"What's a gun?"
"Never mind. Just build that reserve and we'll try it again."
With this extra bit of advice at my disposal the drill went noticeably better. Finally Aahz broke off the practice session and put me to work helping him with his knife practice. Actually I rather enjoyed this task. It entailed my using my powers to levitate one of the fruits and send it flying around the clearing until Aahz pegged a knife into it. As an extra touch of finesse, I would then extract the knife and float it back to him for another try. The exercise was monotonous, but I never tired of it. It seemed almost supernatural the way the shimmering, somersaulting sliver of steel would dart out to intercept the fruit as Aahz practiced first overhand, then underhand, now backhand.
"Stop it, Skeeve!"
Aahz's shout jolted me out of my reverie. Without thinking, I reached out with my mind and... and the knife stopped in midair! I blinked, but held it there, floating a foot from the fruit which also hung suspended in place.
"Hel-lo! That's the stuff, Skeeve! Now there's something to have confidence in!"
"I did it!" I said, disbelieving my own eyes.
"You sure did! That little piece of magik will save your life someday."
Out of habit, I floated the knife back to him. He plucked it from the air and started to tuck it in his belt, then halted, cocking his head to one side.
"In the nick of time, too. Someone's coming."
"How can you tell?"
"Nothing special. My hearing's a bit better than yours is all. Don't panic. It isn't the Imps. Hooved beast from the sound of it. No wild animal moves in that straight a line, or that obviously."
"What did you mean, 'in the nick of time'? Aren't we going to hide?"
"Not this time." He grinned at me. "You're developing fast. It's about time you learned a new spell. We have a few days before whoever it is gets here."
"Days?"
Aahz was adapting rapidly to our dimension, but units of time still gave him trouble.
"Run through those time measurements again," he grumbled.
"In seconds, minutes, hours...."
"Minutes! We've got a few minutes."
"Minutes! I can't learn a new spell in a few minutes!"
"Sure you can. This one's easy. All you've got to do is disguise my features to look like a man."
"How do I do that?"
"The same way you do everything else, with your mind. First, close your eyes ... close 'em ... okay, now picture another face...."
All I could think of was Garkin, so I pictured the two faces side by side.
"Now move the new face over mine... and melt away or build up the necessary features. Like clay... just keep that in the back of your mind and open your eyes."
I looked, and was disappointed.
"It didn't work!"
"Sure it did."
He was looking in the dark mirror which he had fished from his belt pouch.
"But you haven't changed!"
"Yes I have. You can't see it because you cast the spell. It's an illusion, and since your mind knows the truth, it isn't fooled, but anyone else will be. Garkin, huh? Well, it'll do for now."
His identification of the new face took me aback.
"You can really see Garkin's face?"
"Sure, want to look?"
He offered the mirror and grinned. It was a bad joke. One of the first things we discovered about his dubious status in this world was that while he could see himself in mirrors, nobody from our world could. At least I couldn't.
I could now hear the sounds of the rider coming.
"Aahz, are you sure...."
"Trust me, kid. There's nothing to worry about."
I was worried. The rider was in view now. He was a tall muscular man with the look of a warrior about him. This was reinforced by the massive war unicorn he was riding, laden with weapons and armor.
"Hey, Aahz. Shouldn't we.:.."
"Relax, kid. Watch this."
He stepped forward, raising his arm.
"Hello, stranger! How far to the next town?"
The man veered his mount toward us. He half raised his arm in greeting, then suddenly stiffened. Heaving forward, he squinted at Aahz, then drew back in terror. "By the Gods! A demon!"
Chapter Six:
"Attention to detail is the watchword for gleaning information from an unsuspecting witness."
-INSP. CLOUSEAU
THE warrior's terror did not immobilize him long. In fact, it didn't immobilize him at all! No sooner did he make his discovery than he took action. Strangely enough, the action was to lean back in his saddle and begin rummaging frantically through one of his saddlebags, a precarious position at best.
Apparently I was not the only one to notice the instability of his pose. Aahz sprang forward with a yell, waving his arms in the unicorn's face. Being a reasonable creature, the unicorn reared and bolted, dumping the warrior on his head.
"By the Gods!" he bellowed, trying to untangle himself from the ungraceful heap of arms and weapons. "I've killed men for less!"
I decided that if his threat was to be avoided, I should take a personal hand in the matter. Reaching out with my mind, I seized a fist-sized rock and propelled it forcefully against his unhelmeted brow. The man went down like a pole-axed steer.
For a long moment Aahz and I considered the fallen man, catching our breath.
" 'Relax, Skeeve! This'll be easy, Skeeve! Trust me, Skeeve.' Boy, Aahz, when you miss a call you don't do it small, do you?"
"Shut up, kid!"
He was rummaging through his pouch again.
"I don't want to shut up, I want to know what happened to the 'foolproof spell you taught me."
"I was kind of wondering that myself." He had produced the mirror again and was peering into it. "Tell you what, kid. Check his aura and watch for anything unusual."
" 'Shut up, kid! Check his aura, kid!' You'd think I was some kind of.... Hey!"
"What is it?"
"His aura! It's a sort of a reddish yellow except there's a blue patch on his chest."
"I thought so!!" Aahz was across the clearing in a bound, crouching at the fallen man like a beast of prey. "Look at this!!"
On a thong around the man's neck was a crude silver charm depicting a salamander with one eye in the center of its forehead.
"What is it?"
"I'm not sure, but I've got a hunch. Now play along with me on this. I want you to remove the shape warp spell."
"What spell?"
"C'mon, kid, wake up! The spell that's changing my face."
"That's what I mean. What spell?"
"Now look, kid! Don't give me a lot of back talk. Just do it! He'll be waking up soon."
With a sigh I shut my eyes and set about the seemingly pointless task. It was easier this time, imagining Garkin's face, then melting away the features until Aahz's face was leering at me in my mind's eye. I opened my eyes and looked at Aahz. He looked like Aahz. Terrific.
"Now what?"
As if in answer, the warrior groaned and sat up. He shook his head as if to clear it and opened his eyes. His gaze fell on Aahz, whereupon he blinked, looked again, and reached for his sword, only to find it missing. Also missing were his dagger and hand-axe. Apparently Aahz had not been idle while I was removing the spell.
Aahz spoke first.
"Relax, stranger. Things are not as they seem."
The man sprang to his feet and struck a fighting stance, fists clenched.
"Beware, demon!" he intoned hollowly. "I am not without defenses."
"Oh yeah? Name three. But like I say, relax. First of all, I'm not a demon."
"Know you, demon, that this charm enables me to look through any spells and see you as you really are."