Lori sped down the highway and into the city. Within two hours, they were just inside the city limits and nearing the coast. Mich still had no idea what her plan was, but he was prepared to help her, even though he knew it wouldn’t work.
He watched the things that whizzed by outside. Deep inside the city, he had seen huge glass squares that rose up into the sky, and concrete paths that many people walked on. There were lots of wheeled boxes, like this one. He hoped that he would be able to learn about it all. Surely he ‘d have to, assuming he didn’t fade out in this realm after a week.
Now the buildings were only half as tall, about ten stories. There were a few more trees and the sky was a deeper blue; otherwise, it was the same. The air smelled as stale and the graffiti was just as rude. Though he couldn’t imagine growing up in such a strange place, it was easy to see why one might want to dream of other things.
Nola had doubts about her plan. She didn’t expect it to work, but she just couldn’t sit idly by and let her dreams be destroyed. As far as she knew, Esprit was left to the mercies of the Centicores. She shuddered to think of that. She simply had no choice, she had to go back! She didn’t know what she’d do if Mich died here. He would die in her dreams as well, and she’d lose her only possibility for true love.
Just maybe, if she got to the beach, there might be a way. Mich had come up from under the sea the first time, so maybe there was some way into Kafka from there.
Just when the car reached the bad part of town, a squad car seemed to appear from nowhere. The blue and red lights started to flash, the siren wailed and the officers gave chase. There was no doubt they were guilty of speeding.
Lori started to pull over, but Nola grabbed the wheel. “We don’t have time, Lori! Drive like you’ve never driven before or I swear I’ll never speak to you again!”
Lori, cowed by her usually docile friend’s behavior, stepped on the gas, pressing the pedal to the floor. Luckily, Lori’s car was an old souped-up Camero that her father had restored for her, and could outdistance almost any car.
Mich, who was holding on to the front seat and leaning forward, was now thrown back into his own seat. “What’s going on?” he asked. “What’s that noise?”
“That’s a police siren, and it means trouble,” Lori said.
“You said a mouthful!” Nola agreed. “See if you can lose him between those buildings up there; he’s far enough behind now.”
“Oh, demons?” Mich asked. “Trolls?”
“Close enough,” Nola agreed.
Lori slammed on the brakes and cut the wheel. Mich was thrown forward again, then thrown to the side. Nola also lost her grip on the dash and slid right as the vehicle squealed around to the left, into an alley. Lori took the next left, before the police car could see where they were going. She had doubled back and they were now headed away from the coast.
“This is no good!” Nola cried. “Go in there!” She pointed to a smaller alley to the right.
They got themselves headed in the right direction again. Mich informed them that the police car was no longer pursuing them. “We outdistanced the demons amidst Fren Cliffs.” Naturally he interpreted the close, high buildings in terms of land features he understood.
That was a relief! “It’s a good thing you haven’t put your new license plates on yet!” Nola said.
Lori drove them out of the city, onto a highway, and drove for another hour. Then she exited and drove through a residential area.
“Let us out—here,” Nola said. “The beach isn’t far. It will be safer if we walk the rest of the way.”
Lori stared at her friend. “What? You don’t like my driving?”
“No, no. It’s not that. I mean we—as in Mich and I—should walk. You had better get home. But I’m sure that cop will remember your car. You better get home and park it in the garage and cover it. Make sure you’re not followed.”
“But—”
Mich cut her off. “Nola is right, Lori. We should go on alone, regardless. There is a lot of dangerous stuff going on where we ‘re headed and I wouldn’t want to involve you. It is bad enough already, right here. Demons are well worth avoiding, if you can.”
“Amen,” Nola agreed with a subdued smile.
Lori grudgingly let them go their way. She wasn’t sure she would ever see Nola or her new friend again, but the knowledge Mich had shared with her braced her attitude on life. A whole other world where dragons and fairies lived! Maybe she would believe in her own dreams more from now on.
