Storm at the Edge of Time by Pamela F. Service Read Free Book Online Page B

you go when you want out, so for the time being she might as well make what sense she could of this.
    â€œBut if you have that much power,” she said, “you could repair the pillar thing, couldn’t you?”
    â€œNo.” He stared at each one, his eyes the color of Arctic ice. “But you could.”

Chapter Six
    Now Jamie knew this was a nightmare—or worse. Beside her, Arni was babbling about magic quests while Tyaak was going on about force fields and holographic projections.
    Raking a hand through his mane of hair, the older boy said, “Even if I accepted this magic scenario, which I do not, I am the wrong person for your little game. I am a Kreeth, training to be a galactic navigator. I am—”
    â€œStubborn and blind!” Urkar cut in. “Have you never once seen something or done something which you could not explain with your crippled ‘science’? Come now, the truth.”
    â€œNo, never! Stellar navigation is an exact science. I could not possibly …” Tyaak slowed, then lapsed into a frightened-seeming silence.
    Eyeing him curiously, Jamie spoke up. “Look, Mr. Urkar, you’re wrong about me. The only thing I’ve everwanted to do with the supernatural is to see ghosts. I don’t want to
do
it. I don’t want scaiy powers like that, and I don’t have them! Whatever you need done, you’ll just have to do it yourself.”
    â€œI can’t!” he shouted. “Oh, all three of you are family, all right: as stubborn as they come. I’m not going to waste any more time with words. I’ll show’you!”
    Urkar jumped to his feet and clapped his hands. Abruptly the fire snuffed itself out, leaving nothing but a glowing cloud of smoke. The cloud thickened and spread like dense mist. Slowly at first, then faster, it began to spin around them. Jamie felt Arni move beside her and grab her hand. Even Tyaak came a step or two closer.
    Now the mist was spinning at such a dizzying rate, Jamie felt it draw the air from her lungs, the sight from her eyes, and even the thoughts from her mind. She wanted to scream but couldn’t draw breath.
    She had almost blacked out when the spinning suddenly stopped, throwing them all into a heap on the heathery ground.
    Jamie opened her eyes to see Urkar struggling to free himself from the folds of his sealskin cape. He staggered to his feet. “Sorry, I think I got a little overhasty. Didn’t gauge things right. But I haven’t looked back here … in a long while”
    â€œWhere is …” Jamie started to say, but she fell silent. The utter stillness and the impossibly bright stars were gone. Overhead, a vast clear sky was tinged with approaching dawn. A steady sea breeze tangled her hair and carried with it the crying of gulls and a sound that might be distant song.
    She looked around. They were still standing in a complete stone circle, but rather than seeming ideal and eternal, the stones looked raw, as if newly hauled from the earth and not yet worn by wind and rain.
    Stretching off on all sides, the moorland seemed unbroken by roads or fields or even houses. On the lochs, not a single boat could be seen, only swans and white-fringed waves.
    The singing voices were louder now, and Jamie could see a procession of people, clad in browns and grays, wending their way toward the circle. She stepped back into the shadow of a stone, but Urkar shook his head.
    â€œNo need. They can’t see or hear us. This is the day of the circle’s consecration. For an entire summer, the people of the island labored to build it. I selected the stones and determined their placement, and the others dragged them here and raised them while I fashioned the core. From the one grove of trees on the island, I chose three saplings. Then, with all the power I had, I fashioned them into three staffs embodying the forces of life—of air and earth and water. With spells and