Myth-Ing Persons by Robert Asprin Page B

make it any weaker."
    Neither of my assistants laughed at my joke, but then again, neither did I.
    Shaking off a feeling of foreboding, I turned to my staff.
    "All right, Guido. You stay down here and keep watch. Massha? Do you think that belt of yours can lift two? It's time I went topside and took a good look at this impregnable cell."
    My apprentice licked her lips nervously and shrugged.
    "I don't know, Hot Stuff. I warned you that the controls on this thing don't work right. It could lift us right into orbit for all I know."
    I patted her shoulder in what I hoped was a reassuring way.
    "Well, give it a try and we'll find out."
    She nodded, wrapped one arm around my chest, and used her other hand to play with the jewels on her belt buckle.
    There was a sparkle of light, but beyond that nothing.
    "Not enough juice," she mumbled to herself.
    "So turn it up already," I urged. - Even if the vampires tended to avoid light, we were lit up like a Christmas tree and bound to attract attention if we stayed at ground level much longer.
    "Cross your fingers," she said grimly and touched the jewels again.
    The light intensified and we started up fast… too fast.
    "Careful, Boss!" Guido shouted and grabbed my legs as they went past him.
    That brought our progress to a halt… well, almost. Instead of rocketing up into the night, we were rising slowly, almost imperceptibly.
    "That's got it, High Roller!" Massha exclaimed, shifting her grip to hang onto me with both arms. "A little more ballast than I had planned on, though."
    I considered briefly telling Guido to let go, but rejected the thought. If the bodyguard released his grip, we'd doubtless resume our previous speed… and while a lot of folks at the Bazaar talked about my meteoric rise, I'd just as soon keep the phrase figurative. There was also the minor detail that we were already at a height where it would be dangerous for Guido to try dropping back to the street. There was that, and his death-grip on my legs.
    "Don't tell me, let me guess," I called down to him. "You're acrophobic, too?"
    The view of Blut that was unfolding beneath us was truly breathtaking. Truly! My life these days was so cluttered with crisis and dangers that a little thing like looking down on buildings didn't bother me much, but even I was finding it hard to breathe when confronted up close with sheer walls adorned with stone creatures. Still, until I felt his fingernails biting into my calves, it had never occurred to me that such things might upset a rough-and-tumble guy like Guido.
    "Naw. I got nothin' against spiders," he replied nervously. "It's heights that scare me."
    I let that one go. I was busy studying the tower which could be viewed much more clearly from this altitude. If anything, it looked stronger than the portion of the building that was below us. One feature captured my attention, though. The top portion of the tower, the part I assumed was Aahz's cell, was shaped like a large dragon's head. The window I had been expecting was actually the creature's mouth, with its teeth serving as bars.
    I should have anticipated something like that, realizing the abundance of stone animals on every other building in town. Still, it came as a bit of a surprise… but a pleasant surprise. I had been trying to figure a way to get through iron bars, but stone teeth might be a bit easier. Maybe with Aahz working from the inside and us working from the outside, we could loosen the mortar and…
    I suddenly realized that in a few moments we would be level with the cell… and that a few moments after that we'd be past it! Unless something was done, and done fast, to halt our upward progress, we'd only have time for a few quick words with Aahz before parting company permanently. With time running out fast, I cast about for a solution.
    The wall was too far away to grab onto, and there was no way to increase our weight, unless…
    When Aahz first taught me to fly, he explained the process as "levitation in