The River of Dancing Gods (29 page)

She pointed her finger at the ground from a standing position and traced a pattern. Once the pattern, in light blue, was established, her index finger became a stylus, allowing her to carve shallow designs in the rock itself.

The world is pure mathematics. Know the proportions and the relationships of any given thing and you have the potential of doing anything with it. That was the key, Dacaro had said.

And when you can look at a tree. a rock, a bush, or a person and see the pattern in their auras, then you will take the final step to sorcery.

She concentrated on a nearby bush. Pattern... pattern . . .find the pattern...

And, to her surprise, she saw it. Thin, impossibly complex spiderwebs of white plasma. She turned to the fire, which was getting dangerously low. There was still a lot of combustible material there, but it had not caught for some reason. She Page 148 Chalker, Jack L - The River of the Dancing Gods concentrated on the fire and the unbumed wood and saw, after a while, the magenta pattern of the fire and the white of the wood. Tie one to the other, she thought, and maybe ...

She found an end on the magenta strand and another on the white and willed them to move, move toward each other, touching, combining...

JACK L. CHALK.ER 171 The fire suddenly roared up, looking like a Roman candle, and she laughed aloud in delight. Suddenly conscious that she might wake someone, she stopped and willed the fire back to normal levels. It went obediently, as she knew it would. She had the pattern. Still, she could make it dance, rise up and down, gyrate—until the wood was completely burned, anyway.

She turned to the water and saw its golden weave. In a sense, it was simpler than the fire pattern, which was in turn simpler than that for the wood or the bush. So simple to ripple it, or cause a small eddy...

Suddenly she tensed, sensing something else where she looked. There was certainly something other than water there, something alive. It was not close, but it was down there, somewhere.

She could feel it, knew it with absolute certainty.

She stood at the edge of the pool and made a decision. It was a huge job to work the room preservation spell over the mouth of the underground water hole, and took her quite some time, but she made it doubly strong and extra tight, blue bands forming a virtual net over the opening.

Whatever was down there might be able to break it, but at least the thing would have a hard time, if indeed it was a threat at all. But she somehow knew it was a threat, something ancient and repulsive that fed on those who used the water hole. Not us, she decided determinedly. Not without a fight.

She went back over to a rock near her bedroll and sat, feeling suddenly tired and a bit drained. Parts of her face hurt—too much sun, she decided, now taking its toll. She looked over and saw that the candle had burned out. How long she had been watching she didn't know, but she was certainly ready for sleep now. As gently as possible, she shook Joe awake.

He yawned and groaned. "Anything?.

She shook her head. "But there's something living at the bottom of that pond. Something nasty," she told him. "I put a protection spell over the whole thing. Whether it will try and come out I don't know. If it does, I don't know either whether or not the spell will hold it, but keep an eye on it..

"I will," he assured her. "You get some sleep..

She needed no urging.

172 Page 149 Chalker, Jack L - The River of the Dancing Gods THE RIVER OF DANCING GODS JACK L. CHALKER 173 It was still dark on Houma's watch when there was a sudden roar from the pond that awakened them all and startled the horses as well. A roar and a lot of splashing. They were quickly on their feet, adrenaline racing, and Joe pulled a burning ember from the fire to use as a torch, grabbing his sword in the other hand.

They approached the fuming water cautiously, not knowing that to expect. What they saw in the water was a sort of face— a huge, incredibly old, demonic face, full of hatred. It exuded a sense of terror none of them had ever known before, but the hatred was only partly directed at them. It was straining, struggling against the surface of the pond, and Marge understood that, at least for the moment, the spell was holding.

She felt a nuzzle at her back and almost jumped a foot, but then realized it was Dacaro. She understood what he meant immediately and quickly jumped upon his back.

"Dacaro! What is it?.

"I have no idea," he replied, "but it's sure a good idea you put that spell there. It's not going to hold, though. You can see it unraveling around the edges. This thing isn't very bright, but it has a hell of a lot of sheer power. Ask Joe if he can stick his sword into the water and hit the face. Let's see if iron does anything..

