"Green,.Sharon.-.Mists.Of.The.Ages" - читать интересную книгу автора (Green Sharon)

^


^
the other's turn. I stood there with my arms folded, waiting to see which of my admirers would be the one to learn just how well I enjoyed being treated like a stick of furniture, and then the soon-to-be lucky man was decided on. Jejin's string-cone of light began forcing the other magician's string back, and as it lost ground it also lost size and strength. The second ma- gician struggled, bringing up his left hand in an effort to brace the right, but it wasn't any good. His light retreated so far back it became no more than a short- ened string, and then the remaining string and one of the loops around my waist abruptly winked out. Jejin's cone touched the other magician from head to foot. and when it retreated back to a simple string form, the second magician stood as still as a carving.
"Mind rot!" the other man in leather snarled, stalk- ing over to stare at his magician before turning again to scowl at Serendel. "He's out for a full turn at least. perhaps even two! You must surely now be well- pleased with yourself!"
"Why shouldn't I be?" the fighter returned, his faint grin intended for the purpose of making things worse for the other. "I wasn't the one who started this by trying to appropriate someone else's woman. Next time stop to think about it first."
The small crowd watching the goings-on laughed, which got to the losing side even more. He turned again and stalked away, looking as though he intended finding someone smaller than him to beat up on, and that ended the show completely. As the crowd began to disperse, Jejin and Serendel both moved closer to me.
"That must have been terrible for him," the fighter said to the magician when they reached me, his grin now wider. " Having your man beaten by the least ma- gician in these precincts is embarrassing. Did he really think I'd believe him?"
"A certain number do believe, and I'm sure he was hoping you'd be one of them," Jejin answered with a chuckle. "He knows I'm rated stronger than his own magician, but he's one of those who really enjoy the laws of this land. Your lady took his fancy so he de-
218 Sharon Green
cided to take her, trusting to luck that her companion would allow himself to be talked into backing down. Now he has to wait at least the minimum time before his magician comes out of it, and until then he can't claim any women at all. I have the feeling he'll be finding the wait a long one no matter how short it turns out to be."
"Serves him right for being fool enough to think I'd hand over what was mine without a fight,*' Serendel said in a voice filled with satisfaction, then his atten- tion turned to me. He started to say something, noticed my expression before any of it got said, and then that teasing look was back in his eye. "Watch it, Jejin," he warned, trying to sound nervous. "I think we're •bout to have a second confrontation. I hope you're ^Ot too tired to protect me."
'^\**you*re as funny as a shuttle crash," I growled, arms still folded as I gave him a frozen stare. "How coold a man be afraid of something that's 'his'? Jejin, take this stupid child's toy off me. I don't like being tied, even with real, honest-to-gosh light.'*
For some reason the man hadn't canceled his special effects, and the string he had taken to fight with was now reattached to the loop around my waist. It was a cute gimmick to amuse the tourists, but there was at least one tourist who had had enough of it.
"My dear lady, I will be more than happy to release you," the magician answered, his tone very neutral. "We'll see it done as quickly as I have the command from your lord." •
I immediately switched a thawed and furious gaze to the man who was pretending to be a magician, but he didn't even have the decency to avoid my eyes. It's all a game, his calm expression seemed to be trying to tell me, no one's serious, so there's no reason to get upset. I could understand that, I really could, but ac- cepting something intellectually, I was learning, wasn't the same as accepting it emotionally.
"Then there should be no problem," I said as evenly as I could, trying to calm the emotional anger. "I'm sure my—noble and generous lord won't consider hes-
MISTS OF THE AGES 219
itating even a moment. Will you, 0 noble and gener- ous lord?"
I looked again at Serendel, working to keep as much of the desire for bloody dismemberment out of the stare as possible, but I don't think I did very well. His grin widened as he gazed down at me, and then he was shaking his head.
"I don't know if I can go along with that," he de- nied, the doubt deliberately added. "Since I won you I am your lord, but you don't seem ready to believe it. I think I need a demonstration of some sort con- cerning your sincerity of purpose, your purity of in- tent. In other words, what'U you give me if I have you turned loose?"
He was teasing me again, I could see from his grin that he wasn't completely serious, but that was only on an intellectual level. Emotionally I reacted just the way he very obviously wanted me to, with enough outrage to build a ten-floor office building out of. I tried calling him names, making obscene observations, and flatly refusing all at the same time, which means I stood there gabbling and foaming with nothing at all intelligible coming through. Jejin glanced at my clenched fists, then looked away with a pained ex- pression on his face, but the red-headed fighter de- cided it was time for deep concern.
"Damn it, Jejin, now look what I've done," Ser- endel said, the gleam in his eyes wiping out all effort toward self-condemnation. "I said something wrong. and now the poor little thing is upset. The least I can do to make up for it is to take her some place quiet to calm down. Where did you say those privacy cham- bers are?"
"Oh, now I am going to commit murder!" I snarled, telling nothing but the absolute truth. All I wanted to do was get my hands on him to rip and tear, but he was only warped and twisted, not suicidal. As soon as I started for him, he ducked out of my reach, then came forward again fast. and suddenly I was being lifted from the floor on his shoulder- I screamed in rage and tried to struggle free again, but the grip of his arm around my legs kept me from doing it.
220 Sharon Green
"We're all ready to follow you, Jejin," the miser- able monster said lightly to the magician, totally ig- noring the way I was pounding on his back with my fists. "The chambers are spaced around the supporting walls of this fountain room, you said?"
"And, for the convenience of guests, also on the floor above," the man answered, sounding reluctantly amused but still amused. "I see a number of unoccu- pied chambers in this direction, lord Serendel, so you can have your choice from among them. Clear crystal walls means vacant, heavy swiriing fog means occu- pied- Once you enter a chamber the fog will close off all view of you and your lady, but you must say aloud whether or not you want the room left open. The words *open' or 'closed* will either allow others to enter and join you or give you complete privacy, whichever you prefer. Also, of course, any chamber where entry is j|0t barred may be entered by you if you so desire." h The beast carrying me simply made a noise of ac- knowledging receipt of the information, nothing of a comment on it one way or another. Jejin had obviously been giving him a prepared speech, something I'd had no trouble telling even through my continued strug- gles, and had no need of a specific answer. The "lord" would decide which way he wanted it, without needing to consult anyone else. I growled and kicked and pounded harder at the heavily-muscled back under my fists, but all I accomplished was to give the people we passed something to laugh at. They thought the sight of the big glad carrying me across the wide floor a riot, and even Chal and Lidra, left behind after the magical confrontation, seemed to be sharing in the general amusement.
Needless to say, I was not viewing Serendel's ac- tions with a big grin and a hearty knee-slap. I had the feeling I was doing more damage to my hands than I was to the back I kept beating on, but that didn't stop me from struggling all the way across the very wide room. I found out we'd arrived where we were going when we passed a Jejin who was pointedly not looking at me, and then I saw the crystal-walled doorway we'd just passed through. As soon as we cleared it heavy
MISTS OF THE AGES 221
fog began cutting off all sight of me fountain room beyond, and then I heard the single word, "Closed."
"If you think that'll do you any good, you're even more feebleminded than you look," I announced, giv- ing the back I'd been attacking an extra hard thump. "I want out of here, and I want it now. "
"That's too bad about you," he said, sounding completely unconcerned as he continued crossing what seemed to be a room decorated in crystal and blue. Crystal benches with blue svalk cushions, crystal ta- bles with carved blue knick-knacks, blue carpeting and crystal walls. Our forward progress was slowed and then stopped by something I couldn't see from where I was slung over his shoulder, and then my outrage was replaced by true fury. A big hand hit my backside three times, the shoulder I was on dipped, and sud- denly I was falling toward damned-if-I-knew-what. The next second I hit something soft, and even though I was flat on my back I tried to go into action. My right hand darted for the palm dagger in its sheath as I tried to struggle to sitting, but as fast as I'd moved it wasn't quite fast enough. An oversized hand flashed to my wrist, a big body forced me flat again with my right arm above my head, and then those gray eyes were looking down at me from little more than a foot away.
"Do you intend turning this attack thing into a habit?" the beast asked in a very mild way, the look in his eyes no more than curious. "If you do, I strongly suggest a reconsideration of the decision. Someone could get hurt."
"I'll think about it after someone gets hurt," I grunted, fighting to get my wrist out of the unmoving metal grip that had wrapped all the way around it. "A touch or two of red would do wonders for the color scheme of this room. I consider it a matter of principle to help out like that whenever I can."
"I have the feeling your 'matter of principle' stems more from that very brief smacking you just got," he said, those eyes unmoving from my face. "You're of the opinion you can beat on me as much as you tike, but I'm not entitled to give back any of it? Did I miss
222 Sharon Green
the announcement of the law making me a public punching bag?"
"I'm not the one who forcibly carried you in here," I returned heatedly, even more outraged over his co- lossal nerve. "Maybe your reputation lets you push other people around, but I'm not other people! If I have to use this dagger before I can walk out of here 1*11 do it, because I am going to walk out of here. Either let me go this instant, or don't complain later about what happens to you."
"I can understand not liking to be told what to do, but letting the attitude rule you to the exclusion of all reason isn't very smart," he said, the words a little harder than they'd been until then, the look in his eyes matching. "You were told about the game they're playing here and you twice agreed to go along with it, out as soon as it came to living up to the commitment, you forgot all about it and got insult ed instead. If I hadn't carried you in here, you would have forced them to throw you out of the Mists, and if you walk out again without doing as you said you would, the same thing will happen. Is that what you really want? To have to pay for a vacation you won't be allowed to continue with?"
I moved just a little in discomfort under that cold gray stare, finally remembering what Velix had said to me—and what I had said in return. The fighter had something of a point, but conceding it didn't mean I liked it.
' "There are some emotional reactions none of us can help responding to," I answered, trying not to feel as defensive as I might have sounded. "If you hadn't teased me about it I probably could have kept quiet, but that consideration didn't do anything to stop you. Now it looks like there's only one thing I can do: stay in here long enough to keep them from getting suspi- cious, and then trade you for Chal. After that you'll get everything you want and then some."
"I don't think so," he disagreed immediately, do- ing nothing in the way of turning me loose. "The deal you made was to try me first, and go for the swap only if you didn't like what you got. Sitting around waiting
MISTS OF THE AGES 223
out a sufficient amount of time will negate the deal, and the next thing you'll be doing is going back to the port."
"There's no way they can know that all I did was sit around," I came back with a snort, trying to move my wrist in his hand. "Unless they have this place bugged they'll think everything is just fine, so will you please let go of me?"
"There's one way they can know what you did," he said, a faint smile turning the comers of his mouth. "Would you like to guess what that one way is?"
"You would tell them?" I demanded, the outrage coming back to me the instant I understood what he meant. "You would do something that low and dirty? But of course you would, why am I even asking?"
"Stop feeling so self-righteously put upon," he said, the dryness coming close to setting exasperation in his voice. "This is my vacation you're trying to ruin. and all because you don't know how to keep your word. What gives you the right to ask me to lie for you? The warm and gracious way you've been treating me since the first time we met? Somehow I don't think so."
I wanted to give back the same kind of lecture he was giving me, but I was having trouble figuring out a properly adequate response. I didn't see anything wrong in not keeping a word I'd been forced to give, and I'd certainly had cause to be less than friendly toward him, but he was twisting eveiything around. He claimed to be the one who was being banned, but I had a feeling his true reasons were something else entirely.
"I may be mistaken, but I think you like the idea of owning a woman,'* I stated, voicing the dirty suspi- cion that had come to me. "You don't give a damn whether or not / like it, you're just enjoying the situ- ation. If you weren't, you wouldn't be so morally in- tent on holding me to my word. Tell me I'm wrong."
"Of course you're not wrong," he answered, his grin back and strong. "I don't mind dealing with women who are free to do as they like, so why should I mind dealing with ones who aren't? Equality of in- terest is my philosophy, equality in everything. And it
224 Sharon Green
isn't the thought of owning just any woman Fin en- joying, it's the thought of owning you. Are you going to keep the word you gave, or are you going to accept being thrown out?"
"You know damned well I don't want to be thrown out," I growled, moving my wrist in his hand again as I silently admitted I couldn't allow myself to be thrown out. * 'I can't stop you from doing anything you please even though I don't please the same, which means you're about to do something that's beneath any real man. If you're that desperate go ahead and get it done, and after-ward you can hold your breath until I thank you. That way you'll end up matching this room perfectly."
"I don't look all that good in blue," he said, his grin widening as he got what I meant. "And I think you'd be surprised to find out how few men, real or otherwise, would hesitate over accepting the tempo- rary ownership of a desirable woman. Permanent own- ership would be boring and more trouble than fun, but ahort-tcrm owning is another story entirely. Especially if the woman is one whose body you really want."
He gave me enough time to redden at bis, teasing, and then he lowered bis lips to mine with a gentle kiss. The last thing I wanted was something like that, bat bracing myself to hate the whole episode didn't do well against gentleness. It's force that bracing works best against, and aside from the way he was refusing to allow me to use my palm dagger on him, the man wasn't forcing me to do anything. He kissed me gen- tly, his free hand stroking my hair, for all the worid making it seem as though being there was my own choice. After a moment it came to me that I had cho- sen to be there, and in all fairness had to admit I was trapped by circumstance rather than by the effort of the fighter. If not for that S.I. job I could have done as I pleased, up to and including walking away from the man. After another moment I remembered how in- terested I'd been in finding some place quiet where Serendel and I could kiss without being interrupted, and my resentments over everything he'd insisted on began melting away.
MISTS OF THE AGES 225
It's strange the way some kissing keeps you from noticing how much time is going by, especially when the kissing becomes two-sided rather than an individ- ual effort. I don't know when I started kissing him back, and also don't know how long I spent doing it;
when he finally raised his head to end the time. all I knew was that I'd never experienced the same with any other man.
"Considering the amount of time I've been wanting to do that, you didn't have much chance of talking me into lying for you," he said with a smile, still stroking my hair. "I really have no intention of hurting you, you know, no matter what you've heard about glads and their nasty, bestial ways. Most of us save the bestiality for the arena, and those of us who don't ei- ther end up in a cell, or all alone in the bathroom. Word spreads faster among fans than anywhere else, and the honestly vicious ones don't have more than a handful of followers. Do you believe what I'm say- ing?"
"I never thought about it one way or the other," I answered honestly, feeling almost unbearably shy as I realized he was telling me exactly what he intended doing. "Is it safe to say 1*11 soon be finding out first hand?"
"yery soon," he agreed with a faint grin, moving his nand from my hair to my face. "It's a lucky thing for me you're a woman who isn't afraid of anything, not even a fighter with a reputation like mine. I find it very comforting."
He gave me a quick kiss with that, then let me go as he stood up again. Unfortunately for my peace of mind he took my dagger before he stood, and I sat up slowly with the partial wish that I still had it. What I sat on was a giant couch quilted with blue svalk, big enough to accommodate four people Serendel's size, big enough to make me feel almost lost on it. It wasn*t that I didn't trust the glad, only that he brought me very strange sensations, and I couldn't quite look at what he was doing where he stood. It was nice that he was comforted, but the fact that he was getting out of the leather outfit didn't make me feel the same.
226 Sharon Green
"Now that*s a lot better," he said as he came back onto the couch next to me, to sit as I was doing. "That leather may look authentic to the costumers. in this place, but I'll bet any amount you care to name that the original outfits were totally different. This stuff is a little too stiff to wear comfortably, and not boiled properly to be adequate protection. It's good for noth- ing but show—or taking someone's eyes out with those shoulder pieces. Is something bothering you?"
By the time he asked the question I had inadver- tently glanced at him, which meant I was less bothered than I had been. Instead of being stalk naked under the leather the way he'd hinted he was, he wore a very brief pair of snorts that were like a male model's bath- ing trunks. For some silly reason I felt better having him like that, but I still found very little in the way of comfort in the situation. His body was really massive with muscle, the sort that comes with strength rather man empty exercising, and even in the face of all his assurances I still couldn't help realizing he was like no man I'd ever been with before.
"Of course nothing is bothering me," I answered after the briefest hesitation, very aware of how close he was. "I haven't been a child for quite a number of years now."
"I didn't say anything about considering you a child," he returned, his right hand coming to my back under my hair. "If I'd thought you were a child, I would have sent you to bed, not taken you there. You've been taken to bed by men before, haven't you?"
"I used to think so." I muttered, trying to under- stand why it was all I could do to keep from pulling away from his hand, and then I raised my voice a little. "What I meant was, of course I've had sex with men before. There's nothing to it, really, and most of the time it's fun."
"You sound like you're trying to talk me into it." he said with a chuckle, his hand sliding across my back to curve around my right arm. "I know most people consider me shy and hesitant, but I don't really need convincing. If you're sure there isn't anything
MISTS OF THE AGES 227
bothering you, why don't you try relaxing a little? Here, let's make both of us a bit more comfortab le."
The next thing I knew both of his hands were on my shoulders, and then the wide straps of the top of my costume were being slid gently down my arms. The effort almost immediately turned me as bare-chested as he was, and before I could even begin to react, he had wrapped me in this arms and had stretched us out on our sides on the couch.
"Ah, yes, this is a lot better," he said as he settled me more closely to him, my breasts tight against his chest. "There have been times I've gotten to bed so tired that even falling asleep seemed like too much of an effort, but there's no such thing as being too tired to cuddle."
"Cuddle?" I echoed, looking up at him without be- ing able to decide whether I wanted to raise my eye- brows or lower them. "Arc you sure that's the word you wanted to use? And are you sure you're a fighter and not a ladies' hairdresser?"
"Stop being a little snob," he said in a stem way, but I could see the amusement lurking in his eyes. "Fighters have just as much right to enjoy cuddling as hairdressers do, and maybe even more if you stop to think which group would do better if the right had to be fought for. I happen to like cuddling with certain giris, and I don't mind saying so. Do you have any- body you'd like to bring over to tell me I shouldn 't be saying it?"
"I think the twelve-foot Monster of Isak is busy right now, so I'll have to get back to you.'' I muttered. feeling very firmly put in my place. "The biggest problem in acceptance of that is trying to picture a glad 'snuggling.* It's not exactly the sort of scene that comes first and most easily to mind."
"I'm not responsible for your prejudices," he said, that faint, now-familiar grin visible again. "If you ever hear me tell someone I like snuggling in the arena, that's when you can lodge a protest. When it comes to what I do in bed, no one has a say but me."
"How about your bed partner?" I asked, suddenly
228 Sbaron Green
aware of the arms around me in a different way. "Do you get the say over her as well?"
"Usually," he agreed with a widening grin, then quickly tightened his hold on me as I began pulling away. "But only because that's the way most of my bed partners prefer it. You'll never find me telling the woman I'm in bed with that her preferences are wrong. Something like that could take the friendliness out of the occasion."
"You mean there are actually women in this uni- verse who feel friendly toward you?" I asked, utterly delighted to find that he was teasing me again. "And here I thought you inspired nothing but lust."
"Life is tough for those of us who are sex objects, but you leam to take the bad with the good," he al- lowed in a way that was just short of noble. "Women by the thousands come after me and force me into bed, and all I can do is accommodate their preferences. Af- ter that, I find this change of pace very refreshing."
1 started to ask what change of pace he was talking about, and then I remembered: as long as we were in that particular section of the Mists, his was the only opinion that counted. I could see from the gleam in his gray eyes that I was supposed to get wild and try to start another fight with him, but it had finally gotten through to my temper that he was enjoying the reaction far too much for it to be smart letting it go on. If my getting mad was his version of fun, then mad was the last thing I should be getting.
"Oh, I understand now," I exclaimed, turning my right hand to put it on the chest I was being held against "What you're all that tired of is being in charge, and what you'd like is to have someone else take over. Why didn't you say so right away? I'll be glad to take over."
The gray eyes looking at me turned briefly startled as be began shaking his head, that close to telling me I had it wrong. I knew he didn't want me in charge as well as he did, but I Hilly intended making him say it so that / could laugh for a change. I waited for the protest and disagreement, already enjoying what I
MISTS OF THE AGES 229
would hear—and then I heard something I neither en- joyed nor particularly understood.
"You know, you may not have a bad idea there," he said slowly, his head nodding as the agreement in his voice strengthened. "As a matter of fact, the more I think about it the more I like the way it sounds. You're absolutely right about what I need, so let's do it that way."
