Striding to a tree, she barked an order.
"Tree, up!"
It didn't respond like the ones in her underworld would. She touched a branch gingerly, uncertain if the trees here were sensitive to touch or not. When it didn't fling her, she moved closer and gripped a low branch. With effort, Deidre hauled herself up onto a branch, wrapped her legs around it in a careful balancing act then stretched upward for the next. She continued in that fashion until she was a good fifteen feet off the ground. It wasn't high enough for her to see exactly what she wanted, but she was tired from effort.
"These are the laziest trees in any of the worlds," she complained, not caring what the tree thought of her.
Deidre looped her arm through branches and leaned out as far as she could to see the lake.
The movements that seemed random when standing beside the lake were lazily coordinated from above. She could see the paths of currents. They moved like pinwheels around the mound of souls in the center of the lake. The starting point was on the near side of the lake. The movements seemed to start there, circle around the lake then drop, as if there was an invisible wall.
It meant something, but she didn't know what.
"What're you doing?" Cora sounded exasperated.
Deidre shifted to see the woman standing below. She carefully began the trip down the tree. Dropping the last few feet to the ground, she regained her balance.
"I am not pleased by these mortal plants. They're beautiful but useless," she grumbled. "Any idea why the currents run the direction they do in the lake?"
"No." The death dealer was gazing at her intently.
"Did you notice the currents in the lake?"
"No. I'm sure Gabe did."
Deidre almost rolled her eyes but stopped herself. It was good that Cora had faith in Gabriel when he was losing death dealers who no longer believed in him. Cora was a good woman, and Gabriel needed those in his life.
"There are no currents in the Lake of Souls," she told Cora. "Do you know what this means that there are here?"
"No."
"Me neither." Deidre strode to the edge of the lake again. She wiped away the pine needles clinging to her clothes.
Cora joined her on the bank. They stood in silence.
"Currents," Cora repeated. "There's no river feeding into this lake. Could be an underground spring or river or something causing them to move."
"They're moving in patterns," Deidre said. "This way, around the center of the lake." She drew a circle in the air.