But with each flash of lightning, as though the space between blinks was another world, Kel was taken back to that night in Noreela City.

THE THUD SHATTERED one of the Dog's Eyes's windows, cracked the floorboards, shook the door in its frame, sent several wine bottles tumbling from the shelf behind the bar to smash at Neak's feet and sent a heavy shock wave up through Kel's feet and spine.

The rain and wind did not lessen—with the smashed window, the noise from outside increased—but for a few beats after the thud, the interior of the tavern was almost silent. It felt as though the ground itself had moved.

“What in the Black was that?” a voice said. The thought spoken, a ripple of surprise ran around the tavern, and a beat later most people were on their feet and heading for the door.

“That wasn't wind,” Namior said.

“And no wave, either,” Mella said.

Trakis raised a mug and drained it of ale, then he stood and nodded at the door. “Shall we?”

Kel felt a sudden chill of fear, a realization that nothing was safe and that his world—anyone's world—could be opened up and taken apart at any time. He had liked Pavmouth Breaks when he first arrived, and over the years he had grown to love it, but he always knew that safety and contentment were merely a thin veneer over the random cruelties of which nature was capable.

“Kel?” Namior said. She had remained close to him, and now he saw that strange look again, the one the others had not noticed before.

“What is it, Namior?” Mella said.

Namior looked at her two friends, then across at the broken window. Raindrops spat in. A dozen people had gone outside by now, but none of their voices were audible above the storm. “My mother and grandmothers . . . They were worried, that's all.”

“And you?” Kel asked.

She shrugged. “I'm still young. Felt nothing. But if they're worried . . .”

“Then so are you?” Mella finished for her. Namior nodded.

Trakis placed his mug gently on the table, and none of them drank.

Someone burst back into the tavern, her hair made mad by the wind and rain plastered across her eyes and in her mouth. She wiped her face and Kel saw her eyes, the mixture of excitement and fear driving them wide. He'd seen such a look many times before, and he knew exactly what it meant: she had seen something she had never seen before.

“Something coming!” the woman said. “Out to sea, something out there, dark and big and fast!”

“What is it?” Mella asked.

“Don't know. Something.”

“Come on,” Kel said. He grabbed Namior's hand as the four of them headed for the door, skirting around the woman who evidently no longer wished to see.

“The ground's still moving,” Trakis said as he pulled the door open and stepped outside.