CHAPTER 22

Help Me, Devale

The faintest of clicks sounded in the silent room, and the beautiful young woman with the old and warty face stood before Professor Devale's desk with her head down. Not now was Zady the arrogant witch she had been. Now she was properly repentant and humble.

Devale smirked. He knew this last defeat would break her. He knew what she wanted.

"Professor Devale, Master, your eager but failing student has again returned."

"I see that, Zady. Do something about your head."

The young arm flipped an invisible fabric and the head disappeared from the neck up. Standing before him was a usable body without any unfortunate accessory.

"Hmmm, that might be interesting, but bring back the red hair and green eyes."

Brilliant red hair, an exact copy of Zady's long-ago destroyed niece's, floated above the neck.

Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

"The entire head, Zady."

Now the head matched the rest of the body in seamless, enticing allure. A whole woman now, and wanton beauty deserving the word witch. She stood there silently, awaiting whatever humiliation he should choose to inflict.

"You may speak, Zady."

"I did my worst. The dragon still has the opal but doesn't know friend from foe. I intended that it destroy Helbah and the Roundear in big, unfriendly bites."

"But that too failed, didn't it, Zady? Just like your gold-bought fighters and your former classmates."

"I tried."

"Of course you tried. But that didn't do it, did it?"

"No. Blind luck enabled them to win the battle, but not the war."

"Blind luck favors the most intelligent and forceful plan of action. Your bumbling mishmash didn't deserve to succeed, if it depended on luck. Your course of action should have been so sure that victory was inevitable." Oh, it was pleasant teasing her with a lecture on elementary strategy!

"Surely true," she agreed tightly.

"What will you do now—hide?"

"I haven't surrendered yet."

Devale let his eyebrows climb toward his horns. He was getting it out of her a little at a time, savoring his revenge. She had been sassy to him, and now she would suffer. "What, then, is your plan?"

"I need your help, Professor. I can't handle it alone."

"But you weren't alone. You had your army and your underlings."

"Not enough. You have to help me."

"But I have helped you. I have given you gold. Will more gold enable you to meet your ends?" He put just the right degree of uninnocent perplexity into his voice.

"I want to make an example. Your powers are much greater than any witch's or warlock's. You can do what I never could."

"Yes?" It was wonderful when he could reap compliments without even fishing for them.

"I'll demand surrender of the Alliance. To prove that they dare not resist me I will make an example. I will take something from their world that has been there for a long time. The entire Alliance must be impressed."

"You can do that, Zady?"

Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

"I know that you can. Let the Alliance think that it was I. Will you do it, Professor?"

"I prefer the appellation Great One rather than Professor. It better defines our positions."

She didn't even blink. "Will you, Great One? A mountain or a city? Why not a city?"

"Why not a kingdom?" he asked grandly. "A kingdom from outside the Alliance? That should impress them for a start."

"A kingdom from outside the Alliance? There's only Rotternik and Throod."

"Which will it be, Zady? Which of those two do you wish removed forever from the frame?"

Zady's eyes glowed as she looked up at him. "Oh, Great One, if you will do that I will be so grateful—"

"Of course you will. Which?"

"Rotternik should have fought on my side, but they fought with the Alliance. Helbah got to them after my visit."

"Then it's Rotternik?"

"No. Throod failed me with its arms and its armies. Can Throod be destroyed?"

"Throod can vanish completely, never having been."

"You can do that? You can take it from the frame?"

"You doubt my power, Witch?" He was showing off, of course, but he indulged himself. The fact was that she had come up with a notion that would truly impress the folk of the frames, and so he would follow up on it. For his own aggrandizement rather than hers. Everyone would know the true power behind the magic.

"Oh, no, Great One! No!"

"I will wish to watch the reactions of your enemies as you work at destroying them. I may add embellishments and assist with refined torments. You will need a large communication crystal that will give you access to my wisdom and accord me the pleasure of viewing. I will stay here, in this office, but my eyes will watch and my senses be gratified."

"Oh, Great One! Oh, Great One!" The witch leaped and clapped her hands in anticipated joy. How eager she was to promote his notoriety! "We will destroy the roundears and the lizard that holds the opal, and everyone and everything that they hold dear! We will destroy Helbah and her ilk and bar them forever from what will then be our frame! We will succeed as only you and I can!"

"We will, Zady. Gradually, artistically, as befits my kind and yours."

"Of course. Oh, Professor, the pleasure of it!"

"It's Great One. And speaking of pleasure—" He made a gesture that converted his desk to a bed.

Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

"Time for mine."

"How do you want me, Great One?"

Pitifully subservient and foolishly grateful, as she was now. The attitude was more important than the form. But naturally he did not tell her that, because she could pretend attitude as readily as form, and he preferred at least a bit of reality along with the pretense.

"The present form will be satisfactory." He made a smoke and changed his own form to that of a large snake. Moving quickly, he struck and buried his long fangs in her left breast.

She screamed delightfully, slapping him, flailing his body with her frenzied jerks.

The venom he had injected was taking immediate effect. He released her nipple from his snake mouth, dropped onto the bed, and became a large, goatish creature reeking of lust.

