The witch gave one last shriek ' then fell silent, panting hoarsely as, between Gilbert, Gruesome, myself, and the huddled witch, the air seemed to thicken, growing darker and darker. Then, all of a sudden, it snapped into sharp, clear detail - and a crab three feet wide, with yard-long claws a foot thick, was scuttling straight toward me, its pincers aiming for my throat.
I yelled and jumped back, just as Gilbert shouted, "For Saint Moncaire and for right!" and leapt in, stabbing down. His sword skewered right through the whole crab, pinning it to the forest floor-and he had the sense to jump back. A high-pitched keening pierced my ears, and I fell away, hands pressed over them. Gilbert was staggering, too, fingers in his ears, while the crab scuttled, thrashing about-until it pulled the sword free from the earth and came straight at the squire.
With a bellow that shook the trees, Gruesome leapt. He landed on the monster with both feet; its shell gave with a sickening crunch. Pincers waved wildly, snaking back to snip at Gruesome's feet - but he reached down, catching the claws in huge hands, and straightened up, wrenching them loose. The monster screamed - I heard it even through my hands - then went limp.
The clearing was very quiet.
I looked around and saw Frisson, over at the base of a tree trunk, his lips moving silently.
I sat up, dazed, taking my hands away from my ears, but keeping them close, just in case.
The only sound I heard was the roar of triumph as Gruesome jumped up and down on the shell, then tore open the claw and thrust it toward his mouth ...
"Gruesome, no!" I shouted.
His fangs clashed together but held back, as if he'd just bitten down on a spare auto fender. Then he held off on the claw, looking down at me resentfully. "Hungry!"
"And you certainly deserve a ten-course banquet," I said quickly, stumbling over to him. "I'll conjure one up for you, as soon as we're done helping this poor old lady! But not that meat, Gruesome! Bad for you! Shellfish has parasites! Very bad! Especially since the pieces of this one might pull themselves together inside you and start trying to eat their way out!"
Gruesome stared at the claw as if he'd never seen it before.
"'Tis well spoken," Angelique said. "The monster weakened outside a host's body, and quickly - but would it not regain strength, once within? " Gruesome hurled the claw away with a howl of frustration - but even as he did, it was fading, fading ... and was gone. So was the huge plastron he was standing on, and all the little legs, and the other big claw. Gruesome stared down, dismayed; the lower edge of his huge lipless mouth quivered.
"Shellfish never did stay with me long," I sighed. "Always hungry again in an hour. Don't worry about it, big fella - we'll get you a whole steer, in just a few minutes."
"The witch," Gilbert said softly.
Something in his tone reminded me that without the lash of pain, our witch might not be feeling so remorseful. In fact, there was no guarantee that she wouldn't go back on her repentance.
She was sitting up, staring down at her midriff wide-eyed, pressing experimentally here and there. " 'Tis 'tis gone! I am well! No more hurt! "
"I'd still take it easy for a while, if I were you," I said. "Just because we've got it licked for the time being, doesn't mean it won't come back."
"Nay, it will not, for I saw it torn apart by your huge troll! Amazing, most amazing! Who would have thought there was a crab within? Who would have thought to have conjured it out to fight it with steel?"
"It faded away," I reminded her. "it could reappear inside you - or another one just like it."
"Even if it does not, I may find myself beset by another illness, right quickly." The old woman looked up with tears in her eyes.
"Alas! How comes it, good stranger, that you would help me, who have been so cruel to so many and torn the life from no few?"
"I can't resist a call for help," I said, with some self-disgust.
"I know that makes me a chump, but-"
"Then a 'chump' must be a most excellent thing! Oh, I will sing your praises wherever I go!"
"Mayhap," Gilbert put in, "it would become you more to sing God's praises."
"Aye, indeed!" The witch sank down on her knees, clasped hands upraised. "I repent me of all my sins! I would that I could atone for each and every wrong I have done! Dear Father, forgive me!" Nothing happened, no thunderclap ... but a look of peace swept over her face, and her eyes widened in surprise. "Why ... is it thus?" she whispered.
"The peace of God." Gilbert nodded. "Yet you must seek out a priest, poor woman, as quickly as you may, that your sins may be shriven. "
"Even so! That I shall!" The ex-witch pushed herself to her feet, gathering the rags of her robes about her. "And I must go quickly, for if the queen should discover my betrayal, I shall die quite quickly!"
"And in agony," Gilbert nodded. "Therefore tarry not."
The old woman shrugged. "The agony matters naught; I deserve far worse than ever she could wreak upon me, for all the wrongs I've done. Nay, almost would I welcome it now, that it might ease my burden of guilt. Yet I would not have it for eternity, and therefore will I go hotfoot." She whirled to me, hands upraised in gratitude. "Oh, stranger, I cannot thank you enough for your pity and aid! You have behaved as a true Christian, nay, as a saint would have! May you be blessed forever!"
"Glad I could help," I said, uncomfortably aware of everyone's eyes on me. "Now go your way and try to help others as I've helped you."
"I shall! Oh, I shall! And shall praise your name every night, in my prayers! Farewell!" She turned and hobbled into the woods, and was gone from sight.
"You have wrought well for God this day, Master Saul," Gilbert said softly.
I shrugged impatiently. "I did something good for a human being, out of entirely selfish motives."
"Selfish?" Gilbert frowned. "How so?"
"Because it made me feel good inside." I raised my voice. "Hear that, angel? I'm grateful for your help - but I had it coming, because what I wanted to do was also what you wanted done! I'm not on your side! But I'm not on their side either! Got that?" But I felt a strange, vagrant wave of amusement that almost seemed to blow through me like a breeze, and I had to turn away fast to escape Frisson's long and thoughtful gaze. "Come on, troops. We've still got a long day's hiking ahead of us." But we couldn't have been hiking down that trail for more than ten minutes before the roadway exploded in front of us.
The explosion kicked up a geyser of dust, and there stood the wicked queen herself, shrieking pure venom, her rolls of fat shaking with rage. "Vile invader! Your meddling has cost me five minutes' agony, hot irons searing all through my body! My master has punished me shrewdly for letting another soul escape damnation - and has commanded me to obliterate you and your friends! Yet first, I shall see you suffer as I have suffered!"
But it wasn't me she threw the first whammy at, it was Frisson, stiff-arming a gesture that twisted as it stabbed while she bellowed something I couldn't understand.
Frisson screamed and fell, writhing.
I shouted,
Frisson relaxed with a groan of relief.
"Meddler!" Suettay yelled. "Rogue! Villain!" Yes, I did detect a note of panic there, a note of fear.
Of me?
No, Of her master.
"Mendacious mendicant!" she screeched, then added some syllables in the Latinlike language, winding up to throw me down. I took a deep breath for a counterspell, hoping I'd think of one in thing pressed into my palm.