Free Word & Void 02 - A Knight of the Word by Terry Brooks Page A

She could not imagine him being anything other than what he was. How had he fallen so far away from his fierce commitment to saving the world? It sounded overblown when she said it, but that was what he was doing. Saving the world, saving humanity from itself. O’olish Amaneh had made it plain to her that such a war was taking place, even before Ross had appeared to confirm it. We are destroying ourselves, Two Bears had told her; we are risking the fate of the Sinnissippi—that we shall disappear completely and no one will know who we were.
    Are we still destroying ourselves?
she wondered.
Are we still traveling the road of the Sinnissippi?
She hadn’t thought about it for a long time, wrapped up in her own life, the events of five years earlier behind her, buried in a past she would rather forget. She had been only a girl of fourteen. Her world had been saved, and at the time she had been grateful enough to let it go at that.
    But her world was expanding now, reaching out to places and people beyond Hopewell. What was happening in that larger world, the world into which her future would take her? What would become of it without John Ross?
    Rain coated the windows in glistening sheets that turned everything beyond into a shimmering haze. The park and her backyard disappeared. The world beyond vanished.
    She walked to the phone and dialed Robert Heppler. He answered on the fourth ring, sounding distracted. “Yeah, hello?”
    “Back on the computer, Robert?” she asked teasingly.
    “Nest?”
    “Want to go out for a pizza later?”
    “Well, yeah, of course.” He was alert and eager now, if surprised. “When?”
    “In an hour. I’ll pick you up. But there’s a small price for this.”
    “What is it?”
    “You have to drive me to O’Hare tomorrow morning. I can go whenever you want, and you can use my car. Just bring it back when you’re done and park it in the drive.”
    She didn’t know how Ariel would get to Seattle, but she didn’t think it was something she needed to worry about. The Lady’s creatures seemed able to get around just fine without any help from humans.
    She waited for Robert to say something. There was a long pause before he did. “O’Hare? Where are you going?”
    “Seattle.”
    “Seattle?”
    “The Emerald City, Robert.”
    “Yeah, I know what it’s called. Why are you going there?”
    She sighed and stared off through the window into the rainy gloom. “I guess you could say I’m off to see the Wizard.” She paused for effect. “Bye, Robert.”
    Then she hung up.

Monday,
October 29

Chapter 6
    J ohn Ross finished the closing paragraph of Simon’s Seattle Art Museum speech, read it through a final time to make certain it all hung together, dropped his pen, and leaned back in his chair with a satisfied sigh. Not bad. He was getting pretty good at this speech-writing business. It wasn’t what Simon had hired him for, but it looked like it was a permanent part of his job description now. All those years he had spent knocking around in graduate English programs were serving a useful purpose after all. He grinned and glanced out the window of his tiny office. Morning rain was giving way to afternoon sun. Overhead, the drifting clouds were beginning to reveal small patches of blue. Just another typical Seattle day.
    He glanced at the clock on his desk and saw that it was nearing three. He had been at this since late morning. Time for a break.
    He pushed back his chair and levered himself to his feet. He was three years beyond forty, but when rested he could easily pass for ten years less. Lean and fit, he had the sun-browned, rawboned look of an outdoorsman, his face weathered, yet still boyish. His long brown hair was tied back with a rolled bandanna, giving him the look of a man who might not be altogether comfortable with the idea of growing up. Pale green eyes looked out at the world as if still trying to decide what to make of it.
    And, indeed, John Ross had been working on