Myth Alliances

twenty green ears swiveled in our direction.

'What was that?' asked a young female in a leather miniskirt. She started toward the door. I realized we no longer had the shadows to conceal us. Hastily, I formed the image in my mind of sections of wall and wainscoting, and pulled the illusion over Tananda and me. The female came close, peering around the door. I held my breath, praying she couldn't hear my heart pounding.

'Don't worry,' the older one reassured her. 'We have those Wuhses so scared they'd wet their pants even thinking of coming in here.'

The younger one shut the door firmly. 'I don't want them seeing what we're doing, that's all.'

'How could they? Come back here and listen to Oshleen’s plan.'

Oshleen! I knew that name. But from where?

A tall, slender female in military uniform strode past the older Pervect. I peered at her. She looked familiar. Where had I seen her? Maybe when Aahz and I visited Perv? She smacked a riding crop into her palm, then pointed it up at the wall.

'Caitlin?'

The smallest Pervect I'd ever seen jumped up on a chair and poked at some buttons on a board. A huge map appeared on the wall. I didn't recognize the country. It wasn't Wuh, or Klah, or Deva, or any of the other dimensions where I'd been, but there was an infinity out there.

'Now, here's my plan,' Oshleen proclaimed, indicating a city on the map. 'Taking over only a portion of our factory output we can still cover the initial point of insertion. We can start pushing into this territory here, here and here.' As she swung the crop, tiny red arrows appeared over the places she pointed to. 'Expansion should be easy. They will fall to their knees before us. How could they resist? With our charm and business acumen, there's no way they can withstand us. It'll be a walkover.'

'Yes,' agreed Vergetta, holding up an object. My eyes were still dazzled from the spell light. Was it a pair of spectacles?

'They'll be ours, all ours,' gloated the Pervect in the mini-skirt. 'Their eyes, their minds, will belong to us.'

I was horrified. The Ten went on talking over my head, but all I could think was that Wensley and the others were right! The Pervects were trying to take over other dimensions. They had some sort of evil device they planned to use to brainwash them.

'Well!' the older female breathed, clapping her hands. 'That took a lot out of me, I gotta tell you. Lunch has got to be ready, already.'

'I'm hungry!' the little one announced. 'Let's eat.'

A stylish Pervect in a skirt and jacket snapped her fingers, and the box on the table leaped into the air. 'I'm off to start gathering converts,' she explained. 'I'll report back as soon as I have them.' She and the box vanished.

The remaining nine Pervects marched past us. The last one, the strong one in the short skirt, stopped to look around the room before she slammed the door. A blast of white light filled the room. I felt, rather than heard a hum. As soon as I was sure they were gone, I got to my feet and let the wall disguise slip. Tananda was already standing beside me, a grim expression on her face.

'What's the matter?' I asked.

'I've met two of them before,' she mused.

'Are you sure?' I asked.

'Could you miss that flower-print dress?' Tananda demanded. 'They were trying to take over a part of the Bazaar a couple of months ago.'

'What?'

'Running a protection scheme. Don Bruce sent Guido to ask me and Chumley to get rid of them. It wasn't easy. They were starting small, but as you can see, they had bigger plans. They've taken over Wuh, and now they're going for another dimension.'

'Ten Pervects,' I shuddered.

'Ten wouldn't be enough to take over the Bazaar. Deveels are used to dealing with Pervects. But an unsuspecting dimension, unaccustomed to magik…'

I slammed my fist into my other palm. 'We've got to prevent it.'

'How?' Tananda asked. 'We don't know where they went.'

I started for the door. 'Let's ask Zol. I bet he could help us figure it out.' 'Hold it!' Tananda ordered, just before I touched the knob. 'Look!'

To the naked eye, the door seemed like what it was: a door. But I knew what she meant. Letting my eyes go half-shut, I looked for magik. The blue glow was so intense I had to clap my eyelids shut.

'What is it?' I asked, rubbing my eyes.

'An incineration spell,' Tananda replied. 'We're locked in.'

NINE

'I'll be out in a second!'

— HOUDINI

'Can't we just pop out?' I asked, squinting at the wall. Now that I had stopped to look, the door, the walls, the ceiling, and even the windows were covered by a flickering blue haze. I backed into the center of the room, as far from the perimeter as I could get. 'One of them did. The others just walked out.'

'They know what spell they set,' Tananda pointed out. 'We don't. We might manage to transport ourselves and still get fried.'

'What can we do?' I asked, trying not to sound as panicky as I felt.

Tananda looked at the magik field thoughtfully. 'Polarity,' she stated at last. 'It's supposed to keep people out, but not necessarily in. We could try to push it outward.'

'Okay,' I agreed, slowly. I had pried open a few magik traps in the past. I wished Aahz had been there to offer his advice, but it would probably be along the lines of 'you know what you're doing, kid, do it!' Which was no help at all, under the circumstances. If I knew Pervects they wouldn't linger over their food. They could be back any minute.

I rubbed my hands together as I stared at the blue fire. But what was I waiting for? I had to find a way out.

Now that the Pervect Ten had finished with their sorcery there was plenty of magik around. I could feel the pulses of minor spells, like the nutter of leaves in a forest. I pictured the lines of force in my mind. Here the lines deep within the earth were green. It wasn't very strong, but it was close. I drew as much of it up into myself as I could.

When working with magik you had to think in very positive terms to keep control of forces that were greater than you. Lose your concentration while you were constructing a magikal framework, and the resulting backlash could tear you to pieces. Lose your focus while defusing a trap, and smack! You did your opponents' work for them. I summoned up the image of a huge pair of hands, and imagined them pushing at the blue force blanketing the door. It moved! The whole curtain shifted backwards about five paces.

'Hold it!' Tananda ordered. 'Look behind you.'

I halted the progress of the hands, but kept them in place as I glanced around. The curtain shielding the far wall had also moved forward five paces. Very, very carefully I pushed the spell back to where it started. In my mind I formed four big pairs of hands and pushed outward. This time the walls moved but the lid of the spell started to come down on us as its supports were moved further apart. I tried pushing in all the directions. I succeeded in stretching the spell every which way but never finding a hole in it through which we could escape.