The Far Side Of Forever Part 3

"But if you have time before it happens, why can't you just move everyone somewhere else?" the small woman, Soffann Dra, asked, her pretty brow creased in thought.

"That way it won't matter what happens to this world."

"My dear young woman, there are uncounted millions of people living on this world," the wizard answered, trying not to show how ridiculous the question was. "There aren't wizards enough to move even a quarter of them, which means there would have to be those who were left behind. Would you want to be the one to decide who will live and who will die? Without knowing good from evil, kind from vicious, intelligent from r.e.t.a.r.ded, industrious from hanger-on? Would you take them at random, first come first served, encouraging them to trample each other in their desperation to get to safety? Would you have them first fight and kill each other, and then take only the survivors? The decision would be one many would find fascinating, but I'm not quite up to fascination of that sort."

"Then the thing was done by an enemy of yours, rather than of this world's," said Kadrim Harra, the red-haired boy who continued to sound so unboylike. "As Zail T'Zannis has said, one who desired the destruction of a world would see to mat destruction with the utmost possi- ble speed. As the choice of speed was possible yet disre- garded, agonizing antic.i.p.ation must be the true reason for the act. To know of the coming destruction and yet be powerless to halt it, must truly cause unbearable pain for you."

"No more unbearable than the rending of my soul,"

Graythor said, his face now expressionless, his gaze aimed inward, his hands curled in silent fury around the arms of the chair. "Yes, the one who did this is an enemy of mine, one who knew how I would take it. Millions of people, knowing me responsible for the safety of the Tears, will die cursing my name with their last breath. Those who are able to breech the dimensions will do so, taking knowl- edge of my infamy with them and spreading it as far as there are ears to hear, eyes to read, fingers to sign, minds to merge. If that was simply the payment demanded for the survival of this world I would gladly make it, but mat simple an expiation will not be allowed me. I have no choice other man to die with those people whose death I caused, or live on in safety in another dimension, remem- bering what it was I left behind me. Death, of course, would be the far better choice, but there are those else- where who also depend on my survival for their own- Most likely I'll find that I've been given no other choice than to live on and remember."

"Or to end the horror before it begins," said the bronze- eyed man, Rikkan Addis, in the hardest voice I'd ever heard, his eyes glowing with fury. "I don't need to know what sort of monster would kill a world full of people just to hurt a single individual; all 1 need to know is where that monster is so that I can find it. What do we have to do?"

Graythor looked around at the circle then, his face lightening with the beginnings of hope, and every face looking back at him reflected Rikkan Addis* statement of challenge. They were all pledging themselves to him with- out reservation, and from that pledge the strength flowed back into him as though it had never left. His hands slowly uncurled from the chair arms, and a smile of silent thanks creased his face as he nodded again.

"The first part of what you must do is simple," he said, his voice now filled with relief and enthusiasm.

"You all must follow the trail of the balance stone across the dimensions, to the place where it was taken and is now being kept. The stone leaves a-a-spoor, I suppose you could call it, wherever it happens to pa.s.s, one that Targa Emmen Su Daylath won't have any trouble following. The rest of you will simply follow her."

All eyes suddenly went to the only one of us who hadn't yet spoken, the big woman who sat next to me. Targa Emmen Su Daylath smiled a faint, unself-conscious smile di the attention, but still didn't say anything. She had dark, calm eyes in a face mat was pleasant rather man pretty, very long, light brown hair worn straight back and held high in a flowing tail by a ring of bone, a yellow leather s.h.i.+rt that was fringed all over, and a wide, yellow leather

breech that was held close to her body by the thin string of leather knotted around her waist. Her legs and feet were entirely bare, but she didn't seem to be self-conscious about that, either.

"Once you reach your destination, the best way in will either be found or devised by Kadrim Harra," Graythor continued, now sending everyone's eyes to the redheaded boy. "It will also be his job, with others of you, to guard against unexpected physical attack with weapons. Once inside, you will find many locks and closings which will require the talent of Soffann Dra to open; when she does, Zail T'Zannis will then be able to take the stone from its remaining safeguards. Laciel will take you all through the dimensions to reach your destination, as well as guard you against magic. Rikkan Addis will be in charge of the expedition, and will organize the efforts of the group as a whole. Tonight, after dinner, I'll give you what few details I've been able to gather, and you'll leave in the morning.

Are there any questions?"

With the promise of details to be given later, no one felt me urge to ask questions that might prove to be unneces- sary. Graythor nodded with satisfaction, then rose from his chair.

"I'm sure you could all use some time to rest and refresh yourselves before dinner," he said, raising one hand. "As each of you pa.s.ses me, I'll attach a thread which you may follow to the room a.s.signed to you. Just go through that doorway to the right, and up the stairs you'll find beyond it. If you need anything, ring for a servant."

