make the circuit, looking as if she were on a real task for somebody, and come back before anyone did.
“All sleeping quarters, Master. They are simply cleaning up.
I do not like to say so, but this level does not look very used. At best, there was one or two rooms that appeared slept in.”
He nodded. “Yeah, I’m beginning to get a real sinking feeling about this. Let’s move up.”
The second tower level seemed deserted, but there were only a few doors on either side, so they made their way cautiously down on both sides, then opened the doors. One proved to be a sort of sorcerer’s laboratory, but with almost everything looking closed and put away, not used for some time. The other was some kind of meeting or briefing room. Joe was about to signal a move up again when there came the sounds of heavy boots ascending the stairs. He and Mia quickly ducked into the meeting room and shut the door, hoping that this wasn’t the morning guard showing up for a briefing right there.
The bright light of day pouring through the windows along the far wall made Joe suddenly realize how late it was getting. “We might have to hide in here most of the day,” he told her in a low tone. “Moving around until dusk is going to be more and more difficult, no matter how empty this place is.”
“Uh-Master?”
“Yes?”
“Do you notice that the room seems to be getting darker?”
He turned and tensed. Sure enough, in spite of the light from outside, it did seem to be getting significantly darker inside.
There was a sudden sound from above and in back of them, metallic yet not like a sword, and suddenly, from overhead, an enormous bright light shone down, the product of a candle set inside an assemblage of mirrors to form a basic spotlight aimed at the small stage in front.
Tense, sword drawn, Joe turned back to where that spotlight shone.
“Ta tata, ta tola, ta ta dah dah dah dee!” a sexy woman’s voice hummed playfully from the stage. From stage left, the spotlight caught just a leg, curved suggestively, and then, from behind, the woman stepped out.
The soul inside and the amount of time that had passed made the same body look far less like the old Mahalo McMahon; this was a gorgeous, sexy sex kitten, at once playful, sensuous, erotic as hell, and, for all that, dangerous. Then big brown eyes darted momentarily over in their direction, and just for a moment a wicked, playful smile came to her face, and Esmilio Boquillas shone through.
In a soft, sexy voice, she sang, “I enjoy bein’ a guy bein’ a girl like me.”
She looked down at the pair, and the smile broadened. “Sorry, but I do so like a good entrance.”
Joe didn’t wait, starting a spring right toward the stage, but she lifted up a hand and a series of yellow magic strings sprang from it and held both him and Mia fast. He couldn’t move forward. He stopped struggling and relaxed.
“You’ve got your powers back!” he said, amazed.
“A mere shadow of my former powers,” she responded, “but enough for the likes of the two of you.”
“How long have you known we were here?”
“Why, darling, I’ve been simply mad waiting for you to arrive! I knew the moment we discovered that the little thief had been captured over on the other side that you would have to follow. In fact, I’ve been waiting ages, ever since I let that little spy escape with the news that we had your old bodies here. Good old Ruddygore! I just knew he wouldn’t fail me!”
“It will be Judgment Day before Ruddygore helps you, and you know it!”
“Oh, but he has helped. More than I could ever have done on my own. In fact, I owe it all to him. First, his silly little ego that made him think he could control Boquillas like a puppet and that a Boquillas with enough foresight to have prepared this soul transfer as a last resort into this marvelous body wouldn’t also prepare defenses against the sort of control spells he’d use. Second, not realizing, as I would not have, that he’d done what the whole Council couldn’t, given me some power again on my own. More than enough with my mind to unravel his leashes.”
“How did you get those powers back?” Joe asked, testing occasionally die spell that kept him where he was and to no avail. “They said when the Council lifted somebody’s power it was impossible ever to get it back.”
“Oh, do struggle, my dears! The tighter you struggle, the tighter it holds.” She sat perched on the side of the stage, the smile on her lips impossible to erase.
“It is true, my old powers are gone,” she admitted. “But you’ve heard it said that there’s a little witchcraft in all us girls. I wouldn’t have believed it myself until I became one, but once I realized there was real power there after becoming one myself, I knew instantly how to use it. Mahalo McMahon, as it turned out, was better than that. She was high priestess of the Neo-Primitive Hawaiian Church or some such thing. I also realized that I had it only so long as I remained female. That was no hardship; I decided I liked being a girl! I liked particularly the way men looked at me, the way they’d get all silly and fall all over themselves just because I batted an eye at them or swiv-eled a hip. It was a whole new level of power and control. And because I again had some power and the knowledge of how to use it, I could walk without fear, which is what keeps most women down. As a man, I’d never had much use for sex, except as a tool in my work, as powerful as it was. I began to discover how much I’d missed over all that time, how much fun it was to be a real person. The Rules decided that I was a witch, which was fine, but, thank the fates, I didn’t have to be the Dark Baron or the Dark Anything anymore.”
“I’m glad to see you found your true calling,” Joe responded sourly. “The Wicked Bimbo of the North.”
She laughed. “I owe that to you and Ruddygore and the others, too,” she said. “All those years, all that enormous effort, all for the noblest of ends. Then I was exiled to Earth, and saw so many political and economic systems, all launched for noble purposes, and I saw homelessness, starvation, misery, and despair. Some worked better than others, but not a one of them really worked any better than our own systems here. In disgust, the demoted demons and I decided to wipe it all away, but you stopped that, and I’m so very happy you did, my darlings. For the first time, I’m totally honest, even with myself, and totally free of those hang-ups. Now, for the first time, I can look myself in the mirror and know that I’m doing what I do and choosing what I choose for no other reason than because being bad is so much more fun!”
She frowned, staring suddenly at Mia, who was staring back, furious at Boquillas. “Why darling, that suits you just wonderfully, looking like that! One of my little ideas that’s turned out so nicely. I never had much liking for women when I was a man and, now that I am a woman, I find I like other women even less than before. What a wonderful comeback, darling, and I had nothing to do with it! Ruddygore himself went to great lengths to insure you would sink to slavery.”
“I have always been a slave, you witch! You should know! You killed Tiana, my mistress!” Mia shouted.
For a moment Boquillas looked genuinely puzzled and confused, but then she stared at Mia, then at Joe, reading the small spells Ruddygore had woven, and broke into laughter. “Oh, my! That is amusing!” she managed after a bit. “My dears, I didn’t kill Tiana, let alone import some royal slave bimbo. How could I? You had the Lamp, which was the only way across at the time. Ruddygore wanted to insure that you would be lean, mean, and totally loyal and unwavering to the mission.
“You are Tiana, my sweet. You always have been.”
“No!” Mia wailed. “It is not true!”
But Joe almost instantly realized that it was true. So many more things made sense if it was, and there was no getting around the transportation problem that Boquillas so neatly pointed out. There was no way that a Mia could have fooled him so thoroughly and for so long those first few months back. And, before they returned, Ti could read quite well, even English. Ruddygore again, playing with and manipulating everyone as pawns in his grand game. The Rules had not reduced her to this; Ruddygore had created the conditions so that upon landing this result was inevitable.
It became suddenly obvious, the whole plot. Her intuitive skills with weapons, for example. And what was it to Ruddy-gore, who could mess with both their memories and perceptions, to give her the dance, maybe taken
