by A. Attanasio
Asofel's ashen face darkened. "What are you saying, gnome?"
"I am saying that I will not be complicit with any more murders." Old Ric had abandoned his leaf-and-vine cap in the ship, and his bald head with its side tufts of grizzled gray hair nodded sternly. "If you want my help, Radiant One, you will take no more light from this dream."
The stars of Asofel's eyes sharpened hotly. "You would sacrifice all the worlds of this dream for a few illusory lives?"
"Few?" Old Ric scowled angrily. "What manner of being are you, Asofel? You have slain whole clans—children included. You have stolen many lives, and I can have no part of that. Not anymore. It sickens me."
"Then you are a fool, and these worlds are doomed," Asofel declared. "My strength is only a fraction of my former vigor. Do you not remember how radiant I once was?"
"How much more strength do you need?" The gnome stabbed a gnarled finger into the Radiant One's torso, which felt hot. "You have substance. You seem not weak anymore."
Asofel's petal lips tightened before he said, "I need my strength back. I want my strength back."
"And I am sure you shall have it—when you report our success to your mistress." Old Ric lifted his chin strongly. "Until then, we shall make do with what strength you have. Do you understand?"
Broydo edged backward, ready to dive into the ether ship to escape the wrath of the Radiant One.
Before he could move, Asofel spoke, "You would risk everything for your vanity?"
"Vanity?" The eldern gnome retreated a pace. "Compassion is not vanity."
"Compassion for whom?" The Radiant One swept a luminous arm across the vista of the fuming city. "Not for this world and all the others that will vanish entirely if we fail. No. Your so-called compassion is for the few who have given their lives for our noble cause—just as you have. It is your vanity as a small being to care for the few that you see at the expense of the multitudes you do not."
"I consented to this quest," Old Ric swiftly replied. "My doom followed upon my choice. Yet what choice had the innocents that you devoured?"
"I do not understand your gnomish logic." Asofel lifted his radiant stare to Broydo. "Elf, what do you say to this vanity of the gnome?"
"I?" Broydo's serpent sword quavered in one hand as his other splayed over his chest. "What do I know of worlds and the Mistress of Worlds? I've never seen her. I don't know..."
"Broydo!" Old Ric shouted irately. elf clans were destroyed. You saw that with your own eyes. Speak, counselor. Speak for the dead of your own kith."
Broydo braced himself against the jamb of the ship's portal. "Radiant One," he began reluctantly, "the eldern gnome speaks for me. There should be no more killing."
Asofel crossed his arms. "So be it then. I am strong enough now to accompany you wherever we must go. But do not think I can save you or even myself should the dwarves that are pursuing find us before we locate the shadow thing."
"Then we had better hurry away from here," Old Ric said with a satisfied jut of his jaw. "The magus is with the witch Lara far south of here."
"How far?" Asofel peered south along the winding, misty coastline.
"Far." The eldern gnome closed his wrinkled eyelids. "The sense of the magus that our lady has instilled in me is stronger than ever, yet still dim. He is many, many leagues from here, in another dominion of Irth. Also, I sense fear in him, though I know not why he should fear us. And yet, the prisms indicate so."
"If the witch is with him," Asofel noted, "then he is fully aware that we are coming. What evil person must he be that the author of worlds has sent us to retrieve him. It is for us to fear him."
"There is nowhere he can go that I cannot find him," Old Ric asserted. "But we must hurry."
"How will we travel so far?" Broydo asked, stepping down the gangway.
"The light of the dream that I have made my own," Asofel said, "informs me of all that the light knew. I have the expertise of the pilots and crews who gave of themselves for our cause. We shall use that knowledge to fly swiftly south. There are airfoils on another level."
A shout from an adjoining catwalk turned their heads. A large, golden-furred beastman in a shawl dense with amulets came charging toward them, followed by a brindle-haired woman sleek and light-footed as a cat.
Asofel's starry eyes narrowed.
"No!" Old Ric commanded. "You have given your word. Break it, and you betray our lady!"
The Radiant One glared with frustration at Old Ric.
The gnome did not flinch. "Which way to the airfoils?"
Asofel pointed to a metal stairway that climbed a support pylon to the top of the sky bund. He led the way. His blurred speed streaked the air with silver light.
