Vale of the Vole Part 35

"But-"

"I just thought you'd like the security of knowing that." She handed him the spell.

Esk looked at the object she had given him. It looked like a grain of rice. "This-is it?"

"Some of the elven spells are very small, but potent nonetheless." She smiled briefly. "So to speak."

"But I'll lose this!"

"Swallow it, then; you won't be able to lose it."

"But if I digest it, it will be gone!"

"No, it will be part of you for all your life. You will be able to invoke it anytime by gesturing like this." She made an encompa.s.sing sweep with her hands. "All you will have to do is be close to the one you wish to accommodate, whoever that may be."

"But I don't want anyone but you!"

"I was teasing you, Esk," she said gently. "Though it is true it would work with any female. If you get the wrong one, simply dissolve it by reversing the gesture."

"But it's your spell!" he protested. "You found it!"

"And you found me, so I am yours."

"But you're the one who needs it, not me. I mean, you're a bra.s.sie, in a realm of flesh, so-"

"There's only one I wish to accommodate, so he can have the spell."

"But this is so-"

"Esk," she said seriously. "I asked you for half your soul, so I could love you better and be more like you. You may give me that, when the time is right. You run the risk that if you do, and I am not what I seem, you will have lost half your soul and have nothing in return. Well, I want you to have something back, and I think this is it. I run the risk of giving it to you, and then you leave and I have nothing in return. So we are sharing risks, but if we win, we win together. Eat the spell; make it yours for always."

Esk ate the spell. Then he lay down and held her until he tired and fell asleep, after which she held him until he woke again. Somewhere between they exchanged an apology or two, but these might simply have been kisses.

Next day the campaign resumed. The ogres marched to their a.s.signed quadrants, and the winged monsters flew to theirs. Latia and Chex went to make contact with their liaisons, and Volney with his. Then both groups commenced the bashing of demons, and if the demons resembled other ogres or monsters, so much the better. The voles, forewarned, lay low.

Marrow walked through the Vale, up and down its long length, inspecting the situation. Soon the skeleton returned. "The monsters are bashing each other again!" he cried. "Sound the retreat!"

"Take my hand," Esk said.

Perplexed, the skeleton extended a bone hand, and Esk took it in his own. "No," he said.

The skeleton shimmered and changed, becoming a grotesque parody of itself. "Get lost, demon," Esk said.

"Demoness!" it said, and Metria's visage formed. "How did you know?"

"Marrow wouldn't tell a fib like that," he replied.

She puffed into irritated vapor and dissipated.

"You really showed her," Bria said, taking his hand. "Come, let's entertain ourselves while the campaign proceeds."

Esk looked around-and saw Bria on his other side, seated a little way away. He looked back at the first. The two were identical.

"Ignore the demoness over there," the closer one said. "She doesn't matter." She drew him in toward her for a kiss.

Esk remembered what Bria had told him the last evening. He could distinguish between the bra.s.sie and the demoness-but only by doing something whose success would make him wish he hadn't, because it was possible only with the demoness. Unless he used the accommodation spell, which he had no intention of doing. That left him with no way.

Then he snapped the fingers of his free hand. "What a fool I am!" he exclaimed.

"For waiting so long," the Bria close to him agreed.

"No," he said, invoking his magic.

"She fuzzed in outline, then reverted to Metria's form. "Curses, foiled again!" she exclaimed, disgusted, and vaporized.

Esk looked at Bria. "You never spoke!" he exclaimed.

"I knew you could distinguish between us if you wanted to," she said.

"I wanted to, but-" He shrugged. "Not the way you suggested."

"I know I shouldn't tease you like that! It could make trouble."

"Not anymore," he said. "Now that I've finally figured out the obvious."

"Your fleshly brains do seem rather inefficient at times."

"I'm insulted."

"Then I must apologize." She came to him and put her arms around him.

"No," he said.

She halted in place. "I wish you'd let me."

"Just making sure," he said. "You didn't dissolve into vapor, so you are the right one."

She nodded agreement, but still could not kiss him, because of his magic. So he kissed her instead.

The battle died down. The monsters were either tiring or running out of targets. "Do you think the demons have flown?" Bria asked.

"I don't trust them to give up so readily," he replied. "There must be some trick." But he couldn't think what it might be, because the demons certainly seemed gone.

