"He was trying to protect you ... or what he thought was you," Badaxe observed acidly.
"What..."
Then I saw what they were talking about. At the bottom of the pile was Aahz. He wasn't moving.
Chapter Twenty-Six:
"Winning isn't the most important thing; it's the only thing!
-J. CAESAR
"HE'LL be all right," Gus declared, looking up from examining our fallen teammate. "He's just out cold."
We were gathered around Aahz's still form, anxiously awaiting the gargoyle's diagnosis. Needless to say, I was relieved my mentor was not seriously injured. General Badaxe, however, was not so easily satisfied.
"Well, wake him up!" he demanded. "And be quick about it."
"Back off, general," I snarled, irritated by his insensitivity. "Can't you see he's hurt?"
"You don't understand," Badaxe countered, shaking his head. "We need five players to continue the game. If Aahz doesn't snap out of it..."
"Wake up, Aahz!" I shouted, reaching out a hand to shake his arm.
It was bad enough that my independent scoring drive had resulted in Aahz getting roughed up. If it cost us the game. ..
"Save it, Skeeve," Gus sighed. "Even if he woke up, he wouldn't be able to play. That was a pretty nasty pounding he took. I mean, I don't think there's anything seriously wrong with him, but if he tried to mix it up with anyone in his current condition ..."
"I get the picture," I interrupted. "And if we wake him up, Aahz is just stubborn enough to want to play."
"Right," the gargoyle nodded. "You'll just have to think of something else."
I tried, I really did. The team kept fussing over Aahz to stall for time, but nothing came to me in the way of a plan. Finally the referee trotted over to our huddle.
"How's your player?" he asked.
"Ah... just catching his breath," Badaxe smiled, trying to keep his body between the official and Aahz.
"Don't give me that," the stripe-tunicked Jahk scowled. "I can see. He's out cold, isn't he?"
"Well. sort of," Gus admitted.
" ‘Sort of nothing," the ref scowled. "If he can't play and you don't have a replacement, you'll have to forfeit the game."
"We're willing to play with a partial team," the gargoyle suggested hastily.
"The rules state you must have five players on the field. No more, no less," the official declared, shaking his head.
"All right," Badaxe nodded. "Then we'll keep him on the field with us. We'll put him off to one side where he won't get hurt and then we'll play with a four-man team."
"Sorry," the ref apologized, "but I can't let him stay on the field in that condition. It's a rough game, but we do have some ethics when it comes to the safety of the players."
"Especially when you can use the rules to force us out of the game." Gus spat.
I thought the slur would draw an angry response from the official, but instead the ref only shook his head sadly.
"You don't understand," he insisted. "I don't want to disqualify your team. You've been playing a hard game and you deserve a chance to finish it. I hate to see the game stopped with a forfeit... especially when the score's tied. Still, the rules are the rules, and if you can't field a full team, that's that. I only wished you had brought some replacements."
"We've got a replacement!" I exploded suddenly.
"We do? "Gus blinked.
"Where?" frowned the ref.
"Right there!" I announced, pointing to the stands.
Tananda was still floating in plain sight in front of Quigley.
"The captive demon?" the official gasped.
"What do you think we are? Muppets?" Gus snarled, recovering smoothly.
"Muppets? What ... I don't think ..." the ref stammered.
"You don't have to," I smiled. "Just summon the Ta-hoe magician and I'm sure we can work something out."
"But... Oh, very well."
The official trotted off toward the stands while the rest of the team crowded around me.
"You're going to have a woman on the team?" Badaxe demanded.
"Let me explain," I waved. "First of all, Tanda isn't..."
"She's not actually a woman," Chumly supplied.
"She's my sister. And when it comes to the old rough and tumble, she can beat me four out of five times."
"She isn't? I mean, she is?" Badaxe struggled. "I mean, she can?"
"You bet your sweet axe she can," Gus grinned.
"Gleep," said the dragon, determined to get his two cents worth in.
"If you're all quite through," I said testily. "I'd like to finish. What I was about to say was that Tanda isn't going to play."
There was a moment of stunned silence as the team absorbed this.
"I don't get it," Gus said at last. "If she isn't going to play, then what..."
"Once she's here and revived, we're going to grab her and the Trophy and head back for Klah," I announced. "The ref's about to hand us the grand prize on a silver platter."
"But what about the game?" Badaxe scowled.
I closed my eyes, realizing for a moment how Aahz must feel when he has to deal with me.
"Let me explain this slowly," I said carefully. "The reason we're in this game is to rescue Tanda and grab the Trophy. In a few minutes we're going to have them both, so there'll be no reason for us to keep getting our heads beaten in. Understand?"
"I still don't like quitting the field before the end of a battle," the general grumbled.
"For crying out loud!" I exploded. "This is a game, not a war!"
"Are we talking about the same field?" Chumly asked innocently.
Fortunately, I was spared having to formulate an answer to that one as Quigley chose that moment to arrive, Tananda floating in his wake.
"What's this the ref says about using Tanda in the game?" he demanded.
"That's right," I lied. "We need her to finish the game. Now if you'll be so good as to wake her up, we'll just... "
"But she's my hostage," the magician protested.
"C'mon, Quigley," I argued. "We aren't taking her anyplace. She'll be right here on the field in full sight of you and everybody else."
"And you can all skip off to another dimension any time you want," Quigley pointed out. "No deal."
That was uncomfortably close to the truth, but if there's one thing I've learned from Aahz, it's how to bluff with a straight face.
"Now, look, Quigley," I snarled. "I'm trying to be fair about this, but it occurs to me you're taking advantage of my promise."
"Of course," the magician nodded. "But tell you what. Just to show you I'm a sport, I'll let you have Tanda."
"Swell, "I grinned.
"If... and I repeat, if you let me keep Aahz in exchange."
"What?" I exclaimed. "I mean, sure. Go ahead. He's already out cold."
"Very well," he nodded. "This will just take a few seconds."
"What does this do to our plans?" Gus asked, drawing me aside.
"Nothing," I informed him through gritted teeth. "We go as soon as it's clear."
"What?" the gargoyle gaped. "What about Aahz?"
"It's his orders," I snarled. "Before the game started he made me promise that if he got in trouble I wouldn't endanger myself or the team trying to save him."
"And you're going to skip out on him?" Gus sneered. "After all he's done for you?"
"Now don't you start on me, Gus!" I grimaced. "I don't want to... "
"Hi, handsome," Tananda chirped, joining our discussion. "If it isn't too much trouble, could someone fill me in as to why this august assemblage has assembled, why we're standing in the middle of a pasture, and what all these people are doing staring at us? And where's Quigley going with Aahz?"