We rode slowly past the burned out school buses, aware of the desolation of the Road around us.  The horses and Daisy, the mule, didn't react to the harsh metallic tang of the air.  As always, the heat of the barren plains around us was oppressive.  No wind stirred, nothing living moved but us.  In all the years I had traveled this path between worlds, I had never seen another living creature.  It was obvious from the terrain very little could have lived here.  I didn't know what the Road was, all I knew was I could cause it to take me and mine anywhere and any when in existence.  Early in my life this ability had saved me and my sisters from death.  The look on my face telegraphed something to Thistle.
     "A copper for you thoughts," she leaned over and plucked my sleeve, I smiled.
     "I was thinking of the first time I traveled this Road."
     "Tell me about it," Thistle said.
     "I have told you a little of my history," I began.  "I was born in Cinnabar, a city that is a Nexus of existence.  It's an odd place, part magic, part technology.  In fact, I have been told it is the true source of both.  My mother is Rilia called The Sorceress or the Lord of Fire.  She is a Noldor elf born in the forests of Taur-Im-Duinath on the continent of Beleriand in the First Age of Arda.  She became allied to an Eldar known as Ardana in 225 First Age.  Ardana was in turn allied with Morgoth, the great enemy.  Ardana was charged by Morgoth with the destruction of the Sun and Moon.  The Court of Ardor was formed for this purpose and  Rilia became the Lord of Fire.  For the entire First Age the Court tried their damnedest to accomplish this.  Fortunately Morgoth was over thrown during the War of Wrath and the Court was scattered."
     "This should have been the end of the plot and the Court but for Ardana's persistence.  The  dawning of the Second Age saw the Court migrating East to Tanturak.  By 1350 SA the Court had reformed in Ardinaak.  The next two thousand years were spent developing a power base in the region of Arda known as Mumakan.  My mother dwelled in Tanturak, a vast forest peopled by descendants of Numenor and controlled bt the Citadel of Ithilkir.  She ruled unchallenged for nearly three thousand years.  In 3322 SA the new Great Enemy, Sauron, sent forth his emissary Uvatha the Horseman to Ithikir and demanded its surrender.  Rilia and Lesh-y, a demon in her service, summoned the foulest creatures to be found and defeated the Ring Wraith.  Inexplicably Sauron never took revenge at this balking.  Over one hundred years later the Last Alliance of Men and Elves overthrew Sauron and the Second Age ended."
     "The Third Age brought the Court's first break in their Quest when one of the gems of Unlight was taken by Lesh-y from the Luingion Alliance.  The second of these gems was recovered by Cambragol, Valkrist and Persuvious in 1408 TA and the final gem was taken by the Winds of Taurang from the assassinated King of Hathor in 1703 TA."
     I looked at her, she asked none of the questions I knew to be burning in her.  There were so many personalities and places unknown running through my narrative I could not explain them all.
     Her smile told me she understood my dilemma and that explanations could wait.  I continued.
     "Narel was born in 1636 TA in Arthedain.  He grew up to become a great mage and fought a Wizard's Duel with Rilia in 1705 TA.  He won.  The thing is, he has not done this yet in his time.  I was born in what would be 3000 TA.  Time travel is so confusing.  Narel proved to be a compassionate man and did not destroy my mother before I could be born.   He did however nearly destroy her mind.  She escaped, barely, the destruction of the Citadel of Ardor and settled in the valleys below the Ered Luin of Eriador.  For twelve hundred years she dwelt in solitude, healing from the damage Narel had done."
     "My father is Joram, a Rider of Rohan.  He was born in 2955 TA in the Rohirrim fortress of Dunharrow.  As with all his race he is tall, strong and blonde.  Early in his life he discovered a wanderlust the Rohirrim did not normally possess.  By his mid-teens he had traveled the entire Rittermark and knew that the bounds of his native lands were not enough.  Fanghorn Forest he explored then turned his face northwest into Eriador.  As he journeyed, he gathered to him a small following.  Just John, a thief of Tharbad. Derek Kro, the pyromaniac rogue. Torc Loran the ranger of the North and Rathorn the Arch-Mage."
