“I wish I could be sure of that. But I’m afraid I have led them into a deadly trap. If they die it will be my fault.”
“Cyrus,” she said seriously. “This battle was fated. They would have had to meet Ragna sometime. It is better to do it now, before he takes over any more of Xanth. Win or lose, it’s not your fault.”
“But it feels like my fault.” “I would comfort you if I could.” “Rhythm could comfort me. Where is she?” “She and her sisters are preparing to battle Ragna tomorrow morning. They can’t afford to have you distracting them at this time. It could be the death of them.”
“I know it,” he said miserably. “I’ll leave Rhythm alone.” “Now sleep,” Melete said. “You will need your wits about you tomorrow.”
“To watch a battle I can’t affect? To betray the trust of my troupe?”
“Trust me, Cyrus. You are doing your part.” He gazed at her. He did trust her. But he couldn’t believe her.
Yet, somehow, he managed to sleep soundly. Maybe someone had put a sleep spell on him.
In the morning the three Princesses were waiting by his door with their guides and the rest of the troupe. Rhythm stepped forward. “In case I don’t make it,” she murmured, “remember that I love you, regardless of my age.” Then she kissed him in front of everyone.
“Oh, Rhythm!” he said as he held her. “I’ll always love you!”
“Stay with Kadence, please. Make a family for her.” She wiped away a tear. At this stage, she was only technically a child.
“I will!” he said, half blinded by tears himself.
She returned to her sisters. They began the march to the Roc’s nest.
Kadence came up. He took her hand. They followed the Princesses. The rest of the troupe was behind.
They came to the Nest. There was Ragna Roc, huge and imposing. Beside him stood Em Pathy.
“The battle will commence when I lower my hand,” Em said without preamble. She raised her right arm.
Melody, Harmony, and Rhythm stood together at the rim of the nest, facing Ragna Roc. They nodded together, ready.
There was no other preliminary. Em dropped her arm.
Nothing happened. The troupe members looked at each other, perplexed. When was it going to start?
Then Cyrus saw that Ragna Roc was absolutely still. Not a single feather moved. And the three Princesses were frozen in place like statues. Bird and girls were staring intently at each other, doing nothing else.
Nothing? They were doing everything! Ragna was trying to delete them, and they were fighting back and perhaps using his own power against him, maybe reflecting it or converting it to something else. The battle was invisible, but it was being waged.
Now Cyrus felt a tingling in his hair and on his skin. All the hairs of his body were trying to lift themselves up, as if electrically charged. There was enormous magic suffusing the area, touching them all peripherally.
“Daddy!” Kadence cried, scared.
He looked at her. Her hair was drawing itself up from her scalp, spreading out, radiating from her head like a spiked helmet.
“It’s the magic,” he whispered. “It’s not directed at you. It’s because of the battle. It’s so intense it infuses everything and spreads out, like a hot potato cooling. They are trying to destroy each other”
“Oh,” she said, not seeming very much reassured. “I thought I was terrified.” She reconsidered. “I am terrified!”
Cyrus looked around. The hair was spreading out on all the troupe members, and on the Minions too. “We all are, dear. But all we can do is wait, and hope”
Something changed in her expression. “No. Anona says we have more to do.”
“Anona Ant?” He had quite forgotten her since first putting her in his pocket. How did she relate?
“She’s in my hair,” Kadence said. “Hanging on desperately. She’s directing me.”
“Directing you?” Cyrus was at a loss to comprehend this.
“Come with me, Father.”
“But the battle isn’t finished.”
“Go with her,” Melete said from his pocket. He didn’t remember putting her there, but he must have done so.
Kadence took him by the hand and led him from the Nest. No one else moved; they were all standing distracted, hair spiking, hardly breathing. The magic was so thick it seemed difficult to pass through it. Oh, yes, the battle was happening!
