A Tryst of Fate by Piers Anthony

Author:Piers Anthony [Anthony, Piers]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781504066785
Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
Published: 2021-10-19T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

Ruby

In due course, duly feted, they left the Princess to her job of reorganizing the kingdom. She would be busy for a month or so, and did not need the distraction of a fiancé at the moment. Once things were in order, Bird could return to make her his bride.

They parked on a quaint secluded island in a lovely little lake in a quiet friendly forest and considered what next. “It occurs to me,” Incident said, “That now that we all are beautiful, and know we will retain our powers upon retirement, we should orient on that retirement. What is to stop us from quitting now, and continuing to help Goar try to win his forgiveness?”

Goar had an answer for that. “Something else is going on, something we don’t know about. Something big. Otherwise there would not be a Demoness lurking. Your retirement may provoke a settlement we are not prepared for.”

“Fornax,” Incident agreed. “We should indeed be wary.” She shrugged, her body making the motion remarkably appealing. “Apart from whatever else, I like her.”

“She did a singular favor for Birdie, giving her back her kingdom.”

“And for the rest of us. I doubt that our powers were permanent before she intervened.”

Goar smiled, something he could do now without horrifying others. He still wore the head-sock, but it covered completely handsome features instead of ugly ones. Which he realized was curious, since he was not an Oma. Maybe that was the Demoness’s doing too. “If the rest of you are willing to wait until I am forgiven, if I am forgiven, I shall be glad to have your continuing help.”

Incident glanced at the three lustrous companions. They nodded. They would hold off on retirement.

Now Goar remembered his last brief dialogue with Fornax. “There is something else.”

Incident turned her lovely gaze on him. “Oh?”

“I was in touch mentally with Fornax. I mentioned the chaos bomb the Goddess gave me.”

The four looked at him with surprise. This was new to them. “It is invisible and unfeelable, but with me. When mentally detonated, it will generate a region of chaos about six paces outward, lasting about an hour. Things will go crazy.”

He saw that they didn’t understand. He needed a specific example. “Suppose you, Rabbit, got surrounded by goblins intent on making you into rabbit stew. You could escape them by doing a Harvey and turning invisible, or by suddenly growing too large for them to handle. But suppose you didn’t want to attract attention? You could set off a chaos bomb, and they would abruptly lose all organization and dissolve into bedlam, going every which way for an hour. Only you would be unaffected. You could simply walk away from them unnoticed, because the chaos would remain centered on you. They would not even realize that you were the source. So you could escape without attention and continue with your mission unmolested.”

“That does sound useful,” Incident said, as Rabbit was back in silent form.

“Or if rogue men caught you, Incident, and tried to molest you,” Goar continued.

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