In
the Rift : Glenraven II In
the Rift : Glenraven II
They'd lowered the blinds, pulled the curtains closed, and turned on her lights. When she got her first clear look at them, Kate wished they'd left her in the dark.
The woman, Rhiana, looked normal enough, but the other three 'people' in her living room were a freak show. Val's long fingers were tipped with retractable claws, and when he smiled, Kate got a good look at a set of canines that would have made a werewolf fall in love. The overall shape of his face was subtly wrong, too. The cheekbones were too high and the chin pointed sharply ahead of strong, square jaws. He had long hair that he'd tucked behind his ears, which Kate could see were small, slightly scoop-shaped, with pointed tips. His long, slanted eyes were pale amber in color. The space between his narrow, sharp nose and the full upper lip seemed excessive. Val was compelling in an exotic, uncomfortable way, but he wasn't handsome.
Next to the last two visitors, though, even he looked normal.
The big black dog wasn't a dog at all. Its name was Errga-Kate had picked that up from conversations it had with the bearish thing, whose name was Tik, and with Val and Rhiana. It had settled itself into one of Kate's two armchairs. From this vantage point it watched her, grinning. Its face had a hint of greyhound to it, and more than a touch of wolf, but the high forehead and the intelligence in the lemon-yellow eyes would have told Kate it was nothing that belonged in her world even if she hadn't seen its furry, spiderish hands or heard it speak.
On the floor beside it sat Tik. If Smokey the Bear had shaved himself, worn bright red hair pulled back in a braid and dressed himself in a gaudy silk kimono, he would have approximated Tik, but imperfectly. This creature's bearish nose was the same tan color as the rest of its skin and it had stubby-fingered hands instead of regular paws; its pointed ears sat lower on its head than a bear's would have. But essentially, she thought, it was a bare bear in a party dress.
Kate lay with her feet up on her couch, her head on one of the overstuffed cushions, the blue-green afghan she'd crocheted pulled up to her chin, pretending a calm she didn't feel. She said, "What are you doing here, and what do you want with me?"
Val kept the gun pointed at her. Kate didn't bother letting him know it was no longer loaded. She figured anything she knew that the intruders didn't know could only work in her favor. Val said, "Rhiana is making another gate for us, and as soon as she completes it, we'll go home. The only reason we need you is because neither the warrag nor the dagreth can stand direct sunlight." He nodded at the bearish creature and the doglike one. "We needed to use your home and we didn't have time to ask nicely. The sun was getting ready to rise."
Rhiana looked up from her place in the center of the floor and said, "We aren't going to be going anywhere, Val. Probably not ever."
Val and Tik and Errga all turned and stared at Rhiana. Val bared his teeth and snarled something Kate couldn't quite make out. Then he said, "I hope you're joking."
"I wish I was. We can't go back for several reasons. First, something is blocking my access to the magic in this place. Second, whatever magic there is happens to be so weak I doubt I could form a gate strong enough to get us home. Third, if I could overcome both of those problems, I couldn't take us home because we're outside the boundaries of Glenraven, and the wards are now working against us."
Val shifted his attention completely away from Kate. Kate didn't try anything, because both Errga and Tik were still looking in her direction. She waited, watching while pretending not to watch at all. Sooner or later, she would have the advantage. When she did, she intended to make the most of it.
Val said, "The wards are working against us."
"Yes." Rhiana rose and stretched.
"I don't understand."
"The wards, Val. The barriers that keep the exiles out of Glenraven and protect us from the Machine World. We're on the wrong side of them now. As far as the wards are concerned, we're just four more exiles."
"So we can't go back?" Errga jumped down from his chair in a fluid motion and turned his back on Kate.
Tik rose, too. "We're exiles? You've made us exiles?"
None of them were watching her anymore. Kate pulled her knees up and shifted to her side, ignoring the pain, readying herself to leap.
