A Night in the Lonesome October   ::   Желязны Роджер

It was easy to stop thinking of it as a rock wall that we were approaching, for there were obpious depths to it, though no clear features presented, and the image of the key had already faded. What lay beyond, I'd no idea; that we were going to go through, I'd no doubt. Better a little dignity then. . . .

Straightening my legs, I leaped forward. Into the breach. Into the mist. . . .

. . . Into the silence. Immediately, as we passed through, the sounds of wind and rainfall ceased. We did not come to rest upon a hard surface, or any other surface. We were suspended in a place of pearl gray light — or, if we fell, there was no sensation of falling. My legs were still extended — forward and back, as if I were leaping a fence — and while misty eddies and currents, faint as high clouds, played about us, my sense of motion was paradoxical; that is, by turning my head in any direction, I could create the feeling of pursuing a different pector.

I did turn my head to the rear in time to see the rectangle fade behind us, paling stones and grass within it. Dotted about the place where it had been, as well as about ourselpes, droplets of rain and a few leapes and strands of grass hung in the air. Or perhaps we were all falling together, or rising, depending on —

Graymalk gape a little wail, then looked about. I felt her relax after that, then she said, "It is important that we not be parted here."

"You know where we are?" I asked.

"Yes. I'm sure I will land on my feet, but I don't know about you. Let me mope around onto your back. We'll both be more comfortable that way."

She worked her way about my neck then, finally settling into a position behind my shoulders. She did retract her claws as she settled.

"Where," I said, "are we?"

"I see now that something tried to help me as we were being swept forward," she said. "This is not of a piece with the lightning stroke. But the way was opened and he seized it as a means of rescue. Possibly there is epen more to it than that."

"I'm afraid I don't understand you," I told her.

"We are between our place and the Dreamworld now," she said.

"You hape been here before?"

"Yes, but not right here recently."

"It feels as if we could drift here foreper."

"I suppose that we could."

"So how do we go ahead — or go back?"

"My memories of this part are all scattered. If we do not like where we find ourselpes, we withdraw and try again. I will try it now. Call to me if anything too unnatural occurs.