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I tore off Terrin&039;s blanket, slipped my hands under his arms, and hauled him backwards from the roo it hard to ot us both clear, then kicked the door closed The whispering faded slightly; the shutter racket reed Terrin downstairs, his ru all the way Even that didn&039;t wake hi frooing on?"

"There&039;s stuff," I said, none too coherently as I pulled Terrin toward the common room, in too , talking, wants inside real bad"

He stared down his long nose like I&039;d gone simple "Uh-huh"

"Just look out and see - no! Don&039;t look out and see! I mean, my friend won&039;t wake up"

"Is he sick? I don&039;t hold with sick boarders"

"It&039;s soet hi salts? What&039;s that stuff crawling along the streets?"

"What stuff?"

"The black stuff trying to get inside" I glanced at the s, but they were closed for the night

"Nothing out on the streets this hour," Clem assured "Just city watch"

"Is the city watch a bunch of black mist?"

Cleave up to focus on Terrin Cle had several kids, was used to dealing with late eencies Greta had to ad to help Cle tables and had to unfold hied position

"Sure he ain&039;t died?" asked Clem He wasn&039;t too alar an open bottle of so fluid, heavy on the ammonia I pinchedup by aIt had cracks around the edges like the one upstairs, but no signs of any black h Good, so far as it went

Terrin suddenly mumbled, tried to move his head away froe sneeze It never happened, but his lids did finally peel apart His eyes had gone froh! Foo!" he said, trying to wriggle away

Clem held hih fumes"

Greta stoppered the bottle with a triu with its temptation to peek out, and came over "What the hell was that about?" I was scared, which translated as severe annoyance

Terrin blinked atdown at hireat certainty

"I&039;m not Bert Lahr, either &039;Fess up You weren&039;t just asleep, were you?"

"Huh? What a hands and sat up, violently rubbing his nose "Phew!"

"Were you drea?" So awake It took ti? I was - why&039;d you interrupt my meditation?"

"Because there&039;s this blackin thelike the Marines landing"

"How much beer did you have?" asked Clem, conversationally

"Not that much! Go see it for yourself" Now that Terrin was up and al with the heebie-jeebie fog river

Cle He unlocked and opened up

The blackto shred into sooty wisps "There! Just like I said"

"Where?" asked Clem There was no way he could ht

I pointed "There!"

Clean to squint "Sorry, friend, but I don&039;t see nothing You see anything, Greta?"

"Just a lot of dark street," she said Neither of the; no one could be that oblivious

Terrin tugged at my shirt sleeve I looked He shook his head once, lips pursed I got the ripedan allergic reaction and hallucinating" That was a total lie I have a weird body chemistry Alcohol doesn&039;t affect et ht for that

"Soht with soenerously "Nohat about you, Mr Terrin? You were doing poorly for a bit there Mr Myhr here was in a state about it, and I don&039;t blaed "I&039;ot hyper about it Sometimes he&039;s jumpy as a cat"

"Hey!" I said,andCle them know that the situation wasn&039;t serious I tendered apologies for the disruption, then we all went back to our roo behind so Terrin walked in first

"Is it clear?"

"Yeah, come on," he said

"You saw that stuff outside Tell me you saw that stuff"

"I saw that stuff"

"What was it? I didn&039;t s off it so it couldn&039;t have been riverbecause it&039;s not wholly on this plane of reality That&039;s why those two didn&039;t see it You did, probably because of the cat in you, and I saw because that&039;s what I do"

"I was freaking out because it caet in What is it?"

"Could be a lot of things" He opened the"Street&039;s clear now"

"Think that&039;s why they have a curfew? To keep people fro into that junk?"

"Maybe"

"So what are the lot of things it could be? A short list is fine"

He shrugged "I don&039;t want to commit until I know more Could be restless souls, an astral river, a rip in the space-time continuum"

"Don&039;t soap me with the techno-babble, this ain&039;t Star Trek!"

"I know I&039;m serious"

That&039;s what I didn&039;t want to hear; I hate it when he&039;s serious It&039;s the only thing worse than when he&039;s kidding around "What do we do? It ot in, did it?"

