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"Not a mechanical one. No particle accelerators: or at least, none of the built kind. It'll serve our
purpose, anyway. This gate swings only one way ... and I can close it after us. Or jam it shut, which
means that anyone trying to come after us will have to go the long way around through three other
universes, the way they're aligned at the moment, to come at us."
He broke into a trot, and Lee went after him eagerly enough; it was a way to stay warm ... and she was
eager to get out of here. Gelert trotted alongside her, glancing from side to side as he went "They say this
is really nice in the summer," he said.
"I'll take your word for it," Lee said. The cold was beginning to bite hard into Lee again, and she was
glad to get to the ring of stones, she was delighted, though the evil look of them dismayed her. They were
black, rough-hewn, ruinous; the way they leaned inward gave them a terrible look of silent threat, as if
they wanted to fall and crush whatever walked among them. But the Elf-King walked into the circle as
calmly as Lee might walk into her own living room, and stood there looking around him as ca-sually.
When did I last think about my living room? Lee thought, as she went in among the stones, glancing at
them mistrustfully. Right now she would have given anything to be sitting there on the sofa, nice and
warm, with her feet tucked up underneath her, watching something mind-less ... or even just the news.
But that thought immediately brought up the image of yellow sodium-vapor lights illuminating
black-and-whites, and a sheeted corpse lying near Eighteenth and Wilshire. No, she thought. For his
sake, I'll see this through—
She went to stand beside the Laurin; Gelert joined her. The Elf-King had the stone from the "garden" in
his fist again, and was standing there gazing down at the snow, a concentrating look. "I know a quiet spot
where we're going," he said. "You don't have to move. Just stand still and let the effect pass—"
Lee set her teeth as the cold, dark world around her shim-mered and wobbled, as the cobweb feeling
swept over her body and rooted in her bones for a long time, too long. She felt as if she was being
thrown in the air like a ball, while outside her the world tumbled and tore itself to pieces in a way of
which her Sight could make nothing, a distortion more upsetting than any mere gate-complex hula she'd
ever experienced. After a moment everything settled down, and she opened her eyes, which she'd shut in
self-defense.
It was hot, incredibly hot; but that was probably only by contrast with the place they'd just come from.
And she and Gelert and the Elf-King were standing in a little triangular park with two streets running
along either side of it. There were wheeled vehicles, some of them parked on either side of the little
triangle of concrete and grass: others drove by on the ground, bright yellow. Taxis? Lee thought. New
York?
It was New York. But it wasn't. Lee looked around her, trying to See the difference. The street signs on
the pole at the nearest corner said avenue of the Americas and 12th street; but the feel of the street on
which she stood was so alien and different from that of the New York where she and Gelert had been
not three weeks ago that Lee felt like she might as well have been on Mars. "This isn't Earth," Lee said.
"Or Tierra. This is the new world, isn't it—"
"Terra," the Elf-King said, and it was all he could say for some moments. He bent right over at the waist,
holding his legs like a runner who's just finished a marathon, like some-one bracing himself in a desperate
attempt not to fall over.
"My God," Gelert said. "Except for the initial investiga-tion team, we must be the first ones to visit
here..."
"Oh, no," Laurin said, and gasped for another breath. "Not at all."
They waited rather nervously for him to recover himself, wondering who was going to come over to them
and de-mand to know who they were and where they'd come from. But no one was nearby, and no one
at any distance paid the slightest attention to them. The Elf-King managed to straighten up a little, glancing
around him, and getting his breath back. "You'd think people appear out of nothing every day here," Lee
said.
"Probably not," Laurin said, "but if they did, what would people do? Tell the police? I seem to remember
you didn't have a lot of luck with that." He looked amused, though not at Lee specifically. "And your
police are probably a lot more broad-minded about people appearing and disappearing than the police
here are."
"I wouldn't bet money on that just yet," Gelert said. "Wait till we go to trial." He looked around him
thought-fully. "You say that the Alfen who're going to follow won't be able to do so right away?"
"I'd be surprised if they could."
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