In the grove, the basswood buds were opening and the dogwoods were in bloom. It wasn’t noon yet; we’d left early enough not to be late. I looked at Hauser and he looked at me. He was sort of grinning, but not saying anything.
We didn’t any of us know exactly how long it’d be before high noon: about a quarter hour, Arbel thought. Hauser and I each had a small pouch of Teklan silver coins in our pack, and I still had most of the gold coins I’d started out with a couple months earlier. Arbel had only been willing to take one of them for his time and trouble, and I’d given three of them to Hauser.
I felt it quicker’n Arbel, then Blue Wing gave a big squawk. Something was pressing on me, just enough to notice, from off to one side. I grabbed Hauser by an arm, and walked against the pressure, which was getting stronger fast. It wasn’t affecting the trees, even the saplings weren’t bending from it. I guess it only affected animals.
Arbel called out, “Good luck, Macurdy!” I knew it was him, but his voice sounded strange, tinny. I glanced back, and he looked all crooked and jiggedy. I glimpsed Blue Wing, too; he looked like three or four great ravens half mixed together, flying in a little circle, and his calling had a shrill buzzing sound, reminded me of a musical saw.
I realized that Hauser was walking against the pressure as easily as I was, but I held onto his arm anyway. My hair stood on end more than anytime in my life before. This was nothing at all like coming through from Farside. A big humming started that somehow I knew was loud, yet I could hardly hear it, and I felt like I was vibrating apart.
Suddenly everything went black as tar; blacker, as if there wasn’t such a thing as light. The sound stopped, and the pressure, and the vibrating, but I still felt Hauser’s arm in my right hand; I was gripping it harder than I ought to. For just a few seconds it was like that, still and absolutely black, then I felt myself drop a foot or two onto my back, a stone bruising my ribs. There was moonlight, but for half a minute I just lay there, dizzy, my stomach queasy, my eyes not able to focus. Then things steadied out, and I saw some scrawny pinetops against the night sky. Injun Knob. I turned my head and there was Hauser.
It was him that said it, sounding awed. “We’re home, Macurdy. We’re home.”
The End