Into Darkness

73

Vika leaned close to Richard once she saw Sang join the others. “This is it, then? We are really going to die?”

Richard glanced over at her. “If my crazy idea doesn’t work, most likely.”

She frowned in a way that only Mord-Sith could frown. “And if your crazy idea does work, then the gateway will be destroyed, and we will have to face who knows how many thousands of angry Glee that will want to rip us apart for destroying their precious device?”

“Maybe they will cool off once they get back to their ponds.”

Richard didn’t want to tell her what his crazy idea actually was.

“So, if your crazy idea doesn’t work, we will likely die in the attempt, and if it does work and doesn’t kill us, the Glee likely will.”

“I tried to get you to stay back there in our world,” he told her. “You are the one who insisted on coming with me.”

Vika made a sour face as she folded her arms. “I guess coming with you was my crazy idea.”

He showed her a small smile that was more forced than real.

She looked across the sand at the Glee. They were all engaged in an animated discussion. There was even some pushing and shoving. Sang threw both arms up in the air as he jumped around, frantically trying to make his point. They didn’t look to be convinced. He gestured at the sky and then toward the way down the mountain, urging them that they had to leave before it was too dark.

The former followers of the goddess who had followed them up the mountain didn’t look like they had any intention of leaving before it was too dark, apparently more upset about Richard messing with their precious device than anything else. The way they were pointing across the sand, they looked like they were more set on stopping Richard.

The Glee Richard had brought across the drylands finally heeded Sang’s urgent warnings and started for the path down the mountain. Richard looked up and he could already see the first stars. They soon wouldn’t have much light to help them make it down the mountain. The moons would help, but only until they were in the dense fog of the heavy cloud layer lower down the mountain.

“I don’t know what you have planned,” Vika said, “but you had better hurry up before they decide to come over here and kill us to keep you from harming their sacred device.”

“I know, but I need time.”

“Time for what? How much time?”

“I already activated the verification web.” He gestured toward the sand. “That’s the bluish lines in the air above the sand. It doesn’t tell me enough about what I need to know to reset the gateway. In order to understand the gateway and the process to reset it, I need to do an aspect analysis of the verification web from an interior perspective.”

“Oh, of course.” Vika rolled her eyes. “I don’t know why I didn’t suggest that in the first place.”

“Vika, this is serious. This is our only chance. I’m going to have to use both Additive Magic and Subtractive Magic. It’s the only way to activate an interior perspective.”

That sobered her. “What do you need me to do?”

“Once I ignite that kind of power, anyone up here is going to die.”

“I hope you don’t really expect me to leave with Sang.”

“No.” He gestured to the bluish lines above the sand. “I want you inside that web with me. It’s the only way to protect you.”

“Inside magic?” She looked at him like she thought he had lost his mind. “You want me inside some kind of powerful magic with you? That’s your crazy idea?”

“You need to trust me. You have already let me take you to the world of the dead. Compared to that, this should be a breeze.”

“Sure, a breeze.” She glanced briefly at the glowing lines above the sand. “I don’t know a lot about magic, but what I do know is that mixing Subtractive Magic and Additive Magic is beyond dangerous. If you need reminding, that’s what brought Shota’s palace in Bindamoon down on top of you.”

“I know, but this time there is not a witch unleashing the same thing at me.”

“Will we be safe in your web thing?”

Richard nodded to reassure her. “Yes. I’ve done it before, and I know how to do it. But there is a problem.”

“Of course there is.” She let out a deep sigh. “What’s the problem?”

“While I know what I’m doing with the constructed-spell portion, I don’t know for sure how the gateway is going to react to a mix of that kind of power.”

She gestured across to the sand. “Well, whatever you’re going to do, you had better hurry. I don’t think Sang is convincing those angry Glee of anything.”

Richard saw that she was right. The last thing he needed was to get into a battle with Glee in the middle of complex protocols. He grabbed hold of Vika’s upper arm and urgently pulled her with him toward the center of the maze of glowing, bluish lines, working his way carefully but quickly through the maze without touching it to get to the center. Fortunately, there weren’t yet a lot of the bluish lines; that was why he needed to do the more extensive interior perspective from inside the verification web.

Once there in the center of the sand, Vika looked all around at the glowing lines, like they might bite. She wasn’t necessarily wrong. But they were far from as dangerous as they were going to get.

“I don’t have magic,” she reminded him.

“You have the bond to me,” he told her in a distracted voice. “I have magic. That gives you all the magic you will need. You will be protected by that bond.”

She looked around at the lines. “If you say so.”

“I do.”

“Well, do I need to do anything?”

“No. Just try not to move around too much or touch the glowing lines. Stay close to me. Once everything starts, don’t move away or try to run.”

She gestured. “Sang is still here, trying to convince them to leave.”

Richard turned. “Sang!” he called out. “You have three heartbeats before anything living up here is killed. Go now! If they won’t go with you, leave them!”