"Well, no"

"And nothing ithoutI put the usual wards up all around this place soon as we settled in We&039;re safe"

"Safe" is often a relative term with Terrin He shifted away frohtened, halting ina face "Day-um! My ass hurts!"

"That happened when I took you downstairs"

"Next tior had set in That was not your usualshot"

"Huh I&039;ll have to find out about that See if it has to do with the ht know so"

"I heard of a few at dinner Don&039;t know if they&039;re real, though People seeic here, but I wouldn&039;t push it"

"We&039;ll find out in the ain and settled down, cross-legged

"You&039;re going to sleep?"

"Meditate Do sohborhood Chill out, don&039;t sweat it We&039;re safe Get some sleep yourself, and don&039;t botheretbeer buzz I was developing a headache If I lay do I ht make myself conk out before it really kicked in One last look outside, though Terrin hadn&039;t locked theHe ay too trusting at ti it was only te came too soon It always does I alentle little warning of approach, but I&039;d have only beat it to a pulp

This world didn&039;t seens of sore need as I erly to one of the coht a cup and poured in some kind of herbal tea alternative Not the same as a triple espresso, but it eet and hot and helped restore ht," she said with a smile "Perhaps soreat Bet I need the vitae spell see my nonsense perfectly I so the Beatles&039; songs, if those still rhy hit If the croas up to it I ht attempt a version of "Hey, Jude" It worked best with accoet people to join in on the chorus part, clapping hands Audience participation is a must in the business

"Have you seen Terrin?" I asked He&039;d left his blanket on the floor I&039;d caught ered awake

"Went out early Didn&039;t say when he&039;d be back"

He wouldn&039;t

"He didn&039;t eat anything, either," Greta added "He could use so Looks poorly, he does"

Terrin was short and his build on the spare side, a swimmer&039;s bod When we hit n of ill-health He wasn&039;tsupernatural stuff, then he sucked the chon like a starving bear, so I was puzzled He&039;d done a load ofhis face

Revived by the hot tea, I charmed a sweet roll of some kind from Greta, then went out to explore a little before lunchtime when I&039;d have to be back for ht, sunny lane full of people Not one sign of that black-fog river I went around the building to check theThe shutter was locked fast as I&039;d left it and seeht&039;s assault No three-toed gouges, dents, leftover ectoplasm, or related supernatural junk had been left behind I was almost disappointed, as any of that would have proved I wasn&039;t a nutcase Terrin believed me, at least I think I&039;d have to find him, and see what his astral trip turned up Time to hit the streets

My face is my fortune Its i

Those who had seen yesterday&039;s show called and waved to uy at Cle questions ofup a parade of kids as I went Of course I&039;d have to stop and say hello to each of the touch ot tired of it

I love kids Sole ot directions to an apothecary, the usual place to go to pick up a trail that ht lead to a Talent I didn&039;t have ical arts, but did want to eventually get ho to find someone with a line on astral maps

Those are really hard to cos work for Terrin is that he has some control over his travel spell He can bounce us to physically co clear of spots with poisonous air or all-ocean planets Except for one place where everyone had these weird bumps all over their foreheads, the people looked like people, dogs looked like dogs, and cats looked like me

What Terrin had no control over was direction He&039;d explained the ins and outs of astral juical kind, never stays in uy Sing a song to ic is full of those - usually put me into a state of "Hah? Whazzat?"

So we&039;d blip out of one place and pop into another, all of it fairly randoht direction for home He&039;d also explained how he knew that, but I&039;d forget and ask hiain After the third or fourth tiet me to lose interest I had the idea our journey was like Coluht direction for China If all these other worlds weren&039;t in the e&039;d get there Ahelp, the astral kind, which I took to mean it wouldn&039;t be printed out on parchment like some medieval Mapsco

Terrin said that once we had a o and plot our juht take awhile since it was usually weeks before the quartz crystals charged back up again Magical energy levels fluctuated from stop to stop

Noe really wanted a shortcut out, a fast exit before the crystals were ready, then geeer and o But they vanished after the spell took effect Terrin said they were coy conversion, whatever thatfirst class is expensive Quartz waspower

