Gooseberry Bluff Community College of Magic: The Thirteenth Rib (Kindle Serial) (36 page)

“OK. How temporary? I mean, do we have a time
limit on this operation?”

“About twelve hours,” said Simone. “Give or
take. Possibly longer, if you help me out.”

“How so?”

“Well, this has to be consensual magic, first of
all, or it’ll be unstable if it works at all. But it’ll work best if we do it
cooperatively. So what I need from you is to gather as much energy as you can,
focus it on me, and then just be open to the work. If you have hang-ups about
this, talk them through with me now.”

“I don’t know if I have hang-ups, exactly. I
just…I’m trying to get my head around it.”

“She’s wondering if she’s going to have a
penis,” said Lutrineas.

“Please don’t speak for me,” said Joy.

“Well, that’s what you were thinking, wasn’t
it?”

“You don’t have to answer that,” said Simone.
“I’ll say this; you will be a fully functioning male for the duration of the
spell. You may find the body uncomfortable at first, and you will probably want
to work on some of your body language so that you don’t draw unwanted attention,
but the nature of such spells is that over time you acclimate to the body.
About the time you get used to it, you’ll change back. At least, that’s how it
works for most cisgendered people. Are you trans?”

“Um. I don’t think so.”

“You’d know. If you were, the transition back to
your current body might be traumatic, so I thought I should ask.” Simone
smiled. “I’m sorry. I know this is a lot to take in.”

“It is,” said Joy.

“You’ll be yourself in a few hours, I promise.
And I’m here to help you through the initial adjustment.”

Joy nodded. “All right. Let’s do it.”

“If you’ll just step into a stall and disrobe,
we’ll get started.”

Joy paced in the hall outside the administrative offices,
trying to get used to walking in a man’s body. On an impulse she grasped her
crystal.

“Rosemary Ebrahim.”

“Hello?”

“Rosemary, it’s Joy.”

“You don’t sound like Joy.”

“Long story. Listen…did you call Trevor after we
talked?”

Rosemary didn’t answer right away. “It’s damn
early for you to be calling,” she said.

“I’m sorry. I’m about to…I’m working, and we’re
about to go on a raid. I was thinking about you.”

“You talk like Joy, but you sure don’t sound
like her.”

“Rosemary, please.”

“Yes, I called Trevor. He said he’d get a
message to you somehow.”

“Thank you,” said Joy. “And thank him for me,
please.”

“Are you OK?”

“I will be,” said Joy. “I love you. Tell the
kids I love them too.”

“I will.”

Joy disconnected and walked into Philip’s
office. Abel Bouchard and Yves Deschamp were facing one of the globes from the
library at the McMonigal Arms. It floated, rotating, in the center of Philip
Fitzgerald’s office, and the two men stood near it, as if they were both trying
to claim responsibility for it.

Joy went to stand next to Philip’s desk, trying
not to think about her new body. She was too tall, her balance was wrong, her
chest was flat, and the boxers that she had been provided were loose in a
distracting way. She was having almost as much trouble with the transformation
as she was with what she was about to do.

“This is Earth Positive Seven,” said Abel.
“Based on information from Bebe and Lutrineas, as well as information Ken has
gleaned from his duels, we are fairly certain that this is the origin of the
attacks.”

“How certain?” asked Gray. He kept staring at
Joy. They were all staring more than she would have liked.

“Fairly,” said Yves. “Philip was never able to
survey Positive Seven. He was still exploring Positive Five when he
disappeared.”

“Don’t give me that look,” said Lutrineas. He
was sitting cross-legged on top of Philip’s desk, still wearing a Son of
Order’s face and gray suit. “He’s fine.”

“Can we focus?” said Simone.

“I’m confident that we’ve got the right place,”
said Abel. “More confident than Yves is. We had Bebe send a routine report
through last night, to the effect that an attack on Ken had failed, and I spent
all night tracing it.”

“What’s going to happen,” said Yves, “is I’m
going to place a distortion in Positive Seven and punch you through directly
into the distortion. It’ll be like bouncing you through a periscope. If we do
it right, you’ll end up on the riverbanks about half a mile from this spot, in
that world. We have reason to believe that the campus, or at least this
building, also exists in that dimension.”

“Which is why we’re taking the precaution of
sending you elsewhere,” said Abel. “They’re probably monitoring the gateway for
traffic. They may detect you coming through, but they shouldn’t be able to
trace the distortion. You’ll need to act quickly, though; don’t take too long
assessing the situation before you act.”

“We won’t,” said Joy. She turned to Lutrineas.
“Are you ready?”

“No. Yes. What the hell, I’m just happy to be
doing something.” He hopped down from the desk. “Let’s sow some confusion.”

“Joy.” Gray stepped up to her. “What are you
smiling about?” he said.

“I just realized that we’re the same height
now,” she said.

“Ah. OK. Enjoy that. Listen; I still don’t
understand why you brought me in on this.”

“Because I need an unimpeachable witness, no
matter what happens,” said Joy. “I need you to stay here in case I don’t come
back, and I need you to know the entire story for the same reason.”

“This is a lot more complicated than I would
prefer,” said Gray.

Joy’s new laugh was deep and disconcerting.
“Yeah, I know that feeling. Thanks.”

“I suppose I can’t back out of it now, can I?”

“Not easily.”

“All right. Good luck, Wilkins.”

“Ready?” said Yves.

“Yes.” Joy stood beside Lutrineas.

“Ken, we’re ready,” Simone called to the outer
office.

“I can hear you,” said Ken. “Lutrineas?”

“Yes.”

“I want Philip back in one piece.”

“Yes, Kango.”

“Agent Wilkins?”

“Yes?”

“You come back as well. You have a class to
teach tonight.”

Joy smiled. “I haven’t forgotten.”

“Good,” said Ken. “Here goes nothing.”

A few seconds later Joy felt her new body
streeeetch
,
and the room around her went bright and featureless. Her stomach sank and her
testicles (her
testicles
? Life got stranger every day) tried to retract—

—and then she was looking across the St. Croix
River, its waters still shadowed by the hills on the east bank.

“There it is,” said Lutrineas, pointing west.
The sun was just hitting the ugly concrete building at the top of the bluff,
identical to the one she had just left.

“Same old squirrel trap,” she said. “The only
problem is, we’re on the wrong side of the river.”

To be continued in the next episode. Your book will be automatically updated with Episode 12 and you can continue reading from this page.

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