She took my left hand with her left, waited until Kadrim had my right hand in his left, then all of us moved cautiously forward. The gate sensed my presence and ex- panded sideways, the slit becoming a glowing curtain that stretched between the two trees, even me ground beneath it beginning to glow. The horses snorted and moved behind us, clearly startled by the unexpected happening but not really afraid, their reactions reinforcing my belief concern- ing animals and magic. The gate was open and ready, and the horses, at least, knew it.
Su, however, had no idea of what was happening until we actually stepped through the gate-. She gasped then and tightened her grip on my hand, most likely dizzied by all the folds and choices among worlds. Gates glowed much more brightly on the inside, and once in you didn"t have to be Sighted to perceive the brightness. Universes seemed to be rushing by in that glow, and it took a while even for the Sighted to get used to it.
"Just concentrate on the trail," I told Su gently, my voice sounding odd in the silent rushing of the glow.
"You should be able to see it again now, and then all we have to do is follow it."
"Yes . . . there!" she gasped, still strangling my hand, and then she was stumbling toward one particular fold. I made sure to See which fold it was just in case, and then Su was through it into the next world-dimension, my hand, arm and shoulder through with her. I felt the pull of the fold trying to draw the rest of me along with the first, but Kadrim"s big hand held to mine behind, and Su"s grip kept
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that part of me from snapping back. I was anch.o.r.ed in the gate, and InThig bounded through so fast all I caught was a glimpse of black.
A moment later Zail appeared, leading his horse and Su"s, his eyes widening as he became aware of the inner gate. The dizziness didn"t take him as badly as it had Su, most likely because the chain was stabilizing a good part of the confusion, but the central link of that chain wasn"t taking her position as easily as she thought she would. My body had begun hurting from being pulled in two opposite directions, my head was starting to throb in time to the pulse of the glow. and I was getting queasy. When Zau glanced at me, some of the awe left his expression.
"Are you all right?" he demanded, his flattened voice full of his frown. He seemed to want to say more than that, but talking in a gate isn"t very-comfortable.
"Yes," I answered, speaking more in general than specifically, but had to add, "Hurry."
Zail wasted no further time on questions, for which I was grateful. He led the horses straight through into the fold, and then it was Soffann Dra entering, followed by her horse and mine. The small, dark-haired woman gasped and paled, and she, at least, didn"t have to be hurried. She moved through the gate as fast as it"s possible to go while leading two horses, her head down, her eyes nearly closed, and then it was Rikkan Addis" turn. Fearless leader entered the gate in front of his horse and Kadrim"s, his bronze eyes narrowing at what he saw, and then his gaze found me. A peculiar expression crossed his face and his left hand came up, as though he were going to touch me, but men he -stopped himself, turned away, and pulled the horses through the fold behind him.
I could now hear sounds of some sort, soft and very distant, as though coming from the other folds all around.
It was neither warm nor cold in the gate but 1 could feel beads of sweat on my forehead, and something was inter- fering with my vision. I kept getting flashes of scenes mat weren"t there before me, scenes of landscape and sea- scape, mountains and valleys, hot sunshine and shivery snows. People and animals of all sorts inhabited the scenes, and each one seemed to be calling and pulling at me. I
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gasped for air, finding it almost as hard to breathe as it had been in the Plane of Dreams, and me whirling in my head began turning even faster. I gasped again, feeling my knees begin to buckle-and then it was all gone and ! was being carried in two muscular arms, my body no longer being torn apart, my hands now free. For an instant I thought me chain had broken and 1 struggled, but then I was being put down in thick, soft gra.s.s and my eyes opened to see that everyone was there.
"Just take it slow for a minute," Rikkan Addis said from where he half-knelt beside me, the glow in those eyes looking as strange as his expression in the gate had. "We"re all through and everything"s all right, so you can rest as long as you have to."
I closed my eyes again and simply breathed, knowing it wasn"t rest mat I needed. Standing in the gate hadn"t been as draining as going back and forth through it would have been, but it also wasn"t the most pleasurable of experiences.
After three or four breaths I became aware of the thick gra.s.s on which I lay, the heavy, woodsy smell in the air all around, the sparkling warmth of sunshine, the sound of birds singing; by then the visions and sounds of the gate had begun to recede into faint memories.
"I hadn"t expected that, but I suppose it"s logical," I muttered, putting one hand to my head as I opened my eyes again. "If the folds can"t simply draw you into one of them, they start trying harder in other ways. I wonder if it"ll be easier next time, now that I know what"s coming."
"Perhaps, next time, it would be best if 1 were to stand beside you within the gate," Kadrim said, crouching down to my right to take my hand again, a faint smile on his handsome young face. "When I came through you were nearly in a swoon, and I found it necessary to support you me few steps to the far side. I would not wish to see you in such difficulty again."
"Unfortunately, my friend, you"re needed as one of the anchors," Zail said to the boy before I could answer, his own crouch to my left putting him close enough to take my other hand. "It looks like I"ll have to be the one to stand with her, lending her support until everyone has pa.s.sed through."
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Zail had smiled at Kadrim before bringing those pretty gray eyes to me while helping me to a seated position, and Kadrim"s eyes had hardened in response, as though he blamed Zait for speaking nothing but the truth. I didn"t know what was going on between them, but before I could ask, InThig was suddenly sitting at my feet.
