Sign of chaos

I passed no one on the walk back, and when I approached my own door I wondered whether I should enter, knock, or wait. Then something touched my shoulder, and I turned around but no one was there. When I turned forward once again Mandor stood before me, his brow slightly creased.

“What's the matter?” he asked. “You appear more troubled than when you left.”

“Something totally different,” I told him, “I think. Any word from inside yet?”

“I heard a shriek from Jasra while you were gone,” he said, “and I burned to the door and opened it. But she was laughing and she asked me to close it.”

“Either ty'igas know some good stories or the news is favorable.”

“So it would seem.”

A little later the door opened and Jasra nodded to us.

“Our conversation is concluded,” she said.

I studied her as I entered the room. She looked a lot more cheerful than she had seemed when we'd left. There was a bit more of a crinkling about the outer edges of her eyes, and she seemed almost to be fighting the corners of her mouth down into place.

“I hope it was a fruitful interview,” I said.

“Yes. On the whole, I'd say it was that,” she answered.

A glance at Nayda showed me that nothing had changed in terms of her position or expression.

“I'll have to be asking you for a decision now,” I said. “I can't afford to cut things much closer than this.”

“What happens if I say no?” she asked.

“I'll have you conducts to your quarters and inform the others that you're up and about,” I said.

“As a guest?”

“As a very well-protected guest.”

“I see. Well, I do not really care to inspect those quarters. I have decided to accompany you and assist you under the terms we discussed. “.

I bowed to her.

“Merlin!” Nayda said.

“No!” I answered, and I looked to Mandor. He approached and stood before Nayda.

“It is best that you sleep now,” he told her, and her eyes closed, her shoulders slumped. “Where is a good place for her to rest deeply?” he asked me.

“Through there,” I said, indicating the doorway to the next room.

He took her by the hand and led her away. After a time, I heard him speaking softly, and then there was only silence. He emerged a little later, and I went to the door and glanced inside. She was stretched out on my bed. I did not see any of his metal spheres in the neighborhood.

“She's out of it?” I said.

“For a long time,” he replied.

I looked at Jasra, who was glancing down into the mirror.

“Are you ready?” I inquired.

She regarded me through lowered lashes.

“How do you propose transporting us?” she asked.

“Do you have an especially tricky means of getting us in?”

“Not at the moment.”

“Then I will be calling upon the Ghostwheel to take us there.”

“Are you certain it is safe? I've conversed with that... device. I am not sure it is trustworthy.”

“It's fine;” I. said. “Any spells you want to prime first?”

“Not necessary. My... resources should be in good order.”

“Mandor?”

I heard a clicking sound from somewhere within his cloak.

“Ready,” he said.

I withdrew the Ghostwheel Trump and studied it. I began my meditation. Then I reached. Nothing happened. I tried again, recalling, tuning, expanding. I reached again, calling, feeling...

“The door...,” Jasra said.

I glanced at the door to the hallway, but there was nothing unusual about it. Then I looked at her and realized the direction of her gaze.

The doorway to the next room, where Nayda slept, had begun to glow. It shone with a yellow light, and even as I watched, it grew in intensity. A spot of greater brightness then occurred at its center. Abruptly, the spot began a slow up-and-down movement.

Then came music, from where I was not certain, and Ghost's voice a

“Stop it!” I said. “It's distracting!”

The music went away. The circle of light grew still.

“Sorry,” Ghost said. “I thought you'd find a little comic relief relaxing.”

“You guessed wrong,” I replied. “I just want you to take us to the citadel at the Keep of the Four Worlds.”

“Do you want the troops, also? I can't seem to locate Luke.”

“Just the three of us,” I answered.

“What about the one who sleeps next door? I've met her before. She doesn't scan right.”

“I know. She's not human. Let her sleep.”

“Very well, then. Pass through the door.”

“Come on,” I said to the others, picking up my weapons belt and buckling it on, adding my spare dagger, grabbing my cloak off a chair, and drawing it over my shoulders.

I walked toward the portal and Mandor and Jasra followed. I stepped through, but the room was no longer there. Instead, there came a moment of blurring, and when my senses cleared, I was staring down and outward across a great distance beneath a heavily overcast sky, a cold wind whipping at my garments.

I heard an exclamation from Mandor and, a moment later, another from Jasra-behind me and to the left. The great ice field lay bone-white to my right, and in the opposite direction a slate-gray sea tossed whitecaps like serpents in a bucket of milk. Far below, before me, the dark ground simmered and steamed.

“Ghost!” I cried. “Where are you?”

“Here,” came a soft response, and I looked down to behold a tiny ring of light near the toe of my left boot. Directly ahead and below, the Keep stood stark in the distance. There were no signs of life outside its walls. I realized that I must be in the mountains, standing somewhere near the place where I had held my lengthy colloquy with the old hermit named Dave.

“I wanted you to take us into the citadel within the Keep,” I explained. “Why did you bring us up here?”

“I told you I don't like that place,” Ghost answered. “I wanted to give you a chance to look it over and decide exactly where you wished to be sent within. That way I can move very fast on the delivery, and not expose myself overlong to forces I find distressing.”

I continued to study the Keep. A pair of twisters were again circling the outer walls. If there had not been a moat, they would probably have done a good job of creating one. They stayed almost exactly 180 degrees apart, and they took turns at illumination. The nearest one grew spark-shot with bolts of lightning, acquiring an eerie incandescence; then, as it began to fade, the other brightened. They passed through this cycle several times as I watched.

Jasra made a small noise, and I turned and asked her, “What's going on?”

“The ritual,” she n'sponded. “Someone is playing with those forces right now.”

“Can you tell how far along they might be?” I asked.

“Not really. They could just be starting, or they could be finished already. All the poles of fire tell me is that everything is in place.”

“You call it then, Jasra,” I told her. “Where should we put in our appearance?”

“There are two long hallways leading to the chamber of the fountain,” she said. “One is on the same level and the other a floor above it. The chamber itself is several stories high.”

“I recall that,” I acknowledged.

“If they are working directly with the forces and we simply appear within the chamber,” she continued, “the advantage of surprise will only be momentary. I can't say for certain what they might hit us with. Better to approach along one of the two hallways and give me a chance to assess the situation. Since there is a possibility that they could note our approach along the lower hallway, the upper one would be best for all our purposes.”

“All right,” I agreed. “Ghost, can you put us back a distance in that upper hallway?”

The circle spread, tilted, rose, stood high above us for a moment, then dropped.

“You are... already... there,” Ghost said, as my vision swam and the circle of light passed over us, head to toe. “Good-bye.”