Лайон Спрэг Де Камп Array - The Incomplete Enchanter

Shea hesitated. «I don’t know Artegall. But you’re right; he’s the kind that, once he gets an idea, he won’t change it for hell or high water.»

Belphebe gave a gurgling little laugh. «You should be a court jester, Squire Harold. But your wit is well taken; that describes Artegall exactly.»

«Well, we’ll have to see to it that Artegall can’t interfere till we’ve left.»

«Nay. In honour I cannot take the side of that foul enchanter —»

«Look, Belphebe. Use your head. The knights of Faerie have been trying for years to catch up with these enchanters, haven’t they?»

«That is good sooth.»

«And they haven’t made out very well, have they?»

«Gentle Squire, you argue like a doctor. But I fear me you are right.»

«All right. This riding around in an iron shirt and knocking off an occasional enchanter isn’t going to get you anywhere, either. Now, my boss and I have a plan for getting into their organization and rounding up the whole batch at once. Why not let us try?»

«But how shall I —»

«Oh, tell Artegall we made a private truce to escape the Da Derga, and one of the conditions was that we get a head start before —» He stopped, listening.

Faintly, the drone of bagpipes wafted to them.

Belphebe cried: «The ceremony has begun again. Haste, or our friends are sped!» She began to climb down, but as they went Shea asked: «What can we do?»

«I’m not without some knowledge of things in the woods and their secret ways.» She dropped to the ground and started to whistle a strange little tune. When the whistle reached an ear-piercing pitch a unicorn came trotting forward. It nuzzled up to her, pawing the ground, and she vaulted onto its back.

«How about me?» asked Shea.

Belphebe frowned. «Right glad would I be to have you ride with me, but I misdoubt this steed will bear the weight. And they are ever jealous beasts, not liking to go two and two. You could hold the tail.»

That seemed unsatisfactory. But Shea thought, after all, I know some magic and ought to be able to conjure one up, and a conjured unicorn probably won’t object to this one. «If you’ll show me that brook, I’ll see what I can do,» he said.

He composed his incantation on the way to the stream. At its bank, he made a model, as well as he could, of the animal’s head in wet sand, and stuck a stick in it for a horn. Then he recited:

Oh, steed that feeds on the lightning

And drinks of the whirlwind’s surge,

In the name of the horse of Heimdall,

I conjure you now, emerge!

«Strong and docile and valiant,

Decked with the single horn,

In the name of the horse of Mohammed,

I conjure you now to be born!»

The brook exploded outward with a whoosh of spray. Shea jumped up and rubbed the water from his eyes — then rubbed them again to make sure. Once more, the travellers’ magic had been almost successful.

Standing in the creek was a fine big bull Indian rhinoceros.

Shea had a moment of panic. Then he remembered that the bad reputation of the rhinoceros tribe is based on the cantankerousness of the two-horned black rhino of Africa. Anyway, he couldn’t fool around conjuring up more animals. As he had asked for a docile one, this was presumably it. He landed astride the rhino’s back.

The rhinoceros might he docile, but it was unaccustomed to riders. When it recovered from the shock of its arrival in an unfamiliar section of spacetime, it scrambled out of the creek and galloped off through the trees in the wrong direction. Shea dug his fingers into the folds of its armour and hung on, veiling at Belphebe: «Hey! See if. ugh. you can. ugh. herd this thing!»

The rhino, seeing the unicorn on its right, charged snorting and baring its incisor tusks. The unicorn whirled aside. and poked the rhinoceros in the ribs as it lumbered past. The rhinoceros, now thoroughly upset, tried to flee. Belphebe skilfully herded it towards the camp of the Da Derga.

The bagpipes were louder. The rhinoceros, now more afraid of the unicorn than of this noise, headed straight for the sound. Shea clung to its hack, hoping it wouldn’t ram a tree. The trees sprang apart in front, and there was the camp of the Da Derga. A couple of guards held Chalmers across the altar. The Druids had found another knife.

Shea yelled: « Yeeeeeow! »

Heads turned towards him. The upraised knife hung suspended. Shea had a blurred picture of the camp streaming past, and everywhere the backs of the Da Derga departing in a swirl of tartan. They screamed most gratifyingly.

Beyond the altar Shea tumbled off his mount and walked back. Belphebe had already cut the bonds from the others; but, stiff and weak as they were, they could not move.

«I trust,» said Chalmers feebly, «that you are. uh. convinced of the inadvisability of visiting the world of Irish myth, Harold.»

Shea grinned, «Well, yes, since you mention it.» He turned to Dolon. «I can take this weakness off you. But I’m sure master like you would have a much better method than anything I could use. If you’ll give the spell to me, I’ll use it instead of my own.»

«Marry, that will I. Few youngsters are so polite as to appreciate the powers of the masters these days. Bend down —»

Artegall raised a feeble hand to Belphebe. «What ails you, girl? Fall on these caitiffs! Slay them.»

«The squire and I have a truce.»

«A truce!» he growled. «Make a truce with the devil, or the Da Derga, but not with these enemies, of human kind. The queen’s majesty shall hear of this.»

Shea was working the spell on Chalmers. As he got up he grunted: «Thank you, Harold. Really, do we have to go on —»

«Shut up, Doc,» snapped Shea. He didn’t intend to have his delicate bit of finagling gummed up at this stage. Then he turned to Dolon and worked the spell again.

The magician seemed annoyed that Chalmers should have preceded him, but it turned out to be a good idea. The moment Dolon was on his feet, he snatched up one of the discarded sacrificial knives and flung himself towards the helpless Artegall. Belphebe tripped him as he tried to go past. Before he could get up, Shea was on his back with one hand on his neck and the other on his wrist. «Drop that!» he yelled.

The magician’s bulbous body heaved convulsively. Shea found himself gripping the neck of an enormous snake of the python type. With horror he felt the immense rubbery strength of the thing as ii writhed a section from under him and tried to throw a coil around his body.

But, as the snakes have no hands, Dolon had perforce dropped the knife. Shea put the edge of it against the scaly throat. «Change back,» he gritted, «or I’ll saw your head right off!»

Dolon changed back. «Are you clean daft?» he sputtered. «There’s a stinking fool ’prentice for you — ruining our chance to get rid of our greatest enemy.»

«Not at all, master,» said Shea, relaxing his grip a trifle.

«You forget there’s a truce on. Belphebe and I agreed not to have any scrapping until we’ve separated.»

«You mean to keep your word with them ? ’Tis against nature and therefore void.»

Shea clamped down his grip again and turned to Artegall. «If I release you from the weakness spell, will you give me your word of honour to let us have a two-hour start?»

«Fool! Doltard!» shouted Dolon. But Artegall settled the question. «Covenant with an enchanter? Not I! Slay me if you will; you shall nor rid yourselves of all Gloriana’s knights so easily!»

Shea sighed at the unreasonableness of men. «Doc, watch Dolon for a minute, will you?» He got up and said to Belphebe; «Take care of him after we go.» Then, more softly: «Say, how can I get in touch with you again?»