Ramarro's escape

Eyes ablaze, Ramarro held the white fragment of the Founding Stone above his head, the stone perhaps twenty feet above the temple floor.

  “Until we meet again,” Ramarro said, his voice triumphant. “It will not be long.”

  The fiery whirlwind around the torivor sped up. Ramarro appeared more tangible than ever, his form solid and dark except for those incandescent eyes.

(Additional text cut)

  “Can you stop him?” Cole asked. “Can I? Can we?”

  “It’s too late to prevent Ramarro’s escape from the Fallen Temple. He is already on his way to the physical world. Destiny’s power provided the bridge he needed. Once in the Outskirts, his chunk of the Founding Stone will enable him to travel elsewhere.”

  “Last time I energized the Founding Stone, didn’t you banish him?” Cole asked.


  “When we met previously, Ramarro was using the Founding Stone to communicate,” Dandalus said. “When you energized me, I was able to interrupt that communication. Ramarro could not bring his power to bear against me from his prison in the echolands. But once part of him crosses to the physical world, I will not be strong enough to stop him from using the stone to transport himself out of the Fallen Temple.”

  “Can I get the stone from him?” Cole asked.

  “Too late,” Dandalus said. “Ramarro is already more in the physical Outskirts than the echolands. When I return you to the timestream, Ramarro will be gone before you can act.”

  Cole slumped. “Then we lost?”

  Dandalus smiled. “Not yet. Though I can’t stop Ramarro from using the Founding Stone to exit the Fallen Temple, he is now in a somewhat precarious situation. Having brought that piece of the Founding Stone to the echolands, it cannot return. He must use it with one foot in the physical world, and one in the echolands. As soon as he uses the stone to exit the Fallen Temple, he will lose his hold of the fragment. If you keep the fragment energized, at that crucial instant, I should be able to alter his destination.”

  Cole got excited. “Could you change his destination right back to the Fallen Temple?”


  “Perhaps, but it would be the Fallen Temple in physical Necronum,” Dandalus said. “The connections of the Founding Stone do not extend into the afterlife. The temple was designed to hold Ramarro on the echolands side. If a disciple brought him another piece of the Founding Stone, he would be able to go anywhere. It would not take long to do so.”

  “Isn’t trapping him for a little while better than nothing?” Cole asked.

  “It would be,” Dandalus said. “But I have another destination in mind.”

  “Oh!” Cole said. “The Lost Palace?”

  “No,” Dandalus said. “We worked a lot of specific holdings and bindings to keep Trillian at the Lost Palace. If I just drop Ramarro in there, he would escape in no time.”

  “Then where?”

  “Back when we were dealing with the torivors, one of my fellow framers of the Outskirts was a man called Kendo Rattan. He was the first Grand Shaper of Creon, and he created a vault called the Void as a possible prison for one of the torivors. In the end, we went with the Lost Palace and the Fallen Temple.”

  “Will the Void hold him?” Cole asked, his hopes resurging.


  “It will for a time,” Dandalus said. “We never combined our efforts to perfect it, but it remains a unique and effective container. Ramarro will find himself floating at the center of an empty space, with no way to set himself in motion, reliving the same looping millisecond over and over again. If he gets himself moving, the space in that vacuum is designed to always return him to the center, no matter what direction he travels. And each millisecond, he would return to the center as well.”

  “That sounds pretty good,” Cole said.

  “Kendo was extremely talented,” Dandalus said. “There would be no material within reach for Ramarro to shape, and all his efforts would be undone each millisecond. But he would be in the physical Outskirts, with access to the fullness of his powers. If he can learn to reshape time or space fast enough, he could theoretically work his way free. He would have as long as he needed to practice.”

  “How long will the Void hold him?” Cole asked.

  “I can’t say,” Dandalus said. “Unless I’m a fool, days certainly. Weeks probably. Months possibly. Years if we’re lucky. Almost anyone else would have no chance of ever escaping unless they had outside assistance.”

  “Will his followers break him out?” Cole asked.

  “We’ll have a couple of advantages,” Dandalus said. “The first is his followers won’t know where he is. The second is the Void is deliberately located in the farthest reaches of Creon, in a location both secret and difficult to access. I have all the physical Outskirts at my disposal. If I could move Ramarro anywhere, I would put him in the Void.”

  “Sounds good to me,” Cole said.

  “There is a chance I will fail,” Dandalus said. “But I believe I can do it. After I return you to the timestream, use the piece of the Founding Stone to converse with me again. I can tell you whether I succeeded, and we can form plans together.”

  “Okay,” Cole said. “To make sure I have it all clear, you’ll send me back to the timestream, and I’ll try to keep the piece of the Founding Stone energized.”

  “Yes,” Dandalus said. “Without your power, I will be unable to interfere. Are you ready?”

  “No pressure,” Cole muttered. “Yeah, we better do it.”

  “I’m counting on you,” Dandalus said. “Keep the rope in contact with the stone and keep the power flowing.”

  “You got it,” Cole said.

  Dandalus winked. “See you soon.”

  Cole was back. Ramarro vanished almost instantly. Cole wasn’t sure if he actually saw him for a split second, or just remembered seeing him before taking his break with Dandalus. The flames snuffed out, but the sparkling wind of Destiny’s power kept twirling. The golden rope still clung to the piece of the Founding Stone. Still pushing his power into the fragment, Cole willed the rope to retract, bringing the stone to him.

  “What happened?” Jace cried out. “Is he gone?”

  Looking over his shoulder, Cole found that all his friends were unfrozen. He supposed that made sense. Ramarro was no longer there to bind them.

  “He escaped,” Cole said. “But we may have sent him to a new prison. Let me check.”


  Cole focused on the stone fragment and returned to the white vision where Dandalus awaited.

  “Well done,” Dandalus said. “Ramarro is in the Void. He will be baffled for the first while. I wish I could see his face, but after placing him inside, I severed all contact between the Founding Stone and the interior of the Void. It should help ensure he has no foothold to the outside world.”

Chapter 37