by Диана Дуэйн
Nita was astonished to find that she was feeling sorry for a creature that had tried to kill her a few minutes before. "Kit," she said, "what about the bright Book? Is it in there?" He glanced down at the dark Book, which was straining in his backpack toward the piled-up hoard. "Uh huh. But how are we going to find it? And are you sure that defense shield is going to hold up at close range, when it comes after us? You know it's not going to just let us take something—"
{Why not trade it something?) Fred asked suddenly.
Nita and Kit both looked at him, struck by the idea. "Like what?" Kit said.
(Like another Book?)
"Oh, no," they said in simultaneous shock.
"Fred," Kit said then, "we can't do that. The—you-know-who—he'll just come right here and get it."
(So where did you get it from, anyway? Doubtless he could Have read from 't any time he wanted. If you can get the bright Book back to the Senior wizards in your world, can't they use it to counteract whatever he does?)
Nita and Kit both thought about it. "He might have a point," Nita said after a second. "Besides, Kit—if we do leave the dark Book here, can you "nagine you-know-who getting it back without some trouble?" She glanced UP at the mound, where the Eldest was whispering threats of death and destruction against whoever might come to steal. "He wouldn't have put the br'ght Book here unless the Eldest was an effective guardian."
Even through the discomfort of holding the dark Book, Kit managed to a small smile. "Gonna try it?"
Nita took a step forward. Instantly the dragon paused in its digging to stare "fir, its scaly lips wrinkled away from black fangs in a snarl, but its eyes frightened. "Eldest," she said in the Speech, "we don't come to steal We re here to make a bargain."
The Eldest stared at Nita a moment more, then narrowed its eyes further. "Hss, you're a clever thiefff," it said. "Why ssshould I bargain with you?"
Nita gulped. Wizardryis words, the book had said.Believe, and create the truth; but be careful what you believe. "Because only your hoard, out ofall the other hoards from this world to the next, has what we 're interested in," she said carefully. "Only you ever had the taste to acquire and preserve this thing."
"OA?" said the Eldest. Its voice was still suspicious, but its eyes looked less threatened. Nita began to feel a glimmer of hope. "Whatmight thiss thingbe?" "A book," Nita said, "an old book something like this one." Kit took a step forward and held up the dark Book for the Eldest to see. This close to its bright counterpart, the dark volume was warping the air and light around it so terribly that its outlines writhed like a fistful of snakes. The Eldest peered at the dark Book with interest. 'Wow there is ssome-thing I don't have," it said. "Sssee how it changes. That would be an interest-ing addition… . What did you ssay you wanted to trade it for?"
"Another Book, Eldest. You came by it some time ago, we hear. It's close in value to this one. Maybe a little less,"Nita added, making it sound offhand.
The dragon's eyes brightened like those of a collector about to get the best of a bargain. "Lesss, you say. Hsss… . Sssomeone gave me a book rather like that one, ssome time ago, I forget just who. Let me ssseee… ."Ittumed away from them and began digging again. Nita and Kit stood and watched and tried to be patient while the Eldest pawed through the trash and the treasure, making sounds of possessive affection over everything it touched, mumbling counts and estimating values.
"I wish it would hurry up," Kit whispered. "I can't believe that after we've been chased this far, they're not going to be down here pretty quick. We didn't have too much trouble getting in—"
"You didn't open the wall," Nita muttered back. "Look, I'm still worried about leaving this here."
"Whaddaya want?" Kit snapped. "Do I have to carry it all the way home?" He breathed out, a hiss of annoyance that sounded unnervingly ii*e the Eldest, and then rubbed his forearm across his eyes. "This thing burn*-I'm sorry."
"It's okay," Nita said, slightly embarrassed. "I just wish there were some way to be sure that you-know-who wouldn't get his hands on it anytime soon."
Kit looked thoughtful and opened his mouth to say something. It was a* that moment that the
Eldest put its face down into the hole it had been digging and came up again with something bright.
The Book of Night with Moon fell with a thump onto a pile of gold and gems and made them look tawdry, outshone them in a way that seemed to have nothing to do with light. Its cover was the same black leather as that of the dark Book—but as one looked at it, the blackness seemed to gain depth; light seemed hidden in it like a secret in a smiling heart. Even the dim green glow of the firefungus looked healthier now that the Book lay out in it. Vhere page edges showed, they glittered as if brushed with diamond dust rather than gilding. The Eldest bent over the bright Book, squinting as if into a great light but refusing to look away. "Aaaaaahhh," it said, a slow, caress-ing, proprietary sigh. "Thisss is what you wisshed to trade your book ffor?" "Yes, Eldest,"Nita said, starting to worry.
