Tony could restrain himself no longer. "Just what the hell is happening?" He couldn't look away from the line of trees whip­ping past the plane at paint-scraping levels.

Acacia looked down. "The real lake should be somewhere close up ahead. If we can make that-" her eyes were fixed on the win­dow, and as an expanse of dark green came into view, she sighed in relief. "There it is!"

The plane plunged, shaking like a dog drying itself, and there were fourteen throat-rendering screams and one "Yah-hoo!" In the

instant before the plane struck water Acacia was aware of Tony's fingers dipping clawlike into her arm.

The impact threw them forward. Water surged over the plane, bubbles streamed past the windows. At least the fire was out. The plane bobbed to the surface, wobbled, righted itself. Water lapped at the windows.

Chester was the first to regain his balance. "All right, every­body, let's get out the lifeboats and get the gear together. We've got work to do."

Seat belts clicked like castinets. Duffle bags were pulled out of their overhead racks with almost feverish eagerness. Tony looked toward the nose of the plane, where Captain Stimac lolled limply in his chair.

"Hey, is he... ?" Unnoticed by the rest of the Garners, Tony advanced to the front of the craft, shouldering his backpack un­steadily. "Captain Stimac?" There was no reply. He took another cautious step, feeling the plane yaw slightly beneath him. "Cap­tain?" Stimac's head rolled back loosely from a neck that seemed broken, and a trickle of blood ran from his mouth. Eyes stared sightless from a slack and pasty face. Tony felt his stomach con­vulse, and clutched at himself, suddenly afraid. "Oh my God."

Then Stimac winked at him. Straightening in mid-retch, Tony glared at him and stalked out of the cabin. He grabbed Acacia by the shoulder and spun her around. "That's the last time, under­stand? Absolutely the last."

Acting calmly and with near-military precision, Chester had four boats out on the water and was directing the inflating of the fifth from a cylinder of compressed gas. Tony and Acacia were in a raft with S. J. Waters, and Tony was looking back at the DC-3 with a half-smile. "Boy that looks real. You really have to strain to catch even the outline of the Phoenix under the-"

Acacia laid a hand gently on his arm. "Tony," she said with genuine affection, "stop fighting. It is real. Everything here is real. Just relax and let it happen, okay? Please?"

Her dark eyes sparkled with unmocking laughter, and Tony nodded. He gripped her hand hard. "I'm sorry, babe. I guess maybe I'm-" He paused and looked around at the rafts bobbing in the lake. "I don't know what's going to happen or what it will do to my head. It throws me."

The rafts, five strong now, were bobbing next to the settling

DC-3 in the middle of a huge lake. It was impossible to tell the actual size of the body of water; perspective was no barrier to Dream Park technology. Chester and Maibang were last into the water, in a raft loaded with bundles of supplies.

"Which way, Kasan'?"

The guide looked around in feigned confusion. "This is difficult to say, but I'm not sure."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that this lake isn't what it should be-it's shaped wrong."

Chester's long face became thoughtful. "Wrong shape. How so?"

"Chambri Lake is rounder than this. See, two of the shorelines are clearly visible, but the other two edges are lost to our sight." Chester carefully got to his feet, standing precariously balanced as he looked. Just as carefully, he sat back down. "All right, it's not Chambri Lake. What is it?"

Kasan wagged his head sorrowfully. "Not sure. Very bad magic, I fear." He gazed contemplatively across the lake. "I think we should head to the north shore. It's closest."

There was a feather touch of suspicion on Chester's face as he nodded assent. "Okay, people, let's move out for the north bank. We can regroup there."

Two out of the three people on each raft hefted paddles and began guiding their boats ashore. Tony and Acacia provided pro­pulsion for their boat while their passenger, S.J., merrily called, "Stroke! Stroke!"

It became a race, with Tony and Acacia in second place, behind Eames and his two boatmates, one a Magic User named Alan Leigh, the other the irrepressible Mary-em, who as second paddle did not so much stroke as wrestle the water into submission. Leigh, his pouchy cheeks somewhat incongruous on his spare frame, watched the water ahead of them intently, and when his hand shot into the air all five of the rafts backpaddled to a halt.

Acacia shaded her eyes and cautiously stood, testing her bal­ance. "There's something there..." Tony started to ask, then saw it himself.

Just ahead of Eames's boat, the water was rippling unpleas­antly. S.J. got to his feet, almost upsetting the boat. Acacia skew­ered him on a raised eyebrow, and he sat down. "Water snake," he muttered, watching the approaching ripples.

Chester, two rafts back, had seen it too. "Snake!" His voice was surprisingly clear and loud. "Big one! Leigh, take first assault."

In the front raft, Leigh stood up. When the snake rose from the swirling water the magician was ready.

The snake was easily thirty feet long, its trunk thick and banded with muscle. Its head was broader than a horse's, long black tongue slipping in and out of its mouth with hypnotic rhythm. Its torso showed yellow and dull red against the blue-green of the lake, and as it hoisted fully eight feet of its length out of the water and glared at them, an uneasy cheer went up from the other Garners.

Leigh spread his arms in supplication. "Gods above!" he screamed at the top of his voice, "hear my plea!" Almost immedi­ately a green glow surrounded him, and he nodded acknowl­edgement. The snake glided closer. "Let's see now-"

"God's sake get on with it!" Mary-em snapped.

He glared at her. "No respect for artists. All right, then." He refocused his gaze on the snake, now only meters away. "Snake, you are a thing of water. I give you-fire!" He gestured magically, and nothing happened. He repeated, "Fire!" and the glow around his right hand melted from green to red. He made a hurling mo­tion at the snake.

A fist-sized ball of fire sailed from his hand, bright even in artificial daylight, expanding as it pierced the air and impacted the snake's nose. The effect was remarkable. The viper recoiled with an echoing hiss and dove back into the water and disappeared.

Tony cheered. "Great! Heroes one, monster zero!"

Acacia gripped his arm. "Not so fast, Tony..." She was watching Chester.

The Lore Master lifted his arms. "Hear me, oh gods," he said, his voice deep and resonant. The green glow appeared around him. He looked down into the murky green water. "I invoke Clear Vi­sion. Reveal to me my foe."

With a ripple of glitter, the surface of the lake became like a warped sheet of green glass, and beneath it writhed the outline of an enormous serpent. "Warriors! Be ready! It's coming back up."

Acacia said, "Oh shit," and dived for her gear. She hurriedly unrolled an oblong oilskin package and lovingly touched the twenty-four-inch blade of her shortsword before buckling the scabbard round her waist. She slipped the blade out again and ex­

perimentally slashed at the air, then checked the "ready" light in the hilt. She waited, crouched.

The lake surged and the snake was on them, hissing with the liquid sound of a wind whipping through a stand of rainswept trees. Its head coiled back, then snapped forward with blinding speed. Acacia cut furiously across the beast's mouth. It swerved around and tried to bite from the side, but the swordswoman pivoted neatly and met it again. This time the snake jerked back clear of the blade. It hovered just out of range, glaring at her with blood drooling from its upper ¹¹p. Slowly, eyes fixed on her stead­ily, it sank beneath the water.