Out of the Black - Lee Doty [179]
Operating at peak efficiency, she thought, lying on her backn the too-hard ground. The river of energy again filled her senses as she dimmed toward unconsciousness.
The flames were so bright now that they were no longer flames; no longer hot. Alex was in a white room with no perceptible boundaries. Though he supposed that made it a 'place' and not a 'room', he couldn't shake that roomy feeling.
Then it hit him, as he saw Kaspari sprawled out before him. "Aw crap!" he said without lips or mouth, "I'm dead!"
Kaspari was slowly getting to his feet. "I told you not to help, didn't I?"
"Sure, that's helpful now!" Alex said, frustrated. "Besides, without my help, you'd be getting the all-roach enema right about now."
Kaspari looked very tired, but he managed a wry grin. "Thanks... and thanks for that image, too."
"What happened?" Alex looked around- white.
"My guess is something very white." Issak said.
"You always were an observant man." Ivo said.
At the center of the silence that followed his conversational mushroom cloud, Ivo Lutine stood smiling. His clothes were simple; they seemed to be made of the same elemental white that was the substance of this place. As they watched, another form began to resolve from the brightness. "You need to know that we're all right Issak." Roy said with great feeling. Then he glanced sideways, "Oh. Hi, Alex."
"Hi Roy." Alex said, rather enjoying his dream.
"Dad." Dek said from behind Issak, "Remember that I love you... and sorry 'bout the hand- I missed the wink."
Issak turned to his adopted son. He couldn't laugh or cry here, though the feelings that drive both actions were with him, applying pressure.
"I am so sorry." Issak said quietly.
"Don't die for it. Don't die for us." Dek said. "Live for us."
"Yeah," Roy said, "we always did."
"We'll see you soon enough, Dad." Dek said, "But not too soon." Then a sly smile crossed his lips, "You know, we're not really dead as long as you remember us."
"What kind of crap is that, Dek?" Roy said. "If I'm dead- and I'm going to have to assert that I am... why do I care who remembers me? Like someone's coming to pronounce me 'really dead' when the last guy who knew me takes a frying pan in the head?"
Dek was smiling too. "Wait... what if the last guy forgets us, but then someone reads about something we did... are we back to partially dead then?"
"You'd really have to say 'mostly dead'." Roy said.
"I don't know, I feel pretty dead right now." Dek shook his head slowly in the attitude of deep thought.
Through the familiar interchange between their insufferable children, Ivo and Issak shared a familiar stare of consternation.
"Pretty dead then," Dek concluded, "but when you're remembered, you're in the enviable state of being just memorably dead."
"Memorably dead!" Roy pronounced with arms outstretched. "Feel the love!"
"How do you stand these guys without being able to laugh?" Issak said, still looking at Ivo.
Ivo nodded. "The feeling turns to love... give it a minute."
"Like they've got a minute." Roy said, giving Ivo the look usually used by the patient in their dealings with the foolish.
"Right." Ivo said as Alex and Issak fell back into the black of pain and almost forgotten turmoil.
Alex's eyes opened.
"Take! It! Out!!" Rae screamed, her voice hard and ragged. From the sound of it, she was about to shoot someone if they didn't comply.
Around him, he could feel the slow tickle of eddies in the Underworld but the storm was over. Rae didn't notice he was awake until he sat up. "Baby!" she screamed, relief cresting over her current wave of frustration. "Are you okay? Tell him..." She pointed to Alex's left with the energy of a woman made mute by exasperation.
Alex turned to see, and found Ping with Roy's sword though Kaspari's chest.
Ping looked a bit self-conscious, "I thought I better not pull it out until you were ready to do your thing."
"Right!" Alex reached out for the Loom, and then for Issak's wounded body.
Down to