Golem in the Gears (28 page)

as he stumbled forward.

He turned to face her, but she was already on him,

clutching him with her rough B legs, bearing him down under her weight and the thrust other wings. He fell back, and clunked his head on the floor. It wasn't a hard floor, but he felt dizzy for a moment, unable to resist effectively.

"Now I've got you, Golem!" she buzzed. "I'm going to sting you into submission, not enough to kill you, just enough to paralyze you." And she maneuvered to bring her big sharp stinger into position.

"But you'll die if you sting me!" he protested.

"No I won't, Golem. There are B's and B's, and this kind stings with impunity. Now let me see; I want the flesh to be properly tender, so I think I'll sting you in the stomach. Brace yourself; this will hurt, and keep on hurt- ing, as you swell up like a balloon. What joy!"

The terrible stinger was descending toward him, and he could neither throw her off nor roll out of the way;

she held him too firmly, braced by her own buzzing wings. He reached wildly for the pin, but couldn't find it; it had probably rolled well clear. All his questing hand found was a loose length of line.

Line? That was the end of the net!

The stinger touched his clothing, as she maneuvered to sting him just the right amount—a more delicate matter than merely stinging to death. Now or never!

Grundy lifted his arm and flung the net up. It lifted, spread, and settled down over the B's wings. It clung to them stickily, for this was what it had been crafted to do—to be neutral to inanimate substance, but to catch wings firmly.

"Yeeech!" the B-Hag buzzed, jumping up and trying to free herself. But Grundy pulled on the line, and the net settled more firmly about her. A B with its wings entan- gled was a B largely helpless, as the spider had shown. Now he had her!

It was a struggle, for she was very strong, and tried to catch him with her stinger, but he continued hauling the net about, getting her snugly wrapped. He recovered his pin-sword and tucked it back through his belt. Then he hauled on his line, sliding her along. All was secure.

But the exit from this chamber was above, and he was sure he would not be able to haul her body up there. She was sure, too: "You haven't got me yet, Golem; the moment my swarm returns, you'll be stingbait!"

Surely true! What was he to do?

"And I hear them coming now, Golem!" she buzzed.

True again; he could hear the muted distant hum.

Then he figured it out. "Princess B-Nign!" he called. "I've got her! But I need an exit!"

There was a buzz at the hole. "Why so you do," B- Nign agreed.

"Sting this miscreant!" the Queen B buzzed imperi- ously.

"I can't do that," B-Nign replied.

"What? How dare you! Why can't you do that?"

"Because a Queen can't take orders; she can only give

them."

"But I am the Queen!"

"You were the Queen. Now / am the Queen." And B- Nign flew down to the bottom of the chamber, landed, braced herself, and used her sharp B claws to cut open the sealed main entrance. Soon the hole opened up.

"Thank you, your Majesty," Grundy said, and shoved the deposed Queen into the hole. She fell straight down to the net covering the bottom of the Have.

Grundy followed, more carefully. But as he reached the main entrance, the hum of the returning swarm loomed loud. It was coming into sight! Feverishly he yanked away the net-supports, so that the Hag-B could drop to the

ground below.

"Swarm!" the bundled Queen Hag buzzed. "Sting that

golem! Kill the usurper Queen!"

B-Nign appeared at the entrance. "Ignore that trash,"

she buzzed. "/ am your Queen now."

Grundy hung by the edge of the hole, not daring to drop that distance, while the swarm approached. Which

Queen would they obey?

Snortimer scrambled out below. "Drop: I'll catch you!"

he cried.

Grundy dropped. The Bed Monster caught him. "Get

me and that bundle out of here in a hurry!" Grundy cried. Snortimer set Grundy on his back, picked up the bun- dle by the line, and scrambled away just as the swarm

arrived.

"Help! Help!" the Queen Hag buzzed. But B-Nign was

buzzing louder, and, after a moment's hesitation, the swarm oriented on her. Grundy had won this round!

