“None of us is without blame,” Johnis said. To Darsal: “You have my word, I’ll track him to the ends of the desert if need be.”

“Then you know there’s only one way,” she said.

Silvie frowned. “Say how?”

“Forbidden or not, dangerous as you might think, we have to match Billos’s ambition or folly or whatever caused him to step past the barrier.”

“Follow him?” Johnis said.

Darsal came closer, using her hands to express urgency. “You can’t follow him into the desert, Johnis, because Billos didn’t go into the desert. He went into the books! We have to find a book and follow him before it’s too late.”

“Too late for what?”

“Don’t tell me you didn’t see the Dark One the last time we touched the books.”

“Teeleh,” Silvie said, speaking about the leader of the Shataiki bats. “Or Alucard, his general.”

“Or Witch,” said Johnis. The Horde high priest. “But we can’t just throw ourselves in because Billos did.”

“Why not? You demanded that we follow you. And I doubt very much that Billos just disappeared from here to reappear with Teeleh or Witch. He’s not in the desert; he’s in another place altogether.” She stomped for her horse, her mind clouded by her own need to find Billos. “We’re wasting time!”

“Slow down,” he snapped. “Even if we did agree to throw ourselves into the hole the way Billos did, we don’t have a book. You can’t just pluck one off the nearest ‘original Books of History’ tree.”

Darsal spun back, started to tell him exactly what she thought of his cocky wit, then clamped her mouth and let her face grow red instead.

“He’s right,” Silvie said. “We have to continue the mission as if this hadn’t happened. Find the books, find Billos.”

“We can’t just continue the mission!”

“Then what?”

“We have to drop everything and go after another book,” Darsal cried.

“Exactly,” Johnis said. “That is the mission.”

“Now!”

“Yes, now. That’s what we’re doing. We’re trying to get past all this emotion of yours so that we can calmly discuss the most logical next step.”

“And that’s what you did to find your mother?” Darsal demanded. “Fine, why don’t we deceive a fighting group and get them slaughtered to find the next book. Is that the level of your commitment to Billos?”

“Enough!” Silvie stepped up, breaking their line of sight. “Both of you. You’re both right: we have to find a book, and we have to do it now, but we can’t run off into the desert without a plan. Think!”

She scowled at Darsal, then returned her attention to the center of the clearing. She walked around the rock.

“I can’t believe they all just vanished like that. It’s so . . .”

“Unnatural,” Johnis said, joining her.