"Do your damnedest," Zady gasped. She crawled onto the bed beside him, shaking from head to toe.

The left nipple had turned black and the blackness was creeping into her breast. She could have concealed it with illusion, but had the wit to realize that he didn't want that.

Pleased with the evidence of his potency, Devale bit her right breast, butted her in the stomach, and hurt her wherever he could with quick blows of his front hooves.

After he had broken several of her bones he mounted her, not neglecting to break her back. His passion pounded at its cruel and demanding height.

Not lightly did he take a witch's invitation to do his damnedest. Before he healed her she would learn exactly what his damnedest really meant.

The dark-visored warlock, though a stranger, stepped boldly into the Cryptgreen Drugs and Potions Shop. Just as though he belonged here he went right to the shelves holding antidotes and spell reversers.

He searched there, shaking his head from time to time.

"You wish a certain product?" an apothecary with bald head and pallid complexion inquired. "Name it and we will order it."

"Dandlecat fluff."

The apothecary appeared to wilt. "Honored warlock, that is extremely rare!"

"I know. It seems I was misinformed."

"Perhaps—a shop specializing in—"

"Yes?"

"I hate to suggest it, but one of the shops serving benign clientele."

The stranger exited, as though properly offended.

Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

On his way to the transporter station Whitestone had to reflect again on the advice he had been given:

"Try the shops serving malignants, if you dare. No shop serving benigns has the fluff or can obtain it."

It had been an exhausting and fruitless search.

The pharmacist at the Rexmall stared in disbelief at the oddly dressed person who had negotiated the soda and lunch counters, passed by the aisles of stationery and toys, and come right to the back. Orange hair and a zoot suit right out of the 1940s: this fellow was weird!

The customer reached into a pocket, brought out a coin, and put it on the counter. The pharmacist examined what was surely a gold coin, without touching it.

"What can I do for you, sir?"

"I have more of these coins. You may have what I want under a trade name. It's an herb that has been known to grow naturally. What I want is dandlecat fluff. It has been used successfully in restoring certain conditions of damaged sight."

The pharmacist knew a nut when he saw one. He knew a gold Krugerrand as well, he thought, though he had never actually been shown one. If he could have sold the mental case something he would gladly have accepted the South African coin. Alas, he would need a prescription to sell the head case something that might benefit him. Dandlecat fluff indeed! He might as well have asked for unicorn horn.

"Sorry," the pharmacist said.

The customer left, buying nothing and inspecting nothing on the way through the holiday shoppers. If he had been dressed as Santa Claus it might have made a little sense. Maybe he was a Hollywood actor on a television stunt show? Possibly the pharmacist should have been more cagey and gone along with the stunt.

Mourning the loss of a possible free trip to Hawaii or some other bounty, the pharmacist busied himself filing prescriptions for more normal customers. Someday, he thought disgustedly to himself, there would come a time when he'd have his wits about him.

After leaving the drug shop, Zudini simply walked. "If they don't have it there they won't have it anywhere," he had been told by the man he had asked. Zudini believed the man, though the gentleman had acted strangely about the suit he had on. Waste a lot of effort on an authentic disguise and that was what happened!

He was walking in a residential district. The sun was beating down on him a bit too warmly. Strange white houses were bordering the street, each with a square of green grass decorated attractively with bright yellow flowers. Zudini hardly noticed, though later he was to regret not picking a bouquet.

"What a waste!" he cried aloud, ignoring a blue-uniformed man with a bag on his back, and a child on some sort of wheeled board. "My greatest escape ever! To the strangest world across the Flaw! Without the fluff they'll never believe it happened! Without a new pinch of opal powder I'll never be able to repeat! I've lost an entry in The Guleless Book of Magical Records. What an incredible, humiliating sacrifice!"

Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

Horace saw his father stepping down in his boots before the cave. He had a dish of chopped meat, which was strange because before Kelvin had brought the meat in a bucket.

Horace wriggled close, allowed Kelvin's hand to pat his head, and savored the rotten aroma. Black and maggoty, just the way he liked meat best. He was about to take a bite when he wondered why Kelvin hadn't thought to him the way he had before.

Horace knew that something wasn't right. He sniffed at the dish appreciatively, and moved his nostrils until they touched the dish-holder's hand.

His nose wrinkled to the witch's smell, and instantly he remembered that his father did not look like himself these days. If this were really he, he would appear to be a warlock or a soldier.

"WHOOF!" Horace said, and snapped at the hand, causing it to drop the dish. The dish shattered, producing a dark-green stain that smoked and ate into the solid rock.

Now he was certain! But the witch had become a grotesque bird, and the bird had started flying from the cave even as the dish dropped. He leaped after her, determined to chase her all the way to the underground river and beyond. His jaws clicked and she was further ahead, and then he was under her and she was flapping her wings wildly. He followed with opal-hops, landing on trees, houses, barns, in fields, on roads, anywhere that kept her in sight.

He opaled above and tried catching her. She wriggled out from under. Below was a dung-uniformed soldier aiming a bow—a big, rough fellow hardly worth a good bite. Ignoring the puny danger of the arrow, he put down his talons and prepared to drop all the way to the ground to rip off the man's face.