The Queen buzzed again, more stridently: "B-Foul! B- Wilder! B-Devil! Here to me, my loyal minions!"

Three B's, summoned by name, hesitated; then they broke from the swarm and flew toward the Queen.

"You go to her?" B-Nign buzzed, imperiously enraged. "Then you are banished from this Have, miscreants! If you or she ever show your antennae in these parts again, you will be executed! I have buzzed!"

Grundy could tell by the way the three hesitated in flight that the sentence bothered them; it was terrible to be banished from the Have. Obviously she could make it stick, because the rest of the swarm stayed with her. These three and the Hag were through here.

But now they had nothing to lose. "Vengeance!" the Hag buzzed. "Sting this golem! Free me!"

"Get out of here. Snort!" Grundy cried. The Bed Mon- ster accelerated, scrambling for the path to the Retreat. In moments they were well away from the bonnet.

But the three grim minions of the Hag pursued them. Snortimer plunged through the thickest brush, to hide from them and confuse them, and this was working—but there was a snag. Abruptly he veered away from the deep- est, most shadowed region.

"What's the matter. Snort?" Grundy cried, seeing the three B's hovering overhead, looking for them.

"I'm afraid of the dark!" the Bed Monster said.

"Oh, that. Of course. Just give me the reverse-wood."

Snortimer handed it up to him. It was no more than a splinter, but its potency remained.

But this pause gave the Hag her chance. She buzzed loudly, evidently calling again to her three loyal B's.

One of them heard her and zoomed in to the target.

Snortimer dived under the brush and dodged to the side, and the B had to veer off. But every time they passed through a clearing, the Hag buzzed again, and the B re- oriented. As they emerged to the regular path, the B could no longer be denied. It zoomed in, closed its wings, and shot at Grundy so swiftly that he knew the only way he could avoid getting stung was to jump off Snortimer's back—in which case Snortimer would be the one stung, and B-Foul would have time to free the Hag before Grundy could catch up. So Grundy didn't jump; he braced himself and took the terrible sting.

The B caught him on the right arm. It hurt, but only for a moment. Then the B was gone, its sting expended, and Grundy shook himself—and discovered he was unharmed. In fact, the dirt and grime and bits of spider- web that adhered to him fell away, leaving him amazingly clean. What had happened?

But he had no time to ponder that, for the Hag buzzed again, and a second minion heard her and oriented on them. Snortimer, now on the clear path, doubled his effort and charged into the gloom of dusk. But, fast as he was, the B was faster. Slowly it gained, and as they shot through the gap in the ring of mountains, it caught up. Again Grundy had to remain and take the sting, rather than jump clear. Again he was tagged on an arm, painfully. Then the B left and Grundy took stock of himself again.

He seemed to be all right. In fact, he now seemed, despite the fatigue of his effort, to be marvelously clear- headed. There was no longer any confusion about his

situation.

"Rapunzel!" he exclaimed. "She's a crossbreed, who has been raised alone. She can relate properly to neither the human nor the elven culture. I am doing her no favor by requiring her to make a choice between them. There

is only one creature who can truly appreciate her nature, as the only creature of her kind—the one who is the only one of his kind!"

The Hag buzzed again. Now the third and final B heard her and responded. It zoomed in.

"Hurry, Snort!" Grundy cried. "We're almost there!" But the Bed Monster continued as if he hadn't heard Grundy, and the B gained on them.

"Try dodging!" Grundy advised. But again his friend ignored him.

Now they burst into the Retreat. There were the Fauns and Nymphs, and Jordan and Threnody, with little Rapun- zel perched on her shoulder, golem-style. Rapunzel smiled and clapped her hands. "XXXXX!" she exclaimed.

"What?" Grundy asked.

"YYY YYY YYYYYYY YYYY," Jordan explained.

Now the final B came down, so swiftly that there was no stopping it. It was aiming for Snortimer, evidently thinking that if it took out Grundy's steed, Grundy would be helpless.

