The small corner of the room in which we stood, lighted by the torch, seemed much emptier without the ravens. But not as empty and hollow as I felt. It was amazing how the weight of responsibility came crashing down, threatening to crumple my paper-thin form.
    I was now the one Loradus searched for, and fought against. And if he had managed to dispose of Ewar, I had little hope of lasting longer than a day.
    I bowed my head again.
    "Cowards," Emilius murmured behind me. "Leaving when we need them most."
    Slowly, I turned about, wiping tears from my eyes.
    "Rizzo," said Eris, her voice soft and quavering as mine had been, "How can you be sure Loradus knows that--that Ewar passed his title to you?"
    A lump formed in my throat. "I can't. But he knows."
    Emilius clenched his beak. "Well, that's all he'll know. He can't know where you are right now, nor will he find out. We'll stay on the run; to the forest one day, the swamps the next--even to the Outlands if we must!"
    Out of all these words, I heard but a few, and they struck me with a strange energy.
    "We?" I said weakly.
    "Yes, we," said Eris.
    I almost smiled, but then Emilius' words at last took form in my mind, and I realized the hopelessness of running. I stared at the floor.
    "He has an army under his control," I said. "He will catch us no matter where we go. Perhaps it is best if I turn myself in. Then you would be safe, at least."
    "No," said Eris, desperation in her voice. "You can't think like that. You'd be giving Loradus exactly what he wants. And after he has you, who knows what he'll do to us?"
    Something pulled at the back of my mind. My heart and brain were warring with each other, and I struggled to keep standing.
    Then my hand found the spyglass at my belt again, and I shuddered. Ghosts swirled in my head.
    "Come on, out the way we came in," said Eris, as if I had made up my mind.
    And perhaps I had.
    The thought somehow filled me with dread.

    Past the raven village, we stopped for the night. The sky was already pitch-black, and the clouds, still churning in their wrath, blocked out the stars.
    On this particular night, I was to be lookout again; and as Emilius and Eris settled down to sleep, I sat nearby and swept my gaze across the white trunks of the surrounding trees. The air was thick and damp (with the mist), and no sounds carried over it whatsoever. But this was to be expected. Previous nights had been exactly the same.
    Sighing, I altered my position to sit facing northward: the way we had come. High above the trees and in the distance, Mount Cavora, the Temple of Emerotopia, could be seen even through the darkness. In fact, the tops of the dead trees looked like gnarled, bony hands trying to snatch the floating rock out of the sky.
    I took Ewar's spyglass from my belt and lifted it to my right eye, and through it I saw the Chi Falls, tumbling forth from Mount Cavora. They appeared close enough to touch, but when I pulled the spyglass away, they were barely even visible.
    Looking up at Mount Cavora, I felt some of the dull ache within me fade. Peace came to the very edges of my mind.
    At the very least, the Mountain was still there, as whole as ever.

    Next morning we started off again through the dead jungle, this time on foot. We were walking away from the raven village, that much was certain; but our actual heading was vague to nonexistent. We simply marched along as if out for a midday stroll, doing our best to keep up a fair pace.
    At some point, the air became thick and the ground softer; then we found that several trees had fallen across our path, and we climbed over them. My false leg sank with every step I took, and my companions seemed to be having similar troubles.
    Then the slog of footsteps across the muddy ground could be heard from within the mist to one side: soft and cautious, but there nonetheless.
    I stopped, sinking up to my ankles, and held up my hand.

    "Is that better, Rizzo?" he asked. He sounded as though he had swallowed a bone the wrong way.
    "Hhh--hyess," I returned, the inside of my throat throbbing uncomfortably. How had he known my name?
    "I'm sorry about your throat," the crocodile rasped on, "But we thought you were one of Loradus's followers. The potion on the end of the dart that hit you was meant to damage your speech--but we can whip something up to fix that, don't worry. Can you stand up?"
    I suddenly wondered if this was a trick. However, since I hadn't many other choices right then, I shakily rose to my feet, the knee-joint on my false leg rattling and creaking. The crocodile then curled a bony arm about my shoulders and began to lead me towards a small shelter, which looked to be made of white logs and branches. Steam was pouring out of a single crude window.
    As we stepped through the low doorway, I glanced around the rather spartan interior. A table was tucked away in one corner, and near the window an enormous black cooking pot swung slightly, suspended by a chain over glowing embers.
    "Have a seat," said the crocodile, stepping over to the cooking pot without a look back.
    I complied, slowly sitting on the mud that was the floor. I noticed that there were many footprints, as if many crocodiles had come and gone quite recently. Soon I looked back up, and the crocodile was fussing over whatever was in the cooking pot.
    He would sniff at it, his large nostrils flaring, then toss in a handful of strange powder or pine needles or something of the sort, then stir it all together with a long, thick branch.
    Narrowing my eyes, I ran my hands along my belt. Evidently, despite his scheming eyes, this crocodile was no raven: everything was in its place, even the Katar, which I felt certain I had dropped.
    "All ready," rasped the crocodile, hurriedly dipping a bowl into the cooking pot and bringing it over to me.

