Cenotaph Road

" Hallucinations," said Inyx forcefully. " That is the answer. And for some reason, you are the most susceptible to them. Or perhaps Waldron has singled you out for this unique attack."

Lan shuddered, thinking of bearing constant assault by these alltoo- substantial wraiths. While he had been fighting, it had been real. Nothing had seemed more real to him in his life, and this datum set his mind racing for the answer.

" Can these images be dredged from the pits of our own minds? Could Waldron be tapping our i

" Doubtful. Otherwise, we would have seen Krek dancing amid a fire, and I would be drowning in an ocean without shores. I detest water in bodies larger than those conveniently stepped across," confided Inyx.

" You, too?" said Krek, almost cheerful now that he had found a companion to share another of his private fears. " Water makes the fur of my legs twitch dreadfully. Nothing in the world do I hate moresave fire."

" And I do not care for the feeling of insecurity," chimed in Velika. Lan pressed close to reassure her with his nearness.

" These creatures and happenings might leak through from other worlds," said Inyx. " Perhaps, since we are all creatures of different origins, our senses are subtly tuned to one world line but not another. Lan might be sensitive to creatures from certain worlds and we from others."

" Aieee!" screeched Krek, his mandibles slashing at thin air. The giant spider hopped backward and slashed again with his man- killing pincers. Lan freed his sword from its sheath but feared to attack something he couldn' t see. Foretelling where Krek might dodge or leap proved impossible as he bounced and ducked his invisible foe.

" Finally, my weakness proved an asset," said Krek. He shook himself and fluffed his fur, then sank down to rock size beside them. " A vicious swarm of gnats the size of your fist. Dangerous to one in my pitiable condition, but tasty when taken singly."

" We' d better hurry. If these things are finding us with greater regularity, we might be attracting them simply by our presence in this nothing- world," said Lan. " Inyx, you seemed to know where we' re headed. Start out. I have no idea at all where the Road lies from here." Even closing his eyes and attempting to regain the throbbing headache he now associated with the presence of the interworld gates, Lan couldn' t find the proper direction in the darkness. The gate seemed to be everywhere and nowhere.

" Do you know where it is, Krek?" she asked. " I was simply following your lead."

" I did, but my powers wane rapidly in this nonworld. But if memory serves, and at any moment I might fade into senility from all the shocks to my system, this is where our destinies lie."

He rose and trotted in the direction he' d pointed. For long hours they trooped beside him, Inyx' s head swivelling from side to side like a mechanical toy and Lan holding Velika' s hand in a death- grip, sure that any moment might be their last. Lan was the first to notice a gradual lightening. Soon, the others commented on it. When the level of light reached that of false dawn, they turned off the lantern.

" It looks like a junkyard," said Velika. Scattered around them were bits and pieces of machinery long rusted, huge beetle- shaped metal shells with wheels large enough to use as battle shields, and myriad smaller metallic implements. Lan stooped to examine some. Their feel assured him of their reality.

" It might be a razor blade," he said. " But who has ever seen one so small and difficult to hold?" Casting it aside, he picked up a smooth yellow cylinder. On impulse, he pressed his forefinger against the sharpened end. A long blue streak appeared on his skin. " A scriber! Imagine. And those things over there are paper fasteners such as clerks use."

" Someone' s discard pile. But why here, between worlds?"

" Ever lose anything?" Velika asked. " Maybe this is where it goes."

The other three scoffed at the idea, but Lan wondered if she might not have an inkling of some cosmic truth. His intellectualizing was cut off abruptly by the eerie sensation of being watched. He carefully turned and surveyed the littered nonworld. Rising silently from the rusty remains of metal came a skeletal being, ligaments of wire and bones of steel and eyes of glaring red glass. It would have been an amusing parody of a human had it not carried a long length of chain in each pseudohand. Rippling motions like a muleski

" I don' t know what it is- or if you can even see it- but it looks nasty." Lan heard Velika' s horrified gasp and knew she saw it, too. Inyx drew her sword and crowded close to his side. Krek bobbed up and down on the other.

" Separate a bit, and keep a lookout behind us, Krek," commanded Lan. " I don' t want this thing' s friends to sneak up on us." His mouth filled with cotton as he watched the graceful motions of the metallic being as it neared. The chains sang death songs now, snapping as if they were made from leather.

" How do we kill such a construction?" asked Inyx. " In all my travels, never have I seen its like."

" We take it from two sides at the same time. Maybe lopping its head off will do something. The way those eyes flash on and off makes me think it might have a brain of some sort, even if we can' t see anything in its head but a small black box."

Then the time for talking passed. The skeletal being lashed out with the left chain. Lan danced aside and slashed viciously at a steel wrist with his blade. Sparks danced as contact was made, but the sword refused to penetrate and slithered down the creature' s arm, leaving only a shining nick as evidence of the blow. Lan' s entire arm had been numbed by the force of the stroke. He barely recovered in time to avoid the chain swinging in a short arc for his legs.

Inyx used a massive two- handed overhead blow to embed her sword in the right- arm socket of the robotic thing. Placing her foot against the skeletal leg, she twisted. Her blade snapped clean and left the attacking scrap pile with only impaired dexterity in its right arm.

" What are we going to do? Krek? Can you:" Lan ventured a hasty glimpse over his shoulder. Krek silently defended them from one of the huge metal bug shells rolling on four soft wheels. It pulled back and shot forward, trying to crush Krek under its weight. At least, that seemed its only form of attack. Lan wished the same could be said for his opponent.

A whistling arc of chain swept his feet from under him. The pain lancing into his body almost robbed him of consciousness, but Lan continued to fight. He lunged awkwardly for the creature' s face. As his blade slid into where the mouth might have been on a living being, an electric shock jolted the blade from his hand. At the same instant, the creature jerked violently backward.

Inyx saw the reaction and pounced, her dagger out and aimed for one of the glass eyes. A tinkling noise sounded as the knife broke a crystalline eyeball. The robotic thing went berserk, thrashing around, using the chains as much against itself as to attack Inyx. Lan painfully pulled himself erect, drew his dagger, and took careful aim. The blade tumbled twice in midair and impacted firmly in the creature' s other glass eye. As if poleaxed, it sank to the ground.

Lan stumbled, then steadied himself. Inyx rubbed her arm where a wicked welt colored as the result of too- close contact with the chain. She tossed Lan his dagger, then pulled her own free from the shattered socket.

Lan considered giving her his sword to replace her shattered one, then knew with i