The Far Side Of Forever Part 12

"And you'd better stop trying to antagonize him," the g- most powerful wizard of our time said, his image rising ^ from the chair with no more than slight difficulty. "What- ^ ever patience he had with you is just about gone now, and if you continue to push him you'll certainly regret it. And one more thing-''

"What now?" 1 asked when he paused, for some reason looking as though he were searching for the right words- "Have you decided the way 1 breathe in and out bothers you?"

"That's closer to the truth than you know," he said, his crooked smile bending his face and warming the dark of his eyes. "Laciel, child, you've spent too much of the last years locked away with Morgiana in her house, studying and practicing and a.s.sociating with very few people who weren't of the Sighted. Morgiana is a wizard of great power, and your potential is nothing short of enormous;

mat combination of factors tends to turn people, especially men, somewhat diffident and circ.u.mspect. In the full mea- sure of things, I'm afraid you're a good deal more inno- cent than girls who are years your junior."

"Is all that supposed to mean something?" 1 asked, having not the least idea what he was talking about. "And I'm not at all innocent. I'm a full grown woman."

"You most certainly are a full grown woman," he agreed with a sigh, beginning to look frustrated. "That, specifically, is the reason for the problem. Your self- image, however, hasn't been given me chance to change from the scruffy waif Morgiana brought home with her, to 91.

what you've now grown to become. The men of this expedition aren't Sighted, child, which makes your poten- tial meaningless to them, and they've never even heard of Morgiana. All they have is their own sight, and you mustn't believe everything they tell you. Morgiana will be cross enough with me as it is; I certainly don't want to add to it."

"Uncle Graythor, I haven't the faintest idea of what you're talking about," I said. giving in to the need to stretch out across the bed again. "Whatever this is, can we discuss it some other time? I really am very tired."

"Possibly I should be the one to be cross with Morgiana,"

he muttered, shaking his head in annoyance and what seemed like defeat. "She should have explained these things to you long ago, not left them to a man who has never had daughters of his own to caution. I think I'll have to look for another way. You sleep now, and remember what I said: the trail will grow progressively more danger- ous, and you need to be protected so mat you can protect everyone else. Know mat my blessing and hope is with you every step of the way."

He raised one hand, more in benediction and farewell than for magical purpose, and then his image was abruptly gone. Probably to set that warding on Rikkan Addis, I thought sourly, forcing myself to my feet in order to get out of my clothes. Well, I might not be able to use magic to take over leadership, but if there were some other way I'd find it- I used the Sight to make sure there was nothing living in my bed before crawling under the covers, vaguely wondering what it was that I wasn't supposed to believe when told by my male companions, men stopped wasting my time. Graythor was very old, and sometimes old age affects even wizards with strength like his. I snapped my fingers to turn the lamp out, then snuggled down to think about Zail and the dinner we still had ahead of us to share.

CHAPTER 4.

The bloodcurdling scream snapped me out of sleep and bolt upright, my eyes opening quickly enough to see Soffann Dra just disappearing from the now-open door to my room.

I still wasn't awake enough to know what was happening, but if we were under attack again the attacker had to be invisible.

"She really should have knocked louder instead of sim- ply walking in." a very familiar voice said from the floor to the left of my bed, not five paces away from the door.

"That way she wouldn't have nearly stepped on me."

"InThig," I groaned, lying back down as the big, black, feline head with blazing red eyes rose above the side of my bed, it now being in a sitting position instead of stretched out along the floor. "What are you doing here?"

"Graythor felt that my presence on this expedition will be very helpful," it purred, enormously pleased with it- self, red eyes unblinking in the small amount of lamplight coming in from me hall. "Was that one of our companions?"

"Our companions," I muttered, hanging a forearm over my eyes, still too jangled to make a more appropriate comment. There were some people, I knew, who disliked being awakened abruptly in the dark by the crowing of a rooster greeting the approach of dawn; right then I wouldn't have minded a batallion of roosters.

"Listen to all those running feet," InThig remarked, its growl sounding interested and delighted. "Almost all booted,

Q1.

93.

f-

,B.

I think, and definitely coming this way. This should be bin."

"Fun!" I exclaimed, suddenly realizing what had to be happening, pulling my arm from my eyes and sitting up fast again. Those stampeding-herd sounds had to be com- ing from the other members of the quest, rushing in to save me from the horrible danger that had so frightened Soffann Dra. I doubt if any of them truly believed 1 couldn't be in danger there, and that little incident was about to make things ten times worse in the way of smoth- ering protection than-

"There it is!" Rikkan Addis' voice came from the hall, harder than it usually was and filled with command. "I'll take it, and you two back me up."

