The Far Side Of Forever Part 25

The proper time came when 1 stopped beside the pole and gestured the invisibility away, but I wasn't noticed immediately. All of the men were facing outward and away, including the one not far from me in blue with tan trim, which made it necessary for me to clear my throat a couple of times. The man dressed as the group's leader finally turned in annoyance, clearly ready to blast whoever had been making that distracting noise, then froze with eyes suddenly widened when 1 smiled at him.

"Good afternoon," I said in a low, throaty imitation of Dranna's voice, letting my smile show the long, sharp fangs I'd given myself. "Would you like to see what I've brought you?"

I held out the closed basket on my left arm, waiting politely for an answer to my question, but ail I got was a lot more faces turning in my direction. The faces were strangely pale with very round eyes, and the bodies be- neath them had begun trembling very slightly.

"It was the nicest present I could think of," I a.s.sured them, looking around at the growing numbers facing me.

"I know you'll love it when you see it; they always do."

1 reached across to the basket with my right hand, pretending I didn't see the horrified head-shaking that had begun, still smiling for the benefit of those men who had

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edged around from behind me, and the ones who were farthest away and just noticing that something was happen- ing. There were still some at my back, I knew, and when I felt the mud against the s.h.i.+eld I'd erected, knew also that at least one of them was a very brave man. But brave men were something we couldn't afford to have around there, not if we were to get through the gate.

"That won't do you any good, you know," I said over my shoulder, smiling pleasantly at the man with the sword in his hand, the one who had tried to run me through from behind, the one who was trembling and backing away.

"Once 1 come to deliver my present, there's nothing you can do to refuse it."

I returned my attention to the others to find that they, too, were backing away, their panic-stricken gazes s.h.i.+fting between my face and the basket lid ! was already begin- ning to raise, most of them making gestures in the air that were probably warding signs against evil. The untal- ented had a habit of doing that, seeing and repeating one small part of a spell, thinking that the gesture would do them some good. Even if they'd been Sighted it probably wouldn't have helped, especially since most of them were doing the gesture with their own, individual variations.

When doing magic you have to be precise, otherwise you can end up a toadstool or a clothesline.

InThig didn't budge until the lid was raised all the way, and then it took its turn at theatrics. I was pretending to be fey, pleasantly deranged and utterly horrible to anyone who looked at me, the sort of being who scatters flower petals on your body after slaughtering you in the most ghastly fas.h.i.+on possible, but InThig didn't care to horrify by suggestion. Demons will either do nothing to frighten at all-or go completely the other way.

"Living blood!" it suddenly breathed, flowing out of the basket in a rising black cloud, two madly glaring red eyes looking all around. "It's been so long! I must have it, all of it, to slake this endless thirst! Let me take it now!"

There were actually screams here and there as the cloud of demon began spreading out in all directions, but there were also two or three spears launched with the same terrified impetus. InThig, of course, made no effort to

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avoid them, and they pa.s.sed through its vapor body even more easily than they would have through its solid form.

That was when it began laughing, a maniacal sound filled with blood-chilling antic.i.p.ation, and that was it as far as those men were concerned. Officers and men alike turned and began running, following the example of the dozen or so horses that had hysterically pulled loose from their tethers to stampede at the first sight of the thick black cloud. Arms and legs pumped madly as they ran, mewling and whimpering coming from more than a few, and in less time than it takes to tell it, they were gone from sight- I looked around carefully, glad, now, that the open hills and low gra.s.s provided nothing in the way of cover, and when I turned back my companions were hurrying toward me.

"Laciel, that was beautiful," Zail laughed as he came up, his grin matched by most of the others. "I've never seen a better set of teeth, and InThig was so convincing we were almost afraid to come closer. They'll probably keep running until they drop ''

"Were you hurt at all?" fearless leader demanded as he brought both our horses forward, his eyes narrowed to match the frown he was wearing. "Someone came at-you from behind with a sword, and those spears thrown at InThig-ended up closer to you than i liked. Did any of that reach you?"

"No, none of it reached me," I answered, finding it impossible to keep the annoyance out of my voice as I gestured to get rid of the fangs I'd decorated myself with.

"What do you think i am, an absent-minded apprentice?

Or an infant just starting to toddle around?"

"1 already know what you are," he said, those bronze eyes glittering at me, something odd turning his tone dry.

"Playing guessing games would be the sort of waste of time you claim to dislike. Let's get through the gate before those men come back with reinforcements capable of doing magic."

He stepped past me to wrestle the pole out of the ground before I could think of something to say in return, and then there turned out to be too little time. It really wouldn't have been bright at all to wait until those soldiers came back, and suddenly everyone was being very efficient in

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seeing to it that we got going before that happened. Su was there in front of the gate, reaching for my left hand while Kadrim did the same with my right, InThig was solidifying back into cat shape, and the rest each had two horses in tow. The gate was already open, having activated when I'd first approached it while invisible, which left only me not doing the necessary. Right then I would have much pre- ferred getting into a heated argument with Rikkan Addis, but instead moved silently-and furiously-into the gate.