Both Tik and Errga walked toward Rhiana. Val stayed where he was, holding the shotgun loosely in his right hand with the barrel pointed to the floor.
Ready, Kate thought.
"You have to get us home," Val said.
Set . . .
Errga lowered his head and growled. His lips skinned back from his teeth. "I do not wish to die an exile."
Go! Kate launched herself from the couch, crossed to Val in two running steps, grabbed the shotgun from him at the same time that she slammed into the Kin and knocked him to the ground, then jumped over the fallen outworlder and spun around to aim the shotgun at all four of them.
"Move and die," she said.
None of them moved.
Thank God I didn't tell them this thing was empty. They'd seen what it did to the flying monstrosity. They had a lot of respect for what it could do to them. Val raised his head and glared. Rhiana's face showed no expression at all. Tik and Errga slowly sat on their haunches, eyes wary.
"Now," Kate said, backing to the doorway that opened into the front hall, "the rules have changed, and I want to make sure you know them. I don't know what you people are. I don't know where you're from. But you're in my world now, and from now on you're going to do things my way. You can't go back home. That's too bad, and I'm sorry. But I didn't invite you here, and I don't see where you're my problem. I ought to send all of you out into the sunlight . . . just let you take your chances. Is that what you want?"
Errga and Tik shook their heads. Rhiana and Val watched her impassively. Val said, "The sunlight doesn't affect me."
"That's a lie," Errga said. "You aren't Kintari. You're just plain Kin. Maybe the sun won't kill you, but it will hurt you."
And Tik added, "The only one the sun won't bother is the Machnan. Isn't that right, Lady Smeachwykke?"
Rhiana nodded once, simple affirmation. She never took her eyes off Kate, and never said anything.
"Fine," Kate said. "So you don't want to go out in the sun. I don't particularly want to shoot you. Blood is hard to get off of walls, and if you were dead, you'd be hard to explain to the police." She pointed the shotgun at each of them in turn. "But I'll shoot you if I have to. You understand?"
They nodded.
"Back up against the far wall," she said, pointing with her free left hand. "You, Val, and you, Rhiana, sit on the couch. Tik and Errga, sit on the floor in front of them. Keep your hands where I can see them, and don't give me any reason to shoot you, because after what you did to me, I don't need much of a reason at all." They backed and sat. They were as far from the doorway as she could get them, and they couldn't split up and move behind her. She backed along the wall opposite them to the little bay window with the windowseat. Rhiana had dropped the Fodor's Guide to Glenraven there, and Kate wanted it. If anything explained what was going on, or what she was supposed to do about it, that would.
With the book in hand, she edged over to the doorway again.
She kept the shotgun leveled at her four visitors, resting it on her right hip with her finger hooked through the trigger. The book was in her left hand; she tucked it against her ribcage and inserted her thumb beneath the cover, never taking her eyes off her company.
Then she lifted the book, holding it so that she could read it and watch them at the same time.
Nice work. I'm surprised you were able to get control of them so quickly . . . but then I thought you would be right for this job when I met you.
She wondered what it was talking about. Ardent reader though she was, she'd never thought of herself as "meeting" books-and she didn't remember any chance encounters with a Fodor's Guide to Glenraven.
I was at the used bookstore when you stopped by two days ago. I tried to summon you back, but I couldn't make you hear me.
My wards would have protected me from that sort of manipulation, Kate thought.
No doubt. But when you didn't come back to get me-and since we were running out of time-I used a huge amount of the little raw power I can control and brought myself to you. I'm not going to be much use to anyone for months now, except for offering advice. If I don't overextend myself, I should be able to do that.
What could possibly make a magical book want to follow her home?
Long story. I'll write it out for you when we aren't in such a hurry.
Were they in a hurry? Why? What job did this book think she could do, and why had it chosen her to do it, and how was she supposed to deal with the creatures in her house, and where in the hell was Glenraven? She had a hundred questions, but the book addressed only one of them.
