Early the next morning, before the sun had risen and before Lillandra and Shell were even awake, Arai crept out of their room and out of the inn, and made his way up the street, into Addisport's business district. He had spotted a sign as they were making their way through town earlier -- though he couldn't read the Addish language, he understood the sign well enough, for it featured a man floating above the earth with his arms spread, and with tongues of fire arising from each of his fingers. He had seen that symbol before, around Addis -- it was the sign of a sorcerer.

He entered the shop, which had apparently just opened. A young man, perhaps fifteen or sixteen years old, was sweeping up the floor; he looked up when he saw Arai.

"Ah, welcome!" he exclaimed. "I'm afraid Master Aliar isn't awake yet, but if you could wait just a few minutes..." He grabbed a chair and sat Arai down on it, before he could even think to protest. "My name is Reid. I'm the master's apprentice. What can we help you with today? Would you like a glimpse into your future, perhaps?" He glanced at Arai's sword, frowning. "You're not looking for a battlefield mage, I hope. Master Aliar doesn't do that anymore."

"Not at all," he said, looking around the shop. It looked more like someone's living room than a place of business. "I just have some questions I'd like to ask."

"Questions?"

"About magic, and how it works."

"I see." He was obviously disappointed, but he shrugged and said, "Very well. As we have no other customers at the moment, and as I have nothing better to do right now...go ahead, ask away."

"Are you a sorcerer?"

"I'm an apprentice," he affirmed.

Arai supposed that was good enough. "What do you know about petrification spells?"

He blinked. "Petrification?"

"You know, turning a person to stone."

"You want to turn a person to stone?" he asked doubtfully.

"I want to restore to life someone who's already been turned to stone. Is that possible?"

"I don't know."

"I thought you were a sorcerer," he said, "or an apprentice, anyway."

"I am," he said defensively. "But turning someone to stone, or turning them back..." He shook his head. "Those are extremely difficult enchantments. Only one sorcerer in a thousand is capable of performing a calculation that complex, and they require huge amounts of magia. Master Aliar can levitate, kindle a fire, see a few days into the future, and concoct a few different kinds of sedatives and love philtres, but a petrification spell...I don't think so." He frowned. "Do you really know someone who's been turned to stone?"

"Two people, actually. They were transformed right in front of me."

He snorted. "Forgive me for doubting."

"The sorceress who cast the spell used a zemi," he added.

"Where in the world did she find a zemi like that?"

"She made it."

"Ha! Now I know you're joking."

"It's true," Arai insisted. "She specializes in zemi. She's made an Eagle's Wing, a Stone of Many Tongues..."

"What are those?"

Arai, rapidly losing patience, explained that the Eagle's Wing had given Lillandra the power to teleport from place to place, and that the Stone of Many Tongues had allowed them to speak and understand Addish. The young sorcerer was skeptical, but the more Arai spoke, the more intrigued he seemed to grow. "These are very sophisticated spells," he confessed. "People sometimes find old zemi with those kinds of spells built into them, but they're rare, and there's usually not much magic left in them. This woman, if she really exists, must be a very talented sorceress indeed."

"Indeed," Arai said dryly. "But she claims to be the only one who can reverse the petrification spell she cast. Is that true?"

He thought about it. "Not necessarily. You said she used a zemi?"

"Yes."

"It depends on the zemi, then. Even amateur sorcerers can call upon the spells contained within zemi -- there's no casting or calculation involved there; it's just a matter of drawing out the spell. If she included some kind of reversible element in that spell, just about any sorcerer could undo the petrification. I could undo it."

"But you'd need the zemi."

"Yes. What happened to it?"

"It was destroyed."

"Ah. Well, that would complicate things, wouldn't it? The spell would need to be recast, in that case, and as I said, there's probably only a handful of sorcerers in the world capable of performing a calculation that complex. Unless you can convince the Aeromancer to help you, this sorceress -- again, if she actually exists -- is probably your best bet at reversing the spell."

