Oh, very well. Pest! Horace was suddenly in front of him, crouched belly down. Get on!
Glint climbed up on the coppery scales and settled down with a hand on either undersized dragon wing. He was thankful that Horace didn't know about the belt. If the unquestionably male dragon knew that Glint could return to Merlain without his help, he'd go back to what he'd been doing and redoing and doing some more for days and nights on end. Some sunnymoon that dragon had! Glint could almost envy him.
Go, go, go! Horace thought impatiently.
Glint visualized the swimming pool at the twin palaces, and between one of Horace's go's and the next they arrived.
SPLASH!
Glint emerged sputtering from the pool and grabbed Charles' extended hand. His father-in-law was there, and now, glory, glory, glory, there was Merlain talking to the two Mrs. Knights and the two fiery-haired kinglets. Some of Horace's and Ember's passion must have stuck to him—he could hardly wait to be with his own wife.
"Horace, you're going to have to help us," his father-in-law was saying, coming rapidly with a quick step that had carried him all the way from inside the nearest palace. "The Alliance is in trouble and now's the time to justify your title. You have to—"
Later, Horace thought, though Glint doubted that Kelvin got the thought. Horace help Alliance later. Horace has to help mate now.
"Horace, are you listening to me? Horace, don't turn your head away from me! Horace—"
The dragon vanished. Water rolled back into the spot he had occupied and the swimming pool went GLURP! Waves rose quickly in the pool and splashed each side.
So much, Glint thought, for putting too much confidence in a dragon who wasn't your only child. Kelvin obviously hadn't instilled parental discipline. If Merlain bore him a dragon he knew he'd teach it to obey.
"All right, Glint," Kelvin ordered his son-in-law, "climb on my back. You could fly with the belt, but I think it's best left here in the event of a sudden emergency. You didn't by chance teach Merlain?"
"I know how," Merlain said quickly, taking the belt from her husband. "We stayed in mental contact while he was flying. Until he got too far away."
"Well, don't you use it! Not unless I come back and tell you to. No going after Horace again until Helbah gives me a spell to cool him down! There has to be something that will do it—I'll ask."
"Good-bye, Daddy. I'll take good care of Mom and Grandma. Oh, and Aunty Jon and the niece and nephews. Glow can use the crystal if we need to reach Helbah."
"Fine." Glint settled, and Kelvin made a mental note to suggest to his son-in-law that he get Helbah to reduce his weight. The young fool had been stuffing himself with cooakes and pies and other fattening foods ever since his marriage. When, Kelvin reminded himself with a fatherly wince, he wasn't making love to his beautiful young wife. He took the step.
Exploding fireballs dazzled the eyes and deafened the ears as his boot soles made contact. Helbah and the other witches and warlocks were still busy countering spells. The human armies still fought as seemingly mindlessly as they had. There were still phantom soldiers on that field, appearing and disappearing at various spots. The difference in the real and unreal was that the real soldiers bled as they were injured. Where magic was involved it was always impossible to know the actual number of the enemy. Even the fake soldiers caused injuries and death by appearing and then disappearing in precisely the wrong places. Thus soldier clove friend rather than foe, and the arrow aimed at the heart of a phantom ended by piercing a fighter wearing a green uniform.
"Glint," Helbah said quickly, "I want your help! Can you think out there and learn their plans?"
"Mind-snoop?" Glint said the words as though they were scandalous. "I can try. It's going to be hard because there are so many minds thinking at the top of their thoughts—really blasting it out."
"I don't want excuses, I want action!"
"Right!" Glint saluted Helbah, whether in mockery or respect it was hard to tell. He closed his eyes and sat down between two fatigued witches holding their heads and moaning over the surfeit of spells they had cast.
Kelvin waited. Though Glint appeared simply to sleep, he knew that his mind was awake and moving outward.
Glint reached out, entering minds at random, searching. Gonna pull her down! Gonna rip off her clothes! Gonna—
It was like a mental maggot pile of unsavory thoughts coming at him wherever his mind sought to penetrate. He wanted not the minds of the soldiers fighting in the field but the officers and malignants who planned the strategy.
