Tremble in the Dark: A Gwen Farris Novel Read online

  Gwen was just about to suggest that they go over precognitive processes, since they mainly had been for a while, when Beth turned to her and pointed directly up.

  "Take the luggage with you and go up a few hundred feet, will you? I want to see if you can spot the Lorrie yet."

  Gwen didn't have to set up much for a task that light, and just envisioned the right controls to allow her to fly, and dumped every bit of power she could into the process. She was carrying about forty pounds of gear with her, which would make it a lot harder, she thought. Except, really it shouldn't. In her combat armor she could go up about four feet or so, and that was a hundred pounds, but it was all just a mental block. Most people only went about that high though, so it seemed normal, but the truth was, if you could float at all, then a thousand feet took more time to reach than one, but no more energy, for any given moment.

  Weight was really the same, as far as she could tell. That meant she should be able to go a thousand feet up in her armor too. Oh, it would be more work, but it should be a doable thing. Right now she just imagined a game control joystick in her right hand, without moving externally, she let herself bob upward, as if she were suddenly floating in water. Fresh, clean, breathable water. It wasn't easy, since she had to keep pouring power in the whole time, which meant she was gasping for air after a minute or so, like she did when she moved as fast as she could while flying. It worked though, and there in the distance, was the small sports model Lorrie that no one else in Western Kingdom would ever call that. It moved as a normal clip, so about twenty-five miles per hour or so.

  She had to time her words between gasps, but managed a good enough volume to be heard on the ground.

  "About a quarter mile away."

  Beth nodded, and then looked at her a little viciously, as if it had been Gwen cursing innocent people all night, instead of the other way around.

  "Good, fly out to meet him, drop you gear and follow him back. I'd join you, but I was thinking that another scone might be nice. You can have one, if you beat him back. Tell him to come in as his best safe speed though, or it won't count." There was a chuckle to her voice, and Gwen really didn't want to be bothered with this right now. She was exhausted already and her mind was too fuzzy for this kind of thing. But, that scone sounded nice, didn't it?

  Besides, flying. Even if it was really a mostly useless skill, it was still so cool.

  "Get some strawberry jam too, we'll be back in a bit."

  She didn't race out to meet him instantly, flying at a good clip, but a lot slower than she could have, trying to shorten the trip back. As she approached him, huffing and puffing, from the extra load, James stopped the funny looking vehicle, which still seemed a bit strange to her.

  It was all in white, and looked shiny and like it was enameled. The wheels were rubber, and on what seemed like metal wagon wheels, without air in them at all, and the whole thing was pulled by a little square block on the front of the contraption, which the rudder went to for steering.

  Now, after a year, she knew how it worked, at least a bit. The stone block on the front being the motivator, with a large crystal pack on the top of that, to power the whole thing. The back wasn't much different than an old fashioned carriage though, having room for four people, if they were cozy about it. She really needed to learn to drive one of them soon, she decided. After all, she had one at her disposal, and while she didn't want to take James' livelihood from him by any means, being able to work the thing in a pinch just made sense, didn't it?

  James stared at her for a bit and then smiled, his leathery face looking lean still, even if he was in his forties somewhere.

  "Miss Farris! Sorry about being late. I... Couldn't help but notice that you're flying? I didn't know you could do that, properly speaking. I'd seen you sort of float once, but that's very impressive."

  Or, she knew, weird. No one else was around though to gawk or think her a show off, so she dropped in next to him and used the straps to start tying her bags in place. The driver shook his head, took over from her about halfway through and did it right, since she, clearly, was making a hash of the thing.

  "Right. So, I'm racing you back. Best safe speed. No fair throwing things at me however. Ready?" It was a bit of cheating, but she was still fighting heavy breathing, and the man seemed game enough.

  The thing there was that lorries always took a while to get going, and the trip would be about an eighth of a mile, which she could manage full speed in about forty seconds. Again though, speed wasn't really the issue. It was her mind that stopped her from going a lot faster.

  Blinking, she rolled her eyes and decided that what was really stopping her had been stupidity. People here didn't fly on their own very often, except for certain performers. It was hard work and most just didn't have the power for it. There were other things that gave you a lot more back for your effort too. Healing for instance. All the magical healers she'd met looked young and were all in peak health, even if they were over a hundred years old.

  Flying was cool, but that was worth learning too.

  But, as she'd just realized, these people, the ones in this new world, just didn't move very fast at all. They drove in slow lorries, flew in slower airships and most people never moved faster than about twenty miles an hour in their life, unless they fell off of something high.

  She, however, had once owned a car, and knew how to apply the gas pedal. In a very innate way, she, more than anyone in the entire Western Kingdom, knew what fast really meant. She just hadn't thought about it before, since that was a ground vehicle. It still went fast didn't it? That was the real point, she thought.

  "Go!" She called out to the driver, then waited for him to situate himself, and release the brake, which was a heavy wooden piece.

  Then she imagined that pedal and put it all the way down.

