“Magik alone isn’t going to dislodge that,” I said. “Help me keep the force on it. I think I can get it out of there.”
After long training with Aahz and on my own, I wasn’t bad at doing two things at once. Rebuilding the shell with what power I had left, I started to climb up the tumble of rocks.
“No, Skeeve, don’t go!” Dorinda shouted.
“What are you doing?” Aahz called to me.
“I’m going to pull it loose!” I called back.
“Wait a minute,” Aahz said. “What does that thing do?”
“It negates magik,” Dorinda’s voice echoed behind me. “It removes spells, and turns good things bad.”
“Hold on there, partner!” Aahz shouted.
“What? Why?” I asked. I was nearly up to the Pyx by that time. It gave off heat like an entire tree burning in a fireplace. I reached out for it, wrapping my hand in a thread of magik to protect it.
In a moment, Aahz had scrambled up beside me. He grabbed me by the belt and heaved me away. I tumbled down the slope and landed in a heap on the cavern floor. I jumped up and started up again.
“Don’t you come up here!” Aahz snarled. “Just keep it contained!”
I started after him. This time Haroon grabbed me by my collar. Gleep took my ankle in his mouth and held on.
“Let me go!” I cried.
“No, friend,” the Canidian said, calmly. “Do what Aahz says.”
So I did. Dorinda held my hand. We concentrated on reinforcing the spell around the cup.
Aahz yanked at the Nix Pyx. It seemed to be stuck. He put one foot on the rock beside the gleaming purple globe and pushed. It loosened very slightly, then snicked back into place. Aahz swore colorfully.
“I can help!” I said.
“You come up here and I’ll tear your head off!” Aahz bellowed. “Ow! Put another layer on the spell!”
I pictured a third layer of the orb surrounding the brilliant gold cup. Aahz put one foot on the rock beside the cup, put both arms around the globe, and heaved.
POP!
Like a cork in a bottle of effervescent wine, the orb flew out of its socket. Aahz went tumbling down the slope. Rocks, loosened by the explosion of power, tumbled down after him. Shards of stone rained from the ceiling. I threw my arms around Dorinda’s head and face to shield her. When the rain of stones and sand stopped, I ran to Aahz.
“Are you all right?” I asked, helping him up.
Aahz shook me off. He rose to his feet and brushed himself off.
“Piece of cake.”
“Cake?” I asked, looking around in puzzlement. “Where is there cake?”
Aahz groaned. I don’t think it had anything to do with his fall.
Dorinda put out a hand for the purple orb.
“Don’t touch it!” Aahz bellowed at Dorinda.
“What?” she asked. She extended a couple of fingers. The big globe of violet light floated over and hovered beside her elbow. “It’s not stuck any longer. I can levitate it like anything else. Oh!” She turned, lifting her chin as though a breeze was blowing against her face. “Feel that!”
I certainly could.
With the Nix Pyx removed from its path, the white force line was no longer blocked. It ran over us like an undammed river. The magik that had been lacking since our arrival was free. I filled up my internal stores in less time than it took to breathe. I let it wash around me. It felt like a great hot bath and the best liquor I had ever drunk. Everything around me glowed like molten gold. Eventually the crest passed and the force line smoothed out. I waded in it waist high. It was an amazing sensation. I had never touched a force line directly before. The two of us laughed, splashing one another with pure magik. I turned to Aahz. He had an odd expression on his face.
“Are you all right?” I asked Aahz.
“I’m fine,” he said.
“Why wouldn’t you let me help you?”
“Because touching the Nix Pyx would have taken your powers away,” Aahz said. “I don’t have any at the minute, so it’s no big deal.”
Nurgin escorted Markie back to us.
“Be careful, Miss Markie.”
“I’m all right!” she said. She sported a huge bruise on one cheek, but she seemed otherwise intact. “I missed all the fun.” She looked up at Aahz with grudging admiration.
“Nice job, Aahz.”
“Don’t mention it, squirt.”
