Piers Anthony - Out of Phaze

“Then perhaps this,” he said. He sang: “Let me fare, through the air.”

The ceiling opened, revealing open sky above. Bane spread his arms and sailed up, quickly leaving the structure of the Purple Demesnes. But from the horizon came a monstrous flock of harpies, that quickly converged on him.

Bane looked at the ugly half-birds, and reversed course. He plunged down again, and in a moment stood again before the Purple Adept.

“Or this,” he said. Then he sang: “Make me most like a ghost.”

Nothing changed in appearance—but now Bane walked directly into and through the wall, and on through the rock, as if he had no more substance than a ghost. No troll or harpy could touch him now.

Then something manifested that could touch him. A genuine ghost! It was in the form of a worn old man, but it paced him through the rock, and closed on him, and when the withered old hand closed on his arm, it had the grip and force of the supernatural. Bane was a pseudoghost; he could not stand up against the real thing. Thus he found himself a third time back before the Purple Adept. His attempts to escape by using his magic had been foiled. He was only an apprentice Adept; he was unable to match the power of a mature Adept. He could not get away this way.

Purple nodded. “Aye, I believe thou dost make thy point. Thou art the apprentice.”

But Purple had also made his point: Bane remained captive.

A serf hurried up. “Master—the mare be gone!”

The Adept wheeled on him. “She cannot be!”

“She—one moment she was tied. The next, her harness fell to the floor, and there was only a tiny bird, and it—

The floor of the tunnel opened up beneath the serf. The luckless man fell in, screaming. The floor crunched closed on him. The Adept wheeled and strode back toward Fleta’s cell. Bane followed, keeping his face straight. He knew that the unicorn had acted while the Adept was distracted by Bane’s attempts to escape. She had changed to hummingbird form and used the remade amulet to make a hole in the magical barrier the diameter of her horn—which was just large enough for the hummingbird to squeeze through. She had flown so swiftly and carefully that they had quickly lost track of her.

The Purple Adept swung his angry gaze around to bear on Bane. ‘Thou hast wrought this deed!”

Bane shrugged. “If thou dost say so.”

“Then learn the consequence of thy defiance!” The ground shook, and began to crumble beneath Bane. There was tremendous magic in the air. He realized that the Adept, in his fury, meant to kill him. Bane sang a spell to protect himself, but he was after all only an apprentice; the force of the magic being brought to bear against him was overwhelming. Then a new face appeared.

“Hold thy malice, Purple!” Bane recognized the face, as it hovered in the air between himself and the Purple Adept in three-dimensional detail within a watery bubble. It was the Translucent Adept, as strong as any but not as malicious as some. Yet this man was allied against Blue; why should he act on Bane’s behalf?

“What business be this of thine?” Purple snapped at the face.

“I made the first offer for this lad’s service,” Translucent replied. “I braced him, or his other self, in the Brown Demesnes.”

“And got nowhere!” Purple retorted. “I took effective action.”

“And blew it,” Translucent pointed out. “Now the mare be gone, and thou hast no hold on the boy. What will it gain any of us, an thou destroy him, other than the warfare of Blue?”

“Fornicate Blue!” Purple swore.

Translucent smiled grimly. “Easier said than done. He will have thine entrails strung across the landscape of thy Demesnes, and thy minions transformed to toads. And for what? For vengeance against thy rashness that should ne’er have been started! Thou didst ne’er have a chance to coerce that lad into serving thy will; thou didst only interfere with the job I was doing correctly.”

“Oh, thou couldst have bought cooperation from the apprentice?” Purple demanded unbelievingly.

“Assuredly, an thou hadst not interfered.”

Purple got canny. “Thou couldst accomplish it now— without the hostage mare?”

“That be more challenging, after thine alienation of the lad. But yes, methinks I can.”

“Wouldst wager on that, Trans?”

Translucent’s face hardened. ‘Thou dost desire it thus? Then wager me this: an I succeed, the leadership of this enterprise be mine for the duration.”

“And if thou dost fail, domain o’er the watery East Pole be mine!” Purple said.

Translucent paused, evidently wary of such a risk. Then he nodded. “The East Pole,” he agreed. “Now give me the apprentice.”

“Take him, then,” Purple said.

The floating face shimmered as if dissolving; then the liquid bubble expanded, almost filling the passage. “Step in,” the face said to Bane. “An thou prefer my company to his.”

Bane knew what kind of treatment to expect from Purple! He did not like to remain a captive, but certainly Translucent was more civilized than his present captor. He stepped into the shimmering bubble.

The surface tension of the globe pressed against his face and form, then traveled around his body and snapped into place behind him. He was inside, and though it seemed like liquid, he had no trouble breathing.

Then the globe shimmered, and the scenery outside it was lost in the play of distortion. When the bubble firmed, the exterior had changed. Now it was a deep sea, with fish swimming and seaweed waving.

The globe dissolved, but there was no change; Bane still stood and breathed normally. The water surrounding him seemed illusory, though he knew it was not. Translucent’s magic enabled him to survive.

“Come, we must talk,” the Adept said, and walked along the floor of the sea, showing the way.

Bane followed him, knowing that he could no more escape the power of this Adept than he could the other. Translucent could cause the water to become unbreathable at any time, forcing Bane to try to swim for the surface before drowning, or could summon a water monster to consume him. True, Bane could use his own magic to protect himself—but how well would his spells work, when garbled through water? He would do best to treat Translucent with respect, at least until he knew what the man intended.

Translucent brought him to a bower in the water, a palatial cave guarded by a water dragon. Surprisingly comfortable stones were sculpted as chairs, and large fish hovered in the manner of servants. A mermaid brought a platter of sea delicacies: nutlike and fruitlike treats, and seaweed very like salad vegetables. They ate at leisure, and even had wine to drink; the fluid remained in its goblets despite the environment. Bane had never been here before, and he found it most interesting. Translucent had always been a somewhat shadowy figure to him, seldom participating in the interactions of Adepts.

After the meal, the Adept got down to business. “Thou dost know my purpose be similar to that of the others who oppose thy father,” he said. “Merely my means be other.”

“What purpose be that?” Bane asked somewhat tightly.

‘To reestablish contact with our brothers of Proton. We had always thought it theoretically possible, but hitherto no avenue had manifested.”

“It be not much of an avenue,” Bane pointed out. “I can exchange places with mine other self, carrying with me my knowledge and memories. I cannot carry anything physical.”

“Messages alone suffice. Dost thou not grasp their importance, Bane?”

Now the Adept was calling him by name. The man was certainly being courteous, but as he had said, he was a member of the forces opposing the Blue Adept, and therefore hardly to be trusted. “What importance?”