The Far Side Of Forever Part 24

"And it should all be taken care of soon anyway, with Zail as eager as he seems to be. I suppose it's a good thing Rik hasn't pursued his own interest, considering what he is.

Zail will be much better for you, and you like him just as much as he likes you, don't you?"

"Yes, I think I do," i said, then was relieved to see her attention drift back to the lightly curtained window. I hadn't followed much of what she'd said, but I did know I'd never be able to talk about Zail without sounding like a backward adolescent, and i didn't want to talk about Rik.

She really did seem to like old fearless leader, and I didn't want to upset her by saying something about him that she wouldn't care for. I didn't know what she'd meant by, "considering what he is," but that couldn't be very impor- tant. She'd been going on about how nice he was before I'd bored her with my explanation about link-shapes, so she couldn't possibly see him the way I did. He wasn't as useless as I'd first thought he was, and in a way he reminded me of InThig, but I certainly didn't consider him "nice," and probably never would.

Our trip continued without interruption, and in a little while we reached the city InThig had mentioned. When we found a busy inn on the far side of the city we stopped at it, and I used the excuse of going in and looking around for my "mistress" to make sure the place wasn't too

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crowded, to get a good view of the coins they used for money. Armed with the a.s.surances of the innkeeper that the "lady" would certainly not be jostled, I went back to the coach, produced a decent number of their large gold coins, and then we were ready to go inside and order.

Dranna got to carry the money, of course, but we discovered she also had to order for the rest of us-from the part of the inn reserved for gentlefolk. Zail and Rik went with her, but only to stand behind her chair white she made herself comfortable at a private table. Kadrim and his "a.s.sistant driver" Su stayed with me in the public room where we were allowed some s.p.a.ce at a long, roughly made table and bench, and they had to hurry their meal in order to relieve the first pair of guards so that they could get something of their own to eat. The food was filling but not very tasty, and I was too much aware of the pink and white basket on the floor at my feet to feel at all comfort- able in that place; when the meal was over and we went back to the coach, the only one who seemed sorry to go was Dranna.

The road took us out of the city again-which wasn't as big as most cities on my own world, or even as advanced- and we settled into a peaceful^time of dull travel. Dranna and I dozed while InThig did whatever it is demons do in place of dozing and sleeping, and it was late afternoon before the coach slowed to a stop. Those of us inside sat up and looked out the windows, even InThig raising a bit of black cloud through the top of the opened basket, but there was nothing to see. We had stopped on the road in the middle of nowhere, the ground rising in gentle hills to either side of us, the continuing overcast making it seem later than it was. Dranna and I looked at each other, wondering why we had stopped, and then Zail walked over leading his horse and Rik's, to let us know what was happening.

"Su says the trail leaves the road here and goes off to the right," he told us, gesturing to the far side of the coach. "Rik thinks that means the next gate isn't too far, but he wants to do a little scouting before we go on.

We've had very little trouble on this world, and that's making him suspicious."

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"I think he needs to leam to be grateful for small favors," I said, hoping fearless leader's suspicions were wrong. "It's possible the enemy expected that first group of soldiers to find and stop us."

"He's not depending on that, and I think I'm on his side," Zail said, showing his usual sobriety when he disagreed with me about something. "There's no sense in taking chances when we don't have to, but 1 wish he'd have let me do the scouting. It would have been better than standing around here and waiting."

"Well, it shouldn't be for too long," Dranna soothed him, adding a smile. "You can't hide much in country like this, so if there's anything ahead of us, he ought to be able to find it quickly."

Zail and I agreed with that thought, and it turned out to be true. Kadrim and Sue had come down off the coach seat and Dranna and 1 had climbed out to join them, when Rik came around the back of the coach.

"We have a problem," he announced as soon as he appeared, not very pleased with what he had found. "There's another force camped not far from here, and I'm willing to bet they're sitting right on top of the gate. We didn't come into this world in their laps, but that's where we'll have to be if we want to leave it again."

"It's too bad the enemy wasn't as worried about them seeing us leave as he was over them seeing us arrive," I said, annoyance, frustration and impatience beginning to grow in me again. "How are we supposed to get around

them?"

"Can't you use magic?" Rik asked, left hand resting on his sword hilt, his expression matching the way I felt.

"Even if all of us had swords and could use them, we'd still be outnumbered about fifteen or twenty to one."

"That all depends on what you'd consider appropriate,"

I answered, looking up into eyes that were still a dull black. "1 can wipe them all out with almost no effort at all, but I happen to think doing that would make us little better than the enemy. Or I can freeze them all in place and we can just walk right through mem to the gate, but putting spells on people isn't me same as-creating a camp, say. In order for ait of you to cross over into the

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next world, 1 have to stand anch.o.r.ed in the gate. Only a small part of me will be left in this world to maintain the spelt, and those farthest away from the gate will probably be able to break out of it. If those few come forward in a rush, bent on stopping us, Kadrim and possibly you and Dranna and Zail might not make it through except in slices."

"Killing them is out," he said, very flatly and very finally. "It can't possibly be their own idea that we have to be stopped, and that means we'd be slaughtering inno- cent dupes. It looks like that freezing spell will have to do it, but that also means a change in our order of march through me gate. Zai) will have to go through first and very fast in case Su needs help on the other end and Dranna will go right behind him, those two taking all the horses. Kadrim will go next, without horses in case he has to help fight on this side before it's his turn, and that will leave only InThig and me. I'll anchor you on this end as long as necessary, and then InThig and I will . . ."