The dragon laid its front paws on either side of the Book. "Ffair, it is ssso ffair. I had forgotten how ssweet it was to look on. No. No, I will not trade. I will not. Mine, mine… ."It nosed the bright Book lovingly.
Nita bit her lip and wondered what in the world to try next. "Eldest,"Kit said from beside her, "we have something more to trade."
"Oh?" The dragon looked away from the Book with difficulty and squinted at Kit. "What might that be?"
(Yeah, what?) Nita said silently.
(Sssh.) "//you will take our book in trade for that one, we'll work suck a wizardry about this place that no thiefwill ever enter. You 'II be safe here for as long as you please. Or forever,"
{What are you talking about!) Nita said, amazed. (We don't have the supplies for a major wizardry like that. The only one you could possibly manage would be one of—)
(—the blank-check spells, I know. Nita, shaddup!)
The Eldest was staring at Kit. 'Wo one would ever come in again to ssteal from me?" it said.
"That's right"
Nita watched the dragon's face as it looked away from Kit, thinking. It was old and tired, and terrified of losing what it had amassed; but now a fright-ened hope was awakening in its eyes. It looked back at Kit after a few seconds. "You will not come back either? No one will trouble me again?" 'Guaranteed," Kit said, meaning it.
'Then I will trade. Give me your book, and work your spell, and go. Leave We with what is mine." And it picked up the Book of Night with Moon in its)aws and dropped it off the hoard- hill, not far from Kit's feet. "Give me, give mt> 'the Eldest said. Warily, Nita dropped the shield spell. Kit took a couple ° Ufieasy steps forward and held out the dark Book, The dragon shot its head Sarlk teeth in the dark Book, and jerked it out of Kit's hands so fast he stared at them for a moment, counting fingers. mine," it hissed as it turned away and started digging at another spot on the hoard, preparing to bury the dark Book. Kit stooped, picked up the Book of Night with Moon. It was as heavy as the dark Book had been about the size of an encyclopedia volume, and strange to hold — the depth of the blackness of its covers made it seem as if the holding hands should sink right through. Kit flipped it open as Nita and Fred came up behind to look over his shoulder. (But the pages are blank,) Fred said, puzzled. (It needs moonlight,) Kit said.
(Well, this is moonlight.) Nita held up the rowan wand over the opened Book Very vaguely they could make out something printed, the symbols of the Speech, too faint to read. (Then again, maybe secondhand moonlight isn't good enough. Kit, what're you going to do? You have to seal this place up now. You promised.)
{I'm gonna do what I said. One of the blank-check wizardries.)
(But when you do those you don't know what price is going to be asked later.)
(We have to get this Book, don't we? That's why we're here. And this is something that has to be done to get the Book. I don't think the price'll be too high. Anyway you don't have to worry, I'll do it myself.)
Nita watched Kit getting o
ut his wizards' manual and bit her lip. (Oh, no, you're not,) she said. (If you're doing it, I'm doing it too. Whatever you're doing…)
(One of the Moebius spells,) Kit said, finding the page. Nita looked over his shoulder and read the spell. It would certainly keep thieves out of the hoard. When recited, a Moebius spell gave a specified volume of space a half-twist that left it permanently out of synch with the spaces surrounding it. The effect would be like stopping an elevator between floors, forever. (You read it all through?) Kit said. (Uh huh.)
(Then let's get back in the tunnel and do it and get out of here. I'm getting this creepy feeling that things aren't going to be quiet on ground level when we get up there.)
They wanted to say good-bye to the Eldest, but it had forgotten them already. "Mine, mine, mine, "it was whispering as garbage and gold flew in all directions from the place where it dug. (Let's go,) Fred said.
