Mouvar's Magic

by Piers Anthony

  "Evil. You mean she's evil."

  "And you are good."

  "Oh, I wouldn't want to be like her!" But it was evident that she was flushed with the compliments to her appearance and her nature. "I'm sorry I thought—I know you would never—not with an evil witch—"

  He hesitated. He wasn't certain any longer. Had his niece not appeared when she had, he didn't know what might have happened. He didn't think that he would betray Heln, and yet—

  Yet here was his lovely, attentive, and impressionable niece, and somehow he wanted to— No! How could he even think such a thing?

  "You look sick, Uncle."

  "The, eh, spell." Was he lying? He couldn't have said.

  "Maybe you'd better sit down. Gather your strength."

  "Yes, yes, I'd better."

  He sat down on the bank and Kathy slowly moved over and sat down beside him, close.

  She reached over and trustingly patted his hand. It was almost motherly but awoke thoughts that he didn't the least want to have. Think different! he told himself. Talk about something!

  "Kathy, how did you happen to be here?"

  "Fishing. I found out about the new boat rentals and my rotten little brothers pestered me to take them. Mother said 'Go, get them out of the house!' She was getting back at me. She knew how they'd act."

  "Boys will be boys," he said automatically. As a girl his sister Jon had been the most boisterous boy-child imaginable; he wondered if Kathy knew that. "You didn't drown them, did you?"

  "No, though believe me I felt like it! They simply would not mind me, and I don't know which of them was worse. Teddy threw rocks in the water, Alvin ruined the bait and lunch, Joey wouldn't mind me on anything—"

  "Typical," Kelvin said.

  "Typical brats."

  "Boys just don't mind their sisters. They have to try bossing them and making themselves feel superior."

  "You've got that right, Unc. Mom always said the same thing."

  That's where I heard it, Kelvin thought. He knew that part of it had come to her by way of St. Helens when he was talking about Earth's women's liberation movement to help instill a bit of self-confidence in Heln.

  "Where are the boys?"

  "Back a way. I left them to fish or eat what there was left to eat, or fight or do whatever they wanted. I was going back."

  "Just had to get away from them, eh? Reminds me of the children's suite at that grand hotel at the Benign Witches and Warlocks Convention. The witches and warlocks left their offspring there, as did Heln and I, but ours got into trouble."

  "But yours were telepaths, and it was all that old witch's fault."

  "Yes," he said reminiscently. "Though they should have known better. Of course the twin kings were there too. They all should have known better."

  A flydragon the size of Kathy's hand buzzed in front of Kelvin, reminding him of the giant flydragons those offspring and the kings had encountered in Rottemik. One sign of growing old, he supposed, was this constant remembering.

  "I suppose you should be getting back. To see that they haven't drowned or something. I should walk back with you."

  "Unc, how did you ever get here?"

  He showed her the boots. With their bright sheen they might easily have just been made. The mud and the sand didn't in the least put a mark on them.

  "Uncle Kelvin, I always wanted to see those boots! They're famous."

  He was foolishly flattered, knowing that the merit of the boots was their own, owing nothing to him. Yet there was something about the interest of a pretty girl that dulled this distinction. "You can see them now."

  "Could you? Could you show me?"

  "Certainly. See that tree on the other bank?"

  "Yes."

  "Watch." Kelvin thought he'd like to be standing by the tree under the big branch. He took a step and the river blurred to his eyesight, and then he was standing there under the big tree limb. He miscalculated and struck his head a resounding crack.

  "Ouch!" he said, holding his forehead where the limb had struck. That's what he got for trying to show off! He turned around and waved at his niece across the river. Then he stepped back.

  "Uncle, that's the most incredible thing I ever saw!" she exclaimed, her bosom heaving. "Even when Zady made her face beautiful or turned herself into a bird it was less amazing. Why haven't you been wearing them?"

  Kelvin rubbed the bruise on his brow. "Maybe because they can be dangerous. Maybe because I thought I was keeping them for a purpose."

  "Yes, to fight Zady with. They did a nice job stomping her toe."

  "I didn't think at them to do that," Kelvin said, and the thought bothered him.

  "Well, it worked! Saved me from that spell she was casting. Oh, Uncle, I'm so grateful!"

