Myth-Chief

SIX

Late that night, we sneaked down into the bedroom by means of a trapdoor in the floor.

"Why didn't we use this before?" I asked Marmel, as I let myself down slowly with a levitation spell.

"No time," he said, following me.

I couldn't argue with that. Time is what we had the least of. If I knew Narwickius, he would have his hoods there by sunrise.

I had plenty of force lines near the house to draw from. With my eyes closed I could see a spiky red line that arced overhead about ten yards to the east, and a wide blue band that snaked beneath the entire street in front of the house. Within a block, I could draw from a thin green line and a faint but powerful gold line as well. Tapping into both of the close lines, I recharged my personal batteries and gathered up a good supply of magik for immediate use. I worked up a silence illusion to cover the noise of our search. To make sure no one could surprise us, I also ran thin lines of fiery red force across the top of the stairs, the windows, and the trapdoor. Not only would those inform me of approaching intruders, but they'd also give them a shock. I hoped it would throw off their reactions long enough for me to defend us and Marmilda, who was asleep in her room at the end of the corridor.

I found it eerie not being able to hear even my own breathing, but if I couldn't, neither could anyone else. Marmel had tried it out, opening his mouth to yell. Not a sound emerged. He gave me a big thumbs-up. We wouldn't disturb Marmilda.

Everything within the spell's radius was muffled, so the bedsprings didn't let out a peep when we moved the mattress to look under it. Even pulling the heavy bedstead to one side to look at the floor underneath didn't produce the usual screech and scrape.

The worst part about working in complete silence was that if I didn't have Marmel in my line of sight, I had no way of knowing where he was. While I was leafing through a basket of the old man's correspondence, something bumped into me from behind. I leaped straight into the air and hung there, a ball of force gathered between my hands along with bills and birthday cards. It was only Marmel.

He looked sheepish. His mouth moved. Sorry.

I waved an apology in return and holstered my handful of magik. We went back to our search.

The room proved to be full of hidden cubbyholes. Behind pieces of furniture, under drawers, inside books, we found more and more knickknacks. Manuel's father had enough souvenirs to stock a warehouse. I found jugs, pitchers, cups, vases, and urns galore. Each time I unearthed one, I hoped it would be the famed Hoho Jug.

I felt around for magikal traces. It stood to reason that if the family heirloom was precious, Marmel's father would have secured its hiding place in every way he could. I let out a silent "A-ha!" as I pulled a tall, gold-plated loving cup full of wine from between the pages of a leather-bound book. The cup was studded with purple gems—appropriate, I thought, for a never-empty fountain of the fruit of the vine. I waved to get Marmel's attention.

The Imp turned, his eyes full of hope. I held up my find.

His shoulders sank and he shook his head. He mimed a small object, about the size of a grapefruit. Grumpily, I put the goblet to one side. The scent of the wine tantalized my nose. Though it was difficult, I ignored it. I knew I had a weakness for wine, and I could never let my vigilance down. It was a good thing that I had never come across the Hoho Jug during the low point in my life.

I Hipped open the catch on a tiny, carved music box that was giving off strong magikal vibes. The next thing I knew, sheaves of paper were flying up into my face. I smacked both hands down on the opening to try to stem the tide, but they just kept coming. Marmel jumped up to help me. The papers fountained upward like a geyser. I batted them aside, trying to get to the opening to block it. My hands were not strong enough. I tried using magik to block the paper inside, but my spell exploded outward in a shower of blue sparks. Marmel scooped endless armloads of white rectangles into the corner to get them out of our way, but he was being buried. If we didn't stop the flow, we'd be smothered underneath a mountain of paper. I caught his arm and signed to him. We scrabbled to the top of the heap and crawled around behind the box. Together, we got ahold of the tiny lid. I used a huge burst of magik to block the flow for just a second. We forced the lid over the box and slammed it down. I grabbed the catch with a finger of magik power and locked it solidly. The avalanche of papers ceased. Marmel rolled over on his back, panting. I wiped my forehead and looked around.

Hundreds of folded documents filled more than a quarter of the floor. I unfolded one of them. It was a long, skinny map. As I drew my finger from the indicated point

A to point B I saw landmarks and roads as if I was walking along the streets myself. After some thought I realized that the illusion was a Triple-D map of Zoorik, leading from the fabled Bank of the Gnomes to the Pleasure Gardens and the Zeughausbierundwienerrathskeller, a restaurant that served beer in yard-high glasses. I tossed it to one side. Marmel and I opened more of the papers, hoping that one of them was the missing will, but they were all Directory of the Diverse Dimensions maps, yet another one of the old man's collections. I kicked my way through the drifts of charts and graphs and started going over the mantelpiece. At least one of the gizmos on display was giving off some powerful magik.

Suddenly, I felt a twang! Something had set off one of my alarm threads. I signed to Marmel. The two of us jumped behind the head of the bed. I plunged the room into darkness. Narwickius's thugs were here now! They weren't waiting for daybreak—they were coming after midnight. Leave it to them to split hairs.

I gathered in another supply of magik from the lines of force to replace what I had expended in playing mapmaker. In any case, the scads of maps would upset the intruders' footing. I could catch them by surprise. Marmel could no longer hear or see; it would be up to me to subdue the interlopers.

I waited. My traps told me exactly where the newcomers were. They had opened a window at the rear of the house and were coming up the back stairs to the upper corridor. Patience, I told myself, as I felt my heart race. You've done this a number of times. Unless they outmagik you, it doesn't matter how many of them there are or how big they are.

Closer, now. I couldn't see anything, but a careful outreach of magikal force told me that my opponent was packing at least some firepower himself. Yes, one wizard was all I could sense. If there were any more bodies behind him, they were set to rely on brute strength. I took a deep breath.

The intruder was a professional. The door opened smoothly, not upsetting the wards I had placed upon it. I readied a handful of power that would stun my opponent long enough for us to tie him up with a souvenir jump rope from the Temple of Shirli in Lahlipop. I put a hand on Manners arm to tell him to stay in place.

Then I leaped.

The intruder ought to have been one pace inside. No body interrupted my headlong flight, as I slammed into the corner of the door. I saw red and orange stars dance before my eyes. Shaking my head, I cast around. How had he moved so quickly?

I found out the answer in the next heartbeat. A body dropped down on me from the ceiling. I thrust the full blast of magik in my hand into its face. Its hands closed upon my throat. I grabbed back, mentally gathering more power for a burst of light. My fingers sank into soft flesh that covered steel-like tendons. My attacker let go with one hand, and I felt something thin whip around my neck and tighten. I reeled as my breath was cut off. I used magik to try to loosen the tie. It stretched a tiny bit, enough to let me suck in a little air. My head was spinning, but I let loose with a paralyzing blast of magik.

Ker-POW.

Instead of leaving my opponent stunned and helpless, the spell backfired and exploded in a brilliant green glow. By its light I saw a heart-shaped face somewhat distended by partial strangulation but entirely recognizable.

"Tananda!" I shouted. It didn't matter that I couldn't breathe; my spell dampened the sound anyhow.

She recognized me, too. Her eyes widened just as the green fireball faded. I felt the garotte around my neck release. Limply, I fell to the floor. With stars dancing across my vision, I undid my darkness spell. As I lay gasping, the torches on the wall kindled into life once more, lending feeble light to the room. Tananda stood with her hands on her hips, looking down on me. Her mouth was moving.

"Wait," I mouthed, and dispelled the cloud of blue magik that comprised the silence spell with a flick of my fingers.

"What are you doing here?" we both asked at once.