Geis of the Gargoyle (10 page)

"They still trot," she said.

"Then what about cantering?"

"They remain hot to trot," she said firmly.

"They have no other gaits? Surely when they gallop-"

"No! They trot at any speed.
 
They've got permanent trots." Then she looked surprised, but did not amend her statement.

"The trots," he agreed.
 
"It seems so limited." But it did work for him.
 
He found he was able to go at any speed, using the same opposite-side arm-leg coordination.
 
She had solved his problem.
 
"Thank you."

"You're welcome," she said.

They moved with greater ease along the glowing path.
 
Soon they came to a blank wall.
 
The path had dead-ended in a squared-off cave.
 
"What now?" Gary asked.

"We must have to do something." Iris examined the wall.
 
There were several glowing spots on it.
 
She touched the lowest one.

There was a grinding clank behind them.
 
Startled, Gary turned.
 
Suddenly the floor gave way.
 
Gary and Iris, both alarmed by the sensation of falling, grabbed on to each other for support.
 
Now her softness was jammed against his front, but he didn't object, because their balance together did seem to be better than it was apart.

The floor was still falling.
 
But so were the walls.
 
The two of them seemed to be in a plunging cage.
 
There was even a wall behind them now, where one hadn't been before.
 
It had a window, and through the window they could see a dimly lighted wall zooming upward.

Then the chamber slowed, and they felt heavy.
 
It clanked to a halt, and the windowed wall split in half and the halves parted and separated and slid into the walls on either side, leaving them standing in another dead-end cave.

They pushed away from each other and stepped back along the passage.
 
But there was no glowing path.
 
"This does not seem like the surface," Iris remarked.

There was a rumbling roar, as of some enormously gigantic huge big animal sounding defiance.
 
The walls shook.

"We went down," Gary said.
 
"It must be deep." He really did not feel like remaining here long, especially while not in his natural stone body.

"Do you think I touched the wrong spot?" Gary was privately gratified that the Sorceress was as doubtful in this situation as he was.
 
"Maybe if the bottom glow made it go down, the top one would make it go up."

They returned to the dead end.
 
Iris touched the top glow.
 
This time Gary saw what happened.
 
The two halves of the wall came out from the sides and clanked together.
 
Then the newly formed cage lifted, carrying them up with it.
 
They were being elevated.

The cage quickly got up speed, and they saw the dim lights plunging downward beyond the little window.
 
Sometimes there seemed to be holes in the wall, and he realized that these could be other passages.
 
There were many levels to this cave.
 
Then the cage slowed, and stopped moving, and the walls parted.

This time there was an open landscape beyond, with trees.
 
They had reached the surface.

They stepped out.
 
The walls clanked behind them.
 
Gary turned-and there was the blank wall of a cliff.
 
It was part of a mountain.
 
There was no sign of any chamber or elevator.
 
Truly, the ways of the nether realm were marvelous.

"We must be somewhere south of the Gap Chasm," Iris said, looking around.
 
"And east of Castle Roogna.
 
But I have no idea where the golem residence is.
 
I fear I wasn't paying much attention to routine things during my dotage."

"Your dotage?"

"I was old and feeble and querulous of mind at age ninety-three.
 
Now I have shed seventy years, and my wits are close about me.
 
I can appreciate how much I was missing.
 
So maybe it is time to summon your demoness friend, and see whether she will help us."

Gary nodded.
 
"D.
 
Mentia," he called.
 
"Are you there?"

A cloud of purple smoke formed.
 
"Who wants to know?" it inquired.

"Oh, let it be, Mentia," Gary said.
 
"You got me into this, so you should help me see it through."

The cloud solidified into the familiar shape of the slightly crazy demoness.
 
"But you know what you got me into? Worm intestines.
 
They were interesting.
 
I've never been digested before."

"Have we met before?" Iris asked.

"I doubt it.
 
I've only existed for less than a year, as a half-separate entity, and I don't recognize your face anyway."

"I am the Sorceress Iris."

"I doubt that too.
 
She's an old and feeble crone, neglectful of what's what in her dotage."

"Rejuvenated to a vigorous twenty-three," Iris clarified.
 
"Here is what I used to look like." Her appearance changed to that of the ancient old woman.

"Oh, sure, I'd recognize that old hag anywhere! But you almost never looked that way."

"Because I used my illusion to look more like this," Iris said evenly, reverting to her real appearance.
 
"Now I don't have to.
 
I am reveling in my newfound youth.
 
