by Marc Zicree
I look up from the delicate act of constructing a facade and catch their eyes on me. Caught out, Colleen glances at her feet, Doc gazes out over Lake Michigan, and Cal looks straight up into the sky, shivers in the chill wind and says, “It looks like Chicago’s the Windy City again. It’s got to be at least twenty degrees colder than it was the day we got here. I wonder what else Primal was holding at bay. I don’t envy these people what they’re going to go through this winter.”
“How long will it go on?” Colleen asks. “Is this like a— a chain reaction? Will the world just mutate until…”
“Until it comes full circle?” Doc finishes. He continues to gaze out over the lake. “They say a fisherman’s children look to the sea. I wonder what our children will have to look to.”
Colleen sways toward him, the thick fabric of their jackets just brushing. A subtle movement. I wonder if they realize how bright are the cords that bind them together.
Cal glances at them and away. He shifts uncomfortably from one foot to the other and says, “We need to get the horses saddled and packed. If you’d like to stay out here for a while longer, Goldie—”
I shake my head. “No. There’s nothing out here. And you’re right: we need to get going.”
“Where?” asks Colleen. “Have you settled on a route yet?”
Cal rakes a hand through his hair. “Settled, no. But I have an idea. I want to take another look at the map. See what it tells me.”
He says more, but I don’t hear him. The sparks are turning to ashes. The breeze lifts them out over the water, where eventually they will settle and melt away. I think, for a moment, of joining them in the great, sparkling lake. Beneath the great, sparkling lake. But I still have work to do.
The lake and the dying fire and the sky blur, looking like a glittering watercolor. I turn my back on the pyre and walk away. There are Voices calling me and I must listen.
About the Authors
MARK SCOTT ZICREE has created classic episodes of “Star Trek—The Next Generation,” “Deep Space Nine,” “Babylon Five,” “Sliders,” and many more. He has appeared as a media expert on hundreds of radio and TV shows and is the author of the bestselling Twilight Zone Companion. He lives in West Hollywood with his wonderful wife and vile little dog.
MAYA KAATHRYN BOHNHOFF is the author of four fantasy novels: The Meri, Taminy, The Crystal Rose, and The Spirit Gate, from Baen. Her short fiction has appeared in Analog, Amazing Stories, Century, and Interzone, and she has published a number of articles in Writer’s Digest and The Writer. Maya lives in California with her talented husband, two amazing children, one overzealous little dog, and one incredibly intelligent cat. She and her husband, Jeff, have also released two albums of their music—RetroRocket Science and Manhattan Sleeps.
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Praise for
MAGIC TIME
“Bold and original science fantasy that, by the
end, creates a brand new genre all its own.
Epic, believable, and very, very cool”
Brannon Braga, cocreator of “Star Trek: Enterprise”
“A fantastic new epic series. Vivid, imaginative,
emotional—MAGIC TIME is a blockbuster
summer movie pressed between book
covers. I’d urge you to prepare yourself,
but I fear there’s no way you can.”
Rockne S. O’Bannon, creator of “Farscape” and “Alien
Nation”
“Exceptionally well written and
the ‘veracity’ is terrific.”
New York Times bestselling author Kevin J. Anderson
“Engrossing … high quality … an intelligent variation on the quest theme as exemplified by Stephen King’s The Stand.”
Publishers Weekly
“Even non-science fiction fans will find
themselves caught up … This is fantasy with
heart and soul. I thoroughly enjoyed it.”
Leonard Maltin
Other Magic Time Titles:
MAGIC TIME: GHOSTLANDS
by Marc Scott Zicree and Robert Charles Wilson
MAGIC TIME: ANGEL FIRE
by Marc Scott Zicree and Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff
MAGIC TIME
by Marc Scott Zicree and Barbara Hambly
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the authors’ imaginations or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
MAGIC TIME: Anglefire. Copyright © 2002 by Paper Route, Inc. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of PerfectBoundTM.
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