     "Into the Vales of Eriador they traveled until Joram, riding point, came upon a small cottage on the edge of a stand of trees.  The group had faired poorly in the realm of provender and Joram was hungry.   Being a forceful man and catching the aroma of meat cooking he kicked the door in, prepared to plunder.  Rilia had stood, mid-gesture, pouring a stream-chilled cup of milk.  Joram's sudden assault brought up long dormant defense mechanisms while Rilia's luxuriant red hair and unearthly elvish beauty momentarily stunned Joram."
     "The pitcher of milk shattered on the floor breaking Joram's daze.  Quick, nearly forgotten, movements of her hands and rapid chanting in Quenya told my father his death was in the offing.  He dove across the small table between them and caught her around the waist.  Driving her before him, they ended in a heap on her bed.  Rilia is a strong woman, being Noldor, tall, well-favored of body but she was no match for the sinews of a Rider of the Mark.  Holding both her wrists my father lay over her, face to face.  She looked up into the face of a man strong and good.  His blue eyes held her tawny ones and over a thousand years of loneliness crashed down on her.  The look of wretched sadness in her eyes disarmed the horse warrior.  Never before in his life had something touched him so deeply.  He released his hold on her wrists and gently touched her face.  Freed arms came up and encircled his neck drawing him down to her.  They kissed and in their hearts that kiss is ongoing to this day."
     "For many years after that my parents traveled Arda and had many adventures together, but none so great as the last on the world of their birth.  After many years of hoping my mother had become with child and my father sought a safe haven for the birth.  At the time their course had taken them to the south of Gondor into the savage lands of Harad.  Rathorn traveled with them still and felt it would be safe in Umbar, the City of the Cosairs.  Being a Corsair himself and having a father on the Counsel of Captains, he assured Joram that they would have a warm reception.  He was not wrong.  The choice Rathorn had made many years ago to be a Mage had alienated him from his race, a race that believed solely in the power of a good sword."
     "Cirion, Captain of Umbar, welcomed his wayward son back with open arms but treachery lay beneath his smile.  A warm and comfortable room was provided for Rilia and her labor commenced.  Rathorn, conversing with his father and brothers, realized he and his charges were about to be betrayed to Sauron.  His magic proved more than a match for his father's guards and he gathered up my parents and escaped on a Flying Disk into the desert of Harad.  After long hours of pursuit, the three found themselves huddled beneath a wall of earth Rathorn had raised and there Joram delivered my brother, Turin."
     "Cirion proved more persistent than Rathorn expected.  Just after dawn a call came from out of the desert.  During the night the group had been and surrounded.  The voice demanded immediate surrender.  Desperation forced Rathorn to cast the most powerful spell he knew, a Gate Spell.  Onto the path of the Road they stepped, arrows raining down around them."
     "Rathorn described the Road as we see it now," I reined Buttercup in, River Arch stopped beside me.  "I neglected to ask.  Where and when are we going?"
     "Midkemia, someplace called Carse."  She looked at me hopefully.  I grinned at her.
     "Ah . . . Carse," I laughed.  "This is going to be fun!"
     "You know it?"
     "I lived there for some years," I told her.  "My return will stir up a hornet's nest."
     "Oh!" she exclaimed.  "Another story to tell.  No wonder you are a Bard.  But finish one tale before beginning another."
     I leaned across the gap between us and our mouths met.  Her hand went to my neck and held me locked in the kiss.
     "Will that kiss be ongoing in your heart?" she asked, breathing the words softly onto my lips.
     "No, Love," I replied.  "Our first kiss is ongoing in my heart, all after builds on it."  She sat back in the saddle and smiled happily.  I blinked the daze of her sweet lips away.
     "Rathorn had never traveled the Road and so had no idea how to read the pathways.  His entirely random choice brought them to the great city of Cinnabar.  Imagine their surprise at the sight of their first car."  I remembered Thistle's excitement at her first ride on my chopper.
