His thoughts slowed to instant stillness as he realized he'd been hearing a sound of some sort, and it seemed to be coming from the niche. Slowly he carried his torch back to the wall, and saw that the stone cushion the scepter had been resting on was sinking into the bottom of the niche.

He knew then that subst.i.tuting the rod hadn't done any good, that the difference in weight had triggered another trap, and that was probably what had locked the door. But if that was all it was meant to do, why was the cushion still sinking downward-?

The answer to his question came with a loud click as the cushion sank flush with the bottom of the niche-^and stones on three of the four walls slid aside to reveal pipes.

A few seconds of sc.r.a.ping and gurgling pa.s.sed, and then water began spewing out of the pipes, heavy streams of water mat seemed pure and clear. An underground river had to be feeding those pipes if mere was still water after all those centuries, and he could see that the river in- tended emptying itself into the room. He ran back to the door and tried pulling on it again, then kicked it hard before turning away. There was no way out of that room, none at all, and me water was already up to his ankles.

His jaw tightened when he understood how few minutes he had left, but even then he could only regret that he hadn't taken greater precautions; as far as finding the scepter went, he had no regrets at all.

The water quickly rose higher, and he did nothing more than begin to swim once he could no longer stand. There was always the chance that the level would stop before it rose all the way to me ceiling, and even a slim chance was worth grasping. He held the torch clear as long as he could, until his head was being pressed into the ceiling, and just as water slopped into his mouth and nose and quenched the torch, he saw a hand. . . .

CHAPTER 1.

The room was larger in all dimensions than it needed to be, giving me, at least, the impression that I sat in the house of a rustic giant. Wood paneling, decorative beams, immense stone fireplace and upholstered log furniture sup- plied the rustic, and a twenty-foot ceiling on a forty by forty foot room made the giant. 1 wasn't quite sure what he was up to, except that he seemed to want us to be relaxed but impressed; if the others felt the way I did, he'd missed his mark by quite a lot,

1 shifted in the chair I'd claimed in order to sit with one leg under me, wondering again who all those people were. I'd looked at each of them and had found that they were real, but their life forces were resonating in a way that said they weren't native to that world-dimension in which they found themselves. I was native to it, but that didn't mean I knew any more than they did.

All five of them seemed to be more wrapped up in their own thoughts than interested in starting conversations, and that despite the cozy circle of chairs we sat in. The chairs stood on a large s.h.a.ggy rug that was probably supposed to look like an animal hide, and a round log table stood in the middle of our chair-circle with two bowls of a.s.sorted fruit on it. The main conversation-stopper seemed to be the seventh chair in our circle, the empty, larger chair that none of them had been able to claim. The spell on the chair kept it reserved for whoever was coming, and al- though I could have negated the spell and taken it myself, it didn't seem worth the trouble. The others would have begun throwing questions at me, questions I couldn't an- swer. 1 was feeling stupid just then for a number of reasons, and not having those answers simply added to it-and to my mounting annoyance. We'd been shifting uncomfortably in those chairs for at least twenty minutes, which in my current mood was seventeen minutes too long- I'd waited with as much patience as I could muster, but now the patience was all used up.

"Right now strikes me as a good time to make an appearance," I observed to the air in the empty seventh chair, drawing three pairs of startled male eyes and two pairs of equally startled female ones. "If you don't agree, I'll go home to do my waiting."

The air in the seventh chair started shimmering then, and a figure began forming and filling to occupy the s.p.a.ce.

To the accompaniment of a single gasp our host at long last showed himself, and also showed mat he was still reaching for specific reactions from us. It was hardly likely that any of us doubted he would prove to be a wizard, so the shape he took was unnecessary for the purpose of supporting the point. We weie now being inspected by a robust man who carried his many-years easily, his hair and beard very long and dazzlingly white, his light eyes spar- kling with gentle understanding and amus.e.m.e.nt, his long- sleeved. electric-blue robe covering a body mat seemed two feet taller and a foot wider than even the redheaded boy who was one of our six. I could feel how powerful he was without even trying, but that was no excuse for theat- rics designed to impress the backward.

"The ever-impatient Laciel," he remarked when his inspection moved itself to me, his smile apparently strug- gling to keep from becoming a grin. "Since you knew it when I came in and seated myself, I'm surprised you were able to wait even this long. What's the matter, child?

Don't you approve of my appearance?"

"You know I don't," I answered, aware of the stir of discomfort among the others. "1 may owe my life to you, but that doesn't give you the right to patronize me. It's

26 .

obvious I was brought here for a reason; how about getting around to mentioning what it is?"

"Don't be upset by her abruptness of manner,'* he said to the others, most of whom seemed embarra.s.sed and dismayed and flinching as well as upset. "Sorceresses tend to be difficult to impress, especially when they have the potential power that she does. And, of course, when they have her impatience."