The skeleton returned. "The action has died out everywhere," he reported. "The monsters have run out of demons."

"Give me your hand."

The skeleton extended his hand. "No," Esk said.

"I realize you don't trust this report, but that's the way it is," Marrow said uncomfortably.

"I know it is," Esk said. "I had a false skeleton come before, so I am verifying each."

"Oh, yes, of course. I had forgotten."

Chex and Latia were approaching. Esk touched each, using his magic, and each was genuine. There seemed to be no demon tricks.

"Maybe we had better verify this ourselves," Esk said.

"How can we do that?" Chex asked.

"Well, I can touch things to make sure they aren't demons, and I thought Latia might throw a curse. That could stir them up."

"I think it could," Latia agreed. "But I could verify only a limited region that way, and I have only two curses before I reach a blessing."

"That's my problem too," Esk said. "I can expose one demon at a time, but it would take forever to expose them all, and that wouldn't get rid of them anyway. So let's hope they're really gone."

They walked into the valley, to the nearest square governed by an ogre. The ogre stood and made a monstrous ham fist, ready to pulverize them.

"Oops, I hadn't thought of that," Esk said. "Of course it thinks we're demons pretending to be us."

"You stop the ogre, so I can get close enough to curse his territory," Latia suggested.

"Good enough."

When they reached the edge of the square, the ogre charged. "No!* Esk said sharply.

The ogre, dully surprised, backed off. Latia stepped in and hurled her curse.

A rock, a bush, and a pile of dirt wavered and vaporized. In a moment three demons manifested, rubbing the regions of their posteriors. This was evidently where the curse had scored.

"Go to it, ogre!" Esk cried, as he and Latia scrambled back.

With a horrendous roar, the ogre grabbed at two demons and bashed their heads together, while stomping on the third. The demons, of course, dematerialized. But their cover had been blown.

"If any new objects appear in your territory, bash them!" Esk called to the ogre.

"Me see, hee hee!" the ogre agreed, stomping gleefully. Meaning had returned briefly to its life.

Chex sighed. "Obviously the demons haven't vacated. They are getting plenty of solid-time by concealing themselves as inert objects. They can't hurt us that way, but neither can we drive them out. I fear we are losing this campaign."

Esk nodded glumly. "Fortunately, we do have another resource. I had hoped we wouldn't have to use the wiggle swarm, but it seems we'll have to."

"I vuppove we alwayv knew it would come to thiv," Volney said. "Otherwive we would not have vet up for it."

"But it means that the voles remaining in the Vale will have to evacuate," Chex said. "They won't like that."

"We will do what is nevewary," Volney said grimly. "I will give the word now." He moved off to find his liaison.

"It seems ironic," Chex remarked, "that in order to save the Vale, we have to come close to destroying it."

"We seem pretty much like monsters ourselves," Bria said.

They proceeded dejectedly back toward their camp.

Chapter 16. Swarm.

"Wake, Esk!" Bria whispered urgently.

"Huh?" he asked dully, finding it dark. "What time is it?"

"Midnight, or thereabouts," she said. "Esk, I hear something."

He grabbed her hand. "No," he said.

"Oh, don't doubt me now!" she cried. "I'm the real bra.s.sie! Just listen."

She was solid, and did not vaporize at his challenge. He had been afraid that Metria was trying to fool him at night, when he couldn't see her. He listened.

There was a kind of distant roaring noise. "Maybe the ogres, on their way home," he said. For they had dismissed the ogres and winged monsters, knowing that their efforts could not after all dislodge the demons.

"Ogres make crashes, not sustained roars. That's something else."

"Maybe Marrow will know. He's been scouting around. He doesn't sleep any more than I do."

"Where is he?"

"Out there somewhere. Should we call him?"

The roaring seemed louder. "Yes." Esk put his hands to his mouth and called: "Marrow! Marrow!"

In a moment they heard the skeleton approaching. "You heard it?" Marrow asked.

Esk took his bone hand and verified his ident.i.ty. "Yes. Do you know what it is?"

"It is water, and it is coursing this way. Is that significant?"

"Water? From where?"

"From the Kill-Mee River, obviously, or the Kill-Mee lake. That is the only significant source in this vicinity."

"But we are uphill from the Vale! How can the water be coming here?"