The Far Side Of Forever Part 57

"AH right, all right, have it your way," the leader grudged, hating taking orders from a subordinate but'clearly having no choice. "Let the girl through, and the others can. . ."

"No," I interrupted, totally out of patience and not about to be pushed around by a worm with connections. I looked at the small, smug man in the uniform I had such fond childhood memories of, pointed at him, then spoke a spell. He yelped as five leather pouches materialized out of the air and dropped on his head, then paled when he looked back at me to see the palmful of blue fire I now held.

"You wanted five more pouches, now you have five more pouches," 1 told him, pinning him with the touchi- ness in my stare. "Either you say all of us are allowed through the gate, or 1*11 ask someone else for permission- after you're no longer able to lodge any complaints. Give me your answer fast."

"Yes, yes, all of you can come in!" the man babbled, backing away and nearly tripping over one of the pouches

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I'd dumped on him. "On my responsibility, please, on my responsibility!"

I closed my hand on the blue fire, making it disappear, then urged my gray forward with a touch of my heel. The people still outside the gate were laughing and sounding catcalls, making me need to raise my voice a little as I pa.s.sed the group leader.

"If I were you, I'd report him for disobeying orders," I advised, watching him fight to keep from laughing like everyone else. "If he stays on the street in uniform, he won't live longer than a couple of weeks."

I was beyond the man by then with my companions following, so he had no chance to answer even if he'd wanted to- Whether he took my advice or left his a.s.sistant right where he was, depended on whether or not he would be blamed for the smaller man's certain death. It was none of my business, though, and I had enough to concern me that certainly was.

"Don't know why you didn't just break that gate down,"

Su said as she drew her horse up beside mine, an uncharac- teristic annoyance in her. "Places all gated and walled never did feel right to me."

"1 would have loved to, btft I couldn't," I answered, more than sharing her annoyance. "Magic users take an oath when they begin their studies, to obey the laws of the city and defer to its officials. If you want to be technical my oath is now a little bent, but not without reason. I think you'd better pa.s.s the word back to everyone to be ready for anything."

She looked at me with startled surprise, but didn't waste any time asking questions 1 wasn't yet prepared to answer.

Or, possibly, couldn't yet answer- There were a number of things bothering me. odd incidents and unbalanced hap- penings, and the last part of our journey wasn't going as smoothly as I'd thought it would. I needed to get to the question-answering time that would come after the balance stone was back in place, but I had the distinct feeling there were still a number of incidents between me and that long-awaited time.

The streets of the city were as crowded as they usually were, but not in the usual way. People moved along

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carrying bundles or riding carts, obviously on their way to one of the city gates, mutters rising among them every time a tremor shook me cobbles under them- Those who stood around talking or arguing went silent at the tremors.

and afterward looked even more worried than before. La- borers and clerks and apprentice craftsmen might be free to take their families and leave, but men who had businesses or were responsible for some vital city function didn't yet have that option. The tremors didn't yet seem strong enough to have shaken down any of the heavy stone buildings of which most of me city was constructed, so all they could do was wait-and hope things got better before they got worse.

The deeper we rode into me city, the more me crowds thinned-and the more the number of Guardsmen increased.

Most of them had groups of people in chains, street people who had been incautious enough to drift over to the wealth- ier part of the city in antic.i.p.ation of disaster they could take advantage of. They were being rounded up as fast as they showed themselves, but that still left me ones who weren't stupid enough or careless enough to show them- selves. My own party drew a few narrow-eyed stares, but none of the patrols made any attempt to stop us; we were well-mounted and well-armed, and looters and sneak thieves were rarely either.

Graythor's city house wasn't really his, but belonged to the Guardian of the Tears, whoever that happened to be. It stood in a square in the middle of a quiet residential area, surrounded by high-walled houses belonging to the city's wealthy and well-placed, an area that was now even qui- eter than it usually was- Heavy wood and metal gates closed off access to the neighboring houses, and when we rode into the wizard's courtyard, I found that everyone was looking around as carefully as Rik.

"I really don't like the way mis place feels," he said, looking as though he were trying to see through the stone and plaster around us. "Are you absolutely sure the wizard is here?"

"I tied to his trace as soon as we came through me gate," I answered, dismounting with a frown for roe heavy,

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brooding silence. "He's here, all right, but 1 don't under- stand why his servants aren't ..."

A sudden shout interrupted me, and then there were men coming at us from all directions, men armed with swords.

They lacked the glazed look of those under a compulsion, but that doesn't mean they could be ignored or dismissed.

There were a lot more than a dozen of them, and their shouts scattered the horses, but not before everyone had dismounted-including InThig. It settled to me ground and solidified to cat shape while the attackers grimly pretended not to see it, but it didn't move immediately to join the battle.

"Laciel, stop playing around and get the stone inside,"

it growled with swis.h.i.+ng tail while two of the attackers foolishly trying to close with me went up in blue flames.

