Outwitted

by Donald Jacob Uitvlugt

When Donald Jacob Uitvlugt is not inventing and writing about new speculative fiction worlds, he can be found engaged in one of his other main hobbies, reading and cooking. A native of western Michigan, he lives in the Grand Rapids area. He has published online at The Harrow and The Sword Review, with stories forthcoming in print magazine and anthology formats as well. His stories have received honorable mention in recent contests hosted by The Sword Review and AlienSkin Magazine.

He drew a circle that shut me out --

Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.

But love and I had the wit to win;

We drew a circle that took him in!

-- Edwin Markham

Her pulse racing and her mind scarcely daring to think, Jana pounded on the heavy oak door of her fiancé's workroom. "Tomek! Tomek, let me in!"

From within came the sound of breaking glass and then a bestial cry. "No! Stay out!" From under the door came a flash of blue light, a moan, words that Jana could hardly hear. "Wrong... all wrong..." The words were oddly twisted, as if Tomek underwent a great agony simply to shape them. Another cry rang out.

Whatever had happened in the chamber, it sounded like it was killing Tomek.

"I shall enter whether you will it or not."

No reply from within save more breaking glass and a noise like the tearing of a thousand garments. Jana forced herself to ignore the sounds, forced herself to forget what might be happening to Tomek, how his work might have gone wrong. She concentrated on the feel of the stone floor of the keep under her slippered feet. Then she reached down, down past the floor, past the bedrock it rested on, down to the Source she touched when working her own craft. She felt power well within. With a prayer of thanks and a plea for mercy to Créa All-mother, Jana released a burst of fire toward the door.

The iron hinges sizzled and melted away. Knocked inward by the blast, the singed door crashed onto the floor in the room beyond. Jana was inside before the dust had cleared. The room was in chaos. Shards of alchemical equipment littered the floor; bookcases were ripped from the walls. Their former contents were strewn everywhere, some volumes shredded, others on fire. The great marble altar in the center of the room looked like it had burst from the inside.

All this Jana saw in a glance, her eyes searching for her fiancé. She expected to see him hurt, perhaps a limb broken, the tall, strong man lying helpless in the blue robes he wore when casting difficult spells. She did not see him anywhere at first. Then, beyond the ruins of the altar, a blue light flashed. A heart-wrenching cry rang out. Jana stepped forward and brought her hands to her mouth. Huddled on the floor was a blue wyvern, wet with amniotic fluid as if it were newly hatched. Its wings were broken, and a hind leg bent back at an angle that did unkind things to Jana's stomach when she looked at it.  And the creature wore Tomek's face. A hideously distorted version of that beloved face, but there was no doubt that the tortured creature was Tomek.

Jana tried to remain calm. "What went wrong, my love?

"Control slip." The words wheezed from reptile lips. "Can't stop the shifting."

"Let me help. We can undo the spell."

"No!" The thing attempted to raise itself off the floor only to slip and collapse heavily. "Council. Rules."

Jana bit back a sharp retort. Anger wasn't what was needed here, though she imagined doing very interesting things to the Wizard's Council and their insides. All their stupid rules! Tomek wanted to raise from Adept to Master status. He wanted to wed Jana as an acknowledged Master. But before he was raised in status, the mage had to display to the Wizard's Council some innovation in the Art. Given months' study of Water, Tomek thought he had come across an insight into transformation spells.

"It's not only the fluidity, but the receptivity of Water. The fact that it takes on the shape of any vessel into which it is poured. This demonstrates its closeness to raw Potentiality, the Unshaped at the heart of every form. If the mage can connect himself to Water's receptivity while casting a transformation spell, he should be able to shift from form to form almost without effort."

Jana had told Tomek that the idea had merit; indeed, it was not entirely different from the thinking on transformation in her own Order. But translating the abstract idea into workable techniques of Magick would take time. Jana did not care if Tomek gained Master status. She did not need the approval of withered old men to know she wanted to wed him. She loved him as he was.  Even now.

There was another blue flash. The wyvern's shape twisted and melted like a wax seal brought close to a fire. When the blue light faded completely, Tomek bore the shape of a kraken. As before, the form was bent, with even the flexible tentacles twisted at unsettling angles. The broken wyvern wings were still on Tomek's back, making him look like a deformed crustacean that hadn't completely molted its old shell.