As they passed through the halls and chambers of the castle, Cyrus noticed something else. The rock candy stones were melting. Not a lot, but their sharp edges were rounding off, and their flat planes were warping slightly. The intense magic was evidently generating heat that softened the material. If that continued, this castle would became a physically dangerous place, because there was an awful lot of candy rock in it.
He remembered how daunting it was to be in the vicinity when the three Princesses focused together on a spot project. They were children, but their merged and cubed magic was as strong as any in Xanth. Yet Ragna Roc was attacking them with confidence, and so far, making it stick. It was awesome and, yes, scary.
There were Minions here and there, but none of them paid attention to the two visitors in their midst. They were standing in place, hair outstretched, taken by the awful power of the surrounding magic.
They came to the roof where the roc hens had landed. The basket remained, and beside it was a huge egg with a hinged top. It was big enough to hold several rocs. Ants were swarming over it, applying the finishing touches.
“What is this?” Cyrus asked.
“It is your project, Father. Don’t you remember?”
“No. I know nothing of this.”
“Because you took those three drops of lethe elixir to make you forget. They should be wearing off any time now. This is an egg made from undeleted material—stuff the Roc deleted, then undeleted, so can’t delete again. Anona Ant is directing me, and I’m coordinating all the other ants in her Hill, which the Princesses conjured here three days ago and then took sniffs of some lethe elixir they also conjured from where Roc Ette used to live, to make them forget. Ragna will not be able to get out of this egg, once it closes about him. But there’s one problem”
Cyrus did not need to remember anything to understand that. “Getting him into it.”
“Yes. That’s your job. If he beats the Princesses, we can still win, if you get him in there. But there’s another problem. That lid is too heavy for the ants to move quickly. He’d escape long before they could close it”
Cyrus looked at the huge lid. “Too big for me too.”
“Think of a way, Cyrus,” Melete urged him.
It was beginning to come back. “I worked this out,” he said. “Then took lethe so the telepaths couldn’t find out from my mind. But I didn’t think of that detail.”
“Think of it now,” Melete said.
Cyrus focused his creativity. A dim bulb flashed. “Roc Ette!”
“Who?” Kadence asked.
“The roc hen he captured after deleting the entire village that had helped her escape him. She’s part of his harem.”
“What’s a harem, Father?”
He opened his mouth, but was abruptly balked by the Adult Conspiracy. “A special group of women. The point is, she doesn’t want to be there. She surely hates Ragna.”
“She could close the egg!” Kadence exclaimed. She was a bright child.
“Yes. If I can find her in time.”
“I know where there’s a flock of roc hens,” Kadence said. “I saw them when we toured the castle.”
“That has to be them. Take me there”
She led him to another section of the castle. The trip was harrowing, because rock candy blocks were starting to fall into the halls, and here and there they could hear roofs collapsing. The castle was being destroyed, yet no one was touching it. How long could this go on?
They reached the hens. These, too, were mesmerized by the transcendent magic atmosphere. They perched hunched, their feath
ers extended in the manner of the hair on the humans. But which one was Ette?
“Call her,” Melete advised. “The others won’t care.”
“Roc Ette!” he called.
One huge head turned toward him. This was a very pretty roc. Now he saw that her wingfeathers were not extended. He remembered why: they had been deleted. They were illusion. She could not fly. It was a horrible punishment for a bird, any bird.
“Roc Ette,” he said. “I am Cyrus Cyborg. I saw how the entire village of your human friends was deleted. I am fight-ing Ragna, but I need your help. Together maybe we can put him away”
She nodded. She understood him. She hopped down from her perch.
“This way,” he said. “To the roof.” He explained as he and Kadence ran around the growing rubble and melt, and Ette followed.
Fortunately the landing area was more solidly constructed than the more decorative portions of the castle. Maybe it was underpinned by regular rock instead of candy. It remained firm enough to support the roc hen’s weight.
“So if you can hide behind the basket, then jump out and push the lid closed when he’s in it, he will be trapped,” Cyrus concluded. “Will you do that?”
Ette nodded. There was something very like a grim smile on her beak.
