“Then again, all humans die,” Gabil said. “Sooner or later. Sooner if you make mistakes.”

He stared at them, then suddenly jumped up, swung one spindly leg around in a roundhouse kick similar to the one executed by Darsal, and landed with a Hayaa!

A sly smile split his face. “You like that? That’s how a real karate kick is done. And next time I’ll show you even more.”

He waited, expecting an encouraging response, so Silvie gave him one. “That’s good, Gabil. We look forward to it.”

“I knew it,” he said. “I told Michal you would need my help!”

He leaped into the air and swooped over the sand. He’d gone a hundred yards before circling back and yelling down at them, “The rock, look at the rock!”

And then he was gone.

Johnis looked around. “Rock?”

“Rock,” Silvie said, walking to a large, angular stone with a flat top jutting from the sand beside the pond. “This rock.”

They stood over it together, staring at words that looked as if they’d been etched into the surface a hundred years ago.

Beyond the blue another world is opened.

Enter if you dare.

In the west, the Dark One seeks Seven
To destroy the world.

A shiver passed through Johnis as he read the words. “ ‘Beyond the blue’?”

“A path,” Silvie said. “To the Dark One.”

Darsal stepped around the rock, studying the words. “I don’t like it.”

“I don’t think it really matters if you like it,” Johnis said. “We’re not here by accident.”

Silvie was still contemplating the riddle. “ ‘Beyond the blue?’ The sky’s blue.”

“So is the water,” Johnis said.

“It also says ‘Enter if you dare,’ ” Darsal said. “That doesn’t sound like an order to me. We have a choice.”

Johnis walked to the edge of the water, knelt down, and stared into the mirrored surface. His face looked back at him, smooth and tanned again. He impulsively closed his eyes and lowered his head into the pool. With no disease to heal, the cool water felt like nothing more than a pool of water, so he pulled himself out.

“Anything?” Silvie asked.

“Nothing.”

She knelt beside him, watching her reflection as the pool stilled again. “Did you open your eyes?”

“No.”

She stuck her face into the water, was still for a moment, then suddenly jerked it out, gasping.

“What?”

“Eyes of Elyon, it’s . . . There’s something inside!”

Without waiting to hear any further explanation, Johnis and Darsal both plunged their heads underwater.

The deep pool below exploded with light. The light vanished as quickly as it had appeared, but now something else filled Johnis’s vision: a black void, and at the center of that void a single Book of History, crackling with light, as if the light was trying to get out.