"Joe! Can you stab it without losing your sword or falling in?" she called.

"We'll see!" he shouted back, revolted by that hideous face, yet unable to tear his eyes from it. The sword hummed and glowed in his hand. He poised, waiting for the face, which filled most of the pool, to get a part of itself in a no-miss spot against the edge, then plunged the blade into the water and quickly withdrew it.

The face roared its pain and hatred, but only redoubled its efforts to break its bonds.

"Well, scratch that," Dacaro told her. "I really doubted it was that easy, anyway. This is going to test us both, woman..

He thought furiously for a moment. "Okay, we'll try something, but it's damned complicated. I'll feed it to you slowly, and you do it as I tell you. Got it?.

"I'm ready." She looked at the men near the pool. "Hey! Everyone get back! We're going to try some sorcery on it! Keep your weapons ready, though! Be prepared to strike, but not until I tell you!.

Page 150 Chalker, Jack L - The River of the Dancing Gods Slowly, cautiously, the four men backed off, giving both Marge and Dacaro a clear field.

"Here goes," Dacaro said and began feeding the spell to her. It was enormously complex, far beyond her ability to understand or comprehend, at least at her level. She had begun mastering arithmetic, she realized, upon seeing this thing; now Dacaro was feeding her incomprehensible calculus. She had no choice but to follow through.

The energy field that formed like a wall in front of them was of all the primary colors and perhaps a hundred shades.

She had never seen anything like it, nor did she have any chance to appreciate it, but she could feel its awesome power.

"Joe!" she called, relaying Dacaro's orders. "We're going to let that thing come out! When it does, it will run headlong into the damnedest spell you ever saw, like a net that will close on it. When you hear me yell again, get in on the side and hack that whole damned head off behind the face! Understand?" "Got ya!" Joe called back, too charged up to feel afraid right now.

Quickly, Marge, using a Dacaro shortcut, removed the blue bands from the pool. "What if this doesn't work?" she asked worriedly.

"Then we run like hell," the-equine adept replied.

Freed of the protection spell, the face roared up and out of the water and onto the rock.

"I'll be damned! It's some kind of worm!" Grogha shouted.

"Yuk! Look at that slime!.

The demon worm was six feet out of the pool when it hit the new and more powerful shield. It reacted to the great net of force much as it had done to the blue—pushing into it with a terrible rage.

"Good... good..." Dacaro said, mostly to himself. "It really can't see the spells, as I figured. It's just so big and strong it's used to pushing its way through anything..

Marge watched as the thing plunged directly into the net of force, which gave a bit in the middle, enveloping the evil face.

"It's giving way!" she called nervously.

"No!" Dacaro shot back. "It's designed to do that. Tell Joe to be ready..

174 Page 151 Chalker, Jack L - The River of the Dancing Gods THE RIVER OF DANCING GODS She did, and Joe brought his sword up. Grogha and Houma also brought their bronze swords up, ready to tear into the demon worm from the other side.

The face was now completely enclosed in a bulge in the magical netting, and Dacaro gave the word. "Now!" Marge shouted.

Coming in behind both net and face, all three started swinging and hacking at the wormlike flesh in back. The face howled in rage, but seemed unable to understand what was happening to it, or where. Pieces of giant worm flew as they hacked away and finally severed it. The severing was so sudden that both Joe and Grogha almost fell into the mess and barely backed away.

The remainder of the body flailed around for a moment, then slid with astonishing speed back into the pool. The head, apparently suspended in air to the human onlookers, continued to snarl and snap for a while.

"We've won," Dacaro told her. "Now do this." He fed her a small set of instructions, and she translated them into a huge mental shove at the face in the net. It flew back, rolled, flopped a bit, then rolled again into the pool, where it sank rapidly.