"When a king fails to find waiting beneath him. a girl should have far less difficulty," the redheaded boy put in, the comment half-disapproving and half-amused. He seemed to be no more than seventeen, if that old, but his very large body was fully developed, muscles bulging out of arms and shoulders, thick neck corded with strength, chest deep and wide and covered with red hair. He was bare to his trim waist except for a wide gold band around each of his upper arms, and from the waist down he wore supple leather pants and boots in gray, with a wide belt of woven gold cinching me pants. The red hair on his head was rather long, straight and thick, but his broad face looked too pink-cheeked to ever have been shaved. His deep voice made it all fit together rather neatly-except for his unself- conscious bearing and straightforward blue eyes. Some- how, those eyes would have been more suited to a man three times his age.

"Please believe that I appreciate your patience, Kadrim Harra," the wizard said to the boy, sounding as though he were speaking to an adult his own age. "All of you have been more than patient, especially in view of the fact that you don't know what's happened to you. The truth of the matter is I need you six, to help with a serious problem 1 have. In return for what 1 have done for each of you, there is a service I would like you all to perform. A dangerous service, but no more dangerous than what you left behind."

The expressions on me faces of the others gave me the distinct impression that I wasn't the only one who had been about to pay for stupidity in a rather permanent way when rescued, and me next one to speak confirmed mat.

"What I left behind me was certain death," the second of the three men said, drawing agreeing nods from the third man and the smaller of the two women. "If what you're about to ask us to do means the same, what benefit will there have been for us in being rescued?"

"A fair question, Rikkan Addis," the wizard allowed, looking at the man with benevolent understanding, his hand stroking his long white beard. The man he spoke to was not as large as the redheaded boy, but by any other standards he was far from small. His bronze-colored eyes were his most outstanding feature, set off by a tanned face and dark black hair, supported by a wide, broad-shouldered body dressed in rust-colored leather. Shirt, pants and even boots were rust-colored, and an intricately linked belt of silver circled his waist. "If I were sending you on a hopeless mission, there would have been no benefit in your having been rescued at all," the wizard said to him, ' 'but the mission 1 have is no more than extremely danger- ous. There's a great deal of difference between extremely dangerous and hopeless."

"I'm really very grateful to have been given my life back," the smaller woman interjected before the man with the strange eyes could say anything else, drawing the wizard's gaze to her. "I would have no objections at all to showing how grateful, but as far as this-extremely dan- gerous mission goes, I'm afraid I'm just not cut out for it.

Don't you think it would be much better if I stayed here, rather man going along to be nothing but a burden?"

Her smiled warmed with the end of her question, adding to the overall sense of extreme and eager willingness she was projecting-along with the delicate appeal of helpless- ness, She was smaller than the other woman and myself, her long black hair arranged into curls and twists that framed her angelic face. Dark lashes made her big green eyes very visible, and her mouth was generous with pout- ing lips of bright red. Her skin was too light for her to have spent much time outdoors, and the delicate, long- skirted gown of green she wore not only set off her small but lush figure, it also matched her eyes. She seemed to know that the wizard wasn't as old as his appearance suggested, and she had leaned somewhat toward him as she spoke, adding to the effect of her throaty suggestion. If the wizard had fallen for it 1 would have walked out in disgust no matter how powerful he was, but all he did was look at her with a sobriety she wasn't expecting.

"My dear Soffann Dra, I really do wish I could oblige you," he said, the gentle but implacable words taking the smile from her. "I hadn't meant to go into this now, but since you've raised the point I might as well explain it. 1 need six people with six individual talents for my mission, and expended a certain amount .of energy bringing mem and keeping them here. The energy needed was greater than you know, and I haven't any to spare above that certain amount. If one of you isn't suited to the mission, that one will have to be replaced with someone of equal talent-which can be done, I'm sorry to say, only after me original candidate has been returned to where he-or she- came from."

The small woman's light skin paled visibly and a good deal of fear came into her eyes, but strangely enough she was me only one to react that way. The other woman and me three men seemed to consider me arrangement no more than fair, indicating mat they'd probably already decided to pay off their life-debt in whatever way they had to. As far as I was concerned I would have been long gone if I hadn't also decided the same, which left the smalt woman the only one among us who had tried to renege. She looked around quickly to see how everyone else was tak- ing the news, then leaned back in her chair in defeat.

"Well, if you put it like that, of course I'll go," she said, then deliberately raised those eyes to the wizard with another smile meant to devastate. "After all, there is no one eke of equal talent you could replace me with."

The wizard chuckled at the woman's audacity, his reac- tion matched with smites from the three men, but for some reason the other woman and I weren't amused. Possibly we weren't built right to appreciate her-wit. The general enjoyment continued being expressed for a short while, and then the man with me bronze eyes, Rikkan Addis, turned to the wizard again.

"Now that we know your mission isn't hopeless and that we'll all be going," he said, "I, at least, will appreci- ate a few more details. Where will we be going, and for what purpose?"

He sat back in his chair and crossed his long legs, both actions signs of relaxation, but I had the feeling that something in the questions he'd asked had more impor- tance for him than he was letting on. Before answering, the wizard's hand went again to his beard, which I began to believe was a sign that he was handling something of a delicate nature. I now knew that Rikkan Addis had to be handled, but didn't yet know why.

