"One question at a time, girl," Shantar said gently. "Your friend wouldn't hear of being patient. I think some part of her was looking for a finish fight, whether she knew it or not. So off she went, up the spire and after Gershul. They're keeping her alive because they're hoping the two of you will show up looking for her. I have a distinct feeling that Gershul doesn't meant for any of us to leave here alive, whatever he said to me."
"If he told the truth," Skandra ground out. "Somebody might figure him out."
"That would be the truth, boy," Shantar grunted.
"You said up," Skandra was deliberately ignoring Aeotha's question. "Where is up?"
"Up the spire," and Shantar pointed again. "You must have seen the houses, when it was light out. Jutting out the side of the thing like they belong there. You won't feel the weight of the world like you do down here, boy, but... something about this is darker still. Not all of those houses are Elvish. He's done this before, and it keeps leading him here. I think he's beginning to grow frustrated. Somehow, some way, he keeps being drawn to this place instead of another. And-"
"If we shut that doorway off," Skandra interrupted coldly. "What happens?"
Shantar was studying him as though he'd grown a pair of horns. There must have been something in that look. Perhaps a touch of Shantar wanting to know the answer to the question that Aeotha had asked him. Whether or not Skandra was spoiling for a fight with Gershul wasn't the point. Whether or not it was going to happen was the point. And he doubted, somehow, that it was going to happen. Whatever they had on this side of that gateway, they didn't have unlimited numbers and they didn't have an alternative means of escape. Shantar knew it. He licked his lips, and stared hard at Skandra, and then eventually the old man shrugged his shoulders.
"I don't know," Shantar confessed grimly. "We could be stuck here 'til the end of time. We could go back the way we came. I have no idea how Gershul has done this, let alone what he will do next."