We made the group transfer to the next world quickly and without incident, and when Kadrim and I stepped through I found that that world was closer to sundown than the one we'd just left had been. It was also hotter and emptier, with not a single sign of roads or civilization, but at least it wasn't choked with forests. There was a lot of tall gra.s.s all around us, and a lot of stands of woods visible in all direction, but nothing like the thick forest we'd fought our way through two worlds back. I would have been happier if we could have mounted up and ridden off, but everyone was looking at the setting sun and likely thinking the same as I: we'd be able to cover very little ground before we were stopped by full dark, and the horses hadn't had as easy a time of it as we'd had. The smartest thing to do would be to make camp, and get an early start once the sun came up.

This time calling the camp into being was easy, since all I had to do was speak spells already devised, with one minor variation-leaving the gate out of the warded area.

Our tents appeared along with the fenced-in pasture, all of it looking as it had when we'd left it that morning, causing everyone to relax with the feeling of being home. We didn't know what that world held in wait for us, but we'd be able to face it more easily after a quiet evening and a good night's sleep.

Or, at least that's the way everyone else seemed to feel.

The strength I'd had to expend in the gate had cooled a part of my anger and creating the camp had helped a bit more, but when i turned to take my horse and see to him, I found Rikkan Addis already moving toward the pasture gate, stiH leading both his horse and mine. The man had clearly decided to help out the poor, defenseless little girl,

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JUS! the way he had with Dranna the day before, and that brought back everything I'd felt before stepping into the gate. With Kadnm taking the horses Dranna had, Rik was free to help me*-without pausing even once to ask whether or not I wanted that help. I was so furious, a!l I could do was turn around and stalk away to my tent; if 1 hadn't, i might have done something that wasn't in the best interests of the quest.

InThig had disappeared somewhere as soon as all of us had exited through the gate, which left my tent pleasantly empty and quiet. The lamp burning inside it gave it a cozy feel despite the warmth of the air, but I wasn't particularly in the mood for cozy. 1 strode over to the graywood sideboard and poured myself a gla.s.s of wine, took a satisfying swallow, then let the wine keep me company as 1 began pacing around the pavilion, trying to work off my anger. If i didn't I'd never sleep that night, not to mention rest or eat.

I couldn't have gone back and forth more than a few times before the flap of silk covering the front of my pavilion was moved aside, drawing my attention. For an instant 1 had the ridiculous idea that it was good old Rik, stopping by for a thank-you from me for seeing to my horse, but I suppose even he was brighter than that. The one coming in was Kadnm, and when he saw me looking at him he smiled.

"Should that expression upon you be meant for me, I will depart again at once," he said, nevertheless showing no real intention of going back where he'd come from.

"Should it be some other person or thing which disturbs you, perhaps you would care to discuss the matter."

"If you'd like the truth, I'd much prefer flattening the matter,'* I answered, sipping again at my wine. "How would you like it if I came along and did something for you that you were going to do yourself, without even ask- ing first? You're a king; how would you tike having people treat you as if you were crippled or incompetent?"

"Who could possibly have done such a thing?" he asked with a puzzled shake of his head, at the same time moving nearer. "You are a woman of great strength and talent; who would dare to insult you so?"

"Who else?" I threw back at him, looking up into those strange blue eyes. "Didn't you see the way he just walked away with my horse? As if I'd asked him to do it? As if I wasn't bright enough to do it myself?"

"Rik," he said, dawning comprehension adding itself to his expression-right next to the confusion. "You must forgive me, girt, for I fail to see what insult might have been intended by his actions. Had 1 held the reins of your mount, I would likely have done the same. For a man to do otherwise would then be true insult, not to speak of decidedly unfitting."

"But don't you understand?" I nearly shouted, waving around the gla.s.s of wine. "What he said to me just before we went through the gate wasn't nearly as bad as what he said last night, and when you insult someone like that and then do something for them, it means only one thing! It means you think you can challenge them and win!"

"Laciel, do you speak of the customs among those you told me of?" he asked, suddenly filled with less confu- sion. "They were the-packs-were they not, the ones you led till the lady Morgiana came upon you? Is this what you refer to?'*

"Well, of course it is," I answered, responding, in spite of myself, to his continued calm and quiet. "What else would I be talking about?"

"I find it beyond me to know," he said, folding his arms with a faint touch of sadness in those eyes. "Also it would please me to know in what manner our current situation might be likened to your time among those who arc homeless- And for what reason would Rik act so as to give you deliberate insult and challenge? What would be gained by such a challenge? What would be gained by giving insult^ It is he who is acknowledged leader of our expedition; for what reason would he give challenge to one who was not?"

The questions had been quietly and calmly put, an air of wanting to help evident in them, but I still had to turn away in very great upset. Now that the point had been brought up I didn't know what any of that had to do with the packs, and couldn't even think of anything when I tried. All 1 did know was that I a.s.sociated Rikkan Addis

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with my former life, and couldn't keep from being re- minded of it any time 1 thought about him. Or tangled with him. There was something about him, something I'd felt almost from the first time I'd seen him-but I just couldn't remember what it was.

"I don't know what he'd get out of any of that," I conceded atjast, walking to the sideboard to return my gla.s.s to it. "He even refused to answer a challenge last night, at least in the way I wanted it answered. If he hadn't faced that beast thing without hesitation, I might have thought he was a coward."

"You-gave him challenge last darkness?" the boy asked, looking less sad and more startled as I turned back to him. "He faced you and remains unharmed? How could that be?"