Joe again fought momentary panic. What if Sugasto just took him, now, like this, and he changed back tomorrow morning? Worse, what if he didn’t change back?
“Go on back up to your master, girl,” the sorcerer said at last. “But don’t forget to tell him when he wakens!”
“I swear I will tell him, my lord!”
“I know you will.” He patted Joe on the rump. “Okay, now, off! I have work to do here!”
Joe didn’t need any more urging. He was off and up the stairs as fast as possible and back into the room. His heart was pounding like mad, and he stood there, back against the door as if barring it with his body against intrusion, for quite some time.
“Sugasto? Here?” Marge could hardly believe it, and really didn’t want to. “You don’t suppose he’s still in the place, do you?”
“I would doubt it, my lady,” Joe responded. “I heard a large number of horses leave some time ago, although it was quite late. He would be riding with ah honor guard, even if he needs no protection himself.”
“Well, that’s something,” the Kauri commented. “You’re sure he didn’t suspect? Not that you were Joe, but that you might be Mia?”
“He saw some resemblance, my lady, that was clear, but he has never seen this body before and would be going on descriptions alone. Possibly, had I had hair and Marquewood slave dress he would have made the connection.”
She chuckled. “Just like his kind to have their petty little perversions get in their own way. Still, you’re lucky. With a wave of his hand, he could have put you in a trance and made you spill everything. It was a close call.”
Joe nodded. “Still, my lady, he is not free of all suspicions, or else why would he command our presence later on? He saw Ruddygore’s signature in the slave spell in the nose ring. I do not think he believes me to be anything other than I seemed, but he will be far more critical of the barbarian. Even worse, what if the curse does not lift at sunrise? Then his people will come later on and find two slave girls here. It is certain then that this would quickly become my permanent condition.”
“Surely you aren’t gonna keep that date anyway! Why, you’d be riding of your own free will right into the enemy camp! One slight misstep and he’ll have the both of you!” She looked at the great sword Irving, hanging in its scabbard on the bedpost. “You’ve got a disguise, but what about that thing?”
“My lady, unless I had to call it by name to summon it to my hand, I could call it ‘George’ or ‘Trenton,’ for that matter. And if I needed to summon it, there would be little point in pretending any way.”
“What if the Baron is there?” Mia asked worriedly. “He, or she, or whatever he is these days, has seen us. The disguises might not be good enough to fool him.”
“Well, my lady, he, or she, wasn’t with Sugasto last night. I have thought of the possibility that this meeting is to do just that—let Boquillas have a look at us. It cannot be dismissed as a possibility. But doing anything but obeying is unthinkable. It is a day’s ride over a single road to the border, if that would stop them. Otherwise, he has an army of men and fairies around here. We are as trapped as if we were in his Hypboreyan lair.”
“That’s a point. Ah, sunrise!”
For a moment, Joe felt real fear when nothing happened, but Mia hadn’t changed, either. Marge had seen the first light of dawn, but it was another two or three minutes before any part of the sun made it over the horizon.
Joe was Joe again. He let out an ecstatic “Yippee!” and banged one fist into the other. He turned to them and said, “If I’m gonna go, I’d rather be as me. It looks like his snare spell just scrambled the curse for a night, which is a real relief.” He looked over at Mia. “First things first. I have to get some clothes on, and then we’ve got to find a bolt cutter.”
“Huh?”
“The spell gave me the ring but not the collar. Sugasto saw me—Mia—without it. In fact, he decreed them off right then and there. If she’s got one on when we meet him, that’ll be a tip-off right away.” He turned to Mia. “Remember, for some reason he took a real fancy to you. Play it cool but don’t overdo it. I don’t want him to order me to hand you over to him.”
The idea alarmed her. “What would I do, Master, if he did?”
“Almost anything’s possible this afternoon. If he does, then go. We’ll find you. Hell, if I could get us both up there, on him, I’d do it and save us a real journey. But I’d rather we do it together, and not as prisoners of the enemy.”
“I’d think, once you get that collar off, you’d better try and get some sleep,” Marge grumbled.
“The hell with sleep. He’s expecting a man just getting over food poisoning anyway, and he knows Mia was up and about most of the night.”
“Yeah, but it seems to me that you need a clear head.”
“Very little sleep is needed during the were periods. It’s as if you slept while the other form was awake. Don’t ask me about it—look it up sometime.”
“So what do you want me to do?”
“You’d best sleep outdoors today. Let them come in and do routine things in the room. They might well send somebody to search it anyway. If we don’t come back, you can’t do much. Return and tell Ruddygore. If we do, come again at dusk. We’ve still got one more night of the moon.”
“Well, I don’t like it, but okay. In case moonrise comes before you get all the way back, but it’s clear, come to the back window as whatever you are. I’ll figure it out. If they take you, they’ll come and get all your things and I’ll know: If nobody comes, not even the hotel people, I’ll know that, too.”
He nodded. “Good enough.”
Getting the collar off was a hell of a lot harder than he thought it would be and took the better part of two hours and a lot of finagling to do it without cutting, burning, or strangling Mia.
He got ready in his new buckskin outfit, even though it was still mild out. It had the best image, and an image, with the beard and other disguises, different from the one they’d be looking for. Thanks to the Rules, all people here tended to categorize folks much stricter than they did even back on Earth.
As they rode out toward the camp, though, he was more worried about himself than about Mia. She’d shown time and again how cool she could be under pressure and she wasn’t under the same kind of cloud that he was. Mia had proved herself last night; now Cochise was on trial.
Although he’d always thought of the Bentar as birds of prey, they looked more dinosaurlike in the full light of day. He presented his old pass to them from the entry station. They glanced at it, then nodded. “You are expected. Straight on to the flagpole, then the second building on your right.”
And now, in the full light of day, they rode straight into the heart of the enemy force.
The building wasn’t hard to find, and they were actually early. He thought it better to be early than late. A nervous-looking human officer told them to wait outside until called, and they did so.
Mia sat, looking at all the activity, then suddenly frowned, then got up, somewhat excited. “Look, Master! A flying horse with wings!”
He looked where she was pointing and, sure enough, there it was, all stately-looking, right out of the old myths and legend books. A huge, pastel pink stallion, not too different in coloration from Marge, with enormous birdlike wings, circling to land. Its rider appeared to use no bridle and, indeed, sat back a bit, almost tied on, feet straight out across its back so as not to interfere with the wings. It didn’t look comfortable to Joe.