by R. L. King
“Er—” Jason began, but before he could say more, Stone shook his head. “No, I’m helping him with a spot of difficulty he’s gotten himself into. Which is actually the reason for our visit. That and enjoying your excellent chicken tikka masala, of course. We need to take a little trip.”
“I see, I see.” David’s smiling expression didn’t change, but something in his eyes did. He glanced at Jason. “Both…of you will be traveling?”
Stone nodded. “Yes, both of us. I’ll vouch for Mr. Thayer—you have my word he won’t cause you any trouble.”
David regarded Jason for a long moment, sizing him up and considering Stone’s words. “All right, then,” he said at last. “We’ll see to that right away. You just sit here and enjoy your meals—they’re on the house this time, naturally—and I’ll be off to assist you with your travel plans.” He waved goodbye to them and hurried back toward the kitchen.
Jason watched him go. “So—how does this work, anyway? Do you have to pay to use the gateway? Are you on some kind of timeshare where you all get a certain number of uses every year and everybody fights over Christmas?”
Stone chuckled, shaking his head. “No, nothing like that. It’s more professional courtesy—I use their gateway on occasion, and in return I help them out when they need a favor. Technically, it doesn’t belong to them in a conventional sense—several other mages helped to set it up, so there are a few of us who have access to it.”
“Are there others around here?”
“Not many in the country. I’d estimate there are fewer than a dozen permanent gateways in the United States. Most are back East.”
“I…see.” Jason only half-jokingly wondered if he should be taking notes on all this stuff. “You said ‘permanent’ gateways. Are there temporary ones, too?”
Stone nodded. “There are. It’s possible to set one up that’s only intended to last for a few hours at most—but they’re extremely difficult and expensive to construct, and frightfully dangerous to use. You’d only ever want to set one up if you absolutely had to get somewhere in a hurry, but you didn’t have access to one of the permanent ones.”
The waitress chose that moment to show up with their food, so he waited until she had placed the dishes before continuing. “I once had a colleague who was part of a group that was trying to discover a way to make the temporary gateways safer.”
“I take it he didn’t succeed?”
“She. And I’ve no idea. We lost touch, and I never heard anything more about it, so I’d guess not.”
Jason nodded. “Can you do it? Set up a temporary one, I mean?”
“I can, but I wouldn’t. I can’t think of anywhere I’d ever need to be so quickly that I couldn’t just use this one here, or mine at home if I’m back there. Or—you know—just take a plane,” he added.
Jason let it go at that, concentrating on finishing his lunch.
David came back out when they finished, this time accompanied by a woman who was taller and thinner than he was. “I hope everything was to your liking,” David said, smiling.
“Excellent as usual,” Stone replied. “My compliments to the chef.”
“Good, good.” David extended a hand toward the kitchen door. “Perhaps you’d like to compliment him yourself, and take a small tour of the kitchen?”
“We’d be delighted.” Stone rose and indicated for Jason to do so as well. When he started to protest, the mage gave him the barest headshake, followed by a “come-along” gesture.
Jason sighed and followed, trying hard to contain his impatience. Perhaps this was the first test to see if he could control his emotions. But to his surprise, they walked right past the kitchen and out the other side, into a dingy, dimly lit hallway containing two doors. The one at the end was labeled “EXIT” and the other one said “MAINTENANCE.” David went to a blank space on the wall halfway between the two and stopped. He remained there for a few moments and Jason thought he could hear him mumbling something under his breath. When he finished speaking, the wall shimmered for a second, and then a third door appeared in the blank wall. This one wasn’t labeled at all. He pulled it open and motioned them in. Jason, eyes wide, allowed himself to be herded through in front of Stone.
A wooden stairway, lit only by a single bulb hanging overhead, led down. Boxes of nonperishable restaurant supplies were piled up on one side, and the foot of it was shrouded in darkness. The dusty odor of a disused space hung in the air. David and the woman headed down without a second glance, and Jason reluctantly followed.
