The Far Side Of Forever Part 42

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^ would have been idiotic, but I still felt very much a fool 'i for having come so close. And how could 1 have forgotten f about Dranna? She really liked Rik, and if I'd been an idiot, she would have been very hurt. It wasn't as hard to H hurt other people as it was to hurt roe, and I'd almost forgotten that.

}Rik chuckled in his sleep and turned to his back, in the ^ process opening his arms and letting me go. I moved away '^ from him slowly, for some strange reason almost reluctant to go, and that was really stupid. Once the quest was over I'd be able to get Graythor's help in canceling whatever spells I was unknowingly maintaining, or I could simply step through a gate alone. That would put an end to the *: spell, and then Rik would be back to feeling about me the ^ way he had to begin with. If I'd been silly enough to fall in love with him, I would have found myself there all alone.

!, Just a few steps away I came across a rust-colored ^ leather s.h.i.+rt, lying discarded in the straw, and bent slowly S, to pick it up. Being more than half naked and very cold I t really needed to put it on, but instead I took it with me ^ behind two bales of hay, then simply sat holding it to me for a very long time. h-

^It was almost dark when Rik finally woke, so we fin-

1ished what was left of the rabbit and water, then climbed down from the loft to get our horses ready. Rik hadn't said ;. much but he'd seemed-contented, somehow, his eyes ^ glowing with a fierce pleasure mat had nearly made the

rest of him glow as well. I felt very sorry for him, then, f knowing how foolish he'd feel once the spell was gone, H but I didn't say any more to him about it than I had to Kadrim and Zail. People under a spell like that find it impossible to think clearly, and all any of them would have done was argue-

"We'll be meeting the others in those woods," Rik said once the horses were saddled, patting his roan before going toward one of the barn walls to peer through a crack. He was wearing his sword again, but I still had his s.h.i.+rt. "Su told me that the trail didn't seem to go on very far past where we had that fight."

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"Is it still raining?" I asked, glad to have my gray back but not looking forward to climbing into his saddle with what I was wearing.

"Yes it is, and we can use the cover," he answered, still looking out. "If the weather was better we'd be knee-deep in natives, instead of only seeing their patrols and search parties from a distance. After what you've been through you must be eager to get back to the others, to tell them you're all right, and all about what happened to you.

Then we can tell them something together."

Together. Of course he didn't know what he was saying, so I couldn't blame him for how-impatient and annoyed his comment made me feel. But I did have to change his mind, and thought I knew just the way to do it.

*'0h, you don't have to help me thank Zail for finding mat secret pa.s.sage," I said, carefully misinterpreting what he'd said. "What he did was absolutely wonderful, and I'm looking forward to thanking him all by myself."

"You're-going to thank Zail," he repeated, still facing the wall but giving me the impression he wasn't looking out any longer- "You're-looking forward to thanking him?"

"Certainly," I said with a small laugh, turning away from the stiffened back near the wall to stroke my gray's nose. "He and I haven't had much luck in managing to be alone together, but this should be a good excuse to finally make it happen. He wants to marry me, you know, and he comes from an old and wealthy family. Morgiana would make a terrible fuss if he didn't,"

"But what about-" he began, sounding terribly hurt, but then he broke it off to stand silent for a moment. When he spoke again, he seemed to have regained control of himself. "But what about Kadrim?" he asked, as though that was what he'd meant to say all along. "Won't Kadrim be-disappointed?''

"Kadrim is a good friend, but I don't love him," I answered, still looking only at my gray. "You really shouldn't marry someone you don't love, don't you think?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact, I do," he said in what was nearly a monotone, and then didn't say anything else. His hurt was so strong I could almost feel it where I stood, but

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once the spell was gone he'd be glad he hadn't made a fool of himself by announcing all sorts of idiotic things. He'd be much happier then-just the way I was.

As soon as it was completely dark, Rik broke one of the door locks and we left the barn. We walked our horses through the field to make sure they didn't step in some- thing and hurt themselves, but when we reached the side of the road we were able to pick up a little speed. The rain was still coming down rather heavily and I felt soaked through and miserable, but anything was better than staying in that barn- The need to be off that world was growing larger and larger inside me, demanding my attention to the extent that I now had an idea of sorts. 1 didn't know if it would work, but the only way to find out was to try it.

We reached the stand of woods and pa.s.sed the place where the fight had happened, and a little farther down the road we saw four shadows come out of the trees to meet us. I hugged Su and Dranna, not realizing until right then how much I'd missed them, and Rik accepted Kadrim and Zail's enthusiastic congratulations with quiet words. We were all back together again, and it was time to try my idea.