He let me go and lay back flat on the couch, tucking his hands behind his head as he grinned. I was sure he couldn't be serious—or at least almost sure—but I didn't know whether to go along with the joke or tell him to stop messing around.
"Well, what arc you waiting for?" he prompted. not moving an inch out of the position he'd taken. "You said you'd be glad to be in charge, so let's see some of that gladness. Or are you afraid?"
"I'm not afraid of anything," I snapped, stung by his mockery and moved out of indecision. "If it's fe- male aggressiveness you're looking for, consider it round."
I twisted around and put my hands to his chest, then took his lips with a lot more strength and passion than he'd used. He made no effort to stop me, or even to try taking over direction of what I was doing; all he did .was cooperate completely by returning the kiss he was getting. It went on for a short while, the warmth of his body and lips slowly coming through to my awareness, my doubts and hesitations melting away a good deal more quickly. I found myself running eager hands over the hardness of him, and also found that something was definitely missing.
"I hate breaking in on your rest," I said between shortened kisses, "but I'd like to be held and touched. too. Do you want me to send for a servant to show you how it's done?"
"If I practice a little, I should be able to figure it out," he answered with a chuckle, and then his arms were around me, his hands moving in silent appreci- ation of what they touched. It felt so good I almost moaned, and the heat coming to fiery life all through me was startling. Sex had always been something I
230 Shwon Green
could take or leave alone, something pleasant to be indulged in with a pleasant paitner. With Serendel there was nothing easy or meaningless about the situ- ation, and very briefly part of me tried to become frightened. I couldn't afford to be involved with any- thing that wasn 't meaningless, and I remembered what Chal had said back on the liner. The fighter was that strange kind of man who would not touch certain women unless he was serious about them. That was the part that tried to frighten me, but with Serendel's hands touching and stroking everywhere, the fear was drowned beneath waves of churning desire. I wanted him no matter what, and he seemed to feel the same about me.
We spent half of forever kissing and touching, at least five or ten minutes, and then the glad could DO longer control himself. Rather than me working on him, I suddenly found myself on my back with him crouching above me, his shorts having disappeared Somewhere without my noticing their departure. I laughed as he held me down, knowing I'd won the point of who would be in charge after all, and then he was entering me and there was nothing left to laugh at. His presence inside me was sheer bliss and the very beginning of desire fulfilled, and when his face came to take a kiss he found one already waiting for him. He held me tight as he stroked and kissed me, my fists locked in his hair, and I had truly never experienced anything that wonderful before in my entire life.
Chapter 12
After it was over I refused to move for a while, partly because I didn't know if I could move. Every ounce of strength seemed to have been briefly drained out of my body, but it was a marvelous draining that I didn't want to lose the sensation of. I*d just learned that it takes a man's efforts to turn sex into love-making for a woman, and I also wanted to spend some time si- lently demanding why more men weren't familiar with the technique. I'd lived with Tris for more than half a year, and although the time had been pleasant it had never been as good as what I*d just experienced with Serendel.
"As soon as you don't need me as a pillow any more, be sure to let me know," the object of my thoughts said from above my head, "This chamber has a tiled bathing tub in the back righthand comer, and it won't hurt either of us to use it."
"You're an unfeeling, inhuman slave driver," I mumbled into his chest, refraining from asking why he was holding me so tight if he was all that anxious to get up. "Not to mention the fact that you cheat. If that was your idea of me being in charge, I'd hate to see what your being in charge is like."
"So I lied," he admitted without hesitation, the cheerful dismissal a rumble I could hear in his chest. "I don't mind lying in a good cause, and anyone in this room who tries claiming what we just shared wasn 't a good cause will find herself in a very tight spot."
"As tight a spot as the one you found yourself in?" 231
232 Sharon Green
I asked with wide-eyed innocence, raising my head to look at him. "Some men seem to consider being in a tight spot fun, but you're not silly enough to be one of them, are you?"
"Absolutely not." he agreed very solemnly with a slow shake of his head. "Abstinence and decorum are the very cornerstones of my life. The other two are honesty and reticence, and by the way— when you're ready to go again, just give me a wink."
"You forgot to include reluctance and hesitation among your cornerstones," I said with a laugh, run- ning one hand over the light hair on his chest. "How does a wink go again?"
"You're trying to min me, that's what you're doing,*' he said with narrowed eyes, pointing a finger at me. "Yo u're in the pay of Farison, and you're trying to make sure I can't walk when it comes time to face him. I knew it as soon as I met you, but the evil plan won't work. You won't find me in your bed more than five or six times a day, and 1*11 be throwing you out into the street a good half hour before any fight between us is scheduled. Even if ft isn't scheduled tor another five or ten years."
The last sentence of his teasing came out with very little of the lightness of the previous nonsense, and I suddenly felt the weight of those gray eyes on me, making his words more than they'd been all by them- selves. I wanted very much to look away, to listen to the fear inside telling me I couldn't afford to get in- volved with a man, but I had to admit it was too late for sensible advice. There was something about the man who held me that I just couldn't turn away from. and his own obvious interest made my heart thump and my blood sing. Trite reactions for a situation I'd never anticipated or imagined, but trite doesn't mean it can't be wonderful.
"Serendel," I said with a smile, holding to his gaze with complete willingness. "I think I'll have to re- member that name for a while. Do you have something I can write it down on?"
"If you make ft Seren, you might be able to remem- ber ft without writing it down," he answered with a grin. one big hand coming to stroke my hair. "That's
MISTS OF THE AGES 233


"I
J ^


t
what my baby sister used to call me, after deciding the full name was too formal. She was my favorite sister, and I'd really like having you call me the same."
"Was your favorite sister?" I asked, reluctant to put the question but wanting to know. "Did something happen?"
"She was killed," he answered, his eyes going mo- mentarily inhuman, and then a smile banished the deep, terrible cold. "But I think she really would have liked you, and wouldn't have minded your using her version of my name. Your own name, though, prob- ably would have given her problems. Even she wouldn't have been able to do much with Smudge."
"I'll smudge you," I said with a growl, getting to my knees beside him in order to reach his throat more easily. "I'm about to strangle you, and you can't say you don't deserve it. When you take a girl to bed, the least you can do is remember her name while she's still in that bed. Afterward it isn't necessary, but dur- ing it is. It's a shame you didn't learn that soon enough to save you."
He grinned while I wrapped my fingers around his throat and tried to squeeze, and very quickly it became clear why he was grinning. His neck was so massive I could barely get my hands around it, and squeezing against the cords was completely impossible. If I'd been seriously interested in doing him harm, I would have been out of luck.
"Out of the goodness of my heart, I've decided to spare you," I announced after a minute's worth of useless effort, looking down at his amusement. "I cer- tainly hope you've learned your lesson, since the next woman you take to bed might not be as generous."
"I don't think I'll have to worry about that for a while," he said, and then his arms were around me, pulling me down and holding me close. "For a time there will only be one woman sharing my bed, and who knows? As generous as she is, I might get lucky enough to have her agree to extending the time. She and I haven't known each other long, but some things don't take very long in developing. All I can hope is
234 Sharon Green
that they take a whole lot longer before ending. Maybe even a lifetime long."
He started to lean up with a kiss, but I was already coming down with one, the only answer I could make to what he'd said. I think everyone wonders what love will be like, how it will feel, how they'll react, and how they'll know it if they do come across it. I'd had those same questions myself, but as I held Seren's face between my hands while kissing him, I knew the an- swers and many more besides. I was already three- quarters in love with him, I had just been told he felt Ae same about me, and there were no other questions. All the answers in the universe were mine, and I would use them to solve any problem that tried to come along.
We spent some time simply kissing, and then we went together to the bathing tub Seren had mentioned. It was almost big enough to swim in, more than large enough for the two of us, and while we bathed we talked. Seren told me about his family and I told him about Seero, and with everything the two of us wanted to share we almost missed seeing the blinking blue light over a panel of the wall to the left of the pool. A closer inspection showed us a hand plate in the panel, and pressing the hand plate brought to view a small closet space which contained a fresh leather outfit for him and a fresh svalk costume in yellow for me. I was about to take the fresh clothing, but Seren just grinned and told me to leave it there for the moment, then took my hand and dragged me back to the couch. We'd made the mistake of drying each other after getting out of the pool, and I was more than willing to let the clothing wait. Somehow the second time was even bet- ter man the first, and the minutes passed by without either of us noticing.
When we finally got out of that chamber, we dis- covered that Lidra and Chal were in one of their own. Jejin told us that ChaFs magician had bested the one representing a challenger for Lidra, and Chal had then carried Lidra off just the way Seren had done with me. Jejin grinned and said he thought a new tradition may well have been started, and we laughed at the idea with him. then all three of us went looking for drinks
MISTS OF THE AGES 235
and entertainment. The shows being put on were ab- solutely marvelous, and when Lidra and Chal got around to joining us, they thought so too.
After that a lot of our time at the palace was blurry, but we seemed able to go on and on without rest and the partying around us never stopped. Twice Seren was challenged for me and twice Jejin won without trou- ble. but the third time his hesitation and uncertainty were horribly obvious. Jejin knew something about the rival magician that we didn't, and when Seren read his expression he didn't hesitate. The fighter seemed to be remembering the way Chal had lost Lidra in one chal- lenge, and although the loss had only been a temporary one, he didn't appear prepared to accept me same. Despite what were probably rules to the contrary, Seren approached the man who had challenged him, spoke very quietly, then took a step back. None of us knew what the fighter had said, but the other man paled, apologized for bothering us, then hurried away with a very puzzled magician trailing behind him. Af- ter that episode, no one came with a challenge again.
More than once Seren and I made use of the privacy chambers, and there finally came a time when we fell asleep after making love instead of returning to the partying. When I woke again, I had the feeling quite a lot of time had passed; I was back to being able to see cleariy what was around me, and I also felt well- rested and ready to get up. When Seren awoke, I had my mind changed for me about the getting up part, and I was more than happy to cooperate. I couldn't seem to get enough of the man, in bed or out, and was no longer even interested in complaining about the way he teased me. Very eariy on I'd contracted the teasing disease myself, and thereafter worked at giving as good as I got.
We left the chamber to find that a breakfastish meal would be served to us as soon as Chal and Lidra joined us, and that made me feel odd. The fog both inside and out hadn't changed at all, which made it seem as though we were still living the same day we'd started on, no matter how long it was stretching. The thought upset me just a little, but before I could find a reason
236 Sharon Green
for the reaction Chal and Lidra came up, and we all went for our meal. We had been given over into the care of servants, and our magicians were nowhere in sight. When they didn't join us for the meal, we de- cided their jobs might have been finished, and they'd gone back to offer themselves to the next batch of tour- ists. They never did show up again, and aside from wishing they'd at least said good-bye, we quickly for- got about them.
We weren't far from finishing when Velix arrived, confirming our speculation on the possibility of a change in the offing, but he stood to one side of the room until the floor show was over. The man and woman dancing were dressed in the rags and chains of slaves, and at intervals during the meal the man had slopped the dance by capturing and holding the woman m one way or another, and then had asked Chal and Scren what they wanted him to do with her. The man wore a big grin at those times despite the look he was getting from the giri he held, and seemed only faintly disappointed when his first requests resulted in nothing more than an order to go back to dancing. He seemed to know that the "lords" would not be refusing him forever, and he was right.
The third time he asked he was told to go ahead and have some fun, and even though Lidra and I tried talk- ing Chal and Seren out of it, the two men refused to change their minds. The giri's dancing had been more and more deliberately provocative, they insisted, and they were simply seeing that she got what she'd asked for. Since the man put her to the floor right there in front of our knee table we all saw her getting what she'd asked for, and the way she quickly switched from indignation to enjoyment was very unsettling. I didn't know how Lidra was looking at it. but even though I was trying to be annoyed with Seren, I was also sud- denly very hot for h im. I tried not to let it show. but his grin said he knew all about it and was simply wait- ing until I attacked him. I would have enjoyed being able to laugh in his face. but I knew as well as he did that that attack would not be unreasonably long in coming.
MISTS OF THE AGES 237
When the man and woman finally left the floor, Ve- lix came to stand in front of our long, low table and look down at us with a smile in his eyes that was very close to a smirk. It was a really lucky thing that Grid- denths don't show expressions on their beaked faces. or those like the journey scout would sometimes end up as trophies on den walls.
"I see, my lords and ladies, that you've reached a certain appreciation of this area of the Mists," he said, the words Just short of being a purr. "I trust there will be no further need for discussions on legal actions or swaps?"
His dark eyes touched Lidra and me as he said that, and Seren chuckled with the satisfaction of a man who knows he has nothing to worry about. That combined with his earlier grin really annoyed me, so I decided it was time to dent some smugness.
"Of course there's no further need for discussion on those topics," I said, smiling sweetly at the Grid- denth. "I was promised I could swap if I wanted to, so there's nothing left to be talked about. After all. you don't expect a giri to stay with a man who can't even remember her name, do you?"
The feathers around Velix's face puffed out and his head went up, but that was nothing in comparison to Seren's squawk of surprise. He'd had a really good time calling me Smudge at every opportunity, but he suddenly seemed to be regretting the fun. When I transferred my icky smile to the glad, he tried to ex- plain that he'd only been kidding and hadn't under- stood that it was really bothering me, but before the rush of words could reach an end, they were inter- rupted by Velix.
"Am I to take it. my lady, that you're now insisting on indulging in the swap?" the Griddenth demanded, his wings moving in short snaps as he spoke. "I'm well aware of the fact that the choice was granted you, but I was under the impression ..."
"Dalisse, you can't be serious," Seren interrupted in turn, reaching over to take my hand, actual worry in his gray eyes. "I thought we'd agreed there was
238 Sharon Green
something more going on between us than simple va- cation fim. Was I wrong?"
"Of course you weren't wrong," I answered, squeezing the big hand that held mine, my smile now warm and loving. "You know I feel the same way about you."
"Then why are you insisting on swapping me for Chal?" he asked, complete confusion turning his ex- pression bewildered. "If you're feeling as satisfied as I am, why do you want to ..."
"Who said I'm insisting on the swap?" I put with great innocence, taking my own turn at interrupting. "All / said was there was no need for further discus- sion on the point, and then I made a personal opinion observation about men who can't remember the names of the girls they're with. Since you don't happen to be one of that sort, whyever would you think the obser- vation referred to you?"
There was a long ten seconds of silence after my question, and then Lidra and Chal, who sat to Seren's left, both started laughing at the same time. A noise like a strangled growl came from Velix where he stood, an obvious attempt to smother reluctant amusement, but there was still one reaction to come. I'd been smil- ing pleasantly at Seren, and after a moment of staring at me with narrowed eyes, he produced a faint smile of his own.
"I'm going to get even for that," he said in a very warm. pleasant way. reaching over to gently pat my cheek. "You did it on purpose to scare the hell out of me, so there's no way you'll be getting away with it. When it happens, don't say you didn't ask for it."
I laughed and immediately began trying to talk him out of the threat, while Lidra and Chal tried to get details on what he intended doing. He smiled and shook his head quietly at all of us, pretending to be determined to carry through on dire plans he wasn't about to divulge, and then Velix was breaking in on the silliness.
"My lords and ladies, please give me your atten- tion," he insisted, probably enjoying playing the wet blanket. "I've come here to tell you that you're now
MISTS OF THE AGES 239
scheduled to move on to the next Mists area on your tour. There are new costumes you must first change into, and then I will lead you to your transportation. The changing rooms are this way, so if you'll please follow me, we can be on our way."
He fussed at us until we got to our feet, and then led the way through a quiet back door in the eating room that opened on a long, deserted corridor filled with more quiet doors. Each of us was herded into a separate room, and in mine I found my original lug- gage, a wide, padded bench, a mirrored wall, and my new costume hanging on two hooks of a blank wall. The first hook held a floor-length gown in palest rose that was completely transparent, and the second a matching floor-length cloak that closed at the left shoulder and was completely slit down both sides. I later discovered that the two layers of light, delicate material put together made the costume completely opaque, but even as I began getting out of the svalk outfit I'd gotten used to so easily, I wondered what sort of area we were heading for next.
The material of the gown came up to my throat and down to my toes while leaving my arms bare, but the mirror wall told me complete nakedness would be con- sidered by most as being more modest. Despite all the time we'd spent in the inhibition-relaxing atmosphere of the palace, I put my hands to the form-fitting gown where it hugged my waist above my hips, and won- dered if I had the nerve to wear it. That gown was an invitation to attack if I'd ever seen one, and being attacked doesn't happen to be one of my major aims in life. I added the cloak out of sheer desperation (no pun intended), and that was when I discovered how well the two went together. I felt something of relief at that, but only a small something. There would cer- tainly come a time when the cloak would have to be taken off. and if it turned out to be a public occasion I was definitely not looking forward to it.
I was sitting on the padded bench and staring down at the toes of the rose svalk slippers that had replaced my lace-up sandals, when a scraping knock came at my door. I'd been trying to decide how much trouble
240
Sharon Green
I'd be given if I changed out of the gown and cloak into one of my bodysuits, but there'd been no way of knowing. I'd been told I didn't have to wear the cos- tumes, but just in case Velix decided to come at me with threats again, it seemed wiser to wait with the decision to balk until we were a little closer to me objective we'd come there to reach. We'd also be closer to the end of the tour by then, which seemed to be stretching on an awfully long time. ...
"It's time to leave, my lady," Velix's voice came through the door after the scraping knock. "Are you ready?"
Instead of answering I sighed, then got up to go to the door. The Griddenth waited in the corridor Just outside, and my three traveling companions were al- ready with him, Lidra in lilac, Chal in black, Seren in brown. The two men showed hose and tunics through the slits of their solid cloaks, and my first thought was about how unfair that was. It would have been a per- fect point to complain about, except that I suddenly realized Lidra had been given the same kind of outfit I had, and she had a good deal more than modesty areas to hide. I glanced at her to see if she was show- ing signs of upset, didn't find any, then had to give up on the effort. Velix was already leading me way up the corridor away from the door we'd come in by, and there was nothing to do but follow along with the oth- ers.
The end of the long corridor held a door, and a ser- vant opened it for us to allow unimpeded access to the mists of outdoors. The fog in the streets was a good deal thicker than that which floated indoors, but not so thick that we weren't able to see the large coach wait- ing for us at the curb. Six shadow-shapes of large an- imals we couldn't quite see were attached at the front of the coach, and another servant stood by to open the coach door for us.
"This vehicle will take you to the Mists of Bulm, and I will be there to greet you," Velix said, nodding toward the coach and the servant opening the door. "It would give me greater pleasure to accompany you, of course, but my body shape unhappily forbids such
MISTS OF THE AGES 241
accompaniment. Please relax and enjoy the trip, and rest assured that it will be quite brief."
None of us felt the need to comment on that, so Velix stepped aside to give us access to the coach. Lidra, standing ahead of me, moved forward first, and even with the help of Chal and the servant quickly proved how awkward it was getting into a high vehicle while wearing a long gown and a long cloak. I wasn't looking forward to my own time trying, and that may be why I let myself be distracted by a sound coming from our left, the sound of another coach arriving. It pulled up to the curb, a servant hurried over from the palace door that stood there, and then the people inside were being helped out. I stared at them with a frown, wondering where I'd seen them before, wondering why their arrival at that time seemed totally wrong, and then it hit me.
Those were the four other people we'd gone through Customs with, the four who had decided to stay over- night at the castle.
But we'd already been in the Mists for days. Why were they only Just arriving? Could they have st arted elsewhere? Was there anywhere else to start from? If there was, why had Velix given us such a hard time when Lidra and I had protested the setup in that area? Wouldn't it have been easier simply sending us to the alternate starting location? I couldn't figure out what was happening, and then I did something that turned simple confusion into numbed shock. For the first time since I'd entered the Mists, I remembered the watch I'd been given and looked down at it.
To find that according to the timepiece, no more than half a day had passed. All that time spent ca- rousing in the palace had taken no more than hours.
"Inky, are you all right?" Seren asked suddenly, putting an arm around my shoulders. "It's hard to tell in this fog, but you look like you just went pale."
"By rights I should have gone albino," I muttered in answer, then raised my eyes to look at Velix. "But maybe there's a simpler solution to my questions than the outlandishness that almost knocked me over.