The other proble by them They&039;re universally hard to find Expensive

A couple of ti Terrin would hire out as a wizard to some rich person He&039;d take diao The proble to pay for services rendered If they were rich enough to afford ested to Terrin he stand on a corner and hold a sign: "Will Cast Spells for Gems"

His reply was creatively obscene

He&039;s a heck of a wizard, but doesn&039;t know a da a niche in a competitive market That, or he trusts in the Multiverse a lotascertained the big M to be unfair,of a very warped sense of humor

It sure explains my existence

Elsewhere in Rumpock, at Dar over her scrying e fro a headache for her trouble

She&039;d done all the right things, placing candles where their light wouldn&039;t reflect in thethe special incense thather will upon the Outside with the object of drawing it Inside She had to find out what had happened last night with the Hell-river The night sucked into it had felt entirely too real, especially the part where she&039;d heard her dead husband laughing Then there was that awful gli naked dee skin What were those about?

Fili her It was like trying to play a tune on her harp and not quite getting the last bit while everyone else played perfectly And, of course, no one would drea too much power You reach a point where everyone says "yes" much too often, and find it&039;s not as much fun as it should be On the other hand, a

And here was this daular basis She&039;d have banged on it to force the issue, but the instructions strictly forbade rough handling of any kind

As usual when she tried to scry, Fili worse It was that awful incense And thedespite her best efforts to the contrary

"Show rowled

Before the throbbing in her head could crest into full-blown agony, an ie finally surfaced Rumpock&039;s central bell tower appeared briefly The landmark shimmered, replaced by a view of a tavern or inn of so, but she couldn&039;tfroe, i a mask of some sort, a very detailed one made of russet fur that covered the whole of his head He waved in a friendly ht

Thepictures into itself It would show nochah thick layers of velvet curtains to gain thehere was nor frohtness hurt her eyes and not just fro in late It was the only sane thing to do most days

Her maid stood ready with mint tea chilled with chips of winter ice Expensive, but Filima could afford it She drank the tea, which helped settle her stoainst her aching forehead

What a pain, but it had been worth it, for scrying rarely worked for her; when it did, she always saw so truly important Like the business with her dead husband Before he&039;d gotten dead That had been a near thing She shuddered and o there for now

Despite the headache Filima wanted to celebrate this little success, but didn&039;t dare She had to carry on normally, even if she went crazy from it She had no doubt that the maid would take her tray of cheer back to the kitchens, and by mysterious, circuitous routes a detailed description of this s on at Darmo House would find its way to the other clan houses within the hour, complete with Filima&039;s every expression

Another typical day in Ruossip Little wonder she preferred to sleep theed Soht when the Hell-river had been on the prowl through her dream Whether it was connected to that man in the cat mask or her dead husband remained to be seen

Damn Botello Daro stupid on her? Men, you can&039;t live with them and you can&039;t kill them Not unless you&039;re really, really careful, anyway

An envelope i lay on the tea tray, catching her eye Thatanother letter fro she co perawds, it had only been teeks since her husband&039;s funeral It was indecent How could such a handsome man be so damned thick? Didn&039;t he see? She was not interested in him Of course, his interest in her wasn&039;t likely to be roh said

Wearily and warily, she opened the envelope Within the fold of heavy paper it held a single pressed flower It sort of looked like a rose Ugh However beautiful it had been when in bloo apart

She sneezedthe flower into dusty own and told the maid to sweep up the mess No, there would be no reply to the letter Cadmus hadn&039;t seen fit to include a note, after all - was she supposed to read his mind? Why did he think she&039;d enjoy some shriveled-up weed?

Unless it was a spell That would be just like hiical power to get through her protections He really should know better What a loser

Filima finished her tea and sent for Captain Shankey, the head of her house guard A solid man, he&039;d been in Botello&039;s fa before her own arrival She liked him, but didn&039;t trust him with information, only errands He would die to protect clan Darmo, but like all the rest of the family she&039;d married into, Fili so, and those did not necessarily include her best interests - especially if he ever got a clue about how his late master had passed on

"Go into the city," she told Shankey "Close to the bell tower there is an inn or tavern with red letters on its sign You are to find ahim to me"

"A cat mask, my lady?"

"Just what I said Ask around There can&039;t be many like him Perhaps a circus has come and he&039;s one of the clowns"