Nola and Mich waved good-bye and watched Lori drive off. Lori was a good friend, the only friend she had here. She was a bitch most of the time and tended to sleep with every guy she met, but she did care about people, and when Nola needed her, she was always right there.
They walked through the housing area, following street signs. Soon they reached the seedier part of the boardwalk, with all of the local bars and drug-infested alleyways.
Nola looked around to get her bearings. They were in a dank, smelly alley. The kind that was usually occupied by winos and junkies. Places like this always depressed her. She knew that some of these people had once been successful in life, but had fallen through society’s cracks through no fault of their own.
She started walking, deep in thought. Mich was holding her hand, but she was barely conscious of it. There was something nagging her with increasing strength, almost drawing her along in this direction, though she had never been in this section before.
“Ooww!"someone yelled. “Hey, why don’t you watch whatchur doin’!”
It was a young woman, about twenty-five years old. She was sitting between a box and a garbage can. Startled, Nola paused to look more carefully.
Her clothes were classic hooker style. Her blond hair was in disarray, and she smelled of alcohol. She held an empty liquor bottle in one hand and a pistol in the other. Nola had stepped on the hand with the bottle in it.
“I’m sorry,” Nola said. “I wasn’t paying attention.”
“Yer damn rightcha weren’t! You should be more careful round people who’ve got one a these!” She held up the gun, then let it fall to the street with a clacking sound.
Mich noticed that her top was ripped, showing some interesting flesh, and she was bleeding from a gash in her shoulder. “What happened to you?” he asked. “Trolls?”
“None of yer g’damn business!” she snapped. “You g’damn sonofabitch! Why don’t you just git outta here an leave me the hell alone? I’m off now, come back later!” She threw the empty bottle on the ground at their feet and it shattered into a thousand pieces. She started crying, and covered her face with a hand.
Nola instantly took pity, as Mich knew she would. “You’re bleeding! Why don’t you let us help you?” Nola bent down to help the girl up.
The girl slapped at Nola’s hands. “Why can’t you all just leave me alone! Whaddaya care, anyhow?”
“Look,” Nola said reasonably, “I’m not going to tell you that I know what you’re feeling, because I can’t possibly know, but I do care. I want to help you, and I’m going to. You can’t kill yourself.” Nola felt an uncomfortable pang of familiarity. She had felt this bad herself at times.
She lifted the girl off the ground by her armpits, being careful not to touch her wound. The girl fought with her and slapped her in the face, but Nola did not release her. This wasn’t exactly a demon or a Fren, after all.
“Whaddayou care? Go ‘way, just go ‘way, damn you!”
But Nola wouldn’t let her go. She wasn’t sure herself why she was doing this. There was just something that made it seem important, quite apart from the girl’s evident need of help. So she persisted. Eventually the girl collapsed in Nola’s arms and cried.
“It’s okay,” Nola said. “I promise, I’ll help you.” She knew better than to ask a prostitute where her parents were or where she lived. “Do you have a friend you can call?”
“No,” the girl sniffed, “I ain’t got nobody.”
N
ola looked helplessly at Mich.
“I think there’s some healing spice in the Forest of Imagination,” he said. He hated to get Nola’s hopes up like that. There was no chance of them reaching Kafka again.
“Okay,” Nola said. “You’re coming with us. We’ll help you.” She paused. “By the way, what’s your name?”
“It’s Tina, not that you care, and what the hell is healing spice? Some kinda new stuff?”
Nola ignored her. “Well, Tina, how would you like to get away from planet Earth for a while?”
The girl struggled free from Nola’s embrace. “Are you kidding? What the hell ya think I wuz tryin’ to do when you stepped on my hand?” She knelt to pick up the gun and put it in her purse.
That wasn’t what Nola meant, but she wasn’t about to clarify it. “All right, then, that’s what we ‘ll do.”
The girl resumed crying as they walked down the alley toward the city limits. The beach wasn’t far now. Tina preferred to stumble along without help. Her purse flip-flopped at her hip as she walked.
