Robert Asprin - Mything Persons

I looked ... and my heart stood still.

Aahz had been trying to ease up the roof peak closer

to Vic and his hostage. Vic must have seen him, because

he was now holding Luanna out over the drop as he

pointed an angry finger at my partner. The threat was

unmistakable.

"You know, eet is people like zat who give ze vam-

pires a bad name, eh?" Pepe said, nudging me.

I ignored him, lost in my own anxiety and frustration

at the stalemated situation. A noticeably harder jab

from Massha broke my reverie, however.

"Hey, Hot Stuff. Do you see what I see?"

I tore my gaze away from the confrontation and shot

a glance her way. She was standing motionless, her

brow furrowed with concentration and her eyes closed.

It took me a few moments to realize what she was

doing, then I followed suit, scarcely daring to hope.

There it was! A force line! A big, strong, beautiful,

glorious force line.

160 Robert Asprin

I had gotten so used to not having any magical energy

at my disposal in this dimension that I hadn't even

bothered to check!

I opened myself to the energy, relished it for a fleet

moment, then rechanneled it.

"Excuse me," I said with a smile, handing my sun-

glasses to Kirby. "It's about time I took a hand in this

directly."

With that, I reached out with my mind, pushed off

against the ground, and soared upward, setting a course

for the cornered vampire on the roof.

"All right, pilgrim. This is between you and

me!"

—A. HAMILTON

I had hoped to make my approach unobserved, but as I

flew upward, the crowd below let out a roar that drew

the attention of the combatants on the roof. Terrific!

When I wanted unobtrusive, I got notoriety.

Reaching a height level with that of the vampire, I

hovered at a discreet distance.

"Put away the nasties," I called to Tananda and

Guido. "He's not getting away by air."

They looked a bit rebellious, but followed the order.

"What's with the Peter Pan bit, partner?" Aahz

shouted. "Are you feeling your Cheerioats, or did you

finally find a force line?"

"Both." I waved back, then turned my attention to

Vic.

Though his eyes were obscured by his sunglasses, I

could feel his hateful glare burning into me to the bone.

"Why don't you just call it quits?" I said in what I

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162 Robert Asprin MYTH-ING PERSONS 163

hoped was a calm, soothing tone. "It's over. We've got

you outflanked."

For a moment he seemed to waiver with indecision.

Then, without warning, he threw Luanna at Aahz.

"Why can't you all just leave me alone!" he

screamed, and dove off the roof.

Aahz somehow managed to snag the girl's hurtling

form, though in the process he lost his balance and

tumbled backward down the roof peak, cushioning the

impact with his own body.

I hesitated, torn between the impulse to check on

Luanna's welfare and the desire to pursue Vic.

"Go get him!" my partner called. "We're fine!"

That was all the encouragement I needed. Wheeling

to my right, I plunged after the fleeing vampire,

What followed was one of the more interesting ex-

periences of my limited magical career. As I mentioned

before, my form of flying magically isn't really flying

... it's controlled levitation of oneself. This made en-

thusiastic pursuit a real challenge to my abilities. To

counterbalance the problem, however, Vic couldn't

really fly either'... at least he never seemed to flap his

wings. Instead, he appeared content to soar and bank

and catch an occasional updraft. This forced him to

continually circle and double back through roughly the

same area time and time again. This suited me fine, as I

didn't want to wander too far away from my energizing

force line now that I had found it. The idea of running

out of power while suspended fifty feet in the air did not

appeal to me at all.

Anyway, our aerial duel rapidly became a curious

matching of styles with Vic's swooping and circling in

his efforts to escape and my vertical and horizontal

maneuverings to try to intercept him. Needless to say,

the conflict was not resolved quickly. As soon as I

would time a move that came close enough to an in-

terception to justify attempting it again. Vic would

realize his danger and alter his pattern, leaving me to try

to puzzle out his new course.

The crowd loved it.

They whooped and hollered, their words of en-

couragement alternately loud and faint as we changed

altitude. It was impossible to tell which of us they were

cheering for, though for a while I thought it was me,

considering the approval they had expressed when I first

took off to join the battle. Then I noticed that the crowd

was considerably larger than it had been when I entered

the fray, and I realized that many of them had not been

around to witness the beginning of the conflict. To

them, it probably appeared that a monster from another

dimension was chasing one of their fellow beings

through the sky.

That thought was disquieting enough that I spared

some of my attention to scan the surrounding rooftops

on the off-chance that a local sniper might be preparing

to help his fellow countryman. It turned out to be the

wisest decision I had made.

As I was looking over my shoulder, I plowed full

force into Vic, who had doubled back on his own path.

The feint would have probably worked if I had seen it,

but as it was we collided at maximum speed, the impact

momentarily stunning us both. I managed to grab a

double handful of the vampire's turtleneck as we fell

about ten feet before I adjusted my levitation strength

to support us both.

"What's the matter with you!" I demanded, trying to

shake him, which succeeded only in moving us both

back and forth in the air. "Running away won't help."

Then I realized he was crying.

Somehow, this struck me as immensely unfair. I

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MYTH-ING PERSONS

165

mean, how are you supposed to stay mad at a villain

that cries? Okay. So I'm a soft tough. But the crying

really did make a difference.

"I can't fight you all!" he sobbed, tears streaming

down his cheeks. "Maybe if I knew some magic I could

take one of you with me ... but at least you're going to

have to work for your kill!"

With that he tore loose from my grasp and swooped

away.

His words stunned me so much I almost let him es-

cape. Fortunately, I had the presence of mind to call out

to him.

"Hey, dummy! Nobody's trying to kill you!"

"Yeah, sure," he shouted back. "You're up here just

for the fun of it."

He was starting to bank toward the street, and I knew

I'd only have time for one more try.

"Look! Will you stop running if I quit chasing you? I

think there's a major misunderstanding here."

He glanced back over his shoulder and saw that I was

still where I was when we collided. Altering his course

slightly, he flared his wings and landed on a carved gar-

goyle ornament jutting out from the side of the build-

ing.

"Why should you want to talk?" he called, wiping his

face with one hand. "I thought nothing I could say

would change your mind."

"You'd be surprised," I shouted back. "Say, do you

mind if I land on that ledge near you? I feel pretty silly

just hanging here."

He glanced at the indicated ledge, and I could see his