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Tuan's head lifted as Rod came up to the brow of the hill; he came out of his
brown study. "An evil day, Rod Gallow-glass. A most evil day."
"Very." Rod noticed the use of his name, not his title; the young King was really
disturbed. He stepped up beside Tuan and gazed somberly down at the valley
with him. "Nonetheless, it could have been worse."
Tuan just stared at him for a moment. Then, understanding, relaxed his face; he
closed his eyes and nodded. "I' truth, it could have. Had it not been for thy
rallying of the troops& and thy wife, and Angry Agatha& i' truth, all the
witches& "
"And warlocks," Rod reminded. "Don't forget the warlocks."
Tuan frowned. "I trust I will not."
"Good. Then you won't mind seeking out some more of them."
"Nay, I surely will not," Tuan said slowly. "Yet where wilt thou discover them?"
Rod sighed and shook his head. "The ladies had the right idea, Tuan. We
should've gone out recruiting."
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Tuan's mouth twisted. "What young witch or warlock will join us now, with this
crazed preacher raising the whole of the land against them?"
"Not too many," Rod admitted. "That's why I've realized Gwen had the right
idea."
Tuan's frown deepened in puzzlement. "Of what dost thou speak?"
"The old ones, my liege starting with Galen."
For the first time since Rod had known him, he saw fear at the back of Tuan's
eyes. "Rod Gallowglass dost thou know whereof thou dost speak?"
"Yeah a grown wizard." Rod frowned. "What's so bad about that? Don't we
want a little more mystical muscle on our side?"
"Aye if he's on our side i' truth!"
"He will not be," croaked Agatha from a boulder twenty feet away. "He doth
care for naught but himself."
"Maybe." Rod shrugged, irritated. "But we've got to try, don't we?"
"My lord," Gwen said softly, "I ha' told thee aforetime, 'tis the lightning that
lends them their strength and not even old Galen can fight 'gainst a
thunderbolt."
Rod turned slowly toward her, a strange glint coming into his eye. "That's right,
you did mention that, didn't you?"
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Gwen nodded. "We did free our soldiers from the Evil Eye but the lightning
flared, and the witches lay unconscious. 'Twas then the soldiers froze, and the
beastmen mowed them like hay in summer."
"Lightning," Rod mused.
He turned away, slamming his fist into his palm. "That's the key, isn't it? The
lightning. But how? Why? The answer's there somewhere, if only I could find it
and FESSten to it."
"Here, Rod," his mentor murmured.
"Why would the Evil Eye be stronger right after a lightning flash?" Rod seemed
to ask of no one in particular.
The robot hesitated a half-second, then answered. "Directly prior to a lightning
flash, the resistance of the path the bolt will follow lowers tremendously, due to
ionization, thus forming a sort of conductor between the lithosphere and the
ionosphere."
Rod frowned. "So?"
Tuan frowned, too. "What dost thou, Lord Warlock?"
"Just talking to myself," Rod said quickly. "A dialogue with my alter ego, you
might say."
Fess disregarded the interruption. "The ionosphere is also capable of functioning
as a conductor, though the current passed would have to be controlled with great
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precision."
Rod's lips formed a silent O.
Gwen sat back with a sigh. She had long ago acquired the wifely virtue of
patience with her husband's eccentricities. He would've been patient with hers as
well, if he could find any (he didn't think of esper powers as eccentric).
Fess plowed on. "The ionosphere is thus capable of functioning as a conductor
between any two points on earth though it would tend toward broadcast; to
avoid loss of power some means of beaming would need to be developed. There
are several possibilities for such limiting. Signals may thus travel via the
ionosphere rather than by the more primitive method of& "
"Power, too," Rod muttered. "Not just signals. Power."
Gwen looked up, startled and suddenly fearful.
"Precisely, Rod," the robot agreed, "though I doubt that more than a few watts
would prove feasible."
Rod shrugged. "I suspect psi powers work in milliwatts anyway."
Tuan frowned. "Milling what?"
"That's right. You wouldn't need much for a psionic blast."
Tuan eyed him warily. "Rod Gallowglass& "
"All that would be needed," said Fess, "is a means of conducting the power to
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ground level."
"Which is conveniently provided by the ionization of the air just before the
lightning bolt, yes! But how do you feed the current into the ionosphere?"
Tuan glanced at Gwen; they both looked apprehensive.
Old Agatha grated, "What incantation's this?"
"That," said Fess virtuously, "is their problem, not ours."
Rod snorted. "I thought you were supposed to be logical!"
Tuan's head came up in indignation. "Lord Warlock, be mindful to whom you
speak!"
"Huh?" Rod looked up. "Oh, not you, Your Majesty. I was, uh& talking to my,
uh, familiar."
Tuan's jaw made a valiant attempt to fraternize with his toes. Rod could, at that
moment, have read a gigantic increase in his reputation as a warlock in the
diameters of Tuan's eyes.
"So." Rod touched his pursed lips to his steepled fingertips. "Somebody overseas
lends the beastmen a huge surge of psionic power in electrical form, of course;
we're assuming psionics are basically electromagnetic. The beastmen channel the
power into their own projective telepathy, throw it into the soldier's minds
somehow, eye contact seems to be necessary there& "
"Probably a means of focusing power. Unsophisticated minds would probably
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