There were a few round stones at the edge. The river did not have the same reason to be wary of stones that the trees did, but it was best to be careful. Bink poked at them gingerly with his staff to be sure they weren't magic lures; fortunately they weren't. He poked experimentally at a pleasant nearby water lily, and the flower snapped three inches off the tip of his pole. His caution was justified.
'All right,' he said when they had a fair reserve of stones. 'We'll try to ambush him. We'll arrange noose-loops across his likely path of retreat, and cover them over with leaves, and you can throw your loops at him and I'll throw stones. He'll duck the stones and loops, but he'll have to watch us both to do it, while retreating, so he may step into a hidden loop. It'll bind on his foot, and he'll be vulnerable while he tries to get it off, and maybe we can score. We'll get some material from a blanket tree to throw over his head, so he can't see us and can't transform us, or we can hold the hypno-gourd in front of his face. He'll have to yield then.'
'Yes,' she said.
They set it up. Their covered loops extended from a hungry tangle tree to the ant-lion nest, and their ambush was in an invisible bush they discovered by sheer accident. That was about the only way such a bush could be discovered. Such plants were harmless, but could be a nuisance when stumbled into. When they hid behind it, they became invisible too, so long as they kept the bush between them and the viewer. They settled down to wait.
But Trent surprised them. While they had been setting up the trap, he had been circling around, orienting on their sounds. Now he came at them from the north. Chameleon, like most girls, had to answer calls of nature frequently, particularly when she was excited. She went behind a harmless mock-tentacle banyan tree, gave one little gasp of alarm, and disappeared. As Bink turned, he saw a lovely young winged deer bound out.
The battle was upon him! Bink charged the tree, stone in one hand, pole in the other. He hoped to knock out the Magician before Trent could throw his spell. But Trent wasn't there.
Had he jumped to a conclusion? Chameleon could have scared out a hiding doe-
'Now!' the Evil Magician cried from above. He was up in the tree. As Bink looked up, Trent gestured, not making a magical gesture, but bringing his hand down within six feet so as to cast the spell effectively. Bink jumped back-too late. He felt the tingle of transformation.
He rolled on the ground. In a moment he got his hands and feet under him-and discovered he was still a man. The spell had failed! He must have made it out of range in time after all, so that only one arm was in range, not his head.
He looked back at the tree-and gasped. The Evil Magician was tangled in the prickles of a candystripe rose bush.
'What happened?' Bink asked, forgetting his own peril for the moment.
'A branch of the tree got in the way,' Trent said, shaking his head as if dazed. He must have had a hard fall. 'The spell transformed it instead of you.'
Bink would have laughed at this freak accident, but now he remembered his own position. So the Magician had tried to turn him into a rose bush. He hefted his rock. 'Sorry,' he apologized-and hurled it at the handsome head.
But it bounced off the tough shell of a purple tortoise. Trent had converted the rose to the armored animal and was hidden behind it.
Bink acted without thinking. He aimed the pole like a lance, ran halfway around the tortoise, and thrust it at the Magician. But the man dodged, and again Bink felt the tingle of enchantment.
His momentum carried him beyond his enemy. He was still a man. He retreated to the invisible bush, marveling at his escape. The spell had bounced, convening the tortoise to a werehornet. The insect buzzed up angrily, but decided on escape rather than attack.
Now Trent was hot on Bink's trail. The bush became a woman-headed serpent that slithered away with an exclamation of annoyance, and Bink was exposed again. He tried to run-but was caught a third time by the magic.
Beside him a yellow toad appeared. 'What is this?' Trent demanded incredulously. 'I struck a passing gnat instead of you. Three times my spell has missed you. My aim can't be that bad!'
Bink scrambled for his staff. Trent oriented on him again, and Bink knew he could neither get out of range nor bring his weapon to bear in time. He was finished, despite all his strategy.
But the winged deer charged from the side, threatening to bowl over the Magician. Trent heard her coming, and spun to focus on her. As she reached him she became a lovely iridescent butterfly, then a very pretty wyvern. 'No problem there,' Trent remarked. 'She's good-looking in whatever form I put her, but my spells are registering perfectly.'
The small winged dragon turned on him, hissing, and suddenly she was the winged doe again. 'Scat!' Trent told her, clapping his hands. Startled, the deer bounded away. She was not overly bright.
Meanwhile, Bink had taken advantage of the distraction to retreat. But he had gone toward his own carefully fashioned trap, and now he did not know precisely where the noose loops lay hidden. If he tried to cross that line, he would either trap himself or give away its presence to Trent-assuming the Magician was not already aware of it.
Trent strode toward him. Bink was cornered, victim of his own machinations. He stood unmoving, knowing the Magician would turn on him the moment he tried to act. He cursed himself for not being more decisive, but he simply did not know what to. He obviously was no duelist; he had been outmaneuvered and outmagicked from the outset of this contest. He should have left the Evil Magician alone-yet he still could not see how he could have stood by and yielded Xanth up without even token protest. This was that token.
'This time, no error,' Trent said, stepping boldly toward Bink. 'I know I can transform you, for I have done it many times before without difficulty. I must have been overhasty today.' He stopped within range, while Bink stood still, not deigning to run again. Trent concentrated-and the magic smote Bink once more, powerfully.
A flock of funnelbirds manifested around Bink. Hooting derisively, they jetted away on their fixed wings.
'The very microbes surrounding you!' Trent exclaimed. 'My spell bounced right off you-again. Now I