Don't know what the witch is up to, but she's sending in more phantoms. I hope the men don't count on them! Need an ally to stab a goodie in the back and you may get chopped by him as the phantom vanishes. I hate magic warfare! This will be the last of it ever. When this fight is over I'll have all the drink I want and a palace. I'll march those women inside, make them strip, lie down in rows on the floor, and then I'll—
So much for the superior minds of officers! If any of them had tried full indulgence, as he himself had after marriage, they would know that one woman was more than enough.
There had to be a warlock behind the officers. If he could just reach to that distant ridge and keep the minds separated.
Old Zady's really got us humming! I'm so weak now from making her fireballs and ejecting them that I could sink into a hundred-year sleep! How long does this go on? I'm tired of it! I should be home casting sophisticated love spells, not wasting my talents! If I wasn't afraid of her I'd—
There had to be a witch or a warlock who was planning! Those simply working weren't worth investigating.
—froog-eyes, with tails of newts and a dash of maggot-wood—
NO.
Devale, I worship you. And your apprenticed pupil whom you yourself taught evil! Come now to the spell she is casting and enter it as you once entered her newly defiled self. Devale. Glorious Teacher, I ask in the name of all that is foul that—
Definitely not! But close. Closer.
So after the vomit spells hit them on the left flank and the phantom giants storm through we'll bring on the real giants. Won't they be surprised! We'll mash them down into puddles, and then we'll bring in more phantoms, only these will be phantom dragons. Inside the phantoms will be armed fighters on war-horses. When the dragons seem to kill, it will be the men inside the illusion doing the slaughtering. The old toady dragon trick, with new variations. Some of the phantoms won't just conceal fighters, they'll conceal warlocks with death-wish powders and coward vapors. We'll decimate their entire force! Helbah won't be able to keep up with it. We'll win with this tactic, and then there will be rewards aplenty as we go to raping and torturing. Only the roundears must be saved for Zady! The Grand Witch of Malignancy has malignant plans for her enemies!
That's it! he could not avoid thinking. That's the information Helbah wants!
The mind he was in blanked. He knew the malignant had caught on to his presence and would be calling to Zady. He had to withdraw his mind and take the information to Helbah.
Oh, Kelvin, I hope you know what you are doing! I hope you're really the hero they always said! I don't know how long I can hang by these ropes without losing consciousness, but she will wake me only so I can see the slaughtering. Oh Kelvin, oh Kelvin, don't let her get my children! I always tried to believe in you, I always really did! Oh the pain, the pain, the sick, terrible torment—
Kelvin's sister—here!
His right cheek stung suddenly, and then his other one.
"Wake up! Wake up! She almost got you! If I hadn't seen the spell she was casting she would have!"
Glint opened his eyes to look into Helbah's concerned face. What was the old witch talking about? Was it then all illusion? Had the thoughts of Jon Crumb been bogus, designed to keep him occupied while some terrible fate was witched?
"THE ORCS ARE COMING! THE ORCS ARE COMING!" someone shouted.
There was cheering all around, and Glint was finding what he had to tell He
lbah was already becoming clouded. He had to tell Kelvin, though.
"Kelvin, your sister—she's got her!"
"NO!" Kelvin said, immediately stricken. He looked to Helbah, his eyes searching hers.
"It's true," Helbah said. "Zady had her before you fellows got back from the palaces. Why didn't you hurry, Kelvin? I told you to."
But the hero's sickened expression was the only answer Glint knew she was ever going to get.
CHAPTER 17
Battle of Giants
"The orcs are coming! The orcs are coming!" The cry went up and down the lines. Kelvin looked up from his despondency, feeling a dim ray of hope. The orcs, he remembered, were reputed to be better versed in magic than Helbah or any of her helpers; they were also strong and magnificent warriors.
"Krassnose," Helbah greeted the orc wizard, distinguished by a darker-than-usual green face, "it's so good to see you again."
