The River of Dancing Gods (37 page)

The two simulacra turned stiffly and started walking out onto the cavern floor toward the two squashed soldiers. Marge kept looking directly at them, which Joe understood was necessary to preserve the illusion, but he was under no such compulsion.

He started looking around for the monster once more, hoping that it could be fooled by this trick.

Suddenly there was a roaring sound, the same as they'd heard before, followed by a sharp and sustained odd sound that reminded Joe of nothing more than a giant's fart. And down on the two replicas fell the great monster of the cave from its hiding place above.

"My god! It's a giant bunny rabbit!" Joe said, amazed.

"It's the biggest damn Texas hare I've ever seen," she admitted.

The thing was enormous—twenty feet high, not counting the ears, and terribly muscular, the Mr. Hyde of hares. Its face, too, was not the passive hare's face, but an ugly, contorted version; its large, yellow eyes were burning with fierce hatred, and its two great buckteeth were flanked by saber-toothed fangs: Its giant legs struck the two replicas full, then did a dance on top of them. Had they been real, it would have flattened them for sure.

Marge wasted no more time keeping up the illusion, but couldn't help staring at the rabbit, then up. "There are no ledges up there for something that size," she noted. "Where did it come from?.

The great hare god roared its conquest, then quieted and glanced around. They ducked back for a moment into the cave mouth and were certain they hadn't been seen. Joe peered out again, just as the hare roared and screeched once more, looked at the altar, roared at it, then did something that neither Joe nor Marge expected.

Its great mouth opened, and it inhaled—and kept inhaling.

As it did, its great brown body seemed to fill up and stretch like a balloon, until it was as big around as it was tall. And with that, the enormous hare floated up the sixty feet or more to the roof of the cave, becoming almost invisible in the darkness, its brown hair blending with the weathered limestone.

"So that's it," Joe breathed. "This is crazy. How can it float up there like a helium balloon on just plain old air?.

"Because it's not a normal monster," she responded. "It's Page 193 Chalker, Jack L - The River of the Dancing Gods some sort of magical creature, a demon, perhaps, in the form of a hare. I was taught that true demons have no form. Their form is made for them by the ones who bring them into the world, and can be almost anything. Somebody, long ago, decided that the Xota people needed a god. Who knows? Perhaps one of their most powerful magicians once tried to control a demon, or accidentally let one in, and it took on the form of the common hares that might be all over these parts. If it were trapped here, this might be the result..

"That's all well and good, but how do we get this gasball demon out of the way? Got any spells for that?.

She thought a moment, then looked up at the cave ceiling.

"I can see where it is now that I know what I'm looking for.

Hmmm... Well, disguising ourselves as Xota is out. I don't know how to do that one." She unhooked her crossbow from her belt and loaded a bolt. "But I think I can shoot it..

He whistled. "Man! If you miss—or if you only wound the thing—it will go nuts..

She nodded. "Don't I know it. But that's a chance we have to take. I'm pretty sure it's too big to get at us in here..

"Yeah—but it's loud enough maybe to bring the neighbors at our backs," he responded nervously. "Still, I don't have any better idea." He stopped a moment, thinking furiously. "Or do I?.

She turned to him. "Got something?.

' "I doubt if an ordinary bolt would do it," he told her. "But if we could shoot Irving....

She looked at him thoughtfully. "Yes. I think I could juryrig it so that we could shoot the sword. But it would be terribly unbalanced, and so heavy it might not make the distance..

"I can always call it back to me," he assured her, then caught her frown. "What's wrong?.

"Joe—I can't touch that sword. You know that..

"That's all right. I've had training with the crossbow. Have I ever! Hand it to me—hey! Uncock it first! Yeah. There.

Now—stand back..

He drew the sword and tried loading it in the simple crossbow.

He failed several times, and Marge felt frustrated that 222 JACK L. CHALKER THE RIVER OF DANCING GODS 223 she dared not reach out and show him how to adjust it; but finally, with her coaching, he managed to load it and cock it.

