Kate studied the anteroom door. The person the old woman had met inside the chamber had terrified her, but the only way to get in touch with Tyreth was by going inside and walking past the broken door. And there wasn’t much time before Atiya would pull her back to the rebel caves.

With the master medallion, was it possible for her to open her own star peephole from inside the anteroom and check out the chamber? She touched it, and immediately the interior light from her anteroom pushed into the chamber. Her bangs swished as air was pulled from her entry and into the main chamber.

A rustle of sound reached her, then quiet. Kate edged to the right until she could see the far edge of the broken door. A scrap of cloth fluttered on the ground in front of the shattered opening. The shadows inside the chamber shifted as another star lit up on the far side of the chamber. The tattered cloth lifted gently off the ground, fluttered into the dark opening and disappeared into the dark floor. The breeze past Kate’s head stopped.

Touching her anteroom door open, Kate stepped tentatively over the threshold. The door with its glowing star was where she’d last seen Corvan. Crossing the chamber, she opened the star peephole.

This time Corvan was laying on his back in the center of his entry room, his arms folded over his bare chest. The exposed skin of his torso was blotched with bruises and dirt but at least he was wearing a pair of tattered shorts.

"Corvan?" Kate called softly.

Corvan lifted his head and his dull eyes lit up. As he stood to his feet, Kate found herself wanting to look away from the sight of him.

"Kate. I'm so glad to see you. Are you in the Cor?" Corvan said as he took a step closer.

"I’m here, but what has happened to you?"

"What do you mean?" Corvan looked down at himself and was visibly startled. He crossed his arms over the medallion hanging loosely on his chest. "Where am I? I thought we would only be able to talk through the medallions.”

"That’s not how they work. The medallion you are wearing brings you here in your sleep to meet with the others who also have them."

"Are you sleeping too? Why is your face inside that glowing medallion shape?"

Kate hesitated, then opened his anteroom door.

"Why are you are dressed for a wedding?” Corvan asked. “Did that rebel leader capture you again?"

"It’s not a wedding dress. We appear in this place dressed like . . . well, different." She glanced at Corvan then looked away. If the clothes you wore in the chamber showed how pure your heart was, something bad had happened to Corvan. Why would he appear here so dirty and with only shorts on? It had to be because of those seeds Atiya talked about.

She looked into his eyes. "Are you feeling all right?"

He shook his head. "I'm sick." Corvan ran a blue tongue over his cracked lips. It looked like he’d been sucking on a blue lollipop.

"Are you in the city?" Kate asked.

Corvan nodded, then shook his head. "Not Kadir. A different city, one you did not go to when you were here last time."

Kate stared at him. "I don't remember much about the last time because you never told me anything. Everyone down here talks to me like I know what's going on, but it's all like some crazy dream to me."

Corvan approached the door, but he was unsteady on his feet. Had he been drugged by his captors?

"I'm sorry, Kate. What could I tell you? You would have thought I was insane, and then your doctor said you could go crazy if I pushed you to remember. I was only doing what I was told to do. It wasn’t easy being the only one who knew what had really happened."

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Kate’s face flushed. "Why didn't you at least ask me some questions or tell me there was a reason I couldn't remember what happened to me? You could have at least been nice about it."

"But you couldn't remember anything at all, and I thought . . . well I thought the black band was still controlling you and you were taking the glowing medallion back to the evil person Tsarek calls ‘Him.’"

Kate stiffened as a jolt of memory came clear. She looked over her shoulder at the shattered door, lifting her hand and rubbing the ring of bruised skin.

"Do you just remember something?"

Kate looked back at Corvan with a gnawing sense someone was listening in from the black void. She lowered her voice. "I remember being here and someone else stood in that open doorway behind me. He demanded to know where you were and why you had taken my medallion away.” She stopped and took a deep breath. Her hands were trembling. “The he grabbed me. He had white gloves on."

"That must have been when you were in that deep sleep, it was like a coma and we could not wake you up. We were at Saray's house, and I took the medallion from you, just for a minute. Saray put the red seed from the mother plant in your hand; that's where your scar comes from. The power of that one small lumien seed brought you out of the coma. I was so relieved. I was sure you were dying."

Kate looked at the scar on her palm and a shiver ran through her body. She didn’t’ understand what he meant by the seeds, but the rest seemed familiar. "It must have been at the same time as he was pulling me into that broken door.” Kate’s eyes welled up with tears. “I was so afraid and there was no hope left and then your voice came to me. You held my hand and there was a bright surge of power and the white gloves let go. You told me. . . ." She choked up and a few tears rolled down her cheeks.

Corvan nodded. “That’s when I promised to take you back home and show you the stars. I gave you the medallion as we left the Cor, but then you got hurt in the mine and I couldn't leave the medallion with you at the hospital, so I took it home and hid it. Then they said you might never remember, and everything got all mixed up after that."

Kate wiped the tears away and studied Corvan face. As far as she could recall, Corvan said he loved her when he pulled her free from this place. Was her mind filling in the gaps with what she hoped was true? Pushing the thought away she pointed to his chest. "Where did you get your medallion?"

"A lady gave it to me. She asked me to take it straight to Tyreth but . . ."

"But what? Why do you need to see Tyreth so badly?"

Corvan looked at the floor. "It's a long story and it doesn't matter because I am in a different cavern, so I can't get back to Kadir to take it to her. I fell through the water at the abyss, but I don't think I can go back that way, because . . . "

"Because you're a prisoner?"

Corvan didn't reply.

"Did they catch you eating those seeds?" Kate asked.

Corvan's head snapped up and his eyes flashed. "Who told you that?"

"Atiya. She said you ate the seeds from those glowing light plants and that they are dangerous, and eating them is against the law."

Corvan’s expression softened. "Where did you meet Atiya? Is she safe?”

"Atiya’s with me in the rebel caves so she’s about as safe as I was when you left me here the last time. Is she right about those seeds? Did you eat them?"

Corvan gave his head a quick shake. "I'm okay. I can handle it."

"Then why do you look so sick? Your skin is white, and your eyes are darker.”

"This isn't how I look in real life. You said this place changes you, remember? It's not like you're a princess in real life either." Corvan flinched and looked over his shoulder. "Ouch."

"What's wrong?"

"Something is biting my face." He flinched again. “A bug or something.”

"Maybe someone is trying to wake you up. Listen to me, Corvan. We need your help. The Rebels are going to attack Kadir, and you need to warn Tyreth."

"What do they want with Tyreth?" His face twitched again and the light above him dimmed.

"The crazy rebel leader wants to marry her."

"The same one that tried to marry you?" His light flickered rapidly.

"Yes. Can you get a message to her?" Kate asked.

Corvan's head shook then vanished as the light in his anteroom went out.

Kate closed Corvan's door. Atiya was right. Corvan was in deep trouble. There was no way he could help them warn Tyreth about the invasion of Kadir; he was in desperate need of help himself.

A hot wind swept in from the dark door and swirled around the chamber. The scrap of cloth skated out of the opening.

Kate reached to grab it, keeping her eyes fixed on the darkened door beyond. The scrap was almost in reach when a sudden tug yanked her back into her own anteroom. The door to the chamber closed and the light overhead went out at almost the same time as Atiya face appeared over the edge of the blanket.

"We’ve got to get out of here,” Atiya said urgently. “Our guard was called away and the soldiers will be coming for you any minute."