Phoenix in Shadow - eARC by Ryk E Spoor Page A

knowing.”
    “Explain that,” Poplock said after a moment.
    The Wanderer rubbed his neck. “Hmm. How to put it... All right. Imagine that I had dropped by Pondsparkle a little before you guys hit your panic mode. I come in, let you know what’s going on, maybe give you some assistance in getting that group shut down. Then what happens?”
    Poplock scratched his head. “Well...”
    “Poplock doesn’t leave his hometown,” Tobimar said slowly. “Or at least he doesn’t leave it at the same time. So he’s not there in the Temple when I’m cornered.”
    Kyri felt a dull ache of grim understanding and continued for him. “So the two of them never meet, and aren’t there at the murder of the Sauran King. And don’t join with Xavier. So nobody’s there to distract Thornfalcon...”
    The Wanderer nodded slowly. “I don’t like the term ‘playing’ in this circumstance...but at the same time, it’s appropriate. We—including you—are playing a game of bluffs, of shadow-moves and strategies and tactics that interact with each other on a thousand layers. Even an apparent disaster may lead to victory, but if someone knows about that apparent disaster, they may choose the apparently better path, and lead us to real disaster. It’s bad enough that I know all of this!” The Wanderer slammed his staff down in frustration, an impact that echoed throughout the forge. “Do you think I don’t want to just set things right? Hell, it’s what I came here for . It’s my job .” He looked up, into a sky beyond the stone above. “But we don’t know everything, especially about our adversary, and one wrong word...could ruin it all.”
    Kyri closed her eyes. She thought she could—vaguely—understand what the Wanderer was trying to get across, and it was terrifying and frustrating at the same time. But...“Wanderer, can you tell me one thing?”
    He looked at her steadily. “I don’t know. Depends on the one thing. But ask.”
    She looked at her two friends, then took a breath. “Did Myrionar tell me truly otherwise? If...we have faith in this, will we come through? Can I truly have full measure of justice and vengeance, can I find the true enemy behind everything and take them down? Can we all survive this?”
    He looked at her steadily, his expression now so carefully controlled it gave away nothing. “I can answer that. You can come through. You can survive. But there is no certainty that you will , and much will depend on your choices—all of your choices. We don’t know all the details; Khoros doesn’t tell anyone everything—sometimes I wonder if he tells himself everything—Myrionar hasn’t revealed everything It knows to me, I’ve got secrets I can’t tell them, and of course our opposite numbers do their level best to tell us nothing at all. I can’t warn you, even if I wanted to, of many specifics. A lot of this really, truly is on your shoulders, not just a set of moves plotted out in advance. I honestly do not know exactly what waits for you in Moonshade Hollow...just that you three, and only you three, can face it and emerge to victory.
    “And that is all I can tell you.”
    Kyri felt for a moment that she might burst from the frustration, but then took a breath. Let it go.
    Tobimar looked little different, and she saw him do something very similar. “Well...I thank you for what you could tell us, sir,” he said. “You did, in fact, tell us some things that will be very useful. Being warned that our powers will be limited in the Hollow...it’s sure a lot better to know that ahead of time.”
    The Wanderer nodded, then smiled again. “Another minor correction...I didn’t say that all your powers would. Unless I miss my guess, your abilities should be very little affected, as yours—and your friend Xavier’s—are not, precisely, magical in origin, nor from some outside source like the gods.”
    “But I’d better prep and load up now,” Poplock said wryly, looking at his stuff spread