I was horrified.
“But, Aahz! How can we get your magik back now?”
Aahz waved a hand dismissively. “I figure the effect will wear off one day, just like the joke powder Garkin used on me. I’ve got plenty of time. C’mon. Get the Loving Cup. I want to get back to Deva.”
“Right!” I said. I was still amazed and humbled by the sacrifice he had made for me, but he might still tear my head off if I made a fuss about it. His implication was clear: He had plenty of time left, but I was still only a Klahd, with a Klahdish life span. I turned to Dorinda. “Let’s collect the cups! We can both claim the find from Looie!”
“That will be a pleasure,” she said. She ordered the floating orb with the Nix Pyx, now the only source of light in the cavern, to accompany us. We climbed up the rugged slope.
The socket of solid stone where the Nix Pyx had been ensconced was still there, albeit shattered and blackened, but the cups that Servis had been offering it were no longer on the ground below it.
“Where did they go?” I asked. “Did he accidentally invoke all of them?” I groaned as I thought about having to trace the Loving Cup across the dimensions.
“They have got to be here somewhere!” Dorinda said, in alarm. She turned up the intensity on the violet globe. In its lilac shadows, we both started pushing aside stones. None of the Loving Cups were under them. Haroon waddled his way up to our side.
“If you’ll just allow me, missy,” Haroon said. He sniffed my hands and Dorinda’s, then put his nose to the ground.
“Haroooooooon!” he howled, his voice echoing off what was left of the stalactites on the ceiling.
He ran across the stone floor through piles of debris that had been scattered by the explosion when Aahz pulled the Nix Pyx free. He stopped at a small heap of pebbles and nosed them aside. Dorinda sent the orb floating to hover over his head. The warm glow picked up the sheen of gold.
“There’s one of them,” I said. I put the first cup into her hands, then went to help Haroon dig.
There was nothing in the rest of that heap. I started pushing nearby stones aside.
“Where are they?” I asked, becoming more desperate by the moment.
“Ain’t nothin’ there, son. I’d’a smelled it.”
“But where are the others?” I asked.
“Back there,” Haroon said, nodding his big head toward the cup in Dorinda’s arms. “Seems to me when we released your big magikal line there, it undid the spell that split yer Loving Cup into six pieces.”
“Tough luck,” Markie said, sympathetically. She plucked the cup out of Dorinda’s hands. “I’m taking this back to Bunny.”
“Now, wait a minute!” I said. “What about Dorinda?”
Markie fixed me with a stare that said I ought to know better. I had to choose between one of my friends for whom I felt deep responsibility and a girl I had just met. A girl who, as much as I liked her and as helpful as she had just been to us, had tried to have me killed. I hung my head.
“Sorry,” I said to Dorinda.
“I understand,” she said. She shrugged in resignation. “We’ll make ends meet some other way.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
“I did it, but the other guy got all the credit.”
—GOLLUM
The trek back to the resort took a fraction of the time that the trek out had. So much power flowed around us in the restored
force line that we coasted in it, floated in it, and finally flew. Like Markie, I lay on the air and let the magik push me along. Dorinda and I held hands and laughed together like little children. Nurgin helped Servis spruce himself up. By the time we reached the main street, the forlorn Winslovak was restored to his previous dapper appearance.
News of our success had arrived much faster than we had, with the power flowing from the restored force line. Bunting and banners had been strung between the rows of buildings. The street was filled with carnival rides, balloons, live unicorns with rainbow-colored coats, and row after row of tables filled with food and drink. Every single visitor and employee crowded the pavement, dancing, eating, drinking, and making merry.
When they saw us approaching, they all began to cheer. A brass band, at least a hundred horns and three bass drums strong, marched out to meet us. I tried to compose a few words of appreciation in case they asked us for a speech.
The crowd opened a path, and the remaining seven members of the council emerged. They strode up to us. I straightened up and gestured theatrically to Markie, who was holding the Loving Cup in her arms. But they weren’t interested in that.
