From alt.pub.dragons-inn Sun Jan 8 01:07:21 1995 Xref: netcom.com alt.pub.dragons-inn:8045 Path: netcom.com!ix.netcom.com!howland.reston.ans.net!math.ohio-state.edu!scipio.cyberstore.ca!nntp.cs.ubc.ca!alberta!aaron From: aaron@amisk.cs.ualberta.ca (Aaron V. Humphrey) Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn Subject: [Teonyl] In Pursuit Date: 7 Jan 1995 04:08:16 GMT Organization: The Anna Amabiaca Fan Club Lines: 191 Message-ID: <3el43g$nks@scapa.cs.ualberta.ca> Reply-To: aaron@amisk.cs.ualberta.ca NNTP-Posting-Host: cab109.cs.ualberta.ca Originator: aaron@cab109.cs.ualberta.ca The Lord Flos sat in a high tower. "Report," he said. "The halfbreed and her husband are long gone. But the traitoress may still be trackable, and the assessors think it likely she will try to rejoin her sister, in which case an agent following her may find the others as well." "Has an agent been selected?" "Yes, High One." The Lord Flos sat a few moments in thought. "This is no ordinary mission," he said finally. "The agent must be aware that he may not return. As such, drastic measures may be taken so that he may prove inconspicuous." "High One?" "She knows we will be hunting her. She will be on the lookout for a Florian. So our agent must not look like a Florian." "You mean--make him--" "Yes. She will not expect us to send a human. But be careful of the agent's loyalty. We do not need another to betray us." *** "I don't care," he said when the question was put to him. "Whatever is necessary. When I think of how many of the Kindred could be saved with the power they threw away--" His village had been destroyed, like theirs. (He knew much about them. The mother was still among them, after all.) But unlike them, he was the only survivor of his family. And his family hadn't been contaminated with human blood like theirs. He hoped that this would show them that humans were unworthy of trust. The irony of his situation was not lost on him. He took comfort in the fact that he would still be one of the Kindred, at heart. *** The trail started in O'En, of course, and led southward from there. That meant they felt more threatened by the Florians than by the Kinslayers. How deluded. He made his way into the countries of the south. The diminutive Ershar remembered their passage. He had not thought his quarry would seek refuge here, in a land determinedly neutral to Kinslayer and Florian alike. He also was not fooled by a false trail that took them by ship to Akanet. A few friendly and not-so-friendly interrogations satisfied him that they had, in fact, continued down the isthmus. In Hotanubisol, the Kindred were such a novelty that they would be expected to be easy quarry. So he did not expect the first traces he found to be anything more than a false trail. Instead, he dug deeper, and followed a rumour away from the lush valley and into the desert. Three weeks later, recovering from dehydration, he resolved not to underestimate his quarry again. Picking up the original trail, he found it led to the coast, and thence to Akanet. *** Akanet was their obvious destination. The island of wizards acted as they wished, with impunity. No one knew if the tales of Tarsha's Fall were true, or merely a rumour the wizards had started themselves, but nobody thought it worth the risk of becoming the subject of the next set of such tales. They would no doubt find it a lark to shelter refugees from the Florians. Here, then, his carefully-followed trail could fall prey to sheer whimsy. He would have to convince them that it would be more interesting to direct him the right way than to send him off to chase wild geese. Or maybe he could pretend he was just out on a summer walk. *** "So you see, my friend," Larcarvasus said, puffing on his pipe, "planes are, in many ways, like cities. From one city one can get to another city, by various means, with various degrees of ease. So it is with planes. If one heads towards a major capital, then the routes become more easily-traveled, more frequented, and more numerous. "Of course, some planar capitals are nearer than others. Many are known to us, some better than others--Cynosure, Terra, Tanelorn, Nexus, Cinnabar, Serendipity, Amber... It is postulated that these places are all, in fact, one and the same place under different names, though I personally think it rubbish. The names themselves are obviously simple variants of the same word, or words for the same concept, in different