The Far Side Of Forever Part 56

"I wanted to knock, but silk doesn't do well with that sort of thing," a quiet, self-a.s.sured voice said from the tent entrance. "May I come in?"

I looked up to see the same quiet, self-a.s.sured smile on Zail's face, his body wrapped in a clean, comfortable robe like mine, his gray eyes taking in nothing but me. In actual fact I would have preferred being alone, but with the quest journey just about over, there was no need to insult anyone.

"Certainly you may," I answered with what I hoped was a friendly but neutral tone, not missing the way InThig raised its head from its paws without commenting.

"Would you like a gla.s.s of wine?"

"I don't think I'd better," Zail said, crossing the floor to sit down next to me on the settle. "My head is already swimming, just from the sight of you. Wine on top of that would be like adding a cupful of water to the ocean."

"Oh," I said, looking down from those beautiful gray eyes to wonder what else I might say. I'd thought offering a gla.s.s of wine would be safe enough, but the warmth in my cheeks told me how wrong ffiat guess had been. Maybe a comment about the weather. . . 7

"This journey is nearly over, and we still haven't bad that private dinner we promised ourselves," Zail said, moving just a little closer to me, his voice a velvet mur- mur. "It might be a good idea if we pretend that we just had that dinner, and go on from there. Have I told you what a beautiful woman you are, Laciel, and how my heart thuds like mad every time you stand anywhere near me?

Here, you can feel it going right now-'*

He took my free right hand and began raising it toward the front of his robe, obviously meaning to put it inside, against his chest- I knew he was under a spell and I didn't want to hurt him, and I also didn't want to act like a foot of an infant and s.n.a.t.c.h my hand back. The gla.s.s of wine in my left hand felt like a weighted shackle, chaining me in place, and I didn't know what I could do except sit there and watch my hand being moved closer and closer to him. . . .

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"Perhaps you ought to see a physician about the condi- tion when you return to your world," InThig said suddenly and very laconically, causing Zail to drop my hand as though it had burned him. "A difficulty with one's heart is often a serious matter."

"InThig," Zail said, looking down at the demon with an expression that led me to believe his heart really was racing. "You startled me, speaking up like that without warning. I don't know how I could have forgotten you were there."

"I've learned that there are some people who regard me as no more than the animal shape I choose to wear,"

InThig answered, quite a lot of teeth showing beneath its blazing red eyes. "Of course, I'm sure such an outlook doesn't apply to you, Zail, so you may certainly disregard my mention of it."

"Of course," Zail echoed with a sickly smile, then he seemed to pull himself together a little. "InThig my friend, Laciel and I have been trying to be alone together almost since this journey first began. Since we're rapidly running out of time, we'd really appreciate it if you would take a walk for a while-say, for about an hour or so? As a favor from one quest companion to another?"

"Quest companions may always ask favors of one an- other," InThig returned, stirring not an inch from where it lay. "Unfortunately, Laciel and I now guard me balance stone, therefore is it necessary that we both remain in this pavilion. It was very thoughtful of you to come and visit with us, considering the fact that we can't go to anyone. It will relieve the boredom for Laciel."

"Yes, well, I do usually try to be thoughtful." Zail said, the new smile on his face just the neutral one I'd been trying for. "I wanted to make sure Laciel was all right, and now that I see she is, I think I'll be going."

"Oh, we wouldn't hear of your leaving so soon," InThig said very smoothly, half rising just as Zail began to get to his feet. "We insist you stay a while, and join our conversation."

"Join your conversation," Zail said, carefully watching two rows of very sharp teeth as he sank back down on the

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settle. "Join your conversation. Certainly. Maybe I will have just a little of that wine after all."

1 went to pour a second gla.s.s of wine, wondering what InThig could be up to, but I wasn't able to figure it out. It kept Zail with us for more than the hour he'd asked for^ prodding the conversation every time it faltered, which was rather often. Once the man had been allowed to escape, I tried to get to the bottom of the mystery by asking, but demons are famous for avoiding straight an- swers. By then I was too sleepy to press the point, so I simply went to bed and forgot about it.

Until me following "day." Once we were mounted we followed InThig toward a different gate than the one we'd used to reach that world, a gate that would let us avoid the blind world and the ones before it as well. It was still just about nightfall on that world, giving us the feeling that time was standing still for all the universe, and after a short while 1 became aware of the fact that someone was riding next to me in the dark. I turned my head to see Rik staring at me in silence, his features hard to make out but his face definitely pointing toward me, the light, bantering I att.i.tude he'd been using with me recently no longer apparent.

"I suppose I can't make too much of a fuss about it,"

he said at last, his voice strangely quiet. "Zail promised to wait until the quest was over, and last night was close enough to it. You-let him stay a lot longer than you did me. Is he-that much better, then?"