     "They entered the city in the Tech Quarter where Magic did not function.  Eventually their wandering took them through the Magi-tech Quarter into the Magic Quarter.  Exhausted they took a room at the Prancing Unicorn.  Hardly had they settled in when the roof of the Inn was ripped off the building revealing Omac, a particularly monstrous demon.  Rilia reacted typically and loosed a Fire Bolt at the creature.  My father drew his sword and leaped to the attack.  Rathorn threw himself over my brother Turin.  Omac reflected the Fire Bolt and burned Joram badly.  Mother, in horror, ran to his side.  The demon grabbed Rathorn and crushed him, leaving him for dead.  Then, with infinite care, it lifted my still sleeping brother from the bed and carried him away.  Rilia, still shaken form giving birth, fell into a faint across father."
     "Surprisingly, Rathorn woke first.  His healing Magic restored him and allowed him to tend Joram's wounds.  My mother woke.  Father saw the anguish in mother and vowed revenge on Omac, swearing to recover Turin.  Alas, it was never to be.  Though Joram's energy and drive took him from refugee to Doge of Cinnabar in twenty years, he never found Omac or Turin.  Rilia, at last, became resigned to Turin's lost and was overjoyed when she became pregnant again.  Twenty years to the day my sister, Rachel, was born.  Wanting to break with the Adra they would never again see, my parents opted for names found in Cinnabar.  Hence I am Aaron and my younger sister is Laura."
     "Just over a year later Rilia conceived again.  My father took certain measures.  The tech level of Cinnabar's Tech Quarter is far beyond anything I have imagined.  With super science my father had me engineered.  I became stronger, faster and smarter than my parents but other things developed.  I have near-perfect control of my body and surrounding area down to the atomic level.  Sorry, my Love.  Atoms are to our bodies as the sand and earth are to the world.  Small parts to make up the whole."
     She nodded, listening.
     "Laura was my mother's daughter from the beginning.  Rilia would have a true heir to her knowledge and power.  At birth, Laurie was taught the Magic I could not wield.  She was a brilliant student and would have surpassed her teacher had Turin not returned.  Like a plague Omac and Turin descended on Cinnabar and destroyed most of the city.  Turin captured my entire family.  He had us bound and stood over us gloating.  Raving he explained what he would do to us.  Perverse things, horrible things.  The whole time I listened and slowly realized I did not fear him.  Laura, laying back to back with me, gripped my hand. Power coursed through me.  Slowly we shifted our bodies, touching first Rachel, then our parents.  It was like completing a circle."
     "As Turin paced back and forth, ranting, the power of five built up in me until I could no longer hold it.  The world spun madly as the energy was released.  I gripped Laura's hand with strength far beyond an eight-year-old.  Rachel slipped out of the circle first and was gone.  Joram and Rilia went together.  Fearing Laurie's loss I held onto her so hard I broke her hand.  Her sobs of pain broke the spell and we landed with a thump and a cloud of dust."
     "We were on the Road.  For hours we wandered, two children in a strange place.  We explored the school buses.  Did you notice, they are all number twenty-one?  They come from many places but they are all 21.  Our children, Love, will never ride a number 21 bus."
     "Our children?" Thistle smiled at the thought then nodded.
     "Our children."  My hand closed on hers warmly.
     "As with all children," I continued.  "We got bored.  The innocent see things other don't.  Unconsciously I began to note strange distortions in the air.  Holding Laura's unbroken hand I approached one.  It was stable.  I stepped into it drawing in my sister and found myself on the shore of a mountain lake.  Never had I seen a lake or a mountain or a forest.  We stood so dumbfounded  that we failed to notice the couple into whose camp we had appeared.  Two very dirty, very strangely dressed young children stepping from now where was a shock.  Of course the first thing that seeped into my consciousness was the smell of food.  I tugged Laurie's hand and she blinked, looking around."
     "A man and a woman sat, mouths agape, with plates of food forgotten in their laps.  He looked tall, six feet or so,  big framed without enough muscle for his bone.  He had straight dark brown hair and brown eyes with a matching moustache and goatee.  She was smaller, 5' 6" and slim with red hair and freckles over her creamy skin.  Her blue eyes widened as I looked her over.  She smiled and spoke gibberish.  Laurie collapsed and began crying, the woman's hair reminding her of mother.  The woman set the plate on a log and knelt beside my sobbing sister.  Though I could not understand the words, the tone was soothing and told me she was trying to help."