At the bottom, they followed a long, narrow hallway for a fair distance. Jason could see, far ahead, something glowing strangely—flickering and phosphorescent like some kind of weird swamp lights. Deciding that this would be a good time to start getting control over his fear, he caught up with the two restaurant owners as they stepped into an open room. David reached around the corner and flipped on a light switch.
Jason wasn’t sure what he expected to see, but this was definitely not it. The room, around fifteen feet on a side, was empty of furniture; its only decorations were a few rugs with Indian patterns spread on the floor. “What is it with you people and doing magic in basements?” he asked. “Somebody’d think you were all a bunch of vampires or something.”
David laughed. “I assure you, it’s purely coincidental. This odd basement is part of why we chose this location for the restaurant. As you can see from the door upstairs, it would be very difficult for anyone to get in—or even to find it—without our knowledge.”
Jason nodded, but he wasn’t really listening. Instead, he was staring at the—thing—in the center of the room. About seven feet tall and roughly as wide, with no physical frame or boundary, the magical gateway hung in the air like some sort of flickering movie screen. As he watched, transfixed, it cycled through a series of colors: blue, red, green, yellow, purple, white. The colors blended and ran together like watercolors, then flowed away from each other and skittered around the gateway’s perimeter. It wasn’t quite the most beautiful thing Jason had ever seen in person (a certain young lady he’d known rather intimately a few years ago took that distinction) but it was certainly near the top of the list. Every once in a while, he thought he saw images flickering over the colors, but every time he tried to focus on them, they would shift maddeningly away. It was like trying to watch a color television being washed out by a flood.
“Jason—” A hand touched his shoulder and startled him out of his reverie. Stone stood there, looking very much like he understood what Jason was experiencing. “We need to get going.”
“Yeah…” He tore himself away from the beautiful colors and looked at the mage, the reason they were here returning instantly to his mind. “What do I need to do?”
“We’ll leave you two to it, then,” David said. “You’ll be all right, Alastair?”
“We’ll be fine. Thanks again. We shouldn’t be gone long.”
They waited until the two restaurant owners had gone, and then Stone turned back to Jason. “All right, are you ready?”
“No,” Jason admitted. “But that’s okay. I don’t really see how I could get ready for this. Let’s just do it before I lose my courage. Maybe I should have had a nice stiff drink first,” he added, wondering if perhaps he should go back to the restaurant and do just that. Plenty of people got good and drunk before taking flights to keep them from being scared—why would it be any different for this?
“Bad idea,” Stone said, shaking his head. “I need you in control of your inhibitions, not losing them.”
Jason shrugged. “Can’t blame a guy for trying.”
Stone faced the gateway. “All right—be quiet for a few minutes and let me do the spells to focus this properly, so we don’t end up coming out in the wrong place. Then we’ll step through together. Just stay close to me, and remember what I told you: it’s only dangerous if you want to make it so.”
Stone only took about five minutes to adjust the gateway, which to Jason looked lik
e he simply stood in front of it and stared hard into its colorful depths. Nothing changed as far as he could tell—the colors were still the same, the strange watercolor effect still danced around, and the flickering images were as elusive as ever. But Stone seemed satisfied, because he turned back with a nod.
“Ready to go,” he said. “Let’s do this. Stay close.”
“I don’t have to hold your hand, do I?” The absurd thought almost made him laugh aloud: Be sure to hold tight to Daddy’s hand while crossing the interdimensional space portal against the light.
“Not necessary, but it wouldn’t be a bad idea to keep hold of my shoulder or something. In any case, just make sure you don’t stray far away. I can mask us a bit if we’re close, but if you get out of my range all bets are off.”
Jason couldn’t think of any other ways to stall, so he nodded. “Let’s go.” He was surprised to hear his voice shaking a little.