They filed past him one at a time to get their threads, then trailed out of the room in the same individual way they'd sat in it. I followed them with the Sight until they were all upstairs, then turned back to look at Graythor.

The wizard was sitting in his chair again, both hands over his face and eyes, and I couldn't keep quiet any longer.

"Now that they're gone, I want the truth," I said, the words as harsh as I could make them. "I want to know what happened, and why you can't go after the stone yourself."

"You've grown since the last time I saw you, Laciel,"

he said with a sigh. dropping his hands to send a benign, light-eyed gaze toward me. "You're much larger and pret- tier now, but not a millimeter more tolerant. I suppose tolerance comes with greater age than you've yet achieved."

"Tolerance my-foot!" I snapped, running thin on pa- tience that hadn't been very thick to begin with, letting my fists find my hips. "It isn't possible for anyone to have stolen mat balance stone, and even more impossible for anyone to keep you from following to take it back. You're the strongest wizard alive, Graythor, except for those who were Protectors before you, and they don't count. Protec- tors are made incapable by the Tears themselves of touch- ing the Tears to do harm! There is no one who could keep you from reclaiming the stone, so why haven't you gone yourself?"

"I can't tell you," he said, and the way he looked directly at me showed a hint of the strength he was capable of. "There are things you're not yet ready to leam, young lady, and that's one of them. Since 1 know without a single doubt that if/ go I'll fail, you six will have to do me job for me. Are you afraid you won't be able to succeed?"

"This is too important not to succeed," I answered with me scorn I felt, folding my arms in annoyance. "Unlike you, I'm convinced 1 could do it alone, which wouldn't be a bad idea. I have the sort of motivation you made sure to remove from the others. While I'll be picturing all the untalented people I know dying slowly in terror, they'll be picturing the same thing happening to nothing but a bunch of strangers."

"You think I could have made them believe they were striving for their home dimensions?" he asked, those eyes still locked to me. "That might have been possible for a short time, but what would have happened once they began talking to each other and exchanging information?

They all come from the same continent in their respective dimensions; what do you think would have happened when they found that the geography matched but nothing else did?

They're not stupid, Laciel, and it wouldn't have taken them long to discover that they all came from different places. Once that happened, they'd begin to wonder what else I'd lied to them about, and the expedition would start falling apart. Getting the stone back will take all of you- despite your own opinion to the contrary-and that means keeping you all together."

"You're still hiding something, I can feel it," 1 mut- tered, trying to match the look 1 was getting. "And that goes beyond the questions you've flatly refused to answer.

And what's this nonsense about that Rikkan Addis being leader of our expedition? Magic users lead expeditions, and you know it."

"Not this time," he denied, shaking his head with just the hint of amus.e.m.e.nt behind his eyes- "There are too many components of that group who would refuse to follow you no matter how strong a sorceress you are, and I can't repeat often enough how important it is that the group stay together. Rikkan Addis is more than just a natural leader; I know you couldn't feel that part of his talent working because it didn't affect you, but it was his belief that the task needed doing that swayed the others.

He doesn't just lead, he makes people follow, and that's why he's so valuable."

"So that's why you were handling him so carefully," I said, my eyes narrowing as I thought about it. "You knew if you were able to convince him, die others would follow along. And if he thought you were lying, the others would believe the same. But that doesn't explain the mas- querade. If he finds out what you really look like, won't he consider that the same as lying?"

"Laciel, girl, the-masquerade, as you call it, wasn't done for him," Graythor said with a sigh as he leaned back in his chair, but whether the sigh was one of weari- ness or exasperation, I couldn't tell. "It so happens that as soon as you stop pestering me, I'll be calling on Rikkan Addis to chat-and incidentally show him what I really look like. He already knows from your earlier comments that this isn't my true form, and I don't want him to begin wondering."

"If you didn't want him to begin wondering, you shouldn't have gotten involved with silly dress-up to begin with," 1 said, now knowing what his sigh had meant. "I 37.

know people have certain prejudices about wizards, but that doesn't mean you have to cater to them."

"If you're asking them to risk their lives for you, mat's exactly what you do have to do," he said, the snap in his voice and sharpness in his eyes clear indications of how close to anger he was. He looked to his right and my left, spoke the words that were necessary, then joined me in watching the chairs that stood there change immediately into a tall, wide mirror in an intricate frame of gold. The mirror showed me just as I was, tall and slender, tanned and violet-eyed with long platinum hair, my pale rose s.h.i.+rt and light gold slacks loose enough to keep from emphasiz- ing my figure, my short, soft leather boots of gold more for comfort than durability. The image of me was clear and accurate, but so was the image of a still-seated Graythor-which didn't match the form in the chair. Beard- less, dark of hair and eye, sallow complexion, short, nar- row, bent just a little but still extremely competent-looking- that was the Graythor I knew, and the one I would have recognized.

