Myth 13 - Myth Alliances by Asprin, Robert (ebook reader online free .txt) 📕

her large ears and settled the frame on the bridge of her nose. “So what am I supposed to see?”

“Do you see the little books in the corner? Pick one and flick a tiny bit of power at it.”

“And ... ?” Vergetta pressed. Monishone waited, a little smile on her lips. “Aaaaagggghhh!”

Niki leaped forward, and plucked the spectacles off Vergetta's face. “What's wrong?”

The elder Pervect grabbed them back. “Give me those! It's wonderful!” She put them back on.

“What's wonderful?” Tenobia asked, taking them away and propping them on her own nose. “Wha Ñwow!”

“Let me see,” Oshleen insisted, hooking the eyeglasses

with one long claw. She stiff-​armed the shorter female with one arm while she put them on. “Fantastic! I could al?most pluck those jewels off the walls!”

“Inconsiderate bitches,” Charilor snarled, twisting Oshleen's arm up behind her back. With her free hand she felt around the other's face until she got the spectacles.

“Ow! You hit me in the nose!”

“Let me see!” Nedira demanded, pushing the others out of the way until she reached Charilor.

“Enough!” Vergetta bellowed. The stone room shook until the hanging lamps danced. Eight of the Ten stopped squabbling and turned to look at her. Monishone stood with her arms crossed, wearing a smug expression. “Give me those! Now!” She put out an imperious hand to Char?ilor. Very reluctantly, Charilor peeled the goggles off and put them on Vergetta's palm. “You all sit down, and you wait until I am finished with these, and then everyone may have a turn! Just because I'm the oldest doesn't mean I can't kick your behinds from here to tomorrow!”

Shamefacedly the rest of the Ten settled down into their favorite seats to watch her. The only sound was that of Caitlin's fingers clicking on the keys of her computer. Ver?getta nodded and resumed the goggles.

Inside the glasses it was dark except for the tiny glow?ing bookshelf in the upper left edge of her field of view. It didn't take a master magician to manipulate the individual books. The merest touch of power caused each one in turn to open and display its title page to her. A pink one was en?titled The Rose in the Tower, a blue one Dragonfest, and a black tome It Came From Klahd... “Horror, too?”

“Anything you like,” Monishone confirmed.

Dragonfest looked good. Vergetta went back to it and opened it again. With the merest touch of magik she turned the first page.

Suddenly she was not seeing the tiny book, but a land?scape that surrounded her completely. In the distance were three active volcanoes spewing smoke into the gray sky.

Her feet shifted on the uneven ground. She looked down, and realized she was standing on a mountain of gold coins and jewels. She started to bend to pick up a handful of treasure.

“Hiyyaaaa!” a voice screamed behind her. The jewels scattered. She turned around to see a little being clad in shining silver armor waving a sword at her. He stood no higher than her knee. He plunged forward, waving the brand. It flashed down and hit her in the knee.

“Ow!” she roared. A jet of flame shot out of her mouth, narrowly missing the knight. “Hey! I'm the dragon! This is great!” She stopped to examine her hands. They were long, slender blue paws with gleaming red nails. “This clashes, baby.”

Abruptly, a narrow band of rainbow light appeared next to her right hand. “That one,” she decided, pointing at a stripe of burnt orange. “Always go for the complementary color.” Before she'd finished speaking the nails had turned orange. “Very nice. Now, for you, you little pesgunyik!”

But the knight didn't wait around for her to revarnish her fingernails. He hauled his tin behind down the hill as fast as his fingerlong legs would carry him. It took no trou?ble at all, even walking dragon fashion on all fours, to catch up with him. Vergetta grabbed him by the scruff of the neck, rolled back on her long, scaly tail, and started slapping his face from one side to the other. “You don't pick on a lady like that! Didn't your mama tell you any?thing? Behave yourself!”

She had the knight blubbering like a baby in no time. When he had apologized no fewer than fifty times she let him drop to the ground. He picked himself up and started running. With a puff of breath she gave him a hot seat to remember her by. He vanished over the crest of the hill. She bent down at last to count the treasure in the hill.

When she took off the goggles her eyes were wet with tears.

“That vas beautiful, darling,” she told Monishone. “Brilliant! You're a genius! It's a Pervect fantasy.”

All eight of the others pushed forward, grabbing for the glasses. “Me next!” “No, me!” “Me!”

“Everyone gets a turn, in order of age. Caitlin?”

The little girl jumped down from her chair and ran up to Vergetta, her hands up. The older female held the specta?cles just out of reach. She pointed an admonitory forefinger.

“What do you say?”

“Gimme, you old trout!”

Vergetta beamed and patted the child on the head. “Isn't she darling?”

The rest of the group watched Caitlin's face as it twisted and contorted. Her mouth occasionally gaped open to re?veal gaps where a few baby teeth had fallen out and the adult fangs had not yet grown in. Of the Ten the next in age had almost twenty years on Caitlin, but they couldn't do without her.