The River of Dancing Gods (38 page)

Just then a huge, dark shadow flew over the cave, and they heard another mighty roar and felt the heat of great flames not far away. Joe jumped back a bit. "Jeez! Did we get the Marines with napalm?" he wondered.

"No! We got Vercertorix!" Marge replied, pointing. Joe crept again to the cave mouth as a number of flaming bodies fell from atop the cave to the area just in front of them. Off in the distance, they saw the great form of the enormous dragon, wings spread, looking both noble and magnificent as it made Page 198 Chalker, Jack L - The River of the Dancing Gods pass after pass at the cave walls, occasionally bumping rock and starting landslides, but more often barbecueing the Xota with tremendous blasts of flame from its great mouth.

Some of the Xota, who were flying creatures themselves, took to the air and managed to get into a reasonable attack formation after the dragon had passed. Bows and spears at the ready, the Xota, perhaps fifty or sixty of them, waited almost suspended in midair for the great beast to turn once more and come swooping back in. The flying force could hardly hide themselves from the dragon, but they stood their ground and waited until they could almost feel the dragon's breath before letting loose their weapons.

"The little bastards have guts, I'll give 'em that," Joe muttered, fascinated. "It's like pygmies against an armored tank..

For a moment it almost seemed as if Vercertorix were going to fly directly into the formation, but at the last minute he 226 pulled up and beat several times with his massive wings. The Xota tried to get off their arrows and throw their spears, but the downdraft the dragon caused was so tremendous that their formation was suddenly broken, sending them tumbling. Vercertorix, who'd expected that and planned it, did a magnificent loop-the-loop in the air and came back again on the same tack, now letting loose his flaming breath at the broken Xota formation.

It was no contest, and more small bodies f&il burning from the sky.

"How can something that huge fly that gracefully?" Marge asked, awestruck.

Joe was more pragmatic. "I couldn't care less—just so long as the Xota don't have a fair maiden to drag in front of him..

The dragon made one more sweep of the terrain, scattering the last of the Xota and making sure that no major force remained, then came in for a pinpoint landing near the cave.

"Hey! My friends! Are you still alive in there?" they heard a familiar voice call to them. "If so, come out by all means!.

Even Sugasto was impressed. "There's somebody riding that thing!.

"Algongua!" Marge cried. "It's the Doc, Joe!" She was ready to run to him, but Joe put out a hand and restrained her.

"Hey, Doc!" he called. "Won't Marge cause—problems?.

"I think not!" the hairy man called back. "Come and see!.

That was all they needed, and out they came. The dragon glanced over at them as they emerged, and looked a little dubiously at the woman but did not flee or yell.

"It worked! It worked!" Algongua exulted.

They came up beside the dragon and regarded the hairy man on its back. "What worked. Doc?" Joe asked.

Page 199 Chalker, Jack L - The River of the Dancing Gods "Therapy! We owe it all to you two, really. After six weeks of my treating him, it took only one look at the lovely lady here to cause a complete relapse. I was angry at the time, remember, but the more I thought about it, the more I was sure I'd been on the wrong track. You see, his fear stemmed from an encounter a few months ago with a powerful sorceress— young and beautiful-looking, too. She caused him some great pain, and that set up his problem. It really wasn't a tear of fair maidens at all—that was just a symptom. It was a loss of selfconfidence! So, I reasoned, if I went with him and we eased 228 THE RIVER OF DANCING GODS into a battle, with me shouting encouragement and sharing the risk, it might restore him. And see? It worked!.

"Snarfle," the dragon agreed, nodding.

Marge frowned. "But now I am confused. Did my wish cause this to happen—or would it have happened, anyway, in which case I wasted it?.

"The Lamp is like that," Sugasto told her. "It's always a little perverse if it gets the chance. My guess is that reality was subtly altered with minimum—perhaps no—damage by your wish, which made this rescue possible, even inevitable. But we'll never really know..

Joe was more concerned with the reality of the dragon and the hairy scientist. "I thought you were the hermit, beyond battles and such..

