The Far Side Of Forever Part 13

"Of course," InThig murmured, grinning to match the increased blaze in its eyes, its purr of contentment un- changed even as I turned my back on it. "How silly of me to be so mistaken."

I suppose I was waiting for it to continue bothering me, but happily it seemed to have said everything it wanted to.

I was able to get back into my clothes in the midst of pleasing quiet, admiring (he way Graythor's refreshing spell had turned my clothes beautifully clean and new overnight. The others would have found me same thing done to their clothes, which meant no one needed to carry any changes. We'd get very tired of those outfits long

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before the quest was finished, but it cut down on the need for extra baggage-not to mention the possibility that I might have to disguise us in some of the worlds we'd be going to. Disguising one outfit each would be no big deal, but six wardrobes full . . .

As soon as I was dressed I took the room key and left, snapping out the light before closing and locking the door.

InThig padded silently beside me, its movement more flow than walk, the red eyes taking in everything, its big head beside my right elbow. I could remember a time when InThig had been almost my size. but that hadn't lasted very long. Morgiana had originally summoned it as a companion for herself, but that hadn't lasted very long either. . . .

Everyone was downstairs in the inn's main room around one of the plank tables, the serving girl having just brought another two heaping platters of something hot to add to what was already there. When I paused at me bar to return the room key the innkeeper paled and closed his eyes. his lips moving soundlessly in what was probably a prayer, and the serving girl gasped, put one hand to her head, then immediately fled the room. I couldn't help sighing as ljust left the key on the bar and headed for the table, beginning to be annoyed with Graythor for having sent InThig to the inn instead of having it meet us at the gate. I'd almost forgotten how untalented people reacted to the sight of a demon, but I had a feeling I would soon be well reminded.

"Good morning, Laciel," Zail greeted me, rising from his chair at the big, round table and gesturing toward the empty place to his right, his att.i.tude saying nothing at all unusual had happened that morning. "Did you sleep well?"

"Very well, thank you," I answered pleasantly-if the least bit softly, taking the chair he held for me. To my right was Kadrim, to his right Su, to Zail's left Soffann Dra, and between the two women Rikkan Addis. Kadrim smiled at me as I sat, ignoring InThig the way Zail was doing, but Su inspected my new companion with curiosity, and Soffann Dra did the same with wariness. Only Rikkan Addis continued to fill his plate from the platters of food standing around, ignoring my arrival as though 1 were 97.

invisible or unSeen. If I hadn't been so hungry, I might have spent some time being thoroughly annoyed.

"You really must have been exhausted last night," Zail said as he sat again and reached for a platter of steaks to pa.s.s to me. "When dinner was ready I came to your door and knocked, but there was no answer and the light was out."

"I, too, came to your door, to continue the discussion we had not completed on the road," Kadrim said, ready to take the platter of steaks and replace it with one piled high with eggs. "Although I knocked as well, I also found no response."

"1 don't remember hearing either one of you," I said, giving Zail the eggs and reaching myself for the fried potatoes. "I feel fine now, though, so sleeping like the dead obviously helped. Now all I have to do is replace the meal I missed."

With which comment I immediately began to dig in, pausing after a moment to take a slab of bread and b.u.t.ter. I felt hollow all the way through, and the men on either side of me took the hint and left conversation for another time.

We all worked silently at fueling ourselves for the upcom- ing day's travels, and it wasn't ^ntil almost everything was gone and the last of me coffee .had been poured that Soffann Dra broke mat silence.

"Doesn't your-friend-need anything to eat?" she asked, moving her head a little to look at InThig where it lay stretched out on the floor behind my chair, "I hope you don't take this wrong, but I really dislike the thought of him being hungry."

"InThig's an it, not a him," I corrected, letting another swallow of coffee push the food I'd eaten down where it belonged. "And it doesn't eat, at least not the way we do, so you don't have to worry. When it's hungry, it goes home to eat."

"Oh," she said, her tone wavering between relief and disbelief, not quite sure which way to go. She wanted to think I was telling the truth, but was still too uneasy to put complete trust in something that might not be so. If that was the worst difficulty InThig's presence caused among me six of us, though, I would be very, very happy.

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By mutual consent, we didn't do much dawdling over the coffee. The first rays of the new day were just begin- ning to light and brighten the landscape when we went out to get the horses, and 1 had my first job of the day. Our mounts reacted to InThig the way the innkeeper and the serving girl had, but with more volume and violence; I had to speak a spell to keep them from bolting and leaving us afoot. After that they were no longer aware of InThig's presence, but InThig got a lot of fun out of the incident.

Demons are always amused when people and animals panic at the sight of them, which accounts for some of the legends concerning them. The reason they're that amused is something no one knows for sure, but I suspect it has to do with their life-places in their own world-dimension.

Sort of like, "Are they really afraid of me?" As humans would find it impossible to survive in their world, the matter continues to be one for speculation.

