With a quickness and dexterity that left the baker with his mouth hanging open, Cantor smacked the underside of the man’s hand, sending the coins into the air. He snatched them before they could fall again to Belnora’s palm. With a deliberate motion, he plucked the value of one breadstick from the pile and placed it on the counter.
“I paid you as to our agreement.” Cantor smiled as he dropped the coins back in his purse and pulled the drawstring. “I then discovered I dealt with an unhonorable man. You will not profit from my purse in this way.”
His eyes came back to the baker’s face as he tucked his money into his tunic. “I’d not make any effort to raise a fuss. My traveling companions are righteous.”
Claiming righteousness tied an ordinary man directly to Primen, and in that association, the man could call upon the power of Primen. It was an old-fashioned term, but still held in awe by some.
The man blustered, but Cantor had had enough of his company. He stepped out into the street half lit by dusk. Some of the pale buildings caught and reflected the burnished copper of the sunset. Few people lingered on the street.
The skin on Cantor’s arms raised goose bumps in response to a sudden change in the atmosphere. He squinted as he examined every inch of this street crossing. He spied the ripple, heard the whoosh, and sighed as a portal eased open.
Before Cantor could determine the whereabouts of the other side, Totobee-Rodolow stepped through. Jesha jumped from the dragon’s head, and Cantor caught the furry creature as she hit his chest.
Craning his neck, Cantor tried to catch a glimpse of Totobee-Rodolow. “Where’s Bixby?”
“She’s coming, darling,” Totobee-Rodolow answered with a lilt of laughter in her tone. “She’s found an old friend.”
Just then, Rollygon stumbled through the portal, impelled by Bixby, who entered Derson with a face like a thundercloud. One step behind her was Tegan.
“Oh, good,” said Rollygon. “Cantor’s here. I can’t wait to tell him about Tegan.”
“What about Tegan?” asked Cantor in a low growl.
“He’s a realm walker.”
Cantor’s chin snapped up. “He is?”
Totobee-Rodolow laughed. “Quite a surprise, isn’t it?”
“Quite,” echoed Cantor. “What an extraordinary coincidence.”
“I doubt that.” Totobee-Rodolow patted Bixby’s shoulder, nudging her away from the portal and Tegan. “I don’t believe in coincidences.” She smiled. “Shall we retire to the hotel? Tomorrow is another day. One bound to be full of journeys, explorations, and surprises.”
Bixby had been standing on tiptoes, looking over and around anything in her way. “Where is Bridger?”
“Out looking for you. We split up to find you quickly.”
Her expression shifted to one of concern. “Is anything wrong?”
He stared at her. A lot was wrong. Should he remind her they were about to be invaded by aliens who would strip them of their resources? He could recount the tales they read in the Library of Lyme about these plant-covered people ravaging the land, pillaging the towns, and massacring the populace. And that was just the external threat. The infighting and corruption in the ranks of the guild added to the pile of what was wrong.
Swallowing his retort, Cantor sighed. “We spoke to the curator at the museum. Dukmee and Chomountain have come, retrieved the artifact, and gone.”
Totobee-Rodolow’s face didn’t flinch. Her charming expression remained. “Just as I said, journeys, explorations, and surprises.”
She took Tegan’s arm. “Come with us, dear boy. You’re bound to be entertained. Perhaps even enlightened. I, for one, shall enjoy the playing out of this remarkable set of circumstances.”
Bixby smiled at Cantor and took his arm. “You know, this spot still smells of bath oil.”
His lips twitched. “Indeed, it does.”
“We’ll find them.” The light touch of her hand on his arm felt reassuring. They made a good team.
He nodded. “Or they’ll find us.”
ANOTHER ROOM
Cantor felt Bridger approaching before he saw him. The dragon was happy, bubbling with enthusiasm at joining his sister and Bixby at the inn. From what he could determine with his mind, his group and Bridger would converge upon the modest hostel from opposite directions.
Cantor wanted to know more about Tegan before they reached the others. Silently, he communicated to Bixby. “How did you learn about Tegan’s being a realm walker?”
