Mirror 04 The Way Between the Worlds by Ian Irvine Read Free Book Online

surroundings grew dim and with a shriek the machine lifted abruptly. The
sensation was sickening -her stomach felt left behind. Then it caught up, they
rose faster and faster and the shield burst through the brass and slate roof
of Carcharon, flaring like a miniature sun. Debris rained down at them. Karan
flinched but the shield hurled it all to the sides. Then it faded and they
floated in the air above the tower, Rulke roaring his delight at his enemies.
Looking down, Karan saw the company, like a family of helpless ants on the far
side of the amphitheatre. She saw Llian too, staring desperately at her, and
felt his pain. She was ashamed of what she was going to do, and afraid of his
contempt, but there was no alternative.
Rulke flung out his arm, pointing over their heads. The moon was rising, huge
and dark and full. The dark moon was in hythe, signalling that the foretelling
would come to pass. Karan clutched her stomach. The bimonthly waxing of the
dark face always gave her a pang, ill-omen that it was, but this was
unimaginably bad.
Rulke played with the construct, sending it soaring and swooping above the
chasm, displaying it and taunting the company with it while Karan stood
statue-like beside him. This might be the end of her world. Then, as clearly
as looking through Rulke's paired glasses, she saw Tensor lurch to his feet,
take the bow and the red-feathered arrow from Xarah and draw the arrow back.
She knew that it was aimed at her; knew that Tensor could hit her too, but she
was paralysed. Maybe this was meant to be. She watched him sight along the
arrow, unable to save herself. Rulke had not noticed; he was looking
elsewhere. Then she felt an explosion of love and terror, as Llian shrieked,
'No!' That sparked an equally wild broadcast of her own agonies.
She threw herself down between the bulkheads. The arrow slammed into the cowl
where her head had been, smashing into splinters. Rulke threw up his arms as
her crazed sending tore through his mind. The construct plunged at the rocks
while he worked furiously to control it. At the last minute he forced it to
answer his levers again and wrested it back up.
'I've had enough!' he said roughly as they regained the top of the tower.
Rulke looked quite shaken. Soberly he brought the construct back down inside.
Settling it down, he took her by the shoulders. His eyes flamed like
lighthouse beacons.
'There, Llian is safe, and he knows you are safe, and they have seen my power.
Now will you honour your promise?'
She bowed her head.
'Are you ready?'
'Almost,' she said, shaking.
'Then steady yourself. Be calm.'
'Why did you pick me?' Anything to put it off a bit longer. 'There are other
sensitives.'
'No triunes though! Have you ever sensed another?'
'No. Once or twice I sensed other sensitives, but I never found them.'
'You must feel quite lonely,' he observed shrewdly, 'having none of your own
kind.'
Karan would have none of this subtle manipulation. 'Don't tell me what my kind
is!' she said. 'I am content with my life.'
Rulke said no more about it. 'What matters that? You are here; I have no
other. And perhaps if I had the choice of many I might still choose you. I
knew the Way to Aachan once, but everything is changed so much that I no
longer have the ability to find it. Let's begin.'
She tensed.
    'Don't look so worried. This is what we're going to do. First I'll focus the
construct on making a hole through the Forbidding. It must be a tiny opening
that no creature can get through, because the void is violent beyond your
imagining. Then you must make a ... kind of sending through the hole, and seek
out the Way between the Worlds, as I've taught you already. Together we will
look for the way to Aachan. That will take all my strength and wit.' What
Rulke planned to do on Aachan he did not say. 'But first I must tune the
construct. It's not answering my will as it ought. It's difficult to control.'
Karan struggled