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"Get serious I had this flash: why don&039;t we first capture Botello and et him to do that We have a seance to contact Anton and zap theet rid of the Hell-river and stop things up so the deht it over For about aed with relief
" &039;Cept I don&039;t kno to do that"
"What? To hear you talk I thought you kne to do everything!"
"Magically that&039;s alht now and richer than Bill Gates on our own tax-exempt islands"
"What exactly is it you can&039;t do, then?"
"Getting Botello to body-sith the overduke without the overduke being in the vicinity I figure once those two are in close proximity that probleo in and find Botello&039;s astral body I&039; mirror, &039;cause we don&039;t knoill answer or try to break through The other thing I can&039;t do is force Botello to talk - either in this Reality or on the Otherside He&039;s gonna be plenty pissed wherever he is and in no o e the overduke&039;s body, and then he&039;d be pissed If we had Pentothol we et him to cooperate requires a lever or a bribe, and we ain&039;t got squat And there&039;s no guarantee that Botello knoe want him to know For all his power he&039;s an amateur, and they tend to cut corners when real work is inconvenient to their desires I still need you over there to find Anton and help me work out how to deal with the river, but when it comes down to brass tacks, Anton is a side issue The river is the big deal"
"So I go to Hell?"
"You go to Hell"
"Damn it"
"Ain&039;t that the truth?"
Cadht to Filiuided her off into a corner for a quiet talk Apologizing like crazy if I read his body language correctly I could have listened in, but was too busy s back
"I think it&039;s a brave thing you&039;re doing," she said "Terrin toldhi to find Botello and kill hi Anton I switched gears quick, though It&039;s not often I have a , considering the circumstances
"Well, it&039;s a dirty job, but so You guys, front and center in the chairs We&039;re going to do a modified kind of seance"
"Really?" Cadles I can use, so listen We&039;re all going to sit, Myhr lies on the floor in theto be his anchor for this side of Reality, you guys are gonna add your psychic energy to the pot Ithim safe"
I was all for that
"But Botello drained off y," said Cad, not aFilima, you keep your power to yourself, don&039;t try to helpready They looked as nervous as I felt He gave them each a ser crystal and a sword
Cadmus stared "I say! That&039;s my sword, the one made with - oh, ah, that is"
"Cold iron," Terrin coot it off of blondie-boy Toldrunning aroundwizard killers?"
"Haven&039;t the faintest," he said, looking uncoot I had it"
"Yeah, sure, whatever Myhr, there&039;s two things you have to re onto the crystal"
"I get the drill If I don&039;t then horrible things happen to ht?"
"Exactly - you lose these and we&039;d have to buy new ones &039;cause they&039;re borrowed"
"Then I won&039;t be trapped in Hell and eaten by de on what you think ht be there It won&039;t ever be what you think, besides I&039;ll shield you fro the worst of it so - "
"Worst of what?"
"What do you think?"
Oh Gawd
"Just tell yourself it&039;s a ht out of Alien and you should be able to keep fro way All over ave , snarky frown, but so of the real person he kept well hidden inside "It&039;ll be fine I promise"
Jeez, but I&039;et therapy before it killed me
"Places everyone," he said to the others They all sat except for Terrin "We&039;re going for a take Myhr, lie down in the circle, your head to the south"
I did so Terrin stood before the southern chair, loo over e quartz crystal in the other that he held out overthe quartz around in a power pattern The chalk sigils surroundinglike ean to pulse; it was pretty, until I realized their pulsing exactlyof , stepped back, and dropped wearily onto his chair, pinching the bridge of his nose
"What&039;s wrong?"
