Out of Phaze

They foraged again for food, then settled down. “You can have the canoe if you wish,” Mach offered.

“Nay, I will resume bitch form and curl up in a hole,” she said. But she didn’t do that immediately, and that prevented Mach from settling down. He kept thinking of her as an attractive young woman, which made it awkward, especially when she leaned unselfconsciously toward him in that loose halter. He wondered how animals such as these had come to have human intelligence.

“Do you know Fleta personally?” he inquired politely.

“Aye, she be friend to me,” Furramenin said. “That be why I volunteered for this hunt. We talked, and she told me of the human man she liked. Thou art that man?”

“I am. Now I seek her to bid her farewell, for I must return to my frame.”

“Aye, she knew that. An thou hadst stayed, she was ready to speak the three thee’s to thee.”

“The what?”

“Dost thou know not? An a human or human-formed creature love truly, that creature bespeaks the other, ‘Thee’ three times and the splash bespeaks its truth.”

Now he remembered; Fleta had told him of it. Except for one detail. “Splash?”

She laughed. “How canst thou know true love in thy frame of Proton? The splash be the magic ripple that spreads in the presence of the utterance of significant truth.”

“But what if a person speaks that way, and the splash does not occur, what then?”

“Then the love be false. But there be none who would speak it, an it be not true.” She smiled. “My sire, Kurlrelgyre, tells of the time when Stile swore friendship to Fleta’s dam, Neysa, and the ripple was so strong it converted all present, the whole Herd of ‘corns and our Pack, to friendship to Neysa too. That was the first time we know of that a man made such oath to an animal. Thereafter the Herd and Pack fought not, having too many members with a common friend. But Stile be Adept; there be no other magic like that.”

“I know,” Mach agreed morosely.

Furramenin changed back to bitch form and curled up under the canoe, and Mach was able at last to relax. But sleep came slowly. If Fleta had let it be known that she cared that strongly for him, how could he tell her he was never going to see her again? Yet that was what he had to do.

In the morning the trip resumed, and by noon they reached the vampire cave. Furramenin introduced Mach to her friend Suchevane, who was of course a bat, then changed to bitch form and headed rapidly for home.

The bat fluttered to ground, then became a woman. And Mach had to lock his facial muscles to prevent his mouth from gaping and his eyeballs from bulging, for she was the most stunningly lovely creature he had ever seen. Her black silk outfit was technically no less encompassing than Furramenin’s furs had been, but the shape it clothed made it seem otherwise. A bat? A vampire? Any man would be sorely tempted to bare his throat for her, just for the pleasure of her contact!

Suchevane smiled, and that made it worse, for it showed her slightly lengthened canines without one whit diminishing her beauty. “We prey not on friends,” she said, fathoming his thought. “In fact, we dine not regularly on blood, but only on special occasion. Have no concern for thy health, handsome man.” Her voice was sultry, causing little shivers to play about sections of his torso.

“I—I’m really looking for Fleta,” he said. “I have to—“

“Aye,” she breathed. “And sad it be, too. She asked me whether an animal could marry a man, and I convinced her she could not. Unfortunate that be.”

Surely this bat-woman was in a position to know! “But I must at least see her before I go.”

“She was here four days ago, maybe five. She went on to the Red Adept.”

“An Adept? Why?”

“I dared not ask.”

“I must reach her!”

“I will guide thee there.”

“I—I’m not sure that’s wise.”

She smiled again. “Dost fear I will bite thee?”

“Uh, not exactly.” It was her kiss that would devastate him more! What would Fleta think, if he approached her in the company of this creature?

“We can be there by nightfall,” she said, climbing nimbly into the canoe.

Mach hauled his gaze away from her phenomenal profile and wielded his paddle. If she spoke truly, he would not have to spend a night on the road with her, in either her vampire bat or luscious human form. He wasn’t sure which of those worried him more. They proceeded south.

Sure enough, as evening loomed, they approached the castle of the Red Adept.

Suchevane inflated, and again Mach had to stifle a gape. “Hallooo, Red Adept!” she called. “A bat brings a visitor!”

A hole opened in the hill at the base of the castle. They paddled in. There was a tunnel there, leading to the central chamber.

Therein was a troll. Alarmed, thinking himself betrayed, Mach started to backpaddle, but Suchevane got out and approached the troll without fear. “Adept, I be Suchevane,” she said. “Of the flock thou dost protect. Long have I desired an excuse to meet thee.”