by Unknown
“It took the mental powers of ten men to make this gateway. Now that it exists, it can be opened with a trigger mechanism,” he continued, pointing to a patch of rock at the level of her right shoulder. “You press your palm against it, and the rock appears to thin, revealing the entrance. You must go through quickly, because the panel stays open less than a minute. There is an identical trigger point on the other side. That’s how you get back. Do you understand?”
“Yes.”
“Repeat the instructions.”
She repeated what she had heard, just as she had earlier repeated all the facts she had learned about the other universe.
“Do you have any questions?” Wendon asked.
She managed to repress a hysterical laugh. She had thousands.
“What if I get into trouble? Can you rescue me?”
“We won’t know if you are in trouble,” Swee answered.
“And we are not permitted to come through,” Barthime added.
When she opened her mouth again, he shook his head. “We are wasting time. Open the portal,” he ordered.
She swallowed, flexed her fingers, then raised her hand and pressed against the rough surface, feeling a slight tingling on her skin. At the same time, the rock in front of her seemed to dissolve, so that she was facing an open doorway.
The portal.
She marveled at the opening and what she saw. On the other side was a landscape very different from the territory around Vandar’s cave.
Instead of blackened land stretching in all directions, she saw trees.
“You’ve been there?”
“Yes,” Barthime hissed.
“How was it?”
“Go. Before we have to do this all over again.”
“May the gods protect you,” Swee whispered.
She was shocked at the benediction—and touched, because she knew he was risking Vandar’s wrath to call on the gods.
In the next moment, he gave her a little push, and she stumbled into a place where the thick air held her in place.
Panic seized her as she imagined the rock reforming with her still standing in the opening. With a gasp, she struggled forward through the clinging air and broke free—into the other universe.
She stumbled for a few more steps, catching her hand against a tree trunk. Whirling, she looked back through the portal into the world where she had come from.
At first she could still see the men in the cave, all of them staring solemnly at her.
Swee raised his hand in farewell. Then, as she stood with her heart pounding, the rock quickly solidified back into place, and she was left alone in the forest.
For a long moment she stood with her pulse pounding and her breath wheezing in and out of her lungs. Then she lifted her head, looking around in wonder at the unfamiliar surroundings. She had been preparing for this for weeks, but she had never really believed it would happen.
From one moment to the next, she was plunged into a world of differences, large and small. On this side of the portal, there was no cave, only the rocks and forest, which stretched away in all directions.
She had never seen so many trees in one place.
And the air smelled different here.
Of course it did. She wasn’t breathing in the smell of burned vegetation. But there were more differences. This place wasn’t like Breezewood, either, the city where she had lived. There was something in the atmosphere that wasn’t entirely pleasant.
Vandar’s words came back to her. He had said that this society was more advanced than the one she came from. Could the smell be from the gasoline or the electricity he had spoken of?
Perhaps. But all she saw was the vast expanse of virgin forest.
As she stood among the trees, a blast of wind shook the branches above her, and she shivered as thunder rumbled.
A storm was coming on this side of the portal. Was it on the other side, too?
TALON grimaced as he looked up from the computer screen. He loved taking people out on wilderness trips, but keeping track of all the details made him crazy.
Like now. He had a canoe trip coming up, and the dehydrated food his clients would eat hadn’t been delivered. When he’d checked the order, he’d found that his supplier was out of beef stew, so they’d held up the whole shipment.
He’d switched to chili.
Of course, dehydrated meat was never the first choice of a werewolf. But they’d be able to catch fish for a couple of meals.
Speaking of which, it was time to fix dinner now. Which wasn’t too much of a problem. All he had to do was pull a package of steak out of the refrigerator and open it up. When he was alone, he didn’t bother with the fiction of pretending to broil or fry it.
A noise outside made him tense, and he turned toward the office window. Since the visit from the cops, he’d been waiting for something else to happen. What that was, he wasn’t sure.
Through the glass, he saw the wind kicking up the branches of the trees. Then thunder rumbled. Storms could be fierce out here in the woods, and he’d better bring in the tents that were airing outside.
PUSHING away from the tree, Kenna peered through the gathering darkness.
With no idea which way to go, she chose the easiest direction—downhill—her mind racing as she hurried through the forest.
For months she had been living in a terrible place where an evil creature dictated every move, dividing the people and setting them against each other. But it hadn’t been that way in Breezewood, and there was no reason to think that she wouldn’t encounter ordinary human kindness here.