"Nothing, just this gawd-da to killabout hi What in the worldI focused and realized he&039;d cast a glamour on himself It seemed to melt from him, at least to my eyes I didn&039;t know if the others saw the reality
He looked to be a hundred years older, hair turned bone white and so much color leeched froht was down, too; he&039;d gone gaunt, froht spidery
We&039;d been here only one night, a day, and another night At the rate he was deterioratingI got a nasty, dark, cold feeling inside that he was dying and that it would be only a hts Soh "This is as serious as death" Frogerating
He hten I could see now that he was low of the sigils he looked sickly One-good-breeze-and-he-ain That wasn&039;t fair It sucked canal water
"Yeah," he said "It does I can&039;t do this alone, Myhr I need your help"
Jeez - I knehat it had cost him to say that
"What do I do?" I asked I was nervous Didn&039;t like it Couldn&039;t help it
"Close your eyes, breathe in through your nose, out through your mouth The sah, but I couldn&039;t ask questions Maybe he just wantedfor awhile until a di took place beyond hter Their pace still ripped ," he said
After a ely cold I thought I knehat that meant
Okay, shohat you see
My eyes popped open aselse I sat up His voice was right in my head "What the hell - ?"
Yeah, pretty reed
In My Head "You didn&039;t say you&039;d be crawling around my skull! Get out!"
Cool it, Myhr, I already knohat you do in the shower on Saturday nights, so chill Your secrets are safe with uished screams cut no ice with him He waited for me to settle down Look, we&039;re stuck like this for the duration Just do what I say and it&039;ll be over that much faster Okay?
Like I had a choice in the et a telepathic distress call from him, very much another to hold a conversation "What else are you into?"
"Not a lot I&039;et roan And shut my eyes for a second, just to annoy him
Take stock Are you all there?
Now that was a damn stupid question, until I remembered where and what I was: a projection of myself into the Otherside I see familiar clothes, sword and crystal firmly in hand One part of my brain accepted the reality, found comfort in it; another part was just as certain it was pure illusion I didn&039;t knohy I knew that,sooes Nohat?"
Look around
I looked around And listened And smelled And felt
It was bad Bad beyond bad
No pretty blue rooht source Earth, trees, grass, sky, clouds were an unrelieved cotton candy pink My sensitive nose was jaround was sticky I was being pelted by cobwebs of forossamer snow Pink, of course Sticky
On the heavy air I heard the thin fruity voices of thousands of children singing In Hell? That rong Terrin had sentplace I was in kiddie heaven and any second some Otherside Shirley Teivechildren abruptly launched into that particular song
"Terrin? Youon here?"
Your brain&039;s alreadywhat I can to shield you from what&039;s really here
"You promised me Alien I&039;d rather have that than this!"
No you wouldn&039;t Shut up and walk Hold your crystal out See if it draws you anywhere or lights up
"Okay, I&039; Gawd, it&039;s like the floor of a dollar movie theater here"
He snickered The son of a bitch had putabout it You&039;re doing fine Bear left at that - er - ah - tree
"Tree?" It looked ?"
Never mind, you don&039;t wanna know Oh, yeah - dohere
Yeah, sure, like I was planning to scarf down this junk Not that hungry "How does that do you a favor?"
So I don&039;t have to listen to you bellyache about it later
He see a the on uessed that this was costing hi, but I ithout a clue to where I was going The quartz didn&039;t do any special effects for ht I sawthere unless you counted a faint silver thread winding away into the pink distance One end was attached totohere," I said "Just estion"
Okay Da I wouldn&039;t have to do this to you
Before I could ask an obvious question I felt a rippling shift througharound it The pink landscape suddenly darkened to blood-red, the sticky rain stopped, and the children&039;s singing changed to laughter like wind chimes, harsh and discordant In another minute I would really hate this place
You should see so Look!
I looked, but evena slow, in-place circle - without tangling ht - I held out the crystal It flickered once, very faintly
That&039;s good! Go with it!
I h the crystal reer to see any of &039;em, but shouldn&039;t there be so you They can&039;t see you either, if that&039;s a co one
I&039;ll prolly have to reet closer to Anton What shields you could hide hi Hoill I know Anton if and when I see hi to eat you
Oh, gawd