other Power here, Power that felt his touch and raced eagerly to meet it like flames cast upon threads of raw silk. Coming toward him. Coming nearer. Hotter and hotter. And he could not break free of that Power greater than his own that had appeared from nowhere to protect the boy.
It was almost on him. He must break the link. He must break the link. Now! Now! Now! Now! Now!
He failed.
The other Power had him, ripping his spirit free of his control, filling it with a twisting, crisping agony so intense it seemed as if his soul itself were aflame.
Pain. Pain. Pain. Pain. Pain.
And then oblivion.
*
It was morning when the tentative nibblings of a twelve-legged crab upon his outflung hand returned Ailill to himself. He was not happy. The boy was protected, this much he knew by bitter experience. By what, he had no idea, but he intended to find out. There would be no more summoning from afar—of that he was very sure indeed. But perhaps there were other means.
*
Somewhere on the floor of a forest path less than half a mile from David’s house, three wisps of smoke rose from the blackened powder that had once been an oak leaf.
Chapter V: Fortunes
A combination regional fair, fiddlers’ convention, livestock show, and arts and crafts exhibition, the Enotah Mountain Fair was held on the grounds of the county high school and lasted an entire week plus one extra weekend.
For that brief period tiny, rural Enotah County seemed to boast about the same population as Atlanta, or so it appeared to those few residents who tried to follow their usual routine amid the steady stream of motorhomes and Oldsmobile 98s. For the rest, mundane life slowed to a virtual standstill, as they indulged themselves in the only taste of outside reality—or fantasy, depending on how one considered it—many of them ever had.
It didn’t take David and Liz long to take in the exhibits. They were both proud to see their culture on display, of course, but they’d seen it all before—often the same exact items year after year—and the music show developed an unexpectedly intractable sound system, so they gave up on it about six o’clock and went to get something to eat and to soak themselves in the sensory overload of the midway. David didn’t really like it much; that is, he didn’t like the crowds that jostled and pushed and grunted along in interminable lines, getting cotton candy on everybody and spilling popcorn all over the ground where a thick coating of mud from the earlier shower had already made walking treacherous. It reminded David of what he had read about the La Brea Tar Pits, and he almost expected to come upon a human hand sticking up out of the ooze, going down for the third and final time. They met Alec while standing in line for the Trabant.
“I thought you guys were going to the bluegrass show,” Alec said, staring intently at David, oblivious to the sour scowl that had darkened Liz’s features.
David hesitated uneasily. “We were, but the P. A. system went out, so we came down here to numb our senses with sight and sound and smell…. You want to join us?” He cast a furtive glance at Liz, then looked quickly back at Alec and caught his friend’s eyes for an instant in a subtle contact that said bear with me and bide your time.
Liz delivered a hard but unobtrusive kick to his shin, but it was too late.
David grunted and gestured at the ride which spun before them like a giddily drunken top. “We’re gonna ride this next.”
Alec forced a grin and produced a free pass. Liz didn’t say anything at all, having resigned herself to a threesome.
They were finally beginning to catch the rhythm of the ride’s dips and plunges and sudden changes in altitude, so that they could anticipate and indeed enhance the periodic weightless sensation they got when the Trabant would indulge in one of its precipitous dives, when the first raindrops fell.
At first David thought it was light-dazed bugs, or somebody’s Coke
It was almost on him. He must break the link. He must break the link. Now! Now! Now! Now! Now!
He failed.
The other Power had him, ripping his spirit free of his control, filling it with a twisting, crisping agony so intense it seemed as if his soul itself were aflame.
Pain. Pain. Pain. Pain. Pain.
And then oblivion.
*
It was morning when the tentative nibblings of a twelve-legged crab upon his outflung hand returned Ailill to himself. He was not happy. The boy was protected, this much he knew by bitter experience. By what, he had no idea, but he intended to find out. There would be no more summoning from afar—of that he was very sure indeed. But perhaps there were other means.
*
Somewhere on the floor of a forest path less than half a mile from David’s house, three wisps of smoke rose from the blackened powder that had once been an oak leaf.
Chapter V: Fortunes
A combination regional fair, fiddlers’ convention, livestock show, and arts and crafts exhibition, the Enotah Mountain Fair was held on the grounds of the county high school and lasted an entire week plus one extra weekend.
For that brief period tiny, rural Enotah County seemed to boast about the same population as Atlanta, or so it appeared to those few residents who tried to follow their usual routine amid the steady stream of motorhomes and Oldsmobile 98s. For the rest, mundane life slowed to a virtual standstill, as they indulged themselves in the only taste of outside reality—or fantasy, depending on how one considered it—many of them ever had.
It didn’t take David and Liz long to take in the exhibits. They were both proud to see their culture on display, of course, but they’d seen it all before—often the same exact items year after year—and the music show developed an unexpectedly intractable sound system, so they gave up on it about six o’clock and went to get something to eat and to soak themselves in the sensory overload of the midway. David didn’t really like it much; that is, he didn’t like the crowds that jostled and pushed and grunted along in interminable lines, getting cotton candy on everybody and spilling popcorn all over the ground where a thick coating of mud from the earlier shower had already made walking treacherous. It reminded David of what he had read about the La Brea Tar Pits, and he almost expected to come upon a human hand sticking up out of the ooze, going down for the third and final time. They met Alec while standing in line for the Trabant.
“I thought you guys were going to the bluegrass show,” Alec said, staring intently at David, oblivious to the sour scowl that had darkened Liz’s features.
David hesitated uneasily. “We were, but the P. A. system went out, so we came down here to numb our senses with sight and sound and smell…. You want to join us?” He cast a furtive glance at Liz, then looked quickly back at Alec and caught his friend’s eyes for an instant in a subtle contact that said bear with me and bide your time.
Liz delivered a hard but unobtrusive kick to his shin, but it was too late.
David grunted and gestured at the ride which spun before them like a giddily drunken top. “We’re gonna ride this next.”
Alec forced a grin and produced a free pass. Liz didn’t say anything at all, having resigned herself to a threesome.
They were finally beginning to catch the rhythm of the ride’s dips and plunges and sudden changes in altitude, so that they could anticipate and indeed enhance the periodic weightless sensation they got when the Trabant would indulge in one of its precipitous dives, when the first raindrops fell.
At first David thought it was light-dazed bugs, or somebody’s Coke
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