Page 194 of Keldori By Daybreak

“There’s no way,” Tiernan said at the top of the stairs. “We can’t. That’s not survivable.”

“The tide’s rising. It’s the only way.” Iseult walked along the lip of the rock with a new leg in place, staring down into the bright light below her.

“What’s not survivable?” I caught my breath as I came up the steps to meet them, and then staggered to a stop as that breath immediately fled me.

The rock island was perfectly circular, stretching about fifty yards in diameter. Its interior was hollow, like a giant bowl, and full of swirling Skal. The Skal shifted, stirred by invisible currents. The narrow walkway that rimmed the pool was only three feet wide, and a strange, rambling line carved deep into the rock.

Orla ventured out on a man-made spit of cobbled stone that reached into the center of the pool. The end of the spit sat directly under the roof’s apex. Orla looked up at the spot of sky above her, and then frowned at the Skal at her feet.

“Iseult,” she said, “please tell us this isn’t the way.”

Iseult shook water off of Mom’s notebook. “We knew it would be dangerous.”

“Is it that much more dangerous than water?” I asked.

“Skal is impossible to swim in,” Ciarán explained. “When we jump in, it will either take us to Keldori, or we will drown. We’re betting our lives on Lyria’s journal.”

“Oh.” Another explosion rocked the cage, this one closer than the last. “Then who’s first?”

Orla held a foot out over the water, but Iseult called for her to wait.

“There should be a sword somewhere,” she said, scanning the rounded walkway. “There!”

She hurried around the circumference of the island until she came to a rusted longsword where it stuck from the rock. It looked similar to the one Lysanor had kept in Lyria’s collection, though the salt water air had corroded the metal significantly.

“What’s that do?” Tiernan asked.

“Lyria wrote that she used her sword to navigate the doorway,” Iseult explained. “The door doesn’t let out into the same place in Keldori every time. We can adjust the exit with this.”

“But how?” Tiernan asked.

“I—I don’t know,” Iseult admitted.

“No time,” Tiernan said. “Caitria will be here soon.”

“And the tide is still rising,” Iseult sighed.

When I looked back at the stairs I’d just climbed, the water had indeed climbed halfway up behind me.

“We have to make time,” I said. “Lyria would visit Europe. That’s half a world away from where we’re going. How do we adjust it?”

“Europe, whatever Europe is, will have to do,” Iseult shot back. “Orla, wait for me.”

“Is it this line?” I stepped back from the edge of the pool, noting the line carved into the stone at our feet.

It traced a haphazard path through the rock, too deep to be accidental, and too random in its shape to be inconsequential. Another explosion shook the cavern, and Ciarán held me steady.

“Wren, we’re going!” Iseult said. “We’ll figure it out when we get to Keldori!”

“We won’t have time! We won’t have passports, and we’ll probably get arrested!” I shot back, still trying to make sense of the line. There were slits every five feet or so where the sword would fit. “What does the notebook say about this line?”

“It doesn’t. Which means it wasn’t important enough for Lyria, so it definitely doesn’t matter now.”

“It absolutely matters! This will all have been for nothing if we don’t land close enough to Keel Watch!”

There.

The distinct shape of a boot, etched plain as day in stone.