  "Uh," he said, trying to suppress forbidden thoughts. What was the matter with him? "Shouldn't we get back?"

  "Uncle, I'd like to try those boots. Put them on and step in them. I know they adjust to any foot just as the gauntlets adjust to every hand."

  Kelvin hesitated. He wanted to please her, but distrusted his own motive. "What would you—"

  "I just want to try them," she said, in a wheedling manner that seemed to come naturally to the female species. "Just to the top of that rock."

  Kelvin looked at the great, flat river boulder. It would give her delight, he thought. What was the harm? She was such a nice girl. Let her have her thrill; then they could go home. He pulled off both boots and handed them to her.

  "Thanks, Unc." She slipped off her own thick-soled farming boots and pulled on the Mouvar boots with ease. He could see her wriggling her toes under the soft leather, smiling. "Here I go!"

  She stepped, and the step carried her all the distance. She waved from the rock. "Now I'm going to check on my brothers."

  "No, no, don't! You have to think very carefully, and—"

  Abruptly she had stepped. Her stride took her up, up, over the treetops and, he supposed, to wherever it was she had left the boys.

  That's what he got for his foolishness. He had allowed himself to forget that the girl was a tomboy like his sister of yore, in her mind, and eager for adventure.

  Kelvin stood up, stepped on a stickleburr, danced, tripped over a tree root, and fell on his back. And he had allowed himself to forget that he was a blundering old man!

  He hoped Kathy Jon was less clumsy this morning than he.

  Kathy held the thought of the spot where the boys had been searching for bait. In no more time than it took to take a normal stride she was putting her foot down precisely where she had visualized. There was no perceptible jar to her foot and ankle. She had taken one step and moved far upstream.

  The rocks were the ones the boys had been moving in search of daycrawlers, the big version of the fishing worms. The boat was downhill, tied up to the tree as she had left it. The boys were nowhere in sight. Now where would they go? Possibly they were fishing from the riverbank. That high hill—she could see much from up there.

  She took her second step since leaving her uncle, and the scenery changed. She stood on a rock outcropping high above the river bend. She looked down, dizzy, and searched the banks. There they were! But who was that with them?

  Two more steps and she was on the hillside behind them. Quickly she darted around a tree and then looked down at them. She had to slip closer. There was another tree ahead, behind which she would be concealed and could look out and see. She stepped.

  "Hoo hoo, Alvin!" Teddy's voice, but overly boisterous. "You ain't ever going to get that down!"

  "Will too!" Alvin insisted.

  Kathy frowned in incomprehension. She knew those sandwiches would all have been gone by now, given the natural order of things. She looked between branches and saw her two oldest brothers munching on full-sized roasted chicucks. Both had very red faces and between Alvin's knees was what seemed to be a wine bottle.

  Kathy felt properly shocked. Those little boys, drinking wine! Mom would never allow it. And where was
Joey and that other person she had seen? Maybe she'd better go back to her uncle. Uncle Kelvin was, after all, the hero of the family.

  "Shady, Shady, you can't get me!" Joey sing-sang, running and looking over his shoulder. In a moment a woman in a red gown, far too flimsy to be worn in the woods, emerged from behind another tree. The woman grabbed Joey, lifted him high, twirled him. As she twirled her long red hair flew in a cloud around her face, tickling Joey's nose and ears.

  Kathy gasped. It was Zady, as she had seen her with her Uncle Kelvin. Did she dare challenge her again? Last time she had been lucky, but now she had the boots. What should she do? Go over there and kick the creature? Lob more stones at the witch? Could she be fast enough to avoid Zady's spells?

  "Oh, come, Kathy Jon," the beautiful woman called, spying her. "You can see I'm not hurting anyone. I'm doing no harm."

  Kathy swallowed. "You gave my brothers wine."

  "So? Good for their little stomachs. Besides, with a snap of my fingers I can clear all three of their heads."

  "You said you'd get me. Back there with my uncle."

  "And I will, but in my own wicked time. Don't wish that my revenge be hurried—you won't like it when it arrives."

  Such candor was unsettling! "But you plan no immediate harm?"

  "No."