Though her mind and stomach reeled from the sight of this transformation and its wet sea stench, Jana pressed forward -- only to find her way barred by a protective circle. Anger mixed with fear in her heart. Though her Craft was very different from Tomek's Art, he had never shut her out of his workings before. Had he suspected that things would go wrong? Was it simply concern for her safety that had driven him, or did the fool's pride cloud his judgment?

Jana pushed the thoughts away as quickly as they arose. There would be time enough for questions if Tomek survived. If not, her questions would be moot anyway. No mage, no matter how great, could take the strain of multiple transformations so quickly. That made the Magician's Duel such a dangerous test of skill. A dozen changes and even the most skilled mage risked death regardless of what his opponent did. Jana did not know how many transformations Tomek had undergone before she had broken into the room. She had to help him.

Calling again upon the fires deep within the Earth, Jana extended a flare of energy from her palm. Using the energy like a blade, she cut through Tomek's barrier. She stepped over the chalk circle on the floor, careful not to mar it. There was a possibility that it was the only thing keeping Tomek in his right mind.

Another blinding, limb-melting flash. This time a griffin appeared, still with the mantle of the wyvern's broken wings, and with one of its forepaws replaced by a trio of tentacles from the kraken. It snarled at Jana, snapping its beak menacingly before the man within finally recognized her.

"Leave. Beasts ... taking over..." His voice croaked out the works through the griffin's eagle beak. "I don't know how long ... I can hold out."

"I will never leave you, Tomek. And I know that you will never harm me, no matter your form." Hoping her hesitation didn't show, Jana lay a hand on the griffin's forehead.

The beast almost seemed to purr. But only for a moment, then it snarled and shook off Jana's touch. "Useless. I'll get worse and worse. And then I'll die." The griffin turned away and clawed into the ruined books, a flurry of vellum scraps flying into the air.

Jana bent so she could whisper into the griffin's ear. "Just release the spell. Let go."

Anger pouring from the creature hit Jana like a slap, and she stepped back. "Don't you think I've been trying, w---" Before he could finish, the transformation hit him again. The scream of pain melted Jana's heart. This had to be stopped. She reached yet again for the power of the All-mother, but this time reaching outwards, not downwards. Out to the rich soil beyond the keep, the black humus from which the web of life began.

The blue flash faded, and Tomek now bore the shape of a stag. The wings of the wyvern had finally been shed, but the left foreleg was the kraken's tentacles, and a griffin's tail replaced the stag's. Jana stepped closer. Tomek tried to rise off the floor, but his limbs wouldn't work. Slowly Jana knelt down. Tomek attempted to break away, but was unable. He lowed an inarticulate cry and lowered his rack of horns, imposing the tines between Jana and his body.

Jana let the power she had drawn flow through her. For Tomek, Magick was control: the study of power, its collection through various means, its application. For Jana, Magick was release. Power was all around; one simply had to unite oneself with the source of all life. She closed her eyes. Green energy bathed her, and with hardly a thought, she transformed into a thicket. Her thin but strong branches held Tomek's stag form in place. "Be still my love. We will find a way." Her voice was as gentle as an evening breeze in the trees.

Tomek struggled in her grasp, her brambles pricking his sides. Jana's will almost wavered. She did not want to add to his pain. But she could help him. She could help him, if only he would let her. He had to see that.

A blue flash. Tomek shifted to a serpent and began to slither from Jana's grasp. She noted that this time he had shifted entirely. No vestiges from earlier forms. But she needed to set that observation aside. He could not escape.

She touched power and changed into a snowbank, blanketing the serpent in pure, cold white. She could feel its heart rate slow as the cold sank into the reptile. Its crawl slowed, stopped. Jana had done it. She had stopped Tomek from leaving the room. Now she had to---

Another blue flash, and a gaunt black wolf broke through the snow and began pulling itself up and out of the bank. In her current form, Jana couldn't even call out to Tomek, couldn't tell him not to run. Already he was looking for the blasted doorway, and she felt cold, so cold. She was starting to be effected by her transformations too. She needed to act. She shifted to the first form she could think of.

