More Than Fire

Several weeks after this conversation, Khruuz summoned Kickaha and Clifton to a room they had never seen before. This was huge and had a domed ceiling. The ceiling and walls were black but strewn with tiny sparkling points and lines co

Khruuz waved a hand and said, "You see here the results of my datacollecting. The points are gate nodes, and the lines co

Kickaha said, "I saw a gate map once when I was with Jadawin in his palace. But it was nowhere nearly as complicated as this. Isn't it something!"

Khruuz's dark eyes regarded Kickaha. "Yes, it is something, as you say. But what is displayed is a map of all nodes known to me. Mostly, they're Khringdiz gates, and the majority were opened into Thoan universes when my people were still battling the enemy. Thus, many of them co

Khruuz admitted that he did not know where many of the nodes and routes were. If someone took these from Khruuz's world, that person would have to go in ignorance to where the routes took him. And there were many nodes that intersected with closed-circuit routes.

"Is there a chance that a Khringdiz route might end at a gate leading into the Caverned World?" Kickaha said. "From what I've heard, there's only one gate, or there was one gate, giving entrance to Zazel's World. But what if there's an ancient gate to it made by the Khringdiz?"

"There is a chance. But I don't know what gate, if any, would take you there. It might take you a hundred years to travel every gate and route, and you still would not find the right one. Moreover, your chances of survival during this search would be very small."

"But Red Orc must think that there is one. Otherwise, why would he have sent me out to find it?"

Eric Clifton said, "You should know by now that he seldom tells you the true reason for what he does."

"I guess so. But he didn't have to lie about that."

During their time with Khruuz, Kickaha insisted that Clifton finish his often-interrupted narrative of how he had gotten into the Thoan universes. "Where was I? Oh, yes! First, a recapitulation of the events leading up to the point at which the flash flood stopped my telling of the tale."

Kickaha sighed and sat back. There was no hurry just now, but he wished Clifton were not so long-winded.

"The madman Blake described to his friend the vision he had had of the flea's ghost, which you and I now know was of the Khringdiz. I was so fascinated by this that I drew a sketch of the scaly man as described by Mr. Blake. I showed it to my closest friend, a boy named Pew. He worked for a jeweler, a Mr. Scarborough. He showed my sketch to his employer, and Mr. Scarborough showed the drawing to a wealthy Scots nobleman, a Lord Riven, who then ordered that a ring be made based on the sketch. But poor stupid Pew stole the ring. Knowing that there would be a hue and cry and that he would be the most suspected, he gave the ring to me to hold for him. That shows you how brainless he was. At that time, I had not repented of my sins and sworn to God that I would no more lead a dishonest life."

Kickaha, his patience gone despite the abundance of time he had, said, "Get on with it."

"Very well. The constables searched for Pew, who had taken refuge with the gang of homeless street boys he had joined before working for Mr. Scarborough. But the constables found him, and he was killed while fleeing from them. A shot in the back of the head, I believe, sent the poor devil's soul downward to Hell.

"That meant, as far as I was concerned, that I owned the ring. But I knew that much time would have to pass before I could chance selling it. And it would be better if I went to a far-off city before I attempted that transaction. But I could not quit my employer, Mr. Dally, the bookseller and printer, immediately. I would be suspected, and the constables might discover my association with George Pew. If I was convicted, I would hang."

Baron Riven was determined to find the ring and the person who had stolen it. One of his agents questioned Clifton about the theft. The agent had unearthed the fact that Clifton was one of Pew's closest friends, perhaps his only friend. Clifton was terrified, but he denied everything except knowing Pew. That was a lie Clifton knew would be eventually exposed. One night, shortly after the interview, he fled, his destination the city of Bristol. He pla

"I snatched a purse and with the money got lodgings in a cheap dockside tavern," he said. "I also applied at a dozen ships for work to pay for my passage. Finally, I got one as a cook's helper aboard a merchantman."

The night before he was to ship out, while he was walking the streets near the waterfront, he felt a hand on his shoulder and then a pinprick in his neck. He tried to run away, but his legs failed him, and he fell unconscions onto the cobblestones. When he awoke, he was in a room with Lord Riven and two men. He was naked and was strapped to a bed. The baron himself injected a fluid into one of Clifton's arteries. Contary to Clifton's expectation, he stayed conscious. When Lord Riven questioned him about the ring, Clifton, despite his mental struggles, told him the truth.

"A truth drug," Kickaha said.

"Yes, I know. My sack, containing my few worldly possessions, had been examined. The baron now wore the ring. I expected to be turned over to the constables and, eventually, hanged. But it turned out that the baron did not want the authorities to know about me or the ring. He ordered his men, very rough and brutal-looking scoundrels, to cut my throat. He tossed them some guineas and started to walk to the door with a splendidly decorated and large leather bag in his hand. But he stopped after a few steps, turned, and said, "I have a more severe punishment in mind for him. You two leave now!"

They did so quickly. Then he took out from his bag two large semicircular flat pieces of some silvery metal.

"Portable gates!" Kickaha said.

"Ah, then you know what I am talking about?"

"They're the means I used to get into the universe of the World of Tiers," Kickaha said.

"Ah! But I did not have the slightest idea then what their purpose or origin was. I thought that they were tools of torture. In a way, they were just that. He placed their ends close together on the floor so that they formed a slightly broken circle. Then he untied me. I was too terrified to resist, and I wet my pants again, though I believe that I had emptied my bladder when I awoke tied to the bed."

Lord Riven untied the Englishman, leaving his hands bound behind his back but his feet free. Then he picked up Clifton by the back of his neck with one hand. He carried him as if he were a small rabbit and stood him inside the two crescents. He told Clifton not to move unless he wanted to be cut in half.

"My teeth were chattering, and I was shaking violently. Though he had warned me not to speak, I asked him what he intended doing to me. He replied only that he was sending me directly to Hell instead of killing me first."

Clifton believed that he was in the power of a devil, perhaps Satan himself. He begged for mercy, though he expected none. But Lord Riven bent down swiftly, shoved the ends of the semicircles together with his fingertips, stood up, and moved back several feet. For several seconds, nothing happened.

"Then the room and the baron disappeared. Actually, I was the one to disappear, as you well know. The next second, I was aware that I was in another world. It did not look like Hell. There were no capering devils or flames issuing from the rocks. But I was indeed in Inferno. It was a dying planet in one of the worlds of the Lords."