The crimson witch

would never have to know-since he wouldn't believe you.”
        Jake pushed the grate quietly aside and entered the room.
        Cheryn saw him at once, struggled to restrain a smile that would give him away. Instead, she turned her attention back to the fat woman and concentrated on her. “I don't mind being punished if I'm telling the truth. You're a gross, flabby, moose of a woman, and you know it!”
        The woman slapped her again. And again.
        “Fat!” Cheryn screeched.
         Slap!
        Jake knew the folly of trying to manhandle this woman, for she was a Talented and beyond his puny Commoner powers. But he could throw her off balance just long enough to give Cheryn a chance to overpower her and knock her out. He sneaked up behind her, carefully reached out and dug his fingers into her sides, tickling her fiercely.
        The woman danced wildly, flailing at the surprise and the mirthful sensation. In the few seconds she was off guard, Cheryn grabbed a bottle of sweet-smelling toilet water from the vanity, swung it, broke it over her head. Perfume showered over Jake. The woman staggered, half turned, and fell full length on the floor. Her psionic powers wouldn't do her any good until she regained consciousness, which would be enough time for them to escape.
        “Where did you come from?” Cheryn asked.
        “I'll show you,” Jake said, grabbing her hand. “We haven't much time. She'll be out only a few minutes.”
        He led her to the fireplace, around the concealing partition, and into the stairwell behind the wall. “There's an opening into the throne room,” he said, taking her down the steps to the landing and halfway up the next set. He hunkered down and peered around the wall into the fireplace and beyond. The throne room was empty. “Come on.”
        They moved through the fireplace into the room and up to the wall where the portal shimmered eerily.
        “Which is the wall that faces Kaliglia?” she asked.
        He turned, grimaced. Finally: “That one.”
        She turned to it, squinted, gritted her teeth. A few seconds went by when nothing seemed to happen. Then, abruptly, there was a huge hole in the wall. The stones had disappeared just as the attacking man-bats had that time at the gorge. Across the field, Kaliglia lumbered out of the forest. He ran awkwardly, but fast.
        Abruptly, shouted alarms echoed through the building. The sound of running feet echoed in the big hall.
        “They couldn't have heard me,” Cheryn said.
        “The woman upstairs has gotten up,” he said. “A little sooner than we planned.”
        A manbat scuttled into the room, saw them, turned to run back out.
        Cheryn burned him out of existence.
        Kaliglia reached the moat, crashed into the water, splashing bucketsful into the throne room. He reached the wall and struggled to raise himself and pull through. For a moment, it seemed as if he would not make it. One of the alligator beasts snapped at his rear quarters, was discouraged when its teeth didn't damage the thick hide of the dragon. Then, kicking, he was through into the throne room. They hurried across the vast floor to the wall where the portal waited.
        Half a dozen more manbats and three human guards came into the room.
        “Quick!” Jake shouted, grabbing Cheryn by the hand. He leaped into the wall with her. Kaliglia followed, bleating madly…

Chapter Fifteen: HOMECOMING
        
        The Smoke Ghosts did not appear-immediately. There was only darkness, a swirling of various hues of black and gray that served to keep them in ignorance of their whereabouts, illuminated nothing, gave view to no concrete objects. They were in a land of nothingness, of shapelessness, of vast expanses of hollowness. The only thing that proved a link to reality was the fresh, cool air and the stiff wind that sucked them across the gloom like the intake of a vacuum cleaner until the light in the castle wall was only as large as a dime suspended at arm's length in the blackness. Then it became only a pinprick, then was gone completely. They floated in a chain, Jake in the lead, Cheryn in the middle, holding onto his hand, and the looming hulk of Kaliglia close behind like some oddly structured battleship. Evidently, when an object from one of the worldlines was dropped into the gulf between realities, the force from the opposite gate pulled that object across the gulf and into the