Or would she?
As she hurried into the unknown, the rain broke, and she heard drops hitting the leaves far above her head. When they began to fall on her, she raised her arms over her head—not that it did much good. Her clothing would be soaked soon.
She stopped under a tree with thick foliage. It helped to shelter her a little, and she wanted to huddle there. But she remembered a school lesson from long ago. Lightning was attracted to trees. You could get hit if you were too close to one.
Yet how could she get away from them? They were all around her.
Somewhere to her right, a blast of light flashed. It was followed by a crack of thunder so close that it shook the ground around her. Then, through the rain, she saw a massive tree come crashing to the ground, taking other trees with it.
Gasping, she tried to sprint in the other direction, but her sandals slipped against the wet ground, and she almost fell. When she felt steadier on her feet, she looked around, shading her eyes from the downpour. Through the branches to her right, a light shone out. Not a flash from the storm, but a steady, warm glow that called her forward.
Even through the rain it looked brighter than any artificial light she had seen in her universe.
Electricity. That’s what made it so bright. She didn’t know how it worked, but she knew that it did other things, too, like run refrigerators and televisions.
She had learned about those things in her recent studies, although she wasn’t sure she believed what the adepts had told her.
The light looked like it might come from the window of a house, although she couldn’t be sure. Still, she thought that heading toward it was her best option.
She kept her gaze focused firmly in the distance, which turned out to be a mistake. In the darkness, her foot caught on a root, shooting pain through her toe and almost sending her crashing to the ground.
Somehow she kept upright, then marched onward. Bursts of rain drummed down on her, making her shiver.
But at least the light was growing closer.
When she thought she saw the outline of a house through the gloom, she thanked the Great Mother. Probably, someone was home. Either that or they were rich enough to leave their lights on while they were out.
Trying not to slip again, she quickened her pace, heading for the dwelling.
Just as she broke into a clearing, another jagged spear split the sky, and thunder
shook the ground.
When a huge tree came crashing toward her, she screamed and sprinted across the slippery leaves, trying to escape the toppling giant.
Though she ran as fast as she could, she felt branches clawing at her back. There was no way she could outrun the falling monster, but she instinctively used her telekinetic powers to keep the massive limbs from crushing her.
CHAPTER FIVE
CAUGHT BY THE sudden torrent, Talon stood inside the entrance of his storage garage, watching the rain pelt down and debating whether to wait out the storm or make a dash for the house.
In his human form he’d be soaked to the skin. As a wolf he’d get just as wet, but his thick fur would keep the water from penetrating to his skin.
Another bolt of energy speared the sky, lighting up the forest as the rain poured down with renewed force.
The power of the storm called to him, making the decision for him. Quickly, he began taking off his clothing. Naked, still standing inside the shed, he began to say the chant that turned him from man to wolf.
Once again, the familiar pain took hold as his body transmuted from one form to another.
In the middle of the change, he sensed another lightning bolt above him, followed quickly by a bone-jarring roll of thunder.
As he came down on all fours, he thought he heard two sounds over the wind and rain—a massive tree hitting the ground and a woman’s scream.
Silently cursing, he thought about changing back from wolf to man so he could shout out the questions, “Who’s there? Are you hurt?”
But that would only waste time. If someone was out there, he could find her more quickly as a wolf.
On all fours, he raced into the rain, stopping when he saw a great oak sprawled across the clearing at the edge of the woods, its branches still quivering from the fall.
As another sword of lightning split the sky above him, he sped toward the tangle of tree limbs.
THE tree was still rocking around Kenna, splashing water in her face and turning her hair into a dripping mass, but she had saved herself from getting flattened.
Cautiously, she moved her arms, relieved that they were not pinned down. They were sore, but the lack of serious pain told her that no bones were broken. Thank the Great Mother.
When she tried to shift her legs, the news wasn’t quite so good. Her right foot was stuck.
Grasping the branches beside her, she braced herself and gave a mighty yank on her leg, but all she accomplished was scraping her skin.
Closing her eyes for a moment, she considered her options. Perhaps she could use her telekinetic abilities again.
She’d never tackled such a daunting task, but what if she could just lift the branch an inch or two?
She was gathering the energy to try it when the sound of wet leaves rustling made her head jerk around.
At first she saw nothing through the screen of greenery. When she encountered a pair of yellow eyes staring at her, she gasped.
