I focused. Uncle Doj stood over me. He looked grave, troubled. Thai Dei stood near the foot of my bed, where he could take me from behind if I jumped up at Doj. Mother Gota stood in the doorway, agitated.

Uncle Doj said, "You were screaming in a language none of us knows. We found you wrestling with the darkness when we arrived."

"I was having a nightmare."

"I know."

"Hunh?"

"That was obvious."

"Sarie was there."

For one instant Mother Gota's face became a mask of rage. She muttered something softly and too quickly for me to follow, but I did catch the name Hong Tray and the word "witch." Sahra's grandmother Hong, long dead, was the only reason her family had accepted our relationship. Hong Tray had given her blessing.

Ky Dam, Sahra's grandfather, also gone now, had claimed his wife possessed the second sight. Perhaps. I had seen her forecasts work out during the siege of Dejagore. Mostly they had been very sybilline, very vague, though.

I had heard Sarie described as a witch, too, on one occasion.

"What is that smell?" I asked. The shakes had left me. Already I could recall details of the nightmare only through determined effort. "There a dead mouse in here?"

Uncle Doj frowned. "This was not one of your journeys through time?"

"No. It was more like a trip to hell."

"Do you wish to walk the Path of the Sword?" The Path was Doj's religion, his main reason for being, it sometimes seemed.

"Not right away. I want to get this down while I still remember it all. It might be important. Some of it seemed familiar." I swung my feet to the floor, aware that I was still being scrutinized intently.

There was a lot more of that now that Sarie was gone.

It was not yet time to make a point of it.

I went to my writing area, settled and got to work. Uncle Doj and Thai Dei found their wooden practice swords and began to loosen up on the other side of the room.