CHAPTER 14

Preparations for War: Helbah's

Kelvin felt foolish standing in front of Recruitment House with the old witch on his back. Helbah had pointed out that there was no reason why they should ride so far when with his Mouvar boots it was just a step. Accordingly he had reluctantly stooped down, waited until she and her familiar were in place, straightened, and stepped—from the twin palaces to Throod, right where he had visualized.

Helbah slid off, carrying her familiar. Kelvin sighed and felt along his spine. It wasn't that Helbah was heavy, but it felt as though his back had been punctured in eight separate places. Since Katbah and Helbah were in some sense one, perhaps some bizarre transformation had taken place.

Helbah stretched, as though she really had been on some long, fatiguing journey. "There! I'd say that was much better than flying!"

Of course! She could have flown in bird form. Why hadn't she? Was he just here to keep her company?

Grizzled and young faces were looking out the window at them. Someone must have seen their arrival. A middle-aged man completing one enormous step with a hag—a nice old hag!—riding on his back.

"I do hope Captain Mackay remembers me," Helbah said, adjusting her wrapper. Always she wore the same old dark dress. In her own clothing she displayed neither interest nor imagination.

"Helbah! You know Captain Mackay can't still be living! Not unless he's a warlock!"

"Now I wouldn't put anything past the captain! He was a real charmer in his day. But I keep forgetting that most people are only human. It gets harder and harder as the centuries slip away."

They walked in and it was almost the same inside as it had been when he had come to buy mercenaries to fight Zoanna. There were tables and chairs, bottles and cards. In the corner a gray-haired man stood up. The man had one arm missing, but it wasn't Captain Mackay.

"Welcome, Helbah. Welcome, Kelvin. I'm Commander Roarer."

So he was a different man, but similar in appearance. Except for the light greenish eyes he could have passed for a Mackay duplicate.

"You know why we've come," Kelvin said, echoing Morvin Crumb's words spoken over a quarter of a century ago. "You received Helbah's message."

The commander nodded. "It came floating down from the ceiling. That's a neat trick. Captain Mackay, my predecessor, used to get messages from a witch that way."

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"Ahem," Helbah said, clearing her throat with unaccustomed loudness, "we've business."

"Yes, yes, I quite understand, and I'm sorry that there wasn't some way for me to make an immediate reply. Please sit down. I've some information for you."

They took their chairs, sitting at a round table still damp with mug rings. Recruitment House smelled more like a drinking establishment than did Lomax's. Kelvin suspected that in a moment they'd be offered refreshment and that this time he'd not be passed over because of his assumed tender age.

"Refreshment!" the commander called to a man carrying a tray. The man wore a stained apron and had a scar across his face, but clearly here he was a waiter. He came over and put down mugs and poured an amber liquid that didn't quite smell like wine.

"I never imbibe," Helbah said. Katbah appeared uninterested. Kelvin picked up his mug, sniffed, then tasted. Something bit his tongue and he set it down again. He'd wait until he was home and could have real fruit wine. Soldiers always seemed to feel that drinking went with the uniform.

Commander Roarer drank, then wiped his mouth on his uniform sleeve. He fixed Helbah with a gaze.

"She was here, wasn't she, Commander?" she inquired, knowing the answer.

He nodded. "I'm afraid she was, Helbah. It wasn't my choice. She sent no advance message."

"Typical. What did you do for her?"

"Personally, as little as possible. But she persuaded some men. She'll get her army."

"And that will leave mine short?"

"Of men you're better off without. But there's more—many men now say they won't serve the Alliance.

It's the stories they've heard that the witch is now unbeatable."

"We beat her once," Helbah said. "That's why there's an Alliance."

"Technically, you lost, since your side surrendered to the orcs. As for Zady, she may be better equipped this time. Magic is something no fighting man wants to chance."

"I cut her head off!" Kelvin said, coming to his courage. "My very young son kicked it off a cliff, deflated her body, and unmagicked the girl who grew up to become his bride."

"That's very commendable, Kelvin, but the fact is that today Zady's back. This time she's not neglecting to hire mercenaries and buy war supplies. I'm sorry to tell you that my kingdom is more greedy and corrupt than others. They agreed to sell her all the war supplies—catapults, harness, war-horses, armor, swords, lances, bows, arrows, crossbows—the lot. They agreed to let her hire all who will take her gold.

I'm sorry to tell you that there are more who will take her gold than those who won't. There are a few of us—a very few—who want to fight on the side of the Alliance. Gold isn't necessary—we'll fight by your sides for our lives. There are only a handful of us, but we will serve you, each of us, until our deaths."

How cheerful, Kelvin thought, but he knew the aging veterans had no choice. It was like that Earth saying his father was always repeating in arguments with his father-in-law: "Those who live by the sword, die by the sword."

