Five Portraits by Piers Anthony Page B

risky?”
    â€œThat does enhance the challenge.”
    â€œWhat happens if it goes wrong?”
    â€œNothing to us; we’re Demons. But you would fragment across all the Xanths you passed through, and become only a shred of an atom in each.”
    â€œI would die?”
    â€œThat would be another way to view it, yes.”
    Astrid felt a chill. Just how much did she want this friendship?
    â€œYou are reconsidering?” Fornax asked.
    That decided her. “No!”
    â€œThat is good, because we can’t do this without you.”
    They came to land in the troll’s glade. Dysnomia was there. “Are we ready?”
    Astrid knew that meant her. “We are.”
    â€œTake my hand.”
    Astrid took her hand, and Fornax took her other hand. Then the environment started quivering. “What’s happening?” Astrid asked nervously.
    â€œWe are crossing parallels,” Fornax explained. “For us it would be smooth, but your mortality generates some friction. That should diminish as we accelerate.”
    â€œAccelerate?”
    â€œEach frame is a second ahead of the prior one. There are many seconds, so we are increasing our rapidity of crossing. To you it will seem like traveling into the future.”
    â€œThank you,” Astrid said faintly.
    They did speed up. She could tell, because the angle of the sunlight started shifting, as though the sun were moving faster. Then the sun dropped behind the trees, and darkness came. Soon light returned: now they were in tomorrow. It brightened, and faded; now they were in tomorrow night. How many seconds in a day and night? They were crossing many parallels!
    The night passed, and another day, faster. Soon the lights and darknesses became a flicker, as they were covering the days so swiftly. In that flicker she saw the trees change, some of them losing their leaves. It was winter. And spring, and summer, and winter again. A year was passing!
    The years moved across more swiftly, one two, three, ten, twenty—it became too fast to count. Would they overshoot the fifty?
    Then the progression slowed. The years reappeared, and the seasons, and the days. Finally they came to a halt. They had arrived. Somewhen.
    The glade had changed. Now it was just a clearing in the forest. A cable stretched across it like a mundane power line. Had electricity come to Xanth?
    â€œNo, it is a cable for a car,” Fornax said, answering her thought. “It crosses not just from glade to glade, but from Xanth to Xanth. This is one of its stops. Families hoped at least to save their children. But its promise is false; all Xanths in this region will be destroyed.”
    â€œWhat a crime,” Astrid said. “Who would tease desperate families like that?”
    â€œThey did not realize. The intention was good.”
    The cable jerked. A hanging car appeared above the forest. It was black, with the words MODEL T printed in its side. It swung down to the clearing, touching the ground as if ready to take on a passenger.
    Instead Fornax went to it and opened its door. “All out,” she said.
    A tousled ten-year-old boy got out. “Is this the end?” he asked.
    â€œNot exactly, but it will do. This lady will take you home with her.”
    â€œNo. I’m going to the end.” The boy turned to reenter the car.
    â€œThere is no end,” Fornax said. “The cars are traveling more slowly than the termination. It will catch up and destroy the cable and cars.”
    â€œI don’ care. I’m supposed to go to the end.”
    â€œThe end is doom.”
    â€œAnd who the sweet violets are you?” the boy demanded insolently. He couldn’t cuss because of the Adult Conspiracy, but he had a bad attitude. “You aren’t my mother. You can’t tell me what to do.”
    â€œWe are trying to save you from extinction,” Fornax said evenly.
    â€œWell go extinct yourself, cousin of a canine. I’m