“Servis!” they cried, embracing him one at a time. “Good old Servis! We celebrate good Servis!”
Nurgin threw an arm over his shoulder and led him forward.
“He is everything Winslow stands for! He has proven that he will go to any length to make our beloved visitors welcome!”
One held up his hands for silence.
“Let this celebration in his honor commence! All hail good Servis!”
The band struck up a lively march. Everybody surrounded the surprised Winslovak to shake his hand or pound him on the back. He wore an expression of dazed delight on his face.
“But . . . ?” I began. “But what about us?”
Aahz came and nudged me in the ribs.
“Forget public acclaim,” he said. “We’ll get a golden thank-you from Looie in a minute. In the meantime, I could really use a drink.”
A pretty Winslovak appeared out of the air, bearing a silver bucket with a tiny umbrella balanced on the rim. Aahz accepted the cocktail and chucked her under the chin.
“I really need one of these waitresses in the office,” he said. “It’s faster than mixing my own drinks.”
* * *
Bunny and Looie weren’t in our rooms in the Round Castle, and the Rusty Hinge stood deserted.
“They are probably out celebrating with everyone else,” Aahz said, accepting another pail of good cheer from a passing waiter. A line of Deveels hopped past us, laughing uproariously. “We’ll find them when all the whoopee-making dies down. I plan to party my socks off. Anyone want to join me?”
“I’m in,” Markie said, sipping from a tall glass of bright green foam. She floated on her back, the Loving Cup balanced on her stomach. “I can dance anybody in the house off their feet.”
“I’ll take a piece of that,” Haroon said. “I’ll sniff ya out the best party spots, believe me!”
“Gleep!” said my dragon.
I turned to Dorinda.
“That sounds really nice. Would you like to, er, dance? I mean, with me?”
She glanced at her feet, then back up at me through her long eyelashes.
“Well, I suppose. If you really want to.”
Was I being too forward? I realized I probably didn’t look too appealing, covered as I was with mud and dust from our travels. But, as Aahz sometimes told me, if you didn’t ask, you didn’t get.
“Yes,” I said. “I’d really enjoy it if you would.”
Dorinda smiled, and I felt as if my knees had just melted.
“All right, then. I’d love to.”
“Great!” I said.
“Gleep!”
Gleep put his head into my ribs and shoved me away from her. I stumbled into a nearby bench, interrupting a kissing couple.
“Uh, sorry!” I said, as they glanced up in surprise. I righted myself with the help of a handy bit of magik. Gleep pushed his face into mine. His breath made me gag. I swallowed my gorge.
“Don’t be jealous,” I said, pushing his face away. “It’s just a dance. It’s not like we’re dating or anything. Exactly.”
“Eyes . . . on back,” my dragon whispered.
I froze.
I realized I sensed that scrutiny, too. I hadn’t felt it since we had last been in the main part of the resort. I looked around to see if I could spot where the sensation was coming from.
“What’s the matter?” Aahz asked.
“We’re being watched,” I said, looking around. None of the happy passersby paid attention to us. Where was it coming from?
“Can’t smell anythin’ new,” Haroon said.
“I just feel as if something has its eyes on us,” I said.
“Nothing new there,” Markie said. “They’re always watching you here.”
“This is different,” I said, trying to pin down the sensation. “It’s not welcoming or helpful. Far from it. It’s . . .”
BAMF!
“Annoyed? Malign? Disgusted? Were those the words you were looking for?”
A tall, gaunt man who resembled my Skeeve the Magnificent disguise appeared before us. His black cloak swirled around him. Dorinda gasped.
“Meeger!”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
“Nothing is more important than good manners.”
—E. POST
The hollow-cheeked magician fixed her with a gaze that was a cross between a leer and a baleful stare.
“You undid my magik, Dorinda,” he said. “How close I was to getting what I wanted from the council—and you took my cup out of the force line!” He pointed at the Nix Pyx, floating beside Dorinda. It bobbed behind her as if taking shelter from his gaze. “Return my property!”
