"Too many to fight," Trent said. "The elixir is gone. With your acquiescence, under out truce, I will change you both into fish, or perhaps reptiles, so that you can escape. However-"
"How will we change back?" Fanchon demanded.
"That is the key. I can not change myself. Therefore you will have to rescue me-or remain transformed. So
we shall survive together, or suffer apart. Fair enough?''
She looked at the tritons, who were swimming determinedly toward the three, surrounding them, tridents raised. They did not look at all playful. This was obviously a gang of bullies, showing off for the applauding spectators-the mermaids, who had now reappeared on shore--taking time to put on a flashy show. "Why not change them into fish?"
"That would abate the immediate threat, could I get them all in time," Trent agreed. "But it still would not free us from the cave. I suspect we shall have to resort to magic on ourselves at some point, regardless. And we are intruders in their cave; there is a certain proprietary ethic-"
"All right!" she cried, as a triton heaved his three-pointed fork. "Do it your way."
Suddenly she was a monster--one of the worst Bink had seen. She had a huge greenish sheath around her torso, from which arms, legs, head, and tail projected. Her feet were webbed, and her head was like that of a serpent.
The triton's fork struck the Fanchon-monster's shell-and bounced off. Suddenly Bink saw the sense of this transformation. This monster was invulnerable.
"Sea turtle," Trent murmured. "Mundane. Harmless, normally-but the merfolk don't know that. I've made a study of nonmagical creatures, and have developed much respect for them. Oops!" Another trident was flying.
Then Bink was also a sea turtle. Suddenly he was completely comfortable in the water, and he had no fear of the pronged spears. If one came at his face, he would simply pull in his head. It would not retract all the way, but the armor of the shell around it would intercept almost anything.
Something tugged at his carapace. Bink started dive, trying to dislodge it-then realized, in his reptilian brain, that this was something that had to be tolerated. Not a friend, but an ally-for now. So he dived, but allowed the dragging weight to persist.
Bink stroked slowly but powerfully for the underwater passage. The other turtle had already entered it. Bink didn't worry about air; he knew he could hold his breath for as long as it took.
It did not take long. This passage slanted up to the surface; Bink could see the moon as he broke through. The storm had abated.
Abruptly he was human again-and swimming was harder. "Why did you change me back?" he asked. "We weren't to shore yet."
"When you are a turtle, you have the brain of a turtle, and the instincts of a turtle," Trent explained. "Otherwise you would not be able to survive as a turtle. Too long, and you might forget you ever were a man. If you headed out to sea, I might not be able to catch you, and so would never be able to change you back."
"Justin Tree retained his human mind," Bink pointed out.
"Justin Tree?"
"One of the men you changed into trees, in the North Village. His talent was throwing his voice."
"Oh, I remember now. He was a special ease. I made him into a sapient tree--really a man in tree form, not a true tree. I can do that when I put my mind to it. For a tree it can work. But a turtle needs turtle reflexes to deal with the ocean."
Bink didn't follow all that, but he didn't care to debate it. Obviously cases differed. Then Fanchon reappeared in human form. "Well, you honored the truce," she said grudgingly. "I didn't really think you would."
"Reality must intrude sometime," Trent said.
"What do you mean by that?" she demanded.
"I said, we are not out of danger yet. I believe that is a sea serpent on its way."
Bink saw the huge head, and there was no question: the monster had seen them. It was big; the head was a yard across. "Maybe the rocks-" Bink cried, orienting on the outcropping that marked the exit from the triton's cave.
"That thing's a huge, long snake," Fanchon said. "It could reach right down into the cave, or coil right around the rocks. We can't escape it in this form."
"I could change you into poisonous jellyfish that the serpent would not eat," Trent said. "But you might get lost in the shuffle. It also may not be wise to be transformed more than once a day; I have not been able to verify this during my exile, for obvious reasons, but I am concerned that your systems may suffer a shock each time."
"Besides which, the monster could still eat you," Fanchon said.
"You have a very quick mind," Trent agreed equably. "Therefore, I shall have to do something I dislike-transform the monster."
"You don't want to transform the sea serpent?" Bink asked, surprised. The thing was now quite close, its small red eyes fixed on the prey; saliva dripped from its giant teeth.