We followed the road through the woods for less than an hour, and then Su turned off it to lead the way through the trees. There wasn't the least sign of a trail or path or anything to show we were heading in the right direction, but none of us had any doubt. Until then Kadrim and Zail had ridden to either side of me, their conversation light and their attention to our surroundings heavy, but once we were off the road it was strictly single file. Su led the way with Rikkan Addis behind her, Soffann Dra following him, then Zail in front of me and Kadrim bringing up the rear. InThig ranged through the trees on its own to our right, a silent, blackly flowing shadow, and somehow the woods felt friendlier having it there.

No more than fifteen or twenty minutes later Su stopped, at a place that seemed to the naked eye no different from any other spot in the forest. The early-morning sun was slanting down through the leaves above and birds sang in the upper reaches, but closer to the ground there was no forest life, nothing to disturb the bright, pulsating slit I could See between two of the trees. No human or animal could have gone through that slit without the help of a Sighted, but the woods-dwellers still avoided the spot;

sometimes I have the feeling that all animals are Sighted, 99.

and those unSighted who feel the greatest affinity for them are closest to the state themselves.

"Can't see the trail any more," Su was saying to Rikkan Addis, who had ridden up to halt his roan beside her paint.

"Stops right mere between those trees, and doesn't start up again."

"Then this must be it," he said, glancing around a little before turning to look at me over his shoulder. "Is this where the gate is, girl?"

"Just ahead of you, between those two trees," I an- swered, urging my gray past Zail and Soffann Dra to join the head of the column. "I'll have to help Su go through first, so that we transfer to the proper world. Everyone dismount and get ready; this might take some doing."

"You're expecting problems?" Rikkan Addis asked, his frown making itself known in his voice since we were all too busy climbing off our mounts to look at him. "I thought you were good enough to handle this easily."

"If I were alone, I could handle it easily," I answered, annoyed but too deep in juggling possibilities for him to distract me. I dropped my reins to keep my gray standing where 1 left him and walked closer to the gate, aware of the way ^-folded-on the inside, each fold going in a different direction. Choosing "among the folds was not difficult at all; moving others to one of those folds without going through myself was going to be the hard part. 1 had to be on this side of the gate to help the others in and on the other side of the gate to help them out again, both at the same time. Either I would have to escort each one of them through separately, the end of which would leave me needing two nights' worth of sleep-like-the-dead, or I could-

"All right, here's how we'll do it," I announced as soon as the decision was made, turning to look at them.

"The fastest and easiest thing we can do is form a chain through the gate, with Su on the left, one of you men on the right, and me as the central link. That way the rest of you can just pa.s.s right through with the horses, and I won't have to go back and forth half a dozen times. With me right in the middle of the gate, it will stay open."

"Why do you need a chain?" Rikkan Addis asked, those

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bronze eyes glowing faintly with curiosity. "Why can't you simply stand in the gate alone?"

"Gates aren't made for standing in," I answered, im- patient to get on with it but seeing that the others had the same question. "They tend to draw you through once you've entered them, so I have to be anch.o.r.ed. Is every- one ready?"

"Just a minute," old fearless leader balked, part of his frown back. "I can see why Su has to go through first, but what happens if there's a welcoming committee on the other side? How can she defend herself if she has to help anchor you?"

"The answer to that is, she can't," I said, speaking slowly and carefully so the man would have no trouble understanding what would have been obvious to any real leader. "That's why InThig will be going through right behind her,, on its own, to stand protection until the rest of us make it. Did you think Graythor added it to this expedi- tion just to give it new victims for its sense of humor?"

My adversary's head came up, as though he didn't quite care for something I'd said, but that wasn't the time or the place to continue the discussion and he seemed to know it.

Rather than giving voice to whatever was bothering him, he opted instead for giving orders.

"Kadrim, I think you'd better be the anchor on this side," he told the red-haired boy without looking at him, that bronze stare still all mine. "Zail, you'll go through behind InThig, Soffann Dra after you, and then me, we mice leading all the horses. As soon as we clear the gate, Kadrim, get yourself and the girl through as fast as possible."

"Also shall I be on the alert for any who might appear behind us," Kadrim said with full agreement, ignoring the near-growl with which he'd been addressed. "At the mo- ment it appears that we are alone, therefore does it seem best that we hurry."

"Couldn't have said it better myself," I commented to Kadrim with a smile, then gestured to Su and the boy to join me very near the gate. Su stopped no more than half a pace back from it, probably guided by where the trail she was following ended, and when I reached her 1 put my left hand up.

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"Su, you take my hand and we'll move into the gate together, but I'll be edging in sideways," I told her, looking up at her calm brown eyes. "When you know which world we want simply move toward it, but don't let go of my hand. That way I'll be able to open the gate for you on the other side without pa.s.sing through it myself, and Kadrim will keep me from being drawn through. Once you're on the other side, hold tight to make sure I don't get drawn back."

"Don't have to worry I'll let go," she answered, flash- ing me a quick, faintly amused grin. "Don't want to be left over there all by myself. Let's get to it."