"I see." Lillandra had been telling the truth, then -- she was, for all practical purposes, the only one capable of restoring Odo and Maya to life.

He wondered, idly, if Silus might be able to break the spell. His sword cancelled out all kinds of magic, but if the magic it faced was especially subtle, or especially simple, it sometimes faltered, as it had when he had fought Nharlek's monster in the Haunt. What would happen if he used the sword on Odo and Maya? Would it return them to normal? Or would it cancel out their lives, making their transformation permanent? He had no way of knowing.

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"Thank you for your help," Arai said, getting to his feet. "One more thing. Would your master be interested in buying some zemi? We discovered a cache of them in an old castle a couple of weeks ago."

"It depends. What do you have?"

Arai told him about the Witch's Dagger, the Mermaid's Glass, the Badge of Deflection, and Lillandra's Stone of Many Tongues. He had to go into some detail, though, describing the spells each of them contained, because the names Lillandra had given them were not the same ones Reid used.

"We have Throwing Daggers and Arrow Skippers," Reid said, referring to the Witch's Dagger and the Badge of Deflection. "Those are fairly common zemi. A zemi that allows a person to breathe underwater might be useful, however, and this Stone of Many Tongues...Master Aliar would definitely be interested in that, I think. I've never even heard of such an enchantment. Do you have it with you?"

"I left it at the inn," he said, "but I could bring it by later."

"I'll tell Master Aliar. He'd be willing to pay at least five or six gold for something like that, I'm sure, although I wouldn't presume to speak for him."

"Excellent."

And with that, Arai left the shop. He was pleased -- he had discovered the truth, more or less, about Lillandra's petrification spell, and he was in a position now to make five or six gold from the sale of the Stone of Many Tongues. Lillandra had already cast the spell on the three of them, so they no longer had any use for the Stone anyway; it was the least valuable of the zemi they carried. The Mermaid's Glass might have been useful, but if they could sell that for a few gold as well, they might actually have enough to pay for their passage to Galleus. In fact, if he could make these sales quickly enough, they might even be able to catch the Cockatrice before it left port. Suddenly realizing that time was of the essence, he started jogging back to the inn.

He made it there a few minutes later, and was just about to burst through the door, when he nearly collided with Shell, who was just stepping out. He was surprised to see her there, and even more surprised to see that her green eyes were rimmed with tears.

"Arai!" she cried, throwing herself into him. "Where were you? Where's Lillandra?"

"What? What are you talking about?"

"I didn't know where you'd gone! I thought you'd left me all alone in this city!" She sniffled a few times and looked around. "Where's Lillandra?"

"She's not here?"

"Neither of you were here when I woke up. Isn't she with you? Where have you been?"

"I had an errand to run. You're telling me Lillandra's disappeared?"

"I guess so," she said. "She took all her stuff, all the zemi we found at Nharlek's castle."

"Wonderful," Arai muttered. What was this about? Had Lillandra finally decided to flee from him?

He forced himself to think. Where would she have gone? Maybe she wasn't trying to escape; maybe she was looking for a place to sell the zemi. Had she gone to the business district, then? But if that was the case, why hadn't he seen her on the way back to the inn? "How long do you think she's been gone?" Arai asked Shell.

"I don't know. Like I said, both of you were gone when I woke up. That was about fifteen, twenty minutes ago."

"Come on." Acting on a hunch, Arai headed for the docks -- specifically, for the Cockatrice's berth, which was at the northern end of the harbor. If Lillandra wanted to escape him, her best bet would be the Cockatrice, which was set to leave that morning. If she managed to stow away on the ship...

The sun had just risen over the Bay of Vandals; it was a lovely sight, but the glare of it was almost blinding. Shielding his eyes with the blade of his hand, Arai -- with Shell following close behind him -- raced down the road, and down several sets of steps, almost colliding with a couple of stevedores on one occasion, before finally making it to the Cockatrice's berth. The ship, fortunately, was still docked, but there were sailors crawling over the rigging; they were obviously getting ready to set sail.