Together, they stepped through the gateway. The feeling was one of the strangest Jason ever experienced: like stepping through a cool waterfall laced with an electrical field. His whole body felt energized; he half expected to look down at his hand and see it sparking. He looked over to make sure Stone was still there, and then took in his surroundings.
He stood in what looked like a foggy tunnel. Most of the space ahead of him was featureless and gray, broken up by occasional dark shapes flitting back and forth, or flashes of, for lack of a better term, dark lightning arcing from one side to the other. The tunnel itself was a little larger in diameter than the gateway itself had been; Jason thought that perhaps three or four people could walk it abreast if they squeezed close. Tentatively he tried out his voice: “So—we just go forward now?” It sounded dead and mechanical, the fog producing some kind of damping effect that removed all nuance.
Stone nodded. Jason noted that the mage’s expression was unreadable, but there was a definite tightness in his jaw that suggested this trip was not a walk in the park for him either. “Yes,” he said. “There’s really no way to get lost. Just follow the passage.” He moved forward, and Jason hastened to follow.
There were sounds here too, but nothing that was possible to distinguish. Vague growls, mechanical rumbles, far-off dissonant cries—all of them were soft and almost subsonic. And all of them were making Jason’s skin crawl. “Doc…” he muttered, deciding that grabbing Stone’s shoulder might not be such a bad idea after all.
“Hold it together, Jason,” the mage said evenly. “Just keep moving forward. Slow and steady, that’s the way. Try to just look straight ahead if you can. And remember Verity.”
One step. Two. Three. Was the tunnel getting darker? Was it getting bigger? He wasn’t sure, but he thought so.
Four steps. Five.
The vague, subsonic sounds were speaking to him. He knew it. He couldn’t understand them, but nonetheless he was convinced they were focused on him. He took a deep breath. “Something’s—here,” he whispered.
Stone nodded. “I can feel it. That’s normal. It won’t notice us. Just keep moving.”
“It’s looking for me…” His hand tightened on Stone’s shoulder. The sounds were seeping into his brain now, into his body, into his soul. The tunnel was definitely widening out and getting darker. He could barely see Stone next to him anymore; he was just a dim figure moving along through the fog. He could have been anybody.
What if it wasn’t Stone? What if one of those—things—had taken his place when Jason wasn’t looking? What if it was even now leading him off the path into darkness, into madness—
“Jason!” Stone’s sharp voice managed to fight its way out of sounding dead and mechanical. Something poked Jason’s hand, and he yelped.
“What the—?” he demanded, but then stopped. The voices had receded. Stone was right there next to him, solid as ever. He let his breath out slowly. “Thanks,” he said, voice still shaking. “I—think I needed that.”
“It’s all right.” The voice was even again. “Just focus on Verity. Remember that we’re doing this to help her. We’re almost there now. We—” His head snapped around to look at something behind them. “Oh, bugger—”
“What?” Jason demanded, but by the time he got the word out he needn’t have bothered because the reason for Stone’s exclamation was obvious.
About twenty feet behind them (or whatever passed for that distance in here) a dark something was detaching itself from the fog and moving in their direction. It didn’t have a shape—in fact, it looked like nothing more than a darker piece of the rest of the tunnel. But as it broke free it grew more solid, hovering a few feet off the “ground” and then proceeding with slow deliberation toward where they stood.
“Holy shit,” Jason breathed, catching a glimpse behind it. More of the dark things, farther away and still attached to the fog, were converging on the first one’s location. His breath quickened; it was all he could do to not let go of Stone and take off running. Some deep primal instinct told him that if any of those dark things reached him, that would be all she wrote. “What do we do?” he whispered urgently.
“Just keep moving. Faster now.” Stone’s voice was tight and clipped. “My masking is holding, I think—they only got a glimpse when your fear flared back there. Just stay close and keep moving. Go now.” He stepped forward, moving at a brisk pace that wasn’t quite a jog, but threatened to become one any second. “If I say the word, run straight ahead. You’ll see a light in the distance—it will look like the portal we went through. Head for it and don’t stop. It’s vitally important that you don’t stop. Got it?”