languages, probably the lingua franca of each." "Which is the best-accessible from here?" the Hunter asked, in a voice of innocent curiosity. "Well, the root of that is in what Timekin calls the 'mana coefficient' of each plane, as measured against what he calls--for reasons I, at least, have never seen adequately explained--the 'tek coefficient'. Some of the cities are higher on 'tek', some on 'mana'. This plane, for instance--which is usually referred to by the appellation 'Mundal'--has a tolerable 'mana' rating, but extremely low 'tek'. And a good thing, too. The tales I've heard of high 'tek' worlds have not been pleasant. Now, according to some theories, one can draw a sort of map, where, say, 'tek' is north-south, and 'mana' is east-west. I have such a thing somewhere, but it's horribly out- of-date--still refers to this place as 'Krannel', if you can believe that--and, believe it or not, things are quite fluid. Terra, from what I've heard, has been moving in a direction of higher 'tek' for aeons. Though not as high as Serendipity, I should hasten to add. "However, off the top of my head, I'd venture to say that Nexus is quite nearby. Tanelorn and Amber are also tolerably close, but are not always the most hospitable of places. Tanelorn's environs have been caught up in one of the Great Struggles, and Amber's is, from what I hear, engaged in constant bickering over lordship. So Nexus is really the only practical place to visit. From what I've heard, throughput there is extremely high these days. And 'tek' has been oscillating wildly, though they say this is just a localized phenomenon." Larcarvasus snorted. "Why anyone would want to live in a place like that is beyond me." *** The island of Akanet was filled with hopefuls and wannabes from all over Mundal. Thus, the wizards were able to pick only the best and brightest for their apprentices. Into this riffraff the Hunter blended himself, and, under the guise of serving the Akanetans' more mundane needs, attempted to divine an actual means of transport. *** "Come along, my dear boy. Good lord, is your acne so bad that you have to keep your hood up all the time? It's your own fault for messing up that cantrip. I'd have thought 'Grease' was sufficiently self-explanatory. If the others hadn't been too ill to carry anything, I swear I'd have left you behind. "You're not likely to appreciate the subject of this symposium very much. I'd advise you to stay in your room. The Guildhall is no safe place to wander about. "No! Don't get on that platform yet. Wait until I attune it. Who knows where it's drifted to by now. There--no, wait. Oh, hell. What a messy timestream Nexus has. It always takes me so long to line it up with the right place. What, you think you can do better? I've got the right bloody continent, at least. "You clumsy fool! Watch what you're--oh, bugger. Well, perhaps Ronvega's ideas on natural selection are not as far-fetched as one might think. At least he had the good sense to drop the trunk. Maybe Larcarvasus can lend me an apprentice for today." *** The transition was worse than he expected. He was already braced for impact, but was caught off-guard by the sudden twenty-foot drop. As he lay on the ground gasping for breath, it occurred to him that he was lucky not to have appeared twenty feet on the other side of the ground. Rising, he made his way to the farmhouse nearby. Its inhabitants were friendly enough; apparently people suddenly appearing was no novelty, for this region. He was indeed on Nexus, and only a few days' walk from Generica, the major city, where, it seemed, most of his ilk were headed. "Ye're one o' them adventurers, aren't ye?" the farmer said, squinting. "My eyes aren't as good as tha used to be, but I c'n still pick ye out." The Hunter nodded. "I got separated from the rest of my party. An evil wizard's spell. Have you seen them?" He described his quarry. "Can't say's I have, but I don't doubt that in th' city ye'll find 'em. The Dragon's Inn's the place to be lookin'." "Thank you. I will look for them there." *** To keep things tidy, he watched from the hill until the farmhouse was undeniably ablaze before descending towards the river that he was assured would lead him to Generica. -- --Alfvaen(Web page:"http://ugweb.cs.ualberta.ca/~aaron/") Current Album--Bach:Preludes And Fugues From "The Well-Tempered Clavier" Current Book--Tanith Lee:The Silver Metal Lover Current Song--4th Floor:Black & White