Caroline Spector - Worlds Without End

Surehand suggested that Aithne have Glasgian carried up to a room, but Aithne refused and hugged Glasgian tightly to him.

"This is all your doing," he hissed at me. "This sort of thing follows wherever you go. I knew we shouldn't ever have anything to do with you

again."

"For heaven's sake, Aithne," said Lofwyr. "She didn't bring it here."

"Yes, she did," he said. "That creature has fol- lowed her through space and time. It will destroy anyone around her. This isn't the Enemy. It's her en- emy. It has come for her and I say we let it have her. She seeks to divert the issue. But we must see it for what it is. This is Aina's battle. Not ours. Let her deal with it."

"I must agree with Aithne," said Alachia. "Obvi- ously, Aina wants us to become involved with this personal matter. We don't know that she didn't con- jure it up herself. After all, that was a specialty of hers, as I recall. This isn't about the world-it's abom her.

She has turned her back on us. I say we let her shift for herself."

I had my back to her, but I knew she had plastered a noble, righteously dignified expression on her face.

Now they all would agree with her.

"This is a terrible mistake," I said. "If I cannot stop him, he will bring.them all across. He has the power to do so."

"Get her out of here," snarled Aithne. "If she says one more word I think I'll…"

Caimbeui came and wrapped his jacket around me. I hadn't realized I'd been shivering.

"Let's go," he said. "But…"

"You've done all you could," he said. I let him lead me from the room. Our footsteps. echoed down the long hallway as we left.

"What am I going to do?" I asked.

I was huddled in the back of the limo. Caimbeui gave the driver instructions to take us straight to the airport.

"We'd best get out of here as quickly as possi- ble," he said.

"What about our things at the hotel?" I asked.

"Leave them," he replied. "It's just clothes."

"Where are we going?"

"I don't know. The next possible flight out. I don't want Aithne or Alachia thinking they might want to have us arrested."

"Arrested? What could they possibly arrest us for?"

"You name it. All they have to do is convince Lugh to send out the order. They could lock us up and'keep us locked up for a long time. Have you for- gotten when Alachia kept you imprisoned before? They would be able to justify it."

I shoved my hands into the pockets of my jacket. I'd failed, I thought. They'd rejected me and my warnings. Now I would have to face Ysrthgrathe by myself. I didn't know if I had the strength to fight him again.

The limo's headlights illuminated row after row of dormant rose bushes.

Thorns.

So many thorns.

The first flight we could book passage on was a small tour plane. They were doing a hop from Port- land to Eugene, then on to a small airstrip near Crater Lake. After refueling there, the next leg was to Eureka.

I hated small planes even more than large ones. So many things to go wrong, none of which I had any control over. How loathsome.

Luckily, the leg from Portland to Eugene was quiet. While Caimbeui and I stretched our legs, they took on more passengers. Lots of back-to-nature types. A couple of humans who said they were going to Crater Lake to perform research. The rest were elves. Judging from their totems and tattoos, they all appeared to be involved with some kind of shamanistic magic.

This annoyed me. These shamans^

"Do you see?" I asked Caimbeui in a low whisper. "They just don't see the large way of things. With | them it's all power conferred through something else. They don't see that the power is in them."

"You can't make them other than what they are," Caimbeui said. "They were shaped by a world where magic didn't exist. Their understanding of it will always be limited. Maybe the next genera- tion…"

I frowned. "If we don't stop Ysrthgrathe, there might not be another generation."

The plane circled over Crater Lake before landing on the small airstrip about five miles away. The sha- mans and the humans all filed off with their back- packs. I knew that Crater Lake had been sealed off for some time by the military. It amazed me that anyone would try to get close to it without some sort of clearance.

Then it occurred to me-how stupid I was-that they just might have clearance. If what Dunkelzahn had told me about Crater Lake was true, then the Tir could very well be pulling in magicians here and there to help them.

Caimbeui and I also got out at this stop. There was a two-hour layover. We followed the others into the tiny terminal. It was just one large room with a few benches. Through the plate glass window I saw two army jeeps with soldiers waiting outside. The shamans and the humans went immediately to them, gave some papers to the soldiers, then piled into the Jeeps.

"How much do you know about what's happening down there at Crater Lake?" I asked Caimbeui.

"Enough to know it would only upset you," he replied. "Are you hungry?"

I nodded. "Starved," I said. "But it looks like there are only those vending machines over there.

Stale, dried miso soup, dehydrated beans and rice, maybe an old candy bar."

"Have no fear, madam," he said. "We have two hours, and I happen to know of a place nearby that has fabulous food and a hell of a view."

He led me outside and hailed what had to be the only taxi for five counties. The driver actually agreed to let us hire him for the next two hours. Caimbeui gave him the name of the restaurant, and we were off.

He hadn't lied about the view. We were at the top of one of the higher peaks in the area. From this vantage we could see the surrounding countryside. Off in the distance was a blue glow that made me very nervous.

"Is that what I think it is?" I asked Caimbeui.

"Shhh, no questions now," he said. "Just have something to eat and think about getting out of here after dinner. We'll talk later."

It annoyed me, but perhaps he was right. No mat- ter what was happening, I couldn't stop it. Not now, at any rate.

Slowly, I began to relax. There were mostly mil- itary types in the restaurant. Some civilians, but they looked to be locals. It was an old-fashioned Mom and Pop kind of place. Mostly vegan dishes, with one or two meat entrees for the non-elven types. Given the makeup of the/trowd, I suspected they didn't do a lot of business with the beef.

No one gave us much of a second glance. A little odd, unless they were used to seeing strangers.

Caimbeui ordered some wine, but I declined. I wanted to be as sharp as possible until we made it out of the Tir. We lingered a bit over dessert, but then it was time to head back to the airstrip.

Our driver had apparently gotten something from the kitchen, because the cab smelled of eggplant ratatouille.

I shut my eyes as the cab headed away from the restaurant and down the hill. I must have dozed off for a moment, because the next thing I remember was being thrown to the floor. Caimbeui was curs- ing; the driver was screaming.

"What's happening?" I yelled as I pushed myself off the floor.

"Keep going!" shouted Caimbeui.

The driver didn't answer but continued to scream. I poked my head up, trying to see what was going on. The driver reached forward and pulled some- thing from under the seat. A gun. Still yelling, he began to fire it through the window. Just as he shot, I looked.

There, illuminated by the cab's headlights, was Ysrthgrathe standing in the middle of the road. Then the glass shattered, and he was broken into a million fragmented images.

I grabbed the door handle and yanked. It flew open and I fell out after it, sprawling on the rough asphalt of the road on my hands and knees.

"Ah, Aina," Ysrthgrathe said. "Don't you remem- ber? You don't have to kneel to me."