     "In every language I knew I tried to explain to them that Laura's hand was broken.  The woman grasped my meaning and gave orders to the man.  He rose and disappeared into a tent.  When he came out, he was carrying a small blue and white box with a red cross on the top.  The two fussed for some minutes immobilizing Laura's hand.  I gathered up the woman's plate and devoured a meat and vegetable stew.  It had an odd flavor that I later discovered to be garlic.  Refilling the plate, I sat next to Laura and spoon fed her.  The couple stepped away and began talking behind us.  At first I would catch a word here or there but slowly the language shifted to the intelligible."
     "Their conversation was about what to do with us.  They felt it best if we were turned over to the Rangers until our parents could be found.  At that point, confident with their language, I explained what had happened.  I found out their names were William and Harriet Wayne and they camped here every summer.  Even at eight I thought my story might be far-fetched for them but it wasn't.  I didn't realize why for years."
     "Seeing Laura nearly asleep in her stew, Harriet gathered her up in her lap.  She sang softly as my sister slept with tears in her eyes.  William put his hand on my shoulder and steered me down to the lake.  He did not talk down to me like most adults, he talked to me as an equal.  They had been married for ten years and had no children, never would.  I looked back through the tree at Harriet and my sister.  I told him they would be our parents and he nodded.  He said he knew."
     "Fate was kind to us that day.  William was a computer engineer working cutting edge software and thought nothing of uprooting his wife to move us to a new city.  There they claimed us as their own.  As computers worked their way into the Government William provided the proper documentation to make us legal.  We grew up in a very happy home.  Laura learned English but has kept a slight elvish accent that many find fascinating.  Twice she nearly burned down our home until I convinced her to practice only non-fire spells in the house.  I had my own problems, my developing powers.  Desolidification I discovered by accident,  I rode my bicycle through an oncoming car.  Invisibility was my favorite, imagine a teenage boy that could become invisible."
     "Well, I wasn't unusual.  Not on our new adopted world.  Here strange powers where almost the norm.  People flew, tossed lightning, lifted buildings, all that stuff.  At William and Harriet's insistence Laura and I learned to hide our abilities.  As I grew older, I discovered greater powers while Laura's stagnated.  My powers were natural to me, hers had to be taught."
     "How did you become Ghost Archer?"  Thistle asked.
     "I had taken up archery at three and continued to practice, It made me one of the best in the world.  I spent summers in the mountains hunting, using blunt arrows, it sharpened my skills.  I began to compete, first local, then state, then national.  At sixteen I made the U.S. Olympic Team for archery.  That year the Olympics were held in Seoul, South Korea.  The team arrived a few days before the games started and I had time to meet the competition.  A girl from England, Marion Locksley, was my only real challenge.  We met and talked.  I liked her a great deal, perhaps even loved her but Fate came out of nowhere and destroyed both of our chances.  The International Olympic Committee decided persons with super human abilities would not be allowed to compete."
     "The IOC brought in an ‘Expert' on paranormal humans and all were subject to testing.  My country, having the world's largest population of what were called Homo Superious by some and Mutants by others, withdrew from the games in protest.  Many of our Allies followed suit, including Marion's.  On the last night in Seoul, we talked long into the night.  She raged, she swore, she threatened bodily harm to many.  I tried to calm her but to no avail.  She left the games still in a rage.  So, Marion Locksley passed into history, I thought."
     "That summer I discovered my flight and found a freedom I had only dreamed of.  My father's wanderlust took hold of me and I traveled.  Every non-school hour was spent exploring the world.  The speeds that I could travel put the entire planet into my travel range.  I was elated but it came to a crashing halt just after my completion of school.  As usual I had flown to the mountains to play tag with its inhabitants.  Just over four weeks I spent, alone, not thinking about my family.  At last, my need for solitude satisfied, I returned home."