“Not a chance,” she said. Crackling energy formed in her palm. It flowed over her shoulder to the golden chalice and surrounded it with magikal barbed wire. “It goes back to Zaf with me. You fooled our treasurer. I told him that the last thing that ought to be sold was the Nix Pyx, especially to you. I don’t know what kind of spell you put on him, but it won’t work again, you selfish maniac!”
Meeger planted an innocent hand on his chest.
“Selfish! You should be thanking me for my generosity! How can you call me selfish when I left your treasurer with enough gold to pay the bills for the next three months?”
“Barely enough for that! And you stole the Loving Cup from the council’s strongroom here in Winslow so I couldn’t bring it back to the duke! I have spent weeks looking for it when I could have been home looking after the kingdom!”
“I left the Loving Cup for you in my hotel room,” Meeger said, with a mean smile. “For a moment or so, anyhow. Why didn’t you end up in Maire?”
I gawked at him. Dorinda was innocent! I knew it! That trap had been meant for her, not us.
“We took your little excursion,” I said, nonchalantly, polishing my fingernails on my jerkin, “but M.Y.T.H., Inc., is stronger than you think. Maire was just an . . . inconvenience.”
Meeger’s narrow brows rose up his forehead.
“An inconvenience? You must be joking.”
“How could I be joking?” I asked. “We’re here, no pieces missing. Wince has a pretty good act, doesn’t he? Maybe you ought to go and see him for yourself!”
I had been gathering up energy until I was brimful with white magik. Picturing Wince’s stage set, I threw everything I had at Meeger. Maybe I couldn’t send him to Maire, but it ought to bounce him out of Winslow.
The power knocked him backward, but he didn’t disappear. Instead, three Trollops sharing an earthenware bottle of liquor with a Deveel vanished off the street. I gasped at him. His eyes narrowed.
“Do you think I came here naked and bli
nd, Klahd? I am protected by my art!” Meeger taunted me. He grew four feet higher so he loomed over me like a nightmare. “If you hurry, maybe you can save those innocent people from torture. Or are you going to stand there like the ignorant fool you are?”
I was horrified. He had set another trap, and I had blundered into it.
“Who says I care about what happens to them?” I asked, though inwardly I was frantic. “I’m here to support Dorinda.”
“Why do you care about this pathetic prestidigitator?” Meeger countered. “It’s pointless to aid such an inept magician who should never have left her father’s shop. She ought to be back in Zaf making the sun shine on the king’s birthday!” He turned to her. “Return my property! If you won’t, I will appeal to the Council of Wizards to have your license revoked!”
Dorinda set her jaw.
“Go home, Meeger,” she said. “I’ll bring countercharges that you’ve been blackmailing Winslow.”
He pursed his lips.
“Tut-tut, my child, they can’t trace anything back to me! You’re the only one who thinks I am involved. And all because of a single artifact that I don’t even possess any longer.” He spread his hands out. “You must be responsible for the whole thing! Your association with the council has been one long con!”
Dorinda gasped at him. I took her hand and squeezed it.
“It’s a bluff,” I said. “He has nothing. We hold all the cards now. Get lost, Meeger. You’re in the wrong place. Winslow’s for happy people. Got any more cheesy tricks up your sleeve before I bury you in a bog?”
“Nothing special,” Meeger said, interlacing his long fingers together and twisting his joined hands outward in a loud CRACK! “But I’ve always been partial to this!”
Hot orange fire lanced out from his fingertips. I jumped back to avoid the streak of flame, but it doubled around and came at me from behind. Gleep shoved me out of the way and opened his mouth. He swallowed the fire like a cat drinking a stream of milk squirted out of a cow’s teat.
“Gleep!” he exclaimed.
Meeger snarled. He raked me with more fireballs. Gleep ran back and forth, happily leaping onto the streams as if he were chasing string. Not one of them came close to hitting me.
Robert Asprin's Myth-Fits Page 26