DIANE DUANE - A Wizard Alone

Certainty went straight through Nita like a lightning bolt, and not only because of the two-places-at-once line. It was everything else in combination with that. She thought of the knight, of the strength and bravery she d sensed in that version of Darryl, and of the power inherent in the robot. All those experiences were fragments of this bigger picture, pieces of the jigsaw. Nita glanced on down the page.

The Pillars are rarely recognized as such by their contemporaries. Should they become conscious of their own status asabdals , the realization itself renders them ineffective in their role, which is to channel the One s power without obstruction into the strengthening of the world. Their portion of that power is then lost to the Worlds, and with its loss, theabdal dies.

Nita slapped the manual shut and sat there, actually sweating, for a few moments. The language of the manual could be obscure sometimes, but this time Nita was sure she knew perfectly well what it was talking about when it said the Pillars  power was  derived strictly from the incorrupt nature of their personality. It means what Darryl s got , she thought.Innocence.That plain, straightforward innocence that just goes right through whatever comes at it, like a knife, or bounces any attack off it, like a shield. And that really, really pisses off the Lone Power, so that It just keeps coming at him again and again, which is just the way Darryl wants it 

Nita pushed back from the table a little, leaning back in the chair and considering. Normally when the Lone Power turnedIts attention to destroying a wizard during his or her Ordeal, It would lay out no moreenergy than It absolutely had to. The tendency not to waste energy unnecessarily was oneIt still shared with the other Powers. It didn t wasteIts time spending a lot of power on one wizard unless It knew that person was going to be something really special.Dairine, for example , Nita thought.It gave her a lot of grief because she was so young when her Ordeal hit. The kind of power she was going to have, even just for a while, was worth trying to knock out . But Darryl didn t give Nita the same impression of huge and abrupt power thatDairine had, and the manual confirmed his power levels as being, while not unusually low, not unusually high, either.

So these repeated attacks suggest that the Lone Power knows Darryl s one of the Pillars, Nita thought.And killing anabdal has to be worth more to the Lone Power than just killing a wizard on Ordeal. Getting two for the price of one must look like an awful lot of fun to It.

But the game s changed. Darryl s not the only stuck one now!

Nita sat looking out into the front yard, watching the maple tree there shed little sparkles of snow into the air as a faint breeze moved its branches.If the LoneOne finds out about this, It s going to go ballistic , Nita thought.It s been having so much fun toying with Darryl thatIt doesn t realize he s turned the tables on It .

The Enemy will fight and fight again. I will holdIt here, he said. He sprolonginghis Ordeal on purpose, running the Lone Power ragged 

But that can t last forever. If there s one thing the Lone Power hates worse than anything else, it s someone laughing atIt . The minuteIt discovers that Darryl s tricking It, It ll just kill him outright in the nastiest way It can.

Nita bit her lip.And that would be forIt to make Darryl find out that he s one of the Pillars. He loses the power. He dies. And the Lone Power gets back at the One, too, through Darryl s death .

Hereyes narrowed as she remembered that mischievous smile, the courage in those dark eyes and thought of how long Darryl had been alone there in one or another of his worlds, righting, forgetting, fighting again, an endless battle with no hope of relief, no way to win  but with that valor always there, like shining armor.

Well,It s not going to get Its waythistime , Nita thought.

She got up and started picking up the banana skins lying around the dining room table.There s been enough dying around here , she thought.No more of it! As soon as Kit gets up, we re going to sit down and make apian .

She headed upstairs to get dressed.

Complications

Kit stopped in the middle of the jungle path and looked around him.  We re lost,  he said.

I don t know if I d saywe,Ponch said, sounding ever so slightly reproachful.

Kit wiped the rain off his face and turned to look back the way they d come. It was nearly impossible to see where that was, for the path they d been following was scarcely any wider than he was. The jungle all around them was a tangle of dark reds and dark greens, huge trees and undergrowth, vines and creepers and strange-looking plants. High above, the upper canopy of broad leaves held away the burning whiteness of the sky. Down here, precious little of that light reached; all the plants were in mud and blood colors, depressing  and the shadows in between them were worse. There were creatures in this jungle that had messy eating habits, and Kit had stopped looking into the shadowyplaces at the bases of the immense trees unless he absolutely had to.

 Where is he   Kit said.

Ponchstood there with his nose working.I m not sure , he said.

