Bink had never before witnessed such a feat of brute strength. Rather than comment, he fished out the fly, dipped a finger into his cooling pudding, brought out a creamy glob and put it gingerly to his mouth. It was delicious. "This is the best food I ever ate!" he exclaimed, amazed.
"You say that, Bink. You think it stink," Crunch growled, flattered.
Crombie squawked as he sampled his bowl. "You may stink; this is great," the golem translated.
Crunch, highly pleased by the double compliment, served himself a glob by dumping a bubbling fistful directly into his gaping maw. He licked off his fingers, then took another glob. As the others finished their helpings, the ogre served them more with the same hand. No one saw fit to protest; after all, what magic germs could survive that heat?
After the repast, they settled on the straw for the evening. The others seemed satisfied to sleep, but Bink was bothered by something. In a moment he identified it: "Crunch, among our kind we offer some return service for hospitality. What can we do for you to repay this fine meal and lodging?"
"Say, that's right," Chester agreed. "You need some wood chopped or something?"
"That no good. Have plenty wood," the ogre grunted. He smashed one fist down on a log, and it splintered into quivering fragments. He obviously needed no help there.
Crombie squawked. "Birdbeak says he can point out where anything is. What do you want, stoneface?"
"Want sleep, you creep," Crunch mumbled.
"Not until we do you some service," Bink insisted.
"Take heed, no need!" Crunch closed one fist on a handful of straw, squeezed, and when he let go the straw had fused into one spindly stick. The ogre used this to pick at his gross teeth.
Chester argued caution for once. "We can't force a service on him he doesn't want."
"Maybe he doesn't know he wants it," Bink said. "We must honor the code."
"You sure are a stubborn lout," Grundy said, for once speaking for himself. "Why stir up trouble?"
"It's a matter of principle," Bink said uncertainly. "Crombie, can you point out where the thing Crunch desires is?"
The griffin squawked affirmatively, spun about, stirred up the straw, and pointed. At the Good Magician Humfrey, nodding in the corner, one piece of straw straddling his head.
"Forget it," Humfrey snapped sleepily. "I am not available for consumption."
"But he's a vegetarian!" Bink reminded him. "It can't be that he wants to eat you. Maybe he wants to ask you a Question."
"Not for one measly night's lodging! He'd have to serve me for a year."
"Me have no question, no suggestion," the ogre grunted.
"It does seem we're forcing something unwanted on our host," Chester said, surprisingly diplomatic. That log-twisting and straw-squeezing and wood-splintering had evidently impressed the centaur profoundly. The ogre was clearly the strongest creature this party had encountered.
"There is something Crunch wants, even if he doesn't know it himself," Bink said. "It is our duty to locate it for him." No one argued, though he was sure they all wished he would drop the subject. "Crombie, maybe it isn't the Magician he wants, but something on the Magician. Exactly where did you point?"
Crombie squawked with tired resignation. He pointed again. Bink lined up his own finger, tracing the point. "There!" he said. "Something in his crotch." Then he paused, abashed. "Uh, his jacket, maybe."
But the Magician, tired, had fallen asleep. His only answer was a snore.
"Oh, come on!" Grundy said. "I'll check it out." And he scrambled up on the Magician, climbing inside his jacket.
"I don't think-" Bink began, startled by this audacity.
"That's your problem," the golem said from inside the jacket. "It must be-this." He emerged, clasping a vial in both arms. For him it was a heavy weight.
"That's the demon-bottle!" Chester said. "Don't fool with-"
But Grundy was already prying out the cork.
Bink dived for him, but as usual was too late. The cork was not ornery this time; it popped off cleanly as Bink grabbed the bottle.
"Now you've done it!" Chester exclaimed. "If Humfrey wakes-"
Bink was left holding the bottle as the demon coalesced, unbound by any magic inscription or incantation. "Some-some-somebody make a-a-" Bink stammered.
Beauregard firmed, standing with a huge tome tucked under one arm. He peered at Bink beneath his spectacles. "A pentacle?" the demon finished. "I think not."
"What have I done?" Bink moaned.
Beauregard waved negligently with his free hand. "You have done nothing, Bink. It was the foolish golem."
"But I set him in motion!"
"Perhaps. But do not be concerned. Rather consider yourself as the instrument of fate. Know that neither the bottle nor the pentacle constrained me; I but honored these conventions to please the Magician, to whom I owed professional courtesy. The agreement was that I should serve in this capacity of reserve-informant until circumstances should free me, by the ordinary rules of demon control. That chance has now occurred, as it was fated. A genuinely bound demon would have escaped, so I am free to go. I thank you for that accident, and now I depart." He began to fade.
"Wait!" Bink cried. "At least answer this nice ogre's Question!"
Beauregard firmed again. "He has no Question. He only wants to sleep. Ogres need plenty of rest, or they lose their meanness."
"But Crombie's talent indicated-"
"Oh, that. Technically there is something, but it is not a conscious desire."
"It will do," Bink said. He had not realized that ogres could have unconscious desires. "Tell us what it is, before you go."
"He wants to know whether he should take a wife," the demon said.
The ogre growled. "What kind of life, if me have wife?" the golem said.
"Now that's interesting," Beauregard said. "A golem, serving fee for an Answer he can not comprehend."
"Who could make sense of a one-word Answer?" Grundy demanded.
"Only a real creature," Beauregard replied. "That's the point-he's not real," Bink said. "He wants to know how to become real."
Beauregard turned to the centaur. "And you want to know your talent. I could tell you, of course, but you would then be in fee to me, and neither of us would want that."
"Why don't you just answer the ogre's question and go?" Bink asked, not quite trusting this too-knowledgeable freed demon.
"I can not do that directly, Bink. I am a demon; he would not accept my answer, rational though it would be. He is of an irrational species, like yourself; you must answer him."
"Me! I-" Bink broke off, not wanting to comment on his present problem with Chameleon.
"I spoke in the plural," Beauregard said, a bit condescendingly. "You and Chester and Crombie should discuss your relations with your respective females, and the consensus will provide the ogre with the perspective he needs." He considered. "In fact, in that context, my own comment might become relevant" And he settled down on the straw with them.
There was a silence. "Uh, how did you-that is, there is a lady ogre-uh, ogress in mind?" Bink asked Crunch.