Kelvin swallowed. "You"re-back?"
"Of course I"m back! For a dimwitted boy you ask the dumbest questions!"
"I-I"m sorry, Helbah. I thought-"
"You thought that fireball got me. That"s what you were supposed to think! That"s what Zoanna was supposed to think!"
"Meow."
"Yes, Katbah, you did right. Can"t depend on a hero for everything. Particularly one as inexperienced as this."
Considering all the adventures he had had in his relatively short life span, Kelvin did not feel he was inexperienced. But the need to get on with this was great.
"Helbah, what did you-?"
"Found them. Cave in the mountainside. Now it"s up to you, me, and Charlain. Get that fireball, will you?"
Almost absently Kelvin directed the chimaera"s sting to lightning out another approaching fire-bolus. The ground shook.
"But Mother is-"
"Here," Charlain said behind him. "And congratulations, hero, you are now the husband of a relatively healthy, loving wife, and the father of a healthy, squalling baby boy."
Kelvin"s mouth dropped open.
"And a rather pretty baby girl," Jon said, emerging with a bundle.
The enormity of the change in his life hit him then, as did the ground before he had half realized.
CHAPTER 30.
Defeat?
"Wake up, hero! Wake up!"
He felt her slapping him. Helbah. Then he felt the cat"s tail under his nose and he wanted to sneeze.
"Does he do this often, Charlain?"
"I wouldn"t know, Helbah. We"ll have to ask his wife."
Wife! Heln! The baby!
Babies!
Kelvin sat up, then stood up. He was dizzy. There were stars in the sky, not all of his making. A moon, bright and coppery as a chimaera"s haunch, lighting the grounds of the Kelvinian palace.
He made his way unsteadily to where Jon stood, holding his daughter. The baby"s face seemed oddly familiar. The eyes were dark, almost coppery- He froze. That face, after allowing for the difference in age- Don"t be concerned, Mervania thought. All foodstuffs look alike to us too. She favors me only slightly.
Kelvin reeled.
"What"s the matter, Kel?" Jon asked, alarmed. "She"s not ugly, she"s remarkably pretty for a newborn baby, and so"s her brother, Mother says. Nothing wrong with either of them."
"But-"
What your mother doesn"t want to tell you, Mervania thought, is that there were three. The dragon fled.
"But-"
It was a very tricky disenchantment, Kelvin. You can"t undo in a minute something that has developed for weeks. We saved your wife"s life by breaking the chimaera into three: boy, girl, and dragon. You may keep the first two. That"s fair, isn"t it?
Kelvin"s mouth was stuck halfway open.
Now go in there and see your wife, and be brave when they tell you about the third. It was the best that could be done, Kelvin. The two are completely human, except- Except? he thought numbly.
They will be telepathic. Sorry about that; it just couldn"t be helped. Now be on your way. I"ll be on mine; I have business at home to hold me for a while. He felt her presence fade; she was gone.
Kelvin shut his mouth and started toward the palace.
"Uh, I know she wants to see you, but not just yet," Jon said. "It was a difficult delivery, and there"s blood, and she"s sleeping-"
"True," Charlain said. "And we do have other business out here. Stand by, Kelvin."
He stood by. Jon turned and walked into the palace with the baby girl. They didn"t know the whole story! he thought. They didn"t know Mervania"s part in it.
"Later we must talk, Kelvin," Charlain said. "But right now we must deal with the queen, or all can still be lost."
Kelvin finally found his voice. "Yes. I"ll help here."
"We have to get to work," Helbah agreed.
"The fireb.a.l.l.s!" Kelvin said. "Are you watching? I forgot to-"
"She has quit sending them for the time being. It takes as much energy to generate them as to abolish them. I must admit I"m surprised at her strength. If you hadn"t come out when you did we"d have been finished."
Kelvin refocused on the problem. He had managed, with the help of the chimaera"s sting, to make witchfire arrows! Or at least the lightning to shoot them down. But indeed the battle was not over; not until Zoanna was gone. He stared into the sky. He"d never expected to see the moon out tonight; it had been so dark. But of course the storm had not been natural.
"Do you think they"re trying to escape?" Charlain asked.
"I think they"re planning something," Helbah said. "Zoanna swore she"d never give up. If that"s so, we"ll have to finish her."
"She"ll come back if we don"t, won"t she?" Kelvin asked.
"Probably. One thing you can say for her, she"s not a quitter."
"Nor is Rowforth. He"s just as bad!"
"Fortunately Rowforth hasn"t her magic. Let"s go get them."
"To that cave?"
"As I told you, for a slow boy you ask the dumbest questions! Of course to the cave!"
"How will we-?" Helbah was clearly the general, he thought.
"Charlain and I may not need you there. Hand your mother the antimagic weapon. It won"t crack Zoanna"s barrier, but it just might help. You stay here with the sting and Katbah and watch for fireb.a.l.l.s. Your former queen is just mean enough to try one final attack on the palace."
"I-I"ll watch." He handed his mother the Mouvar weapon. Then he thought again and handed her the belt and short scabbard. She took these with as little surprise as though he had handed her a pot in her own kitchen. She strapped on the weapon, seeming not in the least curious about it.
"I"m sure you will," Helbah said. "Charlain, hop on my back!"
With astonishment that seemed lately never to cease, Kelvin watched his mother climb piggyback on Helbah"s aging shoulders. Then, as the moon hid under clouds and it was as dark as the inside of a serpent, there was a whooshing sound. The moon came back and there was a white dovgen climbing into the sky with what looked like a small gray shrewouse clinging with tiny paws to its feathers.
