Free Landslayer's Law by Tom Deitz Page A

the same effect on Scott it had on Alec. Freaked him out, made him withdraw into himself, turned him distrustful and paranoid. Even worse, made him dump most of his old friends, includin’ the ones in the SCA, ’cause they reminded him too much of Faerie.”
    Calvin rubbed his chin. “So what happened to him there, exactly?”
    David sighed. “Best I can tell, he spent most of his time captive in a tree, but he also got to see…let’s see: a maze of mirrors, a wizard’s tower, and a bunch of gryphons. Oh, and all that dissolved by some kind of screwy Track.”
    “Not a lot there to base an opinion on.”
    David lifted a brow. “ You ever see a gryphon?”
    “Can’t say I have.”
    “Neither have I, but we’ve both seen equivalent wonders—the uktena, for instance—and we both know that while things like that can scare the livin’ shit out of you, they’ve also got this…this terrible power of fascination. See one once, and you’re changed forever. Trouble is, we both got to ease into it gradually—relatively speaking. Scott got it out of the clear blue without warning.”
    “Right…. So where you headed with all this?”
    David chuckled grimly. “I’m not sure myself, but one of the keys to Scott is that me and Liz and him and Myra got drunk one night and he told us that in spite of all the crap that went down on him there, he actually loved that tiny taste of Faerie, and that nothing in this World had any flavor afterwards; that life in this World was just goin’ through the motions.”
    “Sounds like McLean again: him and Aife.”
    “Yeah—and like Alec, that World scared him to death, ’cause he’s a scientist and it didn’t fit with what he knew. The difference is, that he admits that it also attracts him; Alec denies that it does.”
    “So he missed a lot of school trying to get his head straight,” Liz continued. “Did a lot of drugs trying to recapture Faerie, got straightened out by Myra, swapped majors once, swapped back, then discovered that he’s about to start losing credits. And since he already owes a fortune in student loans and isn’t very employable to start with, he’s under a lot of pressure to finish his degree and get a job before the ceiling caves in and he’s doomed to the late shift at Barnett’s.”
    Calvin looked at David. “Which brings us to whatever’s buggin’ you.”
    David took a deep breath and closed his eyes. “Maybe it’s nothing,” he began finally. “I hope it’s just a minor aberration and doesn’t mean anything. Only I’ve come to doubt that kind of thing, when it comes to… that stuff.”
    Liz lifted a brow. “We hadn’t established it involved that stuff.”
    David snorted softly. “Does anything else really bug me except that stuff?”
    “When I’m late,” Liz retorted. “But go on.”
    Another deep breath. “Well, I don’t want to sound like Scotto or Alec, but when anything weird happens anymore, it always makes me nervous, ’specially when we’re right on the doorstep of the longest day of the year.”
    “When the Faery good-guys ought to be strongest,” Liz emphasized. “And you really do need to head out, so do you think you could get to the point?”
    “It started,” David sighed, “when I woke up last night to the sound of rain.”
    * * *
    “Whew,” Calvin whistled five minutes later. “I can see why that might put the wind up you.”
    David gnawed his lip. “Seein’ how our last run-in with Faerie began with weak spots in the World Walls.”
    Calvin scratched his chin. “That screwy deer that came through while we were huntin’ back fall two years ago, right? Or has there been something since then?”
    “I hope not!”
    Liz puffed her cheeks. “But how do you know this was a World Wall thing? Lugh’s supposed to have banned any fooling with them.”
    David counted on his fingers. “’Cause, number one, I felt a blast of chill, which seems to be a side effect of someone stepping straight through; and