" That' s all we sought?" came Velika' s petulant voice. " I' ve seen treasures far exceeding that. Why, Lan' s jeweled casket taken from him by those awful grey soldiers was worth more than this."
" Judge not by appearance," snapped Inyx. " I' d trade an empire for this. How a knave such as Waldron came by such a fine piece of magic, I' ll never know."
" It' s of no use to us! Who' d buy it? And who wants to leave this world to go stumbling among others? This world is enough for any sane person." Velika gripped Lan' s arm even harder, but he barely listened to her pleas.
Magic, yes, and he felt the flux all around him now. His magicsensing ability had returned in full force, so much so that his head ached horribly and his eyes felt as if they' d been placed in burning vises. Powerful spells were used in complex ways to generate this globe of transition. He knew that the Cenotaph Road demanded the personal energies of a person of great heroism and death- honored but unfulfilled by actual burial. Whatever the spells cast over an empty grave, they tied down that person' s essential bravery and soul- force to an eternity of maintaining a gateway between worlds. Some led one way, like the first he' d taken into the bog world. Others were so potent they opened both ways. Still others were rumored to span several worlds, so great was the power and honor of the unburied dead.
But this globe:
Lan saw at least a score of worlds passing in panoramic review. He wanted to learn all he could of this masterwork of sorcery, attune himself to it, and then follow the Road to each and every world shown. Velika might protest at first, but Lan knew they' d explore together where none from this world had trodden before. He felt a tightness in his throat as he thought of the blond woman, and again he experienced the twisting inside he couldn' t explain. She did things to him, that woman. The tension had made him giddy, nothing more, he told himself.
Or was it only tension?
" This is what I needed years ago," said Inyx in a hushed, almost reverent tone. " To walk randomly among the worlds is folly when one can choose with this."
" Yes," agreed Krek, " my own journey would have been immensely easier using such a device. My precious energies need not have been squandered fleeing shadows caused by fire and damp. Surely a world exists in that vista where neither flame nor water exists. What a find it would be! Sheer paradise for these creaking joints."
" I am glad you approve of my toy," came a cold voice from above. They looked at one another, then elevated their gaze to where Waldron Ravensroost leaned indolently against the balcony railing, one elbow resting on a rude wooden box. " Your triumphs in my little maze astonished me, to be sure. I was particularly amused by your confrontation with the metallic skeleton, a remnant from one of the most mechanized worlds inside that."
His finger pointed to the depths of the pinkly pulsating crystalline globe. A shimmer like heat across desert sands came and then a gradual focusing until one specific world snapped into clarity. Millions of darting mechanical devices purred and whined and screeched back and forth, raising such a din that Lan placed both hands over his ears for protection.
" Ah, you do not like that world, eh? Let us try another. From my study of the Kinetic Sphere, I suspect you are native to this world." With no discernible motion on Waldron' s part, the globe obeyed his spoken command. A jumble of colors, a silent, thick wind stirring the viscous mass, then Lan' s world came into view with heart- wrenching pellucidity. One of the demon- powered cars chuffed along, frozen mist on the bottom of the boiler while steam plumes arched high overhead from the dual stacks. And sitting ramrod- straight in the carriage was the old sheriff, looking apprehensive being so close to the symbol of progress on his world.
Straining, Lan imagined he heard the old man' s rough voice.
" No," said Waldron, " you cannot speak to him, nor he to you. One day I shall learn to control that feature of the Kinetic Sphere. Until I do, all that is open to me is searching out the locations where I and my men enter a new world. That, by the way, is a likely world for our Great Migration. Pleasant, the people are relatively unwarlike, and the abundances of food already flow to feed my people."
" Who manufactured this: Kinetic Sphere: for you?" demanded Lan. " This thing is beyond your power."
" I sense meaning to your use of the word ' power' that escapes me. But I shall be frank with you. A mage named Medolinev or Shastry, or possibly even L' ao Shu or Claybore, is responsible. He who constructed it is loath to give voice to his proper name for fear I would gain power over him." Waldron laughed harshly, changed elbows on the wooden box resting on the balcony railing, and added, " As if that matters to him now. But he refused to share this fine gift with my people, so:" A careless gesture of Waldron' s hand across his throat indicated what had happened to the niggardly magician. " You continue to amaze me, though, in that you sensed my inability to construct such a device. How did you know? A guess?"
" Hardly. I' ve been around magic- users all my life and, while I' m unable to cast more than elementary spells, I can feel power around me. You are lacking."
" Lacking in that form of power, perhaps, but not in others. I tire of this conversation, so allow me to congratulate you on pleasing me for so many hours during your journey through the maze. People walking between worlds as you did seldom survive, although the actual distance you traversed is less than ten yards."
" We' ll continue to survive, eater of small children!" raged Inyx, her hand pulling at her dagger.
" Alas, I cannot oblige you that minor request. You have two choices open to you. My captivity until I decide how you might be of best use to me or random passage along the Road."
" The Road!" cried Inyx.
" Yes, if my weak legs will carry me forward," agreed Krek.
" Come, Velika, let' s go through the gateway while it' s open," said Lan, pulling at the woman' s hand. But she refused to move. Yanking harder as Inyx and Krek advanced on the Kinetic Sphere and the curtain of radiant energy now surrounding it, Lan found himself off balance and stumbling. He slipped and bowled over Krek. The giant spider' s wildly thrashing limbs sent Inyx tumbling. Velika stood over the pile of bodies and shook her head.
" Better a dungeon than being lost in that welter of crazy, dangerous worlds!" she cried out, tears flowing copiously down her cheeks. Lan started to go to her, but some inner force held him back, an inexplicable one akin to his intuitions about magic use. Those tears:
Inyx surged to her feet, but the globe had lost its lustre and the energy curtain had closed. No more coalescing colors in the ball; it remained inert, dead, shut to them. And the ring of crossbowmen assured her that fighting now was tantamount to suicide. Turning on Lan, she screamed, " That bitch has signed our death warrants! I consign you both to the Lower Places for this!"
Lan Martak had no answer, for he felt much the same about Velika' s reluctance to walk the Road. It had just cost them all their freedom- and their lives.
" Hmmm, such a motley group you are," said Waldron, looking down at the four in chains. As Krek rattled his bindings ominously, several of the guards insinuated themselves between the giant spider and their liege lord. Waldron shifted the wooden box he carried so that it safely rested under his arm, then made a vague gesture in the air with his free hand as he said, " It' s all right, men. My armorer assures me even this ponderous creature will be unable to break through the special steel chains on all of his legs."