"Perhaps such an arrangement will be unnecessary,"

Kadrim said suddenly, his expression more than simply thoughtful, one big hand to his smooth-cheeked face. "There are times when one fights gladly and with pleasure-and times when such frivolity proves uncalled for. We have not the time, I think, for dallying gaily in battle."

"What's your plan?" Rikkan Addis asked at once, more willing to listen to the boy than I'd thought he'd be. "As long as it doesn't leave you here fighting on your own. 1 want to hear it."

"No, 1 shall be no more involved than you," Kadrim answered with a grin of deep amus.e.m.e.nt, then moved his eyes to me. "It must be Laciel who performs the ch.o.r.e, with the a.s.sistance of InThig. Should she find my sugges- tion feasible."

"That means your idea concerns magic," I said, return- ing his look with interest. "What would I have to do?"

"The details would be yours to determine, girl," he replied, "yet has it occurred to me that those of this world are familiar with magic and in awe of it, likely even more frightened than awed. For what other reason would our enemy have put them where they would fail to observe our

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arrival? Should they be shown a sorceress and a demon, perhaps appearing without warning in their midst, frighten- ing and threatening, will they find it possible to stand their ground against them?"

"They'll probably run like rabbits'" I said with a laugh of delight, loving the idea as soon as i heard it. "The rest of you will have to be careful not to get trampled in the rush.'*

"But what if they don't run?" Rikkan Addis asked with a frown, the only wet blanket in a group of laughter and agreement. "What if they attack instead? Fear sometimes drives a man forward instead of back, and that would leave Laciel directly in their path. It's too much of a risk."

"Don't be ridiculous," I told his worry with all the exasperation suddenly filling me, disliking the sort of hemmed-in feeling his smothering produced. "Can't you understand that no one can approach a sorceress unless she wants them to? These are ordinary people; what could they possibly do to counter me?"

The took in his eye was unvocalized frustration, but there was no way to argue with me and he knew it. The job was mine, mine and InThig's, and trying to deny it would just put everyone else in danger for nothing.

With that point settled, there was nothing left to do but get ready. After getting InThig's basket out of the coach and unhitching the horses, I got rid of the vehicle and put everything back as it had been, including the way we looked. The four coach horses were resaddled while 1 told my friendly black vapor what we were going to do, got its amused agreement, then turned to the others.

"We'll have to get as close as possible to them," I announced, for the most part thinking out loud. "We want you to be able to see them but not them you, so I'll put up a fence like the one I did at the fair, only this time you'll all be behind it with the horses, and you'll be able to see out. As soon as the coast is clear, you'll dissolve the fence and come up to the gate-which I'll be standing right in front of."

"How are we supposed to dissolve the fence?" fearless leader asked, still rather unhappy with the way things were

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going. "A magic fence needs magic to get rid of it, and you're the only one of us capable of that sort of magic."

"You'll say the word, 'drahzheet'," I told him, trying very hard to be patient with his silly questions. "The spell will be keyed to cancel when that word is spoken, and it won't matter if the one saying it is Sighted or not. It's also a word that isn't very likely to be spoken accidentally at the wrong time, so you won't become prematurely visible.

Does anyone else have any questions that will waste some more time?"

They shuffled a little and glanced at one another, but as far as questions went there weren't any. Despite his having told me I could say anything I liked to him, good old Rik seemed to be having his original trouble with my att.i.tude toward him-and also seemed somewhat surprised that it was unchanged. Why he should expect any differences I couldn't imagine, not after all the nasty things he'd said to me. Having nearly gotten killed with him didn't change anything, a fact he was beginning to understand; he'd have to be satisfied with InThig liking him for both of us.

With nothing left to keep us near the road, we followed Rik to the closest place we could get to the soldiers without their seeing us, and after moving about ten feet away from the others, I spoke the spell that erected the fence. As soon as everyone was safely invisible, 1 looked at the opposition again to see that there were nearly a hundred of them, hard-looking men who seemed alert against something they didn't understand. There was a tall, spear-like pole thrust into the ground with a blue and tan pennon flying from it, the colors matched in the uniforms the men wore, and most of them were cl.u.s.tered around the pole, guarding it as though it were treasure. In point of fact it was the gate they were guarding, a gate they couldn't see but didn't have to, thanks to the pole. It was thrust into the ground directly in front of the gate, marking the impor- tant spot and making sure they didn't lose track of where they were supposed to be and drift off-center.

1 thought about the situation for a minute or two, InThig's eyes on me while 1 tried to decide exactly how to play it, then made up my mind. When 1 spoke the invisibility spell the demon was unsurprised, as we'd both known we'd

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need invisibility to get into the middle of them without being seen, and then I took my basket and began to move around the outer edges of the men. They were all facing outward, watching in the direction they'd been told we'd be approaching from, and some of them looked cold, as though they'd been standing in one place too long. Consid- ering the coolness of the air I felt sorry for them, but I also knew they wouldn't be cold for very much longer.

It only took about ten minutes to skirt their spread-out formation and come at them from behind, so to speak, from the direction opposite the road, the direction in which only a few of them were watching- The gate was behind these few, between them and the bulk of their force, and moving past them to reach the pole was much easier than trying it from what was the front- The men were standing much too close together there, and I didn't want them to know I was around until the proper time.