'An axe!' Sabrina exclaimed in sheer horror.
'The King is out of town,' Bink muttered. 'Anyway, he's senile.'
'And he hasn't summoned more than a summer shower in years,' Sabrina agreed. 'Kids didn't dare make so much mischief when he had his full magic.'
'We certainly didn't,' Bink said. 'Remember the hurricane flanked by six tornadoes he summoned to put down the last wiggle spawning? He was a real Storm King then. He-'
There was the ringing sound of metal biting into wood. A scream of sheer agony erupted from the air. Bink and Sabrina jumped.
'That's Justin!' she said. 'They're doing it.'
'No time for the King anyway,' Bink said. He charged toward the tree.
'Bink, you can't!' Sabrina cried after him, 'You don't have any magic.'
So the truth came out, in this moment of crisis. She didn't really believe he had a talent. 'I've got muscle, though!' he yelled back. 'You go for help.'
Justin screamed again as the blade struck a second time. It was an eerie wooden noise. There was laughter-the merry mirth of kids out on a lark, having no care at all what consequences their actions might have. Loco? This was mere insensitivity.
Then Bink was there. And-he was alone. Just when he was in the mood for a good fight. The malicious pranksters had scattered.
He could guess their identities-but he didn't have to. 'Jama, Zink, and Potipher,' Justin Tree said. 'Oooo, my foot!'
Bink squatted to inspect the cut. The white wood-wound was clearly visible in contrast to the shoelike bark of the base of the tree trunk. Driblets of reddish sap were forming, very much like blood. Not too serious for a tree this size, but surely extremely uncomfortable.
'I'll get some compresses for that,' Bink said. 'There's some coral sponge in the forest near here. Yell if anyone bothers you while I'm gone.'
'I will,' Justin said. 'Hurry.' Then, as an afterthought: 'You're a great guy, Bink. Much better than some who-uh-'
'Than some who have magic,' Bink finished for him. 'Thanks for trying to spare my feelings.' Justin meant well, but sometimes spoke before he thought. It came from having a wooden brain.
'It isn't fair that louts like Jama are called citizens, while you-'
'Thanks,' Bink said gruffly, moving off. He agreed completely, but what was the use talking about it? He watched out for anyone lurking in the bushes, waiting to bother Justin when the tree was unprotected, but saw nobody. They were really gone.
Jama, Zink, and Potipher, he thought darkly-the village troublemakers. Jama's talent was the manifestation of a sword, and that was what had chopped Justin's trunk. Anyone who could imagine that such vandalism was funny-
Bink remembered one of his own bitter experiences with that bunch, not so many years ago. Intoxicated by locoberries, the three had lurked in ambush along one of the paths beyond the village, just looking for mischief. Bink and a friend had walked into that trap, and been backed up against the cloud of poison gas that was Potipher's magic talent, while Zink made mirage-holes near their feet and Jama materialized flying swords for them to duck. Some sport!
Bink's friend had used his magic to escape, animating a golem from a stick of wood that took his place. The golem had resembled him exactly, so that it fooled the pranksters. Bink had known the difference, of course, but he had covered for his friend. Unfortunately, though the golem was immune to poison gas, Bink was not. He had inhaled some of it, and lost consciousness even as help arrived. His friend had brought Bink's mother and father-
Bink had found himself holding his breath again as the poison cloud enveloped him. He saw his mother tugging at his father's arm, pointing Bink's way. Bianca's talent was replay: she could jump time back five seconds in a small area. This was very limited but deviously powerful magic, for it enabled her to correct a just- made mistake. Such as Bink's breath of poison gas.
Then his breath had whooshed out again, making Bianca's magic useless. She could keep replaying the scene indefinitely, but everything was replayed, including his breath. But Roland looked, piercingly-and Bink had frozen.
Roland's talent was the stun gaze: one special glance and what he looked at was frozen in place, alive but immobile until released. In this manner Bink had been prevented from breathing the gas a second time, until his rigid body had been carried out.
As the stun abated, he had found himself in his mother's arms. 'Oh my baby!' she cried, cradling his head against her bosom. 'Did they hurt you?'
Bink came to an abrupt stop by the bed of sponge, his face flushing even now with the keen embarrassment of the memory. Had she had to do that? Certainly she had saved him from an early death-but he had been the laughingstock of the village for an interminable time thereafter. Everywhere he went, kids exclaimed 'My baby!' in falsetto, and sniggered. He had his life-at the expense of his pride. Yet he knew he could not blame his parents.
He had blamed Jama and Zink and Potipher. Bink had no magic, but, perhaps for that reason, he was the huskiest boy in the village. He had had to fight as long as he could remember. He was not especially well coordinated, but he had a lot of raw power. He had gone after Jama privately and demonstrated convincingly that the fist was swifter than the magic sword. Then Zink, and finally Potipher; Bink had hurled him into his own gas cloud, forcing him to dissolve it very suddenly. Those three had not sniggered at Bink thereafter; in fact, they tended to avoid him-which was why they had scattered when he charged the tree. Together they could have overcome him: but they had been well conditioned by those separate encounters.
Bink smiled, his embarrassment replaced by grim pleasure. Perhaps his manner of dealing with the situation had been immature, but there had been a lot of satisfaction in it. Down underneath he knew it had been
