He was walking toward the Plain of Grellig.
The call was not quite to the plain itself, he found, as he toiled up the slope that led to a ridge between the two peaks. The voice was coming from the southern peak. He turned, following it, his footsteps slow, though the sound of his name was coming faster now, in a low, rumbling voice that shivered through his bones. He forced himself onward, step after step, till he came to the bottom of a forty-foot rock outcrop.
He peered up into the starlight and saw that the top of the peak was rounded off into a very craggy dome. Maybe it was a trick of the light, but he thought he could make out pocks and crevices whose shadows gave the appearance, very roughly, of a brow ridge, nose, and a slash of mouth.
"You come," the mountain grated. "At last you come. Have waited, Wizard, waited years by hundreds."
Matt tried to speak - had to try again. "Who... who are you?"
"Am Colmain."
Matt couldn't move. He was rooted to the spot. This was the end of the long chase, then - this great slab of granite with the voice of the earthquake.
But it seemed wrong, somehow. He'd expected more from a giant with Colmain's reputation - illogically, of course; giants weren't even really human. "How do you know me?"
"Know ye? Summoned ye, Wizard!"
"You? You're the power that's been backing me all this time?"
"Aye, aye!" the great voice rumbled. "Hundreds of years, sought through worlds while body stood here, seeking sphere where wizards learned changing of substances."
"Transmutation? Lead into gold?"
"Aye. Only wizard from world where can change lead to gold could change stone back to flesh! So summoned ye!"
"Well, you called the wrong wizard. I'm from the right universe - but I don't know anything about transmutation. My study is words and the things men make of them."
"What else is wizard?" the giant bellowed. "Knowing ye, or not have called ye! Wizard, change to flesh!"
Reluctance crystallized, and Matt balked. "We're planning on it in the morning. At the moment I'm worn out from a long day in the saddle. If I tried to do it now, I might botch it."
"Try!" the granite thundered. "Must try! Must do-and now! Sorcerer-force comes! Army of Evil nears! Ye feel their coming?"
So that was the sense of great powers gathering that Matt had felt. "Uh... yeah, I've felt it."
"Then why nay-say? Hurry! Do now! Ere sorcerer blasts stone to gravel, and not waken ever!"
Matt stood immobile, hung on a decision.
"Do!" the cliff face bellowed. "Now! Or Hell takes!"
He was right. Malingo was gathering his powers, both physical and magical; and the forces of Good were approaching in response. It had to be done-and done quickly.
"All right. But I've never done anything on this scale before. It may take me a few tries to get it right."
"Once only!" the giant thundered. "Or lose life!"
Matt looked up, irritated. The giant wasn't in much of a position to threaten - or was he? If he had pulled Matt to Merovence...
He turned back, knowing he was going to try; overbearing or not, the giant was necessary. But how the hell was Matt going to work this miracle? Sure, he'd managed to turn Stegoman back from stone to flesh. But that had been a small job compared to this, and the change to a statue had been too recent then to have had time to set. This had been resting for centuries.
Still, maybe the theory was the same. In changing the giant to rock, the carbon must have been converted to silicon. That would cause a complete change in chemical bonds, resulting in a whole new set of molecules. If the silicon could just be turned back to carbon, maybe the process would reverse and the whole structure would come alive again.
He gathered pebbles into a small mound, added a handful of sand, and mixed grass into it. He really needed flesh, but he'd eaten it all for dinner. Still, what counted was having carbon in organic compounds.
But how was he going to put enough power into his verse? Maybe he'd better avoid specifics and stick to generalities. He had to indicate a change, a reshuffling, a turning ...
The yin-yang symbol slashed vividly before his mind's eye, turning, endlessly turning.
"Now the Wheel forever turns,
Yin for Yang, until it burns.
Silicon, now yield your place
Unto carbon's rings of grace."
He'd also better throw in some mythical references.
Now there was one thing he knew could be transmuted-and fast. He'd better throw it in for luck and power. He needed a whopper of a heavyweight spell.
An explosion rocked the peak. Matt leaped back, arms wrapped around his head. The earth heaved once under him. He looked up to see huge shards of rock flying from the cliff and turned, running.
Someone else was running - toward him. Long blonde hair waved in the moonlight. "Wizard! Reverse the spell!"
Matt skidded to a halt, dread gripping his entrails.
"Change him back!" Alisande screamed. "'Tis not Colmain!"
There was an avalanche-roar as the giant shook free from the cliff, gloating and laughing. "Ballspear!" The creature broke away a ten-foot shaft of rock for a club. "Ballspear, poor believing man. Now pay for folly!" He turned, lumbering toward them in twenty-foot strides. The huge rock swung down.
Matt yanked Alisande aside, diving. The great club smashed into the earth two feet away. They rolled back up and ran, with giant feet slamming the ground behind them.
The ground roared away from Ballspear's foot. The giant bellowed as he sprawled full-length into the huge pit. A roar of fury shook the earth, and a huge hand shot up over the edge, pulling until thirty feet of giant emerged, freeing him to the kneecaps. The ten-foot club slammed down at the end of a fifteen-foot arm.
"Go!" Matt shouted, shoving Alisande away. She took off, outdistancing him in his armor. The great bludgeon slammed down a foot behind his heels. Ballspear climbed out of the pit.
Ballspear lurched off-balance as his right foot sank a fathom deep. He fell to his knees, roaring with fury, and the huge club slammed down. Matt leaped aside. The club gouged the ground beside him. He kept running.
Alisande turned to wait for him, and he howled, "No! If you die, we all do!"
Ballspear rumbled interest, pulled his feet out of the mire, and waddled toward Alisande, ignoring Matt.
"Go!" Matt shouted furiously, and Alisande went.
Ballspear pounded into a run, club on high.
"Max!" Matt shouted. "Do something!"
"What?" The arc dot hummed with interest, zipping out through a chink in his armor.
It had to have orders! "Break his club!"
"How?"
"Weaken the molecular bonds!" Matt shrieked, turning to follow the princess.