Vengeance of the Dancing Gods (33 page)

Shortly after dark, Marge joined them. She had no need for transformations and disguises, being well able to manufacture her own. In fact, she just wanted to test things Page 176 Chalker, Jack L - Vengeance of the Dancing Gods out a bit while it was easier to escape, and went into the general store on the pretext of buying a small can of orange juice. She used pretty much the same appearance she'd worn back in Texas, but without makeup and wearing plain-looking clothes. It was an easy, natural illusion to maintain, although she decided to forgo glasses as a follower of a faith healer.

"Peace be unto you, sister," said the young, clean-cutlooking man behind the counter who was dressed all in yellow.

"And to you, brother," she responded, having been 226 JACK L. CHALKER VENGEANCE OF THE DANCING GODS 227 briefed on the conventions they used. There weren't many; the Baron wanted loyalty and he really didn't want to work at a wholesale transformation of individual personalities —yet. She got the juice, gave him some coins, and, smiling, left the store. It was both easy—and disturbing.

There had been a small TV camera of the kind usual in store security on them at all times, and, since no one had challenged her, they were going to have a real problem if and when they reviewed that tape, for she'd neither show up on it visually or vocally. Of course, the store would also be eighty cents short for the day. Her money was as illusory as her appearance.

She would have to avoid close interaction with others where such cameras were likely to be, and alter her appearance and clothing each time. She walked down the street, smiling and nodding to those she met, and walked past the small church at one end of town. It was unusual for a town this small to have two churches, although they both were clearly closed, possibly from lack of interest.

The one church, an old Protestant one, was being fixed up, possibly to handle overflow, but this one was left vacant, although it did look cared for. The old, weathered sign out front read: ST. DIONYSIUS ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.

Curious, she walked up the path and saw someone tending to what appeared to be a small garden on the side of the tiny church building. He was humming a tune and seemed to be in fairly good spirits, although it was rather odd to be tending a garden after dark, all things considered.

He was dressed all in black; for a moment she wasn't certain he wasn't some kind of specter, a trap of the Baron's.

This was, after all, enemy territory in spades.

The man heard her, or sensed something, turned, looked over at her, and an expression of total amazement was Page 177 Chalker, Jack L - Vengeance of the Dancing Gods on his face. It was a kindly face, with rimless glasses, rosy cheeks, and blue eyes. He was perhaps fifty, graying, and looking far more weathered than his years. He was also, by his dress and collar, a priest, and by his manner and his odor, quite drunk.

"Faith! What sort of fairy vision is this?" he managed, using a not very authentic-sounding Irish brogue.

She was certain that her illusory powers were on and fully working, so she decided he was just being pleasant.

"You are a priest? Here?.

"Aye, that I am. And what, pray tell, might you be, all orange and with crimson wings?.

That settled it! The man could see through her disguise! For some reason, her illusory projection, which could fool whole cities, had no effect on this man. "You can see me with wings?.

"Aye, sure I can! Are ya some demon from the heathens yonder come to close me down at last?.

"I'm no demon. Father. They are my enemies as much as yours..

He stood up and waved the trowel. "Then let's have at the beggars!.

She tried to quiet him and finally managed it. "It won't work—that way. This evil is the kind you preach about, and that your liberal theologians claim doesn't even exist..

He sank back down and sat on the grass. "Used to preach about, you mean. Hasn't been anybody come to these services in months." He sighed, and tears welled up in his eyes. "It never was much of a congregation, understand—just twenty or thirty people—but adequate for an old man who couldn't get along in the big city churches after bein' an army chaplain for twenty-five years." He reached into his coat for a flask, opened it, took a good slug, then carefully recapped it and put it back. "Now there's none that come, even for baptism.

He took the whole of the Church of the Woods on the other side of town, too, including Bob Moody, the pastor..

"I'm surprised he didn't come directly for you. A Catholic priest on his side would have been something interesting..

"No. He wants no deaths, not even accidents, around 228 JACK L. CHALKER VENGEANCE OF THE DANCING GODS 229 Page 178 Chalker, Jack L - Vengeance of the Dancing Gods here. It might attract attention. He hoped that, without a church, my superiors would simply declare this and me a loss and send me away, but I've no place to go and no place to stay except here, and I have my army pension, so I'm officially retired anyway. He can't have me, for I know him for what he is and who he represents, and he wants me nowhere near his little compound." He hiccupped and then looked sheepish, but continued. "You see, his master knows I've performed exorcisms." He sighed, and took another slug from the flask. "I don't know why I stay, but that's just the way it's been. Too old or too stubborn, I guess..

She was certainly interested now, even though the man was becoming increasingly drunk. She doubted if he could stand up right now, yet, oddly, the more he drank the less accent he had and his conversation remained lucid.

Exorcisms! Few even in his own church, let alone others, still believed in it at all. If he had not only a belief in demons but knowledge of how to control or send them back, that was in itself magic of a very high art. It was too bad he was so pickled now that he was starting to lean to one side. Clearly it wouldn't be more than a few minutes before he passed out completely. She thought he was out cold now, but suddenly he perked up.

"It's my fate to be ground into the ground here and now," he wailed, stifling a sob. "Do you know what my name is? Francis Xavier O'Grady. I had it legally changed because I was in awe of Barry Fitzgerald." He raised the flask unsteadily. "Here's to old Barry, the greatest priest of all times!.

