LITMIR.BIZ

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didn’t mention that in plain truth, either Elani or Valadrakul could doubtless make contact with others in the anti-Shadow network at any time, now that they were once again in their native realm, where good magic worked as it should. In truth, Elani could most likely make contact with agents in the Galactic Empire at any time, and they could, in their turn, carry messages to the Imperial authorities.

      Of course, that would most probably put an end to their usefulness as spies. Furthermore, Raven did not trust the Empire. He would communicate with it only on his own terms, not at the urging of this arrogant oaf of a commoner.

      He had not yet fully settled upon his own preferred course of action to be followed once he had found a new place in the resistance. That the Empire had some fool notion of using him as native guide in their assault on Shadow’s keep he knew; that he had assented to the Empire’s instructions, however, did not mean he would actually obey them. He had agreed because such an agreement was his only way to leave Base One and return to his own world.

      Here, though, he was in command. Colonel Carson might not have realized that yet, but Raven knew who was master here, in the natural world, away from the topsy-turvy Empire. He was the heir to Stormcrack Keep, and as such he need take no heed of such as Carson.

      * * * *

      Carson glared at the damned foppish barbarian who called himself Raven, trying to decide whether or not he could be trusted.

      He didn’t really trust any foreigner—none of them could think straight, they all had minds as twisty as their infernal streets in those little outworld colonies or the Azean backwaters on Terra. He had been told to cooperate with this Raven, though; the savage was supposed to be sworn to fight Shadow, and it was Shadow that really scared those pissant politicians back home, especially that twit Bascombe in the Department of Science, with his fancy title that he’d made up and got his father-in-law to make official.

      And, Carson admitted to himself, the people who gave him his orders might actually know what they were doing this time—though he wouldn’t bet his pension on it.

      They’d told him that the space warp would put him in a whole new universe, where space itself was different; he’d had his doubts, and for that matter he still wasn’t entirely convinced that this planet wasn’t just someplace off in an odd corner of the galaxy, that the space warp wasn’t just a shortcut from here to there, but it did seem to operate as advertised.

      They’d told him to expect equipment failures, that some of the machinery wouldn’t operate in the space here, maybe most of it, and sure enough, the damn ship had fallen like a rock, the AG drive working about as well as a popped rubber. He still suspected a break in the power feed somewhere, but he couldn’t prove it.

      So maybe they knew what they were doing when they told him to trust this fancy-talking twit.

      “We can breathe the air here?” he demanded.

      “Most assuredly,” Raven replied gravely.

      “All right,” Carson growled. “Let’s get out and take a look around, then, and maybe find these friends of yours.”

      * * * *

      Amy scuffed one half-booted foot through the dead leaves, enjoying the rustle that made.

      It wasn’t quite the same sound she’d have gotten doing the same thing back on Earth, in, say, Vermont; the air was slightly thicker here, and the higher gravity made the leaves pack down more tightly. That made it an effort to just stand and breathe, really; the tired irritability that had hounded her ever since her rescue from Walter and Beth, back on Zeta Leo III, was still with her as well.

      Still, it was good to be outdoors again after all the weeks at Base One. They had been lucky enough to arrive on a beautiful day—warm in the sun, cool in the shade—and the contrasts were delightful after the stuffy boredom of the hollowed-out asteroid. And it was good to see trees and leaves; she hadn’t realized it, but she had missed them, not seeing a proper forest, or even a decent grove, since she had first arrived in the Galactic Empire.

      The rich smells of black earth, rotting leaves, and growing things were absolutely wonderful after weeks of steel walls and stale air.

      The forest seemed awfully quiet, though. She heard no birds, no squirrels or other animals; perhaps the spaceship’s crash had frightened them away. The heavy, still air wasn’t stirring anything overhead, either; the only sounds came from the stranded humans.

      She looked up as the Imperial soldiers, in response to a brisk order from Colonel Carson, formed up in a line alongside the ruined spaceship, facing into a small clearing. At the sight of them, all together in their neat uniforms and silly purple helmets, it occurred to Amy that they had all been lucky that the ship had not smashed directly into one of the huge trees.

      But then, the trees weren’t all that close together, for the most part; a few giants had crowded out most of the lesser competition.

      Even so, it appeared to Amy that they had been fortunate in falling into one of the larger gaps. Trees crowded close around the ship’s nose and one side, but farther back the vessel lay in a relatively open space—open enough, at any rate, for Carson to stand there and order his men about, while the rest of the party stayed in sight but out of the way.

      She saw Raven and Valadrakul exchange a derisive glance at seeing the soldiers standing in their tidy row, chests out and shoulders back.

      “Popinjays,” Elani muttered. “Gaudy purple popinjays, ready to have the stuffing knocked from them.”

      Stoddard didn’t say anything; he crossed his arms on his chest and watched. Pel and Susan were still helping Ted down from the ship, and not paying any attention to the rest.

      Amy turned and whispered to Elani, “You don’t think much of them?”

      “Pah!” Elani said. “Soldiers such as these perished in their thousands in the wars against Shadow. The others, Captain Cahn and his men, at least showed small signs of wit; this lot, ha!”

      “You haven’t had a chance to get to know them,” Amy protested.

      Elani made a noise of disgust. “I need not,” she said.

      Amy remarked, “Raven seemed eager to have them along.”

      Elani muttered, “My lord Raven is a wise man at times, but he can be a fool, as well. Look you now, and see what he thinks of these.”

      Amy looked at Raven, who was making no attempt to hide his disdain for Carson and company.

      Well, that was fine. It might serve as a distraction.

      “Elani,” she said, “now that we’re here, is your magic working again?”

      The wizard turned to look at her. She waved a hand, and something flickered briefly in the air, and then vanished.

      “Aye,” she said. “The craft’s with me again.”

      Amy smiled. “Then we have a favor to ask—Pel and Susan and I.”

      Elani quirked one side of her mouth upward in a crooked smile of her own. “It seems to me that I might guess whereof you speak,” she said. “In truth, I’d wondered when you might speak of it.”

      “Then you’ll do it?”

      The wizard shook her head. “In time, aye,” she said, “for we’d have none with us who’d not be there freely, and indeed, what would we with such as your man Deranian? And yourself, a dealer in knickknacks and drapery, what have you to do with deeds of high courage and state? So aye, I’ll see you home—in time, in good time. But this is no place suitable, nor have we time enow, and ’twould be impolitic to attempt this ere I have spoken to Raven.”

      Amy pursed her lips and reluctantly nodded. “I can see that,” she said.

      “And it might have risks, as well,” Elani added. “There’s reason to believe that the opening of the gates between worlds is what drew Shadow’s eye before,

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