around the kingdom.'
I was puzzled. 'The Old Folks? They're not dangerous at all. They're just a bunch of ghosts. They played Musical Chairs with us. They ate Cake.'
'Skeeve, he really is in trouble. This isn't a joke.'
'I am afraid this lady is right?' Hermalaya said. 'The Old Folks are pretty much just as formidable as they were when they were alive. Only they can't die anymore, so they can indulge fits of temper when they feel like it? They had some pretty mean things to say when Matfany tossed me out of the castle, but I thought it was best for my people to comply with his wishes? But they were never happy about it. If he walked into their midst, then it could be very bad for them.'
'Don't let the contest blind you to what is really important, what?' Chumley said. 'Aahz isn't your enemy.'
'No, he's not.' My temper was softening. I remembered all the good days. I even thought back fondly on those times when he called me names and made fun of me. It was nothing personal. Most Pervects didn't even talk to Klahds. Aahz had been the best friend I ever had in my life. I owed him many favors, not just one little lifesaving expedition. I had to get out there. 'You're right,' I said. 'He would do the same for me. He wouldn't leave me in danger.'
'That's it,' Bunny said. 'This contest isn't about your friendship.'
'Can you take me back?' I asked Tananda.
'Oh, I can get you in there,' Tananda said. She snapped her fingers, and all the mud fell off her hair and clothes.
'The Old Folks don't mind anyone coming into their domain. They're just fussy about who they let out again. We have to hurry!'
I reached up into the force line that stretched over the office and filled up my reserves. 'I'm ready.'
'Wait a minute!' Hermalaya exclaimed. She put her arms around me and Tananda. 'I'm coming with you?'
'Okay by me. It's your dry-cleaning bill.' Tananda clapped her hands together.
BAMF!
'One's descendants are always a disappointment.'
The wave of smell hit me before anything else. It was like old cheese wrapped in burning newspapers with a touch of unwashed laundry. I gagged. Hermalaya detached herself from us.
'Aahz?' Tananda called. 'Can you hear me?'
'Over here ...' came a faint little voice.
I created a globe of brilliant white light. Suddenly, I could see that we were surrounded by spooky-looking trees heavy with hanging beards of moss. Creepers dangled overhead in swags and loops. Insects immediately homed in on the light, diving in and out of the white globe. My feet immediately sank into the spongy surface.
'Watch it,' Tanda said. 'It's pretty deep.'
I levitated until I could walk on the surface of the marsh. Tananda used a little of her own magik to guide me.
The ground was an expanse of uneven masses. I glided from one semisolid lump to another.
'There they are!' Tananda exclaimed, pointing to three blobs. I hurried after her. One green blob looked scalier than the others. I realized it was Aahz's head. All three of them were buried up to their lower lips in mud. Aahz's batwing ears were flat on the surface of the marsh.
'Don't make waves,' Guido said, stiffly. 'This stuff tastes worse than dorm food.'
I knelt beside them. 'Are you guys all right?' I asked.
Aahz glared at me.
'What took you so long?'
Tananda burst out. 'Aahz! Don't be ungrateful! Skeeve came out just as soon as we told him you were in trouble.'
'What makes you think I'm in trouble?' Aahz asked. 'We're just having a mud bath while a marsh squid drowns us so it can have an off-world buffet!'
'What's a marsh squid?' I asked.
A huge splash broke the silence.
'That is,' Tananda said, pointing.
My globe of light wasn't large enough to illuminate the entire expanse of the creature that surfaced.
It looked like what stomach flu felt like. It was a sickly green mass of squirming, writhing tentacles with an ugly face that even its mother must have had a hard time loving. Two big round eyes as flat as dinner plates stared at us. One of the tentacles coiled out at me faster than whipsnap.
I was ready for it. I charged up the globe of light and threw it right into those eyes. It exploded in a blazing star-burst. Without eyelids to cover them, the squid was suddenly blinded. It squealed like an injured rhinophant and contracted its body to protect its offended orbits.
I heard a yell of protest from Aahz and Guido. The waves of the thrashing squid were swamping them. I had to get my friends free before it managed to drown them by accident. I pulled some more magik out of my reserves and threw lassolike loops around all three. Then. I hoisted them up into the air.
It took a lot more effort than I expected. My eyes watered as clouds of foul-smelling gas were released. I strained to hold the spell together. When their feet cleared the water, I discovered that the tentacles of the giant squid were wound around their legs and lower bodies. I couldn't let it go, or it would slither back into the swamp, taking my friends with it. Instead, I reached out to the hanging creepers, some of which were thicker than my waist. Using my fast-dwindling supply of magik, I tied loops in them and captured the ends of the tentacles. The squid struggled against me. I was gasping, but I got one leg after another tied up. Pretty soon, the whole monster was hanging from the trees like a hammock.
Now that he was in no danger of drowning, Aahz took part of the rescue into his own hands. He grabbed hold of the nearest waving arm and sank his teeth into it.
The squid squealed again, taking the sound up into the highest registers of sound. It threw Aahz halfway across the swamp.
'Aaaagh!' Aahz yelled, his arms and legs windmilling.
SPLOOP!
Guido added his strength to the escape attempt. I couldn't see what he was doing, but the squid didn't seem to like it any more than it did being bitten. It trembled so much that Guido slipped out of its clutches.
'Anyone got a rope?' he shouted.
He hung by his fingernails from the tentacle. Tananda threw him a lifeline made of magikal force. He threw her a salute and hauled himself up again.
Matfany was the only one still tied up like a spider's lunch. I didn't have a lot of magik left available. Tananda was right. I could see some perfectly good force lines, but I felt as though a glass bubble were keeping me from getting at them.
With only limited magik left to me, I had to think small— like a hotfoot. I lit a white-hot flame underneath the coil of the tentacle.
The squid flinched away, but with the rest of it tied to the trees, it couldn't go very far. I followed it with the little fire, keeping it right up against the slimy green flesh until I could smell something burning.
Somehow a whisper made itself heard over the wailing.
'Excuse me, gentlemen, but it's squeezing me pretty hard.'
J ran over the surface of the swamp toward Matfany. Tananda scrambled up over the body of the squid,