 You renot sure 

We didn t do this the usual way,Ponch said.For one thing, neither of us is awake. For another, you went in first, and I followed you because I didn t want you going in here alone. And you didn t bring the leash .

Kit sighed and put out his hand.  Leash,  he said.

Nothing happened.

You tried that before,Ponch said,and it didn t work then, either .

Kit sighed and wiped the rain out of his eyes again. At least the rain was warm, which was a good thing because it never really stopped; even when the hot sky above it wasn t actively raining, the jungle floor got more or less constantly dripped on.

So which way Ponch said.

 We might as well keep on down this path,  Kit said.  We re bound to run into Darryl eventually.

A high-pitched scream came out of the gloomy creeper-hung darkness ahead of them.Assuming thatdoesn t run into him first ,Ponch said.Or that it doesn t run into us first .

 Come on,  Kit said. He slogged down the muddy path, andPonch padded along behind him, glancing nervously into the shadows of the trees and the undergrowth on either side of the path.

The path made a curve around one unusually large tree. Kit paused, looking at it, and went slowly around the curve.  Darryl   he shouted.  Where are you 

There was no answer but another of the bloodcurdling screeches from up in the canopy. Kit knew, in a general sort of way, that there was no guarantee that what he was hearing up there was a carnivore but there was no guaranteeing that itwasn t , either. He reached sideways to hisotherspace pocket, thinking about the barbecue-lighting laser and couldn t find the pocket, let alone the laser.

You tried that before, too,Ponch said.

 I forgot,  Kit said. He wiped his face again. It wasn t rain he was wiping away this time, but sweat. The heat here was terrible stifling, muffling, like wearing a portable electric blanket but far worse was the humidity. If there was anything in the normal world that Kit really hated, it was hot, humid weather. In this place, though, it seemed like all the spare humidity from any number of jungle planets had been gathered up and dumped here. The sweat was running into his eyes, making them burn. Kit paused long enough to wipe his face again,then continued around the tree, looking at it suspiciously.  I keep expecting Darth Vader to come out of one of these and chase me with a light saber.

I don t think that s a good thing for you to be imagining,Ponch said, sounding unnerved.Let s stick to Darryl for now. And once we ve found him, let s get out of here !

They went on under the trees. Not far ahead, trees shorter than the gigantic two-hundred-footers were gathered together in a cluster, and the path wound through them. It seemed to Kit that this looked like a perfect place for some kind of ambush  yet somehow he felt unable to take the prospect seriously. He slowed down a little, but kept walking.

Something smells bad here,Ponch said.

 Everythingsmells bad here,  said Kit. The whole jungle had a smell like wet laundry that had been left in the washing machine too long, a stagnant scent. Some of the creepers were even festooned with something that might have been mistaken for wet laundry, though the growth was actually some kind of nasty, flabby fungus. Kit looked now with some loathing at the vines hanging from the red-trunkedtrees ahead of him; they had that fungus all over them, curtaining away the view of whatever might be further down the path.

 You smell anything   Kit said.

Mold,Ponch said, his nose wrinkling.And other things.I don t want to talk about it .

Kit walked forward a little more slowly, looking at those trees,then looked over his shoulder again, back down the path.  I wish Nita were here,  he said.

I don t!Ponch said. Iwouldn t want anyone I liked to be here. And I don t want us to be here, either! We re not going to find him this way, boss. Let s go home !

 Just a little while more,  Kit said. He was beginning to agree withPonch , though. He was so tired. Ishould have walked out of here the minute I found myself in here , he thought,except I don t remember how I gotin here .

No, wait. I do remember.The dream. I dreamed I saw Darryl running into the jungle. I went after him

There was a rustling among the trees that lined the path ahead of them. Kit reached sideways for his other-space pocket. Then, as he was feeling around for it, he remembered that it didn t seem to be there in the dream. Ikeep forgetting things , he thought. Iguess it s just that I m so tired.After yesterday, and the days before. But I can t help it. We can t leave him stuck in this. We have to find him !

There was definitely something moving around in those trees, though Kit couldn t see what it was, and he didn t want to go any closer without some kind of weapon. He had a memory that there should have been wizardries that he could use for self-defense, but he was just too tired to think of any of them right now. Kit looked aroundhim, saw a fallen log to one side of the path. There was a branch sticking out of it that looked big enough to use as a club. He got down on one knee and struggled with the branch for a few moments until it snapped off the log. It was covered with dark browngoo , yet more mold of one kind or another. Kit made a face as he rubbed it off the branch as best he could, rubbed his hands more or less clean on his pants, and then got up.  Come on,  he said toPonch .