Unable to turn away, she saw the eyes were centered in a gray, furry face. Taking in the whole picture, she made out a canine muzzle, pointed ears, light facial hair, and a ruff of creamy fur around the creature’s neck. When he opened his mouth she was treated to a view of sharp, pointed teeth.
A guard dog? A wolf? She had never seen a natural wolf, although a werewolf had once come to her class for young psychics. From what Vandar and his adepts had told her about this world, she was sure they didn’t have such beings here. Still, the shape was the same as what she’d seen.
As he approached, she smelled his wet fur and heard his panting breath.
He looked like he could rip out her throat in one savage lunge, and she would have run if she could, but the branch held her captive. Unable to escape, she raised her chin and stared at the animal as he took a careful step into the tangle of branches around her, then another. When he reached her, his eyes sought her face, and she had the strange feeling that he was going to speak to her. The moment stretched. Of course he didn’t say anything because animals didn’t talk. Instead, he brushed past her arm, and she felt the rain on his fur.
Shifting his body, he pawed at the place where her leg disappeared under a stretch of wet bark.
The tree limb didn’t move for him any more than it had for her.
She lay on her sopping bed of branches and leaves, breathing hard, watching the wolf. If he’d wanted to hurt her, he could easily have done it already, she reasoned as he sniffed around the natural trap that held her fast.
When he took a step back, she made a small sound of distress. “Can you bring help?” she asked, knowing that he didn’t understand her and that he couldn’t answer.
To her surprise, he raised and lowered his head, like a man nodding, and his expression seemed to say, Wait right there.
In the next moment he disappeared, leaving her alone and shivering in the rain and wondering if she had made up her unlikely visitor. Maybe she had gotten hit on the head, and her brain was serving up strange visions.
Like the light flickering off to her left.
She turned in that direction, wondering if she’d gotten turned around and misplaced the direction of the house.
Then the smell of smoke drifted toward her, and she realized that the lightning had started a fire in the forest.
Could it keep burning in this damp environment? She didn’t know, but she saw that the flames were coming closer to where she lay trapped.
When panic constricted her chest, she ordered herself to steadiness. Fear wasn’t going to help anything.
She could get out of this. She had to, because there was no alternative, and there was one thing in her favor. The rain was still falling, although more gently. Maybe it would put out the fire before it reached her.
Drifting smoke made her cough. Trying to ignore the distraction, she flexed her fingers and leaned forward, putting her hands on the heavy branch holding her fast. Eyes closed, she pressed her fingers against the bark and used her mind to extend the reach of her hand, sending her thoughts through the surface and into the living tissue beneath. She needed to learn the mass and weight. Learn how the branch was connected to the central tree trunk.
As the answers fell into place, she formed a plan of action. Pulling the branch up wasn’t enough. She had to rotate it as she lifted; otherwise the trunk would hold the limb down.
Opening her eyes, she saw the fire creeping closer, heard the hissing of the wet wood.
Terrible images leaped into her mind—of herself, surrounded by flames. In Breezewood, teams of adepts would have come to pull water from a nearby well and shoot it toward any fire that threatened the city. But she was the only one here, and she couldn’t stop a fire by herself.
Unable to hold back a whimper, she watched for a moment, then tore her gaze away and sent out her invisible energy, trying with every shred of power she had to make the branch shift.
Fear made her desperate as she poured out her psychic power. Despite the cold, sweat broke out on her forehead, and her muscles trembled. When the limb quivered under her fingers, she took hope and increased her efforts. To her dismay, the quivering was all she could accomplish—for now.
Unwilling to give up, she lay back, sucking in great drafts of air and shivering from the wet clothing plastered against her skin.
She’d been in this world less than an hour, and she was already in more trouble than she could have imagined.
Still, iron determination made her reach out again with her mind. Before she got very far into the process, she heard something moving rapidly through the forest—coming from the direction where the wolf had disappeared.
Was the animal circling back? This time to attack?
She tensed, probing the darkness. In the flickering light from the fire, she made out a dark shape hurrying toward her. A beam of light ran along in front of it, and as the figure drew closer, she saw it was a man holding a thing called a flashlight.
She’d seen it in a training exercise with Vandar
’s adepts. And also long ago in one of her classrooms.
Her teacher had made each of the students try to turn it on with his or her mind. She’d been one of the few who could do it. Here she knew that something called batteries made it work.
“Are you all right?” a man called.
“I’m caught. And . . . and . . . the fire’s coming.”
“Yeah. I’ll take care of the fire.”