  Chapter six

  It hurt. A whole lot more than she'd ever felt when trying to make something magical happen. Normally, if she was really pushing things there was a sense of burning and aching inside her head, near the back and the very front of her brain, at the same time. Now however, the whole shebang lit up like a Christmas tree. One that just happened to be on fire for some reason.

  It was nearly enough to cause her to drop from the air, blinded as she was by the tears that were streaming down her face. That wasn't from the pain, since there hadn't been enough time for a response like that yet. It was the wind against her eyeballs that did it. Gwen slowly imagined letting up on the pedal, and pulled the mental control joystick back. There was no way to tell where she was yet, but it wasn't too far off, since she heard a familiar voice coming from below her as she allowed herself to slowly drift down. Like a snowflake that knew a warm and certain death waited for it once it touched down.

  Bethany seemed to get part of her problem at least.

  "This way, back toward me. You're over the house right now. A little further... And down." There was an amused quality to her words, until Gwen landed, touching soft Westmorland arms before her feet hit the lawn. That was good, since it gave her something to judge things on. The world was still just a blurry mess, though it was already clearing.

  Beth actually giggled.

  "You really wanted that scone with jam, didn't you? I think it can be arranged. I'll ask Charles to see to it." Then she was gone, leaving her friend to wipe at her face for a few minutes alone.

  She got her scone however. The jam too. Both on a tiny silver tray, which was presented by Winslow himself, as if it were a reward for winning the race. The man stood there, ready to take the whole thing back, even as she broke the scone in half and gave part to her friend. Sharing. It was a thing here too, and Beth didn't argue about the idea. She ate hers plain though, not slathering on jam like Gwen did.

  After they finished and James was pulling in at what was a breakneck speed for a Lorrie, going until he'd reached the goal, even if the race was over, Beth finally spoke about what had happened.

  "That was a good deal
faster than I expected. Very good. Normally we'd have you do that again, several times, so you could remember how you managed it, but we don't have time right now."

  It was a good idea, but Gwen didn't love it at all.

  "It hurts. A lot. I hate to say it, but I'm probably going to have to do more of that awful negative reinforcement training to force myself into the top speeds again. That and get some goggles. I could breathe, barely, but the wind just ripped at my eyes. I won't lose how to do it however. It's just making myself perform that's going to be rough." It was too. There had been too much pain lately.

  At this rate she'd end up with no quality of life at all.

  Beth flipped her palms up.

  "Well, if you can manage it, you should train the ability. Even going half that speed will make you faster than almost anything we have however. We should start you on Teletransport soon."

  Those words came as a surprise to her. She'd known that it was possible to do, since Darren Westmorland had been learning how when he'd been pushed too hard or something and ended up trading places with Billy. Hopefully he was safe and snug somewhere in her world, making a living as a Wal-Mart employee or in a similar capacity. Billy had kind of been the lucky one there, since everyone had simply thought he was a bit loopy and broken at first, so had found a job for him in data acquisition. Darren had been dumped into a totally new world without any help at all. Billy was on the run from the law too, at the time, and they were identical.

  It really hadn't been anything that she'd thought of before at all. It seemed like a handy skill to have. Then she wouldn't have to keep borrowing preprogrammed spheres for it.

  "Cool. Not this moment however, please. My head is killing me. I think I need one of those magical rest breaks that Pete was talking about. If I didn't just do some damage to the inside of my head just now, then I'm the new god of magic and you should all bow down before me." There was no weight to the words, and for a second she wondered if Beth would be insulted by them.

  She wasn't. The Westmorlands weren't allowed to be religious. That would have potentially taken power away from their commanders, which wasn't allowable.

  Instead she nodded.

  "Rest is very likely in order. We don't have to do everything in a single day, or even a single week. We have, oh, whole months to see to things." It was very dry and her face didn't give any indication that she was joking at all, until a small flash of a smile came, ten seconds later.

  Thinking about it, Gwen nodded.

  "Right, well, that and a force field and I'd be set, combat wise, wouldn't I?"

  Then she had to explain what a force field was to the woman, who simply shook her head softly.

  "Shields like that have been tried, but they only work in the roughest sense. You can push physical objects away, but not magical ones. Most of our weapons are in the latter grouping too, so the idea was shelved decades ago, as not practical."

  James, dressed in his formal attire, as if they weren't just hitting a train station early in the morning, but were going to be parading around a group of nobles later, took and secured Beth's gear for her, tying it to the top of the Lorrie. That meant they needed to get inside so they could leave. It was a large step up, but they were both light and fit enough not to really need help with it. If they'd been in a dress, instead of uniform, James would have hopped up on the runner board and helped them, even if it meant being late.

  As it was they were going not two minutes later, which was speedy for this place. Probably the last quick service they were going to see for a while too. She'd miss James.

  It was a strange thought, and not really personal just to him. She was going to miss everyone at Park Street. For the first time in her life there were actually people that she wanted to be around enough that she was going to feel a loss when she left.

  How interesting.

