The Far Side Of Forever Part 50

willing to give it a chance. Say yes, Laciel, and make me the happiest man alive."

"I should do that, and make you the biggest fool alive,"

I muttered, moving quickly away from the hands mat had come to my arms. "Right now the only thing I'm saying yes to is moving on- Where's Su?"

I'd begun looking for the big woman as an excuse to get away from Rik, but she wasn't on any of the mats or even near the food. There were a few black bushes in our warded area, but none of them was big enough to com- pletely hide someone of her size. Rik had seemed reluctant to drop the topic we'd been discussing, but suddenly he was beside me rather than behind, and his frown was strictly for the question I'd asked.

"1 don't know," he answered, looking around the way I was doing. "She was here when I went over to your mat, resting like everyone else. And now that you mention it, Kadrim had disappeared with her."

"But where could they have gone?" I protested, seeing immediately that he was right- Only Dranna and Zail stiB slept peacefully on their mats, with neither Su nor Kadrim anywhere in sight.

"Wherever it is, I'll skin mem alive when they get back," he growled, almost as angry as he was worried.

"They should both know better than to wander off, even if it was privacy they were after. We don't even know what's on this world."

"Well, I think I'd better be with them if they find out,"

I said, making the decision fast at the urging of the chill I felt. "You can wait here as long as you like, but I'm going after them."

"Without Su to follow the trail, how do you intend finding out which way they went?" he objected with a new frown, probably because of what I'd said-and me way I'd said it. "If you think I'm going to have half the expedition wandering around in different directions, trying to figure out where everyone else is, you're out of your mind. If they haven't shown up by the time InThig gets back, we'll let it look for them."

"By then it'll probably be too late," I countered, feel- ing more certain of that the longer I thought about it.

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"And you're a.s.suming InThig will be back, which might not be so. It said it will know when we start moving again, which probably means it intends meeting us on the way.

And finding which way they went shouldn't be too hard."

I turned away from him and spoke a simple tracking spell, one that caused two sets of footprints to begin glowing in the black gra.s.s. No Sighted left a trail like that, especially not a Sighted with something to hide, which was one of the reasons why we were following the trail of the balance stone rather than that of the person who had taken it.

"Why don't you save the magic and just stay here?"

Rik said, his voice and the look in his eyes equally strange.

"I'll use my link-shape to follow them by scent if you think it's that important, and bring them right back. There's no need for you to leave the warding."

"And what if your link-shape can't cope with whatever they might have run into?" i countered again, beginning to get annoyed with him. "Then whatever-it-is will have you, too, and I'll have to come after all three of you. if there's anything left of any of you to come after. I'm going now whether you like it or not."

"Whether I like it or not," he repeated flatly, an echo of my annoyance starting to show in his eyes. "What I particularly don't like is that att.i.tude, and the day/ will come that you try using it one time too often. At that point it won't matter how hot a sorceress you are, you'll still get what's coming to you. If you're going, let's go."

He started off without waiting for an answer, following the glowing trail I'd brought into being, his left hand loosening his sword in its sheath. I glared at his back as I hurried to catch up, wis.h.i.+ng there was time to tell him what I actually thought of him, remembering an old unSighted saying that began, "If looks could kill . . ." In my world looks could do more than kill, and if Graythor hadn't protected that blockhead, I would have taken a good deal of pleasure in demonstrating some of them.

The two sets of footprints led through the warding wall and off through the scattered trees and bushes of the area, the stride-length showing they hadn't been hurrying. It also seemed as though they'd been walking together, prob-

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ably talking as they went, rather than one taking off alone and the other following. The area all around was still as quiet as it had been, no birds singing, no insects buzzing, no small animals hopping shyly away. Silence like that is enough to make you s.h.i.+ver and the emptiness just adds to it, especially with that faint tinkling sound coming from somewhere. I looked away from the hushed landscape to mention the sound to Rik, and saw something that added to the chills 1 already felt: Rik was no longer following the trail by watching the footprints. His head was c.o.c.ked to one side, as though he were listening to something and following the sound instead, and his arms were hanging limply away from his swordbelt. The alertness he was always insisting on seemed to have deserted him com- pletely, leaving behind nothing but an enthralled floating.

"d.a.m.n," I muttered under my breath, wis.h.i.+ng I hadn't been quite so right in saying he might not be able to cope with whatever was out here. He was paralleling the two previous sets of footprints even though he appeared to be no longer aware of them, and that meant Su and Kadrim really had been taken by something. That left me on my own as far as any rescue attempt went, but I hadn't expected it to be any other wayl It would have been nice having someone normally alive along just for the com- pany, but where magic is concerned you actually can't have everything. The unSighted don't often understand that, but the talented know it well enough.

My mind considered the problem for a moment, then I left Rik and moved ahead with more speed-and invisibil- ity wrapped tightly about me. Letting whatever was out there see me coming could cost Kadrim and Su their lives, not to mention Rik, I moved through the spa.r.s.e bushes and trees as fast as I could without making noise, and in another minute saw an odd grouping of reddish gray boul- ders, the glowing footprints leading right into the middle of them. I was almost afraid of what I would see among those boulders, but that doesn't mean I slowed down. The thick black gra.s.s under my feet grew right up to the rocks, which meant my steps continued to be m.u.f.fled even in that unnatural silence.

