Fain the Sorcerer Read Free

thrashing it into a run. ‘ I must hide in your cave. ’
    ‘ Take this jar from —’
    Fain knocked him against the mossy wall, shattering the urn and freeing the man ’ s head. The man cried ‘ When you merely look, you pine! ’ or something like that. As the codger told him about the three wishes, Fain pretended it was the first he ’ d heard of all this. ‘ Only three wishes? Well, you can help me with a problem. I happen to possess the ability to travel into the past — now for my first wish I want to magic my garments back in time also, to save the inconvenience of appearing suddenly naked throughout history. Second, I of course need a constant supply of gold coins to appear in my pockets, no matter how much cash I remove. And third, I wish to travel instantly to the place where Thorn the Warlock enchanted the princess a month ago, yet an hour before it occurred. ’ For Fain could not stop thinking about the Princess.
    ‘ You choose well, young stranger, ’ cackled the old lunatic.
    The day blinked and Fain stood completely naked in the massive audience hall of Thorn the Warlock.
     
     
     

CHAPTER 3
    In which Fain pushes his luck with a real sorcerer
     
    At first the Warlock seemed to be a pillar of innards, and then a rearing black serpent with transparent wings — and finally a fork-bearded skeleton, each bone of which was wrapped individually in its own snakeskin envelope. In the tradition of wizard kings, a living coat of arms was massed on the wall behind him, operative lengths of bone and muscle levering like a water clock. The Princess knelt near to Thorn ’ s throne, her hands chained behind her.
    ‘ Who let the gardener in here? ’ bellowed the cloaked cadaver, and Fain thought the remark appropriate, as the hall ’ s walls were encrusted with gargoyles so over-elaborate they looked like cabbages. ‘ Guards — take this wretch to the bird room and let him rot there. ’
    Fain was about to protest when he saw that the gargoyles were climbing down from the walls and crouching toward him.
    Fain was still wondering about the clothing situation. ‘ Next time I ’ ll have to specify that my clothes go with me from place to place, as well as from one time period to another. Does that magical madman keep landing me in it deliberately? ’
    Three of the gruesome sentinels took him down a maze of corridors past a hellhound kennel, a torture chamber, a green monster standing idle with an exploded face like a thistle, and a kitchen, and finally into the bird room, a high chamber with dove skeletons flying about the place and stone windows open to the air and sea. Fain was thrown into a domed cage and the door swung closed upon him. Two of the guards departed and the last, a hulking mutant with the scrolled horns of a goat, winched the cage upward to the ceiling. ‘ He can pull out your soul like a cork, ’ said the creature. ‘ You will die more slowly this way. My name is Tefnut. Goodbye. ’
    ‘ Wait! ’ Fain called out. ‘ Give me a coat or shirt for warmth. That long-coat on the wall, perhaps. ’
    ‘ Why? ’
    ‘ I swear, Tefnut, the instant you give me ownership of that coat, I can reward you with a hundred gold coins. ’ For Fain knew he could draw endless cash from his pockets, if only he had any pockets.
    ‘ You ’ re raving, ’ said Tefnut.
    ‘ Very well. Then tell me this — did this cage lay upon the floor a half-hour ago? ’
    ‘ You should be in a cuckoo clock, I think, ’ laughed Tefnut.
    Fain wished himself a half-hour back in time and fell from a point in mid-air, with no cage about him, for at this point in time the cage had yet to be winched upward. He was alone. Fain dressed himself in the coat and set out toward the great hall, stopping off at the kitchen to steal a cabbage. ‘ Invisibility would be useful for this lark, ’ he thought. ‘ I ’ ll bear that in mind for the next time I meet the old cave-dweller. ’ As he arrived at the hall, Thorn was entering