“When we jumped through the portal, he was there. It appeared to be an isolated spot on Alius, and he said he’d been there quite a while.”
“Last time you ran into him, he just happened to be in the same town. And he tried to kidnap you.”
“Right.”
“And this time he just happened to be in the middle of nowhere?”
“Right again.”
Cantor liked this mysterious man less with each encounter. “Coincidence?”
“Totobee-Rodolow says she doesn’t believe in coincidence.”
“In this case, neither do I. But being in an out-of-the-way location does not make him a realm walker.”
Bixby sighed. “He saw a portal open and recognized the plane.”
“That is conclusive.”
They reached the inn just as Bridger came up the street. Jesha jumped from Totobee-Rodolow to her dragon. Bridger rubbed her fur, grinned at his sister, and gave Bixby a hug. Jesha, caught in the hug, protested, squirmed out, and climbed to Bridger’s shoulder.
Cantor addressed them all. “We have a private parlor upstairs.”
Bixby’s face went from serene to delighted. “Chomountain and Dukmee are there!” She skipped ahead, the others following.
Cantor waited for all of them to pass through the door and took up a position behind Tegan. He determined to keep an eye on the man, and he wanted to see the faces of Cho and Dukmee when they first spied Tegan. Perhaps they had a better idea of who he was and what role he played in the scheme of things.
They passed through the lobby and up the stairs without speaking to anyone. As Cantor entered their private parlor, he did a double take. Chomountain had rearranged the space to make the room bigger on the inside than the entire inn on the outside. By the time Cantor remembered to look at Cho and Dukmee, he had missed seeing their reaction to Tegan’s presence. He’d have to find a private opportunity to ask them what they knew about the man.
Bixby made the introductions as Cantor took in the furnishings and occupants of the parlor. All five dragons were present. Rollygon stayed at Tegan’s side. Lupatzey and Ethelmin sat at a long table where platters and bowls of food offered an abundant meal. Bridger, nostrils flared and eyes bright, edged his way to that end of the room.
Within minutes, those who’d come in with Cantor had settled around the table.
Tegan sat beside Bixby, but she beckoned to Cantor. “Come sit by me. I want to hear what you’ve been doing all day.”
“In a minute, Bix. I need to report to Cho and Dukmee.” He closed the door to the hall and leaned against it as he observed his comrades.
Chomountain stood behind Bixby and Totobee-Rodolow to give a blessing in Primen’s name. Then he went back to sit with Dukmee in one of the cozy chairs arranged in a half circle around a fireplace. The flickering light from the flames danced on the men’s solemn faces.
Cantor joined them by the fireplace. Prior to speaking, he glanced over his shoulder to check on his friends. Along with Tegan, they all concentrated on the wonderful feast set before them. The lighthearted group ate, drank, passed plates and bowls and pitchers, and carried on a merry conversation.
Cantor frowned at their lack of concern for the severity of the situation. Invaders and usurpers, that was who they needed to deal with. And possibly a spy in their camp.
In a low voice, he confided his most pressing concern. “This Tegan has suddenly entered our circle for the second time. Now it appears he is a fellow realm walker, but he h
as a conveniently faulty memory.” He turned to Chomountain, whose eyes were trained on the subject of Cantor’s disquiet. “Sir, do you know anything about him?”
Chomountain patted his beard, and then turned to answer Cantor. “I see that his confusion is real. I haven’t identified its source. Dukmee, do you have anything to add?”
Dukmee’s forehead crinkled as he thought. “His aura shows no dark threads. If they are there, they’ve been skillfully hidden.” He shook his head in disgust. “We don’t have time to probe into this.” He leaned toward Cantor and spoke barely above a whisper. “We have acquired the second stone and instructions for how to use them. In my studies of the sphere, I’ve discovered an error in my first calculations.”
