The light was warm, and all chill and dampness from the rain left. At last, the light dimmed and flew away to a pinpoint—one star among many in the darkness that seemed to stretch to forever all around her.
Antoinette now walked on a gray stone path. She felt light, almost as if she were floating. She began to hear voices, many voices, like echoes of all the conversations of history. But one voice rose above them all.
And though she did not recognize the language, she felt it was calling her. It was the voice of her King, and she knew it like a child knows the voice of her father. His voice drew her along, and she followed.
The darkness on both sides of the path began to flicker. Images arose—huge, vivid, moving images. Antoinette felt a tiny scratching in the back of her mind. Had Aidan said anything about this?
The first vision was of a deep forest where immense dark trees grew. In the center of the forest was a marvelous tree, older and taller than the rest. Its vast canopy suddenly withered and became smoke from the fiery cauldron of a volcano. Molten rock ran red down cliffs and into a cratered landscape spiked with jagged stone.
The vision changed again, and one dark crater became a tomb. Its door wrenched free and splintered. The vault was empty except for a rectangular altar of white marble in the exact center of the floor. The tomb vanished, but the white altar rested now on a wide balcony overlooking a sleeping city.
Suddenly, something blacker than night fell from the sky and shattered the white altar. It was a stone. In quick succession, another fell on the balcony. There was a marking in red on the stone. Soon stones like the first began to rain down from the sky, and the vision changed.
There were many visions, one after the other, accelerating so that Antoinette could not follow them all.
It is too much for you, an icy voice whispered. You will fail.
Aidan had told Antoinette of the voice that had warned him off of the path. She tried to ignore the voice, determined not to listen.
She looked at the path ahead. It was narrow.
Come, my darkness will save you, the voice called.
Antoinette did not veer right or left, but focused on maintaining her straight course. And there ahead was a window in the night.
You will not escape the storm again, the voice warned her.
With all her strength, Antoinette lunged for the window.