Out in the tunnel, the firefungus seemed brighter to Nita — or perhaps that was only the effect of looking at the Book of Night with Moon. They halted at the spot where the tunnel curved and began with great care to read the Moebius spell. The first part of it was something strange and unsettling—311 invocation to the Powers that governed the arts of wizardry, asking help this piece of work and promising that the power lent would be returne They required. Nita shivered, wondering what she was getting herself int0' (or use of the Speech made the promise more of a prediction. Then came the definition of the space to be twisted, and finally the twisting itself. As they spoke the words Nita could see the Eldest, still digging away at his hoard, going pale and dim as if with distance, going away, though not moving. The words pushed the space farther and farther away, toward an edge that could be sensed more strongly though not seen—then, suddenly, over it. The spell broke, completed. Nita and Kit and Fred were standing at the edge of a great empty pit, as if someone had reached up into the earth and scooped out the subway station, the hoard, and the Eldest, whole. Someone had.
"1 think we better get out of here," Kit said, very quietly. As if in answer to his words came a long, soft groan of strained timber and metal—the pillars and walls of the tunnel where they stood and the tunnel on the other side of the pit, bending under new stresses that the pillars of the station had handled and that these were not meant to. Then a rumble, something falling. Nita and Kit turned and ran down the tunnel, stumbling over timbers and picking themselves up and running again. Fred zipped along beside like a shooting star looking for the right place to fall. They slammed into the wall at the end of the track as the rumble turned to a thunder and the thunder started catching up behind. Nita found bare concrete, said the Mason's Word in a gasp, and flung the stone open. Kit jumped through with Fred behind him. The tunnel shook, roared, blew out a stinging, dust-laden wind, and went down in ruin as Nita leaped through the opening and fell to the tracks beside Kit.
He got to his knees slowly, rubbing himself where he had hit. "Boy," he said, "if we weren't in trouble with you-know-who before, we are now… ."
Hurriedly Kit and Nita got up and the three of them headed for the ledge and the way to the open air.
Major Wizardries Termination and
Recovery
With great caution and a grunt of effort, Kit pushed up the grille at the top of the concrete steps and looked around. "Oh, brother," he whispered, "sometimes I wish I wasn't right." He scrambled up out of the tunnel and onto the sidewalk, with Nita and Fred following right behind. The street was a shambles reminiscent of Fifth and Sixty-second. Corpses of cabs and limousines and even a small truck were scattered around, smashed into lampposts and the fronts of buildings, over-turned on the sidewalk. The Lotus Esprit was crouched at guard a few feet away from the grille opening, its engine running in long, tired-sounding gasps. As Kit ran over to it, the Lotus rumbled an urgent greeting and shrugged its doors open. "They know we're here," Nita said as they hurriedly climbed in and buck-led up. "They have to know what we've done. Everything feels different since the dark Book fell out of this space."
(And they must know we'll head back for the worldgate at Pan Am,) Fred said. (Wherever that is.)
"We've gotta find it — oof!" Kit said, as the Lotus reared back, slamming its doors shut, and dove down the street they were on, around the corner and north again. "Nita, you up for one more spell?"
"Do we have a choice?" She got her manual out of her pack, started thumbing through it. "What I want to know is what we're supposed to try on whatever they have waiting for us at Grand Central. You-know-who isn't just going to let us walk in there and leave with the bright Book—"
"We'll burn that bridge when we come to it." Kit had his backpack open in his lap and was peeking at the Book of Night with Moon. Even in the sullen dimness that leaked in the Lotus's windows, the edges of the pages of the Book shone, the black depths of its covers glowed with the promise of light. Kit ran a finger along the upper edge of one cover, and as Nita watched his face settled into a solemn stillness, as if someone spoke and he listened intently. It was a long moment before the expression broke. Then Kit glanced over at her with a wondering look in his eyes. "It really doesn't look like that much," he said. "But it feels—Nita, I don't think they can hurt us while we have this. Or if they can, it won't matter much."
"Maybe not, if we read from it," Nita said, reading down through the spell that would locate the worldgate for them. "But you remember what Tom said—"
"Yeah." But there was no concern in Kit's voice, and he was looking soberly at the Book again.
Nita finished checking the spell and settled back in the seat to prepare for it, then started forward again as a spark of heat burned into her neck, "Ow!"
(Sorry.) Fred slid around from behind her to perch farther forward on her shoulder.
"Here we go," Nita said.
