learn to ride. No fun, anyway . . . better dragons imagine . . .”
“Yeah, dragons are neat all right.”
“Real,” Judith said very distinctly.
“Huh?”
“Real dragons. Saw them myself come over the Wizard’s Keep first morning
we were there. Real dragons . . .” She settled back and trailed off into
incomprehensibility.
Craig hunched closer to the bed.
“Tell me more, Judith. What about the dragons?”
Five: UNSOUGHT PROPHECY
It was late in the afternoon when they got the digging spell working. The
wan sun was sinking toward the horizon, throwing highlights off the sullen
gray surface of the Freshened Sea and sending dark shadows creeping out
across the ruins. The cold deepened with the growing twilight and all
three programmer/magicians had wrapped their cloaks tightly around
themselves to try to stay warm.
“I’m not sure I like this,” Jerry said as they huddled together for a
final review of their handiwork. “We really should run a couple more
tests.”
“We don’t have time. Unless you want to stay here all night?”
Jerry looked around at the menacing ruins and pulled his cloak tighter.
“No thanks. I just wish . . .”
“Oh come on, we’ve tested the thing to death,” Danny said. “Let’s get this
over with. I’m freezing.”
Mentally Wiz reviewed the spell one more time. It simply checked each
loose piece within its radius of operation to see if it was the heart of
the demon and if it wasn’t, tossed it aside. When it reached the demon’s
heart, it would stop. It was straightforward enough and Wiz couldn’t find
any flaws. Besides he was as cold as Danny was.
“Okay,” he said. “Let’s do it.”
All three of them stepped back from the pile of rubble and out the
collapsed archway. When they were in position, Wiz called:
“emac”
A three-foot-high demon with enormous ears popped up before him. “?” it
said.
Wiz pointed his staff at the rubble choking the room. “kill exe!” he
commanded.
The Emac turned toward the spot and gabbled soundlessly. Then it bowed and
popped out of existence.
For a moment nothing happened.
“It takes a while for the effect to build up,” Wiz explained
unnecessarily.
“I just wish . . .” Jerry began. “I have this awful feeling we forgot
something.”
“It’s working!” Danny shouted, pointing at the rubble. A single pebble
detached itself from the pile and flew off in a flat arc. Then another
pebble whipped off in another direction, and another and another.
As the three watched a head-sized chunk of material shook itself loose and
lobbed away from the rubble. Then several more pebbles.
One of the pebbles flew over Wiz’s head with an ugly singing whirr.
“Direction,” Jerry said abstractedly. “Did we put anything in the spell to
control which way the rubble would go when it left the pile?”
“No,” Wiz said apprehensively, as another volley of material broke loose
from the mound.
“Then hit the dirt!” Jerry shouted as a dozen big chunks of rubble came
flying straight at them.
All three of them dropped and rolled behind the remains of the wall just
as a half-dozen pieces of stone went through the spot where they had been
standing, humming like angry bees. Then a torso-sized slab of black marble
lofted over the wall and crashed into the frozen dust behind them.
Then all Hell broke loose.
The pile of rubble exploded outwards in all directions. The small stuff
came off with the velocity of rifle bullets. The bigger pieces arced away
like mortar shells. The three wizards pressed themselves against the base
of the wall and tried to burrow into the dirt as debris landed all around
them.
I am not a target, Wiz told himself as he tried to become one with the
base of the wall. This is not aimed at me. He shifted slightly just as the
remains of a large piece of furniture sailed over the ruined wall and
crashed to earth a few feet from him. Abstractedly he realized there
should be a simple command to shut the spell down, but it’s hard to think
when you’re in the middle of an artillery barrage and impossible to talk