Basilisk! Kit thought, having seen the creatures images in the manual more than once, and having thought every time that he d rather not see them in the flesh. They weren t the heraldic beasts that went by the name, but a worse thing that the Lone Power had constructed from spare parts in Its spare time a minion-creature that served as mindless messenger and doer of small dirty deeds.And it sees me. The stealth spell isn t working, either
There were three kinds of basilisk: hot, cold, and starry. It was plain enough to Kit which kind he was dealing with here, and he knew the remedy for them if they got too close.Heat
Kit flipped his manual open to its notes and storage area. Some time back during the summer, his pop had been having a lot of trouble keeping the barbecue lit, and Kit unnerved by the overconfident way his pop sprayed the lighting fluid around in his attempts to relight it had started working with some of the wizardries that temporarily set air solid and selectively reflective, so that it could be used to produce laser beams. When the barbecue season had come to an end, Kit had stored those wizardries in his manual for the next year. Now he hurriedly pulled one of them out, shook the long chain of characters out until it solidified into a rod, and twiddled its end to reset the air variable. Fortunately it didn t take long: All he had to do wasdeductthe oxygen and add some hydrocarbons.Right.Here we go
Kit stuffed his manual into his parka pocket, shouldered the bright-glowing rod of the laser, and waited for the basilisk to swoop at him and then was disappointed when it didn t bother, but just went screaming on past. Several others followed, all heading in the direction Darryl had gone. Kit stood there for a moment and let out a long breath that was as much frustration as relief. It was annoying to have something to shoot with, and something worth shooting at, and then not have an excuse to shoot at it.
He s stopped running,Ponch said suddenly.
What Kit said. They ve caught him!
I m not sure,Ponch said.
Come on!
They ran the way Darryl had gone. As they ran, something occurred to Kit.The stealth spell hasn t been working since we got here otherwise, Darryl wouldn t have seen me, either. Kit wondered if these places where he kept finding Darryl weren t just rigorously constructed landscapes of the mind, obeying natural law, but genuine alternate universes, custom-made, the kind of places Nita had been working with to help her mother the kind of thingPonch had started creating on his own.Places where even the way wizardry works can be changed
As Kit ran, he found his endurance wasn t what it normally would have been. He was tiring. He couldn t get rid of the sense that, whether real or inside Darryl s mind, this universe was much farther away than the last one. There was something inherently wearying about this space itself, as if its structure sapped the energy of anyone unfortunate enough to stray into it. Or maybe it was just the noise the wind, the roaring of the voices outside, getting louder again
Kit stopped for a moment to readjust the force-field wizardry,then went on again at a dogtrot behindPonch . You doingokay Kit said.
So far, no problems.
You feel all right
So far
Ahead of them, dimly, through the blue-smoke swirling of the methane snow, Kit thought he could see the basilisks diving and swooping at something, fluttering at it. Kit couldn t make out what it was.
Then, as he got a little closer, he could.
Darryl was standing there with his arms up over his eyes, twisting, turning from side to side and then he stopped. Between one breath and another, he had become encased in what looked like a solid block of ice. The basilisks were scrabbling at it with the claws on their wings, screaming, and the thunder up in the sightless, coldly burning sky beat in the air like a heart, deafening.
Suddenly the basilisks flapped away, up into that blue-white haze, as a shadow approached them out of the blowing snow. Kit gulped and put the laser away in hisotherspace pocket as the form became distinct, gatheringItsdarknesses together out of the snowy air.
The Lone Power came striding up to that block of ice, looking as Kit had seenIt a long time ago like a young-looking human, red-haired, handsome, but with cruel, cold eyes and a smile you did not want to see. It was wearing the same dark suit Kit had seenIt wear on his own Ordeal, but this time with a long, black winter coat over it, and a scarf wrapped around Its throat. The Lone One s eyes were still angry and chill, but right now they also held an oddly weary and annoyed expression that intensified the closerIt got to Darryl. A few feet away from the block of ice,It stopped and stood, and put out Its hand, which was suddenly filled with the hilt of a long, black-bladed sword.
The Lone Power stood there in silence for a moment, gazing at Darryl s silent form with narrowed eyes.
So it comes to this, the Lone One said. For a while, at least, you tried to fight. I ll give you credit for that. But now you ve given up. What were you thinking of That I d be merciful now, that I d let you off easy because of your problem You should know better. When people give up around me, the poor fools pay the price. It took a step forward, slow, menacing, savoring the moment. Not thatnot giving up helps them, either, of course. Even for those who pass their Ordeals, there s no escape; I get them later. All they ever manage to do is delay the inevitable.
