Crombie had taught him, useful for handling an attacker with a weapon.
But the Magician was alert. As Bink heaved, Trent stepped around, keeping on his feet. He wrenched his sword arm free, threw Bink back, and oriented for the killing thrust. 'Very nice maneuver, Bink; unfortunately, they also know such tactics in Mundania.'
Trent thrust with instant decision, and with killing force. Bink, off balance, unable to move out of the way, saw the terrible point driving straight at his face. He was done for this time!
The winged doe shot between them. The sword plunged into her torso, the point emerging from the other side, just shy of Bink's quivering nose.
'Bitch!' Trent yelled, though that was not the proper term for a female deer, winged or land-bound. He yanked free the bloody blade. 'That strike was not meant for you!'
The doe fell, red blood spurting from her wound. She had been punctured through the belly. 'I'll transform you into a jellyfish!' the Evil Magician continued in fury. 'You'll smother to death on land.'
'She's dying anyway,' Bink said, feeling a sympathetic agony in his own gut. Such wounds were not immediately fatal, but they were terribly painful, and the result was the same in the long run. It was death by torture for Chameleon.
The omen! It had finally been completed. The chameleon had died suddenly. Or would die-
Bink launched himself at his enemy again, experiencing a vengeful rage he had never felt before. With his bare hands he would-
Trent stepped nimbly aside, cuffing Bink on the side of the neck with his left hand as he passed. Bink stumbled and fell, half conscious. Blind rage was no substitute for cool skill and experience. He saw Trent step up to him, raising the sword high in both hands for the final body-severing blow.
Bink shut his eyes, no longer able to resist. He had done everything he could, and lost. 'Only kill her too-cleanly,' he begged. 'Do not let her suffer.'
He waited with resignation. But the blow did not fall. Bink opened his eyes-and saw Trent putting his terrible sword away.
'I can't do it,' the Magician said soberly.
The Sorceress Iris appeared. 'What is this?' she demanded. 'Have your guts turned to water? Dispatch them both and be done with it. Your kingdom awaits!'
'I don't want my kingdom this way,' Trent told her. 'Once I would have done it, but I have changed in twenty years, and in the past two weeks. I have learned the true history of Xanth, and I know too well the sorrow of untimely death. My honor came late to my life, but it grows stronger; it will not let me kill a man who has saved my life, and who is so loyal to his unworthy monarch that he sacrifices his life in defense of the one who has exiled him.' He looked at the dying doe. 'And I would never voluntarily kill the girl who, lacking the intelligence to be cunning, yields up her own welfare for the life of that man. This is true love, of the kind I once knew. I could not save mine, but I would not destroy that of another. The throne simply is not worth this moral price.'
'Idiot!' Iris screamed. 'It is your own life you are throwing away.'
'Yes, I suppose I am,' Trent said. 'But this was the risk I took at the outset, when I determined to return to Xanth, and this is the way it must be. Better to die with honor than to live in dishonor, though a throne be served up as temptation. Perhaps it was not power I sought, but perfection of self.' He kneeled beside the doe and touched her, and she was the human Chameleon again. Blood leaked from the terrible wound in her abdomen. 'I cannot save her,' he said sadly, 'any more than I could cure my wife and child. I am no doctor. Any creature into which I might transform her would suffer similarly. She must have help-magic help.'
The Magician looked up. 'Iris, you can help. Project your image to the castle of the Good Magician Humfrey. Tell him what has happened here, and ask him for healing water. I believe the authorities of Xanth will help this innocent girl and spare this young man, whom they wrongly exiled.'
'I'll do nothing of the sort!' the Sorceress screamed. 'Come to your senses, man. You have the kingdom in your grasp.'
Trent turned to Bink. 'The Sorceress has not suffered the conversion that experience has brought me. She will not help. The lure of power has blinded her to all else-as it almost blinded me. You will have to go for help.'
'Yes,' Bink agreed. He could not look at the blood coming from Chameleon.
'I will staunch her wound as well as I can,' Trent said. 'I believe she will live for an hour. Do not take longer than that.'
'No?' Bink agreed. If she died-
Suddenly Bink was a bird-a fancy-feathered, fire-winged phoenix, sure to be noticed, since it appeared in public only every five hundred years. He spread his pinions and took off into the sky. He rose high and circled, and in the distance to the east he saw the spire of the Good Magician's castle glinting magically. He was on his way.
Chapter 16.
King
A flying dragon appeared. 'Pretty bird, I'm going to eat you up!' it said.
Bink sheered off, but the monster was before him again. 'You can't escape!' it said. It opened its toothy mouth.
Was his mission of mercy to end here, so near success? Bink pumped his wings valiantly, climbing higher, hoping the heavier dragon could not achieve the same elevation. But his wounded wing-formerly the hand Trent's sword had cut-robbed him of full lifting power and balance, forcing him to rise with less velocity. The predator paralleled him without effort, staying between him and the far castle. 'Give up, dumbo,' it said. 'You'll