The bird disappeared into the dark sky. There were no lightnings. No flaming b.a.l.l.s of witch"s fire.
"Meow." Absently he reached down and stroked the cat. He was back to the little-boy stage, he thought, waiting patiently for adults to accomplish adult business. All in all it wasn"t too bad a place to be.
Katbah rubbed against him and purred contentment and wordless understanding. He was beginning to understand why witches had familiars; they could be a lot of comfort on dark nights.
No, not too bad a place for someone who had never wanted the hero mantle in the first place.
"Ohhh," Rowforth moaned. "Zoanna, you"re taking too much of my life-force. It"s flowing out and nothing is replacing it. Zoanna, you"re draining me!"
"Can"t be helped. You want to win, don"t you? Quit your whining."
"But Zoanna, if you kill me in order to destroy them, where"s my triumph? You don"t want me dead." Then he paused, a new and not entirely pleasant thought occurring. "You don"t, do you, Zoanna?"
Zoanna, now the complete witch, did not answer. She merely smiled in ever so enigmatic a fashion.
Rowforth, who had been merely uncomfortable, now found that he was thoroughly scared. He resolved that he would find some way of being useful to her other than at the expense of his life-force. To fail to do this, he strongly suspected, would cost him dear. It could, he knew in the depths of him, cost him his life.
John and Rufurt had ridden the plowhorse double half the way to the palace. John for his part was having second thoughts. True, the lights in the sky meant big things afoot, and probably danger to those he loved. But, and the thought jolted him worse than the plowhorse, the intelligent thing would have been to go back to Kian and get his help.
"Curse it," Rufurt said with disgust, "there"s never an army around when you need one!"
Looking at the dancing lights in the sky and having his senses beset by implosive blasts, John had to agree with the former king"s estimate. But he had to go on. Somewhere ahead there was Charlain!
Jon watched Heln nursing her firstborn and felt a stirring inside her that she had never honestly felt before. Possibly, just possibly, she herself was not completely devoid of maternal instinct. She looked down at the secondborn she held. She certainly was a cute baby! She had her grandma"s coppery hair. But how were they going to tell Kelvin about the horrible third one?
Well, maybe they wouldn"t have to. The thing had gained its feet immediately and scampered out before they could do more than stare. Heln, lapsing into unconsciousness again, hadn"t seen it at all. Maybe n.o.body but Jon, Charlain, and Dr. Sterk ever needed to know of the horror that had been the remnant of the evil enchantment. It was safely gone.
"I"m sure they"ll be all right," Dr. Sterk said, putting his beak of a nose almost in her face. "I wasn"t certain. We physicians have so little training in magic."
"I"m sure that can change," Jon said.
"It will. It will have to. After all, magic is the basis of all healing."
"I"ve heard that all my life. From Mother, mostly." Jon looked at the window and was surprised how light it had become. The ball of fire Charlain had left had gradually grown dimmer until now it was about as bright as that of twin oil lamps.
"I"ll light the lamps again, Doctor. I"m not certain how long my mother"s light will last."
"Probably almost until morning," Dr. Sterk said.
Jon busied herself with the lamps. She hadn"t a coal to apply to the wicks so she simply held them near the witch"s fire and-not surprisingly, to her at least-they lit.
"Good girl, Jon."
"Doctor, do you mind if I go out and see what Kelvin and our mother are about? It has been a while."
"No indeed, Jon. I"m wondering about that myself." He took the baby from her.
Heln stirred, weak and wan in the bed. "Please Jon, find out about Kelvin."
"Don"t worry about him," Jon said, patting the new mother"s hand. How wonderful it was to have Heln back, instead of the monster she had become under the enchantment! "He"s our hero and nothing bad will happen to him. He didn"t come in before because I asked him not to. There was blood, and you were just about unconscious." And we had to clean up the gory tracks of that horrible third birth!
Heln sighed. "Of course. You"re right, Jon. You almost always are." She closed her eyes. And we didn"t want to rouse you until that was done either, Jon"s thought finished.
Jon left the palace, sling in hand. She was wondering if what she"d told Heln was true. Prophecy or no prophecy, she knew she had on more than one occasion saved her brother"s life.
Kelvin stood at the gatepost in the moonlight. His hands were on a copper something that looked a little like a dragon spear that she hadn"t noticed before, in the mixed excitement of the birthings. The point of the spear thing was pointed skyward; was it some sort of new weapon? Why would he need anything different if he had the Mouvar weapon that had won the war with Aratex? And there, next to his leg, rubbing up against him, was a large, black houcat.
"Kelvin?"
"Jon!" he exclaimed, as if seeing her for the first time. "Is Heln all right? Are the babies-?"
"Calm yourself," she said with a tired smile. "They"re all fine. Heln"s asking for you. As soon as you finish here, you can go see her." What a boy Kelvin was, actually, she realized. How much more grown-up she and Heln were, and even her own Lester.
"I have to watch the sky for fireb.a.l.l.s," he said. "Mother and our-" He paused, swallowed, and then went on: "Our ally, have gone to finish something."
"You mean the witch from the twin cities, don"t you?" How naive did he think she was? Who else had been defending them from Zoanna and the false king these past days?
"Yes-yes, that"s what I mean. Helbah thinks they"re licked and that she can finish them."
"Isn"t that a job for a hero?"
"I"m not complaining," Kelvin said.
Jon lightly touched his hand. "You"ve sent back Zoanna"s fireb.a.l.l.s, Kel?"
"This stopped them," he said, touching the copper spear.