Another Fine Myth by Robert Asprin

“Describe it to me,” Aahz hissed.

“Well. . . it’s bright. . . whitish purple . . . there’s a series of bars and crossbars forming squares about a hand-span across….”

“Is it just over the door, or all over the shop?”

“All over the shop. The top’s covered, and the bars run right into the ground.”

“Hmm, well, we’ll just have to go through it. Listen up, kid. Time for a quick lesson.”

I opened my eyes and looked at the shop again. The building looked as innocent as it had when we first circled it. It bothered me that I couldn’t sense the cage’s presence the way I could our own wards.

“What is it, Aahz?” I asked uneasily.

“Hmm? Oh. it’s a ward, kind of like the ones we use, but a lot nastier.”

“Nastier, how?”

“Well, the kind of wards I taught you to build are an early warning system and not much else. From the sounds of it, the stuff Frumple is using will do considerably more. Not only will it kill you, it’ll knock you into pieces smaller than dust. It’s called disintegration.”

“And we’re going to go through it?” I asked, incredulously.

“After you’ve had a quick lesson. Now, remember your feather drills? How you’d wrap your mind around the feather for control?”

“Yeah. “I said, puzzled.

“Well, I want you to do the same thing, but without the feather. Pretend you’re holding something that isn’t there. Form the energies into a tube.”

“Then what?”

“Then you insert the tube into one of the squares in the cage and expand it.”

“That’s all?”

“That’s it. C’mon now. Give it a try.”

I closed my eyes and reached out with my mind.