The Last Protector (59 page)

Jape sipped his lager thoughtfully. “They say nobody's completely good or completely evil,” he said. “I'd like to think there was still a piece of the Ranger alive in Abe.” He gazed into the distance for a moment, and when he spoke again, his voice was all business. “So. You destroyed Lord Draggott. Then what happened?"

She stared silently into the distance for several seconds before speaking. “I could see, sort of, that your ring wasn't green, and I knew I had to get the Orb off this world. That scared me to death! I had a feeling that if I got the Orb to leave, it'd take me along and I'd be stuck there forever.” She suddenly grinned. “Then I thought, this is what you wished for, girl, a big adventure and a chance to save the world. And you know what?"

"Adventures suck!” all three said together, laughing. Then, in a small voice filled with wonder, she said, “But I'm still glad I got to have one."

"Me, too.” Scrornuck flashed a big grin, and Jape even smiled a little.

She rubbed her eyes. “Things got a bit blurry, like a dream. I was a little girl again, sitting on a beach, playing in a sandcastle, and bugs started biting me—"

"Bugs?” Scrornuck interrupted.

"First, a little mosquito bit me. I swatted it away, and then this big, nasty bug bit the end of my finger and wouldn't let go, even when I tried to flick it off.” She waved her hand around to demonstrate. Jape raised an eyebrow, and Scrornuck returned a look that said,
don't you even think of saying anything.

"I got really mad,” she said. “I threw a tantrum and I kicked the sandcastle to pieces. Then the water came up, all around me. I was scared at first, but it was nice, warm like the pool at the hotel, and I thought this might not be all that bad a place to spend forever—until the fish showed up. It was huge, it was black, it had a million teeth and these glowing orange eyes. I thought it was going to swallow me whole."

"I know that fish,” Scrornuck said.

She nodded. “All I saw was a flash of green and red, but I knew you'd come for me. When the fish swallowed you..."

She shuddered, and for a moment Scrornuck thought she was going to cry. He put an arm around her and drew her close. “It's all right,” he said. “I gave the shark a pretty bad bellyache."

"I was just so scared,” she said. “If it could eat you...” She smiled as he gently wiped her eyes with a napkin. “I called on my friends, the soldiers, but they were scared, too. The shark was so big, they were so little, and it had already gobbled up a lot of them. Then I remembered the song you played for the Army, the one that made them brave. I sang it, and they started singing with me, and together we all destroyed the monster."

"They looked like little fish,” Scrornuck said, and suddenly grinned. “Khansous piranha!"

"So they're real after all?” Jape said.

"I guess so.” She took a fairly large drink.

"I think I already know the rest,” Jape said. “You and Mister Saughblade returned to earth, and then..."

She held up a finger, interrupting him. “Not quite. You missed one thing. Did you see the Orb change color, from purple to blue?” Jape nodded. “It's hard to explain, but something happened there. It ... it came together. Like when a band's getting ready to play. One minute, everybody's tuning up separately and it's just a lot of noise. Then the leader raises his arms, and it's not a hundred instruments anymore, it's one band. That's what it was like.” She sighed, at once tired, happy and unsatisfied. “It felt so much like a dream. I don't think I'll ever know what really happened."

"Probably not,” Jape said. “I don't think anybody actually understood technolepathy. Not me, not Abe, probably not even McGinn. Maybe we're better off not knowing.” He tapped out a short message on the softscroll. “I'm telling the people Back Home to destroy the files. We don't need somebody stumbling across them and trying to build another Orb.” He stabbed the
Send
button. “There, it's done. Now, Mister Saughblade, let's hear your story. I think you can begin at the point where you entered the Orb."

And so, Scrornuck told his story. Jape listened patiently, occasionally making notes to himself, until it was done. “Well, that's interesting,” he said. “So the shark at the Orb's center was Mister McGinn..."

"Wait a minute,” Nalia said. “The shark was the guy who burned up all those people?"

"Yep.” Scrornuck polished off his pint and signaled for another. “You said you wanted five minutes with him. Well, you got your wish."

"Yeah, I guess I did."

Jape made a note on the softscroll and said, “Well, that's looks like it for now, unless there's something else you remember."

