The Darkness Before the Dawn - By Ryan Hughes Page 0,87
him.
He reeled back as if she’d slapped him. “I was just trying to help.”
“Yeah.”
He considered telling her about the baby jankx and the zhackals outside, and about the tree, but with the mood she was in he decided to wait. He turned away, but realizing he couldn’t stand the thought of another day of angry silence, he turned back around and said, “I’m sorry I got us in trouble again. You know I didn’t mean to.”
She nodded. “I know. But you still just about got us killed.”
“Yes, I did,” he said. “And you saved us both and I’m very grateful and I don’t want to fight anymore. I can’t stand it when you reject me like this.”
Water finally started dribbling into the jug. Kayan kept pumping as she said, “It won’t kill you.”
“How do you know?”
“I’m a healer. I know these things.” When the jug overflowed she stopped pumping and turned to face Jedra. “Look, I just need some time alone, all right? The last couple of days have been just as hard on me as they have on you. I’ll be all right, but not if I have to hold your hand all the time.”
“I wasn’t asking you to hold my hand.”
She shook her head. “Arrgh! Can’t you get it through your thick head? That was a metaphor.”
“All right, all right.” Jedra shook his head and retreated into the bedroom.
He tried to rest and regain his strength, but when he lay back on the cushion he remained wide awake. He could hear every sound Kayan made in the kitchen, and he noticed every nook and bump in the arched stone ceiling overhead. He became aware of another nagging presence in the room, too: The crystals beckoned him like a marketplace prostitute. Yoncalla’s tugged the strongest, but the other one held the allure of complete mystery. What kind of world might be inside it? Would it be another paradise, inhabited by another insane immortal, or might it be something completely different? Right now he was in the mood for different.
He resisted for nearly a day, but he didn’t have Kayan to distract him, and now that Kitarak was gone he didn’t have lessons to help keep him busy, either. He finally convinced himself that he would be safe enough if he just slipped in and took a quick look around, then slipped out before whoever inhabited the crystal found out he was there. It had taken Yoncalla a whole day to notice him and Kayan, and even then he had probably done so only because Jedra had made so much psionic noise when he was trying frantically to mindlink with her.
He ate a hearty meal first, just in case. He didn’t think it would matter nearly as much this time since he wouldn’t be linked with Kayan while he was gone, but it wouldn’t hurt to stoke up anyway.
Assuming he went anywhere, of course. Without Kayan’s extra power to help him, he might not be able to break through the crystal’s barrier. Still, curiosity made him try. He lay back on the cushion so he wouldn’t fall over this time when his mind left his body, set the crystal beside him, and concentrated on entering it.
Yoncalla’s world was a continual distraction. Every time Jedra felt the unknown world’s barrier weakening, he felt himself slipping toward Yoncalla’s world instead. Finally he levitated the offending crystal into Kitarak’s study just to put a little distance between him and it, and when he tried again the distraction seemed a little less. He still had to be very careful which crystal he entered, but when he finally felt the barrier give way, he was sure it was the new one.
There was the same moment of disorientation as before, then he opened his eyes to harsh blue light coming from rectangular panels overhead. He was in a cave of some sort—no, it was another enormous stone building. And this one was full of people.
They were everywhere, and all on the move. Men and women of all ages, even children—everyone seemed to have a destination and strode purposefully toward it. They all wore unfamiliar clothing, mostly tight-fitting pants and shirts made of smooth, brightly dyed cloth, and none of them paid the slightest attention to each other. Jedra stood a foot taller than most of them, and though he was the only one not hurrying anywhere, they ignored him, too.
The place smelled like too many unwashed bodies. A constant, low-level rushing sound of voices and footsteps