NO, HORACE! NO!

Merlain's thought? Or a trick?

That's our brother, Horace! Our brother Charles!

He couldn't chance it. He twisted in midair and opaled into some bushes, landing hard. Overhead the bird was an ugly speck.

Oh, Horace! Go home to the cave! She'll trick you if you don't. Helbah was watching—she knows the bird is Zady. She won't let her get to you again. Go!

Grab bird! Tear out feathers! Pull apart!

That won't destroy her, Horace. Not unless somebody is there to burn up the parts.

Chew off head, squeeze and tear body, scatter feathers. Won't come back.

Helbah says she could, given time. Her astral self would survive and find a way. That's why she has to be burned.

You and Charles come with me. You burn her.

Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

We would like to, but—

Come! Never before had he tried commanding her. Before he had always done what she wanted.

An enemy soldier stepped from the bushes. Horace shot out his tongue, tested the air for the scent.

It's me, Horace. Merlain. See how hard it is to tell?

Climb on my back.

She did, taking hold of his wings. Now, Horace, where is she?

He searched the sky. There were better eyes than those of a dragon, but he could still see better than a mere human person could. He saw birds, many birds. He did not see one particular bird.

Oh, Horace, she's gotten away!

Horace hung his head. He had been so busy thinking to her and she to him that the prey had escaped.

Doubtless Zady had landed and resumed her human form, in which case she would again be dangerous.

"Whhhhhooooffff," Horace cried softly. "Whhhhhhoooooffff!"

I know, Horace, but you must wait your chance. Daddy or I or someone needs to be there so that if you destroy her she won't be coming back.

The thick-muscled soldier scratched behind Horace's ears as Merlain knew he liked. It was comforting, knowing that the hand was really hers.

And beware of anyone coming near you. Anyone at all.

Merlain, come to cave with me. Stay with me.

I can't. I'm married now, and— The soldier's hand stretched down and wiped up a drop of moisture.

Why, Horace, you're crying! Oh, very well! I'll come stay with you for as long as I can.

Horace opaled them. But once back at the cave, eyeing the ugly soldier, he knew he might awake suddenly from sleep and do her harm. That must not happen.

He thought to her about it, and by and by he returned her where he had found her. Then, a sadder and no wiser dragon, he returned alone to his lonesome cave.

St. Helens moved a bishop, watching John's face. His old commander's mind wasn't on the game. He'd better help him talk it out and then maybe he'd remember how to concentrate.

"Two wines," St. Helens ordered.

The wines were brought by Nellie, who was busy with other orders from other men still wearing uniforms; she patted his hand quickly but didn't stay to chat. John took his glass—a new affectation Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

replacing mugs and jugs in the wine and chess houses—and gulped it in one quick draft. No leisurely savoring or commenting on the bouquet.

"Commander, you think Zady's coming back? I'd thought we had her whipped."

"Never underestimate a witch—especially her."

"Ummm, you're right there, Commander. I learned that from the old days. Specifically from old Melbah in what was then the kingdom of Aratex. You just can't believe their power sometimes."

"I was thinking she might come back strong. Maybe with an army from another frame. Maybe she'll have something new and horrible that none of us will know how to deal with."

"Like an atomic weapon?" The thought of those still gave him nightmares. In the world where he and the commander had been born, atomic weapons had been in a sense an all-destroying magic; to a majority of people it probably made as much sense.

"Hardly an atomic weapon, you Irish tale-spinner. But I was thinking maybe something could be the equivalent and be magic. Helbah sounded so pessimistic last time I saw her. She didn't say what she feared, and I'm not sure she knows."

"Hmm, I think Zady's done, Commander. What she did to your grandson was her last play. At least I'm hoping that was her last."

"I just wonder what kind of gesture she could make." John made circles on the tabletop with the bottom of his wine glass. "If she has an atomic equivalent she could destroy a city as an example—the way the United States destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I dreamt about Zady having the bomb, crazy as that sounds."

"Don't even think it, Commander. She has to follow the rules of magic, whatever they are. I thought back in Aratex I was beginning to understand magic. Old Melbah commanded earth, air, fire, and water, and that sort of made a little sense. Elemental magic. In her hands as powerful as bombs."

"I remember. I thought the same way then. But of course that wasn't the limit of magic. It may have been Melbah's, but it wasn't Zady's. I've no idea how her spells work. You've any ideas?"

St. Helens had to wonder if the commander really expected him to answer. It was good that he was at least talking.

"I've been pondering," John continued. "Old Zatanas used sympathetic magic and that had a logic. The part is equal to the whole; the likeness to the object. As when he used lizards to control the movements of dragons—or tried to."

"Wasn't that something, though! But wasn't there more?"

"Yes. Made a laser beam bend once; I've no idea how."

"Likewise these phantoms and the shape-changing and making people big or small like something in a child's story book. Most of these effects have only temporary duration, but then so does a speeding bullet or the fissioning of an atom."

Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

"Tough, ain't it? I stopped trying to figure it out back in Aratex. Only thing I know is that Zady ain't got no bomb, normal or atomic."

"And that," said the commander, "is the one truth about warfare here that I actually like!"