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In spite of himself, he wanted her. The male animal within him was asserting
its
brutish nature. His willpower already had been subjected to a fierce assault
from Terri, and now this girl, who couldn't have been a day over eighteen and
whose name he didn't even know, was pressing up against him and rubbing her
leg
up and down alongside his. She was young and beautiful and ever so much more
than willing as she gazed deep into his eyes, her lips slightly parted, her
tongue moistening them seductively. She seemed to have little sparks dancing
in
her pupils, tiny little fireworks that burst apart, and he felt himself drawn
deep down into her gaze, unable to tear his eyes away.
He opened the door and looked down a flight of wooden steps leading to the
dark
basement. His hand felt strangely cold as he reached out to flick on the
light
switch, and he blinked, startled, when he saw a torch set in an iron wall
sconce
suddenly erupt into flame. Then he noticed that the wall was no longer brick
but
mortared stone, and that the stairs leading down were no longer wooden but
stone.
"Hey, have a look at this!" he said.
Jacqueline and Makepeace came up behind him.
"I turned on the light switch, and this damn torch suddenly blazed up!" said
Blood. "What's more, I swear those stairs were wood only a moment ago.
There's
something else too. There's a strange sort of coldness just past this door, a
sort of... icy watery feeling...."
Makepeace extended his arm past the doorframe. "Aha, what have we here?"
"What is it?" said Jacqueline.
"I believe we've hit the jackpot, my dear," said Makepeace. "I think our
friend
has just discovered a dimensional portal."
"A what?" said Blood.
"A magical doorway through space and time," explained Makepeace. "You go
through
there and you wind up someplace else. It could be somewhere nearby, or on the
other side of the world. Something like this takes a great deal of skill and
an
incredible amount of power to maintain. I don't think there can be any
question
about Lord Carfax now. Looks like we've found our necromancer."
"And something else as well," Jacqueline said, holding up a soft black
leather
roll-up case. "I found this upstairs." She opened it, displaying a lethal
collection of gleaming knives.
"Perhaps we've found our trap as well," said Blood swallowing nervously.
"Either way the answer is through there," Jacqueline said. She shivered as
she
stepped through the coldness of the portal, and to Blood it appeared as if
she
had stepped through some sort of clear, semipermeable membrane. There was a
visible disturbance in the air, an effect not unlike that of water rippling
as
she passed through, took down the torch, and started down the steps.
"After you," said Makepeace.
Blood hesitated.
"You don't have to come if you don't want to, Michael," Makepeace told him.
"No
one will blame you."
"That's where you're wrong, Sebastian," Blood said. "I'd blame myself." And
he
stepped through the portal.
Terri opened the door to the cell and ran down the steps with the keys in her
hand. She only hoped she wasn't too late. The man chained to wall was
motionless. How long had he been down here without food or water? Surely no
ordinary man could have lasted this long, but she knew that this was no
ordinary
man. She lifted up his head and saw that he was breathing but only barely.
His
eyes were closed.
"Wake up!" she said, slapping his cheek. "Come on, wake up!"
Modred groaned faintly.
"Alive!" she said. "You're still alive! You can make it! Come on!"
She unlocked the manacles, and he collapsed to the floor like a sack. She
went
down with him. Grunting with effort, she extricated herself and rolled him
over
onto his back. She tore a strip from her dress and dampened it in the water
dripping down the wall, then applied it gently to his lips.
"Come on, snap out of it! Use your jewel, like you did before! Go on, take
strength from me! Go on, it's your only chance!"
He showed no sign of hearing her, but the ruby set into his chest began to
glow
faintly. Terri suddenly felt afraid. What if he took too much? What if he
drained her of everything she had what would happen then?
She started to feel dizzy. She was suddenly overwhelmed by a vertiginous,
falling sensation. The runestone was glowing brighter. Terri's breathing
became
more labored, and her chest began to hurt. She started to see colored spots
before her eyes. She slumped forward on her hands and knees, gasping for
breath.
Too much! He was taking too much!
"Stop!" she pleaded. "Stop, please!"
And suddenly the terrifying, falling sensation went away, and she felt the
pressure on her chest ease off. She sat back, taking deep breaths, feeing
weak
and dizzy. She looked down at him and saw his chest rising and falling
steadily.
His eyes opened.
"You," he said, his croaking voice barely audible. "Who "
"Don't try to talk," she said. "Save your strength. I've come to help you.
We've
got to get you out of here. Try to stand up."
He started to sit up but immediately fell back again.
"Come on, try! I'll help you!"
She put an arm around him, but he had weakened her by draining off her
energy,
and it was all she could do just to raise him up several inches before she
had
to let him back down. She simply didn't have the strength.
"I can't," she said, breathing hard from the exertion. "I can't do it. You've
got to make it on your own. You've got to. Come on, get up, you can do it.
Come
on . . . ."
He tried and fell back once again, shutting his eyes and shaking his head.
"No, don't give up!" she said. "Come on! Come on, get up! Get up!"
"Need some help, Terri?" came a voice from behind her. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]