242 Sharon Green
Maybe something has simply gone wrong with my watch.'*
"My dear lady, how very observant you are," Velix said with a purr while my companions checked their own watches and came up with a variety of exclama- tions. "You've deduced that time moves at a different rate here in the Mists, and the only accurate measure- , roent of it is the watch on your wnst. That, of course, is die reason our prearranged plans couldn't be changed once you'd arrived here. Acclimatization to the con- dition takes a bit of time, and too much of it would have passed here if we*d needed to bring in one of our own. As most of our guests take much longer noticing ! the anomaly, I really must congratulate you."
"But how could that be?" Chal protested, dividing his stare between his watch and the journey scout. ^*w never heard of time moving at different rates on « single planet, and if it's true it couldn't be kept se- cret- Out of all the thousands of tourists you get, at least one would have said something to somebody!"
"Not if they didn't remember the phenomenon once ' they were free of its effects," Velix answered, smooth amusement now very much with him. "Leaving the Mists means leaving most of the memory of it as well, • which is why the secret has been kept for as long as it has. One man managed to lake it out with him in an utteriy ingenious way, and he was the one who con- vinced others to help him build the Mists of the Ages. I doubt there are as many as half a dozen who know , the truth, and employees—not to mention guests—are ';. certainly not numbered among them. All you'll take J out with you will be the sketchily detailed memory of | a wonderful time, which is exactly what the rest of us j' take. And now, if you please, the coachman is wait- '--.
ing." J
With Lidra already inside the coach I was helped in •, next, and then the two men of our party joined us. • Chal sat next to Lidra and Seren next to me, and none J of us said a word until the coach lurched to a start and f we pulled away from the palace. At that point Chal f stirred in bis seat, then shook his head. Is,
"I don't buy it," he stated, knowing we would have ^
MISTS OF THE AGES 243
no trouble following him; what we'd just learned was occupying the thoughts of all of us. "I don't claim to know more about this anomaly than the people who discovered it, but I can't accept the different time rate theory. It could be that our biological processes have been speeded up by something in the fog, but that has nothing to do with what they're claiming."
"I don't really understand either point," Seren said, looking at Chal with distraction in his eyes. "The idea of a different time rate isn't easily swallowed without the context of alternate dimensions wrapped tightly around it, but no one has said anything about other dimensions. The idea of biological changes—isn't that reaching just as far?"
"Not really," Chal denied, his mind busily chewing at the question. "We take things all the time that affect or adjust our metabolisms, and usually think nothing of it. If these mists slow us down to the point where we're living days in comparison to hours outside, that's only an extreme extension of something we're already well familiar with."
"Slow us down?" I echoed, feeling more confused than ever. "If we're living days to hours, wouldn't it be speeding us up? I mean, don't you have to move raster to cram more into the same amount of time?"
'•'Yes, our bodies would be moving faster, but our perceptions would have to slow down," Chal said. Just as though he intended starting a lecture, but then his expression went peculiar. "I'd like to make that clearer for you. but I don't think I can do it without getting really technical. How much biology have you had.Inky?"
"The level I left it was above the biros and the bees. but about three miles below what you're talking about," I said with a wave of my hand, dismissing his question. "You'd be wasting your time. Chal, and all I'd get out of it would be a headache. Let's just say we spent what felt like more than two days living through half a day of time, and let it go at that."
Chal nodded and Seren agreed with a wordless sound, but that was hardly the end of it. Lidra hadn't said anything and really seemed to be lost in her
244 Sharon Green
thoughts, and the two men went back to silent specu- lation while I did the same. It was a fantastic idea to kick around, and the air-conditioned interior of the coach kept us comfoitable while we thought. Part of me wanted to consider how the new information would affect the job we had to do for S.I., but the rest of me refused to consider the matter. Chal and Lidra were die big brains of our threesome, and I was just along to find and open things. They could take care of the problem, while I spent my time thinking about all die extra hours and days I'd have with Seren.
The silence stretched on for an amount of time dial was probably laughing at us, and then Seren stirred and sighed. If I'd had to guess about the sigh, I would have bet he was giving up on understanding what was happening, and I considered that very wise of him. I was fairiy sure it would take even Chal and Lidra more than a few minutes to figure out which way was fast forward, so for the rest of us to try was a complete waste of time. The fighter shifted until he had put his right arm around me, and then he gestured toward the window on his left.
"It looks like we were so distracted, we missed leaving the city," he said. "There's nothing out there now but fog and shapes shaped like bushes and trees. I wonder what the new area will be like—and if we'll enjoy it as much as we enjoyed the last one."
"We'll probably be forced to play kiddy games, and made to sleep in segregated dormitories," I said, feel- ing his faint grin all the way down to my slippered toes. "All the giris will have dragons for chapel-ones, and all the boys will die of frustration."
"Not this boy." he said with a chuckle, leaning down to kiss my ear. "Any dragon who gets in my way will need heavy-duty medical insurance. And ever since you and Lidra came out of your changing rooms. I've been curious. What sort of costumes do you have OB under those cloaks?"
"Oh—nothing terribly special," I said as casually as I could, suddenly understanding why there had been four changing rooms instead of two. With two, there would most likely have been a delay in leaving, and I
MISTS OP THE AGES 245
could just picture Seren's reaction the first time he saw me in the gown alone, without the cloak. If I was very lucky we also would be alone; I didn't know how he felt about it, but public exhibitions didn't fit in well with my private inhibitions.
"What sort of nothing terribly special?" he pur- sued, bringing his free hand to my bare left arm. "I love this color they keep giving you, it goes so well with the black of your hair. How about one peek under the cloak?"
I looked up at him quickly, having the feeling I rec- ognized the tone in his voice, and unfortunately I was right. There was a definite gleam in the gray eyes looking down at me, which meant he'd already come to certain conclusions.
"But I can't give you a peek," I said, keeping my voice very, very reasonable. "I gave my word not to, and going back on your word isn't very nice. You don't want to make a liar out of me, do you?"
"Absolutely not," he agreed very solemnly—with- out losing anything of the gleam. "I'd never sink so low as to make a liar out of anyone. I'm not trying to be a pest about it, but before we left the palace I had a glimpse of that gown material where it showed through the side slit of your cloak, and since then I've been—curious. How about if I take a peek on my own?"
"Don't you dare!" I hissed as his hand left my arm to finger the edge of the cloak's front panel, his grin beginning to widen. "Seren, leave it alone!"
"Why are you blushing like that. Smudge?'* he asked in a very innocent way, the arm around my shoulders keeping me from shifting away. "I know you're not nakedtimder there, and even if you were it wouldn't matter. Tve already seen you naked, so it would hardly be anything new. You know how I enjoy looking at you, so come on—just a little peek."
*You do, and I'll pop you one in the nose," I said with all the elegant hauteur I was capable of, trying hard to make him know I meant it. "We're not alone in this coach, and I'll be damned if I put on a snow even for people I'm friendly with. I intend waiting
246
Sharon Green
until we get where we're going before I start the fun gam es again; if you don't care to wait, you're on your own."
"I don't think you have much to worry about in the way of an audience," he answered with a small laugh, gesturing with his head toward the coach seat opposite ours. "They've been busy with their own concerns for a couple of minutes now, so you might as well think of us as being alone."
I looked over to Chal and Lidra, and was surprised to find that they were holding each other around and exchanging light, brief kisses. Staring is an intrusion in a situation like that, so I almost looked immediately away again—until I saw the way Lidra's lips were moving between the kisses. She and Chal were talking rather than necking, and the fact that I couldn't hear any of it said she was guarding the conversation with '090 of her devices. That, of course, meant it was busi- ness, which also meant it was up to me to distract Seren away from what they were doing.
"This still doesn't match my definition of being alone, but I do have to say I'm disappointed," I told the big man to my left, bringing my eyes back to him with a small sigh. "Here you sit, bothering me about peeking, while Chal gets right (town to more interest- ing topics- Maybe I should have gone for the swap after all."
"You're a cruel, heartless woman, but this one time you may be right," he allowed with a thoughtful look, then abruptly reached his left arm down and slid it under my knees. With his right arm already around me, it was no more than seconds before I was seated on his lap, and then pulled tight against his chest. "Well?" he demanded in pretend impatience. "What are you waiting for? You know I'm too weak to stop you from kissing me half to death."
"Never let it be said I'd pass on a chance to take advantage of me helpless," I said with a laugh, then put my arms around his neck and began taking advan- tage. His lips were so reluctant I was almost over- whelmed, but since I was kissing him for the sake of Ac Job, I just had to put up with it. The sacrifices I
MISTS OF THE AGES 247
had to make for S.I. were getting worse and worse, but I felt sure I was strong enough to stand up under the pressure.
The sensation of the coach slowing down brought an end to the time, and in one way it was a very good thing. Seren's hands had been moving under my cloak while we kissed, and I discovered I was about five minutes away from not caring who might be watching us. There was no possible doubt he felt exactly me same, and I was certain the only thing holding him back was the knowledge of my reluctance. The ride ended before the reluctance did, which, I suppose, can be considered the good thing; the reverse of the coin was the way I cursed under my breath, reviling who- ever was responsible for arranging such damned short trips.
"Looks like we get tents this time," Seren observed in a murmur, his big hand still moving over my bot- tom. "I wonder how fast they'll show us which is ours."
"It better be immediately, or I'll pick one on my own," I murmured back, fighting to withdraw at least part of myself from the mindless demand of my body that I'd nearly merged with. I wanted Seren so badly the itch was almost driving me crazy, and I wasn't in any mood to accept delays.
After a moment of inner struggle I was able to straighten on his lap, and that's when I saw his choice of the word "tent" was somewhat inaccurate. What we'd pulled into the middle of was a collection of pa- vilions, wide, brightly-colored almost-build ings mat glowed prettily through the mist. Light spilled out of the front of most of those pavilions, and people dressed in our current costumes moved here and there through the camp.
"Look, there's Velix," Chal said, pointing out the window toward the front of the coach. He and Lidra faced the direction in which we'd been going, and Seren and I faced where we'd come from. Some peo- ple might have protested having to ride backward in the second-class seats, but Seren and I had been oc- cupied with other concerns.
248 Sharon Green
"And Velix isn't alone," Lidra added, leaning to- ward Chal to get a better view. "He has four men and two women with him, all dressed the way we are. I wonder what's going to be happening?"
"It won't be long before we find out," Seren said, also looking out the window. "We're stopping right in front of them."
Which was just what we were doing. The coach came to a complete stop, one of the men stepped for- ward to open the door, and Velix moved closer to look up at us with a tail-flourish.
"My lords and ladies, welcome to the Mists of Bulm," the Griddenth announced, a purr of satisfac- tion again in his voice. "All the arrangements have been made, so if you'll join us now we can get you waled. The ladies first, if you please.**
Since I was closest to the door I got to be the first one out, and two of the men took my arms to help me down. Once I was on the ground they urged me out of the way. and with all those people there I could un- derstand why they didn't want another immediately underfoot. The man on my right asked if I was having a good time, and when I'd assured him I hadn't been horribly bored, the one on my left asked if there had been anything about the palace I hadn't liked. I thought briefly about the question and couldn't come up with much, and then I suddenly noticed we were still walk- ing. The pavilions we'd stopped among, the people, the coach—all had disappeared behind us in the fog, and when I tried to stop and turn around, the hands on my arms tightened gently but irresistibly! They'd dis- tracted me until we were far enough away from the others, and now they weren't going to let me go!
Chapter 13
Automatically I began to struggle, having no idea where those men were taking me or why, but the one on my right seemed to be expecting the reaction.
"No, no, it's perfectly all right, sweet damsel." he said with a reassuring smile, he and the other still moving me forward through the mist. "Your compan- ions will be along shortly so we have to get you settled first, or you'll all lose half the fun of it. There's no real danger, of course, especially not with us leading you along, and it isn't very far.
"Are you sure I'm not being kidnapped?" I asked, trying to keep the tremor out of my voice. I'd suddenly remembered the real reason I was in the Mists, and my. heart was pounding at the thought that someone had found out.
"But of course you're being kidnapped." the sec- ond man answered with a laugh, causing the first to grin. "That's the whole basis of the Mists of Bulm. The damsels are kidnapped by outlaws and monsters and ogres, and the men have to find and rescue them. After that you can reward your hero or not, just as you like. and can even request a different hero if the first takes too long finding you. The men also have the option of getting a different damsel to rescue if they don't like the reward they're given after the first time. so you might keep that in mind."
The first man chuckled but didn't add anything, and I was too relieved to put in anything of my own. Being kidnapped for the purposes of their ongoing game was a hell of a lot better than being found out and taken 249
250 Sharon Green
prisoner, no matter how silly the idea would have been all by itself. Under the gown I still had my palm dag- ger, but I really had no interest in finding a need to use it.
We continued on through the fog for a while, and I wondered how the men knew where they were going until I spotted the button in the right ear of the one to my left. After that I noticed the other man touching his own right ear, which I took to mean he had a but- ton like the first. They were being guided through the fog by others who had instruments capable of pene- trating me fog's obscurity, but realizing that didn't do much in the way of making me feel better. If there were instruments around capable of detecting people moving through the fog, the job my teammates and I would be doing had just become harder.
True to the word I'd been given, our destination wasn't very far. A large shape loomed in the mists ahead of us, and when we moved closer it took on more of the outlines of a broken-down, gloomy man- sion. I was led over a small bridge and then up a badly- kept path of stones, and then we were at a heavy wooden door that hung open and half off its frame. Getting through the doorway was a one-at-a-time op- eration, and once we were inside I didn't consider the accomplishment worth the effort. Thick cobwebs hung everywhere with only an occasional candle to light mem, what furniture mere was stood sheet-covered like ghosts, and the dust of years was so Chick it could have been mistaken for carpeting. We had come into a wide, round entrance hall, and after giving me a chance to look around at the ghastly mess, my two companions again urged me forward.
"This place looks like it was cleaned by someone with my housekeeping abilities," I remarked, not very pleased at the idea of a more detailed tour. "Are you sure this is where we're supposed to be?"
"Positive," the man on my left chuckled, enjoying my uneasiness. "This first time you won't be hidden too well, so your rescuing hero should have very little trouble finding you. The second time won't be as easy as die first and the third won't be as easy as the sec-
MISTS OF THE AGES 251
ond, and so on until he's tearing this place apart. If at any time he doesn't find you, you get a special prize and he has to pay a penalty. The women always enjoy the prize, but the men never feel the same about the penalty. Right in here, please."
"Here" was a room to the left, off the back of the entrance hall. Its double doors were still on their hinges, but there was a protes ting scream from those hinges when the doors were opened by my compan- ions, to reveal what seemed to be a large, pillared dining hall. Weak candlelight showed a long table to- ward the rear of the room, dust-covered, cobwebby half-eaten food still on it, skeletons occupying the high-backed chairs around it. Some of the skeletons still held goblets, as though they were about to raise them in a toast, and I was so busy watching to make sure I wouldn't be taken anywhere near them or the table, I didn't immediately notice it when we stopped. We were about halfway between the entrance doors and die grisly feast scene, and two solid-sounding clicks brought my attention quickly back to my im- mediate vicinity.
"What are you doing?" I demanded with more hys- teria than I would have preferred, trying to get my wrists loose from the cuffs that had been closed around them. I'd been backed up against one of the pillars with the doors on my left and that table on my right, and my wrists had been set into soft plastic cuffs held by the reunited pillar from the rear. The gentle cuffs weren't hurting me, but I still couldn't bring my arms forward or step away from the pillar.
"Don't worry, sweet damsel, we're just chaining you," the man on my left said, now distracted by the need to check what he and his friend had done. "If you aren't chained or locked up somehow, you wouldn't need to wait for a hero to save you, now would you? We'll be getting on back now. but first I want to tell you not to worry when you hear strange noises. The monster who kidnapped you is prowling around the mansion, waiting to pounce on anyone who tries rescuing you. Or, once your hero gets here. the monster will try to devour you before you can be rcs-
252 Sharon Green
cued. There are three or four different ways it can go, and we never know which it'll be. Just be patient, and remember: this is all in fun. No one will be getting hurt, so you have nothing to worry about."
He and his friend both smiled reassuring smiles at me, but they weren't as ready to leave as the first one had said. Instead of turning away he reached to the clasp on my left shoulder, opened the cloak, then pulled it away.
"Hot damn," the second one breathed as he stared at me, ignoring the sound of protest I'd made when the cloak had been taken. "Sweet damsel, if you de- cide you don't like the way your first hero operates, you just tell them you want me instead. I guarantee you won't end up disappointed."
The first man laughed at what his friend had said, his expression clearly supporting the opinion, but rather than adding anything of his own he slapped his friend's shoulder and the two of them turned away. The second man turned twice to look back at me be- fore he and the other went through the door, and then, with more squealing from the hinges, I was finally alone. I pulled angrily at the cuffs that held me, em- barrassed and annoyed at the way the cloak had been taken, but not all that surprised. A minute of thought said the "heroes" had to have an immediate reward for finding the missing damsels, and the costume we'd been dressed in was it.
Despite the nasty, gloomy atmosphere of the room I was chained in, I soon found myself more bored than frightened. There isn't much fun in standing chained to a pillar, and after having been warned, the creaking, ominous sounds I heard every once in a while weren't in any way attention-takers. The only thought occu- pying me was the question of how long it would take Seren to find me, how long it would be before I could give him his reward. The coach ride was still sharp in my memory, and it wasn't only boredom that shifted me from foot to foot in front of the pillar.
About fifteen or twenty minutes went by. and then I heard a sound that was less of a creak and more like the slow approach of footsteps. I was immediately sure
MISTS OF THE AGES 253
it was Seren and then just as immediately not quite as sure, especially since the footsteps weren't hurrying. I waited with faintly pounding heart while the steps came up to the room's doors, heard them pause, and then one of the doors wailed at being opened. A large shape loomed in the open doorway, making me pull at the cuffs that held me in place, and then the shape was in the room and walking toward me.
"Yes, I can see now that they were right," Seren's voice came with amusement in it, while I tried to re- swallow my heart. "They said I wouldn't be disap- pointed when I found my damsel in distress, and they were absolutely right- I'll just have to have some words with them about waiting so long before putting you in that costume."
"If you'll reel in your eyeballs, you'll find it easier opening these cuffs on my wrists," I said, suddenly in even more of a hurry to be free. Seren had looked at me more than once in the time we'd been together, but never with the slow gleam he was showing right then. I had time to notice his cloak was gone and he'd been given a play sword that looked like tin, but that was all I had time to notice.
"Why the rush?" he asked almost laconically, stop- ping in front of me to grin and inspect. "At first I didn.t, think much of the way this place was decorated, but I've suddenly changed my mind. Could that gown besvalk?"
He reached a big hand out toward me, and although I tried avoiding it, the cuffs held me in place while his fingers closed gently around my left breast. When he began to stroke me I moaned, feeling as though I had been turned into a sun.
"Seren, please, you're killing me," I begged, hav- ing no idea why he as doing that to me. "Take the cuffs off so we can go and find a tent to use. If you don't do it fast, I'll be nothing but a pile of ashes."
"Oh, I think you look stronger than that," he re- turned with a chuckle, his hand leaving my breast to slide down to my waist. "I'd be willing to bet you're strong enough to last through hours of this—just the way you were strong enough to pretend you wanted a
254 Sharon Green
swap a little while ago. Do you remember pretending you wanted a swap?"
"It was just a joke!" I wailed, pulling again at the cuffs as his hand slid down over my hip to my thigh. "Please, Seren, it was only a Joke! Don't keep me like this for hours!"
"Well, it's possible you might be able to make me change my mind," he allowed, but there was a lot of deliberate doubt in with the words. "Why don't we see how well you do with convincing, and then we'll see if there's reason to think about changes.'*
He leaned down to give me the chance to reach him with a kiss, but he didn't stop touching me and he certainly didn't try opening those cuffs. I reached to his mouth with mine and kissed him with more fervor than I had at any time before, really trying to get him to change his mind. I was fairty certain he was only teasing me about keeping me like that for hours, but it had suddenly come to me that he could be absolutely Mfious. I didn't like the way he was getting even for what I'd done to him, but just then I couldn't find it in me to argue the point.
"That was very nice," he said as he ended the kiss, grinning at the way I tried not to let his lips go. "The next thing we nave to do is . , ."
His words were cut off as both doors to the room were slammed open, and a heart-stopping roar sud- denly came. Seren whirled around, his hand immedi- ately going for his swondbelt, and then. unexpectedly, he laughed.
