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environment."
Rod frowned. "But there must've been plenty of that power leaking into the rocks
and trees of Gramarye; in fact, the place must've been permeated with it. Why
couldn't I use that?"
"Because you didn't know how. You didn't even know you could. You needed
something to trigger it in you, to release it, and to teach you how to use it."
"So what did it? Just being in a universe where magic works?"
"Not quite." Father Al held up a forefinger. "When Redcap finished with you,
you were so thoroughly chewed up that I doubt the most advanced hospital
could've put your insides back together but you wished for it, didn't you?"
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Rod nodded slowly.
"And it worked." Father Al smiled. "That wasn't the doing of a neophyte wizard
 it was the work of a master. And I suspect it took a bit more power than your
own."
Rod frowned. "So where did it come from?"
"Lord Kern."
Rod looped his head down and around, and came up blinking. "How did you
figure that one?"
"The child, the one we saved from Redcap. He's an exact double for your own
infant son and his analog." He stopped, watching Rod closely.
Rod watched back and, slowly, his eyes widened. "Holy Hamburg! If the kid's
Gregory's analog then his parents have to be analogs of Gwen and me!"
Father Al nodded again.
"And if Lord Kern's his father then Kern's my analog!"
"But of course," Father Al murmured. "After all, he, too, is High Warlock."
"And if he's my analog then he and I can blend minds, just as his baby and
Gregory did!"
"If you could learn to drop your psionic shield, yes which, in a moment of
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great emotional stress, you did."
"At least for the moment." Rod frowned. "I never told you, Father but each of
those times I worked a 'spell,' I felt some& presence, some spirit, inside me,
helping me."
"Lord Kern, without a doubt!" Father Al's eyebrows lifted. "Then perhaps there
is something of the telepath about you or about Lord Kern. For, do you see,
whether or not you can hear his thoughts, you can apparently draw on his
powers."
Rod shivered. "That's a little intimidating, Father. Well, at least he's a nice guy."
"Is he?" Father Al leaned forward, suddenly very intent. "What is he like?"
Rod frowned. "Well from what I've felt when I was wanting some magic to
happen he seems kind, very kind, always willing to help anybody who needs it,
even an interloper like me. But he's stern; he knows what he wants and what he
believes is right, and he's not going to put up with anyone going against it."
"Hm." Father Al frowned. "That last sounds troubling."
"Oh, no, he's not a fanatic or anything! He's just not willing to watch someone
hurt somebody else! Especially children& "
"Yes?" Father Al prompted. "What about children?"
Rod shuddered. "Threaten a child, and he goes into a rage. And if it's his child& "
"He loses control?"
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"Well, not quite berserk& "
"It sounds somewhat like yourself," the priest said gently.
Rod sat still a moment; then he looked up. "Well, shouldn't it?"
"Of course." Father Al nodded. "He's your analog."
Rod nodded. "But where's your analog, Father?"
"Either we haven't met him, or he doesn't exist." The priest smiled. "Probably the
latter and that's why / can't work magic here."
Rod frowned. "But how come I'd have an analog, and you wouldn't?"
Father Al held out his hand with the fingers spread. "Remember our theory of
parallel universes that there's a set of 'root' universes, but any one 'root'
branches? Every major historical event really ends both ways and each way is
a separate universe, branching off from the 'root.' For example, in our set of
universes, the dinosaurs died, and the mammals thrived but, presumably, there
was another 'main branch' in which the mammals died, and the dinosaurs
survived, and continued to evolve."
"So there might be a universe in which Terra has cities full of intelligent lizards."
Rod gave his head a shake. " Sheesh! And the further back in time the universes
branched off from one another, the further apart they are the more unlike each
other they are."
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Father Al nodded slowly, gazing steadily at him.
Rod frowned. "I don't like being led. If you've got the next step in mind, say it."
Father Al looked surprised, then abashed. "Pardon me; an old teacher's reflexes.
You see, this can't be the universe next to ours we've skipped a whole set in
which science rules, and magic's just fantasy. There should be a universe in
which the DDT revolution failed, for example, and PEST
still rules and one in which the I.D.E. never collapsed, the old Galactic Union.
And on, and on one in which humankind never got off of Terra, one where
they made it to the Moon but no farther, one in which the Germans won World
War II, one in which they won World War I and World War II never occurred&
millions of them. We skipped past all of them, into a universe far, far away, in
which magic works, and science never had a chance to grow."
Rod stared, spellbound.
"Now, logically," Father Al went on, "since the farther you get from your 'home
universe,' the more it changes the number of people who have analogs grow
fewer. For example, think of all the soldiers who came back from World War II
with foreign brides. In the universe in which World War II never happened,
those couples never met so their descendants have no analogs in that universe,
nor in any of the universes that branched off from it."
Rod scowled. "Let me head you off you're working around to saying that, by
the time we get this far away, there're damn few analogs left." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]