Page 50 (1/2)

He wept in frustration and helplessness

Julianna looked up at Halliwell He started toward her His lips formed words of concern Her head lolled to one side, and she looked up at Collette and sh the cloud of shock that had enveloped her

"If you’d stayed in the dungeon, you’d have saved us all a great deal of trouble"

The shadows cleared froaze to see the pale face of Ty’Lis only a few feet away, hateful features frah in some breeze that Julianna could not feel The sorcerer had coend-Born

Oliver, Julianna thought, wishing for hih upon a star

Then she slipped away, into the darkness

With the war into his shirt, Oliver stared at the figures floating in the air around the ice ed upward, now only ten or eleven feet below hiher peak, the dead blue bird in his hands, and Leicester Grindylow beside hi the body of Cheval Bayard

"They’re all Smith," Oliver said

He stared around at theiant and the female, the fearsome warrior, the scarred monstrosity, the thin wizard--and knew it had to be true Each one of those figures, so on?" he asked Frost

The winter ed skeleton of ice He shook his head, ed, withered Smith whose left eye socket was a scarred pit At first, he’d thought this the Wayland Smith he knew, but then the others had come

"What the hell is this?"

Another building cruround shook and Oliver nearly fell, then He clutched the bleeding fox against his chest If it ca floodwaters before he would let her go to her death alone

A strange calm settled upon him The soldiers of Atlantis had been washed away, save for those who had sought higher ground on roofs and do into the water, taking their chances with the ocean, perhaps in hopes that theyto float on Or perhaps they could breathe in the water The people of Atlantis were not hu

The sorcerers were gone as well He iined they were not drowned, but instead had fled the destruction of their kingdom

Some of the creatures--the monstrous sea-beasts that the sorcerers had co island, but they paid no more attention to Oliver and the Borderkind, or to these new intruders Whatever ence had co they’d received, the chaos had them confused and panicked

Oliver stared at the one-eyed Smith and waited for an answer

"Damn you, where is he?" Frost said, his voice a kind of hiss "Where is the Wayfarer?"

The question seemed foolish The look on the one-eyed Smith’s face told Oliver precisely how foolish it was The feiant Smith cursed and spat

"The Wayland you knew has…" the one-eyed Sh deciding not to share whatever he had been about to say "He has done soreed never to do We are Travelers, Oliver Bascombe Walkers betorlds We are not meant to interfere with those worlds we visit, for they are not our own Yet our brother--your Wayland--has shown us that there are times when it is not possible to stand aside, e must become involved

"Every world has a Wayfarer This dimension’s Wayland eakened by the creation of the Veil--"

The others began to shout hirined, the one-eyed Ss fell silent

"We need hi else mattered, now Confusion threatened to distract hih the Gray Corridor, and we have to return to the battlefield Ty’Lis--the murderous, twisted son of a bitch responsible for all of this--he’s there, and I think heHunyadi"

But the one-eyed Smith only shook his head "He cannot return His power has failed at last The Veil holds him back, trapped in the Gray"

The winter er Some of the ice in the mountain blew up into snow and accumulated around him

"Then you must take us!" Frost demanded "If his interference stranded us here, you lanced around at the others They all began to nod, slowly, and as the old, withered Wayfarer turned to look at Oliver again, one by one they began to fade to gray, to wisps of nothing

Oliver’s heart sank and he buried his face in Kitsune’s copper fur

Only then did he notice that all had gone silent

He raised his eyes and saw Frost and Grin there in thetheir dead Oliver felt the fox’s weak heartbeat pulsing against him as he looked around

"Which way?"

Then he saw the figure, there in the ure with a broad-bri, but started along the path

In the ures moved

Other Wayfarers

It seemed the as at his back, and thethe Gray Corridor

The Wayfarers vanished