In due course, they reached the beach. Spirit wasn’t in sight, but if he had come here again, he could be walking along the far end of it. Maybe all they had to do was wait for him to come to this end. Maybe. There were a few people on it, so Nola sat Tina down on a bench to talk to her. “Will you tell me what happened to you now?” she asked patiently.
“Well, if you must know, I was doin’ a trick for a regular. He was a disgustin’ one an’ I heard he’d been with Frita. That chick has some kinda VD, an’ I told’m I wanted cash in advance. He beat me up and did me real good. I told’m I’d sic Johnboy on his ass—that’s my man—an’ he said he wuz gonna kill me.” She paused and tried , to straighten her torn dress. “But I ain’t no dumb ho. I carry an enforcer.”
She removed the pistol from her purse and showed it to Mich. Mich held it up to see it better. He put his eye to the little hole in its end, but couldn’t see anything inside. He twiddled the little device on one side of it.
“Hey, man! You crazy? Gimme that!” Tina snatched the gun and stuffed it back in her purse. “You tryin’ to git me caged?”
Mich couldn’t quite understand her strange phrases, but kept his mouth shut.
“As I was sayin’,” Tina continued, “he said he wuz gonna kill me, so I pulled out my enforcer and gave him what he deserved.”
“You killed him?” Nola asked, horrified.
“No way! I may’ve had the street drilled into me, but I ain’t God! It ain’t my right to take life. No, I just gave him a plug in the leg, an’ when he was on the floor, I took my pay.”
Nola was glad to have the story straight, but she wasn’t so sure she liked it.
Mich was fascinated by it. There was never anything like this going on in Kafka. He was glad there wasn’t.
After the beach cleared out a little, Nola led them down to it. The section of beach that she reserved for her pondering was devoid of people for miles and the sun was dropping low in the sky.
“What now?” Tina asked.
“I wish I knew,” Nola said, disappointed that apparently Spirit had not made it here this time. “Any ideas, Mich?”
“Nope. Maybe we should go in the water?” He knew, with regret, that this was all pointless.
“I ain’t goin’ for no swim!” Tina said defiantly. “If we ‘re gonna do it, let’s do it now!” She pulled out the gun and aimed it at her temple.
Before Nola or Mich could speak, they felt a strange sensation. Nola remembered the only other time she had felt this way. She had been put asleep for an appendectomy.
In moments, all three of them were asleep.
Mich, Nola and Tina lay on the ground. Nola was glad there weren’t mosquitoes, biting flies or other obnoxious insects here. Maybe there were, but there were spells to protect people from such attacks.
Spells? Did that mean—?
As they woke, their first sight was that of a pair of huge black fetlocks blowing in the breeze.
They struggled to their feet, rubbing their eyes. They were back in Kafka, standing before Spirit. They were beside the river at the exact spot they had fallen in.
Spirit’s huge, black head towered over them. He lowered it to look Nola over. Heat was nowhere around, but Snort attended to Mich, worrying over him as if Mich were his cub.
Tina stared, disbelieving, into Spirit’s sparkling green orbs. She saw her own image reflected back.
“AAAAAAHHHHH!” she screamed, stumbling backward. “What the hell is that thing?!” She pointed the gun at him.
Nola immediately slapped the gun from Tina’s grasp.
“I wouldn’t,” she said.
“W-what the—” Tina stammered.
Nola drew her aside. “Look, I asked you if you wanted to leave Earth and you said yes, so that’s what we did.”
“But I thought—”
“You thought I meant permanently? No.” Nola stepped back and dramatically raised her arms. “Welcome to Kafka.”
“Kafka?” Tina looked again at Spirit. She rubbed her brown eyes, still not able to believe what she saw. “Where the hell are we?” she demanded.
“I’ll explain later.” Nola turned to Spirit. “What happened, Esprit? How did we get here?”
I brought you, he thought happily. I’m glad to see you are healthy. I missed you. He nuzzled her face, and she gently caressed and kissed his nose.
At that moment, Mich wished he were a unisus. He wanted more details. He knew he’d finally learn what special magic Spirit had. “But how did you get us here?” he asked.