Krassnose opened and shut his gills once, an orc acknowledgment. Like all orcs Krassnose could breathe perfectly with the lungs nature had given him, but underwater he changed over to gills. Nature had been more generous with orcs than with other creatures in that respect. Kelvin's father had said that they might have evolved from Earth's lungfish, whatever they were.
"Krassnose, I hope you've tricks the rest of us haven't thought of. Our defenses are strained already. What magical strategies do you suggest?"
"Strengthen defense barriers," Krassnose said.
Helbah frowned. "I know you orcs are stronger in every way than the rest of us, but can you really—"
Krassnose raised his webbed fingers and above them a fireball that had gotten through their barrier detonated. Sparks rained down, snapping and sputtering and winking out before landing on those below. Now a faint glimmer appeared, showing where the orc had made a superior magical barrier or wall to halt further fireballs.
"Well, Krassnose, that is impressive, and I'm sure it will help. But we were hoping you orcs would have attack plans. What do you think our army should do?"
"Get out of orcs' way," Krassnose said. "Orc army will handle puny invaders."
Helbah looked crestfallen. Kelvin sympathized with her. The orc wizard was not only disparaging their magic as weak but also their army. Remembering how it had been twenty years ago, he had the feeling that quite possibly the orcs might be strong enough. Twenty years ago the combined might of the Confederation had not been enough to turn back or defeat the orcs; there had been no way short of a superior magic by which the Confederation could have won.
"Krassnose," Glint began, looking up at the giant in awe, "when I spied into their minds I found—"
"He knows," Helbah told him. "I've been in crystal contact with Brudalous all morning. He knows what you found."
As though on cue the orc leader came forward. To see a band of orcs grouped together was almost like looking at a grove of trees. When one of them moved away it had to be startling.
"Helbah, Roundear," he said, opening and closing his gills twice. "My orc army is about to launch its attacks. As my warriors march out, have yours fall back."
"As backup?" Kelvin suggested.
"No, to keep safe. When an orc warrior swings his sword he cuts a wide swath. Swords and clubs often do not distinguish between friend and foe, especially in the heat of battle."
"Oh." He knew the orc leader was right, though it rankled. An orc could step back and if a human happened to be there the human was likely to be kicked back into eternity. In size orcs resembled trees and windmills more than men.
Helbah relayed the orc messages to the generals via crystal. St. Helens looked out as if he were ready to explode at the insult; on the second crystal Mor didn't look much better. Yet they were good soldiers, as St. Helens often said. If the orcs wanted the humans to retreat as the orcs moved up, they would. First John Knight, then Mor Crumb, and finally St. Helens issued orders to their nearest officers. Helbah widened the images with a pass of her hand, giving them a second view of soldiers in green uniforms before them.
Kelvin looked to Helbah, hoping she'd tell him to do something to help. He wanted to help; he wanted to lead things. Heroes were supposed to lead, not cower way behind the action. To his surprise he found that now he desperately wanted his heroship; now that it was too late, he wanted it. When he thought of his sister he wanted more than anything to rescue her. His gauntlets did not yank him forward into action and his boots did not move his feet and force him into a long, long step. Alas, he was just a man after all, and in every way that counted, less than the giants surrounding him.
On Helbah's battery of crystals Kelvin watched the battle; he imagined himself a little like the human couch-potatoes his father had described as spending their lives watching a distant people, sometimes dead people, doing things in boxes. Those vision boxes of Earth must be a lot like the viewing crystals, magic or what his father insisted was science. In the long run it mattered little how a thing was accomplished, used or misused, so long as it was. With others who possibly had eyes no better than his, he settled down to what he felt would be a long viewing.
Men on the left began vomiting. The orcs, better protected by stronger spells, walked on past their green-uniformed allies. The men were clutching their middles and staring in awe at the great bulging muscles. They must have been glad enough that the orcs were here and that they had been ordered to fall back.