  "I can get my uncle."

  "Do that. I haven't given up on him."

  Kathy took a step. She was back with Kelvin. Kelvin was massaging a foot, and she suspected he had been saying things he wouldn't have wanted her to hear.

  "Uncle Kelvin, she's with them. The witch. Zady. She's with my brothers."

  Kelvin looked startled. "What's she doing?"

  "She fed them. She gave them wine."

  "I don't know that I like that. Boys their age shouldn't have wine." He shrugged. "Still—"

  "Uncle Kelvin!" she exclaimed, shocked.

  "She's not hurting them, is she?"

  "No, but she might. Get moving! You're a hero, for gods' sake!"

  "Don't swear, Kathy. Give me the boots."

  "I want to go with you. I want you to carry me."

  "I will. The boots."

  Kathy took them off and handed them to him. He put them on and stood up as she put her feet back into her own boots. They seemed much less satisfactory than they had before she tried the magic ones.

  "You want to play piggyback?" He bent over.

  She climbed aboard his back, grasping his shoulders, her thighs clasping his middle. She realized that she was no longer a child; this would now be improper, were it not for special circumstances.

  "Uh, Kathy, where do I go?"

  "It's not really far. There's this big tree where the boat is tied and—"

  Kelvin stepped across the river, carrying her. He had picked a spot not out of his line of sight. Immediately he stepped again, further back and on the side of the river where she had found him. Four more steps and they were by the boat and then by the boys and the now—only temporarily, Kathy thought—beautiful Zady.

  Kelvin looked and looked at Zady's dress as Kathy slid from his back. He seemed under her spell again. Maybe she should have left him back there or not gone for him at all. Unfortunately he still had the boots, and all she had, should a fight develop, was the weapon her mother had used to help destroy Zoanna. Kathy knew that the sling was a tool and a weapon in their hands, but facing Zady she would rather have had a crossbow or a sword.

  "Hello, Kelvin," Zady said. Her barely covered breasts bounced as she took a step and turned toward him.

  Kelvin actually blushed. He seemed more like one of the boys than her middle-aged uncle. Truly, it must be a love spell the witch had cast. Maybe it made him react to any young woman. After all, he had even kissed her, Kathy. A generalized spell would account for the trouble he had gotten into after the long-awaited wedding declarations at the twin palaces.

  "Zady, my niece told me where you'd gone. I'm sorry she was so rude to you back there."

  Rude! What about Zady? What about the way they had been acting? She'd saved the old fool, that was what she had done! Now she was coming to understand what was meant by love being blind.

  "Unwise children eventually get punished," Zady said. Her mouth was that of a temptress, her voice soft and caressing. She might have been speaking of being unclothed with Kathy's uncle. Maybe she was, on another level.

  "Zady!" Joey piped. "I thought you said your name's Shady."

  "A mild deception, little lad."

  "But—"

  Long white fingers made a motion. Joey opened his mouth, looked surprised, and grasped his throat. Clearly the boy could now not speak.

  Kelvin took no notice. His eyes were locked with the eyes of the temptress, and not with the appearance of hate.

  "It was nice of you to feed them, Zady. Boys need nourishment."

  "As do girls. Not all of one kind."

  Kelvin stubbed his toe on the ground. He acted just like Will Shranks, the dumbest boy in school—the one always trying to look up some girl's dress. That was one reason Kathy preferred shorts or boys' pantaloons. Now Kelvin was wilting like a summer weed, ready to fall into Zady's arms.

  Kathy wondered about her best course. The boots had helped before, but this time the witch might be aware that he wore them and be prepared to counter. A rock in the water and one to the head had worked before; could they again? Kathy tried easing her sling down from her shoulder and into her hand. Throwing stone. Throwing stone. She at least needed ammunition.

  "What are you looking for there on the ground, as if I don't know?" the witch asked her. Her voice was soft, but there was a hint of old-crone meanness in it.

  Kathy desisted. If that smooth arm came up to make a magical sign, she'd swat it with the sling. A futile gesture it might be, but maybe it would delay the witch and snap Kelvin to his senses.

  "Oh, now, Kathy," Kelvin said, "you're not going to start that again!"