"Would you believe I almost forgot company was coming?" he said, relaxing out of a readiness stance. "That must be the fellow who's supposed to have kid- napped you."
He stepped aside to the right to point at the new arrival, and being reminded that we were still in the middle of a game didn't make sight of the thing any easier to take. What had just come in was about eight feet tall, built like a man and proportionally made, except for the fact that its arms were too long. It had dark, greasy hair on its uneven skull and over most of its body, its eyes were very light and downright crazy-


MISTS OF THE AGES 255
looking, and its mouth hung open to allow the drool to drip down its chin to the floor. It wore nothing of clothing and carried no weapons, but its fingers opened and closed to show sharp, talonlike claws. It stood just inside the doorway to stare at us stupidly for a minute, then it grinned and uncovered two rows of yellow, pointed teeth and began a slow, shuffling advance.
"Seren, are you sure that thing isn't serious?" I asked nervously, pulling for the thousandth time at the cuffs that still hadn*t been opened. "I don't like the way it's looking at me."
"There's nothing wrong with me way it's looking at you," Seren answered with a laugh, glancing back to me as he drew and raised his toy kiddy-sword. "It's exactly the same way / was looking at you. What I have to do now is touch him with my magic blade, and he'll instantly fall over dead. After that we can get back to what we were doing when we were so ^ rudely interrupted."
\ He glanced at me again with a grin, then began striding toward the horror coming shufflingly at us, enjoying the game in a way I couldn't seem to match. ^ I didn't like the looks of that monster, I didn't like "c being chained to a pillar, and I didn't like the fact that ' rr Seren would get to do all the defending. I've always 5. had this thing about needing to make my own efforts ^ toward self-defense, even if the guy next to me is able to do it better. There's nothing worse than standing around letting someone else be responsible for your safety; if they decide they'd be happier doing some- thing else, you've had it.
"Sorry, friend monster, but that delicious damsel is mine," Seren said, closing the last few feet between him and the horror. "I can't blame you for wanting her, but—"
He reached out to touch the thing with his kiddy- blade, which should have, according to the rules, made it fall over dead. Instead of falling, alive or dead, the thing looked down at Seren, seemed to see him for the first time, and uttered a snarling growl that caused my blood to stand still. One giant, filthy hand flashed out to grab the toy blade that had touched it, the fingers
256 Sharon Green
closed to crumple the blade like foil, and then the other aim swung light-speed fast to catch Seren hard in a backhanded roundhouse that sent him flying off to my far left as though he were a tiny child. At that point 1 considered screaming, discovered that I couldn't, then saw that the thing had begun shuffling toward me again, that slobbering grin wider than before.
"If this is a game, I want my marbles back so I can go home," I muttered, too white-faced scared to know what I was saying. Alt I did know was that the thing coining toward me wasn't playing, not die way those creatures in the passageway leading to the palace had been. The stink that came forward with it supported the theory, since the ones playing monster under- ground hadn't had a like aroma. It wasn't hard to see we now had serious trouble, especially after what it had done to Seren. If it had all been part of the fun time we were supposed to be having, it wouldn't have hurt a guest like that. And Seren had been hurt, even though I couldn't bring myself to think about how badly.
The giant monstrosity shuffled closer and closer while I tried frantically to get even one wrist free of those cuffs, and then the problem was solved for me. The entire time I'd been imagining having those talons sunk deep into my flesh as soon as the thing was near enough, but my body wasn't what was first reached for. The giant stopped about three feet in front of me, reached out with both knuckle-dragging arms, and closed its hands on the chains holding me to the pillar. One grunting pull and the stone of the pillar gave with a sharp-rumbling crack as though it were made of hard- packed sand instead, and the chains Chat had been set so deep were no longer seated where they had been. I suddenly knew that the monstrosity wanted to wait un- til it had gotten back to its lair before it started on its newest meal, and then I was being dragged by the wrists away from the pillar, toward the doors the thing had come in by.
Having had a number of unpleasant experiences with very close calls in my life, I'd almost gotten to the point of envying the old-fashioned sort of book-
MISTS OF THE AGES 257
heroine, the kind who handled nasty situations by fainting, thereby leaving it to the broad-chested hero to get her out of the soup. When the monstrosity began dragging me out of the room, I would have greatly enjoyed fainting, but my own broad-chested hero was down in the shadows somewhere, I still had this need to do something to protect myself, and my wrists were finally close enough together for me to reach the cuffis on them. It took a moment or so of groping before I located the release points by feel, and then two pushes later I was finally free.
But only of the chains. The monstrosity didn't seem to be terribly bright, but the combination of the empty cuffs hitting the floor and the loss of my resisting weight at the other end of what it was pulling did man- age to let it know its snack was trying to do a fade. It stopped lumbering forward and started to turn back with a growl, and the idea about fainting began look- ing better and better. I was already backing away from the thing, but there was no real place of safety in that room. I might have found it possible to dart past the misshapen form to the doors out, but I'd already seen once how fast it could move—and I wasn't about to leave Seren there, alone and hurt, to be a substitute
meal. Wlien the thing turned and saw me free it snarled
even louder, dropped the useless chains, then began coming back after me. I swallowed hard, but kept backing away—and then I heard a sound from my left that was so compelling even the lumbering monster was attracted by it- It was almost like the sound of soft singing, but nothing that a human voice had ever pro- duced. There was Joy in the gentle song, and delight and eagerness, and when I turned my head to see what was producing it I found myself very surprised and a
little shocked.
Seren stood just at the edge of the shadows, both fists wrapped around the hilt of his multi-sword, a sword that was fully activated to perform as it was bom to do. What had shocked me was the realization that I had never seen the sword completely alive be- fore, not when Seren had been working out on the
258 Sharon Green
liner, and not even when he'd drawn it in the under- ground passage, against the pretend monsters. Both of those times the fighter had been playing, butJust then he was deadly serious. He knew as well as I 'that the monstrosity was real, and I could see that his efforts were going to be the same.
The thing snaried with rage when it saw Seren standing there, but it seemed to be faintly puzzled by what he held. The sword's blade had a very faint glow in the dimness, something that would be invisible in normal lighting, and what could be seen of the Jeweled hilt around and between Seren's hands was a blaze of almost-living light. The sword continued to sing its song of eagerness, and that seemed to help the mon- strosity make up its mind. It apparently had no idea what the sword was, but it suddenly decided it wanted it.
It was strange to see the way the thing began moving toward Seren, one long arm reaching out in the direc- tion of his multi-sworn, a distracted snarl for the man who held the weapon. The monstrosity wanted the bright, pretty thing the man held, and it was going to take it. The thing was almost childlike in its behavior, and that was the phrase that rang a bell of memory for me. I remembered reading or hearing about a race of semi-humanoids that had been found inhabiting a newly discovered planet with high background radia- tion. The race had been described in long, pedantic words that translated to misshapenly ugly* of moronic intelligence, and easily moved to murderous rages. The only faintly redeeming quality seemed to have been a childlike curiosity for bright, new things, but that didn't change how dangerous the race was. They were meateaters, which turned out to mean any meat in- cluding vanquished foes of their own race, or careless researchers working with some of them. . . .
I shuddered as I watched the thing shuffling toward Seren, finally understanding how I'd known I was go- ing to be its next meal. My subconscious had identi- fied the thing before the rest of me had, and I only hoped the fighter knew what it was racing. How the thing had gotten into the Mists was something I had
MISTS OF THE AGES 259
no idea about, but if Seren's resolve weakened at the sight of its fascination with his pretty sword , . .
But it didn't. Just as I was trying to decide what to say in warning to the fighter, the creature got close enough to reach a hand out to the sword, at the same time raising its other arm in the sort ofbackswing blow it had caught the glad with the first time. Seren ducked both the grab and the blow and then swung his sword across the thing's middle, apparently intending to cut it in half. I fully expected that to be the end of the fight, but the monstrosity was much faster than its usual lumbering gait led you to believe. It jumped back with the speed it had used the first time it had struck at Seren, and rather than be cut in half it was just opened from side to side.
The roar the thing sounded was both deafening and paralyzing, equally as bad as the sight of the blood pouring out of the wound it had received. Pain and outrage seemed to madden it, and with another roar it attacked the smaller being that had dared to hurt it. clearly intending to catch the offender and tear him apart. Seren moved even faster than the monstrosity to get out of its way, swinging at an arm as he went, and the thing roared out its hatred even as more blood be- gan flowing from its filthy body.
That was the start of it, but minutes went by and the end came no closer to being in sight. Due to the very long arms the monstrosity had, Seren couldn't close with the thing, not and expect to keep away from hands that wanted to tear him apart. He tried for those hands and arms as he kept out of reach, but the thing wasn't too stupid to understand what he was trying and moved at its fastest to keep it from happening. It couldn't stop itself from being wounded over and over, but the loss of all that blood wasn't slowing it the way it should have. Seren*s sword sang with delight every time it bit deep. but it wasn't able to reach anything vital on the giant creature.
During that time / wasn't able to do anything but stand and watch, moving now and then to keep well away from the area of action. The creature seemed to have forgotten all about me, which would have been
260 Sharon Green
a benefit for our side if I could have come up with a way of using the edge. Watching the fight hadn't been fun; it had been terrifying, knowing as I did.that noth- ing could stop it short of the death of one of the par- ticipants. In the arena Seren could lose but still live if he were no more than badly wounded, but even if he died he wouldn't be eaten afterward. I was also well aware of the fact that if he lost I would quickly share his fate, which meant I had to do something to help or I would have no complaint coming afterward. If all you do is stand around and watch your side go down, you deserve whatever happens to you because of it.
Which troth finally made me begin to look around seriously. If there was nothing obvious for me to do, I'd have to find something unobvious. The main trou- ble was the room was so bare and dark, containing nothing I could use as a weapon, nothing I could han- dle easily enough to make my presence felt. Even the chairs the skeletons sat in around the cobwebbed table were too big and heavy to be swung, otherwise I could have—
My desperate thoughts stopped still when I looked up toward the darkened ceiling of the room, to see the very large, round, wooden chandelier hanging above the table. None of the dozens of candles ranged around its outer and inner circles were lit, which was why it had taken me so long to see the thing. Having found the one I quickly looked for others, and sure enough, here and there around the room, unlit candles were supported by the same kind of wooden circles. The fight had moved, at various times, under at least three of them, and right then seemed to be heading in the general direction of a fourth. If I could Just get up on the thing—!
I would do what? I stood chewing my lip with one hand to my hair, racking my brain for an idea, and then I saw the chains the monstrosity had pulled out of the pillar, then dropped to the floor. The chains were light enough for me to use as a weapon, espe- cially if I attacked from an unexpected direction, and the distraction might even be enough to allow Seren to finally close with the creature. It was at the very
MISTS OF THE AGES 261
least worth a try, but even as I hurried over to pick up the chains, I still didn't know how I was going to reach the chandelier. It was a good twelve feet or more above my head, and although my standing high-jump was better than what most people can accomplish, I hadn*t learned to fly going up, only when coming down. I had to reach it, but I didn't know how!
Seren and the creature were still going at it when I began to look around, and the way they were moving told me I didn't have much time. If I wasn't already up in the air before they got in range I would be wast- ing my time, and possibly even our lives. I needed something to bring me a few feet higher off the floor. something that wouldn't be easily noticed when the fight reached that area of the room. Something, some- thing—
I was moving around the fringes of the darker area of the room when I saw it, hidden in shadow and in- visible from more than a couple of feet away. A sturdy- looking box that had no business being in a room like that, but one that was two feet wide, at least three and a half long, and about eight inches thick. I didn't know what it was or what it was doing there, but I knew at once that if it could be counted on to hold my weight even for a little while, it would be enough to get me where I wanted to go. Without wasting another minute I lifted its more-massive-than-weighty weight, and carried it over to where I needed it.
By the time I put it down, the still-weak but stronger candlelight had shown me why something that had no business in that room had been lying around in the shadowed darkness. The contents of the box was sten- ciled on each of its sides, and those contents were "cobweb curtains and strings." The room was un- doubtedly fixed after each time it was used, and having the phony cobwebs that handy undoubtedly saved quite a lot of effort. I gave silent thanks that someone was too lazy to want to walk back and forth to a storeroom every time the chamber had to be redecorated, and then paid attention to standing the box firmly on its end.
Before I could try climbing up on it I had to take
262 Shown Green
the back of that stupid, see-through gown skirt, pull the bottom of it through my legs and anchor it in the front of my belt, then hook the two lengths of chain together and wrap them a few times around my waist before awkwardly tying them in place. I was working frantically to move as fast as possible because of how close the fight was getting, and also trying very hard not to look at the combatants. A glance earlier had shown me four long, ragged lines of red down Seren's left shirt sleeve, letting me know the creature had got- ten some of its own back. I didn't want to think about Seren*s being hurt; I was close to trembling at sharing the pain he must be feeling, and the last thing I could afford to do was tremble.
As soon as I was set, I climbed carefully up onto the box, trying not to let the extra weight of the chain around my waist over-balance me. I could almost hear the creaking protest of the box as it gave a little under my weight, but I didn't listen to that any more than I listened to the screaming voice inside my head that kept ranting that I hadn't checked how well-anchored the chandelier was in the ceiling. I had no way of checking the chandelier and knew damned well the box was not about to hold me for longer than mo- ments, so I had no time to listen to screaming or pro- tests or even to the sound of nearing battle. All I could do was stand crouched on the box for the seconds I needed to set myself, then unfolded upward with the powerful spring used by cats. I went up in the air and at the height of my rise stretched out long to make it go farther yet, and then my fingers were closing on the outer circle of the chandelier.
I think I held my breath for a few seconds, but al- though the chandelier began swinging it didn't even threaten to pull out of the ceiling. I pulled my legs up fast to hook my knees over the outer circle, and then I was riding the swing upside down, settled in place and ready to see if I could do what I'd planned. The box I'd stood on was back to being flat on the floor from my launching kick, which meant it ought to be well enough out of the way as far as being «a telltale clue went. As I swung and watched the fighters draw-
MISTS OF THE AGES 263
ing nearer, I began unwrapping the chain from around my waist.
For the most part Seren was leading the monstrosity toward me, one step forward in attack and three steps backward in retreat doing the job of leading. Hanging by my knees from the chandelier put me only two or three feet above the creature's head, but I noticed with a good deal of relief that the thing seemed totally un- aware of anyone but Seren. It was bleeding from so many places I found it incredible that it still lived and moved, but the snarling hatred it showed was most likely what kept it going. The small thing holding the bright object was what had hurt it, and it seemed de- termined to end its enemy's life before it let itself die.
I made a loop in the center of the chain and hung as still as possible while I held it, waiting and trying to quiet as much as I could of the chandelier's swing. If the fixture had been anchored at only one place the swing and tilt of it would have been extreme, but luck had been with me in that the chandelier was set into the shadow-lost ceiling at six points instead, three from the outer circle and three from the inner. From the feel of it the candleholder was heavy, a piece of good luck if I'd ever seen one. If it had been flimsy instead, my hanging on it like that would have surely pulled it out of the ceiling-
Fd been in a hurry to get up to my ambush point, but it seemed to take forever before the two fighters were under me. My heart nearly stopped when Seren's foot hit the box while he was backing, making me think he was going to trip and fall, but then he kicked it out of his way without missing a step and everything was all right again. He backed and drew the monster forward, one step, then another, and then the endless waiting was over. It was directly below me where I could drop the loop of chain over its head to land around its neck, and then I drew the ends up and back with all my strength.
If I'd ever wondered what it would be like to put a rope on a wild animal, that was when I got my answer. The creature roared out its fury and tried to pull free, but it pulled from side to side instead of down, as
264
Sharon Green
though it didn't know from which direction it was be- ing attacked. I held on through the initial explosion, not knowing how long I'd be able to do it, and then the creature finally looked up. When it saw me its light, mad eyes went absolutely feral, it screamed again in a greater rage than before, and lifted those terrifyingly long amis toward me- It would have no trouble reaching me, neither with its hands nor its tal- ons, and when it pulled the chain out of my frantic grip I echoed its scream and closed my eyes as tight as I could. It was so close I could smell its foulness like a miasma of doom, and I hung there waiting to be clawed to me bone or pulled down and eaten. Through my own scream and its snarling I thought I heard a song of exultation, and then—
And then there was a sound like an axe into a tree, a bat against a hanging rug, a cleaver into meat. The monstrosity's snarls went suddenly choked, as though the chain I'd put around its neck had finally cut off its air, and rather than being touched I heard two or three shuffling steps, as though the thing were leaving rather than staying to attack. The steps ended in a terrible clatter, a sound I'd been longing to hear since that insanity first began, and I opened my eyes to see Seren standing over a creature that had been nearly cut in half. The sword in his hand pulsed with victory, but its glow was diminished by smears of gore, and he himself diminished by near exhaustion. His chest heaved as he pulled in acres of air, and then his eyes raised to me where I hung.
"What in hell are you doing up there?" he asked with the beginnings of a grin, starting to wal k toward me. "Are you trying to kill yourself?'*
I opened my mouth to join him in the teasing, but upside down grins aren't as infectious as the regular sort, and even upside down I could see that his arm was still bleeding. I put my hands over my mouth to keep a moaning sob from escaping, and all at once I couldn*t stand hanging there any longer. I arched up to grip the chandelier with my hands and unhooked my knees, but before I could drop to the floor I felt two arms closing around my legs. I braced against
MISTS OF THE AGES 265
those arms and shifted my hands to me shoulders be- low me, and then Seren was sliding me to the floor but not letting me go.
"It's all right, it's all over now," he murmured as I clung to him, the trembling finally taking over com- pletely. "Thanks to you it's dead, and now we can get out of here."
I came out of it enough to notice that his multi- sword was gone again, and then he was leading me around the monstrosity's unmoving body toward the ruined doors of the room. I held him around with both arms as we walked, but only his right arm curved around me. The left hung at his side in its torn and bloody sleeve, and it was all I could do to keep from babbling out an apology- My mind seemed to have been waiting for the fight to be over, and once it was I'd been treated to the clearest thinking I'd managed
yet.
The monstrosity hadn't been part of the game, it had really meant to kill me. Things like that creature didn't turn up by accident, so that meant its presence was deliberate. Seren had been hurt fighting it, which meant his pain was my fault.
Somehow, some way, I'd made a mistake, and the Mists people knew what I was there for.
Chapter 14
When we got outside the supposedly old and haunted mansion, there was a man in costume sitting on the ground and smoking. He put the puffer out and got to his feet as soon as he heard us, turned to give us a hearty greeting, and saw Seren's arm. No one who worked in the Mists had anything like a tan, but the man's face still paled enough to be noticeable and he hurried forward, stuttering out questions about the "accident." He also seemed to think I was supporting Seren instead of it being the other way around; when he offered himself in place of me, Seren waved him away with a faint smile, saying he'd rather lean on a woman than a man any day. The Mists worker didn't find the comment any more amusing than I did, but still didn't argue. Instead he began leading us into the fog, obviously anxious to get us back to people and help as soon as possible.
When we were back among the tents I asked him to take us to where the rest of our party was, and he didn't hesitate even a moment. He was determined to take us wherever we wanted to go and then get the "accident" reported, and in that he lucked out. We were approaching a large tent that seemed to be violet and black in color, when Velix materialized out of the fog to our right.
"Ah, lord Serendel and lady Dalisse," he purred, swishing his tail as he came closer. "Back so soon? Didn't any of the second floor rooms suit you? I hadn't thought—"
We never did find out what the Griddenth hadn't 266
MISTS OF THE AGES 267
thought. His words ended abruptly as he finally took a good look at us, and then the man who had led us there began unburdening himself.
"Sir, there's been an accident of some sort,** he blurted, just as though Velix hadn't already seen the blood himself. "If you'll take over here, I'll go and get one of the doctors."
"Stop wasting time talking, and do it." the Grid- denth snapped, moving even nearer to study the wounded arm. "How did this happen, lord Serendel? What kind of accident could have caused something like that?"
"No kind of accident," Seren answered flatly, speaking freely now that the worker had run off into the fog. "What in hell is going on here, Velix? If I hadn't been the one with Dalisse, she would probably be dead now. There was a—thing—in place of the play monster I was supposed to rescue her from, and it almost got the two of us. If this is the Mists' idea of a good time, I'd like to file a dissenting opinion."