Grundy leaped toward it at the last moment, inter- cepting the terrible sting. He was caught in the shoulder and spun about, and again it hurt. He fell to the ground, and the sliver of reverse-wood fell from his hand. The B flew unsteadily away.

Rapunzel was down on the ground and running toward him. "Oh, Grundy!" she cried. "Are you hurt? That was the bravest thing I ever saw!"

She was making sense, now! And abruptly he realized why: he had let go of the reverse-wood. That had been reversing his talent, so that instead of speaking and under- standing all languages, he had spoken and understood none. No wonder Snortimer hadn't responded—Grundy had been spouting gibberish.

"Oh, Grundy, you're an angel!" Rapunzel exclaimed.

"You even have a halo!"

Grundy glanced up, startled. There was a little circlet

of light floating just above him.

Then his clear mind provided the answer. That last B that had stung him must have been B-Devil—but the reverse-wood had reversed the effect of the sting, making him angelic instead of devilish. The-effect would only last a few minutes or hours, depending on the intensity of the

sting.

And the prior B must have been B-Wilder, whose sting,

reversed, gave him this uncommon clarity of mind. And the first sting must have been by B-Foul, the reverse effect making him uncommonly clean.

He had been brave, perhaps—but he had also been

very lucky!

Now, while his mind was clear, he needed to act.

"Rapunzel, I love you," he said.

"Why of course you do," she agreed, kissing him. "I thought you'd never realize!"

"Well, I—"

He broke off, for in their brief distraction the Queen Hag had finally worked her way out of the web-net. Now she buzzed up, hovering nearby.

"So, Golem!" she said in B-talk. "You thought to neu- tralize me, did you? Well, know that my sting is now set on max, instantly fatal to the victim."

Grundy experienced another cold wash of fear. "Instantly fatal," he echoed in human-talk.

"And do you know what I'm going to do, wretched

Golem?"

"I know," Grundy agreed, pushing Rapunzel aside so

that there would be no danger of her getting stung too. "I'm going to sting you to death," she buzzed anyway.

"Then I'm going to sting your wretched friends. When Rapunzel sees them all die, and knows she is alone for- ever, she will be too distraught to oppose me any longer. Then I will take over her body immediately and use it as brutally as I can imagine. What do you think of that, Golem?"

Grundy drew his pin-sword. "You'll have to kill me, Hag, for I will never let you have Rapunzel while I live."

She buzzed so hard with laughter she wobbled in place. "You think to oppose me with that, Golem? Even if you managed to kill me as I kill you, it would make no dif- ference, because I'll simply come back in another form. Even if you should kill me without getting stung, you'll still lose in the end. I have defeated you, Golem!"

Then she charged in. Grundy stood to take the assault, having no other choice, though he knew he had no chance.

Suddenly a huge hand swept between them. It caught the B and swept it away.

It was Rapunzel, in giant-form. She held the B in her hand. "I've got you. Hag!" she cried. "Sting me if you dare! Then you'll have nothing!"

The B buzzed angrily in her closed hand, but did not sting—because indeed that would be pointless. The one body the Hag couldn't afford to kill was Rapunzel's.

"And I wouldn't need to kill you," Rapunzel continued, "even if I could. Because you have no further power over me. Hag. I know you for what you are, and you will never have my body, for I will never consent, no matter what other mischief you do. If you deprive me of my friends, I'll simply kill myself." Then she opened her hand and let the B fly out, unharmed. "Now why don't you call my bluff?" she challenged.

The B hesitated, then flew toward the take. It dived

in, and a fish leaped up to swallow it. Rapunzel had finally faced down the Sea Hag, and was effectively free of her. Rapunzel changed back to golem-size. Grundy went up and took her in his arms. "And you were calling what

/ did brave!" he told her.

"Well, she was attacking you," she said. "Is she alive or dead, now?" Jordan asked. "Probably dead, for the moment," Grundy said. "But her ghost will take over another body. Now I think she'll leave us alone, because she knows there is no way she'll