World's End

Page 30

I laughed. Then I said, "Forgive me," at the sight of her face. "You couldn't know. You just struck a nerve: I've come here to find my brothers. It's been almost a year since they went into World's End. I don't know what

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happened to them. I don't even know if they're dead or alive. But they're all the family I have left.

I have to find them; if I have to go into hell itself and drag them back--" I broke off, filled with sudden anger.

"Yes," she murmured. "Yes. You understand." Her 36

WORLD S END

callused hands clutched at her sleeves. "The need for proof."

I frowned at her peculiar choice of words. "What do you want to prove? Whether she's all right?

Whether she's dead?"

She stared at me. She shook her head again. "That I

love her."

I felt my face go empty. I crouched down, pointlessly adjusting a dial on one of my instruments.

I only looked

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up again when I was sure of my expression. And, looking up at her, I wondered what had drawn or driven her daughter into World's End.

"She isn't dead. I've had messages from her. But she

. . . she isn't all right. Her mind . . ." Hahn's hand moved in vague circles, and her mouth pinched. "She says that

Fire Lake speaks to her, through her. I can't bear knowing that she's out there, helpless. . . ." Her eyes were full of pain--and the one other emotion I always recognized.

Guilt. "I want her brought back to me, if she can be made to come."

I sighed. "Why haven't you gone after her yourself?"

She looked away. "I can't. I'm needed here. The Company needs me, they wouldn't let me go out there. And besides, no one wants to take me."

Afraid, 1 thought. "What about her father?"

"Her father is dead." She looked down, and for a moment her face was bleak with memory. "He was so much like her. Neither of them ever understood. . . . I'm a sibyl, Gedda. And so is she."