Aahz, staying to the outside, came back around to where we were standing.
"This isn't possible," I said, holding up the shovel.
"It fills this room, Aahz," Tanda said, the awe in her voice clear. "I've never seen an energy stream anything like it."
"We can do it," Aahz said. Again I looked at my little gold shovel, then at the torrent of blue energy and just shook my head. Sometimes my mentor was smart, sometimes angry, but right now he was just plain crazy.
Chapter Seventeen
"I've heard of goldbricking, but this is ridiculous"
MIDAS REX
"Skeeve," Aahz said, "can you see where the flow for Count Bovine's spell leaves the main energy?"
We had moved around to the side of the room where Count Bovine's spell took its energy from the river of flowing energy pouring out of the ground.
"Yes, right in front of us," I said.
I pointed out where it left and how high it was to Aahz, who nodded.
I was using a part of my mind that allowed me to reach out for energy and do spells myself. That part allowed me to see the energy, where Aahz, who had lost his powers, could not.
Where the energy for Count Bovine's spell left the main stream was like a branch on a big tree. It sort of cut it off of one side of the main flow, moving up and sideways. The mo ment the secondary flow was sideways to the main one, it van ished into the spell it was being used for. We had about a body length, right above where I stood, to cut that side-flow off and send it along in the main flow. At least, that was the theory on what we were going to try. Sort of like trying to dam up the side branch of a river in one quick move, without getting wet. But even that side-branch of this energy, where I could see it, had to be ten paces across. Far, far wider than my little gold shovel. Yet from what I understood, Aahz wanted me to try to divert or even stop that energy with my shovel. Not a chance in a Bovine hell.
Aahz moved over behind me. "We're going to have to do this together," he said. "Tanda, when I say 'ready' you connect the gold in this shovel to whatever gold you can sense nearby. Pull in as much as you can."
"Oh, so you're going to make the shovel bigger?" I asked, starting to understand his plan.
"Exactly," he said.
Tanda nodded. "I'm going to have to make the gold wide, at least ten feet around."
Tanda could see the giant flow of energy as well as I could. She also knew how insane this attempt was.
"I know," Aahz said, nodding.
"Can you hold that much?" I asked. "I sure can't."
"We're both going to try," Aahz said. "You steer, I'll lift. I'm going to get under the shovel. When Tanda connects other gold to it and starts expanding it, it's going to get really, really heavy very quickly, so be ready the moment I say go. I don't want to drop it."
I nodded. This gold-plated shovel wasn't that light as it was. I couldn't imagine how Aahz and I could even try to hold up a gold block ten feet across, even a thin one.
"We have to keep it out of the flow until it's big enough," Aahz said.
"Okay," I said. "Let's do this and get on to the next life."
Aahz laughed. "That's what I like about you, apprentice. Always a good mental attitude."
"Give me something to be positive about," I said.
Aahz moved around and got under me, bracing himself solidly as I held the shovel up in position next to the side-flow of energy. When the gold got big enough for what Tanda was going to do, we were going to simply let the shovel fall to our right and cut off the side-flow to the spell. However, if we let the shovel fall forward into the main flow, there was no telling what would happen.
Aahz said he wasn't even sure what was going to happen when we cut the side-flow. He hoped nothing, but he didn't know for sure when I had asked him.
"Ready!" Aahz shouted, even though the room was empty and there were only the three of us in it.
To an outsider watching us who couldn't see the energy flow, we would have looked darned silly. Aahz crouched in front of me, holding onto the shovel I was holding in the air. Tanda beside us, her head tilted back, staring up into nothingness.
"Ready," she said.
I knew she was sending her mind out, linking gold, pull ing it in to add to our shield.
"Now!" Aahz shouted again.
Instantly the shovel started growing in size and in weight. I braced myself as Aahz did the same. I was stunned at how heavy it got so quickly.
The shovel grew and I strained against dropping it, trying to do my job of just holding it steady.
"About half!" Aahz said, his voice strained from holding up the ever-heavier shovel. Aahz was one of the strongest demons I knew, and he was having problems. I did my best to help lift at the same time as holding the shovel in position. I doubted I was doing much good, but I knew for a fact the effort was going to cost me later.
The shovel was getting bigger and bigger, growing quicker and quicker.
"Almost!" Aahz said, his voice barely a croak under the weight. Above me the shovel looked like a massive gold coin.
"Now!" Aahz said.
I pushed sideways, letting the shovel fall toward the side- flow of energy as Tanda kept adding more and more gold to it.
Like a gold knife, the shovel cut through the blue energy.
At that moment everything in the room seemed to explode.
I was smashed back against the stone, banging my head hard.
Tanda tumbled across the floor toward the door, coming to rest pressed against the wood. Her eyes were closed and I couldn't tell if she was hurt or not.
Aahz was pressed against the stone wall beside me.
Forces like I had never felt before held me in position as the gold cut through the flow just as we had planned. So far it was working. I couldn't believe it.
But then the shovel kept growing and growing as more and more gold poured into it. Something was wrong. Tanda should have unlinked the gold in the shield we built from the other gold around the area when the shield hit the energy. But there was clearly still more and more gold pouring into that shield. It had cut the side-flow, but now it was falling slowly toward the main flow, cutting into it as well as it kept growing.
Then the room seemed to expand outward and the pressure of my head against the stone sent me down into a blackness I didn't much like.
"Skeeve!"
"Skeeve! Can you hear me?"
The voice sounded far off, like it was coming from over a hill. I didn't care. It was still dark out and I wanted to sleep some more.
"Skeeve!"
The voice was getting closer, or so it seemed. I was in blackness. Pitch-black blackness. I tried to open my eyes, but everything still remained black. Every muscle in my body ached, and somehow I seemed to have fallen out of bed.
"Skeeve, if you can hear me, light the torch."
Now I understood the blackness, but I still couldn't remember where I was. I could hear something moving around, but it was so dark, I couldn't see a thing. More than likely it was Aahz trying to figure out what had happened to the lights.