Doc shrugged. "Maybe that's been my problem. I can divorce myself from the miserable world, but I can't divorce my patients and studies from it. Oh, well, it was fun, anyway..

"Marumph!" Vercertorix agreed.

Marge snapped her fingers. "I'd almost forgotten! This is only half the battle. A company of the Dark Baron's soldiers is almost to our camp now. Poor Houma's there with two very injured men!" She looked up at Algongua. "Can you stop them, too?.

The scientist thought a moment. "How about it, Vercertorix.

Want to try some soldiers? The ones we saw on the way in?.

"Grausch!" the dragon responded, nodding slightly.

"All right. Why don't you three hop on—I think you can hang on here—and we'll drop you at your camp. Then we'll take care of those soldiers..

Marge turned to Sugasto. "Why not get back in the Lamp until we reach the camp?.

"Whatever you say," he responded, sounding a little re- Page 200 Chalker, Jack L - The River of the Dancing Gods gretful—and flowed back into the Lamp on her belt.

Algongua was fascinated. "A real genie! How about that! So that's what the old boy sent you for!.

"We'll talk later," Joe told him. "Give you the whole story.

Let's get those soldiers first..

They linked up, Marge grabbing Algongua and Joe grabbing 229 JACK L. CHALKER Marge. It was pretty nerve-racking when the dragon began to move and spread its massive wings, and even worse when the great head suddenly came up and they lifted, but in a matter of no more than two minutes they were level and headed at great speed toward Stannount Gateway.

In another minute, no more, the dragon reached the Gateway, circled once, and landed just down the trail from the junction camp. Joe and Marge wasted no time jumping off and getting away from the great beast, and Doc waited only long enough to assure Vercertorix clearance before taking off once again. Joe and Marge had to brace themselves to keep from being blown over by the backwash, but the dragon was soon up and out of sight.

They were less than half a mile from the camp and reached it quickly. Houma was both astonished and overjoyed to see them, and they were pleasantly surprised to find Macore sitting on a rock, smiling and waving to them.

"It will take more than a cracked skull to get me," the little thief told them. "Now if it had been any place other than my head.. ..

Marge was bubbling over to tell Houma and Macore about their adventures and reassure them about the dragon, and she was halfway through before she suddenly stopped and said, alarmed, "How's Grogha?.

Both the others' faces fell. "He's gone, lady," Houma said sadly.

"It was all for the best. He was in such great pain....

She got up and walked over to the other side of the camp, where Grogha's body had been carefully wrapped in his bedroll, and looked down at it. Tears welled up in her big eyes, not only for Grogha but also for her failure to remember him right from the start. Most of all, she was frustrated by the fact that she had the Lamp, but too late, too late...

"Damn!" she swore aloud. "I wish we'd been in time to save him!.

Suddenly she heard Sugasto cry exuberantly, "I'm free!.

Then things happened too fast and too confusedly to be sorted out properly.

There was a blurring, a dizziness that overtook not only Marge but each of them, and then they were all there again, Page 201 Chalker, Jack L - The River of the Dancing Gods in the same places—but Grogha was no longer dead and 230 THE RIVER OF DANCING GODS JACK L. CHALKER 231 wrapped, but lying there pretty much as they had left him, moaning and groaning in pain.

The Lamp fell from Marge's belt as if the loop had broken.

She bent down, still confused, to pick it up and found that her hand went right through it. "What's happening?" she cried, in something of a panic.

A very solid Sugasto stood near her. "You made a second wish and it was granted," he told her. "Now you've paid the price for it. You are the slave of the Lamp..

Joe was over checking the supplies and, except for the slight dizziness, which he put down to lack of sleep, didn't seem aware that anything was wrong. Houma and Macore, however, had seen it and, while confused, went over to her and to the stranger now suddenly in their midst.

Sugasto pointed to the Lamp. "If you want to save your friend, pick up that Lamp, one of you, and wish him whole and healthy once more. I'd do it quickly—he won't last long, And since I can't use it or touch it ever again, it's only fitting that the lady's sacrifice not be in vain..