"I've never heard of anything like it," the Grid- denth answered, incapable of looking pale but not of sounding shaken. "I'll report the incident at once. of course, and then we'll be able to get to the bottom of it. Everything will be settled to your complete satis- faction. and if it turns out to be in any way our fault, reparations will be full and unstinting. Why don't I show you to your own pavilion now, and you can lie down until the doctor gets here."
"We'd rather be with other people," I interrupted to say, uncertain as to how far Velix could be trusted. "And since Chal is supposed to know something about medicine, we're going to let him take care of Seren. If we need one of your doctors, we'll let you know. If you don't hear from us, don't send one."
Velix opened his mouth, probably to argue, then his bright, dark eyes looked at me again. His wings were moving in agitation and so was his tail, and finally he shook his head.
"I can understand your suspicion right now, and don't quite blame you,' * he said, the talons on his right front leg crunching into the ground. "If I were to come
268 Sharon Green
to the belief I'd been attacked, I would feel the same. It's up to us to prove no such thing happened, which we'll do with all possible speed. Until then, I ask only one thing of you: if lord Chal finds the wounds beyond his ability to deal with, please send for one of our doctors at once. Lord Serendel has no need of being in further jeopardy.''
He waited until I'd nodded to show my agreement with his condition, and then he turned and trotted away into the fog. At that point Seren and I were free to continue on into the tent, and that was when I noticed I was being leaned on more than I was being helped along. Moving through the svalk entrance curtains brought us into a small, empty room of violet svalk, and me sudden extra weight on my shoulder combined with me emptiness to bring me close to panic.
"Chal! Lidra!" I called in desperation, looking up to see how ashen the fighter had grown. "Where are you? Hurry, I need you fast!"
Seren was trying to force himself to stand straight again when one of the curtains parted to allow the arrival of my two co-workers, and Chal took no more than a single glance before moving past Lidra in a rush to get over to us.
"What happened?" he demanded even as he took Seren's weight from me, nothing left of his easygoing manner. "Never mind, I'll find out about that later. Right now I've got to see to that arm."
He began helping Seren toward the curtain he'd come in by, and even before they'd gone, Lidra was over next to me with an arm around my shoulders. Once the svalk had fallen closed behind the two men, the blond woman urged me toward another curtain on the left. We moved through it to find a room filled with soft lighting, violet cushions on light brown plush, and small tables holding various items. Lidra sat me down on the floor next to one of the tables, took a decanter of wine from it and filled a goblet, men handed the goblet to me. She walked away while I sat there simply holding the thing, and when she came back she had her copper bowl with its blue flame.
"All right, what happened?" she asked as she set-
MISTS OF THE AGES 269
Ued on the floor near me, her voice as businesslike as ChaPs had been. "Before you answer, take a good swallow of that wine. You look like you're in shock."
**I am in shock, and wine won't do anything to help," I answered, not even up to taking a deep breath. "They tried to kill me. Lidra, and that means they know about me. I think I should have gone to my own tent to keep from involving you and Chal, but Seren was hurt and I didn't want to give them another chance at him while he was weak, and—oh, Lidra. he could have died, and it would have been all my fault!"
I put the goblet aside to bury my face in my hands, and the next moment Lidra was there, holding me to her. She spent a minute soothing the tears she knew were on me inside, and then she patted my shoulder.
"Never mind about involving Chal and me, you were right to come here," she said, sounding abso- lutely certain. "If they do know about you we're al- ready under suspicion, and with these people being suspicious seems to mean they act. Just relax now, and tell me exactly what happened."
I let her coax me into telling her all about it, and by the time I was through I was feeling a little better. I still hated myself for getting Seren involved, but at least I was somewhat beyond the breast-beating stage.
"... so the thing couldn't possibly have gotten there by mistake," I finished up, sipping again at the wine that I really did need. "I don't know where or how I could have slipped, but it's fairly obvious I did. And I don't understand how they could be so open about it. Did they expect to be able to write our deaths off as an accident?"
"Maybe they intended writing off two disappear- ances," she said with a shrug, part of her attention on the blue flame in the bowl near us. "Now that they have a dead monster instead, it'll probably turn out me thing escaped into the Mists from a zoological in- stitute or something, and Serendel is in line for a re- ward for stopping it. Why didn't they mention it sooner? Why, to keep people from panicking, of course. I wonder what would have happened if Chad
270 Sharon Green
and I had gone out fun-seeking the way you and Ser- endel did.'*
"They might have had four disappearances to write off," I said, and then looked at her curiously. "Now that you mention it, why didn 't you and Chal end up in that mansion? I was on my way there so fast I didn't even get to ask to use a ladies* room. From what my escorts said, I had the impression you were supposed to be kidnapped at the same time I was."
"That's probably the way they planned it," she said with a nod, and then she grinned. "Fortunately for our two-thirds of the team, I planned differently. I really will have to remember to thank someone for this cos- tume. If not for that, I'm sure I would have been right there with you."
I looked at her when she mentioned her costume, and for the first time noticed that she was still wearing her cloak. That was when I remembered all that equip- ment she carried, and I began to understand.
"You've got it," she said, apparently seeing the answer in my expression. "You may look good enough to eat in that thing, but anyone trying to take a bite out of me would probably be electrocuted. I couldn't afford to wear that gown, not when I knew damned well they'd be taking the cloak, but I also couldn't afford to refuse. I compromised by putting a bodysuit on underneath as a just in case, then arranged to be horribly ill from that coach ride. I was almost in a faint even before I left the coach, so naturally we were shown immediately to our pavilion."
"I knew there was a benefit in being the fainting kind of heroine," 1 said with a sigh. "It's too bad I didn't try it myself right from the start. What are we going to do now?"
"We're going to wait until Chal takes care of Ser- endel, and then the four of us are going to eat a very careful dinner," she said. reaching over to pour a gob- let of wine for herself. "After that we'll put Serendel to bed, pretend to do the same with ourselves, but in reality we'll be waiting until everyone thinks we're asleep. Once that happens we'll sneak out of this tent, avoid any watchers or guards, and go find that inror-
MISTS OF THE AGES 271
(nation we're after. It so happens we're almost on top of their headquarters building, which means the wait is over. As soon as we have what we need, we'll call down those Empire troops to help us avoid any more 'accidents.' "
"I think I like the sound of that," I said, nodding at her easy smile. "I'd like it better if we were calling down the troops before we went in, but I suppose you can't have everything. And once it's all over. Seren won*t be in any more danger."
"At least until he goes back to the arena," she said, sipping at her wine as annoyance flared in her eyes. "I can't get over the nerve and stupidity of those peo- ple, dunking a fighter of Serendel's caliber could be brushed aside while they did anything they pleased to you. It's a good thing for them he wasn't hurt all that badly, or they'd have me to deal with once our job was done. It isn't every man I'd consider sharing a bed with for more than fooling around, and if they'd harmed the one I lust after most right now, I would have made sure they heartily regretted it."
"Lidra, I don't understand you!" I said with all the exasperation I was feeling, too drained to be at all diplomatic. "One minute you're panting after Seren, the next Chal tells me you're in a panic at the thought of catching him, and now you're saying you want him again. Aren't you ever going to make up your mind?"
"But Inky. I have made up my mind," she said with a laugh, apparently in no way reluctant to discuss the point. "If I could, I'd attack Serendel. knock him down, then ravage him unmercifully, but it so happens I can't and not because of his size. There are"more important considerations, one of which is the word I used to describe my feelings for him- He's a great fighter and a really nice person, but all I feel for him is lust."
"You're under the impression you've explained something?" I said, still staring at her. "What differ- ence does the word you're using make? Words have only a very little to do with how you feel and what you do."
"That only goes for certain words." she said com-
272
Sharon Green
fortably, sipping again at her wine. " 'Lust* is the word you use for someone who attracts you physi- cally, which is what I feel for Serendel. The word to describe what I feel for Chal, though, is love.'1
This time, words of all son were missing from my stare, and she laughed in amusement.
"I can see he must have told you his theory about how reluctant I am to admit to that feeling," she said, almost smiling to herself. "I've been regretting the need to continue letting him believe that, but we aren't on our own time here. Once the job is over we can talk about anything we like, and the first thing I'll be talking about is the fact that it isn't men in general I*ve learned to distrust and not commit myself to- only the men I work with."
I suppose I must have started getting it then; as she looked at me she nodded with another smile.
"I see you're remembering the incident I told you about, the one where my so-called partner ran out on me," she said. "That wasn't the first time it hap- pened, and it wasn't the worst story I could have told. They usually look for specific talents to send along on these things, paying no attention at all to the person- alities behind the talent. I kept Chal at arm's length at first because I didn't know him and wasn't about to get stuck the way I had in the past. I think I was a little shocked at how easy it was to get to know him, but at me same time I was impressed. He's nothing short of brilliant as well as physically attractive, and I've been looking around for an acceptable father for my children for quite some time. At first, that was the only real interest I had in him."
"From what you just said, it looks like that changed," I put in. "I'd also like to know why what- ever happened turned you so on again-off again about Seren."
"Inky, try to understand that I'm not the one whose feelings have changed," she said, the words gentle and patient. "It wasn't until Chal offered to swap him- self for Serendel that I understood what he was really doing and feeling, and at first I wasn't sure I liked it. Chal was giving me a chance to have the man of my
MISTS OF THE AGES 273
hottest dreams—but only if I gave him up for it. I discovered right then I'd take Serendel under any con- dition but that particular one, and that Chal was more important to me than any casual fling. He may not realize it, but what he was doing was feeling jealous enough to demand I choose between him and Serendel. The demand was gentle in accordance with his basic nature, but it was still there. It bothered me when I spoke to him in his room in our first lodging in the Mists, but it didn't take long before I had the matter resolved. I never expected to find a man to father my children and someone I could live with both in the same body, but now that I have I'm not about to let him get away."
"I think Chal will be very glad to hear that." I said with a grin of my own, really pleased that things would work out right between them. "Now all we have to do is live long enough to get out of this place, preferably with what we came for. And since Seren won*t be really safe until it's over, I wish we could leave right now. This isn't in any way his job; it isn't fair for him to get hurt because of it."
"You two have really and finally started doing it right," she said, a bright twinkle in her eyes. "I won- der if-"
She broke off and immediately reached for her cop- per bowl, startling me a little, but then I heard what she probably had, the sound of someone approaching the hanging into the room, and understood. I suppose I was expecting Chal or one of the Mists people, but when the svalk was moved aside, it was Seren I saw coming in. I had the goblet down and was on my feet so fast I couldn't remember doing any of it, and then I was standing in front of Mm.
"Are you all right?" I asked, not very evenly, look- ing at his bandage-covered arm. "Seren. I'm so sony ..."
"For what?" he asked with his usual grin, reaching out to put his arms around me. "Saving both our lives? I don't know how you got up where you did. but I've never been so glad to see an upside-down woman in my life. If you hadn't distracted that thing, I might not
274 Sharon Green
have been able to get past those arms before it cor- nered me. And I thought / was fast. Was it able to hurt you before I cut it down?"
"It didn't have the time," I reassured the worry in his eyes, putting my hands against his chest. "You look better than you did, but are you sure you're all right?"
"The only thing bothering me right now is the fact that I didn't meet Chal years ago," he said, his grin back and widened. **No more bleeding, no more pain, no more exhaustion—I'm just afraid he may be into black magic."
"Where I come from it's called medicine, not magic." Chal put in with a chuckle, showing he'd come into the room behind Seren even though I hadn't seen him. "I know you're feeling better, Serendel, but you can add 'no more fighting1 to your list, at least until you've had a chance to rest. You may be in mar- velous physical condition, but there's no sense in overdoing it."
"He isn't seriously hurt, then?" Lidra asked from behind me. while I laughed softly at the terribly-suf- fering expression Seren had put on where Chal couldn't see it. Being mothered is worse when it comes from a fussy doctor; members of the medical tribe don't be- lieve in taking chances—which is probably a damned good thing for those of us who can't be bothered with worrying about it.
"No, despite the way his arm was laid open, and despite a number of bumps and bruises, he isn't seri- ously hurt." Chal answered Lidra as he walked over to her. "But how is Inky? Does she need to be looked at?"
"Only by the one who's alrea dy looking at her." Lidra said with a chuckle, a rustle accompanying the words as though she took Chat's arm. "Since you and I have things to talk about, why don't we shift over to your part of the pavilion? I seriously doubt that Inky and Serendel are interested in talking, at least not with as. Or were you planning on sticking around to watch. fast, to make sure he doesn't overdo it?"
**I think Inky can be trusted not to be too rough with
MISTS OF THE AGES 275
him," Chal came back with a laugh that was a little on the embarrassed side. "Let's go get to all those things we have to talk about."
I heard them moving around us to leave the room, but I couldn't seem to look away from the gray eyes gazing down at me. Seren was smiling faintly as his hand stroked my hair, and once Lidra and Chal were gone he shook his head a little.
"No doubt about it," he said very softly, his left arm tightening around me. "I've just had the best win of my career- You do know the way it's supposed to go, don't you?"
"The way what's supposed to go?" I asked, begin- ning to feel confused. "I don't ..."
"The way die rescue business goes," he inter- rupted, amusement dancing in his eyes. "When a fair damsel is rescued from a terrible monster, the hero who rescues her is entitled to her hand. I had the feel- ing you didn't know that, so I wanted to be very sure you got it straight. Do you understand now?"
I had no words to answer that with, all I could do was put my hand up and touch his face. I'd very re- cently had to admit to myself that I loved him so much I was willing to be anything he wanted me to be. I could see right then that he knew that, and had there- fore been very careful to state just exactly what he did want. He could have asked for anything, and yet he'd chosen to ask for—
"Oh, Seren," I whispered, feeling tears of happi- ness rolling down my cheeks. "Are you sure?"
"Positive," he answered with that wonderful smile, one finger coming to wipe away the tears. "Now, about that other reward I was supposed to get for res- cuing you ..."
I had only a moment to laugh before he leaned down to kiss me, and after that there was nothing to laugh at, only marvelous things to enjoy.
Seren's lovemaldng always robbed me of awareness as far as the passage of time went, so it was something of a surprise when I heard loud, deliberate, throat- clearing sounds outside the hanging leading to the rest
276 Sharon Green
of the tent. Seren stopped kissing me, and turned his head over his shoulder without letting me go-
"She abused me terribly, Chal," he said, appar- ently having recognized the identity of the throat- clearer. "She sneered at my honorable, weakening wounds, then had her will with me. Everything you did for me is now undone."
"Seren!" I protested with a push against his chest, feeling my cheeks getting warm. He was grinning at how awful he'd made me sound, but I was still the one who was being held down by a beast of a fighter who didn't want to hear anything about taking it easy. I'd made the mistake a few minutes eariier of suggesting he might not be strong enough to go again, and had gotten taken prisoner for it.
"Oh, you poor thing," Lidra's voice came, her laughter mixing with Chal's. "We were going to in- vite you two to join us for a meal, but now it looks like only Inky will be able to eat it. What do you think we ought to get for him, Chal? Wouldn't broth be easier for him to digest than that beautiful roast with all the trimmings? And we'll have to find someone to give his portion to. . . ."
"Hold onto that food!" Seren called as I laughed, finally letting me go. "I just had a sudden unlapse, which may or may not be the opposite of relapse, but I'm too hungry to care. My lady and I will be with you as soon as we can throw some clothes on."
He stood and then reached down to pull me to my feet, pausing in the middle of his rush to fold me in his arms and give me a lovely kiss that was a promise of more to come later. As he turned away to find his clothes, I couldn't help feeling very strange. "My lady," he'd said, his lady, he'd meant, something I never thought I'd love hearing. Being his lady was the most wonderful thing that had ever happened to me, and I'd never find fault with the word again.
Seren had more to get into than I did, so I waited until he was ready and then we went looking for Lidra and Chal together. I had put that see-through gown bade on only because Seren liked it—and because it was sure to make our eventual dessert even sweeter.
MISTS OF THE AGES 277
I'd always been a lover of desserts, but Seren's brand was my absolute favorite.
"Come on over and dig in, you two," Lidra called when we entered the predominantly brown room that was ostensibly ChaTs, she and the third of our team already seated on the plush carpeting near what looked like a ^iant picnic spread. "This food is so good, 1*11 need all the help I can get not to eat every crumb myself."
"And food isn't the only thing we ordered," Chal said as I sat down next to him on his left, his hand pointing with none of the carelessness his words held. "Right over there are your personal things, fetched from the pavilion that was supposed to be yours. As soon as we're sure Serendel's wounds won't be devel- oping complications, you and your luggage can move back where you belong."
Seren was too busy looking over the food to even glance at the comer of the room where our things lay, but Chal seemed very determined that / take a peek. I turned a little in a hopefully casual way, saw my bag and Seren's larger amount of possessions—then spot- ted what Chal had wanted me to see. Lidra's copper bowl stood very near my luggage, almost hidden by it, in fact, and the name that wasn't a flame had been ignited.
The only problem was, the flame was orange rather than blue.
"You'd better hurry up and start filling a plate, Inky,'* Lidra said as I turned back away from the de- vice that said our conversation was being electroni- cally eavesdropped on. "If you don't get a move on, Serendel will have it all down his throat before you even get a look. I'd say taste instead of look, but tast- ing it will be even more unlikely."
"But I have to regain my strength, don't I?" Seren protested plaintively without slowing down on piling up his plate. "And this little giri next to me may not look it, but she's absolutely insatiable. That's another reason why I need my six thousand calories."
"Seren!" I said the way I had earlier, the warmth in my cheeks increasing with Chal's grin, and then I
278 Sharon Green
finally registered what else had been said, "Six thou- sand calories? You intend eating enough for a week or more?"
"Six thousand calories is what I eat a day," he an- swered, glancing up to flash me a grin. "Why do you think fighters make so much money, but usually end up with so little left over? Those grocery bills are mur- der."
We all laughed at that one, then went on to eating and talking and generally enjoying the time. I forced myself to forget that we were being listened to and simply went along with the Joking; after all, when you stop to think about it. there wasn't much else I could do.
The meal wound down to a friendly close, and Sercn and I went back to the room that was Lidra's. The first thing the fighter did was sweep me into his arms and kiss roe, and then be looked down at me quizzically.
"Why didn't you tell Chal and Lidra we*rc no longer just good friends?" he asked, faint disturbance behind the question. "I waited the entire meal for you to make the grand announcement, but you never did."
"I've decided I can't afford to keep you," I an- swered as I leaned against him, not about to explain how I'd be damned if I said anything that important with enemies listening. "Six thousand calories a day! I'd be broke in no time!'*
"It'll be tough, but I think I can come up with enough to keep us red," he said with a grin, then let the humor fade. "Arc you sure you haven't changed your mind?"
"Positive." I said, putting my arms as far around him as they would go. "And I'm waiting for a really special time to make the announcement, like when we're finally out of this fog. Besides, you don't want to ruin the rest of Lidra's vacation, do you?"
"Certainly not," he agreed, and mis time me grin stayed with him. "And there's something else to con- sider. If she finds out now I won't be single much longer, she might make up her mind to take advantage of her last chance and attack me. Normally I might not nund with a woman like Lidra, but somehow I nave
MISTS OF THE AGES 279
the feeling she's stronger than I am. You'll protect me from her, won't you?"
"Oh, you poor thing, of course I will," I said with a laugh, wondering how I ever enjoyed life without him. "Don't you be afraid, Inky's here to take care of everything."
"That's Smudge, not Inky," he murmured, lower- ing his head to kiss me. "Never saw a woman before who couldn't remember her own name."
It took him about five more minutes, and then my name wasn't the only thing I couldn't remember.
My eyes opened fast when a hand shook me a little, but it was only Chal gesturing quiet and urging me silently to follow him. Seren was sound asleep beside me on the plush carpeting, and I certainly agreed that we didn't want to wake him. I got to my feet without making any noise and followed Chal out of the room, leaving my costume gown where it had been thrown. For what was ahead I wanted a bodysuit, which was undoubtedly why Chal and Lidra had had my clothing brought to their tent.
"Your bag's over there," Lidra whispered as soon as she saw me, gesturing to a place to her left. "Are you feeling better after your n ap?"
"I'm feeling better, but not because of the nap," I answered in a matching whisper, giving her a wink as I moved toward my things. "Are you sure we're speaking low enough to keep them from picking up what we're saying?"
