The Far Side Of Forever Part 6

"But that's just the point," I urged, determined to get him off the fence. "All of us have specific talents but him;

he isn't supposed to do anything but lead- Under normal circ.u.mstances / would have been the natural choice for leader, but Graythor was given reason to doubt me. i don't blame him for that doubt, but 1 also don't have the time to prove to him how wrong he is. All 1 can do is what I know is right."

"But what of the physical defense of our group?*' he asked, the supposedly neutral question still keeping him seated firmly where he had been. "Zail T'Zannis, Rikkan Addis and I have been made responsible for our physical defense, with Targa Emmen Su Daylath to a.s.sist us should

THE PAR SIDE OF FOREVER.

55.

it become necessary. It would not benefit us to lose one of our swordanns."

I looked ahead to see again the swords worn by the two men and the big woman, not to mention the wide slab of edged metal hanging sheathed between Kadrim Harra and myself. They all wore the weapons as if they were a part of them, but that couldn't be as important as the boy thought it was.

"Magic is better than a sword any day," I a.s.sured him, speaking with all the confidence I felt. "And there's al- ways the chance that he won't leave the group once he's replaced anyway. Now, what do you say? Are you with me?"

"1-must have some time to consider the thing," he hedged, me mind behind those blue eyes working fast. "I shall come to you when we have halted for the darkness, and we may continue the discussion then. Is this accept- able to you, lady?"

"1 suppose so," I grudged with a sigh, knowing 1 wasn't about to get a commitment out of him right then even if we kept talking for the rest of the morning. "And you don't have to call me 'lady'. My name is Laciel."

"A lovely name for a lovely woman," he said, really in a hurry to change subjects. "It would please me to have you call me Kadrim. Have you no other names to go with the one, Laciel? A woman such as you should have many names for a man to put his lips upon."

"Those with the Sight usually use only one name," 1 explained with no more than partial attention to what I was saying, already being distracted by the consideration of what time would be best for the takeover. "There's a heavy link between people and their names, so if you know their real names you have considerably more power over them. The Sighted all have use names, chosen for them by someone else to cut down on possible affinity- choices, and those are the names they're known by.

Morgiana chose Lay-see-el, and I can't think of a name I'd dislike more."

"Yes, it would definitely be wisest waiting for the darkness," he muttered, for some reason back to sighing. 1

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couldn't imagine why he kept making such strange com- ments, but at that point I had other things to think about.

The woods we rode through lasted until the sun had climbed a good deal higher in the sky, and then they deserted us. Beyond was a wider road leading between broad, cultivated fields, and by that time Kadrim and I were riding considerably closer to the rest of the group.

Targa Emmen Su Daylath was still in the lead with Soffann Dra half a length behind her, Zail T'Zannis beside Soffann Dra, and Rikkan Addis alone just behind them. He'd looked over his shoulder one last time when Kadrim and I had finally caught up, a curious expression in those bronze eyes when they touched the redheaded boy, and after that he hadn't bothered looking back again. It occurred to me that he might be considering Kadrim a possible rival for his new position, which just goes to show how wrong you can be if you really work at it.

It wasn't quite noon when we reached the town, in the middle of lots of other traffic, both vehicular and foot.

Wagons and people on horseback and even more people on shank's mare were converging on the meadow that stretched wide and crowded in front of the town, and everyone was laughing and joking in the true holiday spirit. Tents and booths and wagons were spread out all over the meadow, tinny-sounding bands were playing, conversation, barter- ing and come-ons sounded everywhere from the growing crowds, and the previously fresh air was heavy with the smells of animals, people, food, leather goods, newly worked metal, you name it. The town was having a fair, and everyone from fifty miles around or more must have come to enjoy it.

"Oh, I wonder what jewelry and silks they're show- ing," Soffann Dra exclaimed, leaning up in her stirrups to see if anything was visible from where we'd stopped be- side the road. From the fact that those hours of riding hadn't affected her any more than it had the rest of us, I could see that Graythor had given her more than simple horsemans.h.i.+p ability.

"We'll just be stopping for a meal and a short rest."

Rikkan Addis said as he looked around, his tone distracted and very faintly unsure. "We might even be best off 57.

continuing on to the inn on the other side of this town that the wizard told me about. Wandering around in a crowd this size doesn't strike me as a very good idea."

"But the people at the inn are probably all here,"

Soffann Dra protested with a pretty pout, moving her white horse closer to the man's roan. "Please, Rik, just for a little while, it won't hurt anything. Won't you say yes for me?"

When she batted her long, dark lashes his way she was almost close enough to knock him off his horse, and probably would have if he hadn't been that much bigger than she. When he didn't answer immediately it was most likely concussion that kept him silent, and that gave Zail T'Zannis a chance to jump in.

