It took a lot more effort than I expected. My eyes wa-tered as clouds of foul-smelling gas were released. I strained to hold the spell together. When their feet cleared the wa-ter, 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 creep-ers, 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 get-ting 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 wail-ing. “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, evading the tentacles that still waved free. She beat me there. With a dagger drawn from somewhere within her clothes, she stabbed the squid. I got there just in time to catch Matfany as the tentacle let him go. It felt after us, but I turned up the flame. It winced and curled up against its body. Tananda dropped down lightly to the surface. We each took an arm and carried Matfany over the water to a spit of nearly dry land under an arched willow bough.
Matfany brushed himself down. His somber suit and black curly fur were plastered with green mud. “Sir, thank you for your courtesy.”
“Save it,” I said, with no friendliness in my voice. “The princess was nearly captured today, and that was all your fault.”
The prime minister managed to look dignified in spite of his condition. “I only did what I had to do, sir.” “Seems to me you could have figured something else out, a smart guy like you?”
Aahz waded through the slime toward us. He stumped up on the spit of land and wrung out his sleeves. Gallons of water and a frog poured out of the sodden tubes of cloth.
“What a miserable place,” he said. “I can't believe you Swamp Foxes think this is the nice part of town.” “How are you?” I asked. “How do you think?” Aahz said. “I'm wet! Look at that. A Barclys of Gannet suit, brand-new, ruined!” “Haven't you got something you'd like to say to Skeeve?” Tananda asked.
He looked up at me. “What do you think I should say to him?”
“Well, I don't know. How about 'Thanks, you saved my life'?” Tananda pressed him. “Aren't you grateful?” Aahz made a face.
“That wasn't anything special. So he clotheslined a squid. I'd have done the same for him.” He turned to me. “Thanks, You can go away now. We're fine from here.”
I gawked at him. “Thanks? That's it?”
He glared at me. “What do you want, a medal?” “What about some, I don't know, gratitude?” “You got it. I'm grateful. Happy?” “No, in fact,” I said. “You're acting like you're not happy to see me.”
“And why should I be?” Aahz asked. “We're on oppo-site sides of this competition. You stepped in to help. Now we go back to our respective corners and keep slugging. See you at the finish line.”
I felt forlorn, then upset. “That's it? Are you mad at me? Aren't we still friends?”
“Maybe later,” Aahz said. I felt devastated. He prodded my chest with a talon. "No, I'm not mad at you, but I ought to be! Look, you are acting like I'm the one who left. You bugged out. You didn't talk to anyone except Bunnyunless you needed them for something. How do you think they liked that?
