Free Bradley, Marion Zimmer - Shadowgate 04 by Heartlight (v2.1)

Simon Anstey was only the
latest of her many students; their lives like a garden of flowers that she had
touched during her time on earth. Alison Margrave's was a life well spent, a
life of service to the Light.
                 Could
Colin truly say the same? He had fought great and terrible battles in the
service of the Light, but an Adept's life should be the crowning work of his
mind and heart, and Colin was not yet satisfied with what he had made of
himself.
                 "If
it was LSD that is responsible for what happened to Claire," he said into
a lull in the conversation a few minutes later, "I'd like to know more
about how she came to take it. You say that it takes effect fairly quickly,
Alison — doesn't that mean she must have gotten it at the party she and Jonathan went
to?"
                 "I
guess so, Professor," Jonathan said slowly. "It was just, well, one
of Toller's parties. Everyone knows what they're like. Claire did."
                 "Assume
we don't," Alison said in ironic tones. "Just a minute. I'd better go
check on the girl." She got to her feet, glass in hand, and headed for the
stairs.
                 Jonathan
turned in his seat, looking over his shoulder to where Colin stood.
                 "I
guess I'm in a little bit over my head here tonight, eh, Professor?" he
asked ruefully.
                 "You're
doing fine," Colin told him. "A cool head in a crisis, and a willingness
to follow orders intelligently, will do a lot toward taking you down any road
you want to travel."
                 "This
is the road I want to travel," Jonathan said strongly. "I know it
sounds crazy, but it feels as if I'm coming home."
                 Not
as crazy as you think it does, Colin thought with an inward smile. One of
the fundamental tenets of the Light was the unending process of learning, as
the Self returned to incarnation for life after life. Perhaps this was not the
first life in which Jonathan Ashwell had pursued a deeper meaning to existence.
                 Alison
returned. "Still sleeping. Pulse and respiration both good and strong; I
think that when she wakes up tomorrow she'll be fine — at least physically. As for
psychically . . ." Alison hesitated. "I suppose we'll deal with that
when the time comes. Although the person I'd really like to deal with is
whoever threw the party the two of you were at, since he seems to think that
drugging his guests is funny."
                 "Nobody
thinks you're to blame, Jonathan," Colin said reassuringly. "But
anything you can tell us will be helpful."
                 Under
Colin and Alison's patient questioning, a pattern began to emerge.
                 Toller
Hasloch was the original BMOC — Big Man On Campus. He was twenty-two, a pre-law student
from a well-to-do Baltimore family. He lived off campus
in a rambling Victorian in an older section of town and threw frequent, famous
parties. He was involved in a number of different clubs on campus of a
less-than-respectable nature and had a reputation for both intellectual and
physical daring.
                 Drugs — mostly marijuana and pills — were available at Toller's
parties. Everyone knew it. But as far as Jonathan knew, no one had ever been
forced to take them.
                 "If
she was drugged, it had to be the punch," he said. "There was a big
bowl; it was spiked with vodka, but everyone knew that. Claire knew, too — she usually doesn't drink,
but she was drinking that night; I warned her about the booze and she just
laughed at me. But a little liquor wouldn't do that to someone, would it? And
if there was anything else in the punch, Toller was the one who put it in
there," Jonathan added positively. "He likes to seem laid-back, but I
don't think much goes on around him that he doesn't know about."
                 "How
hard would this drug be to get?"