  "I'm not going to start anything, Uncle," she said with an innocence every bit as feigned as that of the witch. "It's already started."

  "You mean the past. But she's changed. Can't you see that?"

  "You've changed, Uncle. You're under the same spell that Zoanna cast on Grandpa. You're being just as big a fool now as he was back then."

  "Don't," Zady said, making it a hiss, "take Zoanna's name in vain! She was the rightful ruler of Rud before this upstart—"

  Kelvin's expression changed. It was as though icy cold water had been thrown on him. Was he thinking now about being tormented atop that cliff? In a mental flash was he seeing his daughter Merlain, then the age of Joey, walking to what should have been her death by falling?

  "ZADY!" Kelvin cried out. As a madman might he lashed out at her with an open hand. He struck her chest right where the nipples stretched the fabric. Zady went down, falling backwards over Joey. Joey grunted; the boy had been crawling on the ground, searching for something probably imaginary.

  Kathy grabbed Zady's right arm, determined she would make no gestures. It was hard to hold. The witch's strength was that of a strong horse. Kelvin grabbed the left arm as well. The witch's head changed, becoming hideous with its warts and filth.

  "A sword," Kathy heard Kelvin whisper desperately. "Oh Mouvar, do I ever need a sword!"

  CHAPTER 12

  Aborted Plans

  Professor Devale scowled at the scene in the crystal: Zady, with beautiful new body, being held down by Kelvin. To the side of the struggling pair, the young girl held Zady's arm with all her weight and strength. The young boys, well confused with magic-spiced wine, stood with open mouths, unable, even if they had been older, to take sides. Zady's ugly face, now so much like that of a wrinkled snake's, raised on her strong, young neck. The ugly old head struck like a snake, sinking sharp and hideously yellow fangs into Kelvin's hand. Kelvin screamed with pain as blood welled from the hand, but held on.

  "Well, at least he's not wearing those gauntlets!" Professor Devale remarked.

  But
he was wearing the boots. Propelled by necessity, programmed as they were to protect the host, they slammed one of Kelvin's knees into the witch's groin and at the same time punched the other knee hard into her stomach. Zady vomited, having been caught unprepared.

  "Smart, Zady, smart! Let them get the better of you! I knew you were unwise when you tried corrupting them! Nice try, but pitifully performed."

  The young girl was screaming and lashing Zady with a strap. She knelt on Zady's arm and held with her left, meanwhile bringing the sling up and down in a frenzy. Zady rolled her head from side to side, having given up for the time being on biting.

  "An engaging show, but really, magic is supposed to do more than entertain. What have Kelvin and the girl got, anyway? Nothing but those silly boots." However, Devale did note that the young girl was pretty. There was something about beauty when it was innocent that even the most practiced illusion could not match.

  Zady transformed into a serpent and threw Kelvin from side to side as he held on to her. She tried getting past the flailing sling to bite the girl, but the boots did not let her. Something about Kelvin's position changed, starting with his legs, and he was able to just grab the back of the head. The snake opened its mouth, revealing large, dripping fangs. Kelvin must have got a breath that dizzied him, but he pushed the head back, held on, and strained.

  "I didn't know you had it in you, Kelvin. Of all the heroes Mouvar ever picked you have to be the least. But courage—I'll grant you have courage."

  Zady became Zady the beautiful, complete with sensuous lips and a skin that was alabaster white. Her eyes rolled back. Her tongue protruded. Her lips begged, and Devale didn't need to hear in order to know that they also promised. Still Kelvin squeezed and held on.

  "Oh, spare me! Zady, you must know that that pity-me bit won't work, even on Kelvin. He's wrestled you before."

  Zady transformed again. Now she was the big, ugly bird that could either fight or flee effectively. Her beak snapped near his face, but Kelvin held the feathered throat. Her talons tried to rake and geld him, and would have except for the boots. Ever alert, the boots brought his knees down with magical strength that jarred his entire frame; the knees pinned the talons, preventing their reaching their objective. The girl had her weight on the right wing of the big bird, pressing down hard, right arm beating her with the strap. The bird shrieked, trying to use her left wing to beat Kelvin, but his right shoulder and blood-smeared right arm pressed below the wing joint.