"Destroyed? Why?"

She got up and started pacing again, but slower this time, as if she was gathering her thoughts. "What I tell you, you are not to relate to anyone, yes? It is most im-portant that no know the truth, else the whole fabric ofI'au-dela, it will come apart."

"That's comforting," I said dryly. "Go on—I won't breathe a word of this to anyone."

"I know this only because . . . because I have a friend who is a Guardian. She sometimes tells me things of im-portance." I nodded, silently urging her to go on. 'The demon lords, they are not easy, you understand. They struggle to rule Abaddon as we struggle to achieve great-ness in our world. One lord dominates over the other seven; that is the way it has always been. The lord Bael has long been dominate, but recently the signs show that another lord is trying to topple him from power. In order to maintain his premier role, the lord Bael, he calls in his armies, his support, yes? His demons, the mortals he rules, all of them he calls to his aid to keep the usurper from gaining his power."

"OK," I said, more than a little puzzled. "But what does a battle to be king of the hill in Abaddon have to do with the Tools? Bael can't use them since they're meant to tap into his power."

"Oui,but the power, it can flow both ways, you see?"

A light dawned in the musty darkness of my brain. "Oh, I get you. You mean that if someone tries to use the Tools to draw power from Bael, Bael could flip the switch and suck power from that person instead?"

Amelie nodded. "Yes, but it goes deeper than that. Be-fore he took all their power, Bael would command his servant to use his abilities to feed him power from those within the servant's reach. So it would be that not only the person who used the Tool was drained by Bael, but too everyone with the reach of him. For someone of the Venediger's strength, that would mean everyone in theVau-delh would have been drained in order to feed his master."

"Bael is the Venediger's master?" I asked, distracted by that thought.

"Was," she answered with a wry twist to her lips.

"Ah." That would go a long way to explaining the un-easy feeling I had around him. "And this draining, I take it that it's not a good thing?"

She laughed. It wasn't a happy laugh. It raised goose bumps on my arms. "It is deadly, the process."

"Erg. OK, so the important thing here is to not allow the three Tools to fall into anyone's hands, right?"

"That is so."

Another thought struck me. "Can someone use just two of the three Tools?"

"Not to draw Bale’s power. It is the three together that can tap into Bael's strength, a—what is it called— triumvirate. Just as there are people who bond with two others in order that the sum of their power be greater than the individual parts, so it is with the Tools. Separate, they can do little except summon Bael. Together…," She, shuddered.

"Hell on earth," I filled in the blank for her.

She stared at me with emotionless eyes. "Literally."

And lining up to take the fall for Bael was Drake. Ei-ther that, or he seriously thought he could keep from being sucked dry, but that was just as distasteful a thought, for it meant he planned to rule using Bael's power. It all came down to the lodestone. No matter what else I did, I had to make sure it did not fall into Drake's hands. Which meant. . .

"If I know where one of the Tools is, if I had access to it, could I destroy it?"

"You?" She shook her head. "A powerful mage, possi-bly, but not a Guardian."

"Wait a minute, I'm confused. I thought you said that Guardians command the dark powers."

"No, I said you manipulate them, and so you do. But command? Only those of Abaddon, or one who serves such a master, can command the dark lords."

"Obviously I need a little help understanding exactly what it is a Guardian does, because I thought it was all about summoning demons."

She smiled again, but this was a warm smile. "I think you have done magnificently considering that a few days ago you were just a naive tourist." I grimaced, and she laughed. "It is true that Guardians may summon demons as they need, but that is not their primary role. A Guardian is exactly that—the keeper, the watcher of a portal to Abaddon. Each Guardian is assigned a portal to tend."

"Tend how?" I asked, wondering if there were any portals in Seattle. "I have a feeling you don't mean cut the grass and pick weeds, right?"

She looked thoughtful. "In a way, that is not so poor a comparison. A Guardian monitors the portal she is as-signed. She watches for unusual activity, for inhabitants of the dark world who cross over. A portal, it is like a doorway, yes? Through it the dark creatures, they can come without being summoned. So it is that Guardians must watch, and prevent the dark powers from using the portal."

"Kind of a paranormal doorman? OK. Where does the demon-raising come into it?"

"It is more for their abilities to send demons back that Guardians are known. Not only must they watch their portals, they also must take care of any occurrences of dark beings which leave their dark world and enter ours."

"Like demons, you mean?"

"Yes, demons and their servants, as well as others such as incubi and succubi, doppelganger, sirens, furies, werefolk—"

I held up my hand to stop her. "You're making my head spin. I had no idea all those creatures were real, but let's go back a step. You said demons and their ser-vants—I thought demonswere servants?"

"They are, but they themselves command servants of their own, such as imps and other lesser creatures."

I wanted to ask what the Venediger did with the scraped-up bits of imps that people deposited in the imp bucket, but figured it was probably better if I didn't know. 'That sounds like a lot of work. I'm not saying I can't do it—although I haven't die slightest idea what most of what you're talking about consists of—but how do people go about finding a portal? How do Guardians … well, become Guardians?"

"You are born to it, just as you are born lo be a wyvern's mate."

I made a face at that comment. Oh, how I loved know-ing I was born to be the mate to a dragon who planned on claiming a demon lord's power to rule the world.

"Regarding finding a portal, it is more a case of the portal finding you. Most Guardians who have not yet found their place in the I'au-dela become involved in an unguarded portal. And do not worry that you do not yet understand all there is to know. You have not found a mentor. Once you find her, things will become much clearer."