Myth-Gotten Gains

Calypsa leaped and lunged. She would have gutted Barrik, but he rolled bonelessly to his feet. He aimed the wand at Calypsa again.

"No!" Calypso cried. He tried to break away from my side to help her.

"Stay back," I said. "We've got this under control."

"But she is just a girl."

"She's your granddaughter," Tananda said. "Believe in her. She'll make you proud, I promise."

"Yes," the old man said, his eyes gleaming. "She is my granddaughter."

The two combatants circled each other. Barrik was starting to wheeze. He didn't have the stamina to keep up with a trained dancer. I knew sooner or later he would start to play dirty tricks.

I left Tananda guarding Calypso. The old man was gazing at the action. I headed to the opposite end of the audience chamber. With henchmen pressing coins into my hands I was still collecting bets.

I spotted Chin-Hwag on the floor. The Purse coughed up one more coin. She gave me a fishy embroidered eye. I signed toward Barrik. She nodded. If there was anything she could do to help, she was ready.

I had no idea what I could do against a powerful magician when the time came, but I could direct operations. A rattling sound attracted my attention to the rafters, where Payge fluttered in and balanced on a fancy carved boss.

Barrik started muttering. Tananda sent me a high sign. She was feeling a drain on the lines of force passing through the castle.

"Penny-ante, cheap, showboating legerdemain!" Bozebos muttered darkly. I opened my hand and looked at the face in the gem.

"What's he doing?" I asked.

"Oh, calling up a whirlwind," the Ring said. "That sort of thing went out with seances and disembodied floating faces outside the window."

"What?" I sputtered.

I dove for a spot behind a heavy pillar as a gray funnel cloud dropped out of the ceiling and joined Calypsa on the

dance floor. The henchmen backed up, giving the miniature tornado plenty of room.

She tossed her head. She had no trouble staying out of its way. The pasa doble became a troika, with Barrik trying to avoid Calypsa and his own creation. He snarled and whipped a hand. The whirlwind got larger.

"Can you tie a knot in that windbag?" I asked the Ring.

"No trouble," he said. The sapphire next to the base glowed, and the funnel cloud constricted. It squeaked like a deflating balloon, and vanished. Barrik looked perturbed.

"Who dares to interfere with me?" he demanded, glaring around him. He leveled the wand, and green flame spurted out in a ring. The henchmen wailed and ducked to avoid their master's spell. I kept low. Fire is one of the few things that can hurt my thick Pervect hide.

"Exterie vaunterie bellerie," came Payge's soft voice from the rafters. Barrik's flames went out. He started to look frightened.

"Who is doing that?" he asked, his voice an octave higher than before. He turned to Calypso. "YOU must be responsible for this! I knew the dancing was some kind of front! You are both magicians! Confess!"

He whipped up the wand. Waves of green light radiated toward the old man. I held up the Ring, but Tananda had Asti in her hands. From the bowl of the Cup arose a cloud of pink smoke. Green met pink and burst outward.

BLAM!

Half the henchmen in the vicinity were knocked off their feet. Barrik sprang to his feet, fuming. He faced Calypso.

The old man held himself proudly, pushing aside the wand.

"You don't scare me, tyrant. The Calypsos will withstand anything you can throw at them."

Barrik eyed him keenly. He looked like a guy who knew his way around lines of force. I wasn't wrong. He glared.

"The magik isn't coming from you! It is the Hoard that defends you! I shall destroy them!"

Magnificently, Barrik turned and aimed his wand at the heap of golden treasure on the floor.

"A load of magikal junk is no match for Barrik the Enchanter!" he declared. A blaze of white light shot out of the wand, landed on the pile and exploded, sending shards of white-hot metal flying.

Calypsa threw herself toward him, but too late. Even at that distance I could recognize a thermite grenade. Barrik must have some high-tech weaponry around to supplement force-line based magik.

"Chin-Hwag was in there," I groaned.

"No, she isn't," Bozebos corrected me. "Check your belt."

I looked down. The woven Purse looked up at me, perturbed.

"You could have come to get me," she said.

I was relieved, but I wasn't going to let her make me look incompetent.

"Why?" I asked casually. "The Ring was on the job."

"Perverts! You are all so lazy. You wait for others to do your work."

"That's a big fat lie," I snarled. "I'm just waiting for the right moment to step in."

Kazoo music loomed nearer and nearer. Zildie, the drum, raised its three little feet over the threshold of the enlarged keyhole. Buirnie gleamed brilliantly in the light from Klik, his personal spotlight.

"Say, everyone, did you miss me?" Buirnie asked. "Hey, you're not dancing! Everyone should be dancing!"

He struck up a livelier tone.