“Making it easier for you to go back to New Jersey? Yes, quite,” Papa said, “but more importantly, making it easier for you to return.”
“Good point.” Matt frowned. “I don’t want to close that channel until after I’m back here, do I? But for the meantime, to help keep it open… “
Luco’s form blurred, seemed to stretch and condense, then faded from sight.
“He was a good boy,” Papa said sadly, “and would have stayed that way, if his father had paid him any attention.”
“Oh, he paid attention, all right… whenever he wanted somebody to listen to him brag about him being the big hero in the Battle of the Bulge.”
A squall of surprise and fear made them both whirl toward Callio. The thief was staring at a section of ground in front of him that had sunk a few inches, leaving an oblong platter-shape in the dirt. Matt frowned, stepping over. “What happened, Callio?”
“My loot!” the thief cried. “I buried it, even as you said I should… and it has sunk deeper than I dug!”
“Oh.” Matt nodded sympathetically. “It didn’t sink, Callio, it disappeared. That rifle is out of this world, now. Literally. Luco brought it from another land, and I just sent him back where he came from… so I guess the weapon went with him.”
Callio leaped up, fists clenched, glaring up at Matt. “So this is your reason for burying things… so that you may steal them from me by your magic!”
“Only this item,” Matt assured him, “and it’s not the kind of thing you would have wanted to have around anyway, believe me.”
Callio opened his mouth for an angry retort, then suddenly went pale with fear. “Do you say it is magical?”
“In terms of this universe,” Matt said, “yes… and bad magic, too, the kind that can kill a lot of people.”
Callio turned away with a shudder. “Thank you for stealing it from me, wizard!”
“But I didn’t… ” Matt broke off, too frustrated to explain.
Papa laid a sympathetic hand on his shoulder. “Don’t bother to try, Matthew. Our Callio is a pleasant enough rascal, but he is also one of those who will only hear what he wants.”
“Or what he understands?” Matt asked, with a sardonic smile. “I’m not sure I’m all that much better.”
“Of course you are!” Papa said with a grin. “Look how much you guessed about our enemy Nirobus without any evidence!”
“Sheer hunch alone, huh?” Matt shook his head. “Hard to think of the old guy as an enemy… he seemed so nice, so gentle and sympathetic.”
“Yes, but I can appear so, too, when I wish,” Papa told him.
“You are nice and gentle and sympathetic!”
“Many people who are, try not to let it show, Matthew. Besides, I can be quite unpleasant, even hard, if there is need.”
Matt remembered a few run-ins with other parents when he’d been a child, not to mention the exploits he’d been watching in the last few weeks. “True enough, Papa. So we have to figure Nirobus is the man behind all this trouble, no matter what his reasons are.”
“… There can surely be no greater treason… ‘ ” Papa began.
“Hey, be careful, okay?” Matt interrupted. “You don’t want to go slinging rhymes around here just to make a point.”
“True enough,” Papa agreed, abashed, then brightened. “But since I have said other things since, it will no longer be a rhyme… To do the right thing for the wrong reason.’ “
“I definitely do not agree,” Matt said. “What’s important is to do the right thing, period. Even so, I’d say our Nirobus may be doing the wrong thing for the right reason.”
“At best,” Papa agreed. “More likely, he is doing the wrong thing for the wrong reason, but is skilled at making himself appear to be good.”
“At least in the past, my enemies have all looked like villains,” Matt sighed. “I suppose I was due for a bad guy who looked good. Let’s just hope his deputy the drug baron doesn’t look so respectable.”
“Be sure that he will,” Papa said grimly, “but the appearance of respectability is another matter entirely from the appearance of goodness. Surely when he talked me into leaving teaching for small business, he looked both respectable and good.”
“Yes, and after you’d bought the store, he left it up to Groldor to ruin you.”
Papa shrugged “We were in his way, he killed two birds with one gang.”
“Well, between them, they certainly did a good job of drawing me away from Merovence,” Matt said, “and I don’t doubt they would have done an even better job of keeping me from getting back, if I hadn’t had the Spider King and St. Moncaire both working on my side.”
Papa nodded. “But their leaching may have been their own downfall in that, for to use their drug to steal energy from our young people, they had to keep the link between the universes open.”
“Good point.” Matt looked up, a gleam in his eye “In fact, that’s the kind of side effect I really like… using the enemy’s own schemes against him.”
“You mean to find an effect that can be used as a weapon?” Papa grinned “The justice in it appeals to my poetic soul.”
“I knew there was a reason you were a good magician here.”
“The soul reason?” Papa asked. Matt winced. “That’s another one, your fondness for words.”
Papa shrugged “They taste good.”
“The wizard as sensualist,” Matt mused. “Interesting paradox. But I hope we can find some of those side effects to use against Groldor, because no matter what else happens, I have to go back and knock him out.”
“Well, I think I am ready for that fight.” Papa stood up, grinning “Shall we walk, or ride?”
Matt looked up turning somber “I said I have to go, Papa.”
Papa frowned. “But he is more my enemy than yours! I cannot let you fight my battles!”
“Groldor is just a side theater of operations in my own major war,” Matt reminded him, “Alisande versus Nirobus… which means Nirobus versus me.”
“Yes, that is so.” Papa turned somber, too. “But you must not neglect the other theater of operations, Matthew… northern Ibile, where your King Rinaldo is hard pressed.”
“Right.” Matt nodded. “But all he needs is news, guerrilla training, and a resident wizard to travel with his army, if he doesn’t already have one.”
“All things which I can do.” Papa frowned. Matt nodded. “And the guerrilla training, you can do better than me… you were a Ranger.”
“All well and good,” Papa said, fighting down anger, “but why do you think you can deal with Groldor better than I?”
“Because,” Matt said, “you didn’t grow up in New Jersey. And believe me, there are some back alleys you don’t know.”
Papa’s face turned thunderous “I thought I told you to stay out of such places.”
“You did,” Matt said, “but I didn’t always have a lot of choice, when bullies were chasing me. I know the hiding places, Papa, and the local customs.”
“I could go with you!”
“I’d love it,” Matt said fervently, “but there isn’t time… and there’s no guarantee we would be able to come back. Besides, Mama is holding off an army and needs to have someone come lift the siege, and since Alisande’s tied up with the Mahdi, the only troops who can ride to the rescue are Rinaldo’s.”