Part 18 (1/2)

”None of that. This ain't the old days, you know? We just protect him and keep order in the territory we occupy, and he'll give us small land grants where n.o.body's settled yet. He says Xanth's underpopulated. And there'll be--he'll encourage the local gals to marry us, so we can have families. If there aren't enough, he'll bring in gals from the real world. And meanwhile, he'll transform some smart animals into gals. I thought that was a joke, but after what I hear about those c.o.c.ks--” He grimaced. ”I mean those basks--” He shook his head and grimaced again, in pain.

”Keep your head still,” Fanchon told him, too late. ”It's true about the c.o.c.katrice and basilisk; we were them. But animal brides---”

”Oh, it wouldn't be so bad, miss. Just temporary, until real gals arrived. If she looks like a gal and feels like a gal, I wouldn't blame her for being a b.i.t.c.h before. I mean, some gals are b.i.t.c.hes---”

”What's a b.i.t.c.h?” Bink asked.

”A b.i.t.c.h? You don't know that?” The sailor grimaced again; either he was in considerable pain or it was a natural expression. ”A female dog. Like Jennifer. h.e.l.l, if Jennifer had human form--”

”Enough,” Fanchon muttered.

”Well, anyway, we'll get homesteads and settle in. And our kids will be magic. I tell you, it's that last that recruited me. I don't believe in magic, understand--or I didn't then--but I remember the fairy tales from when I was a little tyke, about the princess and the frog, and the mountain of gla.s.s, and the three wishes---well, look, I was a metalworker for a crooked shop, know what I mean? And I really wanted out of the rat race.”

Bink shook his head silently. He understood only part of what the sailor was saying, but it did not make Mundania look very good. Stores that were built off balance, crooked? Rats that raced? Bink would want to get out of that culture, too.

”A chance to have a decent life in the country,” the sailor continued, and there was no question about his dedication to his vision. ”Owning my own land, making good things grow, you know? And my kids knowing magic, real magic--I guess I still don't really believe that part, but even if it's a lie, you know, it's sure nice to think about.”

”But to invade a foreign land, to take what doesn't belong to you--” Fanchon said. She broke off, evidently certain that it was pointless to debate that sort of thing with a sailor. ”He'll betray you the moment he doesn't need you. He's an Evil Magician, exiled from Xanth.”

”You mean he really can do magic?” the man asked with happy disbelief. ”I figured all this stuff was sleight of hand, you know, when I really thought about it. I mean, I believed some of the time, but--”

”He sure as h.e.l.l can do magic,” Bink put in, becoming acclimatized to the sailor's language. ”We told you how he changed us--”

”Never mind about that,” Fanchon said.

”Well, he's still a good leader,” the sailor insisted. ”He told us how he was kicked out twenty years ago because he tried to be King, and how he lost his magic, and married a gal from here and had a little boy--”

”Trent has a family in Mundania?” Bink asked, amazed.

”We don't call our country that,” the sailor said. ”But yes--he had a family. Until this mystery bug went around--some kind of flu, I think, or maybe food poisoning--and they both got it and died. He said science hadn't been able to save them, but magic could have, so he was going back to magicland. Xanth, you call it. But they'd kill him if he just walked in alone, even if he got by the thing he called a s.h.i.+eld. So he needed an army-oooh!” Fanchon had finished her work and heaved his shoulder up onto a pillow.

So they had the sailor as comfortable as was feasible, his shoulder bound up in stray cloths. Bink would have liked to hear more of the man's unique viewpoint. But time had pa.s.sed, and it was apparent that the other s.h.i.+p was gaining on them. They traced its progress by its sail, which moved laterally, back and forth, zigzagging against the wind--and with each pa.s.s it was closer. They had been wrong about the capabilities of s.h.i.+ps in adverse wind. How much else were they wrong about?

Bink went into the cabin. He was feeling a bit seasick now, but he held it down. ”Jennifer,” he said hesitantly, proffering some of the dog food they had found. The small spotted monster wagged her tail. Just like that, they were friends. Bink screwed up his courage and patted her on the head, and she did not bite him. Then, while she ate, he opened the chest she had guarded so ferociously and lifted out the vial of greenish fluid he found therein, in a carefully padded box. Victory!

”Miss,” the sailor called as Bink emerged with the vial. ”The s.h.i.+eld--”

Fanchon looked about nervously. ”Is the current carrying us into that?”

”Yes, miss. I wouldn't interfere, but if you don't turn this boat soon, we'll all be dead. I know that s.h.i.+eld works; I've seen animals try to go through it and get fried.”

”How can we tell where it is?” she asked.

”There's a glimmer. See?” He pointed with difficulty. Bink peered and saw it. They were drifting toward a curtain of faint luminescence, ghostly white. The s.h.i.+eld!

The s.h.i.+p progressed inexorably. ”We can't stop it,” Fanchon cried. ”We're going right through.”

