She did not acknowledge but she understood.
Kuo Wen-chin found Scalza worrisome.
Mist did, too, but less so than Ekaterina. Scalza only thought he was clever and secretive. He was talented but he was like every other talented boy produced by Shinsan.
If he became trouble he would be predictable trouble. Eka, though, could be a menace less fathomable than her mother had been. She would be as unpredictable.
Could it be a sex-linked thing?
Female Tervola were rare. So rare that Mist knew of only two. Ekaterina was the other one.
Her toenails felt likely to curl in dread.
She leaned over Scalza’s right shoulder, so close her hair brushed his and her breath heated his cheek. She saw what might be the Unborn, in his scrying bowl. The view there was obscure but the color was right.
He jumped. “You startled me, Mother.”
“Sorry.”
“When did you get back? Did it go wel ?”
“I’ve been back for some time. I’m wondering if my feelings should be hurt because you didn’t notice.” Scalza made a visible effort to process her meaning before he responded. He reached the right conclusion. “I was preoccupied. Sometimes I get too focused.”
“Yes. You do. But don’t we al ? It went wel enough. The target tripped some of the traps.”
“But you didn’t get him?”
“Natural y not. It couldn’t be that easy. What’s the wizard’s story?”
“I don’t know. He’s back in range, barely, but he isn’t in any hurry to get here.”
She harrumphed.
“I think he’s going as fast as he can. It must not have gone right. The Unborn acts like it’s hurt. It has to rest a lot.” That was new. She considered the monster infinitely indefatigable.
Eka brought the Itaskian sorcerer. She and he were blushing. The girlfriend wore a smirk. Had Eka interrupted something?
Mist found the girlfriend’s composure as disturbing as she did Eka’s potential for chaos.
She glanced from Eka to the Winterstorm and back. Her daughter went on defense immediately.
Mist told the sorcerer, “We’re sending you home while we have time to do that.”
Babeltausque’s relief was almost pathetic.
His companion brightened considerably, too.
“Excel ent!” the sorcerer said, then said no more, as though he did not trust himself not to jinx it.
The girl asked, “What wil we need to do?”
“What you’ve done al along. Stay out of the way while they ready the portals.” She beckoned Lord Yuan, who was conferring with some specialists. That was good. He should have everyone he needed on hand.
Tin Yuan responded with what was, for him, alacrity. He pushed through the press. “I understand what you want, Il ustrious. But there are problems.”
“How so?”
“The portal we used before is no longer operational. We haven’t been able to reach any of the others. They aren’t out of action, we just don’t have the codes or capacity to access them from here. You should shift these two to the Karkha Tower and send them on from there. Tang Shan has constant access.”
“I don’t like that idea. They don’t need to see things they don’t need to see. Have Tang Shan bring the codes here.” The old man disapproved. He thought her choice was wrong but said only, “As you command, Il ustrious.” She did not ask why he thought she should do it differently.
She faced the odd couple. “It’s going to take longer than I hoped.”
The sorcerer shrugged. “It’s al right. Waiting is better than walking.”
That was a jest. Even his girlfriend was surprised.
...
Babeltausque was lightheaded with joy. The Empress real y meant to let them go!
The excitement faded when Mist explained, “We tried again. Even with the right codes we can’t connect from here.”
Cynicism set in.
“I’m as frustrated as you are,” she said. “I want you out of here before the storm breaks. Lord Yuan says there’s only one way. We send you to a place where we have permanent connections with our Kavelin portals. You’l move on from there as fast as Tang Shan can manage.” She waved at the portal bank. The man she meant had just disappeared. Someone she cal ed Candidate entered the cabinet next door.
Babeltausque said, “We’re ready,” as Carrie slipped her hand into his. That was hot and shaky. She squeezed.
Mist said, “One of you fol ow Tang Shan. The other one, go after Lein She.”
Babeltausque did not like the separation but knew that these portals would pass only two people in succession before they had to be reset.
Mist continued, “Good fortune attend.”
She sounded disinterested now she was about to be shot of them. He was tempted to ask to stay.
But doom was coming. The end of the world was coming, for some. Old Meddler would arrive in a mood for destruction. Soon everyone here would be dead. The best plan of al time would be to get the hel gone before the shitstorm descended.
He and Carrie fol owed the easterners, Carrie first murmuring, “You thought about staying, didn’t you?”
“For the two seconds it took me to realize how much I’d miss you if I was dead.”
“You say such sweet things, Bee. I’d miss you, too. I wouldn’t stay. I’d fol ow my skinny guy anywhere he wants to take me.”
“Carrie!”
“You know what I mean. I don’t plan on getting downwind of Death for about nine hundred more years. Longer if I can work it.”
“Then I’l stick tight and help you get what you want.” Though Carrie could have stated it with more clarity Babeltausque understood that she wanted him to remain evasive in the matter of deliberate self-risk.
She gave him a big grin, a peck on the lips, and popped into her portal, a master traveler after only one previous experience. The portal hummed. She vanished.
Babeltausque stepped into his own destiny.
Darkness. Then terror like none he had known before.
He was not alone in there.
Something had been lurking at the boundary. Something that had a yearning beggaring his own sad need for Carrie.
He stumbled into a place where half a dozen easterners gabbled at Lein She like frightened geese. Something was happening that should not be. Lein She rushed Carrie on toward a portal making feeble teakettle whistling noises.
Someone plunged in ahead of her, a boy with a rusty short sword.
Tang Shan bums-rushed Babeltausque toward another portal, this one quiet. Another armed boy preceded him.
Lein She pranced like he had a bad need to pee. The instant that portal reset, he fol owed Carrie. Behind him, babbling technicians settled into combat poses behind long swords, facing another portal producing especial y hideous noises. Babeltausque experienced a weird sensation suggesting labor pain.
Tang Shan shoved him so hard he feared his shoulder had been dislocated. He spun, staggered into the portal backwards, glimpsed several unsettling things before the darkness embraced him.
Carrie’s portal tore itself apart—in total silence.
Black smoke emerged from the portal making the ugly birthing noise. The technicians harried it with their blades, which began to droop like overheated candles but caused much worse noises each time they slashed the smoke.
Something was in extreme agony. Then a disembodied face pushed out of another portal. Babeltausque knew it without ever having seen it before. Old Meddler. And he was furiously unhappy.
