Dug read the list: 1. Change Color of Anything.

2. Change One Food to Another.

3. Null Taste.

4. Alter Smells.

5. Make Objects Adhere.

The talents seemed straightforward and harmless. "Okay, how does a person make his magic work?" he asked.

"I have to get injured before mine works," Jordan said. "Then it's automatic."

"I just will myself smoky," Threnody said. "And solid again. It's slow, but it happens. It's not really a talent; I simply partake of some human and some demon nature."

"I just hum," Jenny said. "Anyone who isn't paying attention enters my dream."

Dug hadn't realized that Jenny had a magic talent of her own; he had a.s.sumed that it tied in with her cat. "Okay, I'll will something to change color." He looked around. "That stone there: turn pink."

He concentrated, trying to turn the stone pink. Nothing happened. "No luck," he said. "So it's not that."

"Are you sure?" Jenny asked. "Maybe you have to call it 'anything.' "

"Okay." He addressed the stone. "I dub thee 'anything.' Now turn pink."

Again, nothing happened. "So I'll try the next." He fished in his pocket and found a few nuts left over from his last snack: two M's, one N, one O, and three P's. He lifted the P-nut. "Change to a marshmallow," he ordered it.

Nothing happened. "Maybe it's a marshmallow in the shape of a P-nut," Sherlock suggested.

Dug tasted it. "No, it's still peanut-flavored." He glanced at the list. "So now I'll null its taste." He concentrated, then tasted it again. It remained P-flavored. So he tried the next: "Make it smell like a rose." With no success. "Then make it adhere to my finger." He touched his finger to it, but there was no adhesion.

He sighed. "This is apt to be tedious." He read the next five talents: 6. Change Water to Vapor or Ice, and Back.

7. Make Raw Food Cooked.

8. Sense When Someone Is About to Die.

9. Call Up Small Intense Gusts of Wind.

10. See Through Objects.

"We have any water?" Dug asked.

Jordan had a flask. He poured a bit out, and Dug tried to vaporize or freeze it, but without success. Then he tried to cook the P-nut, with no luck.

#8 brought him up short. "How do I tell when someone's about to die, if no one is about to die?"

"I can slay someone for you," Jordan offered cheerfully, drawing his sword.

Dug would have laughed, but he had the eerie feeling that the man wasn't joking. "No thanks! That talent wouldn't help me get out of here anyway, so I'm just going to a.s.sume this isn't that. I'll try the next, and see if I can call up a small, intense gust of wind."

"That's not magic," Sherlock said. "I can do it naturally." He bent over.

"That won't be necessary," Dug said quickly, though he was strongly tempted to laugh. Jordan didn't worry about temptation; he burst out with a rich ho-ho-ho!

"That's another way of doing it," Sherlock agreed.

Pook, the ghost horse, didn't bother to laugh. He simply let fly with his own loud gust of wind.

"Thanks, folks," Dug said. "But I'm the one who has to break the, uh, make the wind." He concentrated, but no other wind stirred.

Next he tried to see through objects. He couldn't. "Just as well," Jenny said. "You might have looked through Threnody's or my clothing and seen our panties."

Dug hadn't thought of that. He bit his tongue so as not to laugh, knowing that they took such things more seriously than he did. "Right. Close call."

He addressed the next five talents: 11. Make Others Mute.

12. Extinguish Fires.

13. Heal Cuts & Abrasions.

14. Resist Bad Dreams.

15. Reverse Someone's s.e.x.

"Okay, in order," Dug said. "Do I have a volunteer to become mute?"

"Sure, try me," Sherlock said.

Dug concentrated. "Sherlock, become mute!" he intoned. "Did it work?"

"No."

Dug went on to the next. "We'll have to set a fire, to see if I can quench it magically."

Jordan went to Pook and fetched two small stones. He squatted by some dry gra.s.s and knocked the stones together. A fat spark flew out, igniting the gra.s.s. There was a little fire.

Dug focused on the fire, but he couldn't put it out. So Jordan brought out some marshmallows and began toasting them on the end of a stick.

"Now, can I heal a cut?" Dug asked. "I don't think we should cut anyone to test this! Anyway, we have some healing elixir, which would do the job. Let's skip this one for now."

"No, we can test it," Jordan said. He took his knife and pa.s.sed the tip across Threnody's arm, scratching it. "Heal this."

Dug focused on the scratch, but nothing happened. "I think that's not it."

Jenny brought out the healing elixir and dripped a drop on the scratch. The scratch disappeared.

But the next one was worse. "How can I find out whether I can resist bad dreams, if I'm not asleep? And if I were asleep, and dreaming, suppose only good dreams came? It could take a month before I had a bad dream to resist."