“Not an error, precisely,” Chomountain interrupted. “Your equations were accurate to the information you had at the time. These scholars were obsessed with subterfuge. While implementing the orrery room, they fixated on keeping outsiders out. And while gathering the knowledge at the ruins, they devised ploys and ruses to the same end. And with the Library of Lyme, they were obsessed with puzzles. Obsessed.”
Dukmee did not add his thoughts to Cho’s assessment of the scholars, but nodded to Cantor. “The Lymen invasion will be sooner than we thought.”
A lump of dread tightened Cantor’s throat. “How much sooner?”
“Four days from today.”
Bixby encouraged Tegan to eat.
He said he didn’t recognize any of the foods, but that it didn’t bother him. “I’ll taste something, and if I like it, that’s what I’ll eat.”
Bixby gasped and looked over the wide variety of foods. None of it was fancy, but all good, standard dishes that most families served often. It looked and smelled wonderful. “Just one thing? You have to try more than one thing.”
“Sometimes I try more than one thing before I really like something. But I don’t see the sense in trying everything when I’ve found something to eat.”
Bixby had seen her share of picky eaters among the aristocrats who came to her parents’ banquets. She’d always thought it was a rather childish behavior. Tegan was just too big and brawny to act like a three-year-old. “You will eat more than one thing tonight.”
“I’ll get too full and be sick.”
Bixby felt her patience slipping away like a silk shawl over a silk dress. She forced her voice to be calm and patient. “You will eat a little bit of many things, and you shall stop before you get too full.”
Tegan frowned at her. “I think maybe I won’t marry you.”
Rollygon, who sat on the other side of Tegan, let out a hoot. He leaned over the table to peer around the mysterious realm walker to see Bixby. “He’s discovered you’re bossy. Now you’ll have to look elsewhere for a handsome beau.”
She refrained from sticking her tongue out at Rollygon. Barely.
The others laughed, and soon they all joined in the effort to coax Tegan to try different foods. As the meal progressed, he relaxed under their banter and eventually tasted almost everything.
Bixby withdrew from the talk without calling attention to herself. She responded when spoken to, but her mind had left the table, moving instead to the group huddled by the fire.
Her eyes returned to Cantor time and again. The three men discussed something of a very serious nature. One of them had put up a guard so she could not visit their minds or tune her ears to understand their words.
Their grim expressions worried her. Each of their problems was critical. But they had more than a month before the invasion, didn’t they? The guild assault was scheduled to happen simultaneously. Not a great deal of time to prepare, but nonetheless, they would work out a plan.
Finally, her friends finished their meal and they all joined the three men around the hearth.
Bixby sat on the arm of Cantor’s chair. Totobee-Rodolow and Ethelmin were given the two remaining comfortable seats, while the others arranged themselves on the floor or benches nearby.
Cantor stood and gave Lupatzey his chair. He smiled at Bixby, and she gave him a nod of approval. He stood by the fire, his elbow on the mantel, looking peaceful. However, she knew him well enough to see the small signs of tension. His jaw tight and his eyes half-hooded, his breathing deliberately controlled.
The hearing shield had been dropped but not the one protecting their minds. Frustrated, Bixby swung her neatly shod foot with impatience. It peeked out from the ruffled edge of her wine red petticoat and distracted her for a moment. She was picturing a posy of ribbon flowers embroidered there when Dukmee pulled two squarish stones from his pockets.
“These are the two stones that were catalogued in the globe.” Dukmee, in his wizard persona, placed the objects in the air before him. When he pulled his hands away, they remained suspended. He gestured, and the stones turned in the air so that everyone might observe them.
Dukmee pointed to one floating on his right. “You see that there are ridges here, and grooves in the other. They line up perfectly, and the stones can be pressed together. Once together, the globe fits in the top. This is a dimension latch. Chomountain and I have tried it, and it worked.”
Totobee-Rodolow leaned back in her seat and placed a bejeweled hand against her neck. She rubbed a finger back and forth across a decorative, raised emblem she’d designed in her skin. “A latch? Darling, a latch secures a door. Where is the door?”