A huge oak rose under the wolf, catching him up in the crook of two branches and lifting him into the high-vaulted ceiling. Tomek whined and whimpered. As he gave himself more to the changes, he seemed to take on more of the weakness as well as the strength of the creatures he changed into. Since Jana's efforts had begun, each change had been focused and complete. If she could not get Tomek to release the spell, perhaps she could get him to shift back to his natural form.

Blue flash. From high in the oak sounded the cry of a great eagle. Tomek launched himself from the oak, headed for the doorway and away from Jana. The branches of the great oak sighed against each other, and Jana again gave into the green energy.

The oak melted into a summer's rain, hot and torrential. It soaked the eagle, drenching his wings until he was unable to fly. The beast that was Tomek let out an indignant squawk. And then its eyes seemed to twinkle. The blue magick flashed again, and a large frog stood in the eagle's place. Undisturbed by the rain, it hopped towards escape.

To this point, Tomek had shifted to either mythical or noble animals. Jana had not expected the shift to such an insignificant creature. A creature so at home in the water was a perfect counter to her attack. Her mind raced.

Attack. At home. The water gurgled in a melodious laugh. How could she have been so foolish? This was no Magician's Duel. If she thought of her shifts as attacks, of course Tomek would try to evade them. She was only making his urge to flee greater. She needed a new approach.

She let the rain she was pool on the floor. At the same time, greenery covered the pool's surface. She had become an entire world teeming with life, a swampland. And home to Tomek's kind. Jana sang with the voices of insects, "Stay in the cool waters. Rest from the strife. Home is the best place. Here is the best life."

Tomek paused, the frog listening to her song. The creature croaked, as if he were entertaining a thought that had never occurred to him until that moment. And then the frog dove beneath the waters of the swamp.

It was oddly intimate, Tomek within her in this fashion, Jana receiving him in a wet embrace. He moved in her, slow kicks of his long legs. Jana sighed, a slow bubbling, a breeze rippling the surface of the swamp. She could feel him, could feel the slow strokes as he swam. Jana sighed again.

She did not know how long she held him like this. She lost all track of time, concentrating on the sensations. She almost didn't realize that he was swimming to the surface. Even this was not enough to stop what drove him from her. The blue light flashed again.

It took Jana a moment to notice Tomek's new form. From the surface of the swamp had emerged a mosquito. It paused, drying before it took flight, and then began a hesitant path to the doorway.

Jana's mind raced. She would have to be most careful in this next transformation. She did not want to injure Tomek in this small form, and she did not want to drive him away. But after the surprising intimacy, all she could think of was the summer before, when she and Tomek had shared the shortest night of the year, making love.

He was strong, he had always been strong. But until that night she had not known he could be gentle as well. Or how her body sang in response to his gentle touches. The night had flown by, and the two of them had emerged closer than ever. She remembered that night now because a mosquito had been there too. Caught in the gauzy netting around the bed, Jana had wanted to kill it. But flushed with joy, Tomek let it live. And so it buzzed above their bed the entire night...

The idea was so simple that it took Jana aback. But it had to work. It would be her hardest transformation, for she took not a natural model but something fashioned by the hand of man. As her green magick faded, light cotton netting streamed from the ceiling while an oaken bed rose from the stone floor to greet it. It was the bed from that sweet summer night. The bed that was to be their marriage bed.

The insect buzzed in the folds of the netting, unable to find a way out, though it flitted from side to side. At last the buzzing of the wings slowed, and the creature drifted down to the sheets. A pause, and then Jana felt a release of magickal energy.

When the blue flash faded, her Tomek was on the bed, naked and exhausted, but in his right form. He sank into the mattress, his sweat staining the sheets. The bed received him gladly, caressing his weary body as if Jana massaged it with delicate fingertips. She drank in the sensation for but a moment, and shifted again. Her own human form lay naked atop Tomek.

He opened his mouth to speak apologies, self-deprecations, professions of love. Jana did not know, nor did she let him speak. Her kisses and her embrace said more than enough for both of them.

© 2007 Donald Jacob Uitvlugt