The Stair Of Time (Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page B

cannot experience it with me, without your mind coming unraveled, that is.  For five seconds or so, roughly the span of time you would be able to hold onto your sense of self, you would be truly astounded.  It’s almost worth the trade, don’t you think?  For although you would surely die, in those five seconds, you would live more than most do in a lifetime.”
    Fearing for his friend’s sanity even more than usual, Andaris chose his words carefully, sensing that something as benign as a misplaced syllable might be enough to tip the balance in the wrong direction.  “The thing is, Ashel.  And please try not to take offense.  I’m speaking as a friend here.  The thing is, this all seems a bit…over done.  All smoke and mirrors, as Gaven might say.  Like the orbs and the tree.  I mean, does any part of you honestly believe what you’re saying?”
    A full minute passed in absolute silence, the sort usually reserved for crypts and particularly pretentious libraries.  Like this one, he thought.
    Getting the distinct impression that he wasn’t going to get an answer, no matter how long he waited, Andaris sighed, ran his fingers through his hair, and said, “Okay, now let me see if I’ve got this straight.  You’re suggesting that this tower is linked to other towers by some kind of…space-time progression, all variations of the same thing, the same reality, like layers of the same onion, or mirrors bending into infinity?  Is that pretty much the gist?” 
    “Very good, Andaris.  I need to remember to start giving you more credit.  You’re wrong, of course .  But even so, that was quite imaginative and not too wide the mark.  The truth is, this place can be whatever you want it to be.”
    Andaris opened his mouth to respond to what he had expected Ashel to say, and then closed it again, fixing him with a blank stare instead.
    “Don’t believe me?  Well, I suppose I can’t blame you.  If you need convincing, simply go to one of the windows, close your eyes, and think about what you want to see.  When you open them, you will see it.”
    “ But what about the five-second thing?”
    “Honestly Andaris, sometimes I wonder how you have enough brain power to even keep your autonomic functions operating.  Obviously, what you glimpse through the window does not apply, or else I would not have suggested it.”
    Andaris hesitated, attempting in vain to plumb the depths of this newfound darkness he sensed taking root in his friend.  Was it real or imagined?  When had he first felt it?  He couldn’t recall.  Certainly before the incident at Mandie’s bedside.
    Rather than driving himself to distraction with such thoughts as he normally would, he cleared his mind and stepped boldly to one of the windows. It won’t work anyway, he told himself, trying to ignore the fact that he was trembling, trying to deny the fact that a sizeable part of him wanted it to work.
    The windows were both deep-set and narrow, elegantly tapering from arched tops to the floor, edges exhibiting the sort of hazy precision that only magic can achieve.  The one he stood before was seamless, smooth, and throbbing with energy, the surface of its opening flat and black, the enigmatic face of a calm sea before a storm.
    As though hypnotized, Andaris closed his eyes and let his hands fall to his sides, imagining the rolling , forested hills of his father’s land.  When he opened them, he did so with a gasp, taken aback by what he saw.  For truly, what he had imagined now stretched before him, only with a thousand times more clarity and substance than memory alone could provide.  It was almost too much to take in at once, so real that it hurt his mind, every detail standing out with such startling brilliance, bursting with color and vibrancy far beyond what he had been prepared to behold.
    Cool blue sky shone above lush, densely forested hills.  He could hear the cicadae buzzing in the distance, singing their endless summer