Raven glowered at him. “’Twas not quite the way of it, wizard,” he said. “True, that perchance the beasts were drawn by a gate between worlds, but ’twas none of Elani’s conjuring. The mages of the Galactic Empire, those they call scientists, opened the portal.”
“What matter, then?” Taillefer demanded. “You see my point; ’twas the gate that drew Shadow’s attention, whosoever conjured it.”
“Yet have you, by your own words, conjured portals and lived to tell of it.”
“Indeed, for I fled instanter, when attacked.”
“Then do this the same!”
Taillefer shook his head. “Nay, Raven. I have gone too oft to the well, and fear that the bucket must soon give way. These last conjurings were each for but an instant, and each guided to a particular ally in the Empire, yet I scarce won away.” He drew back a sleeve and held up his left arm, displaying deep, half-healed wounds, plainly visible even by firelight. “And that was in Old Dunleigh, seven score miles from here, and five score further from Shadow’s keep. Here, with no friend upon the other side to guide the spell home, with the need to see half a dozen men and women transported…I’ll not risk it. E’en should I open the gate, it might well deliver these to the wrong spot in yonder realm-I might send them to Stormcrack when I sought Starlinshire, as it were, or leave them in some blasted wasteland, or drop them in the sea, an I take not an hour or more to guide it. And an hour, when every second draws Shadow’s ire closer?”
“Yet ’twould be the right world, and surely, the journey home could be made…”
“Nay, Lord Raven,” Taillefer said, “be you not so sure. Know you, that in the realm these call Earth, there are many worlds? And that in some, the air itself is poison, if there be air at all?”
Raven turned to Pel, who was standing close at hand. “Is’t true?” the rightful lord of Stormcrack Keep demanded.
* * * *
Pel had not been expecting the question; he had been standing close by, listening intently but silently, hoping that Raven would find some way to talk Taillefer around-certainly, Pel had always found Raven persuasive-but he had had no intention of getting into the argument himself, for fear of messing things up.
But when he was directly questioned, he could hardly stay out. He couldn’t answer immediately, though; puzzling out what Taillefer meant took a few seconds. “Do you mean the other planets?” he asked. “Mars and Venus and like that?”
“Aye.”
“But I thought you could only open a gate to places where people spoke English…” Pel let his sentence trail off, suddenly realizing how stupid it sounded.
“Nay, ’tis the miracle-workers of the Empire, who speak without voice, who can locate only those minds that speak the Good Tongue,” Taillefer said. “The spells of Shadow can open gateways unto any realm whose existence is known beyond doubt-that is, any realm of which certain arcane characteristics are known. But where in that realm the portal opens, who wist?”
Valadrakul spoke up. “Friend Pel, though we esteem you greatly now, think you that we had chosen your cellars as our point of entry? Had we the fullest choice, we’d have emerged in the audience chamber of a king or prince. And think you that we chose that foul desert whither Elani sent us, when Shadow’s beasts o’ercame us at Stormcrack?”
Pel was flustered. “But she said…she was in a hurry…”
“As would I be,” Taillefer pointed out.
“Listen, if you could be sure it was on Earth, on land,” Pel said, “we’d take it-at least, I would. We’d get home eventually.” He glanced at the others for support.
Ted shrugged; Amy nodded; Susan frowned, then shook her head, once, a sharp little negative jerk.
“I’d take it,” Pel insisted.
“And what of the rest, who would be left behind to face Shadow’s anger?” Taillefer asked. “Not to put too fine a point on it, what of myself?”
“You could come with us,” Pel suggested, not very hopefully.
“Oh, aye,” Taillefer replied sarcastically. “Plunge myself into an unknown corner of a realm where all my spells and powers are for naught, where I know not a thing of the ways and customs; a realm that, alone of the three known, has no way to reach the others, so that never could I return?”
“But why would you want to return?” Pel asked desperately. “This world’s ruled by Shadow, isn’t it? Our world isn’t; it’s not bad at all, really.” He had intended to argue further, but he stopped abruptly when he saw the expressions not just on Taillefer’s face, but on Raven’s and Valadrakul’s, as well.
“Man,” Taillefer said, “this world may seem unpleasant to you, yet is it my world, my homeland, and I’ll not abandon it to Shadow, not leave it in its hour of need.”
“Nor will I,” Raven said.
Pel looked at Valadrakul, whose expression convinced Pel that he didn’t need to hear what the other wizard had to say. The Earthman sighed.
“You won’t do it?” he asked.
Taillefer shook his head. “That I won’t,” he said.
* * * *
Amy heard it all, heard first Raven, then Pel argue with Taillefer. Her stomach had calmed, and she was in no danger of vomiting again; she was ravenously hungry, and felt weak and sick, but she was not going to throw up for awhile. She sat against the ruined wall of the castle, surrounded by shadows and gloom, and listened to the men debate the rest of her life.
And she was losing the argument. If someone didn’t do something, it sounded as if she would be trapped in this horrible fairy-world forever.
Raven, much as he wanted his guns and soldiers, appeared to have abandoned the argument to Pel. Pel was trying, but he argued like a man, all rationalizations and confrontations, and he was obviously losing. Taillefer felt his life was at stake; he wasn’t going to be swayed by that sort of logic.
“But why would you want to return?” she heard Pel ask. “This world’s ruled by Shadow, isn’t it? Our world isn’t; it’s not bad at all, really.”
Amy didn’t need to hear; she knew the answers. If anything, Pel had just convinced Raven to switch sides, rather than Taillefer. “Susan?” she said quietly.
“Yes?”
“You have your bag?”
Susan took a moment to consider that.
“I don’t think it’ll work,” she said, “but I’ll try it if you want.”
“Please,” Amy said.
Susan sighed, then pulled her bag up where she could reach into it more easily.
Then she had her little revolver in her hand, the .38 Police Special; she glanced at Amy, who nodded.
“I don’t think it’ll work,” Susan said again, as she rose, pistol ready.
The men had not noticed anything, as yet; Pel was asking the plump wizard, “You won’t do it?”
“That I won’t,” Taillefer replied.
Susan cleared her throat, then raised the pistol, gripped tightly in both hands, and pointed it at Taillefer.
“Wizard,” she called, her finger tight on the trigger.
* * * *
Raven turned at the sound of the Earthwoman’s voice, expecting nothing more from her than a plea for mercy; it took a second before his eyes adjusted to the dimness, but at the sight of the weapon in her hands his jaw dropped.
Quickly, he caught himself, composed himself.
“Aye, mistress?” Taillefer asked, as he, too, turned. “What would you, and what is this you point at me?”
“This thing I’m pointing at you is a weapon from Earth,” Susan explained. “It’s commonly called a handgun. If I pull the trigger, it’ll blow a hole right through you-ask Raven and Valadrakul, they’ve seen me use it to kill Shadow’s creatures. It’s what Raven wants from Earth-we’ve promised him a supply of guns to use against Shadow.”
“Ah,” Taillefer said, eyeing the revolver with interest.
“Now, we’re going to ask you again whether you’ll open the portal to Earth,” Susan said, “with the understanding that if you refuse, I’ll blow your head off. Will you open the portal?”