Reeta came in. I caught a stray thought from her that sent pain and sickness and futility through me. A thought of sadness and pity for me as she looked at me.
I backed toward the wall. I thought hard, hard, and the wall opened for me. A second of joyous power gave way to despair. I didn't belong here; I didn't belong anywhere now. What if I should kill Durach? And then what if I went back to the Third Plane?
What then? I wouldn't fit there either. I'd still keep some of the power, I knew that. I'd be an ESP freak then, probably working in some televised vaudishow. And I couldn't stay here, I thought, because I hadn't developed normally. I'd been artificially developed so that I could go through the Barrier hadn't I?
I was nobody; I was nowhere. I didn't have a name anymore, not really. These supermen weren't my kind either.
Carleth pointed toward the City. "Durach's there," I heard him whisper. And Reeta's eyes were wet with sorrow as she came toward me.
I didn't want to see her anymore, or feel her hands on me; I didn't wait for anything else. One thing I knew as I went through the wall and started down the beautiful still street:
I would kill Durach, and then I'd be finished. I tried to ignore the screams in the village, tried not to see the people dying around me.
I still carried that neutron gun Malcolm Mergon had given me. It had come through the barrier too.
Carleth's and Reeta's thoughts drifted after me: "We can give you some protection. A constant stream of mind-energy shielding. We'll stay with you, as closely as possible.
"Durach is there, in the tallest building in the City."