Old Ric and Broydo scurried to keep up. The Radiant One vanished up the stairway, and the gnome flew after. Broydo stumbled, and the serpent sword clattered down the stairs. He bolted back to retrieve it, then hurried after his companions as their pursuers banged loudly onto the staging area before the ether ship.
From the crest of the sky bund, the world's circle encompassed sea and desert. Asofel stood beside an airfoil, an avian span of orange canvas wings, brace wires, struts, and fins. He had already opened the bubble canopy and waved for the others to hurry.
Old Ric bounded to Asofel's side and turned in time to see Broydo huffing up the stairs. A furry arm reached from behind and grabbed Broydo's leg, throwing him forward with a yelp at the top of the stairs. Ric jolted forward to free him, and Asofel seized the gnome by the back of the neck.
"I cannot lose you." Asofel lifted the kicking gnome above the wing truss and into the flight pod. "Let the elf go. We don't need him. Unless you want me to—"
"Broydo!" Old Ric stood in the pod and watched helplessly as the massive beastmarked man easily disarmed the elf and hoisted him off his feet.
"Go!" Broydo yelled. He waved them off even as the beastmarked man shook him to silence.
Streaked hair flaring, the spry woman darted toward them, shouting something that the brisk wind carried away.
Asofel climbed into the flight pod, tossed Ric into one of the four basket seats, and slammed shut the canopy. Engine thunder shook the airfoil, and the props whirled to a nearly invisible blear, driving back the woman, who waved frantically at them.
Straight up, the craft lifted away from the sky bund and quickly dwindled into the cobalt sky.
"Who are you?" the beastmarked man asked the green-haired, purple figure squirming in his grip. "Tell me who you are and what has become of everyone here. Where is everyone?"
The elf clamped his jaw, preparing to be struck and killed.
"Put him down, Dog." The lithe woman stood with arms crossed before the elf, who sat quavering where the beastman had dropped him. "I am Jyoti Odawl, margravine of Elvre. And this is Dogbrick of Saxar. We mean you no harm. Do you understand me? We simply want to know what you know about what has happened here." She motioned to the berthed airfoils, many of which had been flown by her missing pilots. "Where is my security squad? What has happened to my people?"
The elf turned his head, looking from one of his captors to the other. "They were devoured by the Radiant One."
"The Shadow Eater?" Jyoti asked, but the elf did not know that expression.
"What is your name, elf?" Dogbrick inquired brusquely. "And where are you from?"
"He is Broydo, the elf that Lara told Reece about." Jyoti squatted beside the elf and gazed in wonder at his crude apparel of woven grass. "And your companion is the gnome Old Ric, isn't he?"
"You have met the witch?" Broydo's ice-gray eyes widened. "You have seen her?"
"Then it's true—it's all true?" Jyoti stood, shaken. "The Radiant One is Asofel the Shadow Eater. He has gone after Reece."
"And Duppy Hob and the dwarves?" Dogbrick ran a nervous hand through his mane. "The Necklace of Souls is what they're after. And the gnome is wearing that!"
"Duppy Hob?" Broydo's voice cracked. "The devil worshipper is here, on Irth?"
"His dwarves are here," Jyoti informed the elf. "We found them in a grotto under the city. Somehow their master has reached across the abyss to reclaim his slaves. They obey him now."
Broydo groaned dismally. "Then all is doomed."
"What do you mean?" Jyoti helped the elf to his feet.
"If Duppy Hob is using his magic," Broydo asked, "what chance does Old Ric have against that? The shadow thing—the magus—will never be thrown into the Gulf now if the dwarves seize Ric and take the Necklace of Souls. And then all the worlds are lost."
Dogbrick growled, "What are you babbling about, elf?"
Broydo told them what little he knew from Old Ric about a nameless lady who had summoned the gnome some time ago. "I don't know why she abhors Reece," the elf confessed, "but she believes he must be done away with."
"What you say sounds like madness to my ears," Dogbrick stated flatly.
"So, too, did the Shadow Eater until we came here." Jyoti reached for the sword in Dogbrick's grasp. "What is this strange blade? Is this bone? And the haft—look at it, Dog. Have you ever seen such extraordinary craftsmanship. Who is the charmwright?"