She had hardly begun reading the imaging spell before a wash of power such as she had never felt seized her and plunged her into the spell headfirst. And the amazing thing was that she couldn't even be frightened, for what-ever had so suddenly pulled her under and into the magic was utterly benevolent, a huge calm influence that Nita sensed would do her nothing but good, though it might kill her doing it. The power took her, poured itself into her, made the spell part of her. There was no longer any need to work it; it was. Instantly she saw all Manhattan laid out before her again in shadow outlines, and there was the worldgate, almost drowned in the darkness created by the Starsnuffer, but not hidden to her. The power let her go then, and she sat back gasping. Kit was watching her strangely. (I think I see what you mean,) she said. (The Book-— it made the spell happen by itself, almost.)
"Not 'almost,' " Kit said. "No wonder you-know-who wants it kept out of the hands of the Senior wizards. It can make even a beginner's spell happen. " did the same thing with the Moebius spell. If someone wanted to take this Place apart—or if someone wanted to make more places like it, and they had the Book——"He gulped. "Look, where's the gate?" 'Where it should be," Nita said, finding her breath. "Underground— under Grand Central. Not in the deli, though. It's down in one of the train tunnels."
Kit gulped again, harder. "Trains… . And you knowthat place'll be Bearded. Fred, are you up to another diversion?" (will it get us back to tne sun anci the stars again? Try me.) Nita closed her eyes to lean back and take a second's rest — the power that ad run through her for that moment had left her amazingly drained — but nearly jumped out of her skin the next moment as the Lotus braked wildly fishtailing around a brace of cabs that leaped at it out of a side street. With a scream of engine and a cloud of exhaust and burned rubber it found its traction again and tore out of the intersection and up Third Avenue, leaving the cabs behind.
"They know, they know," Nita moaned, "Kit, what're we going to do? Is the Book going to be enough to stand up to him?"
"We'll find out, I guess," Kit said, though he sounded none too certain. "We've been lucky so far. No, not lucky, we've been ready. Maybe that'll be enough. We both came prepared for trouble, we bot
h did our reading—"
Nita looked sheepish. "You did, maybe. I couldn't get past Chapter Forty, No matter how much I read, there was always more."
Kit smiled just as uncomfortably. "1 only got to Thirty-three myself, then I skimmed a lot."
"Kit, there's about to be a surprise quiz. Did we study the right chapters?"
"Well, we're gonna find out," Kit said. The Lotus turned left at the corner of Third and Forty- second, speeding down toward Grand Central. Forty-second seemed empty; not even a cab was in sight. But a great looming darkness was gathered down the street, hiding the iron overpass. The Lotus slowed, unwilling to go near it.
"Right here is fine," Kit said, touching the dashboard reassuringly. The Lotus stopped in front of the doors to Grand Central, reluctantly shrugging first Nita's, then Kit's door open. They got out and looked around them. Silence. Nita looked nervously at the doors and the darkness beyond, while the Lotus crowded close to Kit, who rubbed its right wheelwell absently. The sound came. A single clang, like an anvil being struck, not too far away. Then another clang, hollow and metallic, echoing from the blank-eyed buildings, dying into bell-like echoes. Several more clangs, close together. Then a series of them, a slow drumroll of metal beating on stone. The Lotus pulled out from under Kit's hand, turning to face down Forty-second the way they had come, growling deep under its hood.
The clangor grew louder; echoes bounced back and forth from building to building so that it was impossible to tell from what direction the sound was coming. Down at the corner of Lexington and Forty-second, a blackness jutted suddenly from behind one of the buildings on the uptown side. The shape of it and its unlikely height above the pavement, some fifteen feet kept Nita from recognizing what it was until more of it came around the corner, until the blackness found its whole shape and swung it around inW the middle of the street on iron hooves. Eight hooves, ponderous and deadly, dented the asphalt of the street-They belonged to a horse — a huge, misproportioned beast, its head skinned to a skull, leaden-eyed and grinning hollowly. All black iron that steeds as if it had stepped down from a pedestal at its rider's call; and the one lo rode it wore his own darkness on purpose, as if to reflect the black mood within. The Starsnuffer had put aside his three-piece suit for chain mail like hammered onyx and a cloak like night with no stars. His face was still hand-some, but dreadful now, harder than any stone. His eyes burned with the burning of the dark Book, alive with painful memory about to come real. About the feet of his mount the perytons milled, not quite daring to look in their master's face, but staring and slavering at the sight of Kit and Nita, waiting the command to course their prey. Kit and Nita stood frozen, and Fred's light, hanging small and constant as a star behind them, dimmed down to its faintest.
