Again, the chortling laugh. “Yes, yes, your father’s son indeed. Stubborn. Bullheaded. One could never tell him anything. I once beat him in chess and he tried to break the board over my head.” He glances from me to Eko. “So, you two are an item?”

I recall that he was the one who prophesied that we would one day be married, and that our descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky. “No, sir,” I say. “We’re just friends.”

“Just friends?” he roars. “Are you blind?” Then he glances at Eko and sees her blush. “Never mind,” he says, “there’s time for all that later. Who ate your toe?”

At least the mastermind of the future is pretty good at changing the subject. “The colonel,” I answer.

“What colonel?”

“Colonel Aranha.”

“Colonel Piranha?” he repeats. “Speak up. I’m a little hard of hearing.”

“The Dark Lord. I don’t know what his name is, but I’m sure you know who I mean. He’s part man, part spider.”

The effect on the wizard is immediate. The laughter is gone. The merry twinkle vanishes from his eyes and is replaced by iron determination. “So he’s here? Have you seen him? But of course you have. No, you don’t have to explain anything. I can get it all from her.”

Eko freezes. Her head jerks up and her eyes roll into her head. I can tell he’s doing some kind of telepathic suction job, downloading all he needs to know. Then Eko’s head snaps back down, and she’s as good as new.

“Sheesh,” the wizard says, “what a mess! There’s no time to lose. Where’s that guy who woke me up? You can never find a good shaman when you need one.”

He calls something out to the old shaman, who is still hiding behind the stone statue. Apparently they like the same jokes, because the shaman goes from being terrified to laughing uproariously in about three seconds flat.

Next Kidah speaks to the old woman. She grins and answers back almost flirtatiously, and he purses his lips and then nods his understanding. “She’s staying,” he informs Eko and me. “She says she wants to die here. I told the old gal it looks to me like she still has a lot of dancing left in her, but I understand her choice.”

Finally he says a few words to the warriors, who immediately turn and start leading him through the trees toward the raft.

“Come,” he tells us, and for a guy who’s just awakened from a deep coma, he’s covering ground pretty fast. “Hurry. Every minute is precious.”

“Where exactly are we going?” I ask, struggling to keep up.