"I'm blanking their receiver, so if we wanted to we could shout," she came back, following me over and watching as I opened the bag. "The reason we're whispering is your roommate. It would be the least bit awkward having him wake up just now. Besides, we're all supposed to be sound asleep from what they put into our food. Showing them we're not might ruin their good mood."
"What do you mean, what they put into our food?" I demanded in a hiss. holding the suit I'd pulled out of the bag. "If I was drugged, why don't I feel any- thing?"
280 Sfiaron Green
"Mainly because you weren't drugged," she said. gesturing at me to huny up and get dressed. "Chal tested every dish they sent us, found the drug, and gave us all neutralizers in our first glasses of wine. We considered skipping the neutralizer with Serendel. but we didn't want to leave him helpless, so instead we whisper. Hurry it up, will you? I have all the watchers spotted, and a clear path out of here already plotted. I don't want to have to do it a second time."
She walked away from me to pick up a small oblong something that looked like a makeup case and opened it, but somehow I had the feeling it wasn't a makeup case. Since she and Chal were already dressed in dark bodysuits, I hurried up and got into mine, then began assembling my kit from the pieces scattered all over my bag.
I don't think it took more than ten minutes before I was ready, and I joined my teammates by a brand- lew, knife-made door in time to see Chal finish up a 'quick check of his own kit. I didn't know what he had packed to take along, but I doubted that that was the first time he'd checked it. Lidra looked at me, nodded in answer to my own nod, and then—
"Did somebody really throw a party without invit- ing me?" a voice asked from behind us, one of the last voices we'd hoped to hear. "Now my feelings are hurt. and I just may cry."
"I knew we should have skipped his dose of neu- tralizer," Lidra growled under her breath, then turned with Chal and me to look at Seren. "Why. look. guys, he's awake after all, but I'll bet he's still tired. We're just going out for a short stroll before calling it a night. Serendel, which means we'll be back in no time at all. Why don't you see to setting out nightcaps while we're gone. and by then we'll be here to drink them."
"So all you're doing is going for a short stroll," Seren said, folding his arms across a still-bare chest. All he'd put on was his hose. which also left him bare- footed. "A late-night stroll through fog so thick that it doesn't even let you know it is night, and all of you dressed in dark bodysuits. I don't think there's anyone
MISTS OF THE AGES 281
I know who doesn't stroll at night in the fog in a dark bodysuit."
"You've had a long, painful day, Serendel," Chal said, his voice professionally smooth and soothing. "When we're overtired, we sometimes start imagining things, and that's the time we're best off going back to bed and sleeping it off. By the time you wake up, you'll be ready to laugh at all this."
"I think I'm ready to laugh now," Seren said. those gray eyes totally uncompromising, and then he shrugged. "But I do have to remember you're the doc- tor, don't I? Okay, I'll take your advice and go back to what I'm using for a bed. Come on. Smudge. I need you more to help me fall asleep than they need your company on a stroll."
He put a hand out toward me where I stood between Lidra and Chal, but all I could do was stare at him. We didn't have the time for me to coax him back asleep, not when we didn't know when our enemies would be by to check on how well their drug had worked. We had to get what we were after and then call in the troops, and only at that point would we be able to put our feet up and relax.
"Seren. please go back to the room," I said at last, giving up on the wasted effort of trying to fool him. "There's something we have to do, and then we can tell you all about it. And once we're through, you can bet there won't be any more 'accidents-' "
"But no guarantees about it beforehand, especially for you," he said in a growl, those eyes now on me. * 'If you think' I'm letting you just walk out of here into who-knows-what, you're the one who needs lots of rest. I want to know what you three are up to, and I want to know now. "
"What's your authority for making that demand?" Lidra said calmly while Chal and I exchanged glances over the flat finality in Seren's voice. "Considering the fact that we're associates of Stellar Intelligence, your credentials would have to be awfully impressive to justify asking us anything at all. I think you'd better just go back to your room and ..."
"Stellar Intelligence!" Seren interrupted with sud-
282 Sharon Green
den excitement. *'I knew there was something going on in this place! Tell me why you're here."
"You have a very bad case of selective deafness," Lidra answered with a frown, nothing left in her man- ner of the adoring fan. "I've already told you we don't have to answer ..."
"You don't have to give away the information for nothing," Seren said, interrupting again but back to showing calm. "I'll tell you first why I'm here, and then you can return the favor. Is it a deal?"
"I don't know," Lidra said at once, but now she was looking interested rather than impatient. "If what you say is relevant to the reason we're here, it may be to our benefit to join forces. If not, you go back to your room and sit there quietly until you're told you can come out. How does that deal grab you?"
"In the same way and place that thing in the man- sion tried for," Seren answered dryly, clearly a good deal less than pleased. "And I'm beginning to under- stand how Velix felt about you when we first got here. You're not giving me any choice at all, but I don't think your backers would appreciate it if I argued. All right, me first and then maybe you. Why don't we sit down, just in case you happen to get the urge to add something once I'm through."
He began folding to the floor without waiting for agreement, and after a very brief hesitation Lidra fol- lowed suit. I could see she was probably thinking what I was, that Seren might need to sit down after all that blood he'd lost, and it shouldn't hurt anything. Since we were going to listen anyway, we might as well do it in comfort. Chal and I chose our own pieces of floor carpet while I wished I could sit over near Seren in- stead, and once we were all settled the fighter imme- diately started in.
"About a month ago, I got a frantic call from my mother," he began, looking from one to the other of us but mostly toward Lidra. "She hadn't wanted to bother me, but something seemed to have happened to my older brother. Jalry had always been the hard- working, industrious sort who never bought something just for the hell of it, and always paid his bills* early.
MISTS OF THE AGES 283
He also kept in touch with the family on a regular basis, not because he had to but because he was a full, loving member of it. My mother told me he had gone on vacation with some friends, and not only had he been late getting back, weeks had passed without her hearing a word from him. When she tried calling him instead, he laughed off her worry but turned down a weekend invitation to dinner. He was too busy, he told her, and after that cut the call short."
"Let me guess where he vacationed," Lidra said, glancing past me to Chal, who was suddenly looking very attentive.
"Of course it was here," Seren said, in some way expecting the comment and showing heavy satisfaction with it. "As soon as I got free I went to visit my brother, and I could't believe the change in him. He wasn't working hard anymore; he was hardly working, and his few quiet, carefully-chosen friends had be- come an army of loud-mouthed, lazy-looking office louts. There had to be over a thousand people working in the building where his office was, and half of them must have dropped by in the short time I was there- including the man who owned the company Jalry works for. When they saw he had a visitor they apologized for interrupting—all of them including his boss—and said they'd come back at another time. What really got me was Jalry's insisting there was nothing wrong or different about him, and the fact that he was an- noyed over his visitors' having to leave. Before then he had always been delighted when I was able to steal the time for a visit with him. 'My infamous kid brother' was what he called me, and he usually said it with all the pride in the universe- When I tried press- ing for some answers, he turned ugly and told me to go back to hacking people apart instead of bothering my elders, and then he asked me to leave."
Seren was looking drawn and hurt, but all I could do was put my hands over my face to keep from hav- ing to see it. I'd heard Chal's sigh, showing he un- derstood what the problem was as well as I did. but he'd have to be the one to tell Seren. I was faintly surprised he didn*t already know, but when you live
284 Sharon Green
the clean, straight life yourself, you sometimes miss the signals whispering from a shadow source.
"So you came here to find out what happened to change him like that," Lidra summed up» and I couldn't tell from her neutral tone whether or not she understood. "Do you think what you've found so far could account for it?"
"Not in any age this place offers," Seren answered with a snort, now sounding coldly angry. "My brother has never been late going to or getting ba ck from any- thing in his life, at least not until he came here. I know they did something to change him to what he is now, and I'm going to find it with or without your help."
"The only thing charging around will get you is killed." Chal said, weariness creeping through his at- tempt at soothing. "Your information has forced me to certain tentative conclusions I don't like at all, but l*m afraid I won't be given any more choice in the matter than you were. Lidra, I think we'd better let him join us, especially now. We may very well end up needing more protection than we can provide for ourselves, and if they've linked up Serendel's name with his brother's, he may have to face their attentions alone. If he comes with us, we can mutually share the burden of protection."
"They shouldn't have linked me up with my brother," Seren put in before Lidra could say any- thing. "He came here using our family name, Etree, and glads never use a family name. That's why I was so surprised over that attack. They shouldn't have known why I was here, but it sure as hell looked like they did. But let's discuss those conclusions you've drawn, Chal. I haven't been able to come up with a thing."
"They might not have had any trouble at all linking you up with your brother," Lidra said, taking her turn at interrupting while I uncovered my eyes to see how thoughtful she'd grown. "Assuming they did some- thing to your brother—not a hard assumption to swal- low—they ought to have him on a list somewhere, along with the names of others they did somettyng to. If it were me, I'd run an automatic check on everyone
MISTS OF THE AGES 285
making a reservation here, looking for a tie-in to a name on my list. / knew what your family name was, from old publicity releases when you first started win- ning. How hard would it have been for them to get the information, most especially if they're as thorough as they seem to be?"
"About as hard as checking arena stats," Seren an- swered with a lot of self-disgust and a headshake of annoyance. "And I never even thought of it. I can see now how effective a secret agent I make. I float hap- pily along in blithe ignorance, and almost get Smudge killed right along with me. If they gave out crowns for super intelligence, I'd deserve at least five or six."
"We're still not sure whose fault that attack was," I said before anyone else could jump in, hating die way he was blaming only himself. "You may remem- ber my trying to apologize to you afterwaro, even though I couldn't tell you why. We're here to check out a number of reports, ones like the story you just told us, and others that seem to be connected. It's more than possible /did something that got them suspicious, and it was me they were trying to get rid of. That would mean it wasn't your fault at all, and you were no more than an innocent bystander."
"Or they could have combined separate suspicions and decided to take you both out just to be on the safe side," Lidra said while Seren gave me a look of grat- itude that made me feel warm inside. "Sitting here speculating in order to find out where the blame be- longs is a waste of time we don't have. We've got to make our next move before they make theirs, so we'd better get with it. If you're coming with us. Serendel, you'd better let Chal lend you one of his bodysuits.**
"There's one last thing we have to talk about first/* Chal said as Seren nodded and began getting to his feet. "I usually keep my theories to myself until they become fact, but this time I don't think I can afford to do that. The extra time spent in the Mists by Seren- del's brother and the other people we have reports on. the so-called time anomaly found here, the lack of complete bodies for those who died here, the radical character change Serendel described—we're going to
286 Sharon Green
have to be very careful about walking into traps we may not be able to get out of again."
"You're not talking about any ordinary traps, are you?" Lidra said while Seren settled back down, her voice not quite as steady as it had been. * 'What do you think it is we have to be on the lookout for?"
"Serendel, I'm sorry, but it looks like your broth- er's been addicted to a controlled substance of some sort," Chal said with pity in his voice, not ignoring Lidra but trying to get the bad news out and said as fast as possible. "I also had the feeling Inky recog- nized the symptoms as soon as I did.'*
"He's right," I told the stunned, disbelieving look in Seren's eyes, hurting for his hurt but also trying to save him the pain that would come from a refusal to accept the truth. "Seren, Chal is telling you he's hooked, but you're the one who told us he's also deal- ing. All those people who came to see him, the ones who didn't stay while you were there? They were buy- ers, my love, customers who couldn't conduct busi- ness in front of witnesses. I'd say your brother's boss is one of those customers, and is fronting for him by letting him deal out of his office. That's why he doesn't have to do any regular work in order to keep from getting fired."
"It can't be true!" Seren whispered harshly, one hand closed tight in his hair, his face wearing a look of agony. "Jalry always hated the idea of drugs? I could believe him capable of the coldblooded murder of a child as easily as the thought of him being on something. And selling? Even if he somehow got hooked himself, there's no way he would ever take others down with him! He'd consider it his problem to solve alone, and would turn himself in for treatment. See, that's why you have to be wrong! If someone had forced him into addiction, he would have turned him- self in to get oflf it!"
His suddenly hopeful, grasping-at-straws expression was like a knife inside me, and I simply couldn't stay where I was any longer. I rose and moved over to sit beside him, but before I could take him around he grasped me to him, as (hough I were a life-preserver
MISTS OF THE AGES
287
he needed to keep from drowning. I spread my arms out as far as possible to give what support I could. knowing he wasn't about to get the agreement he was looking for.
"From what you said of your brother earlier, I'd expect him to do nothing but turn himself in." Chal told him, gently but nevertheless relentlessly. "The double fact that not only hasn't he done so but is also selling to others— that's what scares me the most. Every drug affects a user's personality, but one that changes the personality so completely and radically— there's never been anything like it on any planet in the Empire. Some drugs force their users to change life- time habits because the drug use just doesn't fit in with those habits, but that's just a matter of putting the use ahead of all other considerations. If your brother had tried to hide his addiction, I could understand and ac- cept it as a normal reaction. Taking the drug himself and selling it to others almost openly is nothing like normal."
"Not to mention the fact that large-scale dealers are never users themselves," I put in, beginning to be frightened by what I was hearing. "Seren, if there were that many people trying to buy from your brother, he shouldn't be hooked himself. Higher-ups in that busi- ness know better than to trust twitches in positions of responsibility, so there has to be something more in- volved. Since it has to involve what the drug does to people, I'm afraid to ask what it is."
"I'd say we already know certain facts about the drug," Chal pointed out, glancing at a Lidra who was listening intently. "For starters it takes time to estab- lish a hold in its victim, or there would hardly be so many people who were late getting back Horn their vacations. Even with the help of the accelerated me- tabolisms produced by this fog. those people were still late. If not for the fog they probably couldn't hook anyone soon enough to produce significant character changes, so the drug has to be given time to work. We also know it either doesn't work with some people, or quickly kills them. Those partial bodies returned of
288
Sharon Green
those who died—no blood left to test, and only delib- erately provided uncontaminated tissue samples."
"But none of that tells us how dangerous an initial dose is," Lidra said, finally putting in her own oar. "For all we know a single exposure to it sets you up for wanting more, and that's what you meant by traps. Instead of setting off alarms or tripping deadfalls, a mistake on our part could mean immediate exposure to whatever it is they use. It might be a good idea if you changed your mind about coming with us, Ser- endel."
"You think staying here is a guarantee of safety?" Seren asked with a snort, tightening his hold on me. "If they sent that thing in to the mansion to tear me up. what's to stop them from doing the same thing here? And if Smudge is going to be part of anything dangerous. I'm going to be right there next to her. They may have hurt my brother, but I'm not about to let them do the same to my lady. Where did you say that bodysuit was?"
"This way," Chal told him, getting to his feet. "And while you're dressing, I'll tell you what drugs we have working on our team."
Seren hugged me, then got up to follow Chal, and I just sat there a minute before moving over to Lidra to see what she was doing. For someone about to go much deeper into a very dangerous situation, I felt just like a woman without a worry in the world.
Chapter 15
Lidra had our observers respotted by the time Seren was dressed and ready, so we wasted no more time m leaving the tent. Our electronics expert had us all keep close together until we were well past the line of those who were supposed to be watching us, and then we were able to relax a little, but not too much. We still had to stay reasonably close to keep from losing each other in the fog, but aside from that our only chore was following Lidra. She followed whatever it was that her non-makeup case told her, which sent us through the swirling gray mist quickly and surely. It was eerily silent in the fog, more silent than I'd no- ticed sooner, a heavy hush that forced us to join with silence of our own.
We walked for fifteen or twenty minutes, and during that time I squashed the idea part of me was getting that we were going nowhere by testing the ring Fd been given back on Gryphon. I held my arm straight out ahead then squeezed my hand into a fist, and sure enough, the central "jewel" on my ring lit up to show we actually were going in the right direction. It was an interesting toy I played with for a minute, then for- got about again; Lidra had the real thing rather than a toy. and I truthfully didn't begrudge it to her. My only feeling was that I was happy I hadn't had to find my way through the fog alone, using nothing but the toy.
After the fifteen or twenty minutes Lidra stopped, but our eyes were able to give us no reason for her doing that. We still stood in the middle of nothing but 289
290 Sharon Green
fog, but Seren let my hand go when our guide turned and gestured me over.
"We're still a couple of hundred feet away from the building, but the approach to it starts just ahead," she told me when I reached her, her voice held deliberately low. "I'll bring us to the edge of the approach, but after that you'd better take over."
"Let's have a look," I said, keeping my voice as low as hers. "I have to see something before I can decide what to do about it."
She nodded and led off again, but more slowly than she'd moved before. After only a few yards she stopped again, but this time I didn't have to ask why. A neat walk of polycrete lay just before us, about five feet wide and lined on both sides with low, decorative railings, or at least the railings were supposed to be taken as decorative. I saw something else in them, and in the walk as well.
, "Laura, those railings have to be switched off," I said in an even lower voice, not moving from where I*d stopped. "At the very least they'll let everyone know we're here, and I have the feeling they do other things as well. Can you use that thing to locate a con- trol box?"
"I can do better than that," she answered in a mut- ter, tapping tiny keys in the non-case. "I can override their control box, and turn the thing off. Just give me a minute."
"Set it on neutral instead of turning it off,'* I said at once, looking at the railings again. "Some systems have an independent circuit alarm set to scream if the system is switched off at the wrong time. Something tells me this is one of them."
I caught her distracted nod out of the corner of my eye, so I didn't say anything else- The system setup reminded me of something, but exactly what that something was insisted on remaining stuck in the back of my memory.
It took Udra more than the minute she'd asked for, but not an unreasonable amount of time more. When afae looked up to give me a nod that said it was (lone, I accepted die assurance despite being not very happy
MISTS OF THE AGES 291
about it. Seero had carefully taught me to rely on no one's efforts but my own, a precaution that had be- come an ingrained habit- I didn't like having to take Lidra's word that the security system was neutralized, but at that time and place there was no other choice.
"All right, I want everyone to listen carefully," I said to my three companions, still keeping my voice down. "We'll be moving toward that building we still can't quite see through the fog in single file. me first and the rest of you following. You step where I do. as close as possible to the rail without touching it. Any- one who sets foot in the middle of that walk will ac- tivate a pressure alarm, and that's one that usually can't be turned off from the outside. Let's go. but let*s be careful."
I got three nods of compliance before I turned away from them, but Seren's expression had been somewhat on the puzzled side. He didn't seem to understand what my part in all that was, which meant I'd have some explaining to do once we were out of there. I felt the least bit nervous about that, but then the nervousness went away. If Chal had been one of those who under- stood, Seren would certainly be.
Going up the walk beside the railing let me see how the ground dropped away to the right as it probably did to the left, beyond the approach the Mists people wanted everyone to use. I moved forward with every sense I had stretched to the limit, trying to feel what was around and ahead of us, but it wasn't until we were almost to the building that some sense of unease brought me to a stop. The railing was still turned off as far as being active goes, but it felt like there was something. . . .
"Lidra, are you getting any activity readings at all?" I asked, turning my head to speak softly over my shoulder. "I'm getting the impression we're about to walk into something, but I can't tell what."
"Everything's showing inert as far as my board is concerned," she answered, frowning as she tapped tiny buttons. "Are you sure it isn't just a case of nerves?"
"When I'm working, the only nerves that operate are the specialized ones." I came back. really under-
292 Sharon Green
standing for the first time why they'd needed me on that Job, and not just Lidra and her instruments. "The rest of you stay right here for now, and pass back the word that I'd prefer if none of you even shifted in place. I'll be back as soon as I find out what's been left in our path."
I turned back away from her but didn't immediately begin moving, and not because I was waiting for her to pass on the information and instructions I'd given. Moving forward at any pace at all was going to be dangerous, and in situations like that it's best to think before you creep. I took a moment of thinking time, decided that creeping actually would be my best bet, and so went down to all fours. More often than not that turns out to be the most all-around useful position to assume, most especially when you can't see as well as you'd like.
^1 could feel the warm, dry fog swirling all around me as I slid my hands forward through it, my fingertips brushing the ground before I committed my weight to my palms. Behind me everyone was standing abso- lutely still, withholding the distractions of speech and movement, their thoughts alone moving with me in support. At times like that it felt as though every nerve ending in my body had come alive to sense what lay around me, and it was almost as though my surround- ings knew that and responded. The polycrete was smooth and even, angled strangely but otherwise per- fectly normal, and I moved forward three uneventful feet. and then five—
And that's when my fingertips brushed it, the faint rise in the approach ramp, a bump less than an inch high but at least ten inches wide. I froze in place while I studied it, and then I reached beyond to find the line that was invisible to the eye but not to the touch. There would be a second line to match the first, of course, bat not for at least three feet more, and maybe not even for five or six. I reached into my kit for the tiny spray can I carried, hoping the location of the second line would be something we never discovered, and used the faintly luminous paint inside the can tq mark born sides of the ten inch rise. Once that was done I
MISTS OF THE AGES 293
got to my feet again, and gestured over Lidra and the others.