You've done a good job of dealing with your visitors so far, but you're going to have to make friends with them. They're here to help you, just as you are here to help them. Though considering how badly they acted after you saved their lives, I wouldn't be surprised if you weren't happy to discover that.
You'll find an ally in the dagreth, incidentally. He was not in favor of capturing you. He wanted to thank you and ask for your help. The Machnan was neutral. All she wanted was to recreate her gate and go home. The warrag might be won over to your side if you treat him well. You'll have to decide for yourself about the warrag and the Kin.
"Which of you is the dagreth?" Kate asked, though she had an idea. When the bearish creature growled, "I am," her guess was confirmed. She asked, "Can you read?"
"Of course."
"Then read this, and throw it back to me when you're done." She tossed the book to him. He caught it with a surprisingly deft movement. She filed the knowledge of that agility for future use, then turned her attention to the other three. "While he's reading, I'm going to talk to the rest of you." Kate leaned against the doorframe and let the barrel of the shotgun dip toward the floor. "We're supposed to be allies. Apparently you aren't here by accident, and neither am I. I'm going to be honest with you. I didn't volunteer for any of this. Nevertheless, the four of you are sitting in my living room and that monster is out on my front step, and I'd be a fool to deny the reality of what's happening, and a bigger fool if I didn't take the necessary steps to deal with it." She sighed and looked at the four of them. The three who weren't reading looked back at her, faces impassive.
"Okay. I'm going to tell you where I stand in all of this. Three men attacked me last night. They were going to do worse than just beat me up, but a police car on a routine patrol came by before they had a chance to finish what they started. While I was at the hospital, they came out here and killed my horse and left a message nailed to his head telling me that I was going to be next. If I don't show up at work today-and I am not showing up for work today-I think they may come by here. I suspect that one of them might be a sheriff's deputy."
She looked into four pairs of eyes, wondering if what she was telling them meant anything to them, or if such concepts as hospitals and police cars and sheriff's deputies were so far from anything they had ever experienced that she was wasting her breath.
The dagreth, who had put down the book to listen, said, "Go on. The book says you are concerned that we may not understand, but that it is translating your concept words into things we know from Glenraven."
"Oh." It had occurred to Kate that the four spoke awfully good vernacular English, but she'd had bigger things to worry about. "Fine. It's just that I haven't had any sleep in . . ." She looked at her watch. It was past seven. " . . . In more than twenty-four hours, and I've been beaten up and those creeps killed Rocky, and then you . . . people . . . showed up out of nowhere and I've had to fight with you, too. Evidently I wasn't supposed to have to fight with you. You were supposed to help me.
"Now I'm exhausted and I hurt and I'm afraid the thugs will come here to kill me. If we're going to be allies, and if I'm going to help you do whatever it is you need to do, you're going to have to protect me while I sleep."
All four of them looked at each other, and the dagreth said, "Here. Catch," and tossed the Fodor's back to her. It landed at her feet and she knelt to pick it up, still keeping her eyes on all four outworlders and her gun visibly at the ready.
The dagreth turned to his three companions and said, "The book brought us here to close the Rift. It says it can tell us how to get back home, but before it will do that, we have to find Callion and the Watchers. They're in this world somewhere. Until we either capture or destroy them, we aren't going to be able to leave. And the book says we won't be able to get to him without her, because she can show us this world's magic, and how to survive here."
When the dagreth fell silent, Val looked up at Kate and said, "I am in charge of all of these save Rhiana, and I am Rhiana's superior by birth. Why didn't you give your book to me to read, instead of to the dagreth, who is least among the Lesser Peoples?"
Kate looked at Val and thought, I really don't like him. She said, "I gave the book to Tik because Tik suggested that you ask for my help instead of attacking me. Rhiana didn't care one way or the other, and you and the warrag were in favor of taking what you wanted by force. I preferred Tik's approach."
Val's eyes narrowed. "How did you know that?"
