Gorinthians (32 page)

"How much can one of these
packs hold?” Li asked Terrance as she crawled partway into
hers.

"There isn't a limit,”
Terrance replied as he began pouring a white creamy liquid into the
kettle of powder that was hanging from the fire. A moment later
Selindria could smell spiced potato stew begin
simmering.

"No limit?” Jalorm exclaimed
incredulously. "Then why did we all bring packs instead of just one
of us?"

"Because if something
happens and any of us get separated, we will all have our own
supplies,” Terrance replied matter-of-factly. "It's always good to
plan for these little contingencies."

"Oh.” Jalorm stood with a
tent peg in his hand for a moment, his mind obviously elsewhere,
before remembering to pound it in to the dry ground.

They set up camp in a
surprisingly short amount of time. There were two large tents: one
for the men and the other for the women. Terrance informed them
that when he saw them make their wedding vows he would allow them
to have their own tent, but not until. Celdic and Li both looked a
little crestfallen about this announcement, as did Lendel and
Cha'le. Terrance sneaked a look at Selindria to see how she had
taken it. Smiling at him, Selindria winked.

"Where's Thistledown?”
Cha'le asked suddenly, looking around with a frown on her childlike
face.

"He's checking on some
people that we may meet up with later.” Terrance gestured
southward. "He should be back in an hour or so."

The five youths looked at
each other speculatively as they realized that they would be
meeting someone from the outside world. Terrance, Lochnar and
Thistledown were from the outside world, but they were exceptions
to what the youths considered outsiders. The rest of the party
gathered around the fire in canvas foldout chairs as Terrance and
Selindria passed out the dinner in wooden bowls. Lochnar did not
return for dinner, but continued his circuit of the camp as the
others ate. Thistledown appeared as if from thin air, plopping into
a chair between Lendel and Celdic with obvious relief.

After they finished their
dinner, Thistledown began telling stories once again. He told of
the places he had been and the unusual creatures he had seen. The
others found it much easier to believe his stories after living
through a few impossible ones themselves. He did not mention
anything about the people that he had been checking on before
dinner, much to the chagrin of the Avenry folk.

As the fire began dying,
Terrance announced that his ears could not take any more abuse and
headed for bed, followed shortly by the others. They left
Thistledown spluttering indignantly. A light breeze picked up right
before Selindria climbed through the tent, making her thankful that
they had tents to sleep in. She laid her blanket roll out between
Li and Cha'le and lay awake for a while, remembering the look on
Terrance's face that morning when she kissed him. She could feel
the other two beside her laying wide awake as she drifted into a
blissful dream where she and Terrance were wedded in her mother’s
Zeran village.

---

Terrance and Thistledown
walked quietly away from the camp where they could talk without
being overheard. They noiselessly slipped through the dry sagebrush
under the canopy of stars with Lunitra, the larger of the two
moons, shining down on them. Thistledown's concerned expression was
easily discernible in the half-light of the moon.

"I assume that you found
them?” Terrance asked quietly.

Thistledown nodded slowly.
"They are almost to the upper end of the lake, riding on a very
strange-looking boat.” Thistledown absently brushed a sage branch
backward with his
yar
as they began circling the camp. "There is a war ship a few
miles behind them with a few of those Shielding Squads that the
Shalilayo generals were experimenting with."

Terrance’s brows drew down
in thought. "How many men are aboard that ship?"

"Close to a hundred,”
Thistledown replied grimly. "They obviously don't want to take any
chances. They also have five legions combing the shore further
north toward Shalilayo."

Terrance stared at
Thistledown in shock. "Five legions and a war ship for three
people?"

Thistledown shrugged.
"Captain Kerns is giving the orders now. He has always tried to use
a hammer where you should use a nutcracker."

Terrance sighed in
frustration. "What else can go wrong?” Clenching his fists as if
they were wrapping around Kerns’ throat, Terrance looked
questioningly at Thistledown. "Does Kerns know who you
are?"

Thistledown shook his head.
"Only as a country noble that rarely visits court,” Thistledown
said regretfully. "Are you going to talk with him?"

"I can't leave until we meet
Riah,” Terrance replied with a grimace, "and then I may be in limbo
for a while anyway."

Thistledown studied Terrance
for several moments, "Do you want us to avoid Kerns’ men,
then?"

Terrance nodded, "It's best
to avoid any confrontations while we still have the option. We will
need every human we can lay our hands on soon enough,” Terrance
finished bleakly.

The two of them walked
around the camp in silence, each deep in thought. Once or twice,
Terrance felt a quick flash of Lochnar's
yar
when he passed close to them.
Normally, Lochnar would have remained undetectable, but when he was
in close proximity to Thistledown, their resonance would connect
randomly, causing the outburst of
yar
.

Terrance had just started
toward the tent when he felt a resonance approaching slowly from
the north of their camp. Pausing, he reached out with his
yar
to locate the source
of the resonance. It was coming from the road about three miles to
the north, a phenomenon that Terrance would not have believed
possible. Thistledown rejoined him, looking just as
amazed.

"How is their resonance
traveling this far?” Thistledown wondered aloud. "No one has had a
resonance that strong since you first arrived."

Shaking his head silently,
Terrance began moving toward the person that he felt with
his
yar
, his
footsteps making no noise as he crept stealthily toward the road.
The two of them sat quietly by the road, waiting for the stranger
to appear, preparing several nasty surprises if it turned out to be
an enemy. A moment later Terrance decided to pull out his Chasel as
he felt the raw energy radiating from the figure as it came in to
sight in the distance, barely visible to their eyes in the
moonlight. As the figure drew near, Terrance could see that it was
a young woman. She was walking slowly as if she was half-asleep,
looking around her in bemusement. She had long, auburn hair that
hung loosely down to mid back. She was tall for a woman, with a
lithely built frame that made her seem even taller than she
was.