High up in the jungle canopy, one of the invisible monsters started screaming again. Kit wanted to hold his ears against the noise of it, though that would havemeant dropping the branch. Shortly the screamer was joined by a second, and they screamed at each other more and more loudly as Kit got closer to the trees.

One big creeper was hanging down over the path. It was well draped with the dirty-laundry fungus, and looked almost like a curtain. They were going to have to push through this. There was no avoiding it. Kit reached out one hand to the creeper, while above him in the trees the intolerable screeching got louder and louder.If there is something in there , Kit thought,I m not going to be able to hear it if it s coming for me .

Yet he felt he had to go in.  You ready   he said toPonch .

I m right behind you. Be careful!

Kit pushed the creeper aside. The gloom beyond the curtain of fungus was even worse than that out in the shadow of the trees; it was danker, more stifling and breathless. Kit edged into it, let the curtain fall

Darkness.Ponchwas close behind him, crowded up against his legs. Any hope that Kit had had that being in this closed-in place might somewhat muffle the awful screeching from outside was in vain; if anything, it seemed worse. He moved softly among the trees, brushing past the down-hanging loops and rags of fungus, trying not to touch them more than he had to. Where the fungus brushed him, he got an uncomfortable itchy feeling even through his shirt.

Kit started to move faster, though the weariness that had started to bother him when he came into this place was getting worse all the time. He was sure he could see shadows moving just beyond the trees that hemmed in the path. It might just have been more of the fungus, shifting in the wind, except that there was no wind. Somethingwas moving there. Then, even over the screaming from above, Kit thought he heard a breathing sound

He couldn t bear it anymore. He broke into a run, andPonch plunged along behind him. The awful fungus slapped him in the face and upper body as he ran; Kit swatted it aside as best he could, but somehow it always seemed to get him anyway. Once he nearly throttled himself by running into a creeper that was hanging exactly at throat height. Kit reacted just in time to grab it, and used it to swing himself a little sideways but then he banged into one of the closer trees and fell, and from above he could hear the screaming, louder than ever, sounding like laughter now.

Kit staggered to his feet and wobbled down the path again. His body didn t seem to be working right, and he couldn t understand why, unless it was just the weariness that was getting to him. His legs almost seemed to belong to someone else. His brain was full of noise that he couldn t stop. He knewPonch was behind him, but he had to keep reminding himself of that. He couldn t get rid of the idea that he was all alone here, had been alone forever

 except for something that hated him. It was hiding in the shadows. It was up in the furious brightness above the trees. It was dripping from every leaf, underfoot in every square inch of mud, looking at him with cruel, small, burning eyes from up among the branches of the trees. Kit ran, but his body wouldn t obey him,wouldn t let him run fast enough; he staggered along like some broken mechanical thing, and the screaming voices up above all laughed at him, and eyes, eyes he didn t dare meet, eyes whose contact was infinite pain, were staring at him from all around in the dark. He would come out into the open again in a moment, but there would be no respite for him then, either, no escape. The worst of the eyes would be there, waiting for him, in the shape of what was going to kill him at last.

Kit tried to stop, but he couldn t.Ponch blundered into him from behind. Kit s own momentum combined with the push fromPonch sent him forward, through the last curtain of creeper and fungus, down onto the path, and he was helpless in front of the merciless thing that waited.

Hands came down, grabbed him by the arms.  No!  Kit cried

 and then realized that nothing had happened to him, and that he was facedown in the mud, and that the screaming above him was just screaming again and that the hands were Darryl s.

Darryl was stronger than Kit would have expected. He hauled Kit nearly upright, but Kit didn t have the strength to stay that way; he collapsed down onto his butt again in a most undignified manner, and stayed there for a few moments, just panting and trying to get his breath back.

 Have to get up now,  Darryl said.  It s coming.

Kit tried, and had trouble. Once again Darryl reached down to him and took Kit by the forearms. This time he swung him right up to his feet. Kit staggered a little, but managed to stay there, marveling again at how strong the youngster was.  Thanks,  Kit said.  Darryl, I ve been trying to catch up with you for a long time. I m on errantry, and do I ever greet you! Now can we go somewhere quiet and have a talk, because