Free Windblowne by Stephen Messer Page B

Eventually, he dies. This is rather inefficient, of course. Somehow
he—”
    “They sicken and die?” said Oliver, shocked. “But I feel fine!”
    “Yes,” replied Lord Gilbert sourly. “Don’t interrupt. It seems that in his primitive way,
he
had a kind of native cleverness, and
he
was able to construct one of these
kites”
—he spat the word with derision—“in such a way that it could carry someone—only someone small, such as a child—across the Way Between Worlds and between Windblownes, without harming the passenger.”
    Carry a child between Windblownes
. Oliver glared at Two.
    “But of course, more capacity is needed!” said Lord Gilbert. “I need to be able to stride through all the worlds myself, spreading my wisdom everywhere! Backward worlds like yours shall be modernized by my inventions! Think of it, boy! I’ll need to move people—whole towns! I’ll need to move machines, so that—”
    “All the worlds?” Oliver said, surprised. “You mean there’s more than just two?”
    Lord Gilbert gave him a pitying look, shaking hishead. “Primitive boy. Yes, there are far more than two, and you should ask yourself why your great-uncle never told you about any of this. He probably did not trust you, nor think you capable of grasping this concept.”
    “That’s not true!” said Oliver hotly.
    Lord Gilbert smirked. “Perhaps,” he said. “But it is something for you to think about, isn’t it? Which of us trusted you with the truth?”
    Oliver could not answer. Two was looking at him now, with those hollow, sunken eyes. “What did you do to Great-uncle Gilbert?” Oliver snarled at the other boy.
    “Now, now,” Lord Gilbert continued. “Two is hardly responsible for the capture of my idiot twin.”
    Oliver bristled at this description. Great-uncle Gilbert might be a number of things, but he was no idiot. “But I saw him. My great-uncle was fighting those hunters.”
And if I hadn’t distracted him
, Oliver remembered,
he might have won
.
    “Yes,” said Lord Gilbert. He strolled to the counter and spooned up some of the baconish cubes. “But the plan was mine. Unfortunately, Two failed miserably at maintaining the element of surprise, and as a result failed miserably at his secondary objective. An objective thatyou have managed to accomplish for me.” He tossed the plate onto the table with a clatter. “Have some breakfast.”
    “No,” said Oliver. “I want my great-uncle.”
    “Don’t be uncooperative,” said Lord Gilbert severely. “Your great-uncle was uncooperative. He would not explain the workings of his device, so I banished him to a hell-world, the most loathsome and horrible of the worlds I have discovered so far.” He pushed the plate closer to Oliver. “Eat.”
    A hell-world?
Oliver’s blood began to pound. “No,” he said, crossing his arms. “I want my great-uncle and I want my kite.”
    “Ah, the kite,” Lord Gilbert continued, clapping his hands together. “I am looking forward to examining it. After last night’s debacle, I wasn’t sure I’d ever see it again. Fortunately, you’ve brought it straight to me.”
    “No, I haven’t,” said Oliver.
    “Yes,” replied Lord Gilbert, “you have.” He reached into a cabinet and brought forth a cylinder, which to Oliver looked like a handvane without the vane. The thing was made of metal, like so many things in this world, and was covered with buttons and dials. Lord Gilbert snapped the cylinder onto his wrist, and anumber of blinking lights appeared on its surface. With a giggle, he pushed some of the buttons in rapid succession.
    “What is that thing?” asked Oliver.
    “This,” proclaimed Lord Gilbert, “is one of my most clever and useful inventions. I call it the Handvane Mark IV—HM IV for short!”
    Oliver was unimpressed. “What good is a handvane without any vanes? You can’t read the wind.”
    Lord Gilbert rolled his eyes. “An utter waste of time. The HM IV can do far more interesting