“He was -” As she did when under stress, she changed to mind-speech. He was in a strange place, far away. He was with somebody? somebodies? else. He said, he said -
“What, child?” said Hochopepa.
He said we must wait for a message, then something - changed. He was - gone? in an empty? place. I became frightened. I felt so alone.
Katala held the girl closely. She controlled her voice, but she felt fear as she said, “You’re not alone, Gamina.” But inwardly Katala echoed the girl’s thoughts. Even when Pug had been taken from her by the Assembly to become a Great One, she had not felt this alone.
Pug closed his eyes in fatigue. He let his head fall forward until it rested upon Tomas’s shoulder. Tomas looked back. “Did you get through?”
With a heavy sigh, Pug said, “Yes, but - it was more difficult than I had thought, and I frightened the child.”
“Still, you got through. Can you do it again?”
“I think so. The girl’s mind is unique and should be easier to reach next time. I know more about how this process works. Before I only had the theory. Now I’ve done it.”
“Good. We may need that skill.”
They were speeding through the greyness they had come to call ‘rift-space’, that place between the very strands of time and the physical universe. Tomas had instructed Ryath to go there the moment Pug had signalled the end of his contact with those at Stardock. Now the dragon sent a mind message. Where dost thou wish, Valheru?
Tomas spoke aloud. “To the City Forever.”
Ryath seemed to shudder as she took control of that nothingness around her and bent it to her needs in travel. The featureless grey about them pulsed, and somehow they changed directions within this boundless dimension, this no place. Then the fabric of grey about them rippled once more and they were somewhere else.
An odd spot appeared before them in the grey, the first hint of any reality within rift-space. It grew as rapidly as if Ryath were speeding through some physical plane, then they were above it. It was a city, a place of terrible and alien beauty. It possessed towers of twisted symmetry, minarets impossibly slender, oddly designed buildings that sprawled below the vaulting arches between the towers. Fountains of complex fashion spewed forth drops of liquid silver that turned to crystals, filling the air with tinkling music as they shattered upon the tiles of the fountain, becoming liquid again and running into drains.
The dragon banked and sped downward, flying above the centre of a magnificent boulevard, nearly a hundred yards wide. The entire street was tiled, and the tiles glowed with soft hues, each subtly different from the next, so that over a distance it appeared a gradually changing rainbow. And as the dragon’s shadow passed over, the tiles blinked and glowed, then shifted colour, and music filled the air, a theme of majestic beauty, bringing a stab of longing for green fields beside sparkling brooks while soft pastel sunsets coloured magnificent mountains. The images were nearly overwhelming and Pug shook his head to clear it, putting aside a soft sadness that such a wonderful place could never be found. They flew under heroic arches, a thousand feet above their heads, and tiny flower petals of sparkling white and gold, glowing rose and vermilion, pastels green and blue fell about them, a softly caressing rain scented of wild flowers, as they made for the heart of the city.
“Who built this wonder?” asked Pug.
“No one knows,” said Tomas, “Some unknown race. Perhaps the dead gods.” Pug studied the city as they flew over it. “Or perhaps no one built it.”
“How could that be?” asked Pug.
“In an infinite universe, all things are not only possible but, no matter how improbable, certain to exist somewhere at some time. It may be this city sprang into existence at the very moment of creation. The Valheru first found it ages ago, exactly as you see it. It is one of the greatest mysteries of the many universes the Valheru have travelled. No one lived here, or we Valheru never found them. Some have come here to abide awhile, but none stay long. This place is never changing, for it stands where there is no true time. It is said the City Forever may be the only truly immortal thing in the universes.” With a sad and rueful note he said, “A few of the Valheru attempted to destroy it, out of pique. It also may be the only thing impervious to their rage.”
Then a flicker of motion arrested Pug’s attention, and suddenly a swarm of creatures leaped from atop a distant building, took wing, and banked in their direction. He pointed toward them and Tomas said, “It seems we are expected.”
The creatures came speeding at them, larger red versions of the elemental beings that Pug had destroyed on the shores of the Great Star Lake the year before. They were man-shaped, and their large crimson bat wings beat the wind as they sped toward the two dragon riders. Calmly Pug said, “Should we land?”