     "Our house was rubble.  I banged on the door of Mrs. Belknap, a neighbor that treated us like grandchildren, she had saved the newspaper clippings covering the events of the last weeks.  A criminal organization known as Viper had destroyed the house, killing William and Harriet.  My sister was in the hospital not expected to live.  Cold, calculating rage burned in me.  Calmly I thanked Mrs. Belknap then kissed her on the cheek.  I walked slowly away from the house until I was out of sight then I disappeared.  Invisibly I flew to the hospital and using my desolidification  searched the building.  I found Laura in the Intensive Care Unit.  She looked dead when I materialized next to her bed.  I covered her hand with mine and felt her heartbeat faltering."
     "Desperation taught me a new ability, regeneration.  My strength flowed out of my hand into hers.  The monitors must have changed and alerted the nurses.  Two rushed in and seeing me, demanded that I leave.  I ignored them.  One ran out for a doctor and security.  The other tried to pull me away.  She might as well have tried to move the building.  More and more of my strength ran into Laura.  I could feel her healing.  A doctor came in and babbled nonsense, I let it wash over me   Orderlies arrived and took hold of me.  With my free hand I pushed one away, he slammed into the wall and slumped to the floor unconscious.  The other orderly and the doctor backed off.  For five minutes I poured myself into healing Laura.  Then she woke."
     "Looking up at me she burst into tears.  I lifted her into my arms and walked out of the hospital.  People chased us, made demands and pleaded.  I ignored them.  Outside the building I simply stepped into the air and flew away.  South I headed, to Los Angeles.  We bought a small house near Venice Beach, paid for by insurance from our adopted parents.  Laura went back to school and I entered UCLA, taking up Electrical Engineering.  By day I went to school, cooked for Laura, all the normal things of life.  But . . . at night, I donned a mask and hunted reptiles.  For months I used my powers to destroy one Viper plot after another.  Their bases were ferreted out by an invisible ghost that passed through walls.  I don't know if I killed any, I never cared.  Finally my campaign drew the attention of the masters of Viper."
     "The hiss of an arrow in flight was my only warning.  I twisted my body and the shaft buried itself in the wall beside me.  Crouching, I scanned the rooftops across the street.  Nothing.  Sneak attacks always irritated me so I decided to fight fire with fire.  Activating my invisibility I floated slowly up to the top of the building.  There, hiding behind the parapet was a figure in a hooded outfit, bow in hand.  Settling quietly behind him I had no trouble grabbing . . . her!  She shrieked as I pinned her arms to her body.  The bow clattered to the graveled rooftop.  I lifted her easily and stepped forward to the low wall at the edge of the roof.  Stepping up onto the wall I let her feet dangle in open space."
     "She squirmed and I whispered into her hooded ear, ‘Give me a reason not to drop you.'  She froze. ‘You'll never know who hired me.'  She sounded familiar.  I knew that English voice, Marion Locksley!  For the first time I was grateful that I had the foresight to use a mask in my work.  ‘Tell me who and I won't drop you,' I hissed.  She looked down and said, ‘Put me down and I'll tell you.'  I dropped her.  She screamed and her hands came up.  I caught her by the wrist.  ‘Okay, okay, it was Viper!' she shrieked."
     "I lifted her and set her on her feet.  Without a word I removed the visor she wore.  Carefully I studied her face.  She blushed furiously.  Picking up her bow, I gestured for her quiver.  Begrudgingly she handed in over.  With the quiver across my back and her bow in my hand I left her.  She cursed me until I was out of earshot.  UCLA has a marvelous lab.  Within hours I had reverse engineered Marion's arrows and was building improved versions.  Viper discovered a new threat, the ghost had a bow.  I have been Ghost Archer ever since."
     Reining in Buttercup I announced, "Here we are."
     Thistle came to a stop beside me.
     "I have to warn you, every time I enter a world from the Road something odd happens."
     "What do you mean?" she asked.  I smiled slightly.
     "You'll see," I loosened my katana in its sheath.  She tensed expectantly as we stepped into Carse.