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streets in this area and take out whoever they find. But the Temerites have been pressing into this area from the east, and there are smaller groups scattered here and there who hound them as well. The last time we were here, this building and area were safe, but that may have changed since then. We need to make certain before we try to move in closer to the distortion.”
    â€œYou’ve used this building before?”
    â€œIt’s one of many we’ve set up throughout the city.” He moved to the side of the room, where the wall was covered in cupboards. He opened a few, removing some blankets, passing them around. Gaven opened others, revealing stored food, a few candles, other supplies.
    Kara caught a glint of torchlight on glass and her hand shot forward, her fingers slipping over the object almost reverently. “A ley globe. I haven’t seen one of these in months.”
    All of the Wielders paused, Dylan and Carter rising and drifting forward.
    â€œShould we see if we can light it?” Dylan asked.
    They all looked to Allan. He shrugged. “It would save us using the candles or lanterns.”
    Carter reached for the globe, but Dylan grabbed his hand. “You should do it, Kara.”
    He didn’t notice Carter’s look of resentment.
    Kara’s brow furrowed. “Why me?” She placed the globe in Carter’s hands. “You and Dylan see if you can get it to work. See if you can get a heating stone going as well. Just be careful with the ley. We know it’s unstable and erratic here.”
    Carter accepted the globe and they shifted into a corner, already arguing over how to get the globe activated when they didn’t know the layout of the ley and how to keep it lit without constant monitoring if the ley was unstable.
    â€œWill they be able to do it?”
    Kara reached for the ley in the area, felt it throbbing against her skin. This close to Erenthrall, it surrounded her on all sides, but there was no order to it. The stable ley line they’d found in the abandoned town days before still lay off to their northwest. There were a few other points of stability nearby, possibly nodes, but there was no network, not even a significant locus of power. Somewhere close, ley was pooling beneath the streets, probably in one of the ley barge stations or one of the system’s tunnels. Farther out, ley exploded from the earth in a geyser, the fountain already abating.
    â€œThey should be able to get this room stabilized, maybe the building, but it’s too chaotic beyond that. And it won’t last. As soon as we leave, it will collapse.”
    â€œIt’s better than nothing. Just make certain they keep the globe in here. This room is central enough that the light can’t be seen from outside.” Allan headed toward one of the side doors, weaving through the others, who had already claimed sleeping space around the room. “They won’t be able to do anything if I’m here.”
    Kara hesitated, then followed him out into the corridors and rooms beyond. As they passed through the apartments and flats, she noted that tables and chairs and other furniture had been rearranged, blocking doorways and halls, creating a maze with dead ends and false turns. Most of the rooms had been cleared, floors and walls bare, only the tracks in the dust from the guards indicating any signs of life.
    Allan passed through a door into a room where Glenn stood guard to one side of a shattered window, a faded curtain fluttering back from the broken glass. Allan joined him, Kara hanging back. She could seethe variegated lights of the distortion through the opening, blocks of streets and buildings in between. The city rose and fell, following the hills and the natural landscape, but from this vantage, Kara could see all the way to the distortion, the view unobstructed except for a few taller buildings to either side. The land dipped down in a shallow valley,