The trap was set. Now all he had to do was get Ragna here, and into the egg. If he could just figure out a way.
“I must go,” Cyrus said. “I congratulate you, Anona, Ka-dence, and the Pique Ants. You have done an excellent job”
Kadence remained by the shell, organizing the ants as they shored up any possible weak spots. They would have the shell ready for occupancy on time.
The collapse of the castle was accelerating as he returned to the Nest. He had to climb over forming piles of half-melted rubble. Yet still the contest of magic continued. It seemed that the opposing forces were so nearly equal that there was no way out except to continue.
How was he to get the big bird past all this and into the shell? Cyrus still had no idea.
He came to the Nest. Ragna still faced the three Princesses. None of them had moved. But now the rest of the castle was collapsing around them. The people were fleeing, both Minions and troupe members. It wasn’t any change of loyalties so much as fear that they would be crushed in falling blocks of rock candy, or stuck in melting goo.
Now at last there began to be some change. Ragna’s feathers were drooping, and the Princesses were wavering. Then Melody sank to her knees.
“No!” Cyrus cried in anguish.
“Yes,” Em Pathy said, returning to the scene. “Did you really think mere Sorceresses could defeat a god?”
“I did,” he said, seeing Harmony also sink.
“I’m surprised they lasted as long as this. I thought he would delete them in the first few minutes.”
“Go poop your pan ties, pooch.”
“In a few more minutes you will belong to me, Cyrus. Then you will welcome my pan ties”
The awful thing was that he knew she meant it. She had taken a fancy to him, and would rule his emotion once the way had been cleared.
They watched as Rhythm sank to her knees. The ambiance of magic was overwhelming the three; they could not hold out much longer.
And when they lost, what of his love? A bulb flashed over his head, and such was the intensity of magic that it overheated and exploded with a pop. He could make a difference!
Cyrus jumped into the Nest and slid down its curving side to the roc’s giant feet. “You big pile of piffle!” he yelled, kicking a talon. “All you can do is attack little girls!”
“Cyrus!” Em called, horrified. “Get out of there! You can’t attack a god!”
He ignored her. “You must be really proud of yourself, birdbrain! Beating up on children!” He stomped the talon.
Now he got Ragna’s attention. The roc glared down at him. But to do that, he had to remove his deadly gaze from the Princesses. He could not focus his magic without looking.
“Why don’t you try to delete someone your own size, feather- face?” Cyrus demanded. “Don’t have the nerve, Raggy?”
Ragna stirred. He tried to orient his head so that both eyes could focus on the annoyance. That gave Cyrus a notion.
“You can’t delete what you can’t focus on!” he yelled. “And I’m too close for you to focus, cross- eyes!”
Now there was a stir of anger. A foot twitched up. But Cyrus was already scrambling over the other foot and around to the far side of the Nest.
“Get your tail in gear!” he yelled, kicking at a tail feather. He didn’t do the huge thing any damage, but his effort was surely quite annoying. “You can’t catch me, birdlime!”
He definitely had Ragna’s attention. The Roc half spread his wings and spun about, trying to orient his beak for an attack. But Cyrus was on his way up the side and out of the Nest.
“You’re crazy!” Em called. “You’re throwing your foolish life away, when you could have so much fun with me!”
“I’m having fun with Ragna Rook!” he called over his shoulder as he ran from the Nest.
Now the chase was on in earnest. Cyrus fled through the rubble of the castle, dodging from side to side in an attempt to prevent the roc from focusing on him. Ragna pursued, enraged.
“Ragna!” Em called. “Don’t let him distract you from the battle! The girls aren’t dead yet!”
“Sure, go back to the girls, you horrendous hunk of deleted droppings!” Cyrus encouraged him. “They’re more your speed.”
“Let him go, Ragna!” Em called. “He’s not worth your effort”
The Roc ignored her sensible advice. He was trying to focus on Cyrus.
