Myth 13 - Myth Alliances Asprin, Robert (top 100 novels .TXT) 📖

began fluttering. In a moment it, too, was finished. Zol clapped the covers of his miniature computer closed and put it back in his satchel.

“Now, to Kobol!”

Myth 13 - Myth Alliances

TEN

“Interface is a breeze!” Ñw. gates

“What a lovely place,” Bunny breathed, gazing all around her as Zol led us toward a round building I could just see above the tops of the trees. It was daylight in this part of Kobol. We had arrived in a garden surrounded by high hedges. Arched doorways carved directly into the dense green bushes led from section to section. Every plant, every tree appeared to have been planted and tended with mathematical precision. I couldn't see a leaf out of place. Even the flowerbeds were neat, not a dead or faded bloom in sight. Wensley felt nervous in such utter tidiness. He stayed by Tananda, who seemed perfectly happy to cuddle close to him. I had my hand on Gleep's collar so he wouldn't go running off through the maze. I would get in trouble if he destroyed the precise perfection of this placid scene by punching holes through the hedges.

“Yes,” Zol smiled, guiding her along the shady lanes on paths of clipped green grass. "We always have gardens, not that most of us spend too much time in one, but they are

here for our mathematicians to take mental health breaks. Numbers can become all-​consuming, you know."

“There really was no need for me to come with you,” Wensley babbled, looking around him in dismay. “I trust your judgment. You know I do. I... someone needs to keep watch on the castle. I can do that while you are away. It would be very nice if I could go back, just for a while...”

“Don't you want to help in your own dimension's de?fense?” I asked, fixing him with a gaze that made him wriggle like a worm on a hook.

“Well, of course,” Wensley managed, “but is this a mat?ter of Wuh? It would seem to me that my people's concern is mainly with the well being of our own dimension. Not that others are unimportant, of course. Wuhses have com?passion for others. We might just be concerned that you are dividing your attention. That's your business, of course. I would never be the one to tell you that you are not doing the job you promised us you would do.”

That was the most direct statement I had heard him al?most make. “This is connected to Wuh,” I assured him as positively as I could. “We're trying to figure out a place where they are vulnerable. Now, they're stronger than we are, they're experienced, they're better magicians, they un?derstand technology and they have all of you under their control. Does it sound like we have any lever to pry them out of Wuh?”

“Er.. .not that I could discern,” Wensley admitted.

“Right! That's what we're doing here. We're looking for a weakness, and in the meantime saving another species who don't know what's hitting them.”

“Bravo, Master Skeeve!” Zol cheered. “Well said! And we of Kobol will do our best to facilitate your aims. Count upon us!”

Wensley looked discontented, but he stopped grumbling, especially when Tananda melted a little closer to him.

We passed a niche where a Kobol female sat on a

bench. She wore a long, shapeless white garment with a high neck and wide sleeves. In her fingers she had a single blue-​petaled flower which she raised to her nose occasion?ally to sniff. Her large black eyes, fixed in the distance, came back into focus as she acknowledged Zol's cheerful greeting.

“This is Ruta,” Zol introduced us, “one of our most tal?ented programmers.”

“ ©,” she replied, her cheeks turning a deep gray. “Too kind, Zol.”

“What did she say?” I asked, as we passed.

“She smiled at us,” Zol answered.

“Why didn't she just smile?”

“She did, in our language.”

The round, flattened building had a silvery gray shell not unlike the book in Zol's satchel. It loomed over us as we stopped at a curved, translucent panel. Zol placed his open hand on a pale blue square beside it.

“Zol Icty and four visitors,” he announced, beaming at us. “Excuse me. Five visitors.” He winked at Gleep. A humming sound erupted out of nowhere. I felt as if some?one was touching me on the back. When I jumped around to see who it was, the touch moved to my front, but no one was there. Gleep swiveled his long neck to peer over his back and under his belly. By the expression on their faces Bunny, Tananda and Wensley had also felt it. Only Zol looked calm. He gestured as the translucent panel slid side?ways. It was a door.

“This way,” our host directed us. He led us down an im?maculately clean, white-​walled corridor. Oddly, this sur?prisingly clean place reminded me of the Bazaar, because loud, unintelligible noises, music and shouting poured out of every door. Tananda, Gleep and I stuck close together, on guard in case anything jumped out at us. Bunny walked with Zol, hanging on his every word. “I confess I am a tri?fle peckish after all that work. Would you like something to eat while I and my friends analyze the map?”

“Yeah!” I replied avidly. Zol smiled and pushed through one of the identical doors. The room beyond was filled with Kobolds, all staring into screens like his and playing upon keyboards as though they were pianos. At the far end of the room was a