"It might be a good idea at that, Rik," he urged, faint amus.e.m.e.nt in his gray eyes. "I don't know about the rest of you, but I think I'd like to get a closer look at the people we'll be trying to help. Bring it away from the idealistic and down to the personal, so to speak."

"We don't have that much time, but I suppose it'll be all right," Rikkan Addis gave in with a sigh, opting for reasonable instead of stubborn. "Let's find a place to leave the horses." ^

He and the others began looking around for a good spot that would be out of the way, but they weren't likely to find one unless they went into the town itself. At first I hadn't wanted to take the lime to stop at the fair, but Zail T'Zannis' request had given me an urge of my own. Just in case the unthinkable happened, I needed one last happy time among the people of my world-

"Everyone bring their horses over to that tree," I said, pointing to a tall, lonesome specimen that stood about fifty feet to the right of the road, on the side opposite the fair meadow. "We can leave the horses right there."

"All tied to that one tree?" Zail T'Zannis asked with a laugh, mis time giving me those gray eyes. "Right where anyone coming by can walk off with them? If we leave them there, one of us will have to stay to guard them."

"Don't worry, Zail, I'll stay with them," Rikkan Addis said, finally giving up on looking around. "There isn't any

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place better, not unless we go into the town. Just remem- ber to bring something back for me to eat."

"What n.o.ble sacrifice," I commented, backing my gray out of the press of other horse bodies before turning to- ward the tree. "If you'll all quit criticizing, complaining or volunteering and just follow me, you'll fmd mat no one has to stay behind."

A puzzled silence followed along with them, especially when I told them not to tie their mounts in what would have proved to be a very restricted area for such big horses. Once we were all dismounted I had them move back, then looked at the area surrounding the tree and horses. As soon as I decided what size I wanted it to be, I raised my right hand and spoke the two words necessary to get it done. The silence behind me was suddenly filled with startled exclamations, and when I turned to my five companions they were dividing their stare between me and me tree.

"They're gone!" Soffann Dra exclaimed, looking less than pleased with that. "I loved that horse, and now he's gone! What have you done with him?"

"He's right mere behind the fence," I answered with a good deal less excitement, glancing over at her. "Would you prefer being inside with him to visiting me fair?"

"I don't see a fence," she protested, this time without the exclamation points, her hands flat to the middle of her pretty green gown, her eyes wider than they had been.

"And neither will anyone else," Rikkan Addis said with satisfaction, his bronze-colored eyes glowing very faintly. "I can see your magic is going to come in handier than I'd expected, giri."

"There is something here I do not grasp," Kadrim said thoughtfully, just in time to keep me from putting another fence around Rikkan Addis. My magic was likely to come in handier than he had expected?

"1 can't imagine what you could be missing, my friend,"

Zail T'Zannis said to Kadrim with a grin while I glared at Rikkan Addis, who never noticed a d.a.m.ned thing. "First the horses are there, and now they've disappeared. Noth- ing simpler."

"The horses haven't disappeared," I said for what felt 59.

like the thirtieth time, moving part of my glare to the curly-haired Zail T'Zannis. "I just put a fence around them, to keep mem in and other people out. You're not really seeing the tree through the fence, only an image of it, and I've added a 'Keep Out' sign that will make people walk around it rather than blunder into it. Don't any of you know anything about magic?"

"You know how meager my own knowledge upon the subject is," Kadrim said smoothly while Zail T'Zannis at least had the grace to look uncomfortable. "I had thought I now possessed a partial understanding of me thing, yet is this cleariy not so. You had said, I thought, that you would hesitate to use spells for the unseen, yet now you have done so with no difficulty and less reluctance. I would know from where my confusion arises."

"It arises from your definition of 'unSeen'," I told him, looking up into those steady blue eyes instead of into all the rest of the eyes on me. "Invisible and unSeen are two different things, and what you're looking at now-or, rather, not looking at-is simply invisible. My spell built a fence just like any other fence, except for the fact that it can't be seen. Ail I did was leave the outer physical appearance of 'fence' out of4ny description, so everything appeared but its appearance. I hww what the fence looks like, so it isn't 'unSeen'. 'UnSeen' has no physical appear- ance to begin with, which is what makes it so hard to handle."

Kadrim was frowning while his mind wrestled with what he'd been told, but his expression was the mildest of the five. Soffann Dra looked totally bewildered and lost, Targa Emmen Su Daylath was sighing and shaking her head, Zail T'Zannis was. .h.i.tting his temple with the heel of his hand-as though he thought something had gone wrong with his hearing-and Rikkan Addis was looking around impatiently. Our fearless leader didn't seem to be very impressed, and his next words proved it.

"I think we'd better get on to finding some food," he said, garnering everyone along with a gesture as he turned back toward the road. "The horses will be safe until we come back for them, and the lectures can wait until we're on our way again. All of you stay as close as possible to

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