"It would be interesting to see one of you attempt that," it said to both men, looking between them and grinning its amus.e.m.e.nt. "Laciel, being Sighted and hav- ing power to call on, was able to maintain her position inside the gate. Were one of you others to try the same, you would be swept away nearly at once-and unable to exit from any other gate. She can hold you going through, but not if you stand around sightseeing or keeping her company. That"s what makes taking the unSighted through a gate so difficult. If the Sighted doesn"t hold on tight, the gate takes its turn."
Kadrim and Zail were now staring at InThig, their ex- pressions peculiar, but that seemed to be the day for odd expressions. I hadn"t wanted to break the news to them quite that abruptly, not after they were nice enough to volunteer their help, but tact isn"t a word often found in a demon"s vocabulary. Instead of letting them down gently he had dropped them off a mountainside, and there was noth- ing I could do about it right then but change the subject.
"I think it"s time we got back on the road," I said, retrieving my hands easily from the two loosened grips before getting to my feet. "We still have a long way to
go."
"There is no road," Rikkan Addis pointed out, back to looking all around himself. We seemed to be in a wide clearing, almost a meadow, and all around were very big, very old trees. "This is the world without any people, isn"t it? The one the wizard told us to be very alert in?"
"I can sense animal and plant life," InThig told him, padding over to where the man stood and glancing at him before joining in the looking around. "If there"s human life as well, it"s out of my sensing range."
"Don"t waste any time letting me know if that changes,"
Rikkan Addis said, fearless leader instructing one of his followers without a second thought, glancing down at
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InThig as though he"d known the demon all his life.
"Aside from us, anything human on this world will have only one reason for being here. Let"s get mounted and moving.""
Everyone began moving toward the horses at mat, re- sponding to his orders as enthusiastically as they"d ignored mine, something that set me thinking even as automatic annoyance flared. Now that we"d gone through the gate it was time to start doing something about taking over lead- ership of the expedition, but just as Graythor had sug- gested, few of the others seemed ready to accept my orders unless magic was involved-and magic was something 1 couldn"t use against ol" feariess leader. I didn"t yet know how I could manage the takeover, but it was clear I"d have to do it ^st before everyone got too used to having that impossible man directing us. Habit was a hard creature to best, and as 1 moved toward my gray I glared at InThig; if even demons were subject to it 1 really did have to hurry.
but somehow I had the feeling it had ranged itself with Rikkan Addis for another reason. With Graythor having sent it, I didn"t have to wonder long as to what that other reason could be- Even without a road, the trail continued to be clear to Su. We followed her out of the"meadow and in among the trees, everyone probably wondering privately why we had to be so alert in so pleasant a place. There was nothing to show that humans had ever before pa.s.sed where we rode, and that sense of being all alone in a lovely, green, virgin wilderness was soothing as well as exhilarating. Graythor had refused to be specific about what we were supposed" to be alert against, saying that expecting one particular type of attack would leave us open to the unexpected sort. If we were alert against everything and anything, it should be that much harder to surprise us. I could see the logic in that line of reasoning, but the look of the landscape was working against it; if there had been a specific threat we could brace against, it would have kept us from getting too comfortable.
"Laciel, girl. how do you fare?" a deep voice asked from my right, drawing me out of introspection. Kadrim had been riding behind me and Zail was deep in conversa-
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tion with Rikkan Addis up ahead, but now the red-haired boy had moved up to ride beside me.
"Now that I"m out of that gate, I"m fine," I told him with a smile, seeing how those blue eyes examined me to be sure I was telling the truth. "I never got the chance to thank you for carrying me out of there."
"Merely did I a.s.sist you out, and for so little a thing there is no need of thanks," he answered, matching my smile as he looked down at me. "Once out it was Rik who took you, for he had antic.i.p.ated your need and waited just beside the gate. As you are happily no longer in distress, I will come to you once we have made darkness camp, and we shall be able to continue our dis-"
"What do you mean, it was Rik who took me?" I interrupted, feeling sudden outrage cover me like a cape.
"What gave him the right to come anywhere near me, let alone touch me? How did he dare. . . !"
"It is surely a leader"s right to see to those who follow him," the boy interrupted in turn, for some reason show- ing amus.e.m.e.nt .in those steady blue eyes. "As you con- tinue to follow him much like the rest of us, there was no call for him to refrain from doing as he wished. Perhaps, should we seek for it this darkness, we will discover a means to . . ."
"Change that state of affairs," 1 finished in what was nearly a growl, nodding my head as I turned it to glare at fearless leader"s back. "Even if it takes all night."
"Even should it take the entire darkness," Kadrim agreed in a murmur, a smile behind the smoothness of his tone.
"1 would, however, refrain from speaking of this to the others, most particularly Zail. That one spends a good deal of time with Rik, and should he inadvertently let slip a premature hint of what you intend- To me they appear to be quite close."
"Oh, but Zail would never take Rik"s side against me,"
I protested, looking again at me very large boy. "He"s already said he doesn"t like the way fearless leader treats me, and he has no choice about conferring with him in relation to the quest. If I don"t tell him, he"ll mink I don"t trust him."
"Should he fail to be told of me discussion we intend,
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the question of trust will not arise," the boy pointed out, that very faint smile back on his face. "Should you speak of the matter now, you will only cause him to realize that there were previous discussions of which he was not a part. And also do ! wish to speak of another matter this darkness, the matter I previously referred to. It will bring you as great a delight as it brings to me, I feel, yet would I prefer that you alone be told of it at this time. Will you agree to have it so?"