The Far Side Of Forever Part 49

the quest," I said hastily, trying to backtrack only a short way. "If you could just help to keep him away from me until we've returned the balance stone to where it belongs, I'm sure everything will be fine."

"Yes, the quest," InThig muttered, very reluctantly giving up its original idea. "We do, of course, have to consider the quest before anything else, and that means i can't damage him even a small bit. But there are other ways, Laciel, there are other ways."

It got to its feet and began pacing around and muttering, something I hadn't often seen it do, but at least the ques- tion of violence was settled. InThig would keep Rik away from me until the quest was over and the spell could be dissolved, and then he would certainly leave fast enough on his own. As I got into the rest of my heavy clothing, I knew the time couldn't come fast enough to suit me.

No more than ten minutes later the others began arriving at my pavilion, all of them dressed in the warm clothing I'd provided. Su had had to be given boots as well, and I'd also given Dranna and myself heftier pairs. Dranna looked strange out of the green gown she'd worn so long and Su looked uncomfortable all wrapped up, but snowstorms aren't known for catering to people's individual prefer- ences. Zail made sure to mention iif an aside that I should have provided that clothing the "night" before, for him even if for no one else; I made sure to show fitting remorse for my oversight, but I couldn't help wondering how strongly the spell was affecting him. Zail seemed very eager for my company, but it was someone else who had come through a snowstorm to talk to me.

When we were alt a.s.sembled, I led the way outside and created the long sled we would all be riding on. Since it would be moving just above the snow rather than on it, the sled didn't need anything to pull it, which was a lucky tiling. The snow flew at us behind a terribly cutting wind, the storm turning the world into mounding white beneath a darkly invisible sky, and I would have hated bringing any sort of animal into something like that. I didn't much care for being in it myself, but hopefully that state wouldn't last very long.

Su had to be first on the sled, and I gestured over the

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howl of the wind that 1 wanted to be second. No one tried disputing me for the position, not even with hand signals, but 1 quickly discovered that third place had apparently become the prize of the day. Zail was helping Dranna through the drifts and against the wind, but she simply couldn't move fast enough, which left the race to Kadrim and Rik. Both of them began trotting toward the sled at the same time, their intentions obvious, but I wasn't the only one watching the contest. At four paces the two were just about neck and neck, but then a deep black body appeared out of the swirling storm and accidently blundered into the legs of one of the runners, sending him sprawling in the snow. The second runner reached the sled even before me first could get back to his feet, so it was Kadrim's arms which closed around me as soon as he had settled himself.

In the pavilion Rik had been standing as close to me as a sprawled cat-body had let him be, and apparently InThig hadn't been prepared to have him any closer.

When everyone was finally aboard, I got the sled under way. Su indicated the proper direction with gestures, and if we could have seen anything the ride might have been a little more interesting. It took almost an hour to get to the gate that way, and the only thing mat broke the monotony, for me at least, was the shadow creva.s.se we pa.s.sed over. I was suddenly able to See it there, under about ten feet of snow, just waiting for someone or something to walk out onto it- The snow would have collapsed along with all traces of solid footing, taking whoever was on it down into the depths with it. The only one who was on it at the time was InThig, however, and that was when I noticed the demon wasn't leaving any sort of footprints; I spent the rest of the ride wondering how it managed to do that while still looking so solid.

If the ride to the gate was dull, pa.s.sing through it changed all that. I didn't understand why Su was pulling so hard against my hand while I stood inside me gate- until Kadrim and I went through. Suddenly the three of us were plunging toward beautiful turquoise-green water that the rest of our party was already splas.h.i.+ng into, and I had just enough time to speak a word of banishment for all that heavy clothing we wore before the water closed over my

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head. It was very warm midaftemoon water, and when I surfaced again I nearly gasped at the beat of the air.

Instead of gasping, though, I created a wide raft for us, one everyone in me party seemed capable of swimming to.

When I got to the side of the raft, I discovered that inThig had been momentarily out-maneuvered. A big arm closed around me. supposedly to help me up onto the raft, but primarily so that two wet lips could briefly touch mine.

That was all there was to it, a kiss so short that no one saw it given or received, but it upset me so much that once I'd been boosted up onto the raft I wasn't sure I wouldn't have been better off staying in me water.

In another few minutes all six of us were on the raft, and it would have been hard finding a more bedraggled- looking group. A black-vapor InThig floated anxiously over us until everyone was soggily but safely aboard, but it didn't come down to join us until I'd disgustedly banished every drop of water soaking us. At that point it was possible to feel the really oppressive heat of the place, and that came close to setting off my suddenly-touchy temper.

I was getting very tired of that up-and-down nonsense, one minute hot, the next minute cold, high after mat and low beyond it. If I could have gotten my hands on the enemy right then, I wouldn't have needed magic to do him a whole lot of damage.

"You know, I've heard that this is the way they wear metal down," Zail observed to no one in particular, most of his attention into checking the state of his sword. "First they make it very hot, then they plunge it into cold water, and men they hammer it-''

"Well, if anyone tries hammering me, they'll find a response they won't soon forget," I muttered, trying to figure out how my feet in their boots could be bone dry but still feel wet. "This sort of treatment might work well on metal, but it does an even better job on tempers."

"We'll all be better off saving me temper tantrums for when they'll do some good," Rik said from where he stood, trying to see something besides pretty green water.

"Right now what we need is a little propulsion."

"If you're in that much of a hurry, I'll make you a paddle," I snapped, having reached the point of blaming

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most of my foul humor on what he had done. He didn't love me, he didn't even like me, so treating me like that had been totally unfair.

