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Wryan watched as I linked the two heavy discs to my equipment belt one on each
side. My breath was white steam in the cold of the barn.
Jerlyk looked at the glistening metal. "Are you sure this will work?"
"No. Do you have any better ideas?"
Jerlyk shook his head.
"Then I'd better see if it does. They can't destroy much more."
Wryan's lips brushed my cheek. "Try to take care."
I shrugged. Of course I would. Whether it would be enough was another
question.
First, I dropped along the black arrow that led to the sun, forcing myself
against the waves of time pressure that spewed from that nuclear depth. My
experiments with time-warping made the drop-off of one disc possible. I just
willed it out of the undertime. Clearly I couldn't have survived if I had
tried to physically place it there. Solar surfaces and innards are not
forgiving, even to timedivers.
Then, I just let the time pressure throw me back to Query, looking through the
blue flashes from the Giants, seeking one that was isolated.
That didn't take long, either subjectively or objectively.
A strong and jagged blue trail led me to a plateau north of Southpoint.
Not being particularly heroic, nor caring to relive another being's death
again, I didn't even break the surface of the now. Instead, I willed the disc
out of the now and over the Giant and mentally sprinted toward the retreat,
dropping onto the glowstones.
...
craccckkk
...
Even though my break-out cut off the jagged blue flashes, I sat there
shivering for several moments before looking for something to eat. I wasn't
really hungry, but I wanted some time to pass before I re-entered the
undertime.
I munched on more hard crackers and watched the wind whip snow from the
Bardwall spires. After finishing two crackers, I dropped back under the now
and headed back to Hardle.
My breath still came out white in the barn's air.
"Success?" asked Jerlyk.
"Probably. You go check." I wandered over to the wall map of Westron Wryan had
taped to the stones. Duplicated, it had wrinkles and creases, even a red stain
across the lower right comer. Red crosses surrounded with circles marked the
destruction she had been able to verify. Where she had discovered the original
map, who knew?
I pointed to the approximate location where I had dropped the suntunnel.
"Should be right here."
Jerlyk looked from me to Wryan and back again. Wryan said nothing, just
returned his glance.
"They can't touch you in the undertime. If you feel anything cold or blue, it
didn't work." I added.
Jerlyk checked his gauntlets, straightened his belt and disappeared.
"The same problem?" asked Wryan. Her breath smoked in the cold, just like
mine. She was wearing a heavy black fur-lined parka.
"Almost got clear this time. Went to the Bardwalls. Waited. Then I came here."
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I felt cold in the thin insulated jacket.
So I put my hands up under the jacket, and walked toward the duplicator. "Take
another set."
"You think it worked?"
"The only question is how long the links lasted. You calculated a maximum of "
"That's enough to vitrify stone, Sammis."
"If your calculations were right, we ought to use them as much as possible on
Query in deserted areas."
Wryan shrugged. "I suppose you're right."
"Two reasons."
"Two?"
I nodded. "First, who can track and attack the Giants? Me? You? Jerlyk? Maybe
Mellorie. And Odin Thor and a guide."
"You forgot Kerina."
"Is she that strong?"
Wryan nodded.
"Anyway," I noted, "the second reason is a warning. We need to post the
system, so to speak, to make sure that Frost
Giants understand it's death to poach here."
"Are they intelligent enough "
"I'd say so." Alien, but not without brains.
By now, I was wondering about Jerlyk. Of course, he dropped into sight as soon
as I really began to worry.
He was bobbing his head enthusiastically. "It worked."
I didn't believe him so I followed up myself, probing backtime just enough to
check. But he was right.
Wryan was also right. There was a section of ground a hundred rods across
fused into solid rock glass.
So we went hunting, the three of us, without even telling Odin Thor.
By the end of the day, we had placed nearly a hundred suntunnels.
By the end of the ten-day, after notifying all the divers, we placed over a
thousand.
We also lost four divers, including Ariean, who broke out and didn't make it
back under the now before the tunnel triggered.
That left one problem perhaps an even bigger one.
LXV
.
The half-built tower was untouched. So were the buildings around it, although
they had been built by the ConFeds
without time-warping the stones. They had used the duplicator, which Wryan and
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