Nightworld

Carol led the way to the roof, throwing her shoulder against the door at the top of the stairs and bursting out into the cold night air. She was vaguely aware of the hungry buzz and flutter of the night things swooping through the darkness beyond the edges of the building; she barely heard the rooftop gravel crunch under her feet, or noticed the others crowding out behind her. She was locked on the bright beam spearing into the heavens—straight and true, unwavering, a narrow tower of light shooting upward, ever upward until it pierced the sky.

And then it faded.

"It's gone," Bill said close behind her.

"No!" She pointed up. "Look. There's still a bright spot up there. Like a star."

The only star in the sky.

"Never mind the star," Jack said. "Check out the roof."

Carol wished he'd be less mundane at times but looked at the roof anyway. A smoldering hole was left where the light had burst through. She approached it cautiously and looked down through it into the living room below, afraid of what she might see there, afraid that Glaeken had been harmed somehow by the blaze of light.

There were no charred, blackened remains crumbled on the rug below. But Glaeken wasn't there either. Instead a stranger stood in his place—in Glaeken's clothes—clutching the hilt that sat upon the blade.

"Look!" Carol whispered. "Who's that?"

He was taller than Glaeken and had the old man's broad build, but this man was much younger, younger even than Sylvia. Perhaps Jack's age. And his long hair was fiery red. His shoulders and upper arms stretched the seams of the shirt he wore. Who—?

And then she caught a glimpse of his blue eyes and knew beyond all question—

"It's Glaeken!"

She felt an arm slip around her shoulder as she heard Bill's hoarse whisper beside her.

"But he's so young! He can't be more than thirty-five!"

"Right," she said as understanding grew. "The same age as when he first took up the battle."

Carol could not take her eyes off him. The way he moved as he tore the blade free of the floor and swung it before him. He was—she could find no other word for him—magnificent.

And then he looked up at them through the opening and Carol recoiled at the grim set of his mouth and the rage that flashed in his eyes. He lifted the weapon and reduced the coffee table to marble gravel and kindling with one blow, then he strode from sight. Seconds later they heard the apartment door shatter.

"He is pissed," Jack said. "And I hope it's not at us."

"No," Bill said. "It's at Rasalom. It's got to be Rasalom."

"Then I'm glad I'm not Rasalom."

Carol shivered in the cold wind and looked back up at the point of light the beam had left in the sky. It was brighter—and bigger.

"Look!" she said, pointing up. "It's growing."

"I think you're right," Bill said, squinting upward at the rapidly expanding spot. "It almost looks like—" Suddenly he was pulling her backward, away from the hole in the roof. "Run! It's coming back!"

Carol shook him off and stood waiting for the light rushing down from the heavens. It wouldn't hurt her—she knew it wouldn't hurt her. She spread her arms, waiting for it, welcoming it.

And suddenly she was bathed in light—the whole rooftop was awash in brilliant, white light. Warm, clean, almost like—

"Sunlight!"

The entire building stood in a cone of brilliance that broached the darkness from the point source far overhead, as if a pin hole had been poked into the inverted bowl of Rasalom's night and a single, daring ray of sunshine had ventured through.

Carol ran to the edge of the roof and leaned over the low parapet. Down below, on the bright sidewalk, the crawlers were scuttling away into the darkness of the Park across the street, fleeing the glare.

She heard a crash as bright fragments of glass exploded onto the sidewalk. And suddenly Glaeken was there, striding across the street toward the Park, his red hair flying as he swung the blade before him, as if daring something to challenge him. And as he stepped from the light into the darkness beyond—

"Bill!" Carol cried. "Oh, God, Bill, come look! You've got to see this!"

The light was following Glaeken, clinging to the sword and to his body like some sort of viscous fluid, trailing after him, creating a luminescent tunnel through the darkness.

"Where's he going?" Bill said as Jack, Ba, Sylvia and Jeffy joined her at the edge.

Carol thought she knew but Jack answered first.

"To the hole," he said in a low voice. "To the first one, the Sheep Meadow hole. The one he's after is down there."

They quickly lost sight of Glaeken, but together they stood on the roof and watched the tube of light channel its way into the inky depths of the park.