Heat galloped up carrying some tiny red berries in his mouth. I believe I can answer that, if I may.
Be my guest, Spirit thought.
But first, let the girl eat these.
Mich took the berries out of Heat’s mouth and persuaded Tina to eat them. The girl seemed somewhat dazed, and put them in her mouth without really paying attention. Her eyes were trying to take in the whole scene at once, and evidently not succeeding.
“Look at your shoulder,” Nola told her.
Tina was astonished as she watched the wound on her shoulder heal before her eyes. “Look at that! The pain’s gone too!” Then, catching sight of her reflection, she scooped up some water to wash her dirty face and arms, and brought out a comb to do something about her hair.
Now, Heat began, if I might answer your question—
But Tina interrupted, still working on her appearance. “How can them horses say stuff but don’t move their lips?”
Heat stared at her. My dear, we are not horses! He was obviously insulted. We are called unisi. My name is Heat and this is Esprit; that’s Spirit, to you. He indicated the black unisus with his bright silver ‘ horn. We two are the lessors of a once complete rainbow and we speak with telepathy. That is, through thought; and I do not appreciate being referred to as a mere horse! He snorted indignantly.
“Scuuuuze me!” Tina said, daunted but resistant.
Now, he continued, I was about to say that it was Spirit’s power that brought you back. Unlike me, it takes him precisely five years to charge his spells.
Nola was intrigued anew at her friend and looked at him in awe.
“You say ‘spells’?” Mich asked.
Yes. His power is far more versatile than mine. He can perform any given spell, once every five years. He was just a few hours shy of being fully charged when you fell into the river.
“That explains why he didn’t try to save us before; he was charging a bed spell! I always thought you had to be in bed, but I guess it doesn’t matter where you sleep, or even if you are sleepy. The spell put us to sleep. But how did he know that we ‘d fall into the river? I mean, if he had been charging a bed spell for five years, how did he know we’d need a bed spell? Or was it just a coincidence?”
Spirit explained, I didn’t know you would fall. When I release the spell, it coalesces into whatever spell I require. As Heat indicated, it is very versatile.
“That it is,” Mich said thoughtfully. “How did you get rid of the Centicores?” Mich knew that they hadn’t defeated them, because there were no bodies.
Nola tweaked his arm. “Silly!” she said, laughing. Mich remembered his friend’s wings and the answer was obvious. The unisi must have outmaneuvered them in the air.
“I guess we should go before the Centicores return. What will we tell King Kras? His warriors are gone.”
“Now, wait just one minute!” Tina interjected, bracing against Snort. “Did you say King Kras?”
“Yes,” Nola said, hoping foolishly for something she wasn’t able to pin down at the moment. She had been somehow drawn to Tina; was there a reason?
Snort, annoyed at being used for support, puffed steam into Tina’s face, and she immediately stood on her own, trying not to sway. The booze was wearing off, slowly.
“Well, well. Ain’t this nice? You know, I ain’t never told this to nobody, but I used to have a dream about a gigantic worm that lived underground, cuzuva story my grandpapa used to tell me when I wuz a girl. You know, that worm’s name was Kras. He was named after a city in the Soviet Union where Grandpa’s mom wuz born.”
It was true! There had been a reason! Tina had dreamed of a giant worm named Kras? There could be only one explanation. Nola realized that she had been drawn to Tina because the girl was another Creator.
Nola laughed out loud. Not that what Tina said was funny, but at the coincidence of meeting another Creator and taking her back to Kafka. The chances were slim. Maybe Nola’s luck was turning good, for once.
Heat realized what he had done. He had snapped at a Creator. Heat cuffed the ground with his silver shoes. He was embarrassed, but still too proud to apologize. Instead, he offered her a ride behind Mich. She accepted, saying that she loved horses. Heat wasn’t insulted, being loved like that.
Mich remembered their important business. “We must return to the Fren Cliffs and fight them ourselves. Are you ready?”