"Then, Jehral," Ella said. "If we're going to cross the desert and potentially face this creature, I suggest you give us our possessions back."

18

18

KILLIAN once more sat in the same tavern, The Light Shines Above, again glaring up at Stonewater. He took a perverse satisfaction from drinking here, with priests and templars coming and going and scenes from the Evermen Cycles on the walls. A placard advertised, The Evermen Shall Return! Not in my lifetime, Killian thought.

He now knew why Evrin had left him, and where the old man had been all this time, but he was no closer to discovering Evrin's present whereabouts. He'd returned to the Temple of the Sky day after day, but there was still no sign of the old man, no message telling him where he should go or what he should do next.

He again considered what he knew, and what he'd learned from Zavros.

Evrin wanted to destroy a book of the Evermen. Instead, the Primate now had the book. Evrin had been imprisoned, but he had escaped from the dungeons and disappeared.

Killian knew that whatever knowledge Evrin had tried to destroy, it must be important, and that Killian needed to do all he could to help the old man. Wherever he found Evrin, he would find the book, and wherever he found the book, he would find Evrin.

Killian looked up at the mountain, home of the Primate, and suddenly planted his tankard on the wooden table as it hit him.

Wherever he found the book, he would find Evrin.

The Primate had the book.

Killian needed to find the Primate.

He gulped down the dark beer in his tankard and left a coin on the table, dashing out to the street.

Killian's new found enthusiasm waned. The Primate had left on some errand, and Zavros hadn't said where he was going, or when he would be back in Stonewater, if he even knew.

Who would know where next the Primate would be? Zavros had said Killian would never find him, that the Primate had gone on a journey. Where could the Primate have gone? To Halaran in the west? Petrya in the south? Tingara in the north? When he returned from his journey, would it be back to Stonewater? Or would it be to Seranthia?

Killian turned and walked back into the tavern, sighing. When he reached the bar he scanned the bottles of dark liquid on the top shelf.

"You look like you could use a drink," the barman said. "What'll it be?"

Killian opened his mouth to order, and then had a thought. "You get a lot of people from the Assembly through here, don't you? Templars and the like?"

"Are you kidding?" The barman raised an eyebrow, inclining his head at the men in white grouped around the clean wooden tables.