"Your ultimate destination is a place whose name I know as well as the approximate position where it lies,"

the wizard answered at last, his hand still slowly stroking his beard. "Something of great importance was stolen from this world and taken there, and if it isn't recovered our world here will die- 1 tried going after it myself, but me safeguards along the trail were set with me in mind, negating my strengths and taking advantage of my weak- nesses- You six will have to do the task for me, and if you succeed your rewards will be greater than you ever dreamed possible; if you fail, a world dies with you."

"I find it best to consider only success, and let failure worry about itself," the third man said in an easy way, sharing nothing of the frowning silence which had taken the others. "Will part of my^own reward be the return of the Living Flame?"

His gray eyes rested easily on the wizard, a faint smile making his handsome face even more attractive. He seemed to be as tall as the man with bronze eyes who sat two chairs away from him, but his body was a bit more slender and graceful, and his dark brown hair curlier rather than mane-thick. He wore a wide-sleeved shirt of white, closed at the wrists and open to the middle of his chest, black trousers and short black boots, with a small golden medal- lion hung from around his neck. He looked as though being relaxed was the only state of living he had ever learned, and the wizard smiled as his hand stopped beard-stroking.

"The Living Bame is, of course, yours, Zail T'Zannis,"

he acknowledged, his tone making the words a sworn oath. "Even if you don't return for it yourself, I'll make sure it reaches your father. Will that satisfy you?"

"Very much so," the man said with the flash of a wider smile, for some reason amused. "I'd prefer unveiling it myself for him, but if that becomes impossible it helps to know he'll have it anyway. Please go on with what you were saying before I interrupted."

"What 1 was saying was mat this world is in danger of dying,'* the wizard resumed, losing his smile again. "I think you should know that except for Laciel, none of you are native to this world-dimension. If this one dies your own worlds will, for the most part, be untouched, except for the unavoidable ripples that the dying will send through the dimensions. The ripples can cause storms or earth- quakes or eruptions or, in certain instances, political unrest or out-and-out war, but nothing that your worlds won't be able to survive. It's the people of mis world who will die if you fail."

"I don't understand," I said slowly into the newest silence, which was something of an understatement. He had just lessened everyone's motivation for success but mine, and I couldn't figure out what he was up to. "How could this world possibly be in that much danger without anyone knowing about it? And what could have been stolen that would make that much of a-"

I stopped in midsentence as a chill washed over me, me answer to my question coming even as I'd asked it. There was only one thing that could have been taken, but I'd always thought it was impossible!

*'I believe you understand now," the wizard said, com- pa.s.sion on his face for the stunned expression on mine.

"What was stolen was the balance stone of the Tears of the Mist."

"And you're Graymor," I said, no longer wondering why he'd disguised himelf in a way that kept me from looking through. He'd needed time to build up to me shock he'd known it would be for me, and maybe he'd been right. But as I put one hand to my head, 1 wasn't sure years would have been long enough.

"And I'm Graythor," he agreed gently, men sent his gaze to the others. "Laciel knows me not only because we're long-time acquaintances, but because she knows mat I'm the Protector of the Tears, just as everyone on this world does. Every century a Protector is chosen from among the most powerful wizards then alive, and he or she serves until the next Protector is chosen. My term of office was nearly up when this happened, and maybe that fact caused me to be careless; if it did, I'm more than paying for it."

He paused a moment to look away from everyone, his face and eyes briefly ages older than they had been, and I doubt if anyone in the room thought the change had been caused by magic. Most of them shifted in place with sym- pathy or embarra.s.sment, and their movement brought his attention back to them.

"The Tears of the Mist keep this world stable," he said with a sigh, straightening in his own chair. "Aeons ago the Tears were set in place by the EverNameless to make the world habitable and safe, and to remove them all from their resting frame would cause its immediate destruction, Removal of the balance stone alone, however, delays that destruction and stretches it out, so that the breakup begins slowly and builds toward the final destruction. For that reason alone is there time enough to search for the balance stone and time enough-maybe-to return it to its place.

As long as the breakup basnet gone beyond the point of no return, it will still be able to be-stopped."

"That seems somewhat odd," the gray-eyed man called Zail TZannis remarked, one finger rubbing thoughtfully at his face. "If I wanted to destroy & world, I'd do it in the fastest way possible, not in a way that would give some- one the chance to stop me. And why would anyone want to destroy a world anyway? Maybe the stone was simply taken to embarra.s.s you."

"Your objections are valid, sir," Graythor acknowl- edged, a wry look appearing on his face under the beard.

"Right now only we in this room know the balance stone is gone, but soon everyone will know it and wilt also know that its loss is due to my negligence. If the matter weren't so serious, everyone would laugh." The wry look disap- peared to be replaced with bleakness, and Graythor shook his head. "But me matter is indeed that serious, and once the world begins to break up, no one will have the time or

die heart to laugh. They'll all know they're facing death, and only those with the power will be able to escape it.''