"Whatever you do, don't step between those splotches of paint,'* I explained in a whisper, seeing that Chal and Seren were straining to hear from their places behind Lidra. "There's a pressure bar under that slight rise in the polycrete, which probably stays locked closed while the railing is in an activated state. Deactivating the railing, even into neutral, releases the lock on the bar and turns its mechanism active. It isn't electronic so it doesn't register as active, but springs and balances were used a lot of years before people knew there even was such a thing as electronics. It's there to be stepped on, so let's be sure not to oblige."
"What happens if someone does step on it?" Lidra asked, looking quietly shaken. People who live in die world of electronics are too often blind when they're taken out of it.
"Stepping on it will cause the section of the ramp above it to drop open, probably after a few seconds' delay so that the victim is directly over the opening,'* I answered, deciding it was not time to be gentle or considerate of her feelings. ' "The drop either takes you down to the ground in a hurry, or into a lower level of that building already prepared against your arrival. I hope you're not interested in finding out which."
She shivered and shook her head, giving me a faint smile to show she was upset but still handling it, and then gestured me on again. I returned her smile and gave her my back again, then paused very briefly be- fore stepping wide over the bump. It shouldn't have been possible to spring the trap without stepping on the bar, but people are notorious for tinkering with things and changing their "possibles" entirely. All I could do was go ahead like before, hoping hard our enemy was too lazy or unimaginative to have tampered with the basic idea; if they hadn't been, I'd be the first to find out about it.
Fifteen feet beyond the bump I stopped again, this time to let everyone catch up. The trap area should have been well behind us at that point, and I didn't sense anything ahead. Instead what I saw was the front 294 Sharon Green
entrance of the building, sitting quietly less than five feet away.
"It's code-guarded," Lidra whispered as she stopped behind me, most of her attention on her non- case. "I'll have to neutralize that before you can work on the lock, but it looks like we might be in luck. You don't code-guard a door when people are going to be using it, so maybe it is middle of the night right now.**
"If so, there could be security patrols around," I pointed out, wanting her to forget about that middle- of-the-night idea. Honest people consider the middle of the night the best time to do something dishonest, a time when no one will be around to see them do it. Once you get that idea in your head you unconsciously (end to relax, and relaxation is less than half a step fiom sloppiness. We couldn't afford to be sloppy in that place, not if we wanted to get out of it again alive.
"Security patrols, right,** Lidra said in a faint voice, 4jRking an instant to glance at me before going back to • what she was doing. I knew she was shaken again, and was as glad to see that as the fact of her still being able to handle it. If she was afraid, she would be that much more careful, and that was exactly what I wanted.
While Lidra worked on the code-guard, I spent my time looking around, so when I got her whispered go- ahead I opened my kit and went straight for my next job. I wouldn't have been surprised to find another drop-trap right in front of the doors, but if they had one, it was too well concealed for me to pick up on it. The door lock was to the left of the section of trans- parent doors, behind a square of hinged stone that couldn't have been anything but that, and was sick- eningly easy to open. It was a tenet of my profession that the easier the lock, the worse there is waiting for you on the inside, and that was a reminder I didn't really need. Instead of worrying about it, though, I listened for the hiss of releasing mag-locks, rec!osed the square of stone when I heard it, then gestured the others after me through the nearest door.
Lidra whispered us all to a stop just inside a wide lobby area, one that was faintly lit all around by night-
MISTS OF THE AGES 295
strips high on the walls. There wasn't much in the way of mist inside the very modem building, the blowers at the doors accounting for that. We all stood quietly while Lidra consulted her silent assistant, and after a not very short time she looked up.
"I've neutralized every spy-device and blocking- lock in range of us, and set up an automatic program to do the same for all external systems as we move deeper into the building," she told us, her expression almost grim. "That still leaves not only things like that bump outside, but also the fact that I can detect life somewhere in the building. The range is too ex- treme so I'm not sure where, but they're probably a security patrol like Inky suggested there might be. I mink we'd better continue to be very, very careful."
None of us'argued with that conclusion, and once Lidra showed me the direction we wanted to go in, I led out again with the others back to following in sin- gle file. Five corridors radiated out of the entrance hall, each with a quiet sign on the wall beside it, but the signs were composed of alphabet soup that didn't have meaning for anyone who didn't work there. Lidra was still following that homing device planted by S.I. efforts, and once we reached it we could decide where to go from there-
The corridor we took ran straight back away from the entrance hall, no curves involved but any number of crossing corridors. The building was only one story high so there also didn't seem to be any staircases, but that made things harder rather than easier. What we wanted were the executive offices, and in buildings with multiple floors the higher-ups were almost in- variably higher up. In one-story affairs they could be in the middle of everything or down at the end. with no way of telling which without checking. After walk- ing a few minutes I began looking behind some of the doors we were passing, all of which opened without any fuss at all. Unfortunately what I found behind them wasn't what I was looking for, so all we could do was continue on.
We had passed another cross-corridor and Lidra told me we weren't far from the source of the homing sig-
296 •Sharon Green
nal, when I finally began seeing what I'd been looking for. The doors in that area were beginning to be farther apart, and opening one of them showed carpeting and drapes that were part of a decor rather than just stuck in to fill up empty spaces. It looked like we'd found the executive area, and when Lidra pointed to a door on the left as the one containing our signal, I opened it to find as little as I'd expected to. The doors on the left were still close together, so only the ones on the right belonged to executives.
The end of our search came about five minutes later, with a door that wasn't simply closed. I was working on the theory that the information we needed would be kept close among the upper echelon, at the veiy top or near it, so that's where we had toJook first. If it turned out to be in another location entirely we would be out of luck, but the time to worry about something like that is when the possibility becomes a reality. Right then I noticed that the only door for some dis- tance up and back on the right had a separate lock arrangement, which made me feel a good deal better. The presence of a lock means there's something worthwhile sitting behind it, and worthwhile was what we were after.
With the help of a couple of tools from my kit. the lock became a past problem. It was a lot more complex than the one at the entrance to the building, but some- times more complex is easier, and it certainly did more to ease my mind. I made the others wait while I looked around inside by myself, then I gestured them in and relocked the door behind them. If that wasn't the place we wanted, we were in the wrong building, and I didn't think we were in the wrong building-
"Inky, arc you sure there's anything here to find?" Lidra asked in a low voice, looking around slowly the way the other two were doing. "It's nothing but a very expensively furnished office."
Meaning it was also very sparsely furnished, that being the current style. You didn't put much in. but what you did put had to be very expensive and in ex- quisitely good taste. The large room had a wide, empty desk. four upholstered chairs, a wall bar to the left, a
MISTS OF THE AGES 297
handmade tree in a carved pot to the right, glowing nightstrips on the walls in a rainfall pattern, and noth- ing much else.
"Maybe there's a wall safe or something behind one of those paintings," Chal suggested, eyeing the art- work that theme-matched the glowing rainfall of the walls. "If it were me, I think I'd use that storm-cloud scene. It's big enough to hide three safes."
"If you ever need a safe spot, Chal, please talk to me about it first," I said, trying not to sound too crit- ical. "That painting is so obvious, it probably has an independent circuit-alarm attached to it. I know what we need is in here, but it isn't in any ordinary wall safe."
Lidra nodded wryly to show I was right about the circuit-alarm, but by then I was back to paying more attention to the room than to my companions. There was a safe spot hidden in there somewhere, but the question was where . . .
I had only just begun merging with the pattern of the windowless room, not yet up to checking the ceil- ing, when the obvious answer slunk its way in. That handmade tree in its very expensive pot—it was an umbrella tree of some sort which supposedly meshed in with the office theme, but it wasn't in the right place for a theme-merge. It made the room unbalanced where it stood, and there was no reason for it to be there, unless—
I walked quickly over to the thing, but slowed as I approached so that I could find the proper angle for looking past. I stopped short when I caught the shim- mer, eased around to get more of it in view, and when I had both the near and the far edges turned my atten- tion to the painting that had taken Chal's eye. The storm scene hung not far from where the tree stood, and that had to be where the control area was.
I heard Lidra's breath suck in when I made for the painting, but at least she didn't try telling me not to set off the circuit-alarm. I found which way the thing was set to slide without touching it, then reached for the opposite side and pulled instead. The painting swung to the right and revealed the controls 1*4 been
298 Sharon Green
expecting, and no more than a moment's checking of the circuitry with a meter from my kit showed the cir- cuit-alarm had to be left activated if the safe spot was to be reached. Having no argument with that meant I only had a single toggle to flip, so I flipped it and turned away from the controls. Lidra gasped again, and then she was moving closer.
"How did you know to do that?" she asked softly, obviously impressed by the accomplishment. "The second signal was so well masked by the circuit-alarm, my board never even picked it up!"
"When you know it's there, there's a limit to how long it can hide," I said, inspecting the flat, two- dimensional picture of a tree on a cupboard-sized door. That was the safe spot, of course, and it was anchored into the floor as many of them were. That was why the tree hadn't been stood elsewhere, which meant the SsSe spot had been there longer than the room theme. *'Don't touch anything until I say you can, and make fflire your board doesn't help me. There don't seem to be any more locks or traps, but I want to make sure."
Lidra nodded as she tapped ke ys again, but the cau- tioning turned out to be unnecessary. The safe spot opened to show shelves filled with reports and files, stored information that couldn't be reached by the best computer break-in expert ever born. The data wasn't in a computer, which made it safer than it would have been if it was.
"We'd better see how fast we can find out if that's what we need," Lidra said as Chal moved forward toward the cache of possible treasure. "Those life readings I picked up earlier are closer to us now, and it won't be many minutes before they're right on top of us. It might even help to have someone listening at the door."
I thought I saw Lidra glance at me before she moved forward to help Chal, but just then I was too busy staring at something in confusion to know for certain. On a top shelf of the safe spot, all alone in their stand. were two large vials of something that looked some- how familiar. The contents were a bright pink" that shimmered very faintly in the dimness, and I could
MISTS OF THE AGES 299
have sworn I'd seen something like them somewhere else, at a different place and time. I was Hying to re- member where that could be, when Chal's low excla- mation distracted me.
"This is it!" he said excitedly, using a tiny hand- beam to make reading easier. ' 'Just give me a few min- utes. and I'll know what, if anything, we want to take with us."
Which meant a guard at the door was definitely go- ing to be necessary. Lidra was ignoring her board in favor of helping Chal. and just because the door was locked didn t mean we couldn't be surprised. I gave up pushing for a memory that would come in its own time and turned back to the door, and was actually surprised to see a -targe figure already there. 1 shook my head as I walked over to Seren, then grinned Up at him.
"Would you believe I actually forgot you were with us?" I asked very softly, wishing it wasn't the wrong place for him to put his arms around me. "It must be because you're so small and unimpressive-looking, the Und of man no one ever notices in a crowd."
"Yeah, that must be it," he answered, but the words were distracted and completely without amusement, as were his eyes and expression. For an instant I thought he was insulted over being forgotten, but before I could apologize seriously he was going on. "Smudge, Lidra said you three are associated with S.I.," he stumbled. apparently searching carefully for what he wanted to ask. "That means you all work for S.I., doesn't it. on a regular basis as agents of theirs?
"Seren, it means we only work for S.I. some- times," I answered, wondering why he wanted to know. "Lidra's done this more than Chal or I have, and as a matter of fact this is my first assignment from them. If you were worrying over how often I find my- self with the bad guys sending horrible things to attack me, you really have nothing to ..."
"Then where did you learn to do all—that?" he in- terrupted with a motion of his hand. his gray eyes strangely cold in the dimness. "The way you opened all those doors, and led us over that trap instead of
300 Shown Green
into it, and were able to find that safe as though some- one had told you where it was— You didn't only just leam all that, it had to come from years of experience and practice. If you aren't an agent for S.I., then what are you?"
He asked his question and just waited, assuming nothing, being as fair about it as I'd known he'd be. I would have preferred a different place and time for that particular discussion, but since the point had been raised I would answer it, and then the matter would be behind us.
"Seren, my love, what I am is a thief," I said, finding my voice almost as steady as I wanted it to be. "I know it sounds terrible when put that baldly, but that's what I am. Seero raised me and trained me to do what he did, to get back at all those who think they're above the law, and that's who I steal from. I'm very good in my profession, as good as you are in yours, and that's why S.I. sent me along on this job. It was . . ."
"You're a thief?" he said, sounding and looking utterly repelled as he backed a step from the hand I tried to put to his chest. "You pretended to be some- one decent, but you're actually a thief?"
"Seren, please," I said as my insides began to twist with a terrible fear. "I only steal from those who de- serve it, those who are bigger thieves than I could ever bel Please don't look at me like that, I'm still the same person I was! Just because I ..."
"How can you say there's nothing different about you?" he demanded, those gray eyes burning me down where I stood. "You steal, don't you, no matter who it is you steal from? Stealing is stealing, which means you're nothing but a dirty thief! I wish to hell I'd never laid eyes on you!"
He began to turn away from me. the disgust on his face so clear I thought I would be sick just from seeing &, but I couldn't let it simply end like that.
"Please don't say you really mean that," I begged, feeling the tears of terror begin to fill my eyes. my // tttnd reaching quickly for his arm. "Hearing it s6 sud- '^•^tealy was a shock for you. but once you think about
MISTS OF THE AGES 301
it you'll find it easier to understand. I love you. Seren. and I . . ."
"Don't call me that!" he snapped, pulling his ami away from my fingers as his eyes blazed down at me. "Seren is a name my baby sister gave me, and she was killed by a thief! I don't ever want to hear you fouling the name again by speaking it! And above that don't ever try touching me again, or I won't be re- sponsible for what happens."
He looked at me one last time before striding away toward Lidra and Chal, but my sight was too blurred by tears to know what he'd put in the look. I turned around to stare at a dim and blurry door, finding it impossible to believe my world could have died so quickly and without warning, but I knew beyond donbt mat it had. In the blink of an eye his love had turned to hatred, and I simply couldn't bear it. I'd thought be would understand but he hadn't, and there wasn't any- thing I could say or do to change that.
I wanted desperately to be somewhere where I could sob out the unbelievable pain I felt with no one to hear it, but there wasn't any place tike that around. It sud- denly came to me that even though I couldn't leave, I also couldn't stand being in that room any longer. Be- yond the door was a corridor where I could at least be alone, and I suddenly had to have that at the very least. I smeared the tears from my eyes with the back of one hand as I reached for my kit, and it was only a moment before the lock was open and I could do the same with the door. I stepped into the corridor as my fingers put me picks away in my kit, my mind too full of other things to pay attention to anything else. and then—
"Hey, you!" a voice shouted from fifty feet away up the corridor, bringing my head around with a jerk. "Stop right where you are and don't twitch a musclel If you don't have a pass. you're in deep shit!"
Three men in uniforms were beginning to run to- ward me, men who had to be the security patrol Lidra had spotted eariier. I stood frozen in place, too shocked to do anything but obey, and then I heard Lidra call frantically from inside the room.
302 Sharon Green
"Inky, quick!" she hissed over the sound of run- ning footsteps. "Get back inside here! I'm going to use the screen!'*
A glance showed me the way she tapped at her board, undoubtedly calling up the privacy screen that turned her invisible. Chal and Seren were already close beside her, showing the screen would be up in sec- onds, which meant I couidn 't go back in there and join them. The guards would know there was no other way out of the room, and if they couldn't find me they would start to search. Since it was my fault we'd been discovered in the first place, there was no sense in taking the others down with me. Instead of reentering me room, I turned away from the approaching guards and ran like hell.
The footsteps behind me faltered very briefly, and (hen they came on again, all three sets. That told me Lidra had gotten her screen up in time, so I could forget about the people I'd almost betrayed and simply concentrate on running. I didn't expect to get away, wouldn't have known where to go even if I did, but the farther away I got, the more of a chance the others would have. The men behind me shouted and yelled, threats and orders coming from all three, and then they must have realized I had no intentions of stopping no matter what they said. A few seconds of silence went by and then the air suddenly blurred to my right, a whining tingle reaching through my bodysuit to flip every nerve on the right side of my body. I flinched away to the left, my mouth suddenly dry when I re- alized they were using stunners, but there was really no place to go. The offices were dead-ends and the nearest cross-corridor was too far ahead, and then I heard another whine—
Chapter 16
I came out of it slowly and painfully, at first not know- ing where I was or what had happened, and then it all came back. I'd walked right under the noses of a se- curity patrol and had been captured, and now the en- emy had me. It was pitch dark wherever I was, but I didn't need light to know I was tied down to what I was lying on, and I didn't hurt so much that I couldnl tell I'd been stripped naked. The whatever under me seemed to be made of metal, but the bindings on my wrists and ankles had more of the feel of leather.
"Am I supposed to care?" I whispered into the darkness, making no attempt to see if I could free my- self. My body hurt from what the stunner had done to me and probably from the fall I'd taken as well, but I just didn't care. Seren was disgusted by me. hated me so much he didn't even want me to speak his name, and almost the first thing my memory had shown me when I'd awakened was the sight of his face. He'd been so repelled, so utterly sickened, and he'd wanted nothing further to do with me or my love.
"And can you really blame him?" I asked myself, choking the words out into the dark. He came from a happy, normal family that had been touched by trag- edy because of someone like me; could I expect him to put all that out of his mind just for my sake? It would have been unreasonable to expect that. but- But I loved him so much! And he'd turned away from me in hate and never wanted to see me again. and all / wanted was to die! The tears started again and this time the sobbing came with them. but even 303
304 Sharon Green
then my miserable life refused to end. It just dragged on and on while I cried into the dark, a dark I hoped I would never again be taken out of.
The crying lasted for a long time, and once it stopped it left behind an even greater lack of caring than I'd felt when I'd awakened. My life could go on the way it had been going before I met Seren, but I just didn't care if it did or ended instead. I lay in the dark in a numb, unthinking state, more aware of inner pain man outer, and after an unmeasured length of time a pinpoint of light began glowing above me. It brightened slowly, slowly, until it began illuminating everything around me, bringing to view a rather large room of stone with no windows and only two doors. One of the doors was in the wall to my right and one in the wall beyond my feet, and when I turned my head away from them in disinterest, I nearly found myself shocked enough to feel it.
fl" 'On the wall to my left. about ten or fifteen feet away ton the table I lay on, the chained, unmoving body of a Griddenth hung. The body's taloned feet had been smashed, its wings had been torn, blood covered feathers and fur alike, and the beaked mouth had been knocked out of alignment. It was a horrible, sick- making sight that almost reached through to me, most especially since I was certain the Griddenth was Velix.
"That's what comes from trying to poke your nose in where it doesn't belong," a voice said from my right, a voice I seemed to know. "Let it be a lesson to you when it comes to answering questions as well, and maybe you won't end up the same way."
By that time I was looking at the man who spoke, and even though his voice was familiar, I couldn't place his face. He was somewhere in his thirties with brown hair and light eyes, and he wore ordinary slacks and shoes of black and a tight orange shirt.
"You don't recognize me, do you?" he asked with a grin, moving away from the opened door to allow in two other men. "Would it help if I said I considered you very brave, lady Dalisse?"
"Jejin?" I said with a good deal of confusion, fi- nally able to connect the voice. The face was still the
MISTS OF THE AGES 305
face of a stranger, what with the long white beard gone.
"Jejin isn't really my name, but you can use it for the sake of our discussion," he said, stopping beside the table to look down at me. "I have a few questions for you, and you'll save yourself a lot of pain and terror if you answer them quickly and truthfully. Where are your friends hiding, and what are you all up to?"
"Why are you bothering to ask?" I said, feeling more confused than ever. "If I'm not mistaken, there are any number of drugs that can get you all the an- swers you want."
"But none that work here in the Mists," he cor- rected, his light eyes looking put out over that. "It's the reason we have to resort to other methods when we find someone we think ought to be questioned. This is too big and important an operation to take any chances at all, even if we still thought you were in- nocent. But you aren't innocent, are you, and wasn*t it lucky I was there for another reason when you made your slip."