"Su, I want you to follow thfr trail," I said as soon as everyone had finished greeting us. "Follow the trail until you can't see it any more, and then stop."

"Don't know what good that'll do," she answered with a shrug that was agreement rather man refusal. "Unless something's changed and you can See now."

"No, nothing's changed," I said with a headshake of frustration. "I have an idea that probably won't work, but it's still worth trying. Which way do we go?"

Su indicated the road we stood beside, and then led off without any further comment. It was a beautiful night for a ride, cold, rainy, dark and slippery, and after a number of endless minutes one nearly-drowned person led five others to a place on the road and then stopped.

"Trail stops Just ahead," Su announced, blotting at her face briefly with her sleeve. "First time it didn't go off by itself first, into the woods or over a hill. This time it stops right smack in the middle of the road."

"And the horses aren't reacting to the presence of a

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gate," I observed, watching them shake their heads in annoyance at the rain, but otherwise showing no objection to continuing straight ahead. "I doubt if anyone on this entire world can See, not even the animals, and that's why the gate, if it's there, wasn't avoided like the ones on other worlds. Well, all we can do is try it."

"What is it we're going to try?" Zail asked, dismount- ing with the others when I did. The ground seemed to be pure mud covered with four or five inches of water, and standing in it barefoot made me wonder how Su walked around like mat all the time.

"We're going to try to get through the gate," I an- swered, forcing my teeth not to chatter from me icy-cold water 1 was standing in. "It's true that if you can't See a gate you can't use it. but there are two reasons for (hat, and the first is fairly obvious: if you can't See it, how do you tell where it is? The second reason, of course, has to do with the ability to do magic: if you can't See, you don't have the talent, and without the talent you can't open a gate even if you happen to know where it is. The lack of Seeing traps you all the way around."

' 'Then for what reason do we stand here courting serious illness?" Kadrim asked, a question they all seemed to have. "For what reason do we not return to our encamp- ment till the rain has gone, and then ride out to begin the conquest of this worid?"

"We're here because although I can't See, I've recently discovered that my magical talent is still operating to some extent," I explained, finding it impossible not to s.h.i.+ver where I stood. "If there's any luck in this world at all, that gate ought to open as soon as I get near it, whether or not 1 can See it doing it. We know where it is because Su can see where me trail ends, so we're going to pretend it's no different from any other gate and just go ahead and use it."

"But what if it doesn't work?" Dranna asked in me wide-eyed silence my explanation had produced in the others, sounding as bedraggled as 1 felt- "What if we try it and still don't go anywhere?"

"Then we go some place and wait for the rain to stop, then spend some time nursing our pneumonia," I an-

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swered, trying not to blame her for being as disbelieving as I had been. "We can worry about that once we've failed, but we have to try before we can fail. Let's get to it."

Standing there arguing in the pouring, dripping rain wasn't something any of us were dying to continue, so we quickly got down to business. I had Su position me in the place I usually stood in relation to a gate before we entered it, using me end of the trail as a guide, and then I took her hand and Kadrim's. The others stood by holding the horses, ready to move fast if it worked, and I wondered briefly if 1 were the only one holding my breath. I got as good a grip on wet hands as I possibly could, silently cursed at myself for stalling, then nodded woodenly at Su.

She was the one who had to step through first, taking half of me with her, and if it didn't work-

Su took a step forward without hesitation, disappeared in a s.h.i.+mmer, and then I was standing in the gate, able to See it! It had worked, and we were on our way off that world!

Zail came through first with his horses, then Dranna followed by Rik, and then Kadrim moved his end of the chain into the gate. We two went through the rest of the way together and stepped out into the next world, a world of short yellow gra.s.s as far as the eye could see, and a yellow sky very near sundown. It was warmer on that world and it wasn't raining, and out of the comer of my eye I could See the bright glow of the gate we'd just come out of. It was a million times better than the world we'd just left, no matter what ambushes it turned out to have, but that wasn't the best thing about it.

The best thing about it was the big, black cat-shape sitting not far from the gate, looking at me calmly with unblinking, blazing red eyes.

CHAPTER 10.

When I banished our camp and we set off on the trait again, the yellow sky above us was still very near sun- down. It hadn't changed at all in the time we'd been there, and the world beneath it felt very empty of life. Even InThig couldn't sense life, and it had been on that world longer than we had.

Seeing the demon when we first arrived apparently gave me the ability to fly. 1 must have gotten to it without stepping once on the ground between us, and then I'd been down on my knees with my arms thrown around its neck.