"Not a bad idea, but a little too much of a temptation,"

he drawled in answer, turning to give me a grin. "Consid- ering what I stilt owe you, you shouldn't offer me that sort of an opening." ,

I understood what he meant and I bristled, but'lnThig apparently took the comment in the context of what I had told it. Rik took a step with the obvious intention of moving along the raft to me, but suddenly he found a long, black tail under that step instead of planking. InThig yowled, Rik yelled, and the next minute he was down flat on his face and not far from having been pitched off the raft entirely.

Only his own cat-like reflexes had saved him, and that little incident made me feel so much better that I was able to turn to Su and get us going in the right direction.

The snow world and the water world seemed to set a pattern for the rest of the morning; the distance between gates was never far, but it was also never easy. We climbed out of the water into the desert, crawled from the desert into the high mountains, gasped and climbed out of me mountains into absolute pitch-dark blackness, then groped along into blinding light. The light was so intense that even heavy filters didn't let us see more than the^cracked clay we walked on, and I made no attempt at all to use the Sight. If, after the water world, I hadn't taken the precau- tion of sending InThig through a gate first after Su pointed out the proper exit, that world of light probably would have blinded us all.

After what seemed like days or months, we finally pa.s.sed through a gate into a world that didn't attack our senses. Granted it was a purple and violet world with a big silver sun in a light red sky, but it was solid and dry, neither too hot nor too cold, had enough air for us to breathe, and the black vegetation made no attempt to swallow us down. It was almost too good to be true, but we couldn't afford to pa.s.s it up as a place to stop for a while. Everyone was tired and hungry-not to mention frazzled, stunned and stretched out to dry-so there was no choice at all.

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"If we stay together and keep alert, we should be all right," Rik decided with more resignation than enthusi- asm, looking around at the unusual landscape. It was very quiet on mat world, the black trees and gra.s.s somehow adding to the silence, but somewhere far away there was a faint tinkling sound reminiscent of a poetic brook. For some reason the sound struck a distant chord of memory in me, but I was too tired to go searching for that memory when it persisted in staying distant.

"There's life of some sort on this world," InThig said, its tail moving in restless jerks as it also looked around. "I can't quite pin it down, not even the direction I sense it in, but it's definitely there. Perhaps I'd better have a look 'around."

"Don't go too far," Rik warned it, sparing only a glance for the demon before returning his inspection to our surroundings. "We won't be staying here any longer than we have to."

"I'll know when you begin moving again,** InThig returned in a very neutral way, then slipped off into brush (hat hid it quickly and completely. I wasn't sure if Rik had noticed its coolness yet, but I felt a stab of guilt when I remembered how much InThig had liked Rik, and how close they had become. My attempts at self-protection had ruined all that, but I'd really had no other choice. Deciding right then to tell InThig the truth as soon as possible made me feel a litle better, and let me get on with what had to be done.

"I need two hours of sleep," I announced to no one in particular, then spoke the spell that gave us food, drink, six thick mats and blankets, and a s.h.i.+mmering hemisphere that hugged the ground with a thirty-foot diameter. "What you see all around us is our warding, made visible so you'll all know not to wander out of its area of protection.

Eat and drink as much as you like, but someone wake me when the time is up."

With that I went to one of the mats and lay down, pulled me blanket over me, then muttered the brief spell I'd worked out a few years earlier, when I hadn't wanted to skimp on my magic lessons, but needed extra time for tournament h.e.l.lfire practice. Two hours of sleep deliver-

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ing the recuperation of eight was what it did, and there seemed to be only a reasonable limit on the number of times I could use it. I'd been saving it for an emergency and that seemed to be it, and as soon as I closed my eyes 1 was out.

I half-awoke to a deliciousty pleasant sensation, some- thing familiar but still bright and new that made me feel wonderfully alive. 1 floated in that not-yet-awake state.

enjoying the sensation-until I realized what it was and sat bolt upright with a gasp of indignation.

"Ssh, you'll wake the others," Rik said with a badly- swallowed grin as I glared at him, looking very comfort- able where he sat at the side of my mat- "You said you wanted someone to wake you after two hours, and that's what I did."

"I didn't say I wanted it done with a kiss!" I came back, finding it hard keeping my voice low. "You're taking advantage of me and you know it, and 1 refuse to stand for it. If you ever try this again, I'll feed you the sort of charge I did that time in my tent, the one that knocked you flat! That'll teach you!"

"But I already know how, so I don't have to be taught," i he protested with the grin that refused to be swallowed, his ^ bronze eyes amused. "After our time together in the barn, ^**'

you should be aware of that- Unless, of course/, you're ^ suffering from a memory lapse, in which case I'd be rf delighted to-jog your memory."^

I really felt stupid blus.h.i.+ng, but I just couldn't help it ^ and of course that monster had to make it worse by ^- chuckling. My legs had gotten tangled in the blanket and it took me an infuriating moment to get free, but once I did I jj got quickly to my feet, having no intention of partic.i.p.ating f in that conversation any longer. I really didn't want to hurt Rik. not after he'd risked his life getting me out of that t city, but I also didn't want to be taken advantage of. I ?

wished briefly I could tell him how much he hated me, but ^ of course it wouldn't have done any good. ."

"I don't know why you keep trying to run away from ^ it," he said from behind me, his voice showing he'd followed me erect. "If our time together made you even ^ half as happy as it did me, you should be more than '.

THE PAR SIDE OF FOREVER.

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