Allan Cole - The Gods Awaken

Biner gaped at the sight, wondering for a bewildered moment of indecision if both he and Arlain were suffering from delusions because of their worry for Safar and Palimak.

Then another green fireball arced high. And another. And another.

Realization sunk in. "It's the Nepenthe !" Biner bellowed. "Someone's attacking the Nepenthe !"

And he sprinted back to the bridge, shouting orders to the crew.

Moments later the airship was turned about and they shot off for the Nepenthe , magical engines steaming and boiling at their greatest heat.

Jooli hacked at the thorny barrier with all her might. But, just as before, every barbed vine she cut was immediately replaced by several others, shooting off the main branch.

Beyond the barrier was the beach and freedom from this awful jungle.

At least the spiders haven't reappeared, she thought, as she hacked once more at the thorny vines.

Then Safar shouted, "Get back!"

She leaped away, fingers instinctively clawing madly at her hair, thinking that the huge spiders had returned after all.

But then she saw Safar loft a small clay jar into the air. It smashed just beneath the vines. A sheet of flame shot up, scorching the underbrush. Light from the outside world burst in. Then, to her dismay, she saw new vines inching forward to cover the exit to the beach.

In a calm voice, Palimak said, "It's working father. One or two more might do the trick."

And then she noticed just how thin and weak the new growth was. Palimak squatted and started mixing another batch of blasting elixir, while Safar fished a second clay jar from his pack.

Their flight through the jungle had been maddeningly slow. Scores of spells had been hurled at them. But each time either Safar, Palimak or Jooli had cast counter-spells, blocking their force.

Once a troop of enormous apes had threatened them, but Sergeant Hammer and the Kyranian soldiers had quickly driven them off with a barrage of arrows, backed by curses as heated as the obscenities the apes had voiced.

But then night had fallen. Just as Biner had surmised, they'd decided to camp out until first light. Leiria had suggested that perhaps they ought to signal Biner to lift them out, but Safar had been opposed.

Gesturing at their bound captive, King Felino, he said, "Someone very powerful is supporting this fellow.

Let's call her Queen X. Although I suspect from the spoor that a€?queena€™ is a lesser title. Maybe a minor deity. Maybe not. Time will answer that. However, it's my guess that if we involve the airship before we escape this jungle we'll be giving our Queen X an opportunity to work even greater magic."

He grinned down at Felino, who was tied securely to the large litter they'd used to drag him through the jungle. He was also securely gagged with a dirty strip of rag torn from Sergeant Hamyr's breech cloth.

An indignity the good sergeant had insisted upon. The gag was to keep their prisoner from shouting orders to any of his minions who might have followed.

"Isn't that so, Felino?" Safar said. "Isn't she just waiting for us to let down our guard? And wouldn't she just love to cast her spell-net over the airship?"

Felino could only grunt through the gag. Muffled as his response was, it didn't take a great deal of imagination for Jooli to recognize several filthy expressions.

"My, my," she said. "Such language from a king."

Leiria burst into earthy laughter. "I've known some kings better than I like to admit," she said. "And this fellow is nothing when it comes to royal curses."

Her jibe silenced King Felino for the remainder of the night. A silence he'd maintained when dawn broke, poking silvery beams down through the close-set trees.

The remainder of the trip to the thorny barrier had taken surprisingly little time. This was in the nature of journeys, Jooli thought. Slow to get there, quick to return.

Then she and Leiria and the soldiers had taken turns standing in the narrow avenue, hacking at the regenerating growth. While Safar and Palimak conferred on a magical solution.

Jooli felt left out of their endeavors. She was a witch, wasn't she? A damned good witch, even if she said so herself. Why wasn't she being consulted?

And then she realized there was no insult intended. It was merely a father and son attempting to make some sort of personal contact after a long period of mutual fear for the safety of the other.

The other thing she noticed was that every once in a while a strange tiny creature would appear on Palimak's shoulder. Apparently none of the others could see it. And even through her own sorcerous lens the creature was quite hazy. Obviously it was some sort of magical creature.

Whatever was going on, powerful magic was being discussed and worked. Despite her empathy for a father and his son, this rankled her even more.

By the gods, she wanted to be included!

And then, as she stepped back from her latest attack on the thorn barrier to catch her breath and wipe perspiration from her brow, Palimak rose to his feet and came over to her.

Without one trace of condescension, he said, "Pardon, Aunt Jooli, but could you help us with this?"

Jooli was amazed. And honored, in an odd sort of way, that Palimak had added the honorific of "aunt" to her name. Instead of all those dreary royal terms like Your Highness, Your Ladyship, and so forth.

Leiria smiled at her as if she knew what was running through Jooli's mind.

Hells, Jooli thought, I'm an aunt to this remarkable young man! What could be better than that?

And then Safar said, "I'm really sorry we've left you out of this, Jooli. The thing is, I recognized your grandmother's hand in this. Her spoor is mixed with that of the deity I call Queen X. And I was reluctant to put you in opposition to your own kin."

He grinned, blue eyes warm and friendly. "Will you forgive me?" he asked. "It wasn't Palimak's fault. He urged, but I resisted. I guess I'm just so much of a family person-being Kyranian and all-that I thought it might cause you pain."

"Nothing to forgive," Jooli said gruffly, surprised at the sudden emotion roughening her voice.

"And if you really need help, I'd be pleased to offer it. Especially if it involves my grandmother. Believe me, there's no love lost between us."

She joined them in their efforts, quickly catching the sense of the spell they were working. And also, after some concentration, she picked up the scent of Queen Clayre's magic-a too-sweet perfume underlying the acrid stench of fire.

Jooli knelt down and brushed aside leaves to make a bare patch of ground. As she talked, she made a sketch with a twig.

"My grandmother likes to use a special table for her magic," she said, drawing the table. "It looks like this

… also, the center is inlaid with golden tiles in the shape of a pentagram."

She sketched in the tiles, making the lines much deeper to give a three-dimensional effect. "Whatever or whoever this deity is that she's made her bargain with, chances are she's been summoned through those tiles."

Jooli looked up at Safar. "If we can break the contact between them-for only for a few seconds, even-we might be able to get through that barrier."

"How do we do that, Aunt Jooli?" Palimak asked.

"Grandmother is a very strong-willed woman," Jooli said. "Even when she's ill, she refuses to acknowledge it. However, there is one thing that drives her mad."

"What's that?" Safar asked.

"Capsicum," Jooli replied.

Safar's eyebrows shot up. "You mean, like pepper?" he asked.

"Exactly," Jooli said. "Pepper. The hotter the better. She doesn't even have to eat it. The mere presence of capsicum dust gives her a horrible reaction. She swells up like a balloon, her sinuses desert her and she gets a terrible rash all over body. She's a very vain woman, you know. So the rash probably angers her more than anything."