  For the moment though, she rode in silence, trying to recover from the mistake that putting the pedal all the way down had turned out to be. She had no clue how fast she'd been going really, but given the distance and the time it took, she was willing to bet it was about eighty miles per hour. Now she was kind of regretting it. The night before hadn't helped either and she was having to fight the desire to sleep. Her eyes kept trying to close on their own and her head bobbed in a way that had to make her look good. People on the train would probably laugh at her behind their hands. That or look away in embarrassment.

  Using magic took energy though, and she was just nearly out, for the time being. Some rest would help, she knew. Not that it was going to be coming anytime soon. When she looked up, Beth was sitting upright, with her own eyes closed, probably working on something or other. At least she wasn't snoring at all yet. Gwen decided to do the same, which meant waking up with her buddy gently shaking her arm.

  "We're at the station."

  What Gwen felt like saying was "gah! Tentacle monsters have me!" since that was what the hand felt like to her at first, gentle or not, but she went with a much more subdued statement.

  "Ah." She didn't claim to be awake or anything, since she wasn't totally positive she really was yet, but she straightened and got out of the Lorrie, patting the seat once, as if to reward it for its good work. Then she managed to actually speak to James like a real human being, and not a half dead zombie would have.

  "Thank you, James. We'll try to call ahead to let you know that we're coming on the return trip. Send my love to Ella." That was his wife. She was a sweet, if slightly run down woman. Tired from caring for her three kids all the time. They were little. Exhaustingly so, it seemed.

  James smiled, a huge and genuine thing.

  "I will, Miss. She wanted me to ask after you and Miss Westmorland as well. I think she's planning a bit of a party soon. This week? I can't say that I'm all that certain we should be inviting the Vernors over for supper, but it seems to be happening anyway."

  Gwen knew this one. She'd heard the answer on Agatha's Telesar program once.

  "It's very proper however, since they had you and Ella over. It also makes good business sense, for both of you. Having wealthy friends can't hurt, as far as introductions or ideas that way. The other way around has to be true too. You hear a lot of things, and see the going-ons in the city, in a way that most people never really do. In Robert Vernor's world, knowledge is power and you're a more powerful person than you probably know."

  She blinked, and then slapped the side of her head with her left hand, it hurt, but she was also signaling Beth to read her mind. She calmly thought the one word, without bothering to really focus on it, just repeating it several times.

  Prescience.

  She had the feeling that her words were a lot more meaningful than the simple confidence booster that she'd intended at first. That meant Beth did no more than smile when she said the rest of what wanted to come out.

  "In fact, I'll stake you, up to twenty thousand Mets, on any business you and Ella want to start. Just don't make it a restaurant. Everyone always thinks they'll make a good living that way, but it's rare to really do it. That will give you something to work with. We can go higher than that, if you need, but try to start at something under that, just as a start. Oh! Get with Groundling on the Peregrine, and see if he has any ideas where to invest, or what people need. He's been collecting ideas for a long time, I think." Then, she yawned and held her hands up to James, to get her pack and hanging bag.

  The man looked away, and seemed a bit still, but didn't tell her she was being a fool with her money. It was a good idea, after all. Beth patted her shoulder, for some unknown reason, but she managed to get her things without dropping them.

  Then she wanted to shake herself. Her bags were filled with weapons, and she'd let them out of arms reach. That couldn't be allowed to happen after this. That she'd forgotten already was bad. She was armed at least, if lightly. Well, she could also fire off force blasts too, in a pinch. At least normally. Right now she doubted that she could even recharge a tiny crystal pack, which
meant she'd need to have an already charged weapon ready to go. A Crin, and a knife. Her power conduit was probably useless at the moment.

  Except as a metal bludgeon the size of a pack of playing cards. It was a thing to keep in mind.

  The station, when she turned, slipping her pack on to her back awkwardly, was different than she'd expected. Almost everything here was done in an old fashioned, but fairly refined manner, at least of the things that she'd seen. The fact was that she hadn't seen a lot of normal people things at all, she realized. When she'd gone shopping for instance, James had always taken her.

  The man was a driver for one of the wealthiest families in the Kingdom, so could she blame him for taking her to the fine stores, instead of where, say, his own wife shopped? The closest thing that she'd really noticed not being highly refined had been the offices of a rock quarry, which just made sense, given the work they did, and the Constabulary station in town.

  Now she had this to add to it.

  The railway station was technically in Westington, one town over from where they'd started. If Gwen had things right, and really she had no reason to think she actually did, other than some rough terrain features, this would have been where the movie theater was in Westwood. In her world at least. For some reason she'd imagined herself much further away from where she started, at least in physical space, than this. Halfway across the country at least, not ten miles.

  It was a rundown thing too, with actual litter on the ground in places. True, those were things like banana peels and tins, rather than plastic wraps for candies or things bought from machines, but there it was, all over the ground. Worse, she could see that there were refuse bins right there. Not even feet from where people had just dumped their trash.

  It just went to prove her first rule. Most people were assholes, if they thought they could get away with it.