”Throw down the anchor!” the sailor said.

What else was there to do? The s.h.i.+eld was certain death. Yet to stop meant capture by Trent's forces. Even bluffing them back by means of the vial of elixir would not suffice; the s.h.i.+p remained a kind of prison.

”We can use the lifeboat,” Fanchon said. ”Give me the vial.”

Bink gave it to her, then threw over the anchor. The s.h.i.+p slowly turned as the anchor took hold. The s.h.i.+eld loomed uncomfortably close--but so did the pursuing s.h.i.+p. Now it was clear why it was using the wind instead of the current; it was under control, in no danger of drifting into the s.h.i.+eld.

They lowered the lifeboat. A reflector lamp from the other s.h.i.+p bathed them in its light. Fanchon held the vial aloft. ”I'll drop it!” she screamed at the enemy. ”Hit me with an arrow--the elixir drowns with me.”

”Give it back,” Trent's voice called from the other s.h.i.+p. ”I pledge to let you both go free.”

”Ha!” she muttered. ”Bink, can you row this boat yourself? I'm afraid to set this thing down while we're in range of their arrows. I want to be sure that no matter what happens to us, they don't get this stuff.”

”I'll try,” Bink said. He settled himself, grabbed the oars, and heaved.

One oar cracked into the side of the s.h.i.+p. The other dug into the water. The boat skewed around. ”Push off!” Fanchon exclaimed. ”You almost dumped me.”

Bink tried to put the end of one oar against the s.h.i.+p, to push, but it didn't work because he could not maneuver the oar free of its oarlock. But the current carried the boat along until it pa.s.sed beyond the end of the s.h.i.+p.

”We're going into the s.h.i.+eld!” Fanchon cried, waving the vial. ”Row! Row! Turn the boat!”

Bink put his back into it. The problem with rowing was that he faced backward; he could not see where he was going. Fanchon perched in the stem, holding the vial aloft, peering ahead. He got the feel of the oars and turned the boat, and now the s.h.i.+mmering curtain came into view on the side. It was rather pretty in its fas.h.i.+on, its ghostly glow parting the night--but he recoiled from its horror.

”Go parallel to it,” Fanchon directed. ”The closer we stay, the harder it'll make it for the other s.h.i.+p. Maybe they'll give up the pursuit.”

Bink pulled on the oars. The boat moved ahead. But he was unused to this particular form of exertion, and not recovered from his fatigue of the swim, and he knew he couldn't keep it up long.

”You're going into the s.h.i.+eld!” Fanchon cried.

Bink looked. The s.h.i.+eld loomed closer, yet he was not rowing toward it. ”The current,” he said. ”Carrying us sideways.” He had naively thought that once he started rowing, all other vectors ceased.

”Row away from the s.h.i.+eld,” she cried. ”Quickly!”

He angled the boat--but the s.h.i.+eld did not retreat. The current was bearing them on as fast as he could row. To make it worse, the wind was now changing--and rising. He was holding even at the moment, but he was tiring rapidly. ”I can't--keep this-up!” he gasped, staring at the glow.

”There's an island,” Fanchon said. ”Angle toward it.”

Bink looked around. He saw a black something cutting the waves to the side. Island? It was no more than a treacherous rock. But if they could anchor to it- He put forth a desperate effort--but it was not enough. A storm was developing. They were going to miss the rock. The dread s.h.i.+eld loomed nearer.

”I'll help,” Fanchon cried. She set down the vial, crawled forward, and put her hands on the oars, opposite his hands. She pushed, synchronizing her efforts with his.

It helped. But Bink, fatigued, was distracted. In the erratic moonlight, blotted out intermittently by the thickening, fast-moving clouds above, her naked body lost some of its shapelessness and a.s.sumed the suggestion of more feminine contours. Shadow and imagination could make her halfway attractive---and that embarra.s.sed him; because he had no right to think of such things. Fanchon could be a good companion, if only- The boat smashed into the rock. It tilted--rock or craft or both. ”Get hold! Get hold!” Fanchon cried as water surged over the side.

Bink reached out and tried to hang on to the stone. It was both abrasive and slippery. A wave broke over him; filling his mouth with its salty spume. Now it was black; the clouds had completed their engulfment of the moon.

”The elixir!” Fanchon cried. ”I left it in the--” She dived for the flooded stem of the boat.

Bink, still choking on sea water, could not yell at her. He clung to the rock with his hands, his fingers finding purchase in a crevice, anchoring the boat with his hooked knees. He suffered a foolish vision: if a giant drowning in the ocean grabbed on to the land of Xanth for support, his fingers would catch in the chasm, the Gap. Maybe that was the purpose of the Gap. Did the tiny inhabitants of this isolated rock resent the crevice that Bink's giant fingers had found? Did they have forget spells to remove it from their awareness?