The Gates of Winter - Mark Anthony [163]
“I know what's happening,” Travis said when the bowl was empty, setting down the spoon. “I know where people are disappearing to. It's the Steel Cathedral. That's where Professor Sparkman was going before he disappeared, along with that other woman who vanished, Myra. I bet if we could check, that's where every one of them was going.”
Brother Cy only nodded. Travis gripped the edge of the table. What had he done? He had sent Jay and Marty to the Steel Cathedral; they were in terrible danger. Only he couldn't think about that, not until he had told Cy everything.
“Jace Windom was there, I saw her on TV, and I know she's working for Duratek. That means Sage Carson has to be working for them, too.” He shook his head. “Or working with them—I'm not sure which. And that's not all. We learned on Eldh that Duratek is in league with Mohg and the Pale King. So the Angels of Light are really wraithlings. They're the ones who have been abducting people.” He sat back in his chair. “Only why?”
“Did not this preacher on the television tell you why?” said a sibilant voice.
Travis turned to see Child Samanda approaching. The girl was clad in the same old-fashioned dress she always wore, and the pale oval of her face was like a cameo set off by the dark frame of her hair. Sister Mirrim followed behind the girl, her dress just as severe, but her hair wild and fiery. She stared with milky eyes, her hands on Samanda's shoulders, letting the girl guide her.
“Yes, he did,” Travis said in answer to Samanda's question. “He said he's raising an army for God.”
“But which God?”
Travis shuddered. “Mohg,” he said, the word bitter on his tongue. “That's who Carson is raising an army for. ‘To prepare the way for His coming.' The wraithlings are kidnapping people, turning them into ironhearts to make an army. And once the gate opens, they'll go through to clear the way for Mohg so he can break the First Rune and destroy Eldh.”
Samanda nodded, her purple eyes solemn. “Sometimes the only way to save something is to destroy it.”
At least Travis felt an emotion: anger. “No, I won't believe that. Destruction can't be the answer. And Mohg wants anything but to save Eldh. If he breaks the First Rune, he'll remake the world in his own image.”
“No,” Cy said, “he'll remake both worlds. For they are two sides of the same coin—close and getting closer all the time. What affects one affects the other now.”
Travis hung his head. This was too much; the weight was crushing him. He couldn't save one world, let alone two. “I can't do this.”
“But you will,” Sister Mirrim said. “I have seen it, shining like a gem among all the darker possibilities.”
He looked up at her. “Can you really see the future?”
Mirrim's porcelain face was stricken. “Which future do mean? There are many, and which one of them will come to pass—dark or light or something in between—depends on many choices. Especially yours, Stonebreaker.”
No, he didn't want that power, he never had. Only that was the one choice that wasn't up to him. He hadn't asked for any of this, but that didn't matter. All that mattered was what he did with the choices he had been given.
He gazed at these three otherworldly preachers—these fey, immortal beings who for some reason had taken it upon themselves to help him.
“You say the worlds are drawing closer.” He was no longer afraid; with resignation came strange peace. “There's no stopping it, is there? Even if Duratek never finds a way to open a gate, eventually Mohg will be able to cross back to Eldh.”
Brother Cy nodded. “That's right, son. And it may be that it's better to face the darkness now, before it gathers yet more strength, than later, when perihelion comes and the gap between the worlds shrinks to nothing. For by then Mohg's army will be great indeed, and he will march to Eldh and make the Pale King bow before him, and all the world will fall under the shadow of the Lord of Nightfall, whether or not he breaks the First Rune.”
“But break it he will,” Samanda said, “for when that time comes, there will be nowhere on either world where you