"What slip are you talking about?" I asked, trying to ignore the fact that his finger had come to my throat with his questions, and his eyes were taking on an unpleasant glint.
"I was playing magician to keep an eye on that mus- clebound hulk of a glad," he answered, running his finger across my throat as he spoke. "We knew his brother was one of our spores, but we weren't entirely convinced he had come here with the idea of poking around. If he hadn't chosen me himself, I would have had to substitute myself for whichever magician he did choose, but he was very cooperative. The way he was sniffing after you really set us wondering, and then we got a present we hadn't been expecting: we discovered you had a practiced eye when it came to finding hidden panels. You remember the wine fountain in the palace, and the need for wash water and a towel afterward? Guests always have to be shown where those towels are, but you found them all by yourself."
At that point I certainly did remember the towels,
306 Sharon Green
and the fact that I*d noticed only vaguely how well- hidden they were. And Jejin had been no more than a few feet away when I'd committed that stupidity, an- other fact I'd been too busy to notice.
"And so we arranged for you to be introduced to our resident ogre," the man above me went on, his finger still moving back and forth. "We fully expected you to become a tragic accident victim, of course, and if the glad happened to end up a corpse by trying to save you, well, wouldn't that have been just too bad? We had everything planned and then we put me two of you right in it—but no one had remembered about that cursed multi-sword. The two of you got away and were able to rejoin your other friends, and that*s when we began having everything go wrong. That Griddenth ^ was useful to us, but when he came here shouting that ' be may have been guilty of starting that passageway






klent, but he had nothing to do with the serious
ick and was damned well going to find out who had, had to close his mouth. We knew nothing about scare you had in me passageway and cared even less, but me ogre attack wasn't quite as easy to explain away."
He was looking down at me with a glare that made all his troubles my fault, and I could see where he wasn't far wrong. I seemed to cause trouble for almost everyone I met, but hopefully that would not be going on much longer.
"And then we found you right in our headquarters building, stunned by a security patrol, but already hav- ing gotten into almost every secret place we had," he continued. "We knew then mat we should have made absolutely certain you died in the mansion set, but it was far too late for should-have-beens. Some of our files are missing, and so are your three good friends. Where arc they, giri, and what made you all try this break-in? Did you know what you were after, or were you shooting in the dark?"
"I don't know where the others arc," I told him, feeling my interest in the conversation drain away. "If you haven't caught them I couldn't be happier, which means I'm not about to do anything that would change
MISTS OF THE AGES 307
that state of affairs. Since you don't have any drugs to use on me, you might as well go and bother someone else. As far as you're concerned, I'm all out of an- swers."
"Dear, brave, sweet lady Dalisse,*' the man calling himself Jejin said, a faint smile twisting the comers of his mouth. "I'd so hoped you would be intelligent instead, but obviously that's not meant to be. You will tell me what I want to know, that and everything else you can think of, as much as I care to listen to. Do try to remember that this is no one's fault but your own."
He took his finger away from my throat and moved along the table toward my feet, but not because he intended doing anything. He was simply making room for the two men who had come into the room with him, men who stationed themselves to either side of me. They carried small, heavy-looking leather cases which they placed on the floor and opened, and after flipping a few switches inside the cases, they straight- ened with copper-glinting wires in their hands. The wires were insulated where the men held them, and the insulation wound all the way down to connections in the cases.
"It's too bad I can't give you one more chance," Jejin said while I looked back and forth between the two men, belatedly pulling at the leather holding my wrists tight to the table above my head. "Once they turn on their pet devices, my friends have to be al- lowed to use them. If you've decided you've changed your mind, tell me what I want to know as fast as you can before they start. That won't stop them from hurt- ing you, but if you tell the truth they might not hurt you quite as long."
I licked my lips while the rest of me trembled, terror beginning to grow inside me. I had to keep from tell- ing them what they wanted, or my teammates were as dead as I would undoubtedly be. Death was something I would have greeted happily and warmly just then, but it wasn't death they meant to give me first. It was pain they would give me, and I had to have the strength to take it without breaking. Death would come in its
308 Sharon Green
own good time, and that's the thought I had to cling to and remember. I tried, I honestly and truly tried. but only seconds after they started I wasn't able to do anything but scream.
The smell under my nose made me cough and turn my head away, and just that quickly and easily the agony was back. I moaned with the terrible burning flare of it and almost fainted again, but whatever had brought me back to consciousness wouldn't let it hap- pen.
"You poor little giri, you're hurting so very badly, aren't you?" Jejin's vo ice came in my right ear, his ': band slicking back my sweat-soaked hair. "You were J^.tegging for help just a minute ago, but surely you ^^biowSere*s no way help can get to you. Even if you ?,Jhad confederates waiting in a ship just off-planet, and |Ste if you were able to contact them, they'd never m^eretand what you were trying to say. You're living Wa different rate than they are, so transmission from IJie Mists is impossible. I'm the only one who can help you, which 1*11 do the minute you answer my ques- tions. Where arc your friends hiding, and why can't we find them?"
You can't find them because they're invisible, I wanted to say, but even swimming in searing pain I knew better than to say anything at all. One comment would lead to another and then it would all come out, which just might happen anyway. My throat was raw from all the screaming I'd done, screaming caused by having burning hot wires pushed into my body. I'd been sick from the pain and I'd fainted from the pain, but my tormentors simply wiped me off or woke me up, then continued with what they were doing. The only thing they didn't bother with was the sweat cov- ering me everywhere, that and the small trickles of blood. The sweat mixed with the blood and burned even more into the wounds, and that was a good thing as far as they were concerned.
"I have something to make it all stop hurting," Je- jin said, a friendly coaxing in his voice. "If you tell
MISTS OF THE AGES 309
me what I want to know I'll give it to you, and then the agony will be gone for good."
Right along with me, I thought, having no strength left to open my eyes. I could feel the ring on my right hand, the ring I was supposed to call for help with, but even pressing the jewels in the prescribed way would bring nothing but disappointment. My sense of time was messed up by the mists, which meant I'd never be able to send the proper signal. I didn't know if it should be faster or slower, how much faster or slower, or how much longer I could hold out. I needed the pain to stop for good, needed it very badly, and if it didn't stop soon—
"No, please, not again!" I screamed in a cracked voice, writhing as a name was slid inside my outer thigh. "I can't stand any more, you have to stop!"
"I'm afraid, dear lady, that stopping isn't on our schedule," Jejin said, pleased anticipation in his voice. "As a matter of fact we've left the best places for but, the places where you'll feel the pain even more than you have until now. Delicate, soft and tender places those are, and after we're done you'll never feel plea- sure in them again."
"No!" I screamed, totally beside myself as his fin- ger touched between my thighs, one of the places I hadn't known they were deliberately ignoring. "You can't do that to me. you can't! I'll die if you hurt me there! Seren! Don't let them do it! Seren, I'm begging you!"
I was so terrified I didn't even know what I was saying, and all I could do was throw the strength of panic against leather straps that refused to part. I screamed again and fought to get loose—and then it finally came through that I wasn't the only one scream- ing. I forced my eyes open to look wildly around— and couldn't believe at first that I wasn't hallucinating.
Both doors to the room had been thrown open, and men in uniform were pouring in—led by Seren with his multi-sworo in his fists. One of the two men who had been hurting me made the mistake of running to- ward Seren in an effort to get away, and he didn't live long enough to realize the error. His head flew from
310 Sharon Green
his shoulders without Seren even breaking stride, and then the fighter had reached Jejin where he trembled against the left wall. The ex-magician was trying to unwrap something and put it in his mouth, but Seren knocked that something out of his hands and then knocked Jejin over the head. The Mists man crumpled to the floor and lay still, and I knew he would wake up to regret that he hadn't been killed.
The screaming I'd heard was coming from the third man who had been captured by some of the uniformed men, but I paid almost no attention to that. Despite the soul-eating pain still washing over me I laughed where I lay, knowing my love had come to save me again, knowing his own love was soon to be mine ftgyin, I watched him with shining eyes as he turned away from the unconscious Jejin—then felt worse ag- ' thaa anything the enemy had given me when his ft slid past me as he began making his way out of






„ room. He didn't even stop to find out how badly I ,«HS hurt, didn't even want to look at me long enough t9 see if 1 was going to live. He just kept going and disappeared through the door, and then Chal was standing next to the table to my right.
"Dear lord. Inky, look what they've done to you!" he said in a trembling voice, reaching immediately for the leather holding my wrists. "We've got to get you out of this, and into decent medical facilities as soon as possible! Some of you men give me a hand here! This woman has to be . . ."
His voice trailed off as the blackness began forming behind my eyes again, and my last thought was a fer- vent prayer that I never wake up.
It took a very long while before all the confusion passed or settled down, and by then I knew that pray- ers were never answered. I'd awakened the first time on board a ship that didn't seem to be a liner, but hadn't been clear enough to recognize the uniforms I saw. By the time I was awake enough to know I was in a planetary hospital, I was also awake enougti to know I was still alive. I ached just about all over and was bandaged like a first-aid practice dummy, but there
MISTS OF THE AGES 311


I
was no doubt about my being alive. Even if that wasn't what I'd wanted to be.
"Well, you're looking better than you did," a cheery voice said, and a female nurse entered my room carrying a tray. "This breakfast will probably change that in a hurry, but it really is good for you no matter what it tastes like. And why don't we get a little light into this place?"
She put the tray, down near me then went to the window, and a sweep of her hand later there was bright sunshine pouring into the room. I squinted against the brightness, finding it totally out of place, but the nurse never noticed. She used a button to raise the top half of my bed, swung the tray in front of me on a lift field, then left the room.
Once she was gone I pushed the tray back again, lowered the bed, then spent my time hurting and think- ing about what I had lost. Velix had said we wouldn't remember the details of what we did in the Mists, but in my case he was wrong. I remembered all of it, even the parts I didn't want to remember, even the fact that he'd never know he'd been wrong. I was back on a planet and still alive, and it was clear vacation time was over. I had my own planet to get back to, and something important to finish, and it really no longer mattered to me whether or not I would survive its com- pletion. As a matter of fact I'd be happier if I didn't;
what I wanted most in the worid—after seeing that Seero's death was paid for—was to follow after Seero. to find out if there really was a place we would meet again. I needed very badly to cry out my hurt against him, and have him show me how to bear it for the rest of eternity.
The trouble started when I refused the medication they tried to give me, after refusing the food they wanted me to eat. They lectured and threatened, teU- ing me how much I would hurt and how weak I would get if I didn't cooperate, but I didn't feel like coop- erating. When they finally went looking for a doctor to add his own lecture to theirs, I forced myself out of bed, ignored the dizziness, then looked for and found the bodysuit I was hoping would be in the closet. Get-
312 Sharon Green
ting dressed was painful but didn't take very long, and ditto for finding the floor's exit stairs. I made my way slowly to the ground floor, having no idea where I was going besides out of there, and then the question was answered for me. Two men were waiting in the stair- well at the bottom, and both of them grinned at me.
"I think Raksall just made some money again," one of them said, his expression showing how amused he was. "We're here to help you find your way to her office, and to make sure you don't get lost on the way. You weren't supposed to be out of here for quite a while yet, but since you're going for a stroll, you might as well stroll with us."
"Hie other one was just as amused and just as alert, but it didn't make any difference. It seemed I was back on Gryphon, and that would save me some time and effort. I shrugged in answer to their unspoken ques- „ tion» and simply went with them.
r\^ Despite it being eariy afternoon, Raksall really was - IB her office—with an officious-looking Filster sitting " fe a chair next to her desk. One of the men who had brought me there had called ahead, but I hadn't heard what was said. When I walked through Raksall's door, I didn't so much hesitate as pause to catch my breath, but the S.I. woman misinterpreted the halt.
"Now, Inky, don't be upset at Filster's being here," she said at once, raising a calming hand. "He's just finished going through most of the reports that were filed, and he wanted to tell you what a good job he thinks you did."
"What an efficient, satisfactory and extremely pro- ductive job you did," FUster corrected with care, giv- ing me a narrow smile as I lowered myself into a chair. "Not only did you perform with all of your ability on our behalf, you even made it possible for your team- mates to have the time to summon the assistance you all needed. That was truly fine work, and you've vin- dicated the computer's decision to make use of you."
**Ah, Lidra tells me you may not know how she called die troops down and then found where they were holding you,*' Raksall said hastily, probably because of Filster's final, highly flattering comment. "She and
MISTS OF THE AGES 313
Chal explained about the anomaly that ruined your time sense, but Chal says you should have no trouble re- membering everything that happened. Is he right?"
I nodded with all the interest I was feeling, not to mention the pain from the trip up there, and she took the answer as though it were the height of enthusiasm.
"Then unconsciousness is the key," she said, nod- ding happily. "Chal theorized that it might be, and you're the last one we had to check. He tried to ex- plain how the rapid readaptation of the metabolism in the conscious individual slurred the memory that was linked in and active, but I'm afraid I missed most of what he said. He doesn't try to talk above people's heads, but in his position it can't come out any other way."
"One cannot expect the brilliant to lower mem- selves," Filster put in, narrow and stiff as ever. "The same, of course, goes for Lidra, who programmed her board with an equation that solved the anomaly, and was therefore able to contact the orbiting troop ship."
"But let's not forget it was Inky's discovery of me anomaly in the first place that let Lidra know she'd need a conversion formula," Raksall came back at him, smooth satisfaction in her tone. "They made an all-around excellent team, and if the troops homing in on Lidra's signal hadn't had to spend some time adapt- ing to the mists, they would have reached Inky a good deal sooner. She did still have her ring on, you know, so her location under the headquarters building wasn't difficult to find."
"The delay wasn't all that critical, considering the prisoners they were able to take at the end of it," Filster said, thumbing through some of the papers he held. "The number of hours hardly matter, when you consider what we were able to leam. That one calling himself Jejin, for instance . . .*'
"Filster, what's wrong with you?" Raksall snapped, her eyes on me in a worried way. When the man had mentioned the delay he considered so acceptable, what had gone on during those hours had suddenly come back to roe all at once. "How can you sit there and say what they did to Inky doesn't matter? She wasn't
314 Sharon Green
simply locked up during all that time, she was being tortured! Her being able to hold out was the only thing that got you those valuable prisoners!"
Filster looked up with a frown, blinked when he saw my face, then went back to the papers he was holding to search for one in particular. When he found it he spent a few moments reading, and when he finally looked up again he was definitely pale.
"I—somehow missed that the first time through," he said, his eyes clinging to my face. "Electronically heated wires—such barbarism should be punished to the fullest extent of the law— I had no idea— And after you allowed yourself to be captured so the others would find it possible to escape—"
His words broke off and didn't resume, his pain- filled stare refusing to leave me, but it didn't matter. Whether his opinion of me had changed or not, it sim- .yfy didn't matter.
:^**Well, at least it wasn't all for nothing," Raksall said. leaning back in her chair while she pretended not to see Filster's reaction. "The problem we found is considerably more far-reaching and critical than sim- ple fraud, and we've only begun probing through the first few layers. Unraveling it all will take everything we can come up with."
"Yes, well. with all those addicts," Filster said, finally pulling himself together enough to go back to his papers. "The ones addicted in the Mists go on to addict others, but the drug isn't being charged for. And there's the fact that if there is some sort of counter or antidote for its influence, it might well be found right here on this worid. The computer is suggesting the core group running this thing makes a habit of establishing a headquarters in ordinarily inaccessible locations, like the Mists of the Ages on Joelare and the wilds here on Gryphon. It's a shame we haven't been able to learn exactly how many headquarters lo- cations they have."
"Or what they're really up to," Raksall said, then she leaned forward and put her forearms on the desk. "Inky, you're still not looking very well, and even though I knew you'd be out of that hospital before they
MISTS OF THE AGES 315
wanted to let you go, I think you'd be better off going back now. I know just how badly they hurt you, and you won't be over it for quite a while. Go back and let them take care of you."
"You really must, you know," Filster put in, look- ing at me soberiy. "Anyone going into the wilds must be in absolutely peak condition Just to survive, not to mention function efficiently. It won't be long, so . . .*'
"I'm not going into the wilds," I said, the words forced out of me by the internal shudder I felt. I was beginning to reel really sick, and the pain was flashing through my body like an asteroids-warning beacon. I knew I had to get out of there, so I forced myself to my feet and started through the doorway, but Raksall and Filster came right behind me.
"Inky. you*rcjust not up to thinking about it now," Raksall said, a mixture of pleading and coaxing in her voice. "Once you've recovered you'll understand how badly they*!! need your ability, just the way they did in the Mists."
"This is of vital importance, young miss," Filster put in his own oar, his voice now sounding anxious. "The original Situation had been reclassined as an A Prime Emergency, something none of us can ignore. Your sense of duty and honor . . ."
"I have no honor," I interrupted without turning, stopping for a minute to let the dizziness pass. "I'm a thief, and thieves have no honor. Just leave me alone."
"Leave you alone to desert your teammates?" an- other voice asked, a strong male voice. "You know you're not the land to do that. Inky. If you were, I never would have asked you for a date."
It took some effort to turn, but once I did I saw that big blond field agent I'd met at the beginning of that mess, standing behind and to my left in front of an open office. He grinned at me in a way I vaguely re- membered, but T had nothing to say to him. All I wanted was to get out of there, but before I could turn back toward the exit three people came out of me of- fice behind him. Two of them were Chal and Lidra, staring at me with hurt in their eyes, and the third, of
316 Sharon Green
course, was Serendel. I realized they'd probably re- cruited him to be one of their associate workers, but that was hardly surprising. What was faintly surprising was the fact that this time he looked straight at me, and his expression was a careful neutrality. He seemed to have gotten control of himself, but I couldn't say the same about me. Instead of returning his gaze I completed my previous intention to turn away, but the big blond agent couldn't let it lie.
"We'll have dme for that date before we leave for the wilds. Inky/' he said, his voice strong and steady and persuasive. "You'll go back to the hospital and let them help you, and then we'll ..."
"I won't go into the wilds," I said again, my own voice weak but no less determined. "I won't have any more to do with you people at all, and I want you to leave me atone."
*'We're not 'you people* any more, Inky," the man persisted, the calm in his voice unchanged. "You're 'one of us now, a full member with privileges earned like hard way, and you can't expect to simply walk away. We won't let you walk away."
"There's only one thing I am," I said, wishing I could sit down right where I was. "Tell the man what I am, Mr. Filster, just the way you said it to me.'1
"My dear young woman!" Filster protested, his voice tinged with distress. "What I said then was before I knew you, before I realized what you were truly . . ."
"Tell him!" I repeated harshly, aware that everyone in the office had stopped to watch and listen. "It's the complete, unglorified truth, so I want you to tell him! What am I, Mr. Filster?"
"A—a thief," the man whispered, the words torn out of him bringing pain to his voice. "Your talent is stealing, young miss, and you're nothing but a thief."
"Thank you, Mr. Filster," I said, looking down from all the pity and compassion I could see in the faces of those who listened. That should have been the end of it. but unfortunately it wasn't. ,
"If you're nothing but a thief, then we don't have to spend much time worrying about your feelings,"
MISTS OF THE AGES 317
the blond agent said, his voice having turned hard. "If you prefer having it put another way, you can join us on the assignment, or you can be sent to a detention cell. Does the assignment sound a little more attractive now?"
"Fieran!" Raksall exclaimed in shock, the only sound in the entire office. "You can't mean that! Don't you know . . ."
"I know everything I have to," the man Fieran came back, his tone still remorseless. "What about it. Inky? The assignment has started to look a little better now, hasn't it?"
"No, if hasn't," I answered flatly, a heavy knot of satisfaction inside me due to the fact that my friends were long gone and no longer at risk. "I won't go into the wilds with anybody, most especially not with you and them. Either arrest me, or let me go."
"Now you're giving me a choice," the blond Fieran said, his tone suddenly odd. "Are you sure you won't change your mind?"
"Positive." I answered, the need to leave having grown absolutely critical. I didn't much care where I went, as long as it tur ned out to be some place other than there. I started moving, vaguely wondering how far I would get before I passed out, but the question never came up.
"If that's the way you feel, I really have no choice at all," the blond man's voice came after me, the tone filled with more authority than it had previously held. "As the Agent in Charge of this star sector, I hereby arrest you for actions damaging to the general public. You two men take her away."
An uproar began all around, but that's exactly what the men who had brought me there did.