Still, it looked ridiculous and unwieldy. "I don't think it's going Page 194 Chalker, Jack L - The River of the Dancing Gods to work," Marge said worriedly. "The bow just wasn't designed for this..

"All it has to do is give Irv a boost," Joe assured her confidently.

"This sword has a mind of its own. It won't fail." / hope, he added mentally. "Irving, speed true to your target and puncture it..

The sword seemed to glow slightly and hummed in response.

Joe took a deep breath. "Well, here goes..

He stepped out into the cavern, looked up, spotted the quivering ball above, and took aim. "Hey! Gasball! Come and get it!" he yelled.

The hare god roared and started its drop. At that moment Joe lifted the bow and shot the sword right at the descending mass. The sword flew from the crossbow and, as Joe had said, seemed to take on a life of its own, flying straight and true. It was helped by the fact that the hare god was descending toward it, and the sword struck and penetrated the flesh of the horrible creature.

There was a loud bang, like a cannon shot, that almost broke their eardrums, and they yelled in pain. Joe was sure he was deaf. All around the cavern, however, bits and chunks of flesh fell in a grisly rain.

Ears still numb and ringing, Joe stepped into the cavern again, shouted, "Irving! To me!" and held out his hand.

From somewhere far across the cavern, the great sword hummed and flew like iron to magnet right into his hand.

Their sense of hearing returned slowly. "It burst like a balloon!.

Marge laughed.

He nodded and grinned. "Yeah. That's all it really was. A big bag of air. Come on. That noise is bound to bring somebody curious. Let's get to the altar." They made it on the run.

The bodies of the gargoylelike Xota were grisly even without their gaping wounds and injuries, and they smelled as all decomposing flesh did, but Marge and Joe went around the large bier of dead to the stone hare itself, carved into the solid rock.

Behind the bier were a lot of things, many of which looked quite valuable, but it was on the stone hare's "lap" that they saw what had to be what they sought.

"It looks just like Aladdin's Lamp in the old fairy tales," Marge noted. She bent over and picked it up. "I wonder if it currently has a genie? And, if so, how you get him—or her?.

"Rub it—right?" Joe suggested, remembering the stories.

"Yeah. Here. Let's see." She rubbed the Lamp—and, almost immediately, from the spout flowed an ethereal shape that took form as a young man dressed in odd, baggy clothes.

He looked around and smiled.

"Well, I'll be damned! Somebody finally got it!" he exclaimed.

"You're the slave of the Lamp?" Marge asked. "This is the Lamp of Lakash?.

Page 195 Chalker, Jack L - The River of the Dancing Gods "Yes and yes," the man responded.

"And who are you?.

"I am Sugasto," he told her. "If that means anything to you after so long a time..

"Sugasto! Ruddygore's adept!" Marge cried. "So you didn't die!.

He sighed. "Hardly. I made a very stupid wish on it for power and wealth—and wound up having to travel to High Pothique to claim both. I got cornered by the Xota. They killed my horse, my companions, and their horses as well—it was pretty absolute—and they had me totally trapped. There was only one thing I could do, and that was to use the Lamp again.

I wished that I would be safe from harm from the Xota—and got my wish, as you see. As the slave of the Lamp, I can not be harmed, because I'm basically a spirit, not solid at all. I just look that way. The second wish made me the genie, freeing a most unpleasant old woman who was immediately torn apart by the Xota. Of course, since they saw the old bag emerge from the Lamp and me flow into it, they knew it was magic— and so they brought it to their all-too-real god. I've been stuck in this damned hole ever since..

Marge thought a moment. "You've got to do whatever the possessor says, right?.

He nodded. "That's about it. Not much I can do, though, being a spirit..

"And I'm the possessor?.

"As of now. I can not tell a lie or fail to answer a questionto you..

