Tremble in the Dark: A Gwen Farris Novel (34 page)

The
rest of the night went like that, with the shed being filled with bad memories
and screaming. Even the press left, before anyone was finished for the day at
all.
She
got to go some places at least. At first she had to travel to
distant locations, though ones she'd been before. That was interesting and
while hard, she was sort of getting the hang of it. At first Manly was in each
place, but then he stayed in the room and the old woman went out. That was
harder, since she really wanted to avoid the lady. Which was the point, no
doubt. She had to be willing to go to places, or people, that she might want to
avoid.

Then
she had different Westmorlands to work with, and finally, at about five in the
morning, she was given four hours to sleep. Not in a bed, just right there,
next to the pain device, on the bare earth floor. On the happy side, the screaming
was done, and all of the others had graduated from the class.

That
meant she was alone when she woke up.

Well,
as long as she didn't include the six Westmorlands standing there, yelling at
her.

"Get
up! Here's a list. You get ten minutes to get to all of these places. Collect
the token at each one and get back here! Go!" She couldn't tell who was
saying it, but she moved, because a bare trickle of pain started and she didn't
want it to get worse.

When
she got to Central, the first place on the list, there was a thin coin on the
ground, which ended the pain when she picked it up. For about ten seconds, then
it started again. That meant she had to go to Aubry, into Christophe's front
yard. After that, almost exactly ten seconds later, she hit the Western Coast,
then the University commons. That one was harder, since she couldn't find her
token at first, and had to search the open square for nearly a minute while
people gaped at her. The pain was pretty intense by the time she got it.

Over
and again she picked up the tiny bits of metal relief, only to have that fade.
It got harder and took longer each time too. By the end she was in agony, even
as she struggled to get back to the shed. In her right hand she had ten little
bits, which she handed to the woman that had been speaking in the first place.
Then she hit the button on the top of the little box and smiled.

"Very
good. Now, you have ten minutes to find Heather Westmorland. Go."

That
almost didn't work at all. She had to struggle to find the woman, and when she
did, was in so much pain that she simply collapsed.

Heather
grabbed her, and pulled her over to a sofa, inside a room in Central, Gwen
thought.

The
decent looking strawberry blonde had her hair pulled back, and just enough
make-up on to look like she gave a damn. Gwen didn't. Well, she'd put a bit on
the day before, but if it hadn't come off on the floor of the shed, she'd be
surprised. No Westmorland cared about how she looked at the moment though. She
was given a light hug, but a metal wand, a thing made of flat silver, was
tapped against the back of her hand.

"You
won't get long to catch your breath. Mona said that she's pulling out the
stops, given what you intended to do. No one told me what that was." There
was some curiosity there, but no real question.

Then,
Heather was this world's version of her, and if she couldn't be considered
trustworthy, then no one was, right? That might be the case, but if so, then
she was wasting her time and the whole world deserved to die off. Hopefully
that wasn't the situation, because she was still reeling from the pain of all
that had happened in the last day.

"Learning
to rift, so that I can make devices that will do it, like Teletransport
spheres, so we won't have to use people anymore. I should be able to put in a
time delay even. It's dangerous."

That
got Heather to agree with her instantly.

"Yes,
it is. You could die, learning to Teletransport like you are. You're old for it
too, so your mind might rebel at some point. Or you could end up back in your
world, which might not be that bad for you, since you'd go in that body, but
I'd
miss you." There was a soft sweetness to the words, as if she really meant
them all.

Gwen
let the warmth of friendship wash over her, but then sighed.

"Yeah,
I didn't mean me. I might die, but I meant the devices. Right now the world is
held in check by the idea that each Westmorland that rifts is special, and
rare. With devices like this, well, it will be possible to have ten, maybe a
hundred, times as many of them, and in a short period of time. It's a lot
easier to train one person to
make
things than convince them to blow
themselves up for the King, I bet." She shrugged, and felt a slight ach in
her middle again, meaning she had to leave. Back to the shed, she thought.
"That's the danger. It's the price of getting you and Beth free. Sort of.
It's mainly for the kids. The ones that haven't been put in the program yet. I
need to go."

That
got a piece of paper waved in her face, with a new location on it. Another
target to find. This one was Heidi Westmorland, who was going to be harder to
find indeed, since Gwen only vaguely remembered her.

"Crap."
She was well into screaming by the time that one worked out, and didn't really
remember how the girl was found at all. She earned another tap, with a wand,
and almost instantly had to find Peter, who'd been taken off somewhere she'd
never seen before, just to screw with her.

Then
she was shown a picture of a person that she'd never even, met and made to find
them. It didn't work. When she passed out from the pain, she fell down, only to
have the whole thing start over again, the same picture being shown to her. Six
repeats of that later, she worked out where the man was, and got to him. He was
just a caretaker for a Westmorland out in the field. No one special at all.
Except that he had one of the miracle wands that saved her. That and some tea,
as well as a chair, that he let her use.

"This
way dear, this way. I hear that you're being put through a real gauntlet? I
have to say I was rather shocked to find myself being called on like this.
Normally I just act as a footman for Wallace Westmorland. He's one of the
Detectives. I'm afraid I didn't get your name?"

Gwen
looked at the man and then sighed. That sounded like the kind of thing that
Adam would think of, didn't it? Secrecy, even if it didn't make a difference. Then
again, maybe he was right? Her brain hurt too much to work it out, so she
backed the play and took a deep breath, then sucked down a whole cup of tea,
not knowing when her next mini-mission would start.