Jason nodded several times, feeling each nod as a jerk of his head. “Run when you say. Got it.” Think of Verity. I’m doing this for Verity. It’s safe unless we attract attention… Gotta get through so I can help Verity…
He dared not look behind to see if the things were getting closer, but he was convinced he could hear them breathing on his neck, feel them nipping at his heels. Any minute now they’d catch up—
Think of Verity. You’re doing this for Verity.
“See the portal up ahead?” Stone’s soft, even voice said on his right.
Jason looked. Far ahead, so far that it looked like the tiny beam of a flashlight shining toward them, he could see faintly shifting lights. He nodded. “Y-yeah, I see it.” An unbidden thought popped into his head, reminding him of a poster he’d seen once in a head shop: What if the light at the end of the tunnel is coming from the oncoming train?
“All right. When I say the word, we’re going to run for it.” The mage’s tone was tight and flat—he sounded like a frightened air-traffic controller trying to talk down an 8-year-old piloting a jumbo jet. “Ready now?”
“Ready.” Ohgodohgodohgod they’re right here—
“Go!” Stone’s voice boomed out, echoing from one side of the tunnel to the other. Jason felt the mage’s shoulder tense as he flung himself forward. Jason barely gave him a one-step head start before he was at his heels. He dared a glance behind him and wished he hadn’t—there were more of the things now, milling around in great agitation. As the two of them began to run, the things seemed to catch their scent.
“Run! Run! Run!” Jason yelled. Younger and faster than Stone, fueled by a panic that he couldn’t begin to articulate, he soon overtook the mage. He grabbed Stone’s arm in a death grip as he went by and pulled him forward, his eyes fixed on the ever-growing, ever-shifting portal up ahead.
The things were all around them now. Stone waved a hand and a shimmering shield formed to enclose them. A couple of the dark shapes dived for them, but bounced off it. The places where they hit flared bright, while the overall brightness of the shield dimmed correspondingly. Jason was pretty sure it wouldn’t take more than a couple of hits. The portal was just ahead. Desperate now and running on animal flight-instinct, he grabbed Stone bodily and just about threw him through the glowing space, then flung himself through behind him. Just before he went through, one of the things cruised up next to him and he
got a good, close look at it, but then he was through the electric waterfall and sailing forward, his momentum crashing him hard into a gray stone wall. That was all he remembered.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
When Jason opened his eyes, he was lying on a dusty stone floor. Gingerly he sat up—his muscles ached, and for a moment he couldn’t remember why. Then he saw the wall only a couple of feet in front of him and realized what had happened.
Stone lay a few feet away from him, stirring but clearly not fully awake yet.
Jason took a deep breath, let it out slowly, and let his mind drift back over to what had just happened. His whole body still shook. As his mind lit on the image of the thing he’d seen right before they’d exited the portal, a sudden overwhelming wave of nausea swept over him. He looked wildly around and spotted a trash can next to a table; he barely made it there before his entire Passage to India lunch special made a violent and spectacular return appearance.
For a while he just knelt there clutching the trash can, his hair hanging limply down over his eyes, and tried to get his breathing under control. What the hell had that been? He’d never been more terrified in his life. Those things—it was as if they had contained the essence of everything that was wrong with the world. And they had wanted him. He had no doubt about that. If this was how mages traveled, then he’d take a bus, thank you very much. He was going to have nightmares about that trip for the rest of his life. Again, an absurd thought popped into his mind (that was happening a lot lately, he noticed): he’d never done drugs with his friends back in high school, but he was pretty sure he had just won the distinction of having the worst “bad trip” ever. Too bad he couldn’t tell anybody about it.
The nausea abating now (which was good, because he didn’t think he had anything else to offer if it hit him again), he dragged himself up and took in the area around him. Small stone room, table, wooden door, old bookshelf. Light from couple of electric sconces on the walls.