Silence except for the tinkling. By the time I reached die

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boulders 1 noticed the sound had grown slightly louder.

although it was also coming from other directions as well.

With a great deal of care 1 moved around a boulder, knowing that some of the Sighted, like me, were able to perceive an invisible presence even if the invisibility itself couldn't be breached. If the whoevers were Sighted and I brought myself to their attention- The thought died once I had stepped more fully around the barrier, and saw what it had hidden.

The black gra.s.s grew all across the large circle made by the boulders, almost like a nest-lining for the things that lay in it. Bright red they were with violet markings, in- cluding the short tentacles that grew out of their upper bodies like four waving arms- The round heads sitting on thin necks showed dull black eyes, two holes instead of a nose, and wide mouths filled with teeth that looked more like triangular daggers. The bottom parts of them had nothing like legs, and wide tracks here and there through the gra.s.s seemed to indicate that the only way they could get around was by dragging themselves, which probably wasn't the easiest thing to do. There were six of them, two about four feet high, one slightly smaller than that, three who were half the size of the big ones, and the tinkling sound was coming from the middle-sized one.

I took a deep breath and let it out quietly, relieved to see that Kadnm and Su seemed to be unharmed, not so re- lieved to see that they were just standing about four feet away from the group of tentacled things-which were surrounded by smaller and larger mounds of what looked like picked-clean bones. These were life-forms that called their prey to them, then. and although I didn't know why they hadn't already started on their newest meal, 1 was very glad of it. The glazed took my two companions wore said they wouldn't be doing anything in the way of chang- ing the menu, but now 1 was there to take care of the problem.

I had just cleared the boulder on my way to joining the group, when a step behind me announced the arrival of Rik. He floated/walked in without hesitation, still listen- ing careftilly, and pa.s.sed me to join Kadnm and Su where

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they were standing, the tinkling sound fading out as he came to a stop. Feeling confused I came to a stop myself, wondering how the things were going to bring their vic- tims closer without the tinkling-and abruptly found out.

One minute there were three things sitting/lying on the ground, and the next minute those things had turned into people.

Kadrim made a sound of pained ecstasy, Su laughed with relief and joyous welcome, and Rik stirred with what seemed like pleasure, all of mem now staring at the three people lying at their ease in the gra.s.s. The woman looking at Kadrim was small and beautiful, with red hair and an infectious grin, while the man in front of Su had long brown hair tied back, and looked as though he would be even larger than Kadrim if he stood. 1 didn't understand until I moved my gaze to the third figure in front of Rik, and then it all came clear at once. The woman in the gra.s.s in front of him, raising her arms invitingly, was me.

I snapped out a quick gesture, freezing my three com- panions in place just as they were about to rush forward, then hurried over and formed a heavy wall in front of them that was really a segment of a warding hemisphere. 1 had die awful feeling that the warding would do no good, and when I released them only to watch as they threw them- selves against the wall, trying to get past it, I found I was right. Reluctantly I froze them again, then got rid of the wall and warding. Warding works to keep things from getting to you to begin with, but only rarely will it sever a connection already made. One way or another I had to get my companions released by the beings who had cast the spell, that or figure out some way to get all three of them to a gate only Su could find for us, locate the proper next world, then take them through one at a time. Doing all that wasn't entirely beyond me, but I hated to think what would be left of me if I did. It would be much better trying the alternative first-and hoping hard it would work.

1 took one step forward and banished the invisibility spell, causing a startled stirring among the three small beings behind the big ones, but the man and woman on the ground to my right paid no attention to me. Only the third figure, the medium-sized one that looked like me, slowly

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turned its head in my direction, and then the tinkling sound began again.

"That won't do you any good at all," I said. working hard to keep from showing how odd I felt talking to myself. "Your call doesn't affect me, so you can't reach through to my mind. Release my fhends."

"Your friends are happy now, and will soon be even happier," the thing answered in a low, warm voice, the smile it wore reflecting in its violet eyes. "They want very much to nourish me and mine, and their presence means extended life for one or more of my mates. Nourishment has been difficult to locate of late, and if 1 hadn't heard your friends' arrival in me area, I would have had to sacrifice one of my mates to sustain the rest of us. I would men have produced another mate almost immediately, of course, but one that would require considerably less nour- ishment for a while. Now that won't be necessary."

"I'm sorry to disappoint you, but my friends and I haven't come here simply to nourish you and your mates,*'

I said, wis.h.i.+ng the thing would change back to its original form. "If you won't release them, I'll have no choice but to destroy you."

"It's not time yet for me to serve as nourishment," the thing said, losing its smile to pout in disapproval. "I haven't yet produced a new singer for my mates, and that means I'm not yet to be replaced. Besides, don't you know that if you destroy me, your friends will also be destroyed?

Their thoughts are now linked to mine, and should I fail to release them, they will go as 1 do."

"I don't believe that," I said, folding my hands to fists at my sides to keep from showing how much I did believe it. "And even if it were true, I'd still refuse to give my friends up to you- If I destroy you and your mates, my friends might die, but at least they won't be nourishment for any of you."

"How inconsiderate a life-form you are!" me thing protested with great annoyance, the violet eyes now flash- ing with anger. "Very well. If you refrain from destroying any of us, I'll release one of your friends. You, of course, may choose the one."