"Then you're not really Irish?.

"No, actually I was born Casimir Wyczalek. In those days, in Boston, you didn't have priests named Casimir Wyczalek, and nobody would confess to a priest whose name they could neither spell nor pronounce. So I had it legally changed—and they went and elected a Polish Pope!" He broke down in deep sobs.

"Uh—Father, about those exorcisms. Were they real?.

He stopped for a moment and nodded. "Indeed. Otherwise I would never have tried, in spite of all those Georgetown psychiatrists saying as how it was because their mothers talked mean to them when they were still in the womb. But devils can be controlled. Their power is limited, lass, to those who fear or worship them. With the right words and the right symbols and with God's power, they can be stopped." He tried to get up, but couldn't quite manage it. She went over and offered him a hand, although she was far shorter and much slighter than he.

He took it, but did not rise. "Such a strange hand," he said, marveling. "There is an unnatural warmth and power in you. I can feel it, but I do not feel the evil such power usually accompanies. Are you an angel, then?.

"I'm no angel, but I am of the fairy folk. The Baron is a man of great evil who came from our world to this Page 179 Chalker, Jack L - Vengeance of the Dancing Gods when he failed there. We—what is that little pin in your lapel?" It was a strange, abstract design of some gold or gold-plated material.

"Why, 'tis the fish, the ancient symbol of Christianity.

Surely you should know that..

She felt an eerie shock, the same sort of shock she felt when she'd discovered the injured Gimlet on the Midland rooftop.

While the demons are stopped by a pickled fish....

"I must go now," she told him. "Will you be all right?.

"Aye, I'll be fine, don't worry. As fine as you can be when you're alone in the seat of Hell on Earth..

"You are not alone. Father," she told him. "In fact, some time tomorrow you can expect a visit from other friends..

The True Path leaders didn't want the identifying marks too attractive or too distinctive; the believers should seem just average-looking people going up to the services. Ordinary nonbelievers who tried to walk in were caught by 230 VENGEANCE OF THE DANCING GODS the spell; that had been what had frustrated the detectives.

Still, none of the believers had spells themselves, or at least not spells of any similarity not otherwise accounted for, so the way through the spell had to be physical. If so, Joe and Tiana, as weres, were home free. Marge would not go in as a parishioner, but would instead join the throng after flying over the barrier.

The true faithful donned yellow robes before going in, which was handy, since a were transformation didn't include clothing and might have been embarrassing. There was no way to time the change accurately, and no sure way that Joe and Marge would keep together without merely changing into each other, which wouldn't have been much help, so they just donned the robes Poquah had procured and then joined the throng near sunset.

Although they had a password system, neither expected to be with or know the other until it was all over; inside, they would be strictly on their own.

Joe tried to angle himself so he stood along the side of the path near where a couple of men roughly his size were talking, but he knew the folly of trying to get what he wanted at random on a curse like this from bitter experience.

The men, it turned out, were waiting for their wives, and Joe found himself, not for the first time, turned into a woman by virtue of perhaps three seconds and five inches. He didn't mind that so much—he'd had it happen Page 180 Chalker, Jack L - Vengeance of the Dancing Gods often enough he almost expected it—but the woman had been a good five inches shorter than he, and now the robe, which had been deliberately tailored a bit short on him, was baggy and dragged on the ground. She was also fat and not at all in good physical shape, which made the long trek into the compound and up to the mansion a real effort. He had no trouble in distancing himself from the real person whose body he now perfectly imitated.

It grew damp and chilly in these parts at night, too, and most people had on their clothes and shoes under their robes. Because of the problems involved, he found JACK L. CHALKER 231 himself barefoot and wearing only the robe, and that only increased his misery.

Still, he made it, and found himself in a sea of yellow.

The grounds in front of the house had been fully lighted by the perimeter lamps, and the big front porch was also all bright. Before the front door was a lectern, and on either side of the porch and on slim poles in the back were loudspeakers. It was clearly the only way these people could be accommodated.

Whatever the physical mark was that got you in, it was on the body, for he'd had no problems. Now he just took a position about halfway back and waited for it all to begin. For such a large throng, there was little or no talking and much meditation. He liked it that way, boring as it was. He didn't want to have to get friendly with anyone and make any slips here.

Finally the front door opened and a darkly handsome man in a yellow suit walked out, flanked by four beautiful yellow-robed women: his Ministering Angels. Even here he wasn't taking any chances.

Dacaro appeared very sleek and very Earth modern, but otherwise he hadn't changed a bit. He looked out at the crowd and seemed to smile cockily at the power represented there. Then, after a moment, he began to speak.

"Peace be unto you, my brothers and sisters following the True Path." His voice was the same silky, mellow voice it had been so long before, but his English was flawless and about as devoid of accent as any could get.

He might have been from Kansas or Nebraska.

"And to you and all the Lord's works," responded the crowd reverently.

"Brothers and sisters, we meet here tonight at a crucial turning point in our divine mission," he continued. "You are the leaders who will not only see the great revolution we will make, but will lead it and guide it in our Lord's name." His voice began rising now, and he took on a really good preacher's tone.

"You have seen the hand of the Lord in how far we've 232 Page 181