The Far Side Of Forever Part 9

.you have to describe it in detail; without the detail, you're wasting your time trying."

"Maybe they weren't trying to kidnap you," he sug- gested after shaking his head, a grin beginning to grow again. "Maybe they just couldn't get a woman any other way, and were desperate. Once or twice I've considered trying that method myself."

"But you're not warded," I pointed out with a chuckle, enjoying the comment he'd made. "If you try it on the wrong woman, you could end up a living two-dimensional cut-out, hung on a wall for decoration or rolled up and put away on a shelf. Which is what I intend doing to that third one who disappeared, if I ever come across him unwarded.

1 don't like being strong-armed."

"I don't blame you a bit," he agreed, his left hand coming across the s.p.a.ce between us to close gently over one of mine, his pretty gray eyes filled with understand- ing. "Men who try to force themselves on women deserve anything they get. Women arc there to be appreciated, and taken care of, and handled gently, like the priceless works of art they are. Don't you think so?"

"I-never really thought about it," I stumbled, sud- denly very aware of his hand on mine, wishing his eyes would let mine go. The saddle was harder than it had been and the day abruptly hotter, and if my mount hadn't been watching the road we probably would have found our- selves off it.

"It's the best and only way," he a.s.sured me, his smile very warming in spite of its softness, "From the moment I first saw you I knew you were a woman who was born to be treated like that, and myself as the man born to do it.

I'm Zail and you're Laciel, and when we stop at an inn tonight we'll have dinner together, just you and me. If young Kadrim tries to join us, we'll just tell him we'd prefer being alone It's about time someone starting treat- ing you the right way, not shouting at you the way Rik did, and you'll have a wonderful time. I guarantee it."

At that point I couldn't think of anything to say, not in any language ever created. No man had ever spoken to me like that before, especially not one as good-looking at Zail, and I couldn't decide if 1 wanted to drop my eyes away

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from his or keep on noticing how beautiful his were. I have no idea how long the dilemma lasted, but suddenly it was solved in a way that should have been predictable.

"Zail!" Rikkan Addis called, looking back over his shoulder at us, his expression only a little lighter than it had been. "I could use a few minutes of your time."

"Right with you, Rik," Zait acknowledged with a wave, then his attention was briefly mine again. "I have to go now, but I'll probably be useless if he wants to discuss anything in the way of planning for the quest. My mind will be too full of thoughts about tonight. Until then ..."

He took my hand and raised it briefly to his lips, then he was urging his black horse forward toward where Rikkan Addis rode in our procession, up front where a leader belonged. I looked down at the hand Zail had kissed.

wondering why it tingled that way, wondering if I should curse fearless leader for breaking things up just then, or thank him for doing it. Zait was unlike any man I had ever known, and somehow I couldn't decide how I should feel about what he'd said. Dinner together, just the two of us, him and me. I'd occasionally had dinner with men before, but they'd been magic users and couldn't seem to talk about anything but that. Not to mention how nervous they'd been. Zail wouldn't be nervous, and somehow I knew he wouldn't be talking about magic, and I found myself wanting to hear what he would be talking about. I shifted in the saddle, knowing I'd be thinking about him even after the dinner was over and I'd gone to bed, and discovered that I liked that idea. We'd be spending a lot of time together until the quest was finished, and I liked that idea even more. Maybe having companions along wasn't going to be so bad after all.

The rest of the afternoon drifted by without bringing itself to my attention, most of my thoughts involved with the quest and where it would take us. That particular line of consideration was enough to distract me even from thoughts of Zail and dinner, and no matter how hard I tried pushing it away, it continued to insist on coming back and hopping around in front of me. Graythor had told everyone the night before that the quest would take us an unbe- lievably far distance from that world-dimension, but he 75.

hadn't gone into details about what we would find there.

He hadn't lied when he'd said he didn't know what we would find, but he hadn't mentioned any of the stories we'd both heard about the place, either. . . .

"Oh, thank goodness we're finally here," Soffann Dra's voice came, drawing me back to the world-dimension we hadn't yet left. "I don't think I could have ridden one foot past it."

The "it" she was talking about was the inn we'd been looking for, one that wasn't supposed to be very far from the first gate. We'd spend our last night on that world in comfort, and after that take accommodations as they came.

If nothing turned up that was suitable I'd produce tents and things for us with magic, which kept us from having to drag along pack horses and tons of equipment, which in turn would make things easier for me at the gates. It took a lot of power and strength to move things without power of their own through a gate, and five people and six horses were going to be hard enough.

The inn was bright in the darkness that had descended on everything around it, standing in the middle of a large cleared s.p.a.ce in me woods to the right of the road. Wel- coming light spilled out of windows on each of its two floors, and lanterns had been set on the outside of both house and stable. It promised a comfortable haven in the middle of nothing but trees and road. and yet even as we rode into the yard and slowed to a stop. something about it began bothering me. It was cheerful and friendly and we could hear the sounds of conversation coming from inside, but there was something. . . .

"Rub them all down and give them oats, boy," Rikkan Addis was saying to me gangling teenager who had hurried out of the stable, followed by two younger a.s.sistants.

"We'll be staying the night, but we'll want them early tomorrow."

"Yes, sir!" the boy acknowledged, s.n.a.t.c.hing the coin tossed to him out of the air and pocketing it quickly before taking the reins being held out. Then he gestured hurriedly to his a.s.sistants to do the same with the rest of our horses, which meant it was time to dismount. I was almost as tired as Soffann Dra claimed to be, which was probably why I

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was seeing strangeness where there wasn't any. The fresh, dewy night air was beginning to make me sleepy, and I hoped getting back on my own two feet would wake me up a little. I started to dismount-and suddenly felt an arm around my waist.

