The Case of the Toxic Spell Dump

"We have to escape at once," Madame Ruth said urgently.

"This is the domain of the One Called Night. Perkunas and the Nine Suns may have taken him by surprise, but Perkunas is not the ruling Power here." 

"My colleague is correct," Nigel Cholmondeley said. "We must break the virtuous reality circle. Remember your fleshly forms; will them to separate one from the other, to loose the hands you are now holding. Quickly!"

I concentrated on the body I'd left behind at the West Hills Temple of Healing. Remembering I had hands, let alone moving them, took more effort than I thought I had in me. And all the while, the Nine Beyonds got darker and darker and darker. I felt the power of the One Called Night closing in around us.

And then I was back in room 547 again. I was still holding hands with Tony Sudakis and Madame Ruth, so I hadn't been the one to let go. That was the first thing I noticed as I did turn loose of my companions and snatch the virtuous reality helmet off my head. Only then, as I blinked against light that seemed much too bright, did I realize the One Called Night hadn't tried to chase us as we left his domain this time.

You have to understand - all that passed through my mind in a fraction of a second, and a small fraction to bootThen I stopped caring about it, because Judy had taken off her helmet, too. She was sitting up in her bed, looking over her shoulder at me, and smiling bright as all Nine Suns put together.

I smiled back. So did Tony, Nigel Cholmondeley, Hr. Murad, and the constable who'd been keeping watch on her. she wasn't wearing her own clothes, just a pure white healing gown of virgin linen, and all it had in back was a couple of ties that didn't do much to hold it together.

When Judy figured that out, she squeaked and wiggled around so the part of the gown that actually covered her was frontways to us. Then she said to me, "David, I think you'd better introduce me to these people. You got to me through virtuous reality, didn't you?"

"That's right," I said, and did as she'd asked. After the hellos and thank-yous, I went on, "You told me you wanted to get involved in the new technology. I don't suppose you wanted to see it from the inside out, though."

"No." She shook her head so her hair flew every which way, a Judy gesture I'd seen since the day I met her. It made any tiny doubts I'd had disappear: she was back on This Side, fully and completely. "It was still interesting," she added. "I'd recognize all of you from the way I saw you in the Nine Beyonds, but you, David, you looked just the same to me."

Cholmondeley and Madame Ruth gave me an odd look I didn't understand for a second, and then I did: you need to be a person of unusual virtue - Brother Vahan, say - to keep your normal appearance in virtuous reality. My ears got hot.

"Must be love," I muttered.

"Very likely," Nigel Cholmondeley said. "After all, were it not for the love you bear for Mistress Ather, she would still be trapped on the Other Side."

That only made my ears hotter. Back in the Nine Beyonds, I'd idealized Judy into an image I'd cherish all my life, while she'd seen me just as I am. Which was the greater compliment? I couldn't begin to tell you.

The constable pulled out a sheet of parchment and a pen.

Where the rest of us were exalted, he stayed businesslike.

"Can you describe the motivations of the alleged perpetrators who caused your spirit to be projected into the realm on the Other Side termed the Nine Beyonds, Mistress Ather?" he asked formally.

"You mean, why they sent me there?" Judy said - sure enough, a copy editor to the core. She shook her head again.

"They didn't tell me much, which was probably sensible from their point of view. I think they just didn't want to have to worry about my escaping for a while. They had some sort of big plans afoot, though; I know that much. They kept saying they'd deal with me properly once this other thing, whatever it was, happened."

That reminded me she didn't know what had gone on at the Devonshire dump or Chocolate Weasel. It also explained why she hadn't been at the Chocolate Weasel building, but I didn't want to think about what those people had intended to do to her once they got the power they'd sought As fast as I could, I filled her in on what had been happening on This Side while she was Elsewhere. She nodded soberly, saying, "That fits in well with what we were talking about before they kidnapped me. I'm just glad we managed to foil it."

"Not "we,' Mistress Ather," Tony Sudakis said. "Him." He pointed right at me. "If he hadn't thought to summon the Garuda Bird, we'd all have been in the soup."

"Somebody had to do something," I said. Seeing the admiring look Judy was giving me, I added, "What I think I'll do is hire Tony to do my advertising for me. The other thing you have to remember is that if it hadn't been for his Perkunas and the Nine Suns, we couldn't have rescued you."