Hindarf gave direct orders. Part of the Tocs were to go down thathall, looking for whatever they could find in the way of Childe, the Tocprisoners, and the Grail. He, Ackerman, and the rest of the party would go theother direction.
As they split up, they were hurled off their feet by anothershock. Somewhere in the house, a great splintering and crashing sounded.
"We may not have much time left!" Hindarf said. "Quickly!"
They broke in a door which was jammed because of the twistedwalls. Theyfound the three Tocs, naked, hungry, and scared, in that room. Thenext room contained Vivienne, whom everybody except Forry recognized. She waslying inbed, moaning with pain, a sheet over her. Hindarf pulled off thesheet, andForry's eyes bulged. A three and a half foot long penis with anamputated headwas lying between her legs, its other end stuck into her cunt.
"So somebody killed Gilles de Rais at last?" Hindarf said. "Childe did it," Vivienne moaned. "Where is he?" She groaned and shook her head. Hindarf reached out and gave a
savage yankon the thing between her legs. What happened next was something that Forry would never be ableto forget.
Hindarf picked up the many-legged cunt and smashed it against thewall. "Here's something for your collection," he said, handing the headwith its kicking legs to Forry by the hair. Forry backed away and then ran outof the room.
There were shouts and then shots and screams somewhere in the house. Hindarf pushed past him and ran down the hall. Forry followed the others andeventuallyentered an enormous room where about twelve Tocs were struggling withten Ogs. In the middle of the battle was a glass cube with a dully glowinggray goblet ona pedestal.
A Toc shoved the cube over with his foot, and the enclosure fellwith a crash, taking the pedestal and the goblet with it. There was adesperatescramble, during which the floor suddenly tilted with a deafeningcrash and rending of timbers from nearby. The cube slid down to one end of theroom while the combatants, knocked off their feet, chuted after it.
Forry was knocked down and sent sliding on his face for perhapsten feet. He suffered friction burns on his hands and knees, but he did not noticethem at that moment. The goblet had tumbled out of the cube and come to resta foot before his face.
"Get it and run!" Hindarf yelled, and then an Og woman, whom herecognizedas Panchita Pocyotl, leaped upon Hindarf from behind and bore him tothe floor.
Forry would not have touched the goblet if he had thought aboutthe effects of his act. But, excited and impelled by the Toc's order, hescrambled to his feet, scooping the goblet up. Even in his frenzied state, he noticedthat it felt extraordinarily warm and that it seemed to pulse faintly. Healso felt a resurgence of energy and an onslaught of courage.
He ran, even though he was not supposed to run. He went out ofthe room and down the hall and then there was a terrible grinding noise, agroaning, ashrieking, and a rumble as of thunder. The floor dropped; he fell, though stillholding the goblet.
The room seemed to turn upside down. He struck the ceiling, whichcracked open before he hit it. The lights had gone out then, but a flashlightfrom somewhere, maybe held by an Og who, had just entered the house, threwa beam on the goblet and the surrounding area.
Half-stunned, Forry saw the goblet slide away from him. A darkfigurehurtled into the area of the light and sprawled after the goblet. Itwas not clad in a diving suit and it was not Childe, so he presumed it was anOg.
He kicked the Og as he rose with a triumphant cry, holding thegoblet to hischest. The bare foot--he had long since shed his flippers--caught theOg underthe cheek of his right buttock. At the same time, the house lurchedagain, andthe Og, screaming, went flying forward. The goblet fell from his gripand rolled out through a doorway which was collapsing.
Cold wet mud lifted Forry and carried him as if he were on arubber raft through the doorway just before it closed in on itself. He shot outthroughanother room as if he were a cake of soap slipping out of the wethands of a bather. The goblet appeared before him riding upside down on a waveof mud. Forry reached out and grabbed it and held it to his chest eventhrough histerror and his screaming.
Then he was turned upside down. Mud covered him and filled hisnostrils and mouth. He choked and fought against the wet heavy stuff killing him.
Something struck the side of his head; and he fell into a darkness and silence blacker and quieter than the mud
CHAPTER 43
Partly stunned when he hit the wall at the first turning of thecorridor, Childe was hurled down the next hall, spun off lightly at the secondturning, turned aside by a great curling wave, and shot down another hall. Atits end it opened onto the front door and, on the side, to a large room. Thewaters splithere, one torrent shooting through the doorway after having brokendown the door, and the other torrent spilling into the room.
The parting of the flood greatly diminished its force and itslevel. Childe scraped his knees and hands on the lintel as he went through thefront door and was deposited at the foot of the steps at the bottom of the porch. Staggeringbecause of the water that was falling on his back, he crawled awayand then gotto his feet. He took two steps and screamed as he fell outwards anddown. The mud of a very steep bank took him, and he slid face down for somedistance before plunging up to his shoulders into the sticky stuff. He foughthis way outand then lay on his back, staring upwards.
Light was streaming out through the open door and several otherwindows. He was lying on top of the cave-in. And if he did not get out of the waysoon, hewould be crushed by the entire weight of the mansion. It was groaningand swaying, and the slides of mud around him heralded a greater slide.
Though he would have liked to stay there and rest, he turned overand slipped and slid to his feet and sludged away from the buildinglooming abovehim as fast as he could go. Once he tripped over a solid object, which he would have thought a small boulder if it had not moaned. He got down on hisknees and felt the roundness, which was the head of a woman buried up to herneck.
"Who is it?" he said. "It's me," the woman said. "Who?" "Diana Rumbow. Who're you?" And then, "Help me!" Mud abruptly covered his legs to the ankles. He looked up but
could not see much except that the house seemed to be tilting a little more. Suddenly, the lights went out, and a great grinding noise came from the house.
He went on as swiftly as he could. It would take him a long timeto dig herout, and the house was surely coming down, on them at any minute. Besides, he owed an Og nothing except death.
When he had gotten to one side, far enough out of danger from thehouse, though not from the slippage of the hill beneath him, he turned. Justas he did, the great structure screamed and toppled down the steep slope. Thoughit was so dark, he could still see that it had turned over on its side, soswiftly had theearth beneath it fallen in.
He wanted to make for the ruins as fast as he could, but he wastoo emptiedand shaken. He sat down in the mud and wished that he could cry. After a while, he got up and sludged through the mud, sinking to his knees withevery step. Hewent even more slowly than the effort accounted for, because he wasnever sure that he would not keep on sinking.
The first body he found was Forry Ackerman's. It was lying on topof the mud, though sinking very slowly. He was on his back, his face coveredwith mud but his spectacles still on. A glow of headlights coming up the roadbelow showed him palely to Childe.