Trace woke, opening his eyes to the overly familiar canopy above the Emperor's bed.
He sneered, not liking the situation at all.
"Trace?" Anaisa asked from beside him. "Are you all right? I was just about to go to sleep and join you, in case it was time…"
He shook his head.
"We have to make a new plan."
"But why?" His wife's beautiful eyes widened. "What's happened?"
Trace stared over to where Mia was also waking up, disoriented from her first time dreaming outside of herself. He understood that it must be an odd sensation.
"I asked Mia to help locate the dreamer, to speed along our next venture into that place."
"Mia?" Ford was asking with concern, cutting a peculiarly protective glance at Trace. It seemed almost frustrated, and the older man's brow knit at the implicit challenge to his authority over his niece in Seth's absence.