He spotted Lillandra standing near the gangway, speaking with Captain Burt, who was wearing a curiously vacant expression. Shell started to shout out to her, but Arai clamped a hand over her mouth and dragged her behind some cargo, out of sight of the two of them. "What are you doing?" Shell demanded when he released her.

"There's something funny going on here," Arai said, and he poked his head out from behind the crates, listening.

"And you're not going to charge me, either," Lillandra was saying. "But if anyone asks, I paid you in full before we departed. Do you understand?"

"I understand," Captain Burt answered, his voice monotone. His eyes were glazed over.

"You're going to give me my own cabin," she added. "Do you understand?"

"I understand."

Arai noticed that Lillandra was fingering something in her left hand, something that looked like a small stone.

"Is she planning on leaving without us?" Shell whispered. "What's she doing?"

"Magic," he muttered darkly. He emerged from hiding, stepping out from behind the cargo. "Lillandra!" he shouted.

She turned. Her eyes went wide when she saw him. Then, she ran.

"Lillandra!" he shouted again. He took off after her, Shell once again following close at his heels. "Stop!"

But she didn't stop -- instead she ran down the boardwalk, as fast as she could, then turned right and started running back into the city. Arai and Shell raced after her, jumping over coils of rope and weaving their way through crowds of sailors.

Lillandra was an extremely powerful sorceress, but she wasn't exactly a fast runner. Arai managed to catch up with her just as she attempted to dive into an alley -- he grabbed her wrist, first, and tried to spin her around to face him, but she tripped over a cobblestone and somehow or other both of them wound up falling into each other. Arai found himself on top of her, looking into her dark eyes; she glared back at him.

"What do you think you're doing?" he demanded.

"Get off me."

"Or what? You'll use your magic to bend me to your will?" He found her hand and managed to pry the stone out of it. "This is one of the zemi we found in Nharlek's castle," he said, holding it in front of her face. "The Eye of Domination. You told me it didn't work."

"Get off me."

"You were using it to hypnotize Captain Burt," he accused.

"Get off me!" she screamed.

He finally disentangled himself from her and allowed her to get to her feet. She dusted herself off, but made no attempt to run away. "Well?" Arai demanded. "What do you have to say for yourself?"

She straightened her shoulders and looked him in the eye. "Yes," she admitted. "I tried to...to influence Captain Burt."

"You were going to leave without us?" Shell asked quietly.

Lillandra's expression softened when she saw Shell. "I...yes, I was."

"Why?"

"Do you really have to ask?" She pointed at Arai. "He wants to kill me."

"I told you I wasn't going to kill you," Arai said wearily.

"Maybe you won't do it personally," she said, "but you'll hand me over to someone who will, as soon as we return to Velon. At the very least you'll throw me in a dungeon for the rest of my life. Do you deny it?"

"Lillandra..."

"I have to finish my work," she went on. "I have to return to the Nightfall, or the last hundred years will have been for nothing. I can't let you interfere."

"What work? What are you talking about?"

But she refused to answer that. Arai sighed. "Are you really so stupid? Suppose it had worked -- suppose you had managed to sail away on the Cockatrice without us. What then? Do you really think you can make it through Galleus and cross the Scarred Lands all by yourself?"

"I have to finish my work at the Nightfall," she muttered stubbornly.

Shell was hurt. "You were going to leave? Without even saying goodbye?"

Lillandra looked at her unhappily. "Shell, I..."

Arai drew his sword. Lillandra backed away from him, suddenly wary, but he reassured her: "I'm not going to hurt you," he said, even more wearily this time. He touched the Eye of Domination to the blade, cancelling out its magic, then tossed the now-useless zemi over his shoulder. "I've had enough excitement for one morning," he said, sheathing the sword again. "Let's return to the inn and talk things over. All right?"

The Night Queen looked at him glumly. "I don't understand you."

"Believe me," Arai muttered, "the feeling is mutual."