Диана Дуэйн - Wizards At War

" Nita sighed. "One less thing to worry about," she said. "But I feel sorry for them, being pitched straight into the middle of all this trouble." Ronan shrugged. "Not much we can do," he said, and turned away from the Spear to see what Kit was doing. Nita reflexively reached out to stop the Spear from falling over, and then saw that it just kept on leaning against nothing in exactly the same way it had been leaning against Ronan, the fire wreathing undisturbed about that bitterly sharp blade. It has a mind of its own, said that other voice Though maybe "mind" is the wrong word. The kind of consciousness a virtue has isn't much like the human kind. Kit had caught Ponch and was checking the leash– spell, the blue-fire glow of it stretching thin and bright between his hands as he checked its wizardry to make sure that it was intact and working correctly. "Some thing on your mind?" Ronan said, turning back to Nita. "I don't know," Nita said. "I guess…" She wasn't sure whether she wanted to say what was on her mind, then shrugged as well. "You two are doing okay, aren't you?" Ronan's smile got a bit sardonic. "Told you she'd ask," he said. His situation's hardly unique, the Defender said. Various of the Powers have living avatars for one reason or another. "Though the rest are all a lot older," Ronan said. "Apparently it's unusual for someone so young to be able to cope so well." He made an ironic face. Nita raised her eyebrows. Why didn't I see this corn ing? If there's anything Ronan was going to be good at, it'd be coping. "So you're telling me there's nothing for me to be worrying about," Nita said, "for either of you." There was a pause. Ronan looked briefly flum moxed. You're worried about me? said the Defender. "It can't be easy being… what you are… and having to live inside a human being," Nita said. "Especially now, when so many things aren't working the way they should." for a moment Ronan's face looked as if neither of the two beings living behind it knew how to respond. Finally, Ronan dropped his gaze. Of course my kind of power suffers from being wrapped up in flesh, the One's Champion said. But it's inside physicality that the great Game's played. He looked up again, met Nita's eyes, and for all the age and power in the voice that spoke, the eyes were strangely young, and there was an odd glint of excitement in them. It's like chess, the Defender said. It doesn't matter that you could stand up and turn the hoard over. That wouldn't be winning. The only way that matters to win the game is from inside. So-he shrugged-we put up with the limitations, because there's no other way to win. Not having access to our full power, yes, it's frustrating. And if we break out before we're scheduled to, we pay the price. "But for the time being, you're okay," Nita said. Yes, said the Defender. And I thank you very much for asking. It sounded bemused. Nita nodded. She looked down from the rise and saw that all the pup-tent accesses were gone now, and Kit and Ponch were standing with Sker'ret and Filif. "Looks like we're ready," she said. Ronan reached out and grasped the Spear. "Let's go." They bounced down to where the others were waiting. Ponch was jumping around, the line of light between him and Kit stretching and shrinking to accommodate him. "Why should you be so nervous?" Sker'ret was saying. "It went just fine the last time." "Except that we lost four days getting here," Kit said. "And that wasn't nearly as long a jump as this one's going to be." He glanced down at Ponch, whose bouncing went on uninterrupted. It'll he all right, Ponch said. / know where we're going. Come on, let's go! "Maybe I'm just feeling paranoid today," Kit said, not quite glancing up at the Pullulus, "but I think we should be in physical contact when we go." He reached his spare hand out to Filif, who wound a few fronds around it; Sker'ret took hold of some fronds as well from behind Filif, and held a rear handling-claw up. Nita glanced at Ronan. He shook his head. "I think I'd sooner keep a hand free," he said, lifting the Spear. Oh great. I get to hold his hand. Nita swallowed, took Sker'ret's claw with one of hers, and with the other, took Ronan's free hand. It was sweating. She smiled slightly. "All set," she said to Kit. Kit looked down at Ponch. "Okay," he said. Ponch took a step forward; they all followed, and the gray surface of Metemne vanished behind them. Darkness. For a couple of breaths, that line of light between Ponch and Kit was the only thing Nita could see as they all moved forward together. When she glanced nervously over her shoulder, she couldn't even see the Spear, though she could still feel Ronan's hand in hers. There was a surface of some kind under their feet, but Nita couldn't see it, couldn't even feel it. The sensation was most peculiar. "Is it usually like this?" Nita said to Kit-or tried to Say. But when she spoke, there was no sound. Sometimes it is, Kit said silently. Sorry, I should have ?warned you. It's as if there's no air, Filif said. I'm not sure there is, Kit said. What's weird is that whether there is or not, you don't feel like breathing. How much longer? Sker'ret said. He sounded somewhat unnerved. Ponch? Kit said. Not long. They kept walking. Nita found herself having to count paces by how her legs moved, since when she put her feet down, she couldn't really feel anything. Twelve. Thirteen. Fourteen. This is so weird! Fifteen. Sixteen. The count went past twenty, and still there was nothing but that darkness. Past thirty, and nothing. Nita was having to resist the urge to start singing or whistling, partly because she knew she wouldn't hear anything, which would just make her feel creepier. And it wouldn't take much to start imagining the Pullulus infesting this darkness, pressing closer, pushing in– Nita swallowed and went back to concentrating on counting paces. Forty. Forty-one. Forty-two. Forty-three… She blinked, not sure whether she was really seeing a dim gleam of light far ahead, or whether she was hallucinating it. No, it's there, all