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Alicorn. It had been not only possible but easy. How, then, could the three person limit be such a
formidable force? Did it exist at all?
"Gaea," Luna said.
"I will take Atropos to her," Thanatos said, rising and resuming his cloak.
"Take us all," Luna said. "Chronos must meet her, too."
"Gaea-another Incarnation?" Norton asked. It seemed to him he had heard that name before; Gawain the
Ghost had said-
"The Green Mother," Luna explained. "Nature."
Yes, that was it; Gaea had changed the baby for Gawain and thereby had caused terrible mischief. The
memory of that banished Norton's three-person speculation from his attention; he wanted to meet this
powerful yet fallible entity.
The four of them walked out to the estate parking lot, paced by the guardian griffins. They were
certainly beautiful animals! Beside the parking lot there was a small, verdant pasture. A handsome
stallion of pale hue grazed there.
"Mortis," Thanatos called.
The pale horse perked up his ears and trotted over. He was a truly splendid animal, with a sleek hide and
firm muscles; had he had wings and a horn, he could have passed for another Alicorn. This was, Norton
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remembered, the Death horse-the steed who carried Thanatos to his appointments.
"We need transportation for four-to the Green Mother," Thanatos said to the horse.
Mortis stepped onto the pavement-and shifted into the form of a pale limousine. Norton gaped. "That-
but that's a machine!" he protested.
Thanatos drew his cloak about him more tightly; as the hood closed, the skull-face manifested with its
gruesome grin. "Mortis is an excellent steed-but perhaps no more remarkable than your little ring." He
opened a door for the ladies.
Squeeze. Sning liked that comparison. He was another creature who converted from living to dead, or
vice versa.
Norton walked around the car, noting that the tag in back said, MORTIS. And he had thought the
Alicorn was remarkable! When magic and science were one, such miracles were commonplace. He
opened a door and climbed in.
He found himself in the back seat beside Clotho. She shrugged at his startled glance. "I want to be
presentable for Ge," she explained.
Of course. Fate changed bodies the way others changed clothes. This made it seem like a double date,
for Thanatos and Luna were companions, while he and Clotho-well, what did it matter? His old
existence as a mortal was behind him.
The car started smoothly, driving itself. It turned about-and abruptly it was zooming through space and
matter. The world was rushing past in a smear of color. Then this slowed, and they were driving into the
gate of a truly sumptuous estate with luxuriant trees of many varieties and a sparkling lake. It was the
kind of place that could charge tourists for visits.
A huge shape loomed in the sky ahead. Norton peered through the windshield. "That-that's a-"
"A roc," Luna said calmly. "The largest of birds. Ge has made her estate into a preserve for rare and
magical creatures. It's hard to imagine how she salvaged the rocs."
The roc swooped toward them, its wings seeming to span the whole horizon. It pounced on the car, its
monstrous talons poking into the windows and vents, and picked up the vehicle together with its
occupants as if this were no more than a mouse. In moments they were dangling high in the air.
One talon was near Norton's face, projecting from the top of the window to the ceiling of the car. The
talon was like fine blue steel, an inch in diameter at the window and tapering to a needle point. What a
bird!
Luna turned to Thanatos, unruffled. "Ge is testing us," she remarked. "Perhaps you had better perform a
token, just to reassure her."
"Gently," Clotho cautioned him. "We are fairly high at the moment."
"Gently," Thanatos agreed. He reached up and touched a talon with a skeletal finger.
The bird shuddered-and so did the car. The roc had felt the touch of Death, and that was a touch no
creature ignored. The roc spiraled down to the ground and set the car gently back on the road. Then it
hastily departed.
Norton realized why caution had been advisable. Thanatos could have stunned or killed the big bird-but
that would have led to a crash landing. So he had merely given warning-and the roc, recognizing a
power more sinister than its own, had yielded.
But a new problem loomed. A cloud formed, and rain slanted down from it, turning rapidly to sleet and
then snow. From the right puffed smoke and steam; then a vent opened and molten rock poured out. The
lava was not moving rapidly, but it was hideously hot; the vegetation it touched burst instantly into
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flame. The snow, on the other side, was already piling so deep that the ear could not plow through it.
Clotho shook her head. "Ge." She sighed as if addressing a naughty child. "Mortis, follow my thread."
She flicked a finger, and a thread flew out, passing through the windshield without touching it and
extending in front of the car, glowing.
Mortis followed it. The thread wound through the slush melted by the lava, left the road, traveled along
a ridge that held the lava temporarily at bay, and went across a narrow channel that concentrated the
lava. The car speeded up to hurdle the ditch, then slued about to follow the curving thread toward the
main mass of lava. This seemed hazardous indeed to Norton, particularly since the traction was
treacherous and the visibility almost nil, but the thread of Fate knew exactly where to go. That, of
course, was part of Fate's business-to know the intricacies of man's interaction with Nature. They
threaded their way successfully between snow and lava, sometimes with each close enough to touch on
either side from a window, sometimes pausing, then scooting forward, avoiding a minor avalanche, and
emerged onto a firm, dry road. Fate had foiled Nature.
Then Norton experienced an urgent need to relieve himself. His gut knotted and his bladder swelled.
"Uh, if we could stop a moment..." he said.
Luna fidgeted. "Ge again; we all feel it. No way to avoid it, and stopping won't relieve it. It's her
specialty for intruders: instant flu." Her cheek seemed greenish.
Indeed, now Norton's stomach roiled. Beside him, Clotho looked seasick, and Thanatos seemed about as
sick as a skeleton could be.
Clotho turned to him. "Your turn, Chronos."
Oh. Norton lifted the Hourglass, turned the sand blue, and willed the immediate region to be included in
a short hop. There was a small jump, and the discomfort abated.
He had brought the car and occupants five minutes into the past, which was his future, before the illness
commenced.
Clotho took a deep breath. "Thank you, Chronos. A girl doesn't like to look sick in public." She brought [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]