"Why tunnel?" I asked.
"It sounds more mysterious."
"Oh, brother," I said.
She snapped her head around because she had caught in my mind's eye the merest hint of a stag or horse manifesting behind her, and charging at her. She shuddered as it went through her. "Sam, what's going on here? Have you seen something like this before?"
"No, not really. Not that I can recall. I mean, some areas tend to have a lot of spirit activity. Cemeteries. Hospitals. Old homes. Busy street corners."
"Where people have died in accidents?"
"Yes," I said.
"But you aren't seeing much human activity," she said. "I mean, I can see some manifestations that could be human. But many more are animal shapes. Some tiny and some quite-whoa!"
Something swooped down the hallway, over our heads, something that flapped with great wings, only to disappear through the far wall. Allison, had she not been seeing through my own inner eye, would have missed it.
"I wish I had missed it, Sam."
"No, you don't."
She nodded. "No, I don't. This is so fascinating and kind of scary. That was no bird. It was..."
"A dragon," I said.
"The ghost of a dragon?"
I paused. "I didn't get a sense it was a ghost."
"It felt real, huh, Sam? Like it was just passing through."
My friend, I think, was right.
"What's happening, Sam?"
"I don't know," I said. "But let's get back to loverboy before he runs off to Vegas and marries his phone bill."
***
The night was uneventful.
Queen Autumn didn't make another appearance, although Charlie's side hallway was a veritable super highway of creation. Animals swept across the arched opening, and from where we sat in the office, Allison and I could see deer and rabbits and wolves and, once, long processions of people-all of which came and went quickly, flowing down the hallway, wavering in and out of existence. It was, quite frankly, the ultimate light show.
All the while, Charlie stared down at his AT&T phone bill, lovingly touching it and stroking it like a star-crossed lover.
Chapter Fifteen
I left my minivan parked in front of Charlie's home, disrobed on his bedroom balcony under the dark of night, and, with Allison on her way home and Charlie snoozing-thanks to a suggestion of mine-I launched myself out as far and wide as possible.
Now, as his pool came rushing at me, something else rushed at me, too. Something beastly, and located directly in the center of the single flame. A flame that I had conjured. A flame that I had come to know as a portal between worlds-and a portal between time and space, too. If not time, then definitely space.
Now I felt myself rushing toward the creature in the flame. Except, of course, I wasn't rushing. I was still falling toward the covered pool.
But that's exactly what it felt like: rushing, movement forward, the sense of two creatures meeting somewhere in the middle. The middle of where, I didn't know, but suddenly I wasn't falling anymore. No, not at all. I was gliding, with great outstretched arms that manipulated the air. Now, I was riding a cushion of air up and over the brick wall that separated Charlie's house from his neighbor's. I flapped once, twice, and now I was rocketing up, higher and higher.
And higher.
Hi Talos, I thought.
Hello Sam, came the voice in my head. A deep voice, with melodic overtones. A gentle and wise voice, too. I knew that in Talos's world, communication was done primarily through telepathy, but I had a question.
Do you have a voice, Talos?
I have no need for a voice, Sam.
If you were to open your mouth and speak?
It would sound as a great roar.
Then why does your "voice" sound deep to me? Why wouldn't it sound, I dunno, neutral?
I leveled off at a free-flowing air current that I knew to be a jet stream. Had I chosen to ride it to Hawaii, I could have. I knew Talos was capable of reaching great speeds, too. No doubt I would be there before sunrise. Then what? I couldn't afford a hotel room out there.
The internal voice is nearly as real as the physical, Sam.
So, someone could have a high or deep internal voice?
Of course.
At present, Talos's wings were outstretched and flapping just enough to keep me level-us level, since I was pretty sure I was the one doing the flying.
Indeed, Sam. We've talked about this.
But isn't it a little like giving the keys to a dopey teenager?
You're hardly dopey, Sam.
But I'd never flown before.
No, but you were a quick learner. Nearly expert now.
Nearly?
Oh, there are some things I can do that you haven't tried.