Cyrus realized as he ran that his hair was no longer standing on end. The potent aura of magic had faded; the battle with the Princesses was no longer in progress. He had succeeded in distracting the bird, as he had intended.
Cyrus dodged around a pile of half- melted rock candy, staying out of the direct line of sight. There was a crash as the pile collapsed in on itself; Cyrus realized that the Roc had deleted the bottom of it, where he had just dodged, and so the top had lost support and dropped down. He was glad he was a cyborg, with half- machine strength; otherwise he would not have gotten clear in time.
He came up on a statue of a bare nymph. Actually that was redundant; all nymphs were bare until some became real women and donned clothing. She probably represented a morsel of food rather than a stork object. He ran around her—and her fair head plunged to the floor, leaving her deleted body standing in place.
Cyrus knew he had better get where he was going soon, because otherwise he would become illusion on the way. He ran behind more rubble, then dodged back the opposite direction as it collapsed.
The way was awkward, but he was angling for the roof and the shell. He kept yelling insults and lurching in different directions, hoping that the Roc would follow without ever getting the right range. He knew he would be terrified if he ever paused to think about it.
Somehow he succeeded. There was the basket and the shell. He ran straight for them, feeling the breath of the Roc right behind him.
“A place to hide!” he cried. “He won’t find me there!” He ran up a convenient pile of rubble and leaped for the huge shell. He caught the rim, and heaved himself inside. He slid down the curving inner shell. Would this ruse work?
There was an angry squawk outside. The Roc must have tried to delete the shell, and been unable. That, with luck, infuriated him. His annoying prey was escaping.
Suddenly the top darkened. Then the huge body landed inside. Cyrus barely managed to scramble out of the way of the descending mass. “Curses! He found me!” he yelled.
Ragna oriented on the sound. His eyes found Cyrus, and started to focus.
The lid slammed shut. Suddenly it was dark inside.
“Squawk?” Ragna asked, surprised.
“Listen, rock- head, the trap has sprung,” Cyrus said loudly. “This shell is made of undeleted material, a
nd built to withstand any physical force you can apply. You are a prisoner”
There was a shaft of light from a large peephole. Cyrus went to stand in its wan illumination. “Go ahead,” he said. “Delete me. Then you’ll be entirely alone. You know they’ll never let you out. They’ll poke food into the hole so you won’t starve, and remove your refuse, because the folk of Xanth aren’t brutes, but they’ll never free you”
There was silence. The Roc was listening.
“This was my doing,” Cyrus continued. “I devised this trap, and had the ants make it, and I led you to it. It is not entirely unkind; there is a hypno- gourd here that you will be able to peek into and range the entire dream realm at your leisure. You won’t be bored. But you will need a companion, if only to interrupt your eye contact occasionally so you will not starve to death. So now you have a choice: destroy me and be forever alone, or listen to the deal I proffer”
He paused, but there was no response, so he continued. “I will arrange an exchange, if you wish: me for a roc hen to keep you company and assist with the gourd. Or any other creature you choose, who wants to be with you. Maybe Em Pathy, your translator”
Now there was a negative squawk. “I thought not. She’s loyal to you, but not your kind. You want the hen. Here is how we will arrange it: you will delete me, I’ll walk through this shell and arrange for the hen to come here, you will peer at her through the peep hole, and if you are satisfied you will undelete me and delete her so she can come in here where you can undelete her. Then she will be yours forever. Is that satisfactory?”
There was half a squawk.
“Ah yes. How can you trust me to do as I promise? The answer is, you will have to. There are reasons why you wanted to recruit me to your team, and trustworthiness is one of them. I never pretended to you or your Minions that I planned to join you; I always served the other side. I was true to my commitment. I will be true to this one. But since I can’t necessarily trust you, I will insist on your undeleting me before the hen joins you. I will obtain her commitment to join you after I am undeleted, and to refuse to join you if I remain deleted. That is the deal I proffer. If you don’t like it, make me a counteroffer. We can surely get Em Pathy to come to the peephole to translate”