"Try to imagine yourself one of the others, child," he said with less of the anger showing, the mirror-gesture 1 saw reflecting me movement only just visible from me corner of my eye- "Your life has just been saved by someone who is a very powerful wizard, and in return for saving your life, he's asking you to risk it again on his behalf. People are strange, Laciel, and after you've lived among them for as long as I have, you'll leam that their grat.i.tude for an important favor can quicldy turn to resent- ment over being forced into a position to need to return that favor. One of die most important points in that is just exactly who you owe the favor to-and now you're one of mem and looking at me as I really am. What do you see?"

"I see-you," 1 answered, having no idea what he was getting at. "What else is there to see?"

"What there is to see is that you've known me too long," he said, for some reason with a pleased chuckle, his true image smiling the crooked smile I'd so enjoyed as a child. "What the others would see would be a mis- shapen, ugly little man who really shouldn't have been accorded the privilege of saving their lives, one who wasn't

38 .

at all up to deserving their grat.i.tude. Consciously they would never want to feel that way, but deep inside, where emotion rules in place of thought, they would have no choice. My altered shape gave them n.o.bility and wisdom to admire, size and strength to respect, power and age to be in awe of-and a tragic figure to sympathize with and help. My saving their lives is now incidental; what matters most to them at this point is that they have it within (heir power to help someone who would normally need no help, but who now requires their help. They're motivated, some- thing even an enslavement spell could not accomplish, and they'll see the job through to the end. All we have to take care of now is that single, important question buzzing around in your head."

"What question?" I asked at once, looking at him sharply-but at the real him, the one in the mirror. "What other question do you think 1 have?"

"Laciel, I've known you since you were a very little giri," he said, the dark eyes in the mirror staring at me with a sober calm. "You did something foolish and nearly died for it, and now you're wondering if mat's the real reason you're not leading the expedition. You're also wondering what you'll, have to do to prove how capable of leaders.h.i.+p you are after all, and that most likely before you all leave tomorrow. I'm telling you now that there's noth- ing you can-or had better-do to change the arrange- ments of this expedition as they stand, or you'll find yourself tied so fast and deep into an obedience spell that it will take you a year to See your way out of it. I need you badly for this task, but you cannot do it akme, and you cannot be me leader. Do you understand what I'm saying to you?"

"Of course I understand," I answered with exasperated impatience, making no effort to avoid his eyes. If I couldn't do anything before we left then it would have to be after, but one way or another it had to be done. Magic users were the leaders of expeditions, and it would be stupid to allow any other precedent to be set. Besides, I knew I would make a better leader than that Rikkan Addis, espe- cially for so important an objective.

"Good," he said with a nod of satisfaction, raising one 39.

hand in a vanis.h.i.+ng gesture to get rid of the mirror before rising from me seat. Without the mirror there was nothing but his altered form, which I had to look way up at. "I can see now there's a good deal of truth to the saying about clouds and silver linings," he observed with a smile as he put one giant but gentle hand to my face. "If I hadn't been scanning around in my search for members of the expedi- tion, I never would have come across your entry onto the Plane of Dreams-or known what was happening. If you'd died I would have missed you, Laciel; after all, who would be left then who would criticize me as you do?"

"Don't worry. Uncle Graythor, I'll always be around to criticize you," 1 a.s.sured him pleasantly, recognizing the teasing even if the face and form weren't familiar. "Since everyone else is too afraid of you to do it, the job has to be mine."

"So it does," he agreed with a chuckle, turning to lead the way out of the room. "Your accommodations are marked with a blue door, and you'll have no trouble finding mem. While you're resting you might consider cutting down some on all that courage you're so filled with. Where you're going, a bit of prudent cowardice will likely serve you better."

"That's right, you did say you knew our ultimate desti- nation," I realized aloud, looking'up at him again as we walked. "You make it sound like we have no chance against it, but if we had no chance at all, you'd be wasting your time and our lives by sending us. What's me name of this deadly-dangerous repository of stolen articles?"

"The place you have to find an entrance into is called Cloud's Heart," he answered, bending a much less-benign gaze on me than he had a moment earlier. "Despite its name it is deadly dangerous, probably as much so as the journey you'll have getting there. I've never made me trip myself, but I've spoken to one or two who have, and nothing conceivable would ever get them to try it again. I wish I could send someone in your place, Laciel, but I can't. Just remember that, if-when you get there."

"But where is it?" I asked, disturbed by the haunted look in the eyes that had left me. Graythor had stopped to stare straight ahead, and that bothered me more than any- 40.

thing he had said. He hesitated so long I thought he wasn't going to answer, and then he sighed with his gaze still held by the distance.

"It's on the Far Side of Forever," he said in a whisper, then strode away so fast that I had no hope of catching up.

Not that I felt like catching up. I just stood there for a minute staring at the giant mstic dining room he'd disap- peared through, then went looking for the accommodations I suddenly felt a lot of need for.

CHAPTER 2.