"Yes.
Thank you for the drink and place to sit. Did they give you a name or
picture?"

The
man nodded. Then held out a piece of paper that simply said "Park
Street" on it.

"This
place. I can't say that I've ever heard of it." The man looked curious,
and Gwen handed him a cup to reward his generosity. It was all she had, after
all.

Then,
without too much work, she made it back to the shed, and sat down on the
ground, looking up at the old woman. Mona, she was willing to bet, and waited,
panting slightly.

The
lady was alone, but moved in with a new little device, and tapped the coin
shaped thing on the back of Gwen's hand, causing it to pop off.

"Very
good. That's the first part of this. The second will begin in a week. You need
to rest and avoid doing anything using magic during that time. Do you
understand? You can do other work, but no magic, unless an emergency comes up.
I'm given to understand that's fairly common for you?" She didn't sound
happy about it, or pissy, she was just making a comment.

"Fuck
you." Gwen smiled at her though, and resisted the urge to hit the older
lady. It wasn't out of respect as much as that she was standing too far away,
and getting up was going to take work. She really figured that lying there, on
the ground, might be a good thing to do for a while. Say that week that had
been mentioned? "What are we going to do for the second part then? I think
I pretty much have this down, don't I?"

Mona
flipped her palms up.

"Do
you? You can Teletransport, but you need a lot of practice and then I was given
to understand you need to learn both rifting
and
how to make radiative
transfers? It will be a while to get all of that down. Several years, even
using our methods, if it works at all. Next week we'll work on practice of what
you've learned however. More intense drills. Until then." The woman walked
out, not even trying to help Gwen stand up.

She
was clearly a
very
bright woman, since Gwen would have hurt her, if she
could have. She hated that bitch, after all. She'd
thought
she hated Manly,
but now she realized that what she felt for him was closer to mild fear. Mona
was her worst nightmare. Well, nearly. There were still those tentacle things,
but other than that, it was all creepy and mean old lady now, inside her head.

It
took about half an hour for her to recover enough to stand and slowly shuffle
inside. No one came to help her, but Beth and Peter both met her on the back
porch, waiting for her to get there under her own power.

Because,
that was the important part here, no doubt, leaving her that little bit of
dignity, or whatever the idea was. She doubted it was about her well being,
though it might be a Westmorland thing, or even a test to see if she was still
willing to try and fight, after what she'd been through. It wasn't like either
of them were simply too lazy to help, so it wasn't that.

"Hey."
She sounded like someone had tortured her for over a day and made her run the
whole time, for some insane and horrible reason.

Peter
acted like he barely noticed at all.

"Manly
is still here, waiting for you inside. So that you two can come up with the new
training protocols for me?" He seemed less than thrilled about it all, now
that she was in a mood to pay attention to him.

"Right.
The new and incredibly fun and exciting protocols that won't be like what they
did to me at all. Hopefully. We should be able to start in the morning, if the
devices we need for it are available. It's going to be pretty basic stuff.
First you get to actually learn some basic movements. I'd go over that right
now, but...
no
."

No
one helped her, though Bethany stayed right by her, ready to lend assistance if
it was needed. That kind of confirmed that the hands off thing was part of the
protocol then. After a bit she thought she got it, and muttered the words to the
others.

"So,
no touching, in case I go off and start fighting, after all that?"

Peter
nodded, standing out of her easy arm's reach, she noticed. Beth was closer
however, nearly in contact with her.

"That's
it. We've all taken a swing at people right after training sessions, so
everyone learns to stay back for a bit, just in case. It's worse with you,
because you aren't one of us, and are a better fighter. I guess, if your
training works, then I'll have to be treated that way too, won't I?"
Again, he didn't seem all that happy about it all.

Gwen
thought about it, still making her way down the nicely carpeted hallway. It was
rich looking, she noticed. That was a strange thing to think about, but this
was one of the back areas, where not spending money wouldn't have mattered
much. Here it was though, ready to impress the servants and any trespassers
that got lost. She winced, realizing that she'd totally lost her train of
thought, and couldn't even remember what she'd been about to say. That
happened, but right now, she didn't really care, so changed the topic.

"I
need to get in touch with Christophe. I haven't been doing that, and if we're
going to be getting married it seems, I don't know, like a thing to do. How do
people do things like that? Aren't they always too busy doing something
else?"

Beth
took a risk and patted her arm gently, clearly ready to duck away. Gwen wasn't
mad at her though, not being the source of pain at all.

"Well,
there are courting rules. Really however, you should try to be in touch with
the Duke at least once a day. Not for too long, mind, but keeping in touch is
important. Visiting too. You can do that now, when you recover a bit. That's
one of the very handy things about personal Teletransport."

There
was a grunt from the kid next to her, that sounded like he was impressed with
the idea.

"That
and assassinations. We don't do a lot of that, since sphere's work pretty well.
For transport, I mean, not killing. I wouldn't know about anything like that,
after all." He was so clearly lying that Gwen rolled her eyes.

Then
she kept shuffling forward.

"So
that's how it's done? Someone Teletransport's in and does the deed?" She
mimed stabbing someone in the neck, but Beth looked away, not answering. At
first.

About
ten steps later, she stopped and took a single, very deep breath.

"
I
wouldn't know either, specifically, but if I have it right,
if
something
like that were to be done, it would work best the other way around. A part of
the target, say their heart, or brain, could be removed, at a distance. Then
the person would just die and no one would be the wiser."