224 THE RIVER OF DANCING GODS JACK L. CHALKER 225 She hooked the Lamp on her belt. "Well, come on, then.

We have to get out of here—and fast..

"I go where the Lamp goes," Sugasto noted. "I have no choice..

They made their way across the cavern floor once more and around the narrow, winding entrance until they reached the cave mouth.

"Uh-oh. It's gotten to be daylight," Joe muttered. "That's bad. Even if the Xota didn't hear all that commotion, they're probably back now..

Marge turned to Sugasto. "How about it? Can you reconnoiter for us?.

Page 196 Chalker, Jack L - The River of the Dancing Gods "I can..

"Okay, do it. That's not a wish, now. Just an order..

"That's the way you play the game," he agreed and sped from the cave mouth out into the early morning. It didn't take him long to return.

"Well?" Marge demanded.

"You've got troubles," He sighed. "Half the Xota nation's out there right now. There are forty or fifty directly above the cave, ready to pounce on whoever comes out, and maybe six or seven hundred staked out along the two miles from here to the road..

She thought a moment. "We couldn't wish both of us back to our camp, could we?.

"You could," the genie replied, "if your camp's not more than forty or fifty miles from here. I can check. It would have to be within my range from the Lamp..

"It's at the trail junction outside the Gate," she told him.

"Go..

In a flash he was off once more, and back within twenty or thirty seconds. "Yes, you can transport out. But as much as I would like you to overwish and free me, I don't want to suffer the fate of my predecessor—particularly not now that I'm out.

You've got a small army of black and silver uniforms not ten miles farther on. Maybe a hundred pretty tough-looking soldiers.

If you transport out, you'll be a sandwich between the Xota and the soldiers—who, I assume, are not your friends, considering the dead bodies around here..

"You're right about that," Joe agreed. "We'll fill you in on the political news later, though. Hmmm... What about soreery.

Anything we can do to trick those people conventionally.

You were supposed to be an adept of some kind..

"I was pretty good," Sugasto huffed with pride. "But I'm way out of practice, and in this form I can't do anything, anyway..

"I can carry out your spells," Marge told him.

He looked surprised. "Can you, indeed?" He thought a moment.

"Still and all, this isn't exactly a situation I can spell us out of. If I could, I wouldn't be here in the first place..

He had a point there. "That means the Lamp or nothing,.

Marge said, thinking furiously. "But I'll have to get the wish exactly right..

"And fast," Joe noted. "They won't wait all day without coming in to see if we got smashed by their god." He had to chuckle. "Wonder what they're gonna do for a religion when they find we popped him?.

"Quiet! I'm trying to think!" she snapped. She looked back Page 197 Chalker, Jack L - The River of the Dancing Gods up at the genie. "I don't suppose they left us our horses..

"Breakfast, I think," Sugasto replied ruefully. "Sorry..

She sighed. "Well, so much for that. Hmmm... Wait a minute. How compound can this wish be?.

"Not too much," Sugasto told her. "One magical event, that's it. You can't wish yourself invincible, immortal, and rich all at the same time..

"All right. But could I wish for a single solution to the problem of both armed forces?.

Sugasto thought that one over. "Maybe. Depends on how you put it..

"I think I've got it. If not—Joe, it will be your turn..

"Go ahead," he invited. "I'm a little uncomfortable around that thing..

She held the Lamp tightly in both hands. "I wish that our entire Company would be rescued from all our enemies this day by a powerful force friendly to us..

"Done!" Sugasto shouted.

Outside, there was a sudden, tremendous roaring sound.

JACK L. CHALKER 227 CHAPTER 15 FROM THE JAWS OF VICTORY Companies must break up before an objective can be truly secured.

—XXXIV, 319, 251(b) JOE HAD NO PARTICULAR TRUST IN WISHING LAMPS, BUT HE had to see what was going on out there regardless. Sword held at the ready, he approached the cave mouth from where he could see the plains of Starmount clearly. Marge came close behind him.