The other girls peered over her shoulder. Bee peered around the square, muttering numbers to himself. "Forty yards by forty-five. Nine direct routes in, not counting air." Tolk just gawked, his long pink tongue lolling in amazement.
"I see," Pologne said, glancing up. "This creature is an adolescent. You can tell because the whiskers are no longer ivory colored, but not yet fully golden."
"And one of them is bent," Freezia added, "indicating a defeat by a more powerful opponent, such as a dragon. I recall from one of Professor Simble's lectures that Manticore whiskers are one of the most flexible and tough fibers in all the dimensions."
"No, not a dragon," Pologne corrected her. "Only a magikal attack could have bent it! Dragons are unlikely to have cast a spell. They prefer to use brute firepower."
"Of course!" Freezia tittered. "I defer to your superior memory, Polly." She pulled out a notebook and made a note in it with an orange plume. "Physical attack. How long ago, do you think?"
"I couldn't say for certain," Pologne said thoughtfully.
"Master Flink, there he goes again!" one of the bowman shouted. The Manticore had pulled himself to his feet and was staggering across the square.
"Hold your fire!" the headman said. "The wizard's about to do something!"
"When?" demanded a fat man in a flour-spattered tunic and apron. I deduced at once that he was the town baker. "He's tearing up my granary!"
The Manticore had pushed aside the canopy that hung over the entrance to the white-plastered building, and appeared to be trying to crawl inside, to the detriment of the door frame.
"Well, wizard? Hurry! He'll destroy my entire shop!"
If you've never felt the eyes of a thousand people fixed on you all at once, let me tell you it's uncomfortable. I kept my face, wearing the guise of the venerable and formidable wizard, from showing any emotion, but underneath I was growing as impatient as the townspeople. Still, I waited. I was fairly certain no one was in any direct danger from this monster at the moment, and I thought my students had an important lesson to learn.
At last, one of them took action. Melvine tugged at my sleeve.
"Uh, Skeeve, how about we leave?" he suggested, in as suave a voice as he could muster. "This doesn't have to be our fight, does it?"
"Sure it does!" Tolk said, goggling. "Let's go get him! Let's go get him! Now-wow-wow-wow!"
"We made a contract, Melvine," Bee added.
"Strictly speaking, Skeeve made the contract," Melvine said, planting his hands on his chest. "I had no problem with the exercises you had us doing. My aunt exaggerated a lot about me needing to get close with big-time experiences. Look, if you don't mind, I'll just observe from over there. Maybe up that street on the left. Whaddaya say?" The Cupy began to back away.
"What are you afraid of?" I asked.
Melvine halted, mouth open in indignation. "I'm not saying I'm afraid! I mean, this THING, with those big claws, and all those teeth—!"
"Well, if he's not fully mature, he won't have all his rows of teeth," Pologne said, still engrossed in her reading matter.
"What does that mean?" Bee asked curiously.
Pologne dragged him closer so he could see into the crystal ball. "See the chart? His emotions mature at a perceptible rate. Depending on his age, he will understand certain abstract notions better than others."
"You're saying we should appeal to his better sense, eh?" Tolk asked, his tongue lolling. "Good idea!"
Some of the townsfolk began to remark among themselves about the novelty of a talking dog. I regretted not giving him human semblance before we started out, but that would have given people something else to talk about when he dropped to all fours to run.
Melvine began to edge toward the rear of the square. I grabbed him by the collar and tossed him back into the midst of the others.
In the meantime, the headman ordered the archers to let fly. The bolts peppered the Manticore, who brushed them off with a fearsome roar. Blood seeped out of the golden fur. The Manticore staggered blindly in the direction of the bowmen. The people in his way screamed and ran. The Manticore lurched toward the noises, stinging here and there with his tail, and swiping with one big paw, but was too slow to hit any of them. He was hampered by the fact that he continued to clutch the round container tightly to his chest. Growling in disappointment, he dropped to all threes to crawl.
"Curse it, reload and prepare to fire!" Flink shouted.
The bowmen thrust the stirrups of their bows into the ground and yanked the strings back to the trigger, keeping one eye on the beast as they shoved fresh quarrels into the groove of their weapons. The Manticore snarled and kicked out at a
haycart that unaccountably got in his way. The wagon tumbled end over end and crashed into the side of a building.
Some brave townsfolk mustered to throw more rocks at the monster. When he turned toward them, they fled to hide behind the archers, who were forming a trembling wedge behind me and my apprentices.
The Manticore stumbled over the shrubbery that surrounded a memorial garden in the middle of the square. With a huge splash, he fell flat in the pond.
The townsfolk broke into nervous laughter. The Manticore seemed to take this amiss. He rose up on three limbs, lashing his pale blue tail until his backside faced us. Then, he hoisted the tail high.
"Everybody down!" Flink yelled.
My limited knowledge of Manticores made me realize what threat lay in store. I hit the dirt. "Students! Down!"
The Pervects, distracted from their perusal of the crystal ball, looked at me aghast.
"In our good clothes?" Jinetta demanded, hands on hips.
By now the others had noticed the threat and thrown themselves to the ground. I reached out with a massive dollop of magik, just in time.
The Manticore's backside swiveled toward us, and the huge haunch muscles squeezed.
FZZZAPP!
I suddenly understood Norb's description of how the creature 'emitted lightning,' a fact unaccountably left out of the stuffy textbook I had been reading. A blue-white bolt erupted from the beast's nether parts and shot directly toward the young Pervect. I levitated Jinetta straight up into the air. The bolt missed her, blasting into a huge tree on the green. I reached for some more magik from the blue force line I could see overhead, but it was so thin I couldn't get more than a trickle out of it. I was left with less than half what my internal 'tank' could hold.
"I hope I'm not going to regret that later," I said.
"Well, thanks a million!" Jinetta said, insulted.
"That's not what I meant," I began. "Look out!"
"Aagh!" Melvine shrieked, diving for the cobblestones again.
The Manticore, once having hoisted his tail, was randomly blasting houses and buildings apart with lightning bolts. He turned once more to look directly at the cluster of people behind me, and a mean smile crossed his face.
"No!" shouted Flink.
The Manticore concentrated deeply, and the biggest lightning bolt yet shot out of his backside and hurtled into a white stone building at the end of the square. The face of it exploded, shooting fragments in every direction.
"The town hall!" Norb yelled.
"Do something, Master Skeeve!" Flink said in frustration. "Your assistants are no help!"
"I agree," I said mildly. I turned to the small cluster at my back. "Apprentices!"
"It looks like maybe it got hurt by those arrows," Tolk pointed out eagerly. "I can fix it. Maybe then it'll like us and stop causing trouble."
"That's one theory," Jinetta said. "It ought to understand the concept of gratitude."
"Hey, listen up!" I said to them in a low but urgent voice.
"I dunno," Bee said. "If, like you say, they're vulnerable between the eyes, I can probably hit it square if one of these fellows will give me his crossbow."
The Manticore seemed to revel in the dismayed groans of the assembly at the destruction of their town hall. He rose to his hind feet and staggered toward the building, pausing to take a swallow from the container en route. My apprentices didn't seem to see the action.