A chill, which had nothing to do with the local weather, went down Kit s back as the Lone Power took another step forward, and another, hefting the sword, lifting it in slow preparation to strike. In your case, though, the Lone One said, amused, there won t be any further delay. You should never have accepted the power if you weren t willing to use it. And you weren t so now you lose it.
Ican t stand it , Kit said silently toPonch .
But I thought Tom said
I don t care. I m not going to just stand here!
Kit had already made sure the shield around him was secure. Now he was paging hurriedly through the manual to a section he looked at fairly often but had very rarely used, the offensive weaponry. It was the Lone One Itself he was going to be dealing with here, so Kit chose a quark-level dissociation tool the wizardry equivalent of a low-yield tactical nuke hooked his canned description of himself into it, told the wizardry to take as much of his power as it needed for one good shot, and then swallowed hard once, because this was scary stuff.You ready to get us out of here in a hurry if you have to he said toPonch .
Say the word.
I may not have time
I llbe ready .
Kit took a deep breath then dumped the stealth spell. He took a step forward, and another, and then walked right up toIt , where It stood.
Fairest andFallen , Kit said, trying hard to keep his voice even, greeting and defiance.
It didn t even look up.
Kit stood there breathing hard. I said, greeting and defiance
No answer. The Lone One was intent on Darryl. It lifted that black blade high. Darkness ran down it,sweeping after in a trail asIt brought the sword swinging around. Kit swallowed one more time and spoke the first of three words that would activate thedissociator , as the sword struck the middle of that block of methane ice
and shattered.
Kit stared.
The Lone Power straightened up from the stroke and looked, suddenly dumbfounded, at the broken stump of a sword inIts hand. The block of ice wasn t marred, not even scratched.
IfIt was astonished, so was Kit.Could it be that the Lone Power can t see you when you re in someone else s Ordeal he wondered.But Tom would ve said something .
Or is this space just the way it is because of Darryl being here If Mama s right, if some autistic people have trouble with the concept that other people might be or think differently from them, then maybe nothing It does to Darryl here can hurt him because the things It does aren t things he d do
Kit looked at the Lone Power, wondering in a scared way what was going throughIts mind. It regarded the broken sword for a moment,then flung it furiously away. Where the hilt-shard came down in the blue snow, there was a brief and noisy explosion. But the Lone One ignored that. It putIts hands up against the front of the block of ice and spoke softly to the small shape entombed there.
Are you really stupid or crazy enough to think I m just going to walk away the Lone Power said, and the menace inIts voice made Kit s hair stand up all over him. I have centuries,aeons at my disposal. I can hound you from life to life if I chose, until for the sake of a moment s peace youbeg me to destroy your soul! Is this what your precious Powers gave you your wizardry for To stand here inactive as a statue, refusing the inevitable Well, it won t help you. Coward! You can t come out the other side of this until you confront me. And youwon t confront me! You ll just stay in here like the pitiful reject that you are, while outside in reality your darling mother and father grieve over you every day. You re not being very considerate of them, are you After everything they ve gone through Now you have a chance to stand up, to conquer me, to come out the other side of your power, and you won t take it.
Kit was having trouble believing what he was hearing. The Lone Powerwas frustrated . He saw the unbelievable saw the Power that invented death start hammering withIts fists on the upright coffin of ice. Come out! the Lone One cried, and thunder cracked in response, high up in the wind-torn air. The snow blew around again, hiding nearly everything but that relentless, furious, stymied darkness. Come out and let s finish it!Come out !
The thunder ofIts voice started to drown out even the thunder up in the turbulent atmosphere. How long this went on Kit wasn t sure, but finallyIt fell silent, looking once more at the small, unmoving shape in the ice.
It doesn t matter, the Lone One said. I can wait. I have all the time in all the worlds. Sooner or later, you ll drop this ploy and try another that s less effective.
Sooner or later, in life or after, you ll be forced to face me and when you finally do, you ll wish your soul had never been created. For that day, I ll wait as long as it takes.
It turned and walked away into the blue-white snow. Kit lost sight ofIt within seconds, and a few seconds after that, by a lightening of the spirit that was impossible to mistake, Kit knew that It had left this space. Next to him,Ponch was shivering with a combination of nervousness and amusement.
Wow, Kit said.
Yes. Let s get him out of there!Ponch said.
Absolutely.