She studied the map again. The way down to the root catenary, the trunk of the “tree,” was a long sequence of more caverns like the ones they had traversed earlier. But Ffairh had mentioned that the caverns were densely populated with the saurians. That I believe, Rhiow thought, seeing again in mind the thousands of them pouring out into the upper track level of Grand Central, and then into the Sheep Meadow. He had not said much more about what he had found, except to report continued attacks by more and more of the creatures, who howled at him that they would have their revenge on him, and the “sun-world,” and anything that dared to come down to them from there: that someday they would come up into the sun themselves, and then all the creatures that lived in the sun, and squandered it, would pay…
He had come away, barely, and lived to tell the tale. At the time Rhiow had wondered whether Ffairh was exaggerating, just a little, to make sure that she didn’t indulge herself in casual runs to the Downside for the pleasure of owning a big cat’s body. Now, though, she knew much better…
Rhiow looked over the map, marking with one claw the paths that seemed the most straightforward so that Urruah and Saash and Arhu could look at them. The Powers only know what we’ll find, of course, she thought, and we don’t even know what we’re looking for. A wizard of some kind, gone rogue… and intent on the destruction of wizardry as a whole.
The thought chilled her, for it spoke of tremendous power in their adversary. Worse, she thought, the Powers may not know what we’ll find… or it may very well be one of Them. One in particular…
Rhiow looked Ffairh’s map over a last time, then turned her back on it and started back across the plain of her workspace, toward her usual egress point. She would consult with the others, show them the map, and attend to whatever final organization needed to be done; then they’d go find out what was in store for them…
Urruah’s question was still echoing in Rhiow’s mind: what kind of ‘something’? She had been reluctant to answer him. It was he who had mentioned the “second Ordeal” that some very few wizards went through. The Whisperer would say only that such Ordeals were not true second ones: only first ordeals that had been somehow arrested or had a component that had not been completely resolved. Could this really be what’s happening? And which of us? Or is it all of us?…
She twitched her tail in frustration. It may simply be that we are all, together, a weapon crafted specifically to deal with whatever is going on in the deepest Downside. Now all we have to find out is whether we are a weapon that will be destroyed along with the threat we’re meant to.combat…
Rhiow paused and stood gazing across the bright plain Uttered with words. Some part of her very much wanted to simply turn around and say, I refuse to take pan. I was not consulted. And she heard Arhu’s voice again: I didn’t ask for this.
But he consented to it when he took the Oath. And so did we. Now Urruah says he’s willing. So does poor Saash, frightened as she is. If they’re willing…
She growled, briefly angry at her own intense desire to back down from this job. It’s you, isn’t it, she said to the Lone One. You live at the bottom of all hearts, anyway, part and parcel of the little “gift” you sold our people. Well, it won’t work with me, today. I’ve seen your “gift” and what it did to my poor Hhuha. Maybe I’m about to claim my own version of it, and “die dead, like a bug or an ehhif,” all my lives snuffed out together if I die Downside or if the others do. But you will not get me to walk away from the fight.
The Claw may break. Let it. It’ll be in your throat that it breaks.
I’m coming.
They met again in Grand Central, down by Track 30. Urruah and Saash greeted her with restraint: Arhu wouldn’t say much of anything to Rhiow, but just looked at her as if she had some rare disease and he were afraid to go near her. She couldn’t bring herself to care very much, just let him stare, and spent the next ten minutes briefing her partners on the route they would take once Downside.
Tom was there to meet them, looking even more exhausted than he had earlier. First of all, the Track 30 gate was up again, but it looked paler than usual, the light of the usual warp- and weft-strings of the locus duller and fuzzy-seeming. Indeed, to a wizard’s trained vision, the whole station had an odd fuzzy look about it—edges and corners not as sharp as they should have been, somehow. The “patched” reality was fretting against the events of the last twenty-four hours, trying to come loose. So far it was holding—but only with constant supervision, Rhiow could see.
“How much longer can you keep all this in place?” Rhiow said.
Tom shook his head. “Your guess is as good as mine. The sooner you get started, the better.”
Rhiow looked over at Saash. “This gate doesn’t look any too healthy. Is it stable?”
“Oh, it’s stable enough. But I wouldn’t want to hazard any estimates on how long it will stay that way. Wizardry in general is starting to behave badly around here. If we don’t find out what’s causing the problem Downside, we may not be able to get back up again before the natural laws governing gating have been completely degraded and replaced with new ones … if they’re replaced at all.”
“All right,” Rhiow said, glancing over at Urruah: he nodded and hopped down beside the gate, sitting up on his haunches to feed power into it if necessary. “Saash, when you’re ready.”
’Two minutes,” Saash said.
Rhiow sat down to wait.
“Rhiow—”
She turned. Arhu was standing beside her. He said, “I can see—” and stopped.
“Well?”
“Your ehhif—I mean—”
“If you’re going to say that I brought this pain on myself by living with an ehhif at all,” Rhiow said, “don’t bother. There are enough others who’ll say it.”
“No, I wasn’t—I—” He stopped, then simply put his head down by hers, bumped her clumsily, and hurriedly went away to sit beside Urruah.
Rhiow looked up to find Saash standing next to her, looking after Arhu. “You’ve been coaching him, I see,” Rhiow said to Saash.
She looked at Rhiow, slightly wide-eyed. “No, I have not. He’s looking, Rhiow. Isn’t that what you told him he had to do?” And Saash stalked away toward the gate, leaping down beside Urruah, and getting up on her haunches to sink her claws into the control weft.
Rhiow stood up as the usual quick sheen of light, though again duller than normal, ran down the weft. It abruptly blanked out then, showing her the rock ledge at the edge of the Downside gate cavern; the slow sunset of that world was fading away in the west.
She rose and went over to the edge of the platform, pausing there by Tom to glance up at him.
“Go well,” he said. “And be careful.”
She laughed, a brittle sound. “For what good it’s likely to do, we all will.”
Rhiow leapt through, felt herself go heavy as she passed through the weft, and landed on the stone. She shook herself, feeling almost relieved to be out of the small powerless body. Behind her, Urruah came through, then Arhu, finally Saash. As she came down, the gate winked closed.