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He moved to take another step forward and his way was blocked by the abrupt appearance of a low wall. He began to step over it and its top was suddenly studded with tall shards of glass. He withdrew and bumped against something. Glancing quickly to the rear, he beheld another wall. And then there was one to his right, and his left. Almost simultaneous with his awareness of their existence, they began to move nearer. Ryle was staring intently toward him, the palms of his hands facing one another and moving slowly together.
But there was no up, no down here. He willed the fogs to boil beneath him, to levitate him as the bands had done earlier.
He rose out of his prison then and passed over its forward wall. It seemed almost too easy...
Studying Ryle then, he saw traces of concern about those probing eyes. The man did not know his strengths or his weaknesses yet, knew only what he had accomplished thus for. And so there was fear. So he was fighting a very conservative duel at this point, testing him, watching him, keeping his distance. Such seeming the case, Pol was suddenly apprehensive himself. Ryle was doubtless very good at this sort of thing. In a little while he would realize the limits of Pol's experience and would likely unleash a devastating attack. Pol was not at all certain that he could survive it. Therefore, he ought to act quickly and decisively. But how? He could not think of an appropriate offense in this silent, dreamlike place of deadly cotton candy. Unless...
Perhaps he might change the rules, change the milieu. Perhaps he had, in some fashion, been guilty of letting the other man choose his own battleground. There was so much that he still did not know...
He felt that he had to finish with Ryle as quickly as possible. Beyond the possibility of Larick's recovering at any time and coming to the aid of his adversary, Pol feared a recurrence of the effect he had already experienced several times--that unpredictable, intermittent foiling of his powers.
He had wondered several times since he had fought Keth whether all of the symbolic byplay was truly necessary in a magical encounter. Since it was will against will, force manipulation against force manipulation, and perhaps, personal energy against personal energy, it would seem that it might be stripped to its barest essentials and Devil take the hindmost. It occurred to him immediately that this was an untutored, Madwand way of thinking. But he was slowed whenever he tried to imitate the refinements the others had developed in the long courses of their studies, and he knew that he was handicapped when he was forced to play their games. There were obvious advantages in doing things that more subtle way, but he had no time to learn it at the moment. Therefore, he determined to attempt the alternative as he tried to move nearer.
With some trepidation, he blanked the second seeing. The fogs vanished. The room returned to normal, Ryle standing near its entrance, a faraway look in his eyes.
Pol raised his right hand, directing it toward Ryle, and willed that the other fall down, shrivel and die. The dra-gonmark seemed suddenly icy and he felt the power leap forth. He continued to focus his will and a steady flowing sensation moved, wavelike, down his arm.
Ryle swayed for a moment, then steadied himself. Suddenly, Pol found himself standing on a spit of land, his stance unaltered, a mighty torrent of water rushing past him at either hand. Ryle stood upon a small island downstream. Even as he watched, the nearer edge of Ryle's islet was being eroded away and the man was forced to draw back upon it.
But Ryle raised both hands, a look of intense concentration upon his face. The movement of the water began to slow. A tremor shook the land upon which Pol stood. The water lashed about for several moments, then grew still. This did not last long, however. Shortly, it began moving again. But this time it was flowing toward Pol. He watched, fascinated, as its velocity increased and the land began to wear away before him.
He shook his head as if to clear it. Ryle had drawn him back into a symbolic situation. He dismissed the waters for a moment and bent his efforts toward reestablishing his presence in the chamber.
The river vanished. They were back in the room again. Nothing had changed. Only now Pol felt a pressure, a pronounced squeezing sensation all over his body. It was increasing by the moment.
He refocused his energies.
"Burn, melt, fall down..."
The pressure vanished and Ryle staggered, as from a sudden blow. Pol maintained his own pressure now, his entire will behind it. Ryle began to sway, as if caught in a heavy wind.
Then, suddenly, there were flames between them, fa
Even as he watched, the winds died down and the flames became vertical. Then he felt the warm touch of a breeze upon his face. The tongues of fire began to bend toward him...
"No!" Pol cried, and the vista was swept away.
The breeze and the heat remained until he gained control of his forces once again. Then they fell, and he hurled his energies at the other with renewed vehemence.
...He stood upon a mountain peak, Ryle atop another. A storm was raging between them. Bolts of lightning fell upon both slopes--
"No," he said softly, "not this time," and he stood again in the chamber and continued the pressure.
...Each of them stood upon a floe of ice, tossed by a gray choppy sea--
"No."
They were in the chamber and Ryle was glaring at him. His arm was begi
...There was darkness all about them, and the meteor shower began--
"No."
He maintained the focus of his concentration, ready to dismiss any new distraction. It had to be will against will.
The room began to fade and he restored it immediately.
"No."
He smiled.
For half-a-minute he maintained his assault, and then he felt the pressure begi
Even this way, he realized then, Ryle had the edge. The man had played a careful game but it had not really been necessary. He knew that he could not hold him back much longer. Ryle really was stronger. Of course, he had no way of knowing that.
Pol took another step forward. If he could just reach him, could just use his fists again...
But the pressure grew excruciating with the next step. He knew that he would never make it across the chamber. And now the fat sorcerer was begi
"Father?"
Ryle turned his head and the pressure was gone. Off to his left, Pol could see that Taisa was sitting up upon the slab of stone.
"Taisa... ?"
The man took a step forward.
Pol gathered his forces and struck. Ryle fell like a poled ox.
"Father!"
Taisa slumped back upon the stone. Larick, who had been stirring, grew still.
Gargantuan peals of laughter shook the room.