"Maybe you could try a bad daydream," Jenny suggested.

"Mare Imbri would never deliver one of those," Threnody objected.

"Who is Mare Imbri?" Dug asked.

"She's the day mare who brings good daydreams," Jenny explained. "She brought Kim the daydream of floating bubbles, and Kim got Bubbles Dog from one of them."

Live and learn. "Well, I'll try to imagine a bad daydream, and see if I can resist it," Dug said. He concentrated, imagining falling into an endless hole. That notion had always scared him, and it still did. "I don't seem to have any special resistance," he said.

But there was no easing the difficulty of the progression. "I don't want to change someone's s.e.x!" Dug said.

"You could change one of us, then change him back," Threnody suggested.

"Who volunteers for that?" Dug asked. He glanced at Sherlock. "You want to be a woman for a minute?"

The man shook his head no. He pointed to his throat.

"That's what I thought," Dug said. "It could be a oneway trip. So I'll just skip this one, for now." Then something registered. "Why did you point to your throat, Sherlock?"

The man didn't answer. He just pointed again.

"He can't speak!" Jenny cried. "The mute talent worked!"

"No it didn't," Dug said. "He said it didn't."

Sherlock pointed to Jordan. "Jordan said it," Threnody said.

"Well, I thought it didn't," Jordan said. Threnody gave him a disgusted look.

Dug looked at Sherlock. "The magic really did make you mute?"

Sherlock nodded vehemently.

"Well, at least that identifies it. But it's not the one I need. Let's see if I can unmute you." He concentrated. "Sherlock, speak again."

There was no result. It was a one-way talent.

"It should wear off in a few hours," Threnody said.

Sherlock grimaced, not completely pleased.

"Gee, I'm sorry," Dug said. "I guess I'd better not experiment on real people any more."

"I can make you feel better," Threnody said. "I'll give you a gourd-style apology for your inconvenience. She approached Sherlock, took hold of him, and gave him a demonically pa.s.sionate kiss.

Dug could have sworn that the man's feet left the ground for a few seconds. His eyes rolled back in his head, and a dreamy smile washed across his face. He looked as if he had been anesthetized. Certainly he felt better.

"Renee has that effect," Jordan remarked nonchalantly. "A demoness can make a man deliriously happy, if she chooses. I happen to know."

It was evidently true. Sherlock seemed to be beyond caring about any little inconvenience such as not being able to speak. In fact, he looked as if he would have been speechless even if he weren't already mute.

Dug returned to business. "So I don't need this talent, because it won't get me by the thorntree hedge. All it proves is that the magic does work, and that I have a whole lot of talents to check through." He looked around. "Where do I ditch this mute magic?"

"You just reach back into the spellbox," Threnody said. "It will let go, so you can take another."

"But won't I risk getting the same talents back?"

"No, new talents float to the surface; used ones sink to the bottom. Just don't reach too deep."

Dug reached in, and he did feel something leave him. He caught a new something, and brought it out.

He read the next five talents: 16. Can Merge with Others.

17. Can Re-create Any Sound Heard.

18. Can Create Heat.

19. Can Cause Objects to Levitate.

20. Can Adjust Weight of Things.

"Nuh-uh! I'm not trying to merge with anyone!"

Threnody sighed. "And I was so looking forward to it." Dug didn't comment, because again he suspected that she wasn't joking. She was opposite to Nada Naga in everything other than beauty.

He tried to re-create sound, but couldn't. He tried to heat something, and couldn't. He tried to make something float, and couldn't He tried to make a stone become heavier, and failed again. So he tried the next five: 21. Immunity to Poison.

22. Can Ease Pain in Others.

23. Can Breathe Anywhere.

24. Can Change the Magic of Water.

25. Can Make Trees Fall.

Dug refused to try the first. He wasn't sure how to test the second, until Threnody touched her knife to Jordan's arm, making it bleed. Dug tried to make the barbarian's pain stop, but couldn't. Fortunately it soon stopped itself, as Jordan quickly healed. Dug couldn't test the breathing, because he couldn't find a vacuum or a deep lake to try.

Similarly he had no magic water to change from Hate to Love or Lethe. He wasn't going to mess with the vial of healing elixir they had, just in case it got spoiled. And the trees ignored his attempt to fell them magically.

He ground on through the remaining talents of the list. Nothing matched. "But how can that be?" he asked plaintively. "It's got to be one of them!"

"Maybe one of the ones you skipped," Jenny said.

"Or one of the first fifteen," Threnody suggested. "You didn't test them, this time; you picked up where you left off after the first talent."

She was right. Of course he had to test all the talents each time. Which made the job even more tedious.

Resigned, he tried #1, Changing Color. And it worked: he turned the rock pink.