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the hairs on the back of my neck
stood up. Elias and Woltan must have felt it too,
because they kept looking up at the line every few seconds. Nothing grew on the
path itself, just smooth stone, and none of the plants to either side
encroached upon it either. On both sides there was thick forest; we could only
see a few feet both directions. Strange noises came from far off in the
distance, and was glad it was still morning; I wouldn’t have liked to imagine
what this would be like at night.
    We walked quickly and in silence for around half
an hour. I figured that the line must be at least two miles long.
    A gate appeared up in the distance and I hurried
towards it. I came to the trail end and shook my head. Kara was right behind
me, and she looked at me, and then at the gate, and then at me again.
    “It’s not the same gate, is it?” said Kara.
    I shook my head again. The other gate had been
square, and the runes had been different. This one was round, and part of me
knew what the runes meant; I could reach out and activate them, but I didn’t
even know what that would do, or what the purpose would be. “There must be
several paths into the city. We may be several miles away from where we thought
we would be.”
    Elias came up behind me and looked at the runes.
“This is the east gate. I’m not sure what gate you came in on.”
    Woltan spoke then. “They
came in through the great gate, by the great courtyard.”
    Elias nodded. “The west gate.”
    Kara and I groaned. “We’re several miles off
course,” she said.
    She pulled something out of her bag. It was a
book. It took me a moment to realize it was not just a book, it was the book. The book Kara had stolen from the spice shop, starting off the chain of
events that had left me with strong magic, but also parents who couldn’t wake
up.
    “Is that it? The book of Id?”
    Kara hushed me with a finger to his lips. “There
is a map,” she said, then.
    She opened the book, not letting me see the pages.
Slowly and carefully she turned them, then opened the book wide so we could all
see. There was a colorful map of the old city, and the forest around it. There
were the eight lines that ran out from the city; you could see the one we must
have stumbled upon. There was the circular gate at the end, and the label:
Eastern Transporter. There were markings all round the old city, of places I
had never heard of, but Kara was examining the map intently. “Here,” she said,
pointing to a small X on the map where it was marked Rangers Outpost. “This
stream, these hills, there is no mistaking it. This is where we live, we Kriek . Although why it is marked so, I have no idea.”
    She found another spot. It was farther to the
north, and there was a mountain there. “Here, inside this mountain, is where
the dark lord lives.”
    “And the glass castle?” I asked.
    “Here,” she said, pointing. “On the far side of
the mountain.”
    Woltan nodded. “If the
map is right, we must continue east through these woods, and come to an old
stone road. We will have to cross a river. I wish we had a way to keep going
eastward. There was ancient magic to find one’s way, but we of the old city
have not traveled for hundreds of years.”
    That was when Cullen spoke up. “I know little of
magic, but much of iron. My master was even more skilled. And he handed down to
me a little steel device called a compass. Perhaps it can be of use.”
    He went through his bag, then pulled out a
disk-like object, with a needle inside it, that moved back and forth.
    “How does it work?” I asked.
    Cullen shook his head. “That, I know not. I know
only that the needle inside always points towards the far north.”
    Karsten laughed. “Talk
about a bag of tricks! I wonder what else you have in there, smith.”
    Cullen smiled. “A number of treasures. But none
perhaps as valuable as this little round device — or as the sword on my side.”
    I nodded. It was quite a blade, and it