Titans of Chaos

Blue light stabbed out of Victor's eye and bathed Colin. "An electromagnetic field is disintegratinghim. I've stopped the field, but I cannot stop the effect," said Victor. "Put the ring of Gyges backon him."

I said, "The ring's broken. Maybe I can try to fix it. Who had it last?"

Colin groaned muddily. "It's all going away."

"What?" I said.

"The dream of the world. All going away..."

Victor said, "It's on his finger."

Foolish of me. There it was. It had a controlling monad, just like a living being. The monad hadbeen forced out of alignment by an Amazonian azure ray, and the internal nature of the ring hadturned into something materialistic, dull, and inert.

I twisted the monad back into shape, but the internal nature of the ring did not change. Mendingthe break in a glass after the water had run out.

"Nothing's happening," I said.

Victor said, "Can you reproduce the effect Miss Daw used to propel you out of the fourthdimension? I've neutralized all energy flows in this area; he should not be able to track us, eitherby magic or by electronics-"

"Wait! I see something!"

"Report."

"It's the corpse. The giant whatever-it-is inside the hollow horse coffin. The genie in the ring, doyou know who I mean?"

Victor said, "The icon representing the ring of Gyges."

"He says there is an object in our future. No one can defeat the God of Speed in a race; no onecan outrun him. It's fate."

Vanity said, "Don't listen to him! He's lying! Don't believe it."

I looked at Vanity. She was kneeling, cradling Quentin in her arms. Quentin stirred and moanedfeebly. He was not dead.

She said, "Dead people work for the bad guy, remember? The guy with the keys to theunderworld?"

Victor said, "Amelia, what were the four steps needed for us to undo an Olympian decree offate?"

I said, "It is complex, but I can sum it up: Each of us has a part to play. First, I am supposed togive the destiny enough free will to allow it to be changed.

"Second, a destiny is a curse. It uses sympathy and contagion to organize the spirits of theuniverse to want a certain outcome. To annul that requires magic: Quentin's paradigm.

"Third, a destiny is fixed and inescapable, as dispassionate as a law of nature. That's you. I thinkyou take away the free will I give the destiny-force, so that it acts according to a mechanisticcause and effect.