"From my world, you say? Do you know where?"
" ’Tis said from a place called the Valley of Quartz."
"Silicon Valley? Yeah, I suppose if we had wizards that’s where they’d be. Have you ever met this guy?"
Karin shook her head. "I am not stationed at the Capital. I have seen him once, though. He and his fellow wizards, Jerry and Danny." She stopped. "Are those more of your air-to-air missiles?"
He smiled. "If they are I never heard of them."
"Well, no matter," the dragon rider said with a glance at the horizon. "It grows late. If we do not finish soon we will have to bathe in the dark."
Gilligan stood up. "I guess you’re right." He reached down to help her up and when she stood up they were almost nose to nose. He held on and their eyes locked. Then Karin dropped her hands and broke away.
"Quickly," she said with a breathless little laugh. "We would not want to have to finish on the morrow."
Even working at their best pace, it was still nearly dark when they got back to their camp. Karin went to the stream to bathe first and Mick stayed behind to build the fire and start dinner. Once the fire was going and the stew was bubbling in its pot, he had nothing to do but stare into the flames and think.
Karin came back from the stream with her clothes over her arm and her blanket wrapped around her.
"I feel cleaner without them," she explained. "They need to be washed."
"I wish to God you’d put them on," Gilligan said tightly, keeping his attention riveted on the fire.
"Why?"
"It’s easier to take." He looked up at her. "Dammit, lady! Do you have any idea how hard it is on me to keep my hands off you anyway?"
"Then why try?" Karin asked softly, letting the blanket drop.
The flames traced out the curve of her hip and the swell of her breast and the light put a ruddy glow in her cheek and highlighted the pale strands of her hair.
Mick sucked in his breath at the firelit vision before him. Then he stepped forward and clasped her to him.
"I never did get my bath, you know."
Karin giggled and nuzzled the pit of his shoulder. "You smell all right."
"And if you keep that up, I’m not going to get any sleep either."
"Are you complaining?"
Gilligan leaned over and kissed her. "Hell no. Just observing."
The fire had long since died and the only light came from the stars that powdered the sky. There was not enough light to see, but that didn’t matter and hadn’t mattered for hours. Being shot down, the dragon, none of it mattered. He hadn’t felt this good since Sandi… well, not in a long time. And maybe not even then, come to think of it.
As he bent to her again he noticed that Stigi had very ostentatiously turned his back on them.
At last they both relaxed, soft and sleepy and warm in each other’s arms.
"What is it?" Karin said, feeling Mick tense suddenly.
"I’ve got to go back, you know," Mick said softly. "If I can find a way out, I’ve got to go back."
Karin shifted and snuggled more closely to him. "I understand. I too have my duty."
"So where does that leave us?"
"It leaves us with meanwhile," Karin told him. "We have meanwhile."
"Yeah," Mick said, reaching out to caress her. "We have meanwhile."
Karin giggled. "Remember today is a hunting day. We will be walking and away from camp almost the whole day."
"So?"
"So you said you needed sleep."
"Right now," Gilligan said into her ear, "there are things I need more."
Thirty-two: THE ULTIMATE WATER BALLOON
Craig was deep in the design of a new kind of battle armor when one of Mikey’s robot servants came for him.
"The Master commands your presence," the robot said in a Darth Vader voice of doom.
"You mean Mikey?"
"The Master. Come." With that the robot pivoted on its heel and marched out the door with Craig hurrying along behind.
Mikey was up on the battlements, standing next to a troughlike contraption and looking out over the valley.
"What’s shaking, dude?" Craig said as he puffed up with the robot guide.
"Shaking? A whole lot. I want you to see my latest invention."
Since Mikey had ignored everything he had done since he made the giant robot, Craig didn’t think this was quite fair. But he didn’t object. Instead he bent over and inspected the device.
"What is that thing?"
"It’s a water balloon. The best goddamn water balloon you’ve ever seen."
It didn’t look much like a balloon to Craig. Just a featureless silvery sphere, like those mirrored balls people used to put on pedestals in gardens. The sphere was resting in the trough and there were some springs and some other, less identifiable, bits of machinery underneath.
"What does it do?"
"Watch," Mikey told him. "But put these on first." He snapped his fingers and the robot stepped forward and proferred a couple of smashed ham sandwiches.
"Not those, you fucking moron!" Mikey said. "Give him the goddamn goggles!
"Jeez, Craig, you need to do something about these robots. They’re so fucking stupid."
Craig started to tell him it wasn’t one of his robots, but Mikey had already slipped on a pair of dark goggles and was looking back out over the valley. Craig took the pair of goggles the robot was holding out to him, wiped the mustard and mayonnaise off the lenses and slipped them on.
Mikey threw a lever on the side of his device and the silvery ball whisked down the trough and out over the valley in a high, lazy arc. Craig watched the ball shrink to a dot and then lost it in the sun.
Suddenly the world exploded.
Castle, valley and mountains all disappeared in a blaze of blinding radiance. Craig squinched his eyes shut but the sight was burned into his vision. He opened his mouth but he was bowled over backwards as if he had been slapped by a giant hand. Sand and bits of rock stung his skin and the wind whipped insanely about him. The parapet shook beneath him until he was sure the castle was coming down. The noise shook him like a terrier shakes a rat. All he could do was lie curled up in a ball and scream at the pain in his ears and the red after-images in his eyes.
Then it was over. As suddenly as it had come the noise and the shaking stopped. Cautiously, Craig opened his eyes and tried to climb to his feet.