I put forward my own silence at that, finally understand- ing that Rik must have been watching my tent the night before-and InThig had known about it. That had to be the reason why it had refused to let Zail leave at once; It had been trying to make Rik believe there was a man in my life, and because of that the bronze-eyed man would be wise to leave me alone. It had been a much more useful ploy than InThig knew-especially since everyone was so close to going home.

"Is Zail better than you?" I repeated his question after a moment, keeping my voice steady for the sake of the man who had saved my life on the blind world. "In all honesty I'd have to say there's really no comparison."

"I see," he said, the words a whisper in the night. "It

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looks like you were right all along, then. 1 wish you two well, and I hope you'll excuse me for having bothered you."

His horse increased its pace and pulled away from mine, moving up toward where InThig was leading the way, the double form of rider and mount a smoothly flowing shadow.

I stirred in my saddle and put a hand to my gray's mane, stroking it gently through a sudden need for companion- s.h.i.+p. I knew Rik would be much better off after what I'd said, that he'd be relieved once the spell was off him, but it's never easy to give someone mat kind of hurt. Even though I knew beyond doubt that he didn't even like me, what I'd done still must have-hurt.

It didn't take long to get to InThig's gate, and the distances across the next two worlds were equally as short.

The enemy had lengthened the trip out for the purpose of attack against us, and there was no need to follow me same route back. The final gate transfer brought us back to my world on the far side of Geddenburg in middle morn- ing, and emergence was something of a shock. Instead of the pretty green woods that usually stood about five miles from the city, we came out into charred, blackened ruin that seemed to be not long removed from the smoldering stage. The horses s.h.i.+ed nervously at the smell of recent fire, and then we all felt the tremor that gently shook the ground.

"It's already started," I said in upset, putting a hand to my mount's neck to calm him. "The instability is begin- ning to shatter the world."

"We'd better hurry, then." Rik said as the others made sounds of shared upset, but it was easier said than dose.

We mounted up and made our cautious way through the blackened stumps toward the road that led to the city, but the road was clogged with what seemed like half of all humanity, some of them streaming out of the cityf some streaming in- There were also knots of people arguing about which would be safer, being out in the countryside when the rest of it went up in flames, or being in the city when the buildings began to collapse. 1 touched my hand to the small box belted at my waist, then urged roy mount into the flow heading toward the city.

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The gate guards, when we finally reached them, were few in number, harried, and putting their brawn behind what was probably a brand-new city edict: anyone could leave if they allowed their personal effects to be searched, but no one was being permitted into the city. The regula- tions were obviously aimed toward keeping looting down, but the gate guards weren't the sort to interpret their orders even if they'd had the time. No one was going in through their gate, the big section leader informed us, and that was coldly and definitely that.

Kadrim growled and reached for his sword, Su and Zail did the same without the vocal comment, and Rik drew himself up with glowing eyes while Dranna looked indig- nant. After everything we'd been through they weren't about to be held up by petty officialdom, but I knew that starting a brawl at the gate would only have wasted time- almost as much as trying to tell them what we were there for- Considering the way I felt about city Guardsmen I wouldn't have minded turning my quest companions loose on them, but there was a better way.

Once we'd moved through the final gate, InThig had returned to vapor form and had put itself into a large leather pouch I'd hung from my saddle beside my right knee. The people of my world tended to become upset at me sight of a demon, and there had really been no need to add to their turmoil; now, however, 1 had found a reason for selective turmoil at the very least.

"But we've come to bring something to the wizard Graythor," 1 protested before any weapons were drawn, coating the words heavily with innocence. "If you won't let us take it to him, then you'll have to do it."

"What-sort of something?" the section leader asked, immediately suspicious and wary. Ordinary people tried to have as little to do with wizards as possible, and the alt.i.tude usually extended to the possessions of wizards.

"Just this," I answered, lifting the flap of the pouch and holding it open for him to look inside. He approached my horse with only a bit of reluctance, willing to make the effort as long as he didn't have to put his hands into or on anything before checking it out, and peered inside- What met his glance was a pair of burning red eyes surrounded

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by thick, roiling black, and the man didn't even have enough control of himself to gasp as his face went pasty yellow. He stood frozen in place, wide eyes locked into staring, and didn't move until I reclosed the flap on the pouch. Then he scrambled back, his look at me no longer dismissive, his dark eyes no longer officiously cold.

"Let them through," he ordered his men hoa.r.s.ely, well aware of the way they were staring at him. "On my responsibility, let them through." *

"But what about me edict?" one of the men protested, his a.s.sistant section leader. "It said no one at all . . .'*

"1 said let them through!" the leader snapped, his face beginning to go dark again. "Or do you want to be the one to carry that-that-thing-for her?"

"If there's only one pouch, why does it take six of them to deliver it?" the a.s.sistant persisted, a smaller man who was just short of stout, probably the brother-in-law or nephew of someone high in the city government. "One pouch, one rider, and the rest of them can stay outside. Of course, I'd never say anything, but if word got back to the commander mat you let all those people in for no reason. . ."