MYTH-ING PERSONS
159
batwings began to grow and spread from his back. His
plans gone awry, he was getting ready to escape.
In immediate response to his efforts, Tananda and
Guido both produced projectile weapons and shouted
something to him. Though the distance was too great to
make out the words clearly, it was obvious to me that
they were threatening to shoot him down if he tried to
take to the air.
"We may have a murder case yet," Kirby murmured,
squinting to watch the rooftop drama unfold.
"Murder?" I exclaimed, turning on him. "How can
you call it murder if they're only trying to keep from
escaping your justice? "
"That wasn't what I meant," the vampire said, never
taking his eyes from the action. "Check it out."
I looked ... and my heart stood still.
Aahz had been trying to ease up the roof peak closer
to Vic and his hostage. Vic must have seen him, because
he was now holding Luanna out over the drop as he
pointed an angry finger at my partner. The threat was
unmistakable.
"You know, eet is people like zat who give ze vam-
pires a bad name, eh?" Pepe said, nudging me.
I ignored him, lost in my own anxiety and frustration
at the stalemated situation. A noticeably harder jab
from Massha broke my reverie, however.
"Hey, Hot Stuff. Do you see what I see?"
I tore my gaze away from the confrontation and shot
a glance her way. She was standing motionless, her
brow furrowed with concentration and her eyes closed.
It took me a few moments to realize what she was
doing, then I followed suit, scarcely daring to hope.
There it was! A force line! A big, strong, beautiful,
glorious force line.
160 Robert Asprin
I had gotten so used to not having any magical energy
at my disposal in this dimension that I hadn't even
bothered to check!
I opened myself to the energy, relished it for a fleet
moment, then rechanneled it.
"Excuse me," I said with a smile, handing my sun-
glasses to Kirby. "It's about time I took a hand in this
directly."
With that, I reached out with my mind, pushed off
against the ground, and soared upward, setting a course
for the cornered vampire on the roof.
Chapter Nineteen:
"All right, pilgrim. This is between you and
me!"
—A. HAMILTON
I had hoped to make my approach unobserved, but as I
flew upward, the crowd below let out a roar that drew
the attention of the combatants on the roof. Terrific!
When I wanted unobtrusive, I got notoriety.
Reaching a height level with that of the vampire, I
hovered at a discreet distance.
"Put away the nasties," I called to Tananda and
Guido. "He's not getting away by air."
They looked a bit rebellious, but followed the order.
"What's with the Peter Pan bit, partner?" Aahz
shouted. "Are you feeling your Cheerioats, or did you
finally find a force line?"
"Both." I waved back, then turned my attention to
Vic.
Though his eyes were obscured by his sunglasses, I
could feel his hateful glare burning into me to the bone.
"Why don't you just call it quits?" I said in what I
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162 Robert Asprin MYTH-ING PERSONS 163
hoped was a calm, soothing tone. "It's over. We've got
you outflanked."
For a moment he seemed to waiver with indecision.
Then, without warning, he threw Luanna at Aahz.
"Why can't you all just leave me alone!" he
screamed, and dove off the roof.
Aahz somehow managed to snag the girl's hurtling
form, though in the process he lost his balance and
tumbled backward down the roof peak, cushioning the
impact with his own body.
I hesitated, torn between the impulse to check on
Luanna's welfare and the desire to pursue Vic.
"Go get him!" my partner called. "We're fine!"
That was all the encouragement I needed. Wheeling
to my right, I plunged after the fleeing vampire,
What followed was one of the more interesting ex-
periences of my limited magical career. As I mentioned
before, my form of flying magically isn't really flying
... it's controlled levitation of oneself. This made en-
thusiastic pursuit a real challenge to my abilities. To
counterbalance the problem, however, Vic couldn't
really fly either'... at least he never seemed to flap his
wings. Instead, he appeared content to soar and bank
and catch an occasional updraft. This forced him to
continually circle and double back through roughly the
same area time and time again. This suited me fine, as I
didn't want to wander too far away from my energizing
force line now that I had found it. The idea of running
out of power while suspended fifty feet in the air did not
appeal to me at all.
Anyway, our aerial duel rapidly became a curious
matching of styles with Vic's swooping and circling in
his efforts to escape and my vertical and horizontal
maneuverings to try to intercept him. Needless to say,
the conflict was not resolved quickly. As soon as I
would time a move that came close enough to an in-
terception to justify attempting it again. Vic would
realize his danger and alter his pattern, leaving me to try
to puzzle out his new course.
The crowd loved it.
They whooped and hollered, their words of en-
couragement alternately loud and faint as we changed
altitude. It was impossible to tell which of us they were
cheering for, though for a while I thought it was me,
considering the approval they had expressed when I first
took off to join the battle. Then I noticed that the crowd
was considerably larger than it had been when I entered
the fray, and I realized that many of them had not been
around to witness the beginning of the conflict. To
them, it probably appeared that a monster from another
dimension was chasing one of their fellow beings
through the sky.
That thought was disquieting enough that I spared
some of my attention to scan the surrounding rooftops
on the off-chance that a local sniper might be preparing
to help his fellow countryman. It turned out to be the
wisest decision I had made.
As I was looking over my shoulder, I plowed full
force into Vic, who had doubled back on his own path.
The feint would have probably worked if I had seen it,
but as it was we collided at maximum speed, the impact
momentarily stunning us both. I managed to grab a
double handful of the vampire's turtleneck as we fell
about ten feet before I adjusted my levitation strength
to support us both.
"What's the matter with you!" I demanded, trying to
shake him, which succeeded only in moving us both
back and forth in the air. "Running away won't help."
Then I realized he was crying.
Somehow, this struck me as immensely unfair. I