    "But how did you know it was me?" I asked quietly. "It could have been any other raven--"
    "You really know so little about what's going on?" The crocodile shook his head. "If you are Rizzo, and I'm certain you are....
    "Well, I thought you'd know more."
    I swallowed. Not meeting his expectations seemed to be a very bad thing.
    "What did you expect of me?" I asked.
    The crocodile shrugged. "I don't know. But I thought you'd be able to save us, somehow.
    "For days, we've been wandering the swamp, hiding from Loradus, waiting for the right moment to strike. But that moment never comes. We're hopeless without a leader."
    I opened my beak to ask what had happened to Cragger, then quickly shut it again.
    Then I realized, far too late, the implications of his words.
    Whilst my poor mind raced, I changed the subject slightly. "How is it that you have escaped Loradus for this long?"
    The crocodile smiled sadly. "You might say we're adversaries of his, too. Well, we had a head start.
    "About six moons ago, after King Cragger disappeared, Crooler stepped in to take his place. At first she seemed very happy being Queen, but then...she disappeared too. The rest of us got scared, and we scattered across the swamp." He shuddered. "That's when we learned about Loradus. We'd gotten away just in time."
    I looked around at the ridged walls of the shelter. Why had Loradus named me his only worthy adversary? Surely the crocodiles had caused him much more trouble--after all, I was here because I had led Eris (and Emilius) into the swamps and into a trap, and I hadn't been able to protect even myself. I had done nothing but watch as Ewar died for me, and now, I felt, I was disappointing this crocodile after he'd said, "I thought you'd be able to help us, somehow."
    On top of it all, now that I gave it thought, I knew next to nothing of the changes in our world, of the forces of Loradus, or any happenings since departing the crocodile swamp six moons ago with Cragger.

    Radom looked at him with interest. "Crawley, did he say?"
    Crawley nodded as his metal-jawed companion led Eris carefully over to the cooking pot.
    "And he is...?" said Radom.
    "Crug," rasped Crawley; then he inhaled and squinted, as if afraid of what Radom would say next.
    The raven stepped to the doorway, looked out, and then turned back.
    "You're Cragger's jesters," he said at last, sounding faintly impressed.
    Crawley's tight expression eased.
    "Loradus is after you, too," muttered Radom. "He seemed awfully annoyed with the whole crocodile tribe...."
    A sudden coughing fit exploded out from a corner as Eris drank the fluid from the cooking pot, and we all jumped. Sputtering, she swiped moisture from her wide eyes and stepped towards the center of the room.
    "Better?" said Crug from the corner, his metal jaw inhibiting his speech slightly.
    Eris spoke several words at different pitches (none of which I understood), then nodded. "Yeah, that woke me up, thanks."
    She acknowledged my presence with a smile and a nod, then turned to Radom and asked, at the same time as Crawley (though with emphasis on different words), "Why are you here?"
    Radom looked keenly back at both of them. "That's an interesting story. See, I thought Rizzo'd need my help, so I tracked him--and you," he added, nodding to Eris. "Then he led me right to others who needed help. So--"
    "I've heard enough," said Crawley, his eyes slanting in suspicion. "You now know something Loradus doesn't: our whereabouts. And you'd better not sell that information to anyone, because we're the last obstacle that stands between Loradus and control--or destruction--of our world."
    "Now, now, now!" Radom almost squeaked. "I wasn't planning to sell any information to Loradus--or anyone else!"
    "Mentioning him specifically isn't helping," Eris murmured.
    Crawley glared at Radom one last time. "If you found us here, Loradus will, too."

    Soon crocodiles began to trickle in, taking seats on the stones. Apparently noticing this, Eris took a seat on a stone herself, then motioned for me to do so as well. At length, every stone became occupied, and some crocodiles were forced to stand by the walls or hunker down near the stones.
    The last to arrive were Crawley and Crug, who looked terribly weary of a sudden.
    "Alright," said Crug as they stepped to the center of the ring of stones. "Everyone's attention, please?"
    But he'd hardly needed to ask for it; everyone present had his or her eyes on the two crocodiles.
    I felt my stomach churn.
    "You're probably wondering," said Crawley, "or worrying: why did we call you together? There are two reasons, actually--" He paused for breath, and it seemed to me that he was the only one breathing at all right then.
    "First, a raven has found us--not stumbled in on us, as some have before--but found us."
    "It wasn't like that," I heard Radom mumble from across the room. This earned a few suspicious glares.
    "What makes this strange, though," said Crug, picking up where Crawley left off, "is that the raven is a friend."
    Puzzled mutters came from the darkest corners of the shelter, but for the most part, the room kept its unnerving silence. I swallowed with difficulty.
    "But," Crug went on, "even if he is a friend, he found us. And if he could find us, Loradus can too.
    "But what we'll do about this has to do with our second reason."
    I swallowed again, realizing vaguely that my throat was dry.
    "Now, this might be a bit of a surprise," said Crawley, his rasp sounding drier than usual. "You all know about Rizzo, the ruler of Emerotopia, the one Loradus calls his greatest adversary, yes?"
    There was a collective, "Yes!"
    The crocodiles sounded very hopeful, and some began to shout excitedly:
    "Has he come at last?"
    "Where is he?"
    "Did he finish Loradus?"
    "Will he lead us to victory?"