Free Vale of the Vole by Piers Anthony Page B

leaking under the door, so he got the first dose!"
    "Amnesia!" she cried, alarmed. "We must get away from here!"
    "Come on, Volney," Esk said. "We are going back upstairs!"
    "Where?" the vole asked.
    "Up! Up! To get out of the fumes, before they get us all!"
    The vole balked. "Who are you?" he asked.
    "He's forgetting everything!" Chex said. "We've got to get him out!"
    "We're friends!" Esk said. "We must talk—upstairs! come with us!"
    The vole hesitated, but remembered nothing contrary, so followed them up. They slammed every door behind them, and wedged strips of cloth from the sewing room under the last, to halt the creep of the vapor.
    "Now I think we know what happened to the Magician and his family," Chex said. "That concoction got out of hand, and they forgot what they were doing!"
    "But the magician was upstairs," Esk said. "Those vapors sink; how could they have reached him there? They haven't even left the dungeon yet, and would have been less extensive a day ago."
    She nodded. "True, true. I was thinking carelessly. Those fumes are a consequence of his departure, not a cause, probably. But we had better turn that pot off!"
    They were agreed on that. But how were they to do it?
    "Maybe there's a counterpotion," Esk said. "Something we can mix up and pour into the dungeon that will neutralize it. The Book of Answers might list it."
    They hurried up and checked the book. "What would it be listed under?" Esk asked, turning the ancient pages.
    "M for memory, perhaps," Chex said.
    He found the Ms. "Magic," he read. "What a lot there is on that subject!" He turned more pages. "Ah, here: Memory." But he frowned as he tried to read the detail. "I can't understand this! It's so technical!"
    "Technical?" Chex asked.
    "Yes. What does 'mnemonic enhancement enchantment' mean?"
    She pursed her lips. "It's technical, all right," she agreed. "Probably only the Good Magician can interpret it; that's why he is the Magician."
    "We don't have time," he said. "We need something we can understand right now."
    "We need a sudden bright idea," she agreed.
    "I know little about magic," Volney said, evidently recovering from his whiff of amnesia. "But ivn't there a kind of wood that changev the magic polev?"
    "Magic poles?" Esk asked blankly.
    "Vo that whatever it iv, it iv not, and vive verva."
    "Whatever it is, it is not," Chex said, piecing it out.
    "And vice versa," Esk concluded. "I don't know—"
    "I think it'v called reverve wood."
    "Reverse wood!" Esk and Chex exclaimed together. "That's it!" one or the other added.
    They hurried downstairs, checking shelves. "Found it!" Esk called, as
    he opened a kitchen cupboard. "The Gorgon must have used it for cooking, so that everything she looked at wouldn't be stoned." He fetched down the chip of wood.
    "But are you sure it's the right kind?" Chex asked.
    "We can test it," he said. "Come toward me. If it reverses my magic—"
    "I understand." She strode toward him.
    He held up the chip. "No," he said as she drew close.
    She leaped at him. Suddenly her rather soft front was pinning him against the wall.
    "Oops," she said, backing off. "I didn't mean to do that."
    "I told you 'no' on your advance," he gasped. "But you accelerated it."
    "So it is reverse wood!" she said.
    "I hope it's enough." He looked at the chip, thinking of the chamberful of amnesia fumes below.
    "It will have to be," she said firmly.
    They took it down to the sealed door, unsealed the door, and hesitated. "We need to get it in the pot, I think," she said. "But if we get close, we'll forget."
    "Not vo," Volney said. "Who holdv the wood—"
    "Will reverse the amnesia!" Esk exclaimed. "I'll do it!" He hurried down the steps, holding the chip ahead of him. When he reached the bottom, he strode to the closed chamber, wrenched open the door, waded through the pooling vapors, and dumped the chip of wood in the boiling pot.
    The effect was dramatic. Not only did the amnesia reverse, as he could tell by his abruptly sharpened