There was a greedy gleam in Macore's eyes as he realized what the Lamp was, but it was Houma who picked it up first, held it, turned to Grogha, and said, rubbing the Lamp, "I wish Grogha was whole and well, healed of all ailments and afflictions..

The bloody, broken body of Grogha shimmered, then solidified, and all traces of the illness, loss of blood, wounds, and lacerations were gone. He opened his eyes, looked confused, saw them all, shook his head, and said, "I—I had the most horrible dream....

Houma was so pleased and excited that he dropped the Lamp and rushed to embrace Grogha, tears of joy in his eyes.

Seeing his opening, Macore grabbed up the Lamp, smiled, then turned to Marge. "Inside the Lamp until I call you out!.

he commanded.

Suddenly she felt a tremendous force drawing her, like a vacuum cleaner, into the Lamp's mouth. It was a strange, eerie sensation, and the limbo in which she found herself was neither dark nor light, but an odd, formless land that went on and on.

She could hear no sounds at all. No—wait. There was something.

A voice. Macore's. He was talking to somebody—but she could not hear any response, none at all. She was attuned Page 202 Chalker, Jack L - The River of the Dancing Gods to his voice and his voice only. But something was happening to her...

Forms, concepts, and a great deal of information poured into her mind from out of nowhere, almost as if they had been there all along, but unknown and untapped until now. She knew everything there was to know about the Lamp of Lakash, its powers and limitations, and her own nature, bonds, and powers.

She also suddenly knew the plane of existence she was now on and understood that it was not empty at all...

Macore stared suspiciously at Sugasto. "You were the genie?.

"But no more," The Adept replied. "Nevermore. After a thousand years!" He sighed. "It's good to be alive once more, particularly with the new knowledge I' ve gained from the Lamp..

Macore looked crafty and thoughtful. "She was telling us before that wish that you were the guy who stole it in the first place. That true?.

Sugasto shrugged and bowed.

"You're some kind of adept, right?.

"Something like that," Sugasto agreed.

"Well, we're workin' for the guy you took it from. If you don't fancy meetin' up with him again, you better use what powers you got to get that guy Joe and these two off your back..

The Adept thought about it. "And off yours?.

Macore grinned. At that moment Joe finished checking the supplies and walked back to them, looking confused. He didn't think Sugasto's appearance was unusual, since he didn't think of him as flesh and blood, but he glanced around. "Where's Marge?.

Sugasto smiled and made a few signs in the air in Joe's direction. Joe suddenly froze, then looked even more confused.

"I forgot my train of thought! Damn!.

"You asked about Marge," Sugasto reminded him.

The big man frowned. "Marge? Who's that?.

"Nobody important," the adept responded smoothly, then turned and made the identical gestures in the direction of Houma and Grogha, who hardly noticed. "Why don't you see about Grogha?.

232 Page 203 Chalker, Jack L - The River of the Dancing Gods THE RIVER OF DANCING GODS JACK L. CHALKER 233 Joe nodded. "Yeah. Good idea." He walked over and bent down beside Grogha.

Macore looked impressed. "That's some trick..

"A simple one. It won't last long, you know. When the dragon returns, Vercertorix and Algongua will know, and it would take a lot more work to make them forget. The dragon is only here because of her—and so their return will precipitate a return of memory..

"But that could be any minute!" Macore protested. "Some trick!.

"There are other tricks," Sugasto bragged.

"Yes, there are," Macore agreed, touching the Lamp. He suddenly became stiff and glassy-eyed. "I wish Sugasto and Dacaro would exchange bodies, curses, and geases, and that Sugasto would then be subject to and obedient to Dacaro in all matters..

Nothing seemed to happen at all, but Sugasto's look of astonishment suddenly changed into a broad grin. He flexed his arms for a moment, then reached out and took the Lamp from the still-stiffened Macore. "Thank you, Macore," he said, his voice and inflection subtly altered. "I knew I could count on your greed to get this Lamp sooner or later..