"I remember one other thing,” Nalia said, turning slowly to face Scrornuck. “Right after my friends killed the big fish, there was this flash of blue and silver, there you were, and you said something. Remember?” He nodded, thinking, how could I forget? Very slowly, she asked, “Did you mean it?"

Saying nothing, he wrapped his arms around her, and as people at nearby tables whistled and clapped, he demonstrated that she wasn't the only one who knew how to give a world-class lip-lock.

Evening faded to night, as it does when time is working the way it's supposed to. Nalia, exhausted by the day's activity, had already bedded down in the back seat of the skimmer, and Scrornuck, equally spent, planned to join her shortly. For the moment, though, he sat with Jape on a picnic table near the parked vehicle and watched the night sky. They could hear the
thump-thump-thump
of Taupeaquaah's fireworks show, and from time to time, just above the horizon, they saw the flashes of some of the higher pyrotechnics.

"Jape,” he said tentatively, “I keep thinking about what Abe said—about how the world was going to be destroyed, and it was all your fault."

"The guy was nuts,” Jape said, shaking his head sadly. “I guess spending a year on a wrecked world was just too much for his sanity."

"Yeah, he was crazy—but you did keep trying to get Nalia and the Orb together, over and over again, even though your ring got redder every time. Was Abe right when he said everything would've worked out if we'd just kept Nalia away from the Orb?"

Jape chewed on his lip as he thought. “Maybe—if Nalia had never met the Orb at all. But Abe was looking for a telepath, too. We just found her first. If we hadn't put Nalia and the Orb together, he would have eventually. Anyway, it all worked out for the best—when Nalia finally entered the Orb, she didn't destroy the world. She created a new form of life!"

"And you knew this all along?"

"Didn't I keep saying that we had to bring Nalia and the Orb together?"

"Oh."

Jape sat in silence for a long time. “Aw, hell, I can't lie to you, Mister Saughblade. I did just about everything wrong. We didn't save the world, Nalia did. She figured out what that thing was, and she convinced it to leave. All we did was put her in the right place at the right time. We just got lucky."

"The Lord sure works in mysterious ways,” Scrornuck said, stifling a yawn.

"As good an explanation as any,” Jape said. “Ready to call it a night?"

"Yeah."

"There's something we still need to talk about."

"I know."

[Back to Table of Contents]

Sunday morning had given way to Sunday afternoon by the time Scrornuck and Nalia crawled from beneath a pile of sleeping bags in the back of the skimmer. They joined Jape at the pub's afternoon buffet, where Scrornuck's weekly sacramental “banquet” tasted just a bit better than usual. Then, as Jape worked on his report to Ranger Control, Scrornuck repaired his damaged boots. They required a thorough cleaning, a few seals, one hydraulic booster and several new, fully charged energy cells. After finishing the work, he slipped them on, made a few test jumps and pronounced them good as new.

As the shadows began to lengthen, they headed for Taupeaquaah. Jape drove the skimmer, while Scrornuck and Nalia carried on an intense discussion in the back seat.

"You're done,” she said glumly, glancing over Scrornuck's shoulder at Jape. “I wish I still had my talent—I'd change his mind so he'd let you stay here."

Scrornuck shook his head emphatically. “That wouldn't be right. And he's already released me from my promise to be his Protector."

She stared. “He did?"

"He said he'd broken his side of the bargain when he paid you to flirt with Tremmlowe, so he had to let me out of my side.” He took a deep breath. “I told him no."

"Huh?"

"I didn't just make my promise to Jape. I made it to these thousand worlds, and I made it to myself. Nalia, there's nothing I want more than to settle down here with you. But what if some world's destroyed because I'm not there to protect Jape? How would I feel if that happened? How would you feel?"

She sighed. “Doing the right thing isn't easy, is it?"

"Nope.” He gazed into her dark, beautiful eyes. “I love you, Nalia,” he said. “I really do."

She wrapped her arms around him. “And I love you."

They held each other in silence for a long time, before he finally got the courage to speak the words. “Nalia, will you marry me?"

"Marry you?"
She pulled back.

He nodded. “I may not be around all that much, and I may go and get myself killed, but whatever life I have in this world, I'd like to spend it with you."

"You'll be gone a lot, won't you?"

