Winston ignored this. “We believe that Spike should remain here.”
“I think we need to have him at the Halls of Law when I report in.”
Squawk.Squawk.
“If you want to risk it,” Winston replied.
* * *
When Kaylin stepped through the arch, every mark on her body felt as if it had been slapped. Her eyes watered. But she took three steps and the pain faded, just as the pain of an actual slap did. She stared out into a vast expanse of nothing. No, not quite nothing; everything ahead of their group was a sprawl of gray. There were no trees, no sky, nothing that really resembled horizon. Beneath her feet, the gray was soft; there was a give to it that implied sand. Or flesh.
She went with sand.
She began to trudge across it; Winston was in the lead. In deference to Kaylin and the rest of the cohort, he chose to remain in his Barrani state. His brother, however, did not. Kaylin wouldn’t have found the transformation so uncomfortable if, at the end of it, he actually looked like an animal. She’d seen Bellusdeo go Dragon enough times that the sight of shifting—and expanding—flesh seemed almost natural. In the case of Winston and his brothers, however, things like fur or obvious animal musculature were missing. He simply changed the shape and orientation of his limbs to better move ahead.
He ran off, and Winston turned to the group. “He will scout. I will lead.”
“There’s no path?”
“There is. You are walking on it. But it is almost in its base state. It will be far more difficult to shift or upset its construction.”
“But not impossible.”
“Nothing is impossible.” Winston’s eyes narrowed. “We can see the path. I believe that one or two of your friends are also sensitive enough to follow it without the visual cues that usually accompany it. What is important now is that you follow me. If you are falling behind, make certain that we know.”
Walking on soft sand was far more taxing than walking on actual dirt or cobbled stone. Winston and his brother didn’t tire at all; neither did Bellusdeo. But the cohort, with the exception of Terrano, appeared to find it as difficult as Kaylin did after the first hour.
If it had even been an hour. Without sun or light, it was much harder to mark the passage of time. There was little to break the monotony of the trek.
“Do you want to ride?” Bellusdeo asked.
“No. It’s not hard, it’s just...” Kaylin shrugged. “There’s something about this place I don’t like.”
“I can’t imagine what.”
Kaylin continued, in spite of the obvious sarcasm. “It reminds me of the stuff between worlds.”
“Between worlds?”
Kaylin nodded. “I think this is what exists when there are no words.” She frowned.
Spike said, “Yes.”
“Did you meanwordsorworlds?” the Dragon asked.
“Words. At their heart, even worlds have words. Big, complicated, messy words. I don’t think you could know the True Name of a world—I don’t think you could see it all at one time. Even the Barrani, with perfect memory, would probably be stuck just staring for centuries in an attempt to grasp it all.”
“And in the absence of words, this is what remains?”
Kaylin shrugged. “You can ask the Arkon. He has old records. And opinions.Lotsof opinions.”
“Kitling, you are really going to have to do something about that memory of yours.”
“It comes with the race.”
“No, it does not. It comes with ‘what Kaylin thinks is practical to know’ or ‘what Kaylin finds immediately useful.’” She eyed Spike. “Are you saying that this is similar to the space one would travel to arrive in a different world?”
“Yes.”
