10 – Aftermath by Asprin, Robert

Except, of course, when it was somewhere else . . .

Licking her lips, for even after all these years it awed her to be in the presence of Enas Yorl, especially naked-there was no point in adding “and defenseless,” for few there were in all of the known world who could withstand the power of such a wizard-she said, “Sometimes I wonder why you keep basilisks and yet enforce that spell in person. Do they not jest about the man who kept a dog and barked himself?”

“Who fold you there was no trace of basilisk in me?” replied the seeming youth in mocking tones. “Welcome back to Sanctuary, Jarveena. You were most royally entertained by Melilot the pinchpenny last night. The flavor of those roasted ducks must have been excellent!”

Even as he spoke, his face was slowly altering. His eyebrow ridges in particular were thickening. Meantime his shoulders, gradually hunched. Jarveena knew what such a rapid change betokened. •

“You’ve been engaged in a considerable magic,” she deduced. “Were you indeed one of the shadows that played around the fat one’s dining room?”

He inclined his head.

“Can you have been that eager to see me again? Did you wish to find out whether I’d added any more scars to my toll, making more work for you in fading them?”

But these gibes were a mere cover for her nervousness. Besides, Enas Yorl was paying them no heed. He was contemplating Klikitagh with a frown. After a moment he touched the man’s temples gently and briefly with his forefingers.

He said at length, “I heard his story as you recounted it last night. Now I can tell you one extremely curious fact. He does believe, with all his heart, that the curse upon him is unjust. But in my centuries of life- brief though they be compared to his, of course-I have read, been told, found though experience, that to impose so powerful and durable a spell on an innocent victim is, if not forbidden, self-defeating. It must turn again upon the one who cast it. So say all the best authorities.”