WebMage Read Online Free PDF Page A

It was that death, which I'd had the misfortune to witness from close at hand, that had given me the original idea for Burnt Offerings.
    Not-I watched as the power I'd summoned shot from not-my hands and wreathed Moric in flames. His armor protected him from some of the fury, but it couldn't stop all of it, and after only a few seconds it knocked him down. I didn't see what happened after that because not-my eyeballs melted about then.
    Agony filled my soul, and I fought like mad to free myself, both from the pain and from the linkage that connected my two bodies. If I couldn't sever the pathway before the chaos tap finished consuming the false me, it would backlash into the real thing and I would go the same way.
    I struck at the link with everything I had, but it was very strong. It had to be, forged as it was from the sympathetic resonance between me and the fingertip I had used as a seed for the doppelganger. Symbolically we were part of the same whole, and breaking your own internal self-image apart isn't a task I'd recommend. In fact, it's just about impossible, a circumstance I was discovering to my great dismay. I was going to die.
    "Boss!" Melchior's scream came from a distance of millimeters. "Boss! The gate's open. Let's get the hell out of here!" There was pain in his voice. No surprise; not-Melchior must have been getting pretty badly charred in that shoulder bag.
    Fighting through the pain, I forced my eyes open. My vision was blurry with tears of pain, but I could still see the depth and life that had come to suffuse the picture. Too bad I wasn't going to live to see the world on the other side. It looked awfully pleasant.
    "Thanks, Mel. You've done me proud. Why don't you step through and find someplace nice to settle down? I don't think my great-aunt will leave you in one piece if she finds you, even if I'm gone. Take care of yourself." I closed my eyes. It was too hard to keep looking at the escape I'd almost made.
    "Boss, come on. You've got to move. If you don't, they'll find you."
    "Don't worry, Mel. By the time they arrive I'll be ashes. The doppelganger's just about burned out, and the backlash should be along to get me in a few seconds. But, thanks for caring."
    "Don't be an idiot, Ravirn. The net's backbone is down. Once we're through, with the gate closed behind us, the doppelganger link will be severed."
    "What?" I thought about that. He might be right, but only if I hurried. I had at best five more seconds before not-I finished flaming out. After that…
    I reached up and grabbed the edge of the picture frame with one hand. When I started to stand I rediscovered my broken knee. My leg folded, and I almost lost my grip. I had three seconds left. Clenching my teeth, I pulled myself up and into the picture. The pain as my bad knee hit the frame joined the feedback from the doppelganger and sent me tumbling into unconsciousness.

Chapter Three
    I don't remember what happened next, but I must have gotten lucky and fallen in the right direction, because I woke up an hour later still among the living. My face was pressed into the ground, and the smell of crushed grass with just the faintest compost undertone of decay filled my nostrils. I lifted my head and found myself in another world. I lay on a rounded green hill next to a faerie circle made from crushed beer cans. Melchior sat beside me. I looked at his maimed finger, and guilt washed over me.
    "Sorry about the hand, Mel."
    "It's okay, Boss. I understand. If that scrawny carcass of yours turned up without mine alongside it, your cousins would never believe they had the real thing. Even with your actual flesh providing the signature, they'd know something was up. It's common knowledge that you couldn't find your ass with both hands and a map without my help."
    "You know what, Mel? Because of your recent service above and beyond the call of duty I'm going to ignore that rather than erasing your hard drive and starting from scratch like I ought to." The