Geis of the Gargoyle Read Online Free PDF Page B

required?"
     
    "I learned that along the way," he admitted ruefully.   "I think I don't have the time.   You see, when it rains in Mundania, and the Swan Knee River starts flowing again, the dam will soon overflow, and I must be there to honor my geis."
     
    'That is part of what I wanted to talk to you about.   A year will not do, for you; you have a responsibility elsewhere.   Instead, the Magician will settle for a single service of lesser duration, if that is satisfactory to you."
     
    Gary began to realize that his mission might be possible after all.   "If I can return in time, then it's all right."
     
    "But it is an unusual service, and you may not wish to perform it," she said.   "That's why I had to talk to you first.   The Magician's Answer is one thing, but the terms of the service are another.   If you are not willing to do it, your meeting with Humfrey is pointless."
     
    "I'm willing, so long as it is brief.   What is it?"
     
    "To tutor a precocious human child."
     
    "But I don't know anything about humans, and less about their children," he protested.
     
    "Precisely.   And this one is no ordinary child.   She will be extremely difficult to handle."
     
    "I'm a winged monster! She'd think I was going to eat her! There must be a hundred better tutors for her."
     
    "Apparently there is only one who can do the job in the manner it needs to be done.   I confess that my husband's dictations don't always make sense to me at the time, but he is invariably correct.   We need you for this."
     
    Gary struggled, but could not come up with a suitable argument against this.   His soft heart was betraying him again.   "If she really needs my help-"
     
    "She really does.   But there is more."
     
    There always did seem to be more.   "What more?" he asked warily.
     
    "You will have to be transformed to human form for the duration."
     
    "Human form!" he cried, appalled.
     
    "I realize that this is a considerable sacrifice for you, but it will be temporary.   Magician Trent will transform you, and transform you back after the service is complete."
     
    "I suppose if it is temporary, I can stand it," he agreed grudgingly.   But privately he was wondering whether he ever should have listened to D.   Mentia, who had gotten him into a crazy fix.
     
    "There is more," she said, with that tone.
     
    "Are you trying to dissuade me from this?"
     
    "No.   I very much hope you will accept it.   But fairness requires that you be warned.   In human form you will not be as competent as you are naturally, and your flesh will not be stone.   Your normal reflexes may lead you into mischief, such as assuming that thorns won't hurt or that dragon bites won't damage your flesh.   You will need Magician-caliber protection until you change back."
     
    "But if you have a Magician for this, why can't he tutor the child?"
     
    "Not he.   She.   She absolutely refuses to baby-sit a child alone.   Perhaps she has reason; she is ninety-three years old."
     
    "But that's doddering, for a human! Flesh ages so much more quickly than stone."
     
    "She will be youthened to an effective age of about twenty-three.   That's prime, for a human female."
     
    Gary shrugged.   "Then I don't see the problem."
     
    "There could be a personality conflict.   She is said to be not the easiest person to get along with."
     
    Gary strained his stony memory for what it knew about human Sorceresses.   Only one bad name emerged.   "Just so long as it isn't the Sorceress Iris.   She is said to be impossible for anybody but her family to stand for more than two moments."
     
    The Gorgon merely looked at him.   Her illusion face looked soberingly real.
     
    Oh, no!
     
    After a time he bowed to the inevitable.   "Maybe if the service really is brief ..."
     
    "It should be.   I repeat, my husband's dictates can seem peculiar, but there's always a rationale.   It is quite possible that you will be glad of this experience, once it is