"Here, let me help you," Zail said, lifting me down against his chest before slowly lowering me to the ground.

There was more than enough light to see those gray eyes by, and they were looking at me again as they had that afternoon. His arms didn't leave my waist immediately, die hand firm against my ribs, and once again I felt as though I'd lost the ability to speak. It was stupid for a grown woman to be acting that way, as though she'd never met or spoken to a man in her life before, but there was something about that particular man. . . .

"Let's get inside and settled," Zail said, letting me go as though reluctant to do it, then taking the single rein I held to give it to the boy waiting for it. "As soon as we've arranged for rooms, we can get to that dinner."

The dinner for just the two of us. We stood and waited while the horses were led out of the way toward the stable, then joined the others in walking toward the house. Zail wasn't touching me at all right then, and I felt the loss of his hand and arm more than I would have thought possi- ble. Normally I didn't like being touched, usually I avoided it even if I had to be downright rude; I couldn't really imagine why Zail would want to touch me, but also found that I didn't have the urge to laugh, or wonder aloud about his desperation, or do anything that would keep him from wanting to do it again. That was probably why I'd been finding it so hard to speak, afraid I'd say something stupid or clumsy and drive him away. . . .

Rikkan Addis opened the inn door and led the way inside, Kadrim right behind him, then Soffann Dra and Su, then me with Zail bringing up the rear. The big room we walked into already had ten or twelve people in it, seated at the long rectangular tables with food or drink or both m front of them, the lamps on the walls casting odd shadows.

At the back of the room opposite the door was a long bar, with a heavyset man in a once-white ap.r.o.n behind it, just then handing over two mugs of ale to a slender young

THE PAR SIDE OF FOREVER.

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thing who was obviously a serving girl. The girl was the only female in the room aside from those of us who had just arrived, and when she turned away from the bar the man behind it beamed at us.

"Welcome, travelers'" he called in a rough voice trying to be professionally jolly, gesturing us toward him. "Are you here for the night, or just for a meal?"

"For the night and for a meal," Rikkan Addis told him, starting over toward the bar. "We'U want two of your bigger rooms and breakfast in the morning as well, early enough to let us be on our way at first light."

"Rik, I've had a thought about those rooms," Zail said, moving past the rest of us fast to catch up to fearless leader. "Since this is probably the last night the girls will be able to have any privacy, why not . . ."

His voice lowered as he reached the other man's side, causing Kadrim and Soffann Dra to step closer to hear what he was saying, also making Su curious enough to do the same thing. As a matter of fact I was more than a little interested myself, especiallly since 1 had no intention of sharing a room for the night. Over the years I'd learned to enjoy having a place all to myself rather than having to share it with others, and if Rikkan Addis wanted to be thrifty with Graythor's gold that was his business. He could sleep in the house's back corridor for all I cared, but / was not going to be packed into a cheap, communal stall.

I started to move forward to make my position as clear as possible-and that's when everything began happening at once.

Very casually three of the inn's previous guests sud- denly stepped between me and the others, big men dressed in rough homespun undecorated with swordbelts. For a moment 1 thought they were just going past so I stopped to let them get by. but continuing in their original direction wasn't what they had in mind. Without any warning all three were abruptly around me the way the three at the fair had been, rough hands grabbing for me and heavy bodies already pushing me toward the door. A deep male voice shouted wordlessly, possibly Kadrim although I couldn't be sure, and then the other "guests" were streaming from their tables with swords in their fists, the sound of metal

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striking metal coming when they reached the others. The inn was a trap, and my suspicions about it had been right.

It's been said that be who hesitates is lost, but some- times a little forethought can outbalance the hesitation of shock. Attack was the last thing I'd been expecting at the inn, but part of my thinking during the afternoon had been about the warding the three kidnappers had had that had kept me from defending myself with magic. I hadn't en- joyed being helpless, and when 1 dislike something that strongly I usually try to think of a way to keep it from happening again. I had thought of something that might be a way, and there would never be a better time to try it.

The three men were having only minor trouble forcing me toward me door over my struggles, and none of them were making the least effort to silence me. That told me they had to be warded me way me others had been, so I closed one fist tight in anger and spoke the two-word spell I'd prepared only a few hours earlier. Instantly the light- nings blazed high and all three of mem screamed and threw themselves away from me, me agony they'd brought on themselves dropping them to the plank floor to roll them about moaning. With their thick bodies out of the way I could see that the "serving girl" had been making her way over to us, but had frozen still in fear and shock when her friends had gone down. Just then she stood staring at me wide-eyed, the back of her hand to her mouth, and when I met her stare she simply turned and ran.

The noise of fighting and cursing was rather loud even in a room that size, and a quick look around showed me two more bodies on the floor, both of them "guests." One had a shirt that was soaked in blood and the other only half a head, but our side was still outnumbered about two to one. Soffann Dra was the only one without a swinging sword in her fist, and she stood cringing behind a wildly fighting Kadrim. trying her best not to be noticed. The attackers were fighting back as though they didn't care whether they lived or died as long as they took us with them, and that was another clue that told me even more than my not having been silenced had.

Moving to the right, away from the three on the floor, 79.

let me see past the fighting to the bar. Just as I'd hoped the "innkeeper" was simply standing where he had been, his face calm, his attention on the fight. I drew myself up and spoke me word of power, and all outside sounds faded as me cylinder formed between and around us, locking us together in a private world that was nevertheless still in the middle of that inn. He started in surprise, obviously not expecting anything like that, and then he laughed in a way that was supposed to sound superior, rather than the way it did sound-which was frightened.

"You can't seriously be challenging me, Laciel," he said after the laugh, trying to straighten up a bit more.