MA04 Hit or Myth Read Free

about a vacation.”
    I closed my eyes.
    For a brief moment, I knew ... knew, mind you ... how Aahz felt. I knew what it felt to be sincerely trying to help someone, only to find that that someone seems bound and determined to drive you out of your mind.
    The King saw my expression and continued hastily, “Not a vacation for you. A vacation for me!”
    That opened my eyes. Figuratively and literally.
    “You, Your Majesty? But Kings don’t take vacations.” “That’s the whole point.”
    Rodrick began pacing the floor nervously as he spoke.
    “The pressures of being a King mount up like they do on any other job. The difference is that as a King you never get a break. No time to rest and collect your thoughts, or even just sleep late. From the coronation when the crown hits your head until it’s removed by voluntary or forcible retirement, you are the King.”
    “Gee, that’s tough, Your Majesty. I wish there was something I could do to help.”
    The King stopped pacing and beamed at me again.
    “But you can! That’s why I’m here!”
    “Me? I can’t approve a vacation for you! Even if it were in my power, and it isn’t, the kingdom needs a king on the throne all the time. It can’t spare you, even for one day!”
    “Exactly! That’s why I can’t leave the throne unattended. If I wanted a vacation, I’d need a stand-in.”
    An alarm bell went off in my mind.
    Now, however much Aahz may have nagged me about being a slow student, I’m not stupid. Even before I met Aahz. —heck, before I learned my letters ... I knew how to add two and two to get four. In this case, one two was the King’s need for a stand-in; the second two was his presence in my quarters, and the four was...
    “Surely Your Majesty can’t mean me!”
    “Of course I mean you,” Rodrick confirmed. “The fact is, Lord Magician, I had this in mind when I hired you to your current position.”
    “You did?”
    I could feel the jaws of the trap closing. If this was indeed why the King had hired me, I would be ill-advised to refuse the assignment. Rodrick might decide my services were no longer needed, and the last thing I needed with Aahz gone was to get cut off from my source of income. I wasn’t sure what the job market was like for ex-court magicians, but I was sure I didn’t want to find out first hand.
    “As you said earlier, the powers of the Court Magician are at my disposal, and one of the powers you demonstrated when we first met was the ability to change your own shape, or the shape of others, at will.”
    The disguise spell! It was one of the first spells Aahz had taught me and one of the ones most frequently used over our last several adventures. After all the times it’s bailed me out of tight spots, who would have guessed it would be the spell to get me into trouble? Well, there was the time it had gotten me hung ...”
    “But, Your Majesty, I couldn’t possibly substitute for you. I don’t know how to be a King!”
    “Nothing to it,” Rodrick smiled. “The nice thing about being a King is that even when you’re wrong, no one dares to point it out.”
    “But ...”
    “And besides, it will only be for one day. What could possibly go wrong in one day?”

NOW, I DON’T want you to think I’m a pushover. I drove a hard bargain with the King before giving in. I not only managed to get him to agree to a bonus, but to cough up a hefty percentage in advance before accepting the assignment. Not bad for a fledgling magician who was over a barrel.
    Of course, once I accepted, I was no longer over a barrel; I was in over my head!
    The more I thought about it, the worse the idea of standing in for the King seemed. The trouble was, I didn’t have a choice ... or did I? I thought about it some more and a glimmer of hope appeared.
    There was a way out! The only question was how far could I run in a day? While not particularly worldly (or off-worldly for that matter) I was pretty sure that double-crossing kings wasn’t the