Chapter Thirty-Eight
Leo 'floated' through the shining, silvery medium that was this plane, or state of being, or whatever it was. Though he'd gained a great deal of confidence in 'moving' around this way, he'd yet to come up with a satisfactory name for most of what went on here. Nevertheless, he knew which 'way' to go, following his intuition to his goal. His speed was unknowable. Sometimes he was suddenly at another 'place', sometimes the 'journey' seemed agonizingly slow. He could see no correlation to terrestrial distances, try though he might.
Suddenly his soul thrilled to the soundless, keening joy that was that Other, and she was there. The rush and flow of her power rang in his mind, lifting him, hinting of near-infinite vistas. He 'stopped' and 'knelt'.
[ [ Kitsune … it is an honor to see you again ] ]
I, TOO, AM PLEASED TO MEET YOU …
I WOULD KNOW WHERE YOU GO
[ [ I seek a device … I need it to fight The Demon ] ]
AND THIS DEVICE MAY BE FOUND ONLY IN MY LANDS
[ [ if it exists elsewhere, I do not know of it … but I can make one myself if you prefer … it would take longer … ] ]
DO NOT FEAR, LITTLE ONE …
YOUR NEED EXCEEDS MY OWN …
YOU MAY HAVE THE DEVICE
Suddenly, a clear image of the exact location of the component that he needed flashed into his mind.
[ [ I thank you, Kitsune … you bless me with your aid ] ]
YOUR TASK IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN YOU KNOW …
WHAT AID I CAN GIVE, I GIVE GLADLY …
LIKE THIS …
She 'reached' out to him … 'touched' him … smiled at him. And then he was alone.
Leo stirred and sat up. Dash noticed movement out of the corner of his eye, and said, "Hey. Welcome back."
He croaked, "How long?"
"Oh, 'bout half an hour I'd say."
Leo got out of the chair and lurched for the tray of food Dash had prepared for him. Four sandwiches and three whole pears later he stopped for breath.
Dash remarked, "Y'know I get the same way. If I've been running for a while, I get hungry enough to eat a mule, and don't bother skinning it."
"Until I began this work, I never really knew what it felt like to be hungry. But lately," and here he poked softly at his midsection, "even though I'm eating more than usual, my weight has been dropping off." He downed a tall glass of orange juice and reached for another sandwich. As soon as it was gone, he got an odd look on his face.
Dash frowned and asked, "What's wrong?"
"It's the … I've got to … sleep." Seeming to fight his own legs, he stumbled back to his chair and got in it.
"You okay?"
"She said… rest … need rest … have to sleep."
"She? She, who?"
"Must … sleep … now." He lay back and closed his eyes.
"Leo? Who said you had to sleep?"
No answer. The tension seemed to melt out of the little man as he stretched out on the recliner.
"You need me to get something? You doing that trance thing again?"
But Leonid wasn't vouchsafing anything. The slack, lifeless expression he usually wore was absent. If anything he looked peaceful. Shortly, a light snore escaped him.
"Crap," complained a disgusted Dash. "He didn't even tell me where the next piece was."
##
For yet another day, the two inhabitants of the remote castle successfully avoided the topic that was of keenest interest to them both.
The morning passed while they carefully searched through the various avenues of information that Reckoning could access (those that he was willing to admit to, at any rate). He explained that he had to lower their cloaking field in order to access the satellites, and he didn't like to leave it down for long, since it made them 'visible' to electromagnetic detection. So he would drop the coverage for a few minutes while doing a mass-download, and then re-establish the cloak while they reviewed the data at a more leisurely pace. They read through a great deal of detail about the recent battle, and a great deal of speculation about the nature and resources of The Demon. Violet deduced that the Soviet powers-that-be seemed to be waking up to the level of threat he could pose, since they were doing a massive military mobilization. Ivan was fairly certain that was not the underlying cause for the buildup, but he kept his opinions to himself.
The afternoon they had spent in physical exertion. Violet had received enough training in hand-to-hand combat to make her dangerous to the average man on the street, but Reckoning's skills far surpassed hers. He showed her any number of holds, throws and joint-locks that she felt could be useful, especially given her current lack of super powers.
Neither did she object to the close physical contact that the instruction in many of the techniques entailed.
