Out of Phaze by Piers Anthony Read Free Book Online

formed and standing just slightly shorter than he. “But why are you calling me Bane? Do you know me?”
    “What wouldst thou be called, then?” she inquired merrily.
    “My name is Mach.”
    She laughed. “What a stupid name!”
    He frowned. “Is Fleta a more intelligent name?”
    “Certainly! But I will try to keep my laughter down while I call thee Mach.” Indeed, she did try, but the laughter bubbled up from her stomach, caused her breasts to bounce, and finally burst out of her mouth. She flung her arms about him and kissed him, as she had in the night. “O, Bane—I mean Ma-Ma—“ A giggle overcame her, but she fought through it. “Mach! What a romp have we here! I feared thou hadst forgotten me in thy serious studies of blue magic; how glad I be to learn not!”
    “Fleta, I have to say that I do not know you. What’s this about magic?”
    “Ah, wait till I tell the fillies of the herd of this! Never played we music like this!”
    “If you would just answer my questions,” Mach said somewhat stiffly.
    “As thou dost wish,” she agreed. “But first may we eat? and O, I see thou art all scratched! Why dost thou not heal thyself?”
    “Heal myself?” he asked blankly. “I think only time can do that.”
    “With thy magic,” she explained. “Surely the game be not such that thou must suffer such smarts!”
    “I don’t know anything about magic!” he protested.
    She made a moue. “Or wouldst thou have the unicorn heal thee instead?”
    “The unicorn!” he exclaimed, alarmed. “What do you know about that?”
    She stared at him, then smiled again, dismissing his supposed ignorance. ‘Thy memory seems brief, lately!”
    “A unicorn brought me here last night, after rescuing me from monsters in the swamp. I don’t know why; do you?”
    She shook her head so that the lustrous hair swirled. “Who can know the mind of a ‘corn!” she exclaimed, laughing again. “Mayhap she thought thou didst call for help.”
    “I did call for help,” he agreed. “But—but why should an animal do me any favor?”
    “An animal,” Fleta repeated thoughtfully. “An thou hadst called her that, mayhap she’d have left thee in the swamp indeed!”
    “Oh—are they sensitive about that sort of thing? Good thing she didn’t understand my speech.”
    “Aye, so,” she agreed, twinkling again. “So thou dost not desire the ‘corn to heal thy trifling wounds with her horn?”
    “With her horn?”
    “Adepts be not the only ones who do magic!” she exclaimed. “Dost thou not remember the healing of the horn?”
    “You mean—that unicorn—when she approached me with her horn lowered—only wanted to—to touch my scratches and heal them magically?”
    “Lo, now he remembers!” she exclaimed. “What else would she be about?”
    “I wasn’t sure,” he confessed. “I was relieved when she left.”
    Fleta frowned. ‘There be aspects of this game I understand not,” she said. ‘Thou dost not wish the return of the unicorn?”
    “True,” he agreed. “But of course I cannot prevent it. Maybe we should get away from here before she arrives.”
    She sighed. “Be that the way thou dost want it, so let it be. I had not thought to hear thee say the like, though.”
    “Well, I’m sure unicorns can be perfectly good animals, and I do appreciate what she did for me yesterday. But I must admit I feel safer with you.”
    “And thou dost not propose to conjure up a repast for us both?”
    “What makes you think I could do such a thing?”
    She laughed her merry laugh. “Sheer foolishness, Mach!” she said. “Come, I shall find us food.” She led him from the crater.

3 - Bane
    Bane found himself in a chamber, sitting on a bed. A moment before he had been in the forest glade, seeking rapport with his other self. He had sung a spell to facilitate the exchange of identities—and it seemed that it had worked! Here he was in the other frame, while his alternate had to be in Phaze. Wait till he told his