"Will that be sufficient quantity of blood to meet the myth requirements?" the maseni asked.
"Yes, according to this UN text of mine."
Excitedly, Tesserax said, "Then we are ready for it — or nearly so! If it should come after us tonight—"
He was interrupted by a long, blood-curdling scream, a roaring, a thundering voice that shook the windows in their panes and made the mythical inn tremble violently on its mythical foundation.
"Already?" Tesserax asked.
Jessie said, "We had best move fast."
EmRec said, "Excuse me, gentlemen, but would you say that scream was merely one of rage — or was it touched by madness? I think maybe my audio receptors were jarred a bit, in transport, in addition to my scanners."
Chapter Twenty-Three
The home world's two large moons shone down on the detective, the woman, the hell hound, Tesserax, the service robot, EmRec, Hogar the Poisoner, and a couple of giant, loin-clothed maseni gods as the group gathered behind the inn, facing the dark snow forests on, the higher slopes of Piotimkin. The booming, inhuman voice came from that direction. Soon, the thing would appear.
"Anyone like a cookie?" Hogar asked. He passed a box of them around; the box came back to him, still full.
EmRec said, "Mr. Hogar, sir, is that some form of mad expectancy on your face, or do you suffer from indigestion?"
"Drop a bolt," Hogar snarled.
The stubby robot said, "I wouldn't have to ask if my sight circuits and interpretation nodes hadn't been badly jarred in transport."
"Strip your threads," Hogar said, meaner than before.
Now, from upslope, came the sound of the giant conifers splitting apart like tiny saplings to make way for the monster. Trees crashed down, colliding noisily with other trees. Frightened woodland animals called out and rushed forth into the open meadow that separated the inn from the trees.
"There!" Helena cried.
Something enormous reared out of the last of the pines. Trees fell before it, revealing it in the pale moonlight.
"Ugly bastard, isn't he?" Brutus asked.
A core of violent winds, churning like beater blades on a mixmaster, whipped the trees and tore up the meadow sod and hurled it skyward in fist-sized chunks. The animals that had run into the meadow now ran out again, screeching shrilly, bellowing in terror. At the center of the maelstrom lay the more concretized aspect of the beast: a thirty-foot lizard which looked much like its father but was twice as large as a Reptile Master and a thousand times meaner. It turned green eyes on them and ran a pebbled tongue over rows of sabrelike teeth, started lumbering in their direction. Each of its six feet left barrel-sized depressions in the earth.
"I can't interpret the monster's facial expressions at all," EmRec said. "And considering that its bellows really convey no meaning, I should really get something down here, I don't suppose one of you gentlemen is in the mood to assist?"
"Pop a rivet," Hogar snapped, still holding his big boxful of poisoned cookies.
"I didn't think you'd be in the mood," the metal dwarf said.
Helena had begun the voodoo chant, while Brutus began to read the maseni prayer that would help dissipate the father's heritage. Jessie held both the vial of blood and the narcotics dart pistol loaded with silver pins.
"Blood," Hogar said, sarcastically. "Everyone derides me. But I'll tell you one thing — poisoning is at least neat."
The gargantuan had crossed a third of the meadow and was picking up speed, bearing down on them with the determination of a wounded bear and the momentum of a freight train.
The maseni gods began to nonchalantly back away from the scene, their eyes wide in terror but not yet terrified enough to soil their godly reputations with a display of cowardice.
"Hurry with the chants!" Tesserax cried.
"That was raw fear," EmRec said, smugly. "That was the clearest expression of naked terror that I have ever seen, Mr. Galiotor."
Tesserax did not respond. Indeed, he had not even heard the dwarf, for his own loud screaming.
The earth shook with the dragon's approach. The force of the winds hit them and pasted their clothes tight against them; Tesserax's orange robes splashed out colorfully in his wake.
Jessie threw the blood into the wind as Helena finished her chant, then dropped to one knee and fired a dozen silver darts at the dragon's belly just as Brutus came to the final verse of the maseni prayer. The effect was quite dramatic. The charging beast jerked, staggered clumsily to the side, fell down and rolled past them, into the back of the inn. Mythical boards burst, and mythical windows shattered….
"It worked!" Tesserax cried.
"Elation," EmRec said. "Or is it surprise? It might even be relief of a sort…."
The dragon wailed and writhed, trying to regain its feet. But there was no use to its struggles. The winds around it had abated. Already it was becoming transparent, like a milk glass novelty in the pale moonlight.
A few minutes later, Tesserax said, "It's gone. We did it, Blake! Or, rather, you did it, my friend."
The animals, having fled to the far edges of the meadow, came slowly back toward the trees, now, sniffing the air where the beast had once walked.
"This calls for a celebration!" Hogar said. "Food, wine, candies and spices! All on the house, of course."
Pearlamon said, "I must admit, Mr. Blake, that many of us knew what the beast was. But we hoped to find a way to destroy it ourselves, without letting the secret out." He was munching on some peanuts which he had taken from a pouch in his loincloth, and his words were somewhat slurred. "But now that you and your brave companions—" He stopped, looked startled, dropped the peanuts and grabbed his throat. "Ach!" he said.
Hogar giggled.
"Ach, ach, ach," Pearlamon choked.
Jessie turned away from the god as he fell onto his back. To Brutus, the detective said, "You know, you were right when you said I had a latent fear of becoming a Shockie like my folks. I don't have that fear any more. If I can keep my perspective in the midst of this crazy gang, I know I can adjust to anything at all."
"I never was afraid of change or of danger or of crazy creatures," Helena said. "Excitement always makes me horny, that's all."
"Ah, hah!" EmRec said. "I recognized that expression. Boy oh boy! Your face was a mask of sheer lust." The metal dwarf looked at Jessie and said, "Oh, and yours too, yours too!" He paused. "Or maybe yours isn't lust Perhaps you're constipated? I have a faulty visual node here, and I can't tell for sure. Is it, maybe, a tick in your cheek? Or could it be… No. I think what it is, you have had a religious revelation, a miraculous… No, not that either. Your expression is more one of… Or is it? Well now…"