"The dwarf Blue Tipoo." Broydo regarded the sword proudly. "The witch forced him to craft this from a splinter of bone off a world serpent."
"World serpent?" Dogbrick's bearded face wrinkled with disbelief. "Soon we'll be talking of centaurs and elephants as if they were real. World serpents are myth."
"On Irth, perhaps," Broydo insisted. "But they crawl the heights of World's End. And this serpent sword is made from a slat of their bones. One touch of it and—"
"Dwarves shrivel to maggots," Jyoti finished for him, and marveled at the veracity of the child's fairy tale. "We must get back to Arwar—to Reece—before the Shadow Eater does."
"Or the dwarves do," Dogbrick added. "But we don't know where he and Lara will go."
"Yes, I do! I remember now—to the Abiding Star, to return her," Jyoti recalled, and began walking briskly toward the berthed airfoils.
"There are endless ways to the upper worlds," Dogbrick countered. "How will we track him down to tell him that he has put all of creation in jeopardy?"
Broydo spoke up brightly as he followed Dogbrick and Jyoti, glad to find himself in the company of allies. "Old Ric can sense the magus. If we follow him, he will surely lead us directly to Reece."
"And the Shadow Eater?" Dogbrick looked about uneasily at the empty sky bund. "Will he live up to his name and eat our shadows if we pursue?"
"Old Ric made Asofel forswear any more killing," Broydo said.
"Forswear killing?" Dogbrick looked quizzical. "What manner of enemy is this, then? Tell me, elf, is this Shadow Eater evil? Need we fear him? Why does he stalk Reece so single-mindedly? Why does Lara warn us of danger? Out with it now!"
"Indeed, sir, I know not your answers. Sometimes I think the Shadow Eater is indeed evil, for his appetite is voracious. Whether he can keep his word or not is yet to be seen. Even so, he is an emissary of a great lady, as is my friend Old Ric. If we can catch up with the magus and the witch, we can all work together. We want the same thing, to save the worlds."
Dogbrick and Jyoti, pondering the situation, had to agree with the elf.
"Send out an aviso warning," Dogbrick suggested. "Tell all the dominions what is happening. Wherever Reece goes, he'll be apprehended."
Jyoti climbed the wing truss of an airfoil and opened the bubble canopy. "No! That will cause a riotous panic. And Reece may well be killed."
"Then let's use the airfoil's aviso to contact this Asofel and the gnome Old Ric," Dogbrick said. "Tell them we're friends and we've got Broydo and ultimately want what they want."
Jyoti activated the pod's aviso while the others clambered in after her. Static slashed from the speakers. "It's no good. I can't reach them. The Shadow Eater's energy must be interfering with reception. We're just going to have to catch them."
The engine revved before Broydo and Dogbrick had secured themselves in their seats, and they knocked heads when the airfoil lurched into the sky. Clouds whipped past, and the cope of the heavens darkened as Jyoti took the airfoil to its maximum altitude.
With a gnashed oath, Jyoti pounded the control panel. "I can't even lock onto them! Too much static. Unless we get a visual sighting, we're going to lose them."
The airfoil juddered at its limits, and Jyoti leveled off. Three faces gazed out at the dizzy world below. Factory fumes from Saxar worn by the wind thinned away over the glitter of the sea and the cracked clay floor of the desert. Irth tilted its sky-bound horizons as the airfoil dared climb higher yet, to the perilous limit of its design.
"Margravine!" Dogbrick bawled when the airfoil began to shake violently. "Don't get us killed. Even Charm can't break our fall from this height."
"We can't catch them at their altitude." Jyoti swiveled in her seat, searching the cloud strata below and the misty horizon. "We have to get above them."
Dogbrick turned to Broydo, wanting distraction from the risks of Jyoti's aerial maneuvers. "Tell me, elf, is World's End as frightful a realm as legend says?"
"How can I answer you?" Broydo replied, peeking apprehensively through the ferns of frost on the canopy. Down below, an alkaline river spread its dry branches through the salt hills. "I who have known only World's End cannot say. Irth seems frightful enough from this height."
"Ah, yes, fear—" Dogbrick stroked his beard and began to expound to divert his attention from the ominous creaking of the struts and brace wires. "Fear is the mind's shadow, even as mind itself is light personified. Don't you agree, elf?"
