(eng) L. Sprague de Camp - Harold Shea 1-3 by The Compleat Compleat Enchanter

Author:The Compleat Compleat Enchanter [Enchanter, The Compleat Compleat]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

“Beer, beer, beautiful beer,

Fill me right up with it,

Clear up to here!

“I’d get a couple of seidels?”

“Vaclav!” said Chalmers sharply. “Pray give your attention to the matter in hand. If you were to perform so rash an act, you would almost certainly find yourself filled with the beverage in question, but I doubt whether your organs would retain it. The utmost precision of expression is necessary. Kindly observe that the doggerel you quoted demanded that you be filled with the liquid instead of having it to drink. Now, where was I? Ah—magic will thus, I fear, always remain to large extent an art, just as in my opinion psychiatry will as well. However, there is also the somatic element of the spell, subject to more precise regulation. There is some point in connection with this element that eludes me, and on which I shall be glad to have any light that observation of Atlantès by either of you, gentlemen, can throw. I refer to the very adroit manner in which he is able to employ spells as an instrumentality for teleportation of human beings or even those only quasi-human—”

Shea’s mind wandered as Chalmers droned along. They had worked out most of this stuff in Faerie, with Belphebe—Belphebe! She must be the same as the Belphegor the doctor had mentioned. With the springy step and the freckles under her tan. The question of getting her back concerned the somatic element, of finding out how Atlantès . . .

An eruption from Polacek jerked Shea out of his daydream. The Rubber Czech was on his feet, exclaiming: “Sure, I get it, Doc. Let’s take time out to do some lab work. Watch that cushion while I turn it into—”

“No!” shouted Shea and Chalmers together.

“Aw listen; can’t you ever believe a guy can learn anything?”

“I remember,” said Shea, “when you blew up the lab and almost killed yourself in sophomore chem, trying to make cacodyl. You stick around for some more lectures before you try enchanting even a mouse.”

“Yeah, I know, but you can check me on each step, and I’m—”

The argument was squelched by the arrival of Florimel with: “I am somewhat more myself, my lord.” But so, it turned out, was the lecture on magic. Shea wandered off to orient himself, while Chalmers undertook the difficult task of restraining Polacek.

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