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him, but was repulsed in the same way he had been by the shield of Shambala.
"It's not going to let us in, Mike."
'We need Chime's help," he said. "She said that anyone who wanted back in probably would. She's the
guide to Shambala. I'm sure she could get us back in."
"I don't know, Mikey, but I don't think it's such a good idea to face that magician again."
"We have to try," he said stubbornly.
But this time too they were unable to get close to their goal. They found the flat plain again, crisscrossed
by streams. But when they tried to enter the valley, the wards repulsed them as effectively as Shambala's
shield.
"Well, that's out. The only way back in there is through that hole, and we don't want to get trapped in the
collector thingy again," Toni-Marie said with a shudder. "The nice kitty might not be around to help us out
this time."
"Maybe Chime will come out."
"Yeah, well, and maybe she won't." She was silent a moment and then said, "Mike, I think we maybe
ought to explore other options."
"Whatother options?"
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"Well, go someplace else. Since you guys showed up I've seen three magic places and met two major
magicians, counting your girlfriend."
"She's not my girlfriend and she's not a magician-not really. She's just a kid-well, a kid who's lived lots of
previous lives as this very learned and saintly person. She doesn't really domagic-it's just that because
she's still remembering all of these previous lives, she senses stuff and knows how to do stuff that nobody
our age should be able to do."
"Uh-huh. I bet that's what she says to all the boys. But look, maybethere's some magicians in other
places too, and some other people- from the looks of those vids, the missiles didn't wipe out nearly as
many people as I thought. There might be pockets of people still alive everyplace, or at least be other
kinds of magical places here on earth. Maybe we could get help there. Maybe there are all kinds of
babies being born other places and we could get new bodies and come back and-"
"Chime says I can only be reborn in Shambala, because I was born there."
"Maybe we can find someone to take the spell off so you can get back there, then."
"Well, we could just wait for her to come out."
"But what if she doesn't? What if he keeps her?"
"I don't think he could, do you? I mean, that's not supposed to happen to a Terton. And anyway, if it
did, she would just continue there until-until she died too and then-"
"And then, maybe as a ghost, she wouldn't be able to get back into Shambala either and there'd be
nobody to guide anybody in or out and we'd all just be stuck out here in limbo. Mike, there have to be
other magicians somewhere who can help us."
"I don't know why you're so sure of that."
"Because as my great-aunt Gaia-Jean the water witch used to say, magic is nothing but science flying by
the seat of its pants. A lot of the technology, all those mechanisms and electronic doodads that science
produced, have been blown sky high now, so it's back to square one. Anybody who can figure out how
to survive and help other people survive is apt to be pretty powerful, don't you think? Like Meru, or
Chime. Maybe the old-time magicians knew how to draw on us-not just the living, but the ghost spirits
too, to make things work. The magicians are the ones who know about both worlds, and some of them
are supposed to have been able to go between worlds.Seems to me that since I've already met two-well,
three if you count the cat-they have had a better survival rate than most people too. So it stands to
reason that if we scrounge around we ought to be able to find one piddly little magician left alive on this
planet who will be able to get us into Shambala without Chime."
"Well, maybe. But you sure are coming up with a lot of unsupported theories."
"Yeah, well, I didn't make up most of it-I read it somewhere or saw it on the vid or something. And
before I met you, there wasn't a whole lot else to do than, you know, ponder the nature of mortality and
that kind of thing. Richie and I used to talk about it a lot. So, anyway, tell me, if you were going to look
for magical power, where would you look?"
"Other than Shambala, you mean?"
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"Yeah."
Mike thought back to his fairy-tale books, to the stories he'd heard his mother tell, to the stories Auntie
Dolma told, and remembered his favorites. "Ireland," he said finally. "I guess it's no more magical than
China or Germany or Russia or other places around England maybe, but it's an island. If we go to
Ireland, at least we'll know where we are when we start looking."
Lobsang Taring sat up suddenly in the middle of the night, his senses alert,his ears attuned to the sound
that had awakened him from a deep sleep.
He heard sobs and was momentarily confused, until he realized that Viv was crying in her sleep. He
touched her and she opened her eyes. "Mike," she said. "He's . . ."
The dream came back to him then of his son's voice, calling to them. "I know," he said. "I know."
CHAPTER XX
Inez knew she had screwed up big as soon as Meru banished Chime's ghost friends. Just went to show
how much this place was getting on her nerves. The ghosts hadn't been at all scary or threatening-some
blond girl in a pair of shorts, and a good-looking young boy in a pair of padded pajamas similar to the
ones Chime had worn through the cesspool.
Inez was also alarmed. She had begun to think that most of Meru's tricks were just that-tricks, or
mumbo-jumbo-enhanced technological developments like the hold caves. When the ghosts first
appeared, she thought Meru was siccing them on her as a punishment for her moment of rebellion.
He loomed over Chime like he wanted to make her disappear too, and poor Chime looked as lost as a
wild raccoon that had found its way onto an L.A. freeway. With the most paternal and loving expression
on his face, Meru was reminding them all that their existence depended on his beneficence. Inez wanted
to gag, but instead she threw herself at his feet and clutched his knees, crying, "Oh, Master, how could I
ever have doubted you? I'm just so silly sometimes-it's just that I get bored and-oh, but those horrible
ghosts!" She gave a realistic shudder then looked at him with the tears she could always call up at will,
making her eyes bright and shiny.
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