Read Online Mirror 04 The Way Between the Worlds by Ian Irvine - Free Book Online

out a slug foot at her face, slug tentacles questing
this way and that. She tossed her head but another pseudopod thrust at her
from the other side. It slurped across her cheek. Karan felt a pain in one ear
as it tried to drill into her head. She was almost insane with disgust and
horror.
Frozen Food
Karan felt horribly betrayed. Rulke's promises of protection had come to
nothing. He had abandoned her. And if those promises were lies, so was
everything else.
The void-leech extended its pulpy pseudopods around her head, trying to
envelop her face with its grainy matter so as to drill through her ears and
eyes and suck out her brain. But Karan was a prisoner of the trance. She could
barely move a finger.
The pain grew in her ear. She lost sight as the blob settled on her face. A
rude probe began to insinuate its way up her nose, questing for a way into her
skull. Another pressed against the jelly of her eyeball, a disgusting
sensation. Initially soft, it began to harden so as to spear right through.
Karan directed a furious sending of rage, hate and rapacious hunger at the
void-leech, trying to make herself seem like a rat or a hyena, something that
might prey on such creatures. It shot away a span or two, its transparent
mantle fluttering in what could have been agitation. Taking the opportunity,
she screamed, broadcasting her horror and betrayal right across the void.
Instantly Carcharon and her body vanished. She was a disconnected
consciousness in the void again. Now Rulke's path shimmered in front of her.
She flashed across the Way, following his trail to
Aachan and into the Council chamber of the Charon.
Who summons the Summoner? she heard someone roar in a voice of thunder.
It is I -
Karan spat her fury at them, broadcasting the horrible image of the void-leech
into all their minds. Betrayer! she screamed. Look how he keeps his promises.
He will betray you too!
She sensed the Charon shrink back as if they had embraced a viper.
Who are you? they cried. What do you want of us?
Unable to see her or Rulke, they must have feared that it was the first
skirmish of a war. Karan hurled the image of the void-leech, now pulsating as
it began to settle on her head again, right into their minds. Back in
Carcharon she was screeching out her terror. She flung that at them too.
Karan! Rulke exclaimed. She sensed his mortification, that he had failed to
protect her, though that was swiftly overlaid by regret at having to abandon
Aachan.
You deserted me! she sent to him, then blocked out the link and fled into the
folds and corrugations of the void.
You fool! he shouted. Let me help you. I can't find the Way back by myself.
We'll both die!
In that schizophrenic nightmare, her body in Carcharon, her conscious self
lost in the void, Karan felt the disgusting probe in her nose again. Whatever
Rulke had in mind could be no worse than that. She allowed him to find her and
    all at once the Way back to Santhenar was clear. They hurtled back through the
mazes and corridors, and every passage they took, every wrong turn, she was
aware of the current of creatures surging toward the hole - their way out of
the void.
There was still some way to go when Karan felt a shocking pain in her ear. Her
head was completely covered by the void-leech. She arched her back and drummed
her heels on the floor. Her blind hands tore the mantle of the creature to
shreds but it just re-formed. In her trance-like state she could do no more;
she could not get it off.
They rushed down the last shimmering tunnel of the Way, leapt the last
barrier. The Wall appeared in front of them. They shot through the Wall; their
senses flashed back into their bodies. Her eardrum felt as if it had been torn
open. Karan let out a despairing wail, a sending that once more disturbed the
void-leech, temporary reprieve for her assaulted eyeball. The creature flopped
back down onto her face. Rulke! Her mind screamed at him. Rulke, help