.

She sat.

End of Chapter 10.4 —> 10.5: The Knot at Riverhold: The Circle