So are you going to show us the way to the Grundy Golem residence?"

Mentia considered.
 
"Why should I?"

"Because it's bound to be interesting," Gary said.

"Good point.
 
Very well, follow me." The demoness walked roughly west, passing through a tree.

"Oh, great," Iris said sourly.

"She's a bit crazy," Gary explained.
 
Then he called to the demoness.
 
"Mentia, if you want us to be interesting, you will have to show us a route we can use."

The demoness reappeared, close.
 
"Oh." She put her feet to the ground and walked around the tree.

There was a faint path there.
 
They walked west, past innocuous trees and shrubs.
 
Gary spied a breadfruit tree, and felt a strange sensation.
 
It was a kind of distress below the midpoint of his new body.
 
His fleshy innards burbled.

"You must be hungry," Iris remarked.

"Hungry?"

"When did you last eat?"

"Gargoyles don't eat.
 
We're made of stone."

"Not any more." She stepped off the path and plucked a loaf of bread from the tree.
 
Then she took another pace and took a butternut from a butternut tree.
 
"Bread and butter.
 
Try it."

Still he hesitated, not knowing what to do with the things she brought him.
 
"Oh, for pity's sake," she said.
 
"It seems I have to show you how to eat, too."

"Yes."

She took a slice of bread from the loaf and squeezed the butternut so that butter spread across the surface of the bread.
 
Then she put the edge of the slice to her mouth and bit into it.
 
She wrinkled her nose.
 
"Needs something," she decided.
 
She looked around until she spied an orange egg on the ground.
 
"Good-a manna nested here.
 
Here's what the manna laid." She picked up the egg and squeezed some of its orange onto the slice.
 
Then she took another bite.
 
"Yes, this is good."

Then she set up a second slice similarly for Gary.
 
"Just bite and chew," she said.

Gary took the bread and bit into it.
 
To his surprise, the weird combination did taste good.
 
He chewed a mouthful, swallowed it, and took another.
 
Eating was all right.

Soon they had finished the loaf and the butternut and the orange marma laid.
 
"I forgot how hungry the young healthy folk get," Iris said, wiping her face.

"I never knew how hungry flesh folk get," Gary agreed.

They finished with some fluid from a leaning beerbarrel tree; someone had kindly provided it with a spigot, and there were some mugwumps nearby with pretty mugs.
 
The stuff was dusky colored and it foamed, but it tasted good and Gary drank several mugsful.
 
After that he felt better than ever, if somewhat unsteady.

They resumed their trek.
 
But before long there was a growl.
 
"That sounds like a dragon," Iris said, her tone hinting that she was not completely pleased.

"Of course it's a dragon," Mentia said.
 
"Whose path do you think this is?"

"This is mischief," Iris muttered.

"I'll go first, and it will break ish teesh-its teeth on my body," Gary suggested.

"You are forgetting that you are no longer a stone animal, but a flesh man," Iris said.
 
"And I am no longer a leathery husk, but a plump young chick.
 
We have a problem."

Gary's thinking had become somewhat fuzzy for some reason, but he realized that she was right.
 
The dragon would want to eat them both.
 
"Maybe we should gesh- get off its path."

"Too late," Mentia said cheerfully.
 
"Here comes the dragon."

"Why didn't you tell us this was a dragon path before? Iris demanded.

"You didn't ask."

"That makes so much sense it can't be the reason."

"You're right.
 
I'm too crazy to have a straight reason."

Meanwhile the dragon was charging down on them.
 
Gary wasn't sure what kind it was-smoker, steamer, or fire breather-because wisps of smoke hovered around its mouth, and jets of steam hissed from its ears, and there was fire in its eyes.
 
Its huge fbreclaws gouged divots, and its great mouth was cranking open to chomp the first victim-which happened to be Mentia.

Of course that didn't work.
 
The teeth passed right through the demoness without effect.
 
"What are you trying to do?" she inquired, breathing on her nails.

The dragon made a fiery snort of disgust, realizing her nature, and oriented on the second morsel, which was Iris.

Then a giant serpent replaced the young woman.
 
Huge and green, it lifted its enormous head and bared its swordlike teeth.
 
Its mouth was just about big enough to take in the dragon's whole head.
 
"What is the meaning of thiss?" it hissed.

The dragon blanched, and its fire went out.
 
"Ssorry, naga," it hissed back apologetically.
 
Then it quickly turned tail, and was gone in three-quarters of an instant.