Afterward, Reckoning headed off to the kitchen to start supper, and Violet wandered over to the western side of the castle. This evening had brought with it hardly a breath of wind, which suited her. She wasn't a huge fan of the cold under the best of circumstances, and this drafty old castle seemed barely able to slow the chill Arctic breezes that blew down from the tundra.
One thing that helped to redeem this situation, to an extent, was that the sunsets were almost indescribably beautiful. She stood under the overhang just outside the smaller western entrance, drinking in the arched glory of red and gold and pink and magenta that covered two thirds of the sky. She'd spent half an hour here each of the previous three evenings, just before Reckoning came to take her in to supper.
Leaning against a column to the left of the door, she slowly turned her gaze this way and that, not wanting to miss a single nuance of the spectacular view, when a delicate flush of warmth washed over her. Something changed in her field of vision, and a slight vertigo caused her to reach for the wall. As she waited for her head to stop misbehaving, she realized what was different: she couldn't see her nose. In an excited rush she tore off one of her gloves and gasped in delight when it revealed nothing. Gleefully, she brought it back to visibility, and then made it vanish. She repeated the process several times before it occurred to her to try a force field, but that effort disappointed her. Apparently the powers returned at different times.
"No matter. At least now I know it'll be back." Then she thought I've got to tell Erkki. She turned to go back inside, calling out his name joyously. That's when she saw him, reflected in one of the small, round windows set into the angled stone beside the door, and the sight stopped her cold.
He was side-lit by the setting sun, and his expression looked nothing like any she'd seen on him before. Dangerous and dark, his scowl spoke of deeds and intentions that everyone else would regret. The malevolence that sat there seemed oddly at home on his face. Violet's jaw dropped, and she knew a sudden and intense fear. Her legs refused to move. The next instant she saw him outlined by a weird glow, and she heard a muted snap. A momentary chill ran through her, followed again by that odd disorientation.
Then, as if some unseen hand had thrown a switch, the glow surrounding him winked out and his face … altered. The stark change, which was accomplished with no apparent effort between one heartbeat and the next, sent a frisson of horror racing down her limbs. The reality of what had just happened crashed in on her, and breathing suddenly became difficult. Quickly she glanced at her hand, willing it to vanish.
It remained stubbornly visible.
He raised an arm and called to her, all smiles, and came striding around the pillars that had hidden her from him … and from somewhere she dredged up the strength to turn and face him.
He walked up to her, saying, "I heard you calling, Violet. What is it? You sounded very happy."
She couldn't speak. She swallowed, opened her mouth a couple of times, made an abortive attempt at vocalizing, and finally rushed to him, grabbed his lapels in a fierce grip, and buried her face in his jacket.
He wrapped her in his arms, and with what sounded exactly like genuine concern in his voice, he asked, "What is wrong? Is there something I can do?"
Her shattered thoughts began to settle back into some semblance of order. Quickly she ran back over what she had seen, and realized that he must not have noticed her reflection in the window; that her face had been in the shadows; that the sunset had more than likely been reflecting off that very same window, and glaring into his face …
He doesn't know I saw him!
When that sank in, one layer of the paralyzing fear lifted.
What do I tell him now?
How do I explain my reaction?
It's only been a few seconds. Maybe I can bluff?
No … wait … there's a better way.
That entire train of thought had raced through her mind in the time it took to draw a breath. She sniffed and whimpered and looked up at him with tear-filled eyes. Stammering, she said, "I ha-ha-had it b-back!"
"What? Had what back?"
"My p-powers! For just … just an instant there, I … I went invisible! I'm sure of it! I even thought … I had … control over it. But then it just … it just faded out. And now …" She gathered a handful of his jacket in each hand, pressed her head against his chest again, and sobbed as if her life were over.
Ivan, with a smug smile she couldn't see, held her and patted her back. "I am sure it is just an after-effect of The Demon's attack on you. Your powers are of much greater strength than those of the other two supers I knew about. It is much sooner that they are returning, but they could come and go for a while before they are back for good. You will simply need to be patient. And do not worry. I will be here to protect you until then."
But she understood at last what was really going on. Several incidents that, taken separately, had puzzled her came together to make a chilling sort of sense.
He is the one who sapped my powers. Not The Demon. Erkki. This man, who is holding me and pretending to care for me, has me at his mercy. And there isn't one solitary thing I can do about it.