Mirror 04 The Way Between the Worlds Read Online Free PDF Page B

surface.
It was the Wall of the Forbidding made visible, curving through the ten
dimensions of space and time. It touched all parts of Santhenar, the Three
Worlds and even the Nightland equally, while separating these inhabited spaces
from the Darwinian nightmare of the void. Rulke's tale of a week ago had told
Llian all that he cared to know about the violent creatures that dwelt in the
void, and what they would do to Santh if they ever got out.
Where was Karan? He picked her out across the other side, sitting cross-legged
on a window ledge with a brazier glowing in front of her. Her eyes were closed
but she looked alert, concentrating intensely on something.
    'Karan!' he screamed.
Her eyes sprang open. The net of light vanished. 'Llian!' she whispered,
anguished and ashamed. 'What are you doing here? Go back!'
'Not without you.' He tried to get to his feet but only managed his knees.
Rulke snapped back to reality with a shock that almost tumbled him off his
.seat. For a moment he looked dazed, as if the switch from one dimension to
the other was like trying to think in a foreign tongue.
'Take what you want and pay the price!' she said. 'I am paying for my
choices.'
'The price is too high,' Llian said, hungering for her. He
was helpless. His shredded legs were too painful to move. 'Come with me.' He
felt ashamed that Karan had bought his freedom with her own.
'It's too late,' she said softly. 'It's gone too far now and can't be undone.
Please go, or all I've done will be in vain.'
'She's right, chronicler,' said Rulke, recovering rapidly. 'I don't know what
fool let you in, but it's no use. If she refuses me I'll take you back.'
'I won't go! Karan, don't do this.'
'I have no choice,' she said in her own agony. 'Go away, Llian!'
Llian was desperate to take her in his arms, and knew that despite her words
she felt the same. She was weakening.
Rulke shook his fist at the watching guards. 'How can I work?' he roared. 'Get
rid of him!'
Two came forward - Idlis, he of the scarred face," who had hunted Karan for so
long, and the woman Yetchah. They had been banished to the lowest duties, in
disgrace at having voted for Llian's tale instead of Rulke's a week ago.
Taking Llian under the arms, they dragged him down the coiled stairway, past
statues every bit as alarming as those outside the gates. Before he reached
the bottom of the stairs, the room was lit up by the Wall of the Forbidding
again.
The front door of Carcharon was flung open. The wind whistled in. Idlis put
his foot in Llian's back and sent him flying through. He skidded halfway
across the landing.
Llian wished he was dead. He wiped the snow out of his eyes, turned over and
looked up into the grim faces of the company. No one said a word. Basitor
gripped him by the collar then marched down the steps, dragging him behind.
The others followed in his wake.
The Way
The previous night, Karan had lain squirming in her sleeping pouch, desperate
for sleep. Tomorrow would be hythe, mid-winter's day - the day she would
betray her people and her world. To save Llian she had agreed to find the Way
between the Worlds for Rulke. But what would the consequences be? Would she
survive it? Would any of them? What was the word of Rulke, the Great Betrayer,
worth anyway?
A week had gone by since the great telling, after which he had used the
construct to cast Llian out of Carcharon. Since then Rulke had worked Karan
impossibly hard, day and night, in exercises her brain could scarcely
comprehend. She practised as though her life depended on mastering his
lessons. She knew it did. The void was a brutal place and hers a deadly job,
and the knowledge that he would torment Llian if she refused was all the goad
she needed.
Karan found it hard to concentrate. She made a lot of mistakes but Rulke never
criticised her. A good teacher, he patiently instructed her over and again,
yet she felt sure he found her stupid and incapable.
She