"Wait a minute!" I yelped as his heavy, broad-bladed sword came through the doorway with him right behind it, snapping my fingers to light the room lamp. "You don't understand! This isn't what-"

"Don't worry, girl, we won't let it hurt you," he interrupted, his eyes narrowed against the sudden light, but all his attention still on InThig. The demon gazed back at him calmly, a grin of amus.e.m.e.nt bringing to sight the two rows of sharp, dangerous teeth, its mouth was filled with, and a hiss of caution came from the doorway just behind the slowly advancing man.

"See how it snarls in preparation for attack," Kadrim pointed out, his own sword low to keep from stabbing fearless leader in the back, but alertly ready for all of that.

"We ought to get Laciel out of there first, just in case it turns suddenly and attacks her," Zail put in from where he stood beside Kadrim in the doorway, his sword held the way the boy's was. "Even a dying beast can cause a lot of damage."

"You may be right," fearless leader agreed without turning to look at Zail, stopping where his very slow advance had brought him. "Any movement on her part might cause the thing to attack, but it seems to be centering on me right now. See if you can slip out of the other side of that bed, girl, and if it doesn't go after you, try to work your way around until you're behind me."

"This is ridiculous," I announced while InThig chuck- 94.

led, the sound of it causing the three men to bring their swords up a little more. "If you think I'm getting out of this bed stalk naked, you're out of your mind. If you'll just listen to me for a minute ..."

"Saving your modesty at the expense of your life would be stupid," fearless leader interrupted again, annoyance tmgeing the low growl in his voice. ' 'Get out of that bed, and I mean now."

InThig's chuckling turned to low, chill-making laughter, enough to cause Rikkan Addis to look as though he wanted to take one step back, and I'd absolutely had it. Everyone was having a grand old time at my expense, but party time was over. I continued to hold me patch-quilt to me as I sat straighter in the bed, and glared around at everyone concerned.

"1 am going to say this only once in this language, and if 1 have to repeat myself it will be in words none of you will like," I said through my teeth. "I am not getting out of this bed because 1 am n^r in any danger. InThig is getting a real kick out of mis, but I am not. I don't need your protection and I don't want it, so you can all go back to wherever you were."

"InThig?" Rikkan Addis echoed with a frown, his eyes still on die laughing demon. "Who or what is InThig?"

"That's. .h.i.thig," I said with a gesture and a lot of disgust, wishing it were possible to touch demons with magic. "Graythor decided we needed it with us, and it decided to have some innocent fun with its new compan- ions. It has that son of a sense of humor."

"I merely wished to see how well they would take my presence," InThig protested mildly, completely phony in- jured innocence in its tone. "They certainly are a coura- geous lot, to be prepared so quickly and completely to confront the unknown."

"You might not have thought our courage that admira- ble if we'd simply attacked," Rikkan Addis pointed out with increased annoyance as he sheathed his sword, Zail shaking his head with a sigh while Kadrim stood blinking and staring. "Once you put a sword in someone, all you can do afterward is apologize while the blood flows out."

"But I don't have any blood," InThig answered with 95.

another chuckle, still enjoying itself. "Your weapons aren't capable of hurting me, so it wouldn't have mattered even if you had attacked. Laciel knows that, but I do believe it slipped her mind for a moment."

The big, black head turned and those two blazing red eyes were on me, but I pretended to ignore them. I had forgotten for a moment that InThig couldn't be hurt, but I didn't want it reading things into a temporary memory lapse.

"Well, now that the crisis is over, maybe Laciel will do us the favor of getting dressed and joining us at break- fast," Rikkan Addis said, already heading for the door, "It's more than time we were on our way."

Zail and Kadrim retreated before his striding advance, and an instant later the door was pulled closed behind them, leaving nothing in his wake but thick silence. InThig was still staring at me, however, as demons never can leave their points unmade.

"I'm flattered that you were worried about me," it said, the previous smugness back in its voice, its purr making it seem like an overgrown housecat "Not many people can be bothered with being concerned over a demon, so you must like me no matter how^often you try to get rid of me."

"Being used to having someone around is not the same as liking them," I pointed out in an effort to dent the smugness, throwing me quilt aside so that 1 might get up.

"Besides, if anything happened to you, Morgiana would be upset."