Murphy.'
'I have been wrestling with this sort of thing since our contest began. Do you suppose I normally require several efforts to adapt magic to my specific purpose? Yet it is a good exercise in discipline.'
'Yes,' Dor agreed. 'After this, I will be much more careful about everything I do, because I know things don't have to go right just by themselves.'
The King looked east, though the problem was too far away to see. 'Quite likely the antenna forest is annoyed by the presence of so many troops, so has put the notion into the goblins' minds that zombies are enemies.'
'But if the goblins have stayed out of that forest-'
'Their army has. But their advance scouts would naturally poke into everything, exactly as you did. If a scout brought back news of an enemy force-'
'We'll have to rescue them!' Dor cried.
'We really lack the personnel,' the King said regretfully. 'All we have are the centaurs, who must remain at work on the wall. That is in fact why we need the zombie help. It is uncertain that we have enough force to protect the unfinished Castle, and we dare not deplete our resources further.'
'But the zombies are coming to help you! Without them you may lose anyway!'
'Yes. It is a problem whose solution I have not yet fathomed. Murphy's curse is taking hold very powerfully, blocking all my efforts.'
'Well, I didn't go to all this trouble only to get the Zombie Master and Millie captured by goblins!' Dor said hotly. 'I'll go out myself and bring them in.'
'I would prefer that you not risk yourself,' Roogna said, frowning. 'It is not that I am insensitive to their fate; it is that I am sensitive to the fate of the greater number. We can help them best from Castle Roogna-if we can help them at all.'
Dor started a hot retort-then remembered how Jumper had controlled his reactions in the antenna forest, and saved the situation. Logic had to prevail, not emotion! 'How can we do this?'
'If it were possible to bring a squadron of harpies to that vicinity-'
'Yes!' Dor cried. 'Then they'll fight the goblins, and neither side will have a chance to worry about zombies. But how can we do this? The harpies will hardly honor any request we might make.'
'The problem, as I see it, is the lure. We need to attract them to the region, without sacrificing any of our own personnel.'
'No problem at all!' Dor said excitedly. 'Do you have a catapult?'
'I do. However, harpies will not pursue flying rocks.'
'They just might-after I've spelled those rocks. Let me talk to the ammunition.'
'There is a unit on the north wall. Where I had thought to place you anyway.'
'What, is something going right?' Dor asked, smiling.
'This is a complexly developing situation. Murphy cannot cover every detail of every contingency. His talent, like mine, is being stretched to its utmost. We shall soon know who is ultimately the more powerful Magician.'
'Yes, I guess so. And we have several Magicians on our side.'
'However, a single bad foul-up could foil all our efforts. In that sense, Murphy can match any number of Magicians.'
'I'd better get to that catapult. Do we have the location of the harpy forces?'
'The centaurs are conversant. They have no love for harpies or for goblins, and their senses are keen.' The King turned. 'I will send a message to the Zombie Master, asking him to move forward as soon as the harpies appear.'
Dor hurried to the north wall. Incomplete as it was, it was still far more substantial than the walls of the Zombie Master's castle. It was hard to imagine little goblins successfully storming such a massive rampart, especially when they were actually fighting harpies. Narrow stairs led around and up through the interior of the wall, until they debouched on the level upper ramp.
The centaurs were nervously pacing the rampart. They were neither the scholars of Dor's day nor the warriors of another day; they were comparatively simple workers not well equipped for war. Each carried a bow and quiver of arrows, however; centaurs always had been fine archers.
The crew was supposed to be engaged in construction, but the big stone blocks lay where they had been hauled, unplaced, while the centaurs looked out over the terrain.
'The King has put me in charge of this wall,' Dor announced, attracting their attention. 'We have three things to do. First, we must complete the construction of this wall as far as we can before the fighting starts. Second, we must defend it when the monsters arrive. And third, we have a special mission. I am going to put a spell on the shot for this catapult, and-'
'Who are you?' a centaur demanded. It was the first one Dor had met-the one who had refused to tell him where King Roogna was, and who had incited the other centaurs against Jumper. What a foul break, to have to work with this particular creature and crew! Foul break? It was a Murphy break! That curse was getting stronger, not weaker, as the end approached. The supposedly good break of having the catapult right where Dor had been assigned anyway was no good break at all. This was his worst possible location.
But he had to fight that curse. After all, he was a Magician too, and if that meant anything-
'Centaur, I am the Magician Dor,' he said coldly. 'You will address me with the respect my status requires.'