Again following Dacaro's instructions. Marge pushed back the net, at one point having to shout Houma out of the way, then laid it, like a tabletop, across the width of the pool. Only after attaching it to the pattern of the bedrock did she relax and realize that she was sweating like mad. She felt suddenly very, very tired indeed. Before she knew it, she fell off the horse.

CHAPTER 12 ALL THE CIVILIZED COMFORTS Virgins are uniquely useful/or certain magicks, yet they have drawbacks beyond the obvious.

—CX, Introduction WHEN MARGE AWOKE, SHE POUND HERSELF ON A MAKESHIFT litter being pulled by Dacaro. They were on the move again, that was for sure. A worried Joe rode an equally worried Posti behind the litter. When her eyes opened, he gave a shout that brought the party to a halt.

Joe jumped down and went to her. "How do you feel?.

"Lousy, but I'll live," she replied. She looked around. "What hit me? Where are we?.

"You just keeled over," he said. "Luckily for you, one of the bedrolls was underneath. I don't think anything's broken..

"I feel good enough to ride," she told him, not sure if that was really the truth. "Untie me from this thing..

With Macore's help, Joe did as instructed and lifted her to Page 152 Chalker, Jack L - The River of the Dancing Gods her feet.

"Woosh! A little dizzy, and I have a couple of bruises in places I never had 'em before, but I think I'm okay." She looked around again. The tall mountains loomed ahead, not more than ten miles away. "So where's the pool?.

"Way, way back there," Joe told her. "We talked it over and figured it was better to move with you this way than to risk another night with our slimy friend back there..

She nodded. "I agree with that. But—didn't you kill it?.

He shook his head negatively. "I doubt it, and so does Dacaro. What brains the thing had weren't in its head at all.

It will probably nurse its wounds down there, regenerate a new face, and be ready for the next suckers..

She thought of that hideous face and shivered. "You know, up to now, I've believed in good and bad and in between, but that thing was true evil. Could you feel it?.

They all nodded. "Something from the dawn of the world,.

175 176 THE RIVER OF DANCING GODS JACK L. CHALKER 177 Macore said. "Some terrible force in that form. Maybe it once thought, but now it's nothing but pure hatred and rage..

"And appetite," Grogha added.

"That, too," Macore agreed. "You want to try riding now?.

She nodded. "I'll manage. But help me up on Dacaro. He may have some spell that can relieve me..

They helped her up, then disassembled the litter and'packed it on the long-suffering mule.

"Glad to find you back among the living," Dacaro told her.

"So am I," she responded honestly. "I don't know what came over me..

"That spell. It was far too complex and draining for a novice —but it was necessary. It took all your reserve. Hurt much?.

"A lot of bruises. I feel as if I had been run over by a truck..

"Didn't you say you had a witch's kit? Isn't there something you could brew up for yourself?.

Page 153 Chalker, Jack L - The River of the Dancing Gods She felt foolish. "Sure there is. Damn. I almost completely forgot. Uh—if we have any water..

"The water from the pool was all right—in the morning,.

he told her. "The canteen's full..

"How long was I out?.

He thought a moment. "Hard to say. Several hours. It's past midday. But better whip up your witchery before we push on again..

She called out to the others, and they obliged, watching as she mixed certain herbs together from her kit, then brewed them into a tea and drank it all, even eating the mixture.

"Taste good?" Grogha wanted to know.

"Terrible," she told him. "But I can already feel it starting to work." She folded up her kit and put it on her belt. "Let's get moving..

Back on the trail, Dacaro explained to her his correct guess about the nature of the evil worm. "It was all rage and hate,.

he said. "When I saw how it simply tried to bully its way through your spell, I knew it was pure emotion. Its sensory apparatus was all in its head, while its brain was protected back in the tail someplace. But it seemed to have no way of telling anything without the information that head provided—and it just pushed on straight ahead. I gambled it wouldn't even know where it was being chopped—and I won. Once the head was severed, it was blind, deaf, and dumb..