Kate held up the Fodor's and shrugged. "It was right in here. So. Do we have an agreement? You'll watch out for me and I'll help you?"
"You don't know what you're getting into," Rhiana said. It was the first time she'd spoken directly to Kate. "We are being asked to capture one of the preeminent magicians of Glenraven, a vile, cunning murderer with enough magical ability at his command to destroy all of us. And the Watchers we're supposed to find are creatures of the Rift."
"What's the Rift?" Kate asked.
The warrag growled something about ignorance and outsiders, but Rhiana shushed him. "In Glenraven more than a thousand years ago, a Watchmistress named Aidris Akalan used a spell that opened a door between two worlds. The door was much like the gate we came through, but unlike it, this door stayed open. She used the door to bring through creatures who could give her magic that she needed in order to live forever, and she made a pact with them that they could devour the people of Glenraven if they would give her the magic from their victims' souls in return.
"For a thousand years, Aidris stayed in power, driving our world further toward death with every year. The evil she did drained the magic from the world and hope from the people, until a Machnan wizard named Yemus Sarijann brought two heroes from your world into ours to defeat her. Jayjay Bennington and Sophie Cortiss didn't just destroy the Watchmistress, though-they changed Glenraven in fundamental ways."
"Sophie Cortiss . . . and Jayjay Bennington? They're both from Peters," Kate said. "Or were, in Jay's case. Sophie's husband is a lawyer. She and Jayjay are the women who went missing over in Italy, but Jay died when she fell off the side of a mountain. Sophie brought her body back. I know Sophie. I used to play softball with Jay, until she was killed."
Rhiana shook her head. "Jayjay Bennington became Glenraven's new Watchmistress."
"I'm telling you, I knew Jay. She pitched for the Peters Library Lions. I was a first baseman. I met her when Craig and I moved here . . ." She caught her breath at the inadvertent mention of Craig, then went on. "We weren't friends precisely, but we were teammates. I went to her funeral. She died."
Rhiana was still shaking her head. "That is what you were intended to think. Sophie returned home bringing a copy of Jay's body. Sophie can never return to Glenraven, but we and our world owe her our existence and our freedom. Still, Jay and Sophie couldn't close the Rift. When Aidris died the Watchers would have had to go back to their own world and the Rift would have closed on its own, but another wizard, one of the First People, whose name is Callion, bound the Watchers to himself. Then he and they vanished. Because the Watchers remain on the wrong side of their gate, the Rift remains open, though it has been quiet."
The warrag said, "It hasn't been quiet. It's been waiting. Waiting. That monster on her front door is from the Rift."
Val and Rhiana turned startled faces toward Errga, though Tik sat nodding his head in agreement. "From the Rift?" Val asked.
And Rhiana said, "Are you sure?"
"It stinks of the Rift," the warrag said.
"I smell it, too," Tik said. "The otherworld smell, strong as the smell of wrong about this place, but different. Stink from the Rift world."
Kate didn't like the import-freighted looks Rhiana and Val exchanged. And she didn't like the idea that the Watchers, which Rhiana said had devoured the people of Glenraven for a thousand years, were now somewhere in her world.
She thumbed the book open again.
That's right. Your stake in this is just as big as theirs. Callion and the Watchers will destroy your world if they aren't stopped, just as they are destroying Glenraven. The three bastards who came after you aren't much of a problem at all by comparison. In fact, I think the Glenraveners and I will be able to solve them shortly.
Meanwhile, get some sleep. You won't be able to do much to help them or yourself until you do.
"I'm still in," Kate said. "Maybe I don't know exactly what I'm getting into, but I'll help you if you'll help me. Will you?"
The dagreth grinned. "I like you," he said. "You can count on me."
Rhiana said, "If I ever want to get home again, I don't have much choice, do I?"
Nothing like a vote of confidence, Kate thought.
The warrag just nodded.
Val smiled. "Of course you can count on me," he said. "We share a common cause. And what could be more important than saving our worlds?"