"Surely Incarnadine can deal with them," Thaxton said.
Dalton asked Linda, "Have you seen him lately?"
"I asked Tyrene if he'd told the king. He said he has men out trying to locate him."
"He probably knows already," Thaxton said. "And is already dealing with the matter."
"Maybe the king suddenly took off on one of his extended sojourns," Gene suggested.
"He was at the party when I left," Linda said.
"I saw him leave with Trent," Barnaby Walsh said.
"That's right, he did," Dalton agreed.
"I shouldn't think they went far," Thaxton said.
"Hope not," Linda said.
"But what if Incarnadine can't deal with these little guys?" Deena asked nervously.
Heads turned as two more little guys with brooms entered the room.
"Then I suppose we'll have to learn to live with them," Dalton commented.
"Not me!" Deena said. "That happens, I'm pickin' an aspect an' puttin' my bod right through it. I ain't never comin' back."
"We're hardly at that point yet," Thaxton said. "Don't fret."
"Too late, I'm frettin' already."
Gene said, "I say we take Cleve's suggestion. Split up and reconnoiter, report back here in, say, two hours."
"We'll never find out where they're coming from," Deena said.
"If we find areas of the castle where they aren't, that will whittle down the possibilities a bit. I can't believe they're all over the castle yet. They're coming from somewhere, and we should find out where that somewhere is."
"What if the source isn't an aspect?" Dalton asked.
Gene shrugged. "What are the other possibilities?"
"Yes, where else could they be coming from?" Thaxton asked.
Dalton thought about it for a moment. Then he said, "The castle itself."
Gene nodded. "I guess it's possible."
"Another version of castle instability," Dalton went on. "We've run into all kinds. Walls shaking, parts of the place disappearing. Remember the apparitions? Well, this may be another variety of them."
"These critters seem a little too real," Linda said.
"True," Dalton conceded.
"Which is why we have to eliminate the possibility of another invasion," Gene said. "These guys could be the setup for a takeover."
Thaxton laughed. "By tidying up? The invaders are sticklers for cleanliness, are they?"
"Stranger things have happened in this castle," Dalton said.
"Well, I'll admit anything's possible. But surely an invasion's out. I mean, I've heard of mopping up, but-"
"We'd better get started," Gene urged. "The wider the dispersion gets, the harder it'll be to pinpoint the center of it."
"Gene's right," Dalton said.
"Thing is," Linda put in, "everywhere I went in the keep, there they were."
"How far did you get?" Gene asked. "Pretty far into the west wing. Down about ten floors. Gene, they're probably all over the keep."
Gene shook his head glumly. "Then we'll never find the hole they're pouring through."
Dalton said, "But we really should give it a try, shouldn't we?"
"Better to have a go at finding Incarnadine, maybe?" Thaxton suggested.
Deena agreed. "Now there's an idea. And Trent, too. We're gonna need all the help we can get."
"And Sheila," Linda said. "Speaking of super magicians. We might have to improvise until the king gets back, if he went anywhere."
Dalton started to say, "Nevertheless, some of us-" Everybody cocked an ear.
"What is it?" Deena asked. They all listened.
Deena seemed annoyed. "Music?"
The sound of a far-off drum grew closer. Accompanying a flute or pipe. The rhythm was exotic and infectious.
"I hear music," Dalton confirmed.
"Now what the hell is goin' on?" Deena despaired.
"Whatever it is," Gene said, "it's coming this way. Pass the sugar, will you, Lord Peter?"
Thaxton handed him the pewter sugar bowl. "Thank you."
In a few moments the source was revealed. A belly dancer-an extremely shapely one-came shivering and shaking into the dining hall. Accompanying her were two musicians, a drummer and a piper, in vaguely Arabic dress.
They proceeded to put on a show. Everybody watched. The woman whirled and clanged her finger cymbals, slinking up to the men and undulating suggestively. She danced twice around the table and then began to writhe and twirl out of the room, followed by the musicians.
Linda watched with interest. "She's really good," was her comment to Gene.
"Uh, yeah."
"Beautiful woman!" Dalton enthused.
"Uh, yeah," Gene said.
"Very charming," Thaxton observed.
"However do they do that-?" Dalton made motions in front of his stomach.
"Diaphragm exercises," Thaxton said.
Before the first dancer-musician troupe got to the door, another entered and began to repeat the whole routine, threading their way through the ever-growing clot of broomwielding homunculi. The group at the table sat and watched this performance as well, though a little less appreciatively.
"Charming, absolutely charming," Thaxton remarked. "But you know, I'm beginning to get worried."
"Housecleaning homunculi," Dalton pondered, drumming the table with his long fingers. "And belly dancers." He thought about it a while." Then he gave sigh. "Frankly, I don't see the connection.
Gene said, "Well, it's all so obvious, isn't it?"
Gene calmly drank his coffee as yet another distant drum drew nearer.
Deena said, "Uh-oh."
GAMING HALL
Jeremy Hochsteader was dressed in a parti-colored cotehardie (a longish tunic belted at the waist) in black and orange with matching tights: one leg per color. His orange Reebok cross-training shoes somehow looked appropriate.
He was sitting at a table playing a home video game and enjoying it. He had been invited to the party at Club Sheila of course, but he didn't like parties, so he'd put off going until it was too late.
No less than three homunculi had swept out the room already, but Jeremy hadn't paid them any mind, his attention fixed on wheels of fire and vicious turtles. But now he heard music; and though he didn't stop playing, he was beginning to grow aware that something might be going on. Maybe Sheila's party had spilled over into the castle.
Maybe it had. So what.
He kept playing, thumbing the buttons on the control device, jumping over pitfalls and leapfrogging monsters. The music grew louder but he still didn't care. He wished whoever was making it would go away.
The commotion entered the gaming hall but he still didn't turn around. There came quite a racket and Jeremy was beginning to get annoyed.
He stopped the game's action and looked toward the entrance.
"What the heck is this?"
Belly dancers? There were three of them, and with them a bunch of little guys playing weird instruments. The beauty of the women stunned him a bit before he began wondering if the castle was going nuts again. It did that periodically.
They danced around the hall and then circled him, clanging things in his face. He kind of liked looking at the women, but he thought the music sucked.
Presently the whole kit and caboodle bumped and ground their way out of the hall. The high-pitched flutes were the last to fade. But in their wake came the sounds of some other disturbance.
"Screwy," Jeremy said.
But that was life in the castle. You never knew what was going to come jumping out of the woodwork… or the masonry, or whatever.
Melanie McDaniel came walking in carrying her lute. She was dressed in a troubadour's outfit: black velvet cap with a feather, black velvet doublet, silver-gray cloak, scarlet tights, and black shoes. It was her usual mode of dress for going about the castle; she had stopped into her room to change after the party.
"Have you been seeing the weird stuff?" she asked.