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"Thank you, Commander," Helbah said, pushing back from the table. "Your help is accepted. Come, Kelvin, we've got business with the orcs."

"But—" Kelvin started, then shut his face. Helbah knew better than he, prophecy or not. Helbah, after all, had lived to see many wars over the centuries.

Outside he leaned over and waited while his passengers climbed on his back. It had been a good deal more fun when his niece Kathy Jon did it. He made certain Helbah had a good hold, then took his long, long step.

Brudalous was at the rebuilt land palace once destroyed by human brats. That had been a long, long time ago, and Merlain and kings Kildom and Kildee had been helped into incredible mischief by Zady.

The children had actually gotten away with the magic opal Zady had coveted, but the subsequent war had had a beneficial outcome. Today the orcs governed themselves through the Confederation under the Alliance. The Alliance itself had its figurehead ruler accepted by orcs and humans alike: Horace, keeper of the opal.

Kelvin stepped onto the sand where his two human children had once been, and Helbah let go of his shoulders and slid off from his back. Brudalous, a fish-faced giant to them, was watching his grandchildren, or taddlings, at play in the surf.

"Helbah, Kelvin, I got your message," the fish-face boomed. The skin, if anything, seemed scalier and greener than Kelvin remembered. No protocol for orcs—they got down to business.

"Brudalous, you're prepared to fight for the Alliance?" Helbah demanded.

"Of course. We have no choice. We're part of the Alliance."

"You have trained warriors and equipment?"

"We're always prepared, Helbah. Orcs have their traditions to keep."

"Your magicians?"

"Krassnose, our resident wizard, and Phenoblee, my dear wife, are now reviewing spells."

"You do know who Zady is, don't you? She's more than just a witch."

"We know. Once she tried to use us to destroy the Confederation."

"Have you heard that she now has powers greater than mine? Perhaps greater than Krassnose's and Phenoblee's and mine combined?"

Brudalous waited, his face as impassive as always.

"Then there will be no pulling back? No leaving the Alliance?"

Brudalous showed his daggerlike teeth. "Orcs do not surrender easily. Perhaps this time we will die, but Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

if we die we die as orcs."

"That's all I wish to know, Brudalous. There have been rumors and I wanted to check on them myself.

Inform Krassnose and Phenoblee that I will have some witch and wizard allies as before and that this time they will work with orcs against a common foe. Come, Kelvin!"

"But—"

"The old palace ruins. You can wait there for my return. If Horace was available to us I'd take him instead of the transporter."

"The dragon," Brudalous intervened, "still has the opal?"

"Yes, but he's newly mated in dragon territory and on his sunnymoon. I don't want to interrupt until it's necessary. You know how dragons are. Bend down, Kelvin; you expect me to jump on your back?"

Kelvin leaned forward and Helbah almost, it seemed, did jump on his back. Once she was properly seated with Katbah digging his claws in, he straightened and stepped.

The old palace ruins—the very rocks and masonry that his father had brought down years ago with his Earth weapon—never seemed to change. Weeds and other vegetation didn't grow high here, possibly because of the hordes of tourists. Today being a workday, there were no tourists here. He waited while Helbah changed herself into an ungainly swoosh and Katbah into a batbird. The transformed cat attached itself with tiny wing-claws to the transformed witch's slick feathers. Helbah took off and he watched her fly across the ruins and, he knew, down the ancient stairs, along the river, and then underwater to the air-filled dome with its transporter.

Good luck, Helbah! he thought after her, and wished that he, like his offspring, could project it to her.

Helbah wasted no time but flew straight to the hotel, where she joined Wizard Whitestone and Zudini the master illusionist at a secluded table. They had been waiting for her—impatiently, she gathered.

Whitestone said, "Well, Helbah, she's starting again, right?"

"Just as you told me, Whitestone. She grew a new body somewhere in dragon territory."

"Reminds me," Zudini began, "of my greatest offstage escape. I was set upon by malignants, dismembered, and my parts suspended in a bag inside the rim of an active volcano. Well, my brain still functioned, so opening my mouth I—"

"Not now, Zudini," Whitestone cautioned. "Save it for those memoirs I know you are writing. We've got business. Helbah's frame is facing peril of another sort."

"Actually it's the same sort, just as you predicted. She's going to stage a war so as to kill and damage as many humans and orcs as possible. Then she's going to get Kelvin and his relatives and me and everyone who helped us and—"

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"Now, now, Helbah, we're not going to allow that to happen. Some of us have been planning ever since the convention."

"Yes," Zudini added, "even if you hadn't our sympathy for what you endured at her hands we'd still want to get Zady. She never can pay for the insult she did to our convention."

