Other Places 1: Shortcuts by P. S. Power Page B

only had about five people left in it, and moved back to the girl.
    Rebecca. The chains were tight, binding things that cut into her arms and legs enough to make her bleed a tiny bit in places. The key was cleverly hidden in the pants pocket of the guy that M.H. had killed. It took a few minutes to find it, and by the time he had Wu-Li stood next to him, barely breathing hard.
    Zack worked at the lock, then removed the thick strand of iron chain, noticing as he did that there were barbs on them in places. It horrified him when he realized that he'd been yanking the things from the girl's soft flesh without noticing it. She was crying, but didn't get louder or gasp when it hurt more.
    "Don't kill me. I'll be good, I won't tell anyone..." Her voice was high pitched, but barely a whisper, not whining, just pleading, saying the only things she thought might count for anything.
    "Rebecca? I'm Zack and this is Mr. Wu-Li. Your mommy and her friend Ginny sent us to get you and take you home. Well, back to the candle shop. It's where they both are right now." He kept working the whole time, wincing for her when it had to hurt, even though she slowed down on the sobbing, not crying much at all anymore.
    "Mommy? You're from the guild? Daddy said they couldn't stop him, that he was too powerful and the Lus'fer was helping him." The child sat up and started working on her own legs, trying to get free. There was hissing as she worked, and a feeling of panic, at first at least. Then she glanced to the side, where the bearded man lie bleeding from the center of his face. "He was wrong."
    It took a few more minutes to get her free and without blinking, Wu-Li covertly went around the room and killed anyone that seemed to be trying to get up at all. It was pretty clear he was trying to not distress the child at the same time, making sure she wasn't watching overly as he did it. A few still lived, but wisely just lay there after the first three died.
    Once the girl was up and free, Zack turned to look at the rift they'd come through. It wasn't closed, but it only seemed to link to a place outside, perhaps a few miles away, by a tree.
    If he was going outside, he needed to find his other shoe, which he did, a few feet from the bearded corpse.
    Zack figured that it would be hard to move them all along, walking nearly ten miles to cover the thousands, carrying each one of them through each rift he found. It was awkward and uncomfortable for him, touching them over and over again, but it had to be done. It took a little over four hours to do it, but the little girl didn't complain and managed to walk on her own for most of it, even as her feet developed blisters. Wu-Li had to carry her then, since he was much stronger than Zack was. It was kind of humbling, but the truth was that he was just too weak to do it himself for more than a few seconds.
    Even the walking was hard, his shoes not meant for the task at all. It was cold too, and the girl didn't have a jacket even, or shoes. Wu-Li stopped and made her some, wrapping her feet in strips made from his heavy shirt. He had a thin t-shirt on under it, a plain white one with no sleeves.
    "Won't you get cold?" The girl sounded concerned about it. Zack was chilly, and she shivered, but Wu-Li smiled and shook his head.
    "I know how to warm myself with magic. Shall I teach you how as we walk? It's simple enough."
    He described the flow of energy and how to visualize it as fire, moving in a circle inside the body, pumped by the breath.
    "Into the tummy first, the flames growing hot, then let the air rise into the chest, letting it expand, then reverse it as you exhale." When he looked Zack saw it working in the man, and the little girl started to get it too. After a bit she stopped shivering at all. He tried it, but his energy was the same way it always was. Blocked and stagnant.
    Then, that was why he wasn't a Mage, wasn't it? He lived, but was totally locked in place that way. He just shivered and made