Piers Anthony - Castle Roogna

"And when did that happen?"

"What fool game are you trying to play?" Dor demanded. "You know I was looking at the wooden knob."

"The wooden knob," the spider repeated thoughtfully. "My own realization of antipathy came when I landed on that knob. Can that be coincidence?"

"Who cares!" Dor cried. "You sneaked up on me first!"

"Consider: you poked that knob; you touched it, indirectly, and became hostile to me. Then I touched it and became hostile to you. That knob must have something to do with it."

The logic began to penetrate Dor's emotion. He had poked the knob, just before…what happened. He knew the spider was his enemy, yet-

"Magic can do many things," Jumper continued. "Can it change friendship to enmity?"

"It can make strangers love each other," Dor said unwillingly. "I suppose it could do the opposite."

"The antenna-plants were tracking our approach. Had we been hostile to this forest, how would it have defended itself?"

"It would have thrown some spell, of course, since the trees aren't active the way tanglers are. Make us fall asleep, or get itchy, or something."

"Or get angry with each other?"

"Yes, that too. Anything is possible-" Dor paused. "Our fight-a spell?"

"The antennae observed us. Had we passed through without stopping, perhaps nothing would have happened. But we remained too long, poking into things-so the forest struck back. Setting us against each other. Reversing our feeling for each other. Would that not be an excellent defense?"

"Reversing emotion! That would mean the stronger the friendship, the worse the-"

"I am extremely angry with you," Jumper chittered.

"I am absolutely furious with you."

"Are we both as angry as it is possible to be? That would indicate a very strong friendship."

"Yes!" Dor cried, and it was as if a band about his heart had burst. "This spell-it could set whole armies against each other!" he exclaimed, seeing it. "The moment anyone jogs the knob, he activates it." The logic had now penetrated to his core; he had no further doubt they were the victims of a malignant spell. His hate for his friend was dissipating. It simply was not reasonable in the circumstance. Jumper's approach had not really been sneaky; the spider normally moved silently, and Dor's attention had been taken by the knob. Dor had assumed Jumper was his enemy for no good reason-except enchantment.

"May I release you now?" Jumper chittered.

"Yes. I realize what happened. It was a temporary spell, losing power with time."

"Reason abates much magic," Jumper agreed. He swung across, and with a few deft motions freed Dor. "I regret this happened," he chittered.

"So do I! Oh, I'm sorry, Jumper! I should have realized-"

"I was caught too. Emotion overcame reason-almost."

"But tell me-why didn't you bite my head off? I thought you were about to."

"The temptation was great. But one does not ordinarily kill a defenseless enemy unless one is hungry. One stores the meat alive until needed. And I do not like the taste of your type of flesh. So it was counter to logic to slay you, and that bothered me. I prefer to be governed by logic. I try to understand the complete situation, to achieve perspective at all times. To get all eight eyes on it, as we arachnids chitter."

"I didn't try to think things out," Dor admitted ruefully. "I just fought!"

"You are younger than I."

Therefore immature, and thoughtless, prone to errors of ignorance and emotion. How well he knew it! The spider's maturity had saved them again, providing the time and thought they needed to fight free of the spell. "Just how old are you, Jumper?"

"I hatched half a year ago, in the spring."

"Half a year!" Dor exclaimed. "I hatched-I mean was born-twelve years ago. I'm way older than you!"

"I suspect our cycles differ," Jumper said diplomatically. "In another quarter year I shall be dead of old age."

Dor was shocked. "But I've hardly had time to know you!"

"It is not how long one lives, but how well one lives that is important," Jumper chittered. "This quest with you has been generally excellent living."

"Except for the goblins and the Mundanes," Dor said, remembering.

"You ventured in quest of the healing elixir at great peril to yourself to enable me to survive the Mundanes' torture," Jumper reminded him. "Perhaps the episode was worthwhile, showing me the extent of your loyalty. Come, let us finish our mission without regret."

Would he have been so nice about having one of his own legs pulled off, to verify the friendship of the spider? Dor doubted it. It seemed he still had some maturing to do.

They dropped to the ground and set their markers to skirt widely around the enchanting wooden knob. This forest defense seemed unnecessarily devious, but of course an obvious trap could more readily be circumvented.

Dor found himself sobered, and not merely by the hostile magic. Jumper-dead in three months!

Chapter 10

Battle

They arrived at Castle Roogna without further significant event, in the afternoon. The King was highly gratified by their tidings. "So you persuaded the Zombie Master! How did you do that?"

"Actually, Millie did it," Dor said, remembering the possible limitations of his own actions. "She is marrying the Zombie Master."

"That must have been some effort you people put forth!"

"It was." Better to omit the details.

"How soon will the zombies arrive?"

"It should be within a day of us, if nothing goes wrong." Then Dor put his hand to his mouth. "But we marked the route so that nothing can go wrong!"

"Let's hope so," the King said dryly. "We had better establish regular communication. That will be a problem, because the goblin forces control the ground and the harpy forces control the air. I did not summon my troops home because their passage through monster-controlled territory would have been unconscionably hazardous. So I have no military couriers. Let me see." He pondered briefly, while Dor suffered a bad qualm: no troops to defend Castle Roogna! "Too bad there's not a river flowing between us. We'll have to use the ground."

"The dragon-horse!" Dor exclaimed.

"No, I let my dragons go, too, to defend their own homesites, which are more vulnerable than this tall Castle. Let's see what sort of fish we have."

"Fish?" Dor asked blankly. "But they can't-"

The King led the way to the royal fishpond, while Dor's prior qualm grew into a full-fledged funk. No troops, no dragons-and now the King planned to depend on fish?

King Roogna netted a bright goldfish. "Let me see," he said, concentrating.

The fish turned blue; Ice formed on the water. "Oops-I made it into a coldfish," Roogna said. "That's no help." He concentrated again. The fish became a fiery red, and the water boiled with the thrashing of the creature's tail. "No, that's a boldfish. I am having a difficult time!"

Dor merely watched. The King was performing significant magic, his misses more potent than any lesser person's wildest successes.

The King concentrated again. The fish turned brown, its skin wormlike. "Ah! There's my groundfish!" he exclaimed, satisfied. He scribbled a note, wadded it into a ball, and inserted it in the fish's mouth. He spoke to it: "Go check on the zombie army and report back here with the Zombie Master's reply."

The fish nodded, then swam through the net and into the wall of the pond, disappearing. "Now let's see what else offers," the King said. He moved to the Royal Aviary and netted a bird shaped like a ball. Its wings were so stubby it could hardly fly, and its beak and claws projected only marginally. "This round dove really isn't much use in this form." He concentrated.

Suddenly a great ugly strap appeared, constricting the dove's body. "No, no!" the King said, annoyed. "Must Murphy's law foul me up even on minor details? Not a bound dove. I want a ground dove!" And the bird turned the color of the groundfish. "There! Now you wait here until I have a message to send; then you fly through the ground and deliver it."