right, Nita thought. But what is that? The light seemed faintly greenish; as they walked, the green color seemed to get stronger. Fifty. Fifty-one. fifty-two The source of the light quickly grew closer, as if they were moving far faster than a walk. The light began to distinguish itself into shades and patterns; tall dark pillar shapes rose up within it, casting long shadows across the greenness. And then the light swept around them and closed up behind, sealing the darkness outside Nita let go of Ronan's hand, wiping the sweat off against her vest, and stood there gazing up and around her. The dark shapes were huge trees, hundreds of feet high, as broad in the trunk as sequoias, but with broad leaves rather than needles. They towered above the little group, vast branches overhanging the green grass at their feet, and moving shadows from sunlight far above patterned the grass as a slight wind stirred the branches. At the head of the group, Ponch was bouncing up and down excitedly. Kit, looking chagrined, let go of the wizardly leash. "I can't believe this," he muttered. "Go on…" Nita saw Filif and Sker'ret and Ronan looking around them in confusion. Ponch ran barking off across the green lawn under the trees… … and from high up in the branches, thousands upon thousands of gray shapes came boiling down the tree trunks. Ronan stepped hurriedly past Nita with the Spear of Light. Thin tongues of white fire coiled and curled around the Spear's head, and the starsteel of the head itself burned silver-white as if the spearhead had just come out of the forge again, while Ronan hefted it in one hand, ready to throw. But the squirrels paid no attention whatsoever. Their attention was all on Ponch. The ones behind ponch ran after him, and the ones in front of him ran away from him and up the trees again as he started to chase them. Ronan lowered the Spear. "Uh," he said. "I don't think this is where we're headed…" "Absolutely not. Sorry about this," Kit said, sounding exasperated. "And welcome to dog heaven. This is one of the first places Ponch made; he seems to need to use this as a first stop…" Let him get it out of his system, the Defender said. "Not that it looks like we have any choice," Ronan said. He shouldered the Spear again, which began to quiet down, the uneasy flame about the blade pulling itself in and going quiet. Nita walked up across the perfect, manicured lawn to join Sker'ret and Filif. Sker'ret's eyes were looking in all directions at once, as usual. Filif was standing there with all his eye-berries glowing blue, gazing up into the pale blue sky beyond the branches. "Kit told me about this," Sker'ret said, "but he understated the strangeness somewhat." "More than somewhat," Nita said. "It's like a movie set. All perfect. If you're a dog…" Ponch was running back toward them now, surrounded by waves of squirrels. He and the squirrels dodged off to the left, past several of the really large trees, and briefly went out of sight. Kit and Ronan came over to join them. Ponch ran out from behind the trees and back to Kit, the squirrels hanging back a little. As he came, Filif leaned away from Ponch a little, pulling his branches in. "You're not going to try to water me again, are you?" It was a joke, Ponch said, sounding somewhat pained. "Good," Filif said, with some force. "And I think we've had about enough of the joke stuff for the time being," Kit said, sounding unusually severe. "I thought we agreed earlier that we'd come here afterward}" There was something here I needed, Ponch said. / can't find the way by myself. Nita blinked at that. "But you said you knew where we were going." / do. This is how. Ponch looked up. Everyone else looked up, too, rather confused. Nita craned her neck back to follow Ponch's glance, and was surprised when, all by itself, down the largest of the trees a single squirrel came running. It was white. The squirrel ran down the bole of the tree onto the ground, and there sat up in the middle of the perfect green grass and looked at all of them. Ronan suddenly started to laugh. Now I understand, said the Defender through him. It's an embodiment, a way to perceive the trail as an active entity rather than as something passive. Very sophisticated. And fun. Hurry up and put the leash on! Ponch said, while the white squirrel sat there completely still, its little dark eyes moving across them, one by one. Nita met its eyes and was briefly transfixed, perceiving it somewhat as Ponch might have. It was shorthand for a twisting trail made up of a complex of many virtual scents, all braiding and corkscrewing through a peculiar skewed landscape that might have meant time and space as a dog saw them… or as Ponch did, and he wasn't just any dog anymore. Kit got Ponch to sit down beside him, and fastened the "collar" end of the wizardly leash around his neck again. Nita and Sker'ret and Filif and Ronan all arranged themselves behind Kit, holding hands or claws or fronds as they'd done before. The white squirrel's eyes met Ponch's. Ponch leaped forward. Just a few lengths ahead of him, the squirrel ran across the grass, then jumped into a sudden darkness that leaped forward to surround them all. They ran. Ahead of them in the dark, like a white streak through the blackness, the squirrel ran. Ponch tore after it. Kit ran after him, or was dragged. All the rest of them were dragged along as well, and a breath later the darkness vanished– –to leave them running over something that cracked and glowed. Nita looked down and gasped as the heat struck up at her, burning through her sneakers. They were running over lava, under a dull red sky in which hung a single huge planet, banded in eye– vibrating greens and blues. The lava churned and flowed, hot and sluggish, and as two smaller bodies like moons came cruising across the fierce hot sky, Nita glanced to one side and saw how the lava humped toward the new moons' pull in strange swollen tides– A second later, the darkness fell again, and the heat and the burning light were gone, and they were racing through the dark, faster now.Читать дальше