The orcs marched on and in great strides. No horses for orcs, since an orc was far bigger than even the largest warhorse. Each orc had a large knobby club swung over his scaly shoulder. Each carried an unsheathed sword the length of three men in his right hand, and a shield the size of a rowboat in his left.
Marching trees, Kelvin thought. Trees marching to destroy the woodcutters. Only the fish-faces of the amphibian creatures spoiled his analogy.
Suddenly, astonishingly, giants of even greater dimensions came striding up over the top of the greenish hills in the background. These new giants appeared to be men, but with dark, sinister faces. Dressed as they were in the dung uniforms, complete with swords and shields much larger than the orcs', they seemed in every way a greater force.
The orcs paused not at all but marched on. The facing giants charged down the hills, huge swords raised high, emitting guttural barks and growling sounds that were audible way back here. Kelvin shivered, seeing the orc army about to be crushed.
"Watch this, Kelvin," Phenoblee said, bending low to whisper to him. The orc witch and wife of Brudalous looked horrendous, but was actually a decent person in her fashion. She raised her webbed hands and made a downward sweeping motion. Instantly a wind began blowing out there, out past the orcs. The giant apparent humans were blown backwards, breaking against the hills and scattering as separated whiffs of vapor. Illusion they had been, but an illusion subject to magic.
Kelvin felt like giving a rousing cheer, but just as he drew breath to change desire to action, a second column of giants came over the hill. These appeared to be much the same as the first wave, but just a bit smaller. Their faces were definitely as mean looking as those in the first wave had been. They brandished swords, spears, axes, and clubs and came at a loping run.
Phenoblee raised her hands and repeated her earlier action. The wind rose up, raising dust and denuding trees. Still the enemy came on. "These aren't the phantoms," Helbah remarked unnecessarily. "Can you do anything against them?"
Phenoblee shook her head. "Zady has her protective spells. If there's an opening maybe Krassnose or I can help."
In the crystals the two armies had almost reached each other. Kelvin hated to look. It was like two great beast herds about to crash.
"Zady must have gotten some Hagus Water," Helbah remarked. "That's the malignant's equivalent of Alice Water."
Kelvin remembered the use his two human children had made of Alice Water. They had grown big and later bigger using it on that trip Zady had sent them on. Fortunately Merlain had had the water or neither of his twins or the royal twins would have su
rvived; neither would they have gotten the opal.
Thought of the opal made him wonder: when, if ever, would Horace come to his senses? He was going to have to look for him. Drag him back by the tail, if necessary. Mating might be a delight for dragons as it could be for humans, but Horace had a responsibility. If the orcs had the opal now he had the feeling Zady's forces would be running in the other direction.
The armies merged. The carnage commenced. Great swinging swords. Great chops. Cries of rage; cries of pain. Just another battle, but larger, more impressive because of the size of the combatants. Green orc blood flowed and orcs died, but red human blood flowed also, and dung-uniformed soldiers died and shriveled down to what had to be their natural size.
One thing gradually became apparent: though they were now larger than the orcs, the enemy warriors were lighter. Kelvin recalled his father talking about that once: the magically created giants would have to have the same mass as their former selves. The enchantment might enhance it some by bringing in mass from elsewhere, but it wasn't feasible to bring enough. That meant that for all the fury of their blows they just hadn't the weight behind them. Time after time a blow that should have decapitated an orc was turned aside by his neck scales. Equally impressive was that the orcs, who had their natural weight, sometimes swung hard and sheared through armor that should have stopped even their blows. Evidently Zady had increased the size of men, uniforms, and weapons together. If she had had the weapons forged rather than enlarged they would have been more deadly and the armor more protective. But then if the armor and weapons were of denser mass, the bodies of the warriors could not have handled them. Truly, magical enlargement did have its drawbacks.
As the aggressors died, they and their uniforms and weapons shrank to normal human size. Such was the nature of magic, as experienced by Merlain and Charles many years previously. If they had lost their clothes and traveling packs whenever they enlarged their Alice Water could not have saved them.