"It depends. Rangers only work when there are streams near crossings. Sometimes there's nothing to do for months."

"And other times it's fighting off bad guys and maybe getting yourself killed."

"Pretty much,” he said, sighing.

"Well,” she said, “a girl's got to think these things through, decide what's best for her future. After all, I won't be collecting those gold pieces from Jape anymore.” She fiddled with the Residence Pass hanging around her neck. “I could have my choice of the young men in Taupeaquaah, a nice little apartment, a steady life, maybe a weekend or two in the Guest Quarter...” She released the Pass. “Or I could spend my life wondering when you're going to be called off to some other world and eaten by monsters or killed by warlords."

His heart sank. Phrased that way, the choice seemed obvious.

"But you're asking,” she said.

"I'm asking."

She smiled, keeping him in suspense for what seemed like forever. “Well,” she said, about the time he was ready to explode, “if you're asking, I'm dancing!"

"Woo-hoo!” He put his arms around her, ready for the lip-lock to end all lip-locks—and the skimmer suddenly started shaking violently, the sound of its motor changing from a soft hum to an erratic sputter.

"Shit!"
Scrornuck spun around and yanked the cover from the elderly power plant. Sparks crackled across its rotted wiring, and steam poured from leaking seals. As the vehicle lurched and swerved, Jape struggled with the controls while Scrornuck pulled wires and yanked on linkages, trying to keep the machine running the last half-mile to the city gate.

"Hang on, it's gonna drop!” Scrornuck shouted, as the lifting mechanisms failed and the machine slammed down onto the road, still moving forward at a frightening pace. The skimmer slid down the road, its underside making a hideous shriek as it struck sparks off the yellow bricks. Jape fought with the few controls that still worked, struggling to keep the machine on the road.

A hundred feet from the Standing Stones, he lost the battle. The skimmer's undercarriage dug into the soft dirt alongside the road, and the machine spun around, uprooting bricks and sending dust flying. Jape, Scrornuck and Nalia hung on for dear life as the skimmer spun around a second time and slid into the plaza in a cloud of dust.

The screeching ended. In the silence that followed, the gentle summer breezes blew the dust away to reveal the skimmer, dented but still upright, barely twenty feet from the West Gate. As a curious crowd gathered around the machine, the three poked their heads above its doors. Scrornuck was the first to speak. “Woo-
hoo!
What a ride!"

Jape slapped him on the back. “Do we know how to make an entrance, or what?"

Bruised, bloodied and dehydrated, the Captain had staggered into town late Saturday, bearing news of a spiked, horned, lightning-riding giant butterfly who'd dispatched the Purple Death Ball. Since then, Temple Square had been beyond chaos, as the City mourned its dead, celebrated its salvation, and concluded the Fortnight of Sacrifice. Crowds gathered around the altars, burning the ceremonial thrones, and many excited souls danced, nearly naked, before the Friendly Dragon.

Just get me through this day, Scrornuck prayed silently as he stepped into the Square. Once the Fortnight was over, nobody would hassle him for his boots, at least until the next Fortnight—when, if he understood Nalia properly, they'd be sacrificing something other than footwear. He put his head down, concentrated on the Guest Gate at the far side of the Square, and tried his best to go unnoticed.

The strategy failed. Before he was halfway across the Square, he found himself gently pushing away a number of children, who were all too eager to resume their game of “lift-the-kilt.” And then, the voice of Rosaiah boomed over the suddenly silent crowd. “Welcome, friend!” the High Priest bellowed. “So the Dragon has brought his guest safely back to the Temple, just in time for the final day of the Sacrifice! What could be finer? Come, present your offering!"

The cheering crowd swept Scrornuck to the foot of the Temple steps. He thought of many rude and insulting responses, but held his tongue. If he and Nalia were going to marry, he would have to live here. This was a time for diplomacy, as unaccustomed to it as he was. Recalling all he'd heard Jape say to dignitaries and potentates, he spoke: “Good Rosaiah, you honor me with your attention. I see that you and your city are most religious, so I know you will understand me when I say this: although it grieves me greatly not to fulfill your request, my traditions forbid me from making this offering. I ask your indulgence, that my friends and I may continue in peace."