Chomountain smiled. “Here, there, anywhere you have the latch. It’s somewhat like a hamper. We can see a hamper, and when we put something inside, it’s stored in a different dimension. We can’t see the object. The object no longer takes up space where we are. But the object still exists.”
Bridger peered closely at the revolving pieces. “So the latch is the opening of a hamper we can’t see.”
“Almost right.” Dukmee allowed the stones to fall into his hands. “This latch is more like a lock to a huge hamper. When the three pieces are fit together, a room appears.”
Totobee-Rodolow chuckled. “I do hope it’s something more exciting than a parlor.”
“It is,” said Chomountain. “It is the observation post of the universe. Shall we take a look?”
Bixby’s first reaction was to give an enthusiastic yes. But then she remembered their solemn faces, and a part of her did not want to see.
Perhaps some things were too grand for mortals, and those select properties should be reserved for Primen’s right hand and wizards as worldly as Dukmee.
WITHIN FOREVER
Bixby saw the excitement in Dukmee’s eyes as he spoke. “It’ll be just like passing through a portal to a different realm, only you won’t take a step. Don’t be afraid. And for goodness’ sake, don’t touch anything.”
Bixby hopped off the armchair where Lupatzey still sat. She slipped past Bridger to stand next to Cantor. She saw her mistake at once. “Oh, I can’t see from here.”
Cantor lifted her as if she were a child and deposited her tiny frame on his shoulder. “Better?”
“Yes, thank you.”
In the silence of a room where everyone held their breath, the click of the two stones coming together sounded clear. Keenly aware of her comrades, Bixby heard them expel the tension just as she released the air from her lungs.
As one, the stones made a neat cube. Then Cho held them steady while Dukmee rested the globe on top.
A flash of light, so bright it stung her eyes.
“They could have warned us,” she mumbled. “They did say they’d done this before. So they must have known.” Blinking, her eyes seemed to be adjusting.
With her calves against his chest, she felt Cantor’s deep voice rumble as he spoke. “Bixby, are you all right?”
“I can’t see anything but colorful blobs, but it’s getting better.”
“Me too.”
She reached up to wipe her hand across her eyes as if that would clear her vision. In her mind, she saw Cantor do the exact same motion at the same time. Beneath her, his shoulder muscles rippled with the mo
vement.
“That was strange,” he said.
“What?” she asked, but she knew what he was going to say.
The words came out of their mouths in unison. “Did you just wipe your eyes?”
Bixby giggled. The sensation washing through her cut off the laugh. “I want down.”
“But you don’t want to jump, because you still don’t see very well.”
“Exactly.”
“I know. I’m thinking your thoughts.”
“Couldn’t we just be communicating the way we’ve always done?”
Cantor objected. “This is stronger than that. And you’re feeling my feelings, aren’t you?”
“Because you’re feeling mine. It’s confusing, isn’t it? I still know which are my thoughts and feelings and which are yours, but I feel like they could blend any minute.” She squirmed under the uncomfortable feeling of being too close.
“I’ll help you down.”
His hands went straight to her waist. He didn’t have to feel his way along her side or back to find it. With one smooth movement, he set her down. Again with no hesitation. He knew when her feet were safely on the floor.
Bixby became aware of the others. First she recognized voices and connected them to the still-blurry figures around them.
Bridger crouched next to Totobee-Rodolow. “Are you all right, Tote?”
“I’m fine, darling. I’ll be better when I can see clearly.”
“There, there. Be patient.” Chomountain’s raised voice rolled around the room like an echo. “Patience. This only lasts a minute.”
“See, Cantor? They knew this was going to happen, and they didn’t warn us.”
“Pull out your forgiving heart, Bix, and use it. They don’t skip things on purpose. They’re so brilliant, ordinary thoughts don’t cross their minds.”
“Humph!”
Cantor chuckled. “You sound just like an old lady. I know! Your nanny! Your nanny used to ‘humph’ all the time.”
“I don’t think I like your mind and mine being so closely connected.”
Two Renegade Realms Page 28
