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what was clearly on Melusine's mind as they got closer and closer to the room
with the large bed. He could not pull the headache trick again. Even if she
might give in to it a second time, she would certainly begin to get
suspicious. It was too bad he did not know some way to put her into a deep
sleep or at least make her so sleepy that the thought of lovemaking would be
put off for a while. His mind galloped desperately down that particular trail.
The only thing that came to mind was the fact that he had mastered
Carolinus's trick of turning wine into milk as a treatment for his stomach
ulcer. One of the first little pieces of magic that Jim had tried after he got
back from seeing Carolinus and learning how to turn himself from a dragon back
into a human being again and vice versa, had been the business of trying to
turn wine into milk, himself.
Jim liked milk as much as he did not care for grapes. But milk was not
something ordinarily on the menu at Malencontri. In fact nobody, including the
servants as far as he knew, drank it. Although out in the cottages, the people
who belonged to his estate probably chewed or swallowed anything that was food
at all, since the idea was to keepthemselves alive with whatever was
available.
At any rate, he had never quite gotten up the courage to order milk for
himself at Malencontri. Instead, he had striven to master Carolinus's turning
wine into milk.
And succeeded.
It had turned out to be rather simple. He understood more now how it could
be. He already knew what milk tasted like, and he could imagine the taste on
his tongue. He also knew what wine tasted like. It was fairly simple therefore
to write on the inside of his forehead:
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ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
WINE?MILK
And have whatever vessel he was holding turn white and prove to contain milk
instead.
The reason he had been able to do it so easily, he was beginning to
understand now, was because both wine and milk could be clearly envisioned by
him. Now, if only Melusine drank milk; he could change it to wine in her
stomach, and possibly she might get drunk.Drunk enough so that she would lose
interest in affectionate embraces with Jim. Although, come to think of it, if
she was at all like these other medieval characters, he would probably have to
fill her full of wine to make her pass out.
Unfortunately, he was sure that she did not drink milk. Down here under the
lake would be the last place that a cow would be available or anything else
that gave milk for that matter. Some of the sea mammals produced milk; but
this was a freshwater lake.
By this time they were back in the palace and approaching the bed. They
settled down on it.
"My love," said Melusine, looking at him amorously, "you're quite right. I
love you all the more for being interested in my lake."
"That's good," said Jim. "I mean I'm very happy; because I feel exactly the
same way."
"You do?" she said; and her magical attraction shot up a good thousand watts.
Jim's mind searched desperately for a way out. Today'strip around the lake
had only reinforced his original instinctive conviction that once he had given
in to Melusine's emotion, he would be hooked by it and never have the courage
and will to get away from her. His mind scrambled desperately once more and,
under the pressure of great emergency, as minds will do, came up with an idea.
"Why don't we have a little wine together, first," he said. "We can toast our
being together today, looking at the lake, the lake itself. I think it's a
fine idea. Don't you?"
"Why& yes," said Melusine. She was kneeling as before, at his side on the
bed. "You are most unusual James; and you do have the finest ideas."
She turned to the little school of fish that was always hovering around her
here.
"Wine," she ordered, "and two crystal goblets.The very finest crystal goblets
I have."
She beamed at Jim.
The wine came, the small fish struggling with the full bottle, which they put
down on the bed besideher, along with two very ornate, convoluted goblets of a [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]