"Yes, yes, I know that!" I snapped. He seemed to like to explain things I was doing wrong as much as my brother did. Well, Corwin, that is.
"He certainly knows a lot about our situation," Thord said.
"I can look back in time," the spirit said as if it was nothing. "I followed your threads. Anyway, as I said, those were all good ideas and mostly well thought out. But there is one thing you did not think of."
"Which is?" It was bothering me how this ethereal spirit seemed to be able to read my mind. I wondered if he'd feel it if I pinched him. Or punched him.
"You forgot giants are extremely secretive." He shook his head like it was a mistake only a green assassin would make.
"I didn't forget that!" I said. "We're looking for their island."
"My apologies. You didn't properly weight that fact in your calculations. Giants are naturally secretive." He said this rather slowly, accenting the last three words. "But giants who have been nearly wiped out by dragons are bound to be a thousand times more secretive."
"Are you getting to a point of some sort?" I asked. "Or will this be another of your famous soliloquies?"
"I was not aware that any of my former selves were famous for soliloquies." He considered this. "Oh, you were being sarcastic. One should expect that from the younger sibling."
"What? I'm not younger!"
He pointed at himself with an ethereal finger. "Which of us is a magic creature and knows the truth?"
I pointed right at him, too, threating to poke a finger right into his eye. "Well, you're a magic creature, yes. But you don't know the truth."
He grinned. "You are correct, sister. And it seems in this skinless, boneless form I can still get under your skin."
I let out a blast of my breath through my nostrils, hoping it would calm me down. "Will you please tell us where the land of giants is?"
"Is that your request?" he asked.
"Yes, yes," I said. "Tell us exactly where the giants live. We can't wait another moment to find them."
"Well, I will be as exact as I can," he said. His ethereal smile was aggravating. "I don't want you to get lost. Remember when I said they were secretive?"
"Yes, of course I remember that." I had one hand on my head and was feeling very much like tearing my hair out. "You just said it."
"You need not get testy, sister. You aren't talking to your actual brother, so let those jealous feelings go. You always treated him with disrespect."
"Disrespect?" I'm afraid a little spittle came out when I said the word. Along with a lot of anger. After everything he'd done to me. I made a fist.
"Well, I am just pointing out a pattern. But like I said, don't be upset with me. I'm the messenger. Nothing more and nothing less."
"Well then, give me the message!"
He pointed directly to the east. I looked in that direction and saw absolutely nothing but ocean. "There's no land there," I said. "Is this a jest? Did my brother send me his doppelganger in a ring just for a laugh?"
My brother's spirit shook its spirit head. "It is not a joke. The giants are very secretive. Especially so since they were attacked and forced to flee from the lands they once shared with the dragons. They found this new home and they... they hid it."
I stared in that direction again, closing my mortal eye. The ocean continued in the distance and there was nothing to be seen. Not even birds or anything else that might indicate an island.
"Oh wait," I said, for, as if my thoughts had summoned it, a bird appeared in the distance, high in the sky. It arced around and turned and dived. A seagull diving toward the water? And then the bird vanished as if it had just winked out. "I saw a bird there!"
"Yes. Yes. You're getting it," he said.
"Getting what?" Thord asked. "What is it she's getting? Because I am not seeing anything. There wasn't a bird."
"You just can't see that far," I explained. "But there was a bird and that means—"
"That the giants have placed a cloak-like spell on the land they live in," my brother's spirit haughtily finished the sentence for me. He held two fingers out like he was measuring a small beetle. "You are just about getting it."
"I did get it!"
"Well, you tell yourself what you need to believe." He rolled his eye. "But you are correct. They have vanished the whole land. It really is amazing; even the wizards and witches of Azadiq haven't tried that. A very impressive magical feat. But the land of giants is right there."
"I still see nothing," Thord said. "Are you certain this spirit copy of your brother isn't toying with us like the old days?"
"I saw the bird," I said. I turned to my astral brother. "Well—"
"You don't have to thank me, but I appreciate it."
"I wasn't going to thank you. I was curious about something."
"Which is?" he asked.
"The land is right here. We just happened to come out of the skies to that exact place? Why did that happen?"
He pointed at Carnda, and she made a little honk and a bit of a hiss. "She's the one who brought you out of the air, correct?" he said.
"Yes," I replied. Carnda had turned her head to look directly at me. "She did."
"Well, she may have smelled the land. Or sensed it. Or she's like one of those water witching rods that spell casters use to find water."
"You mean she brought us to the land of giants without me realizing?" I said. Carnda was still staring at me.
"Yes," the spirit said. "I think you're catching on."
"So we didn't need you to tell us," Thord said.
"Well, you did still need me. Because you likely would have taken off in some mad direction and poor Carnda would be hissing and squawking, trying to explain your stupidity to you. And believe me, it's hard to explain stupidity to the stupid."
I shook my head. Carnda looked ahead again, and I patted her neck. She really was an amazing mount, one of the best. I felt a momentary guilt for thinking that—I couldn't let Brax know I'd ever had that thought. He was more than a mount: we were partners. But he wouldn't have been able to find the invisible island. "So have we officially used up our second request with you?" I asked.
He put his hands out apologetically. "Yes. I am sorry to say."
"Then are we supposed to say goodbye now?" I asked.
"Yes," he said, and then before he said goodbye, he vanished.
"Well," Thord said. "I'm not sure he's an improvement on the various versions of your brother I've met so far. Can't we get Nameless back?"
"He's just an astral copy," I said, as if I knew exactly what he was. "Shall we visit the land of giants?"
"After you," Thord said. He pulled back on the reins to give me the lead. "You like meeting new people more than I do," he added.
7
No Sign of a Barrier