"That mind is light and fear darkness?" Broydo lifted a tense face to Dogbrick. "That seems true enough—for a mind can be enlightened and fear certainly obscures thought."
Dogbrick smiled appreciatively. "The stronger the light, the darker the shadow, eh? I do believe, elf, that you are proving to be a most agreeable conversationalist and an ally to be trusted. Then do you agree, we must face the light and keep our shadow behind us?"
"That sounds true to me. But how do we accomplish that?" Broydo’s stomach winced when the airfoil bounced over a pocket of cold air. "Right now, I'm ready to blind myself with the light."
"Facing the light means discarding contrastive thinking, Broydo, transcending egotistical involvement—"
The airfoil hit more turbulence, and Dogbrick and Broydo howled together.
"Enough nattering, you two." Jyoti's blue-knuckled hands fought the shuddering yoke. "I know what I'm doing. Just sit back and..."
Before she could finish, the engine sputtered. With a cough of white smoke from under the cowl, the airfoil shivered to silence. For a moment, no sound violated the stillness of their celestial station. And then, the craft began to dive, and all three sang with fear.
Ripcat
The sand dunes of the Spiderlands looked tiger-yellow under stripes of black thorn trees. Nests of webs veiled those trees, and the victims of the land's ferocious arachnids hung as desiccated husks from the branches, paper-crisp shapes of luckless dogs, birds, and monkeys.
Reece remembered this vicious dominion from his previous sojourns here while fleeing the Dark Lord. That seemed an age ago to him now that Lara had returned and pulled his world inside out.
Protected from the spiders and the biting mites by his magic, he marched with determination through the sharp weeds and the blighting desert heat. He searched for a charmway, a passage that connected remote areas of Irth.
Lara floated insubstantially beside him. Her black hair drifted about her like darkness full of wind. Glad that Reece had agreed to elude the Radiant One, she had used that joy to counter the agony that had been wracking her since she descended from World's End. She began to sing the old songs he had taught her on the Dark Shore.
Those chants that had once pleased her masters so well no longer gave pleasure to Reece, he discovered. They only reminded him of the servitude he had inflicted on her during her lifetime, for which he had already apologized man
y times: "I was wrong to leave you alone in the forest. I should have known that the people of the town feared you. I should have been there to protect you from them."
To ease him, she stopped singing, and her pain flared brighter. So amazed was he simply to see her again, to hear her voice, that he did not notice the small indications of her suffering she could not hide, the tiny tics in her face, the tense lines under her fire-blue eyes, the occasional lag in her speech.
"Tell me, Lara, what is it like inside the Abiding Star?" he asked, pausing a moment among the emblems of death dangling in their cobwebs. He sensed with the strong eye of his magic that the charmway he sought awaited nearby. The dense brush had obliged him to land the glider on the salt flats before the dunes and to hike through this terrain of death.
"Young master, I've told you, I do not want just yet to return to the Abiding Star." Lara swung around to face him and hovered just ahead of him as he walked. "I am already dead. It is you I worry about."
"Why fear for me, Lara?" Reece opened a way through the thick scrub with his magic, and the thorns parted with a noise like rain. They walked on. "I have magic here on Irth. I am so much more powerful than ever I could have been on the Dark Shore."
"What stalks you is even more powerful." Her eyes flinched at the memory of Asofel destroying the demon Tivel. "I want you to go to another world. I want you to keep moving until this Asofel wearies of pursuing you."
The hurt he detected in her face he mistook for concern for him. "Will he ever weary, this powerful being?"
"Perhaps. In any event, your magic is not to be underestimated, master." A shaft of daylight through the sharp trees smeared her features, yet her voice continued, "So long as you keep moving, there is hope. Think of the worlds you can explore. All of the Bright Shore lies before you."
"Yes," he said, though in truth he did not want to wander the worlds. He wanted to remain with his consort, Jyoti, with whom he shared a future, and help her rebuild her dominion. He loved Lara, too, as he would a daughter, and he knew that the kindest, the best and only fate for her now, would be to let her return to the rapture of the Abiding Star—even if he had to lie to achieve this. "We will wander the worlds, you and I," he said sadly. "That's why we must seek this charmway."