"We can handle these without you, so go ahead but be careful.'"

It then launched itself into the melee, pleased to purring that the attackers weren't simply running at sight of it, joining the rest of our companions who were already busy swinging their weapons. I hesitated no more than an in- stant, knowing InThig was right even if 1 didn't like it, then grabbed Dranna's arm and putted her along with me to- ward the house. She'd been standing helplessly behind me during the fight, and would be better off inside and out of the way no matter how things went.

I had to flame another two attackers before we made it to the house, gesturing the door open just before we reached it so that we could scramble inside and slam it closed behind us. With the thick wood and metal door shut the sounds of fighting were abruptly cut off, returning us to the heavy, uneasy silence of a few minutes earlier. It practically rang through the large entrance hall, and when I gestured to Dranna to stay where she was, she made no attempt to argue. All our opposition wasn't outside with the others, and I think we both knew that.

Graythor's trace said he was somewhere above, proba- bly in his workshop, so that was where 1 had to go. My boots were loud on the tiles as I crossed the entrance hall to the wide stairway, but I climbed it fast and reached the carpeting of the second floor before the sound got to me. I

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knew that house well from many years of visiting and exploring, but I couldn't remember it ever feeling so dead and empty, even when the small army of servants hadn't been there- The wall hangings were normally conservative rather than dark, the carved doors leading to guest rooms had never brooded, and the small-flamed lamps s.p.a.ced along the walls had never seemed on the verge of threaten- ing to go out all at once. It came to me that that whole atmosphere of dread had to be deliberate, and then it came to me that I was more annoyed than frightened, 1'don't enjoy that sort of game-playing, especially not when I'm the b.u.t.t of the joke, and I couldn't wait to make that very clear to whoever was behind it all.

The narrower stairway leading to the third floor was at the end of the hall, and although the closed-in area had no windows, it was normally well lit. This time when 1 turned into it I found it pitch black, the door at the top closed and no light leaking from under it. My annoyance flared even higher at such childish theatrics and I moved to take the steps two at a time just to show my disdain, but with my foot on the bottom tread a thought came to stop me. There had been a number of personal attacks during the quest journey, and those personal attacks had shown a knowl- edge of the characters of the people under attack, a knowl- edge of how they would probably act in a given situation.

Running disdainfully up those stairs in the dark was per- fectly in line with my own character, and who else would it be coming up them but the one most familiar with Graythor and the house? I had to admit I was too stubborn to have learned much during our journey, but I had learned a small amount of caution.

I was beginning to regret all the energy I'd carelessly expended that day, but I still spoke a word to create a small, private sun. The immediate glare of it made me squint, but as soon as my eyes adjusted I saw mat that particular energy expenditure couldn't be considered wasted.

Right in the middle of the twelve-step flight, three of the steps had been completely removed, leaving a gaping hole no disdainfully hurrying young sorceress could possibly have missed. Kilting a magic user isn't easily done, but

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even the most powerful wizard ever bom will succ.u.mb to an unprepared-for broken neck.

I took a deep breath and considered dousing my sun, then left it where it was and began climbing the stairs, putting my own step in the middle of the opening and getting past it that way. I made it to the top without further incident, reached for the doork.n.o.b, then drew my hand back and gestured the door open. The rules of the game had now been changed, and if there was one thing I recognized, it was go-for-broke.

Graythor's third-floor workshop was usually lit by magic, which made it unnecessary to unshutter the windows or light the few candles the large room boasted. As I stepped through the doorway I could see that only those few candles were lit, which gave the shadowed room a feeling of emptiness and cobwebs rather than me bright neatness it usually had. Over near the wall to my right, directly beneath one of the candles, me real body of Graythor lay very still on a slab of stone, as empty-seeming and dead as the rest of the house. I knew I was probably expected to rush right over there, but instead I moved farther into the room and glanced around the shadows.

"Unless you have a special entry prepared, mis time you can't run," 1 said with all the obnoxiousness I was capable of, finding the patch of shadow I was looking for and staring straight at it. "I know you're very much afraid of me, but this time you'll have to force yourself to face me."

"Afe, afraid of you?" a surprising voice answered, a voice filled with outrage and scorn. "The day will never come when I'm afraid of a mere child, a crude beginner!

Luck and the presence of the others saved you until now, but that's all over with. Now I will crush you!"

Having detected the presence of an entry, I'd been afraid the enemy would use it, but the figure stepped forward out of the shadows, committing to another course, just as I'd wanted, A casual flick of my finger, easily missed in me purposely-created gloom, sent the entry far enough out of line to be useless as an escape hatch, and then I gave all my attention to the one who had caused so much misery and pain. We'd mentioned the enemy many

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times during the journey, saying he'd done this or had wanted that; the truth of the matter was that he'd done nothing.

She had.