It was her clothes that made
Terrance stare. She wore a shirt that had never been worn by any
inhabitants of this planet, with a pair of what Terrance knew to be
shorts and a pair of sandals. Terrance continued staring at her,
wondering if his eyes were deceiving him as she continued her
dreamy walk down the road. He could tell by the stiff form next to
him that Thistledown was as unprepared for this surprise as he
himself was.

Looking questioningly at
Thistledown, Terrance slowly stood up as Thistledown nodded
uncertainly. The two of them stepped out into the road in front of
the young woman just as she was passing their place of concealment.
With a startled scream, the young woman jumped back, before
suddenly calming down and giggling at herself.

"Excuse me," she said, still
giggling slightly. "You startled me."

Terrance shared another look
with Thistledown before looking back at the girl, "Who are you,” he
asked softly, "and where are you from?"

Looking the two of them up
and down boldly, she waited a moment before answering. "I'm Lori
West,” she replied finally, with a mock curtsy, "and I am from the
third bedroom of my house.” She looked at them as curiously as she
did the landscape around them. "And you are part of my dream,” she
said happily. "Though I must say, I have never had a dream that
felt so real before."

"You think this is a dream?”
Thistledown asked her curiously.

"Of course it's a dream,”
she replied airily. "There certainly aren't two moons on earth.”
She gestured at the sky behind her, where Lunidia, the smaller of
the two moons, was just beginning to make its way into the
sky.

"Earth?” Terrance questioned
her sharply. "You are from Earth? How did you get here?"

Looking at the two of them
with a long-suffering look, she sighed, "I walked into my bedroom,
crawled into my bed and went to sleep,” she explained patiently,
"and I should be waking up soon, because dreams usually don't last
this long."

"What do you remember after
getting in bed?” Thistledown asked quickly. "Do you remember
anything odd happening?"

Looking back and forth at
the two of them, Lori frowned as her eyes began to cloud with
suspicion. "Nothing. I went to sleep and then I was walking down
this road.” She licked her lips nervously as she continued looking
back and forth between Terrance and Thistledown. "This is a dream,
isn't it?"

Terrance stared into her
eyes intently. "No. This is not a dream, Lori. I don't know how you
were able to leave your universe behind and come here, but this is
not a dream, and you are most definitely not on the Earth that you
know."

"If I am not on Earth, then
where the hell am I?” Lori demanded in growing
exasperation.

"On a planet in another
universe is about as close an answer as I can give you,” Terrance
replied wearily. "You need to understand that things work
differently here."

Lori had been mouthing the
words 'different universe' silently as if they did not make sense.
As Terrance finished, her eyes sharpened on the two of them again.
"What do you mean, things work differently here?"

Lori screamed as Lochnar
suddenly appeared out of thin air next to Terrance and Thistledown,
staring at her coldly. "He means that you might hurt people
accidentally, or even yourself, if you are not careful."

Lori retreated several paces
as Lochnar's deadly gaze bored into her suddenly fear-filled eyes.
Terrance could feel Selindria moving toward them from camp, more
than likely awakened by all of the screaming. Something seemed to
pass between Thistledown and Lochnar before Lochnar turned on his
heel and disappeared from sight into the thick sagebrush and cedar
trees.

"Lori," Terrance began in
what he hoped was a soothing tone, "the world you knew before is
gone. Everyone you knew, your family and friends, are all gone. You
are going to have to start a new life here."

Lori's face had a stubborn
look to it, a look that seemed to come naturally to her. "If I
really am awake, and I dreamed myself into this world, then I can
dream myself back."

Terrance started shaking his
head before she finished, "I don't think it works like that, Lori.
When I left Earth, it was just before a nuclear holocaust. I don't
think that there is an Earth for you to go back to."

"But the missiles never
landed!” Lori exclaimed in surprise, "They shot them out of the sky
before they hit."

Terrance eyes widened in
shock as his entire world changed. He just stood staring at Lori
without seeing her as three thousand years of unnecessary life
filled his vision. He could still remember vividly the last news
feeds on their lab computer of several nuclear missiles dropping
from the sky like falling stars and the queasy feeling in his
stomach as he saw the end of their world descending upon
them.

Selindria was just arriving
out of the brush next to the road and paused as she saw the
dumbstruck expression on Terrance’s face mirrored on Thistledown's.
"Who is this?” Selindria asked, gesturing at Lori.

Terrance gave himself a
shake, looking around him as if he had forgotten where he was.
Selindria had to repeat the question before he finally came
to.

"This is Lori West,”
Terrance replied, his eyes still lost in another world. "Lori, this
is Selindria."

The two of them exchanged a
few pleasantries, but Terrance did not hear them. Was it chance
that had led him to this place three thousand years ago? Or, was
there some other force at work that moved them like pieces on a
chessboard? Terrance did not like the thought of having no control
over his life, especially after three millennia's worth of evidence
that had suggested that chance ruled life.

"Terrance?” Selindria asked
tentatively. "Terrance! Snap out of it!"

Coming back to the present
with a start, Terrance looked down at Selindria, who was staring at
him in concern. "What is the matter?” she demanded in exasperation.
"You have been acting like a goose just walked over your
grave."

"Let's go back to camp,”
Terrance said shortly. He looked at Lori. "You are welcome to join
us.” He did not add that even if she chose not to, she would join
them anyway, but she seemed to understand. Nodding slowly, she
followed them as they made their way through the darkness back to
their camp.