said.”
“Yes, this is Earth. Your home. And no doubt you want to stay.”
“Yes! I mean … ”
“There is some doubt?”
“Well, I’m going to miss the castle.” Sheila slapped her forehead. “I don’t believe I said that.” Then she realized the gaffe. “I didn’t mean —”
Incarnadine chuckled. “I know exactly what you mean. And I’ve been meaning to solve the one-way access problem for a long time. Please accept my apologies for any inconvenience the delay has caused you. Now that we have the Earth portal nailed down, I think we should establish a permanent access to the castle. This house would make an excellent way station.”
“Where is this place?” Gene asked.
Trent said, “The closest town is Ligonier, Pennsylvania.”
Gene jumped up and down. “That’s a stone’s throw from my hometown!”
“Mine, too!” Sheila said.
Gene stopped jumping. “How the hell am I going to explain where I’ve been? I’ve been away almost a year.”
Incarnadine thought about it. “Well, this is a problem. There are some possible solutions, though. As you can see, we’re traveling through time. It could be possible to stop the house just shortly after the time you entered the castle. We could cut it as close as you like. Or, as an alternative, it’s actually theoretically possible to tune a portal to permit time travel. You have to be careful to avoid paradoxes, of course. Meeting yourself coming the other way, that sort of thing. But in principle, it shouldn’t be a problem.”
“I’ll opt for the portal method,” Gene said. “I’d like time to change into something less Gothic.”
“No doubt.”
“Sir, what about the situation back at the castle?”
“Well, as soon as we get things squared away here, I’m going to return to the castle to finish some important business.”
“My liege!”
Carrying a large leather-bound book, his index finger wedged inside it, Osmirik ran into the room and knelt at his liege lord’s feet.
“Arise, good and faithful servant. Whaddya got there?”
“The spell, Your Majesty! The containment spell for the Hosts of Hell! Your ancestor, Ervoldt, used this ancient Tryphosite spell for confining evil spirits. I’ve done a rough translation of some of the more obscure lines.” He fumbled with a few sheets of paper.
Incarnadine scanned the book. “Tryphosite, eh? You don’t say. Ervoldt was a wise old coot, wasn’t he? Yes, yes, I see. This should work. Excellent job, Osmirik. I knew I could count on you.”
“I am only too happy to be of service to His Serene and Transcendent Majesty.”
“This looks like it has a decay time of a little over five thousand years. No wonder Ferne unraveled it so easily. It was just about due to go on the fritz, anyway. Do you suppose if we made some modifications we could increase the effective time — say, here … and here?”
Osmirik looked over the King’s shoulder. “Oh, I should say so, Your Majesty.”
Incarnadine read the section through again, nodding. “Yes, it should work.” He closed the book and handed it back to the librarian. “Thank you, Osmirik. I am forever in your debt.”
Astonished, Osmirik accepted the volume. “His Majesty does not need a working copy …?”
Incarnadine smiled. “You needn’t bother. I’m a fast study.”
Awed, Osmirik bowed and backed away.
Incarnadine looked out the window. “The house will probably oscillate a little before it settles down to the present. A half hour, I’d say. Did anyone check out the kitchen? There might be something to eat in there. Is anyone as famished as I am?”
The house bounced for two full hours between the future and the past until eventually zeroing in on its target, the fleeting instant of the present. In the meantime, they ate a meal of canned food made tolerable by an excellent Chablis that Gene found in the cellar, along with many other drinkable spirits. Barnaby and Deena came down in time for dessert: canned cherries jubilee with a superb Napoleon brandy.
“There was more demons upstairs,” Deena told them. “We saw one of them!”
“An incubus,” Incarnadine said. “A technician, probably. Blue-collar type, not one of the warrior demons of the sort you people battled. Relatively harmless.”
“Do you think any of them are still here?” Barnaby wanted to know.
“No,” Trent said. “If the warriors died of spell exhaustion, the underlings didn’t have a chance.”
Deena told of the one who had jumped out the window.
“One chance in a million of survival that way. Not that it’s any great loss.”
They all agreed not to lose any sleep over it.
“How did they manage to fool your sister?” Gene asked.
“Well, their disguises fooled you,” Incarnadine said. “Didn’t they? But you’re right, my sister should have known better. I suspect she succumbed to their influence a long time ago.”
“You mean, she was a puppet?”
“No. The Hosts are persuasive. I’ve told you how, as young people, we all had a brief flirtation with them. She was acting in their interests all along, and I don’t think she realized it. Of course, this in no way exonerates her.”
Sheila said, “When you go back to the castle, you don’t expect to have any trouble?”
“None,” Incarnadine said, finishing the last of his wine. “I can beat them, and they know it now. Their only chance was to kill me, or keep me out of the castle. They couldn’t do the former and they can’t do the latter.”
“Couldn’t they —?” Sheila shook her head, puzzled.
“No, they’re licked. Sure, they could battle me every inch of the way back to their portal. But they know they’d lose in the end. I suspect they’ve totally withdrawn from the castle.”
Sheila frowned. “It’s so hard to understand.”
“Yes, almost impossible. I don’t pretend to understand them, nor do I fully understand everything that’s happened. But if Ferne’s still alive, I’m hoping to get some answers.” Incarnadine sat back. “When I’ve finished in the castle, I’ll send back word here, so you can come on through, if you wish.”
“I’m leaving from here,” Sheila said. “I’ve only been gone a few days.”
“Fine. I’m sure you’ll find a car in the garage. You’re welcome to use it.”
“I still think I should do a time trip,” Gene said. “And so should Linda. Our folks will think we’ve come back from the dead.”
“Well, it will take some time to set up,” Incarnadine said.
Trent said, “There’s no need for that, if you want to take another tack.”
“How so?” Incarnadine asked.
Trent spoke to Gene. “Write a letter to your folks and make up some good excuse for your absence. It’s no problem for me to take that letter and back-time it a year or so.”
Incarnadine was surprised. “You’ve been dabbling in time travel?”
“Sending people back is a little beyond my skill. But dropping a few letters into the postal stream of twelve months ago would be a breeze.”
“Trent, I think you’ve become the family’s best magician.”
“Coming from you, that’s quite a compliment.”
“I like the idea,” Gene said. “It means we could just pile into the car with Sheila and drive home now. Those stories are going to have to be pretty good, though. Now, let’s see. What wild yarn could we come up with?”
“Could somebody lend me plane fare to California?” Linda asked.
“No problem,” Trent said. “Put it on my MasterCard.”
“Thanks. You’re very kind.”
“We princes are naturally charming.”
“He’s been using lines like that for three hundred years,” Incarnadine warned.