"And me," Helbah added.

"That," Zudini said, "goes without saying. You were the guest of honor. Zady interrupted your speech."

"Actually she did quite a bit worse," Whitestone reminded. "The insult to Helbah and the convention was great. But great as the insult was, she did still worse."

"Yes," Zudini agreed, "she tried to steal the opal."

"More than that. She tried to destroy Helbah's home frame. The damaging of a frameworld until it is malignant-dominated cannot be tolerated."

"Agreed." Zudini's head bobbed. "Oh, I quite agree."

"Then you can get help?" Helbah asked. "You can get some of the conventioneers who were with me before? It's going to be harder this time. I know she'll have practitioners of malignant magic with her.

She'll attack the Alliance, but no one can say where. Precognition doesn't work for anybody these days."

"Yes, yes, that's a bad sign," Zudini agreed. "But if bad comes to worse, escape is still possible. Even if your frame is taken over by her, you and your favorite humans may come here."

"I don't want to escape with my favorite humans! I want to lick Zady proper! I want her out of my existence and all existences! I want her to burn and make a complete ash of herself! I want the Roundear of Prophecy to stand up and be a hero, and—"

Zudini and Whitestone exchanged pitying glances. They would be remembering the hero who had been tricked by Zady all through the convention. Kelvin had in effect entrusted his children to her, though he hadn't known she had switched identities with his sister. Such mistakes were not treated forgivingly by those with more than a smattering of the art.

"What we've done," Whitestone interrupted in his turn, "is contact all former convention members who were there. More than half have agreed to work to punish Zady for the humiliation they suffered. And there are newcomers who have earned their pointed hats who have volunteered. Zudini's daughter, Zally, and her husband, Frederich, will come. Then there's very young warlock Ebbernog who has developed a latent ability along with his quick mastery of the art. Ebbernog was frightened by Zady as a child. He was innocently bouncing his ball in the children's suite when this other child appeared—one of the four who were missing. He told the attendant, bounced his ball again, and struck Zady, who was wearing an invisibility cloak."

Yes, Helbah thought, and it must have been Ebbernog's latent ability that had made the ball move with unusual speed. Merlain's thought to him to throw the ball there had evidently triggered his ability.

Telepaths like Merlain and Charles were rare, but those gifted with the ability to think-move objects were almost as rare. A warlock with psychokinesis ability would be an asset of great worth.

"Yes, I remember Merlain telling me of Ebbernog's experience." She did not say that Merlain had Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

described him as a "dumb little fat kid." Even today Merlain was often weak in empathy, as when she condemned her father for being a dragon-killer way back in his youth. Her father, of course, had had no choice; nor had Ebbernog.

"Wizard Whitestone, Warlock Zudini, I appreciate what you've done, but now I have to be getting back."

"But my dear lady," Whitestone urged, "surely you can have a cup of brew with us first?"

"No, I have to be leaving. War may begin at any moment. She may choose to attack anywhere, and I haven't troops and protective spells in Aratex and Hermandy. There's no time to spare."

"But Helbah," Whitestone persisted, "we're coming with you. The others I mentioned will soon follow."

"Come on, then," Helbah ordered. "It's back to the transporter station and then home to the twin palaces."

Not bothering to stand up, she changed into a swoosh in the chair and changed Katbah into a batbird clutching her feathers. She hopped out of the chair, beat her wings, and flew past startled waiters and waitresses, including one waitress with very spectacular cleavage she dimly recognized. She flew through the hotel lobby and out the door, which the doorman just managed to open for them in time. Out in the street they flew high above the floating platforms, past the shops and the police station and into the familiar terminal. Straight to the nearest empty booth she flew, pecked the proper coordinates on the controls, and transported, not even bothering to change.

The nanosecond of time that seemed to the traveler a longer time was no different for a bird than for a person. Cometing stars, twisting sensation in the stomach, an explosion of lights. Then she and Katbah were back in the dome. Not wasting time, she dived out the airlock, swimming for the surface with strong swoosh wingbeats. She exploded from the water, circled just a moment in the air, and was joined by two ruffled swooshes bursting from the water. Together, side by side, they flew to the ancient dock, then elevated their bird selves above moldering stairs and the broken masonry and statues and junk of a onetime glorious palace. Now it was out to where the ruins ended, wings beating steadily, to where a plume of dust floated above a departing horse and rider.

Kelvin was waiting here. He looked up at them, a little bit startled by their sudden appearance. He stood his ground while they landed and changed into their human forms, his expression a bit less confident than befitted a hero.

"Helbah, Whitestone, Zudini—I remember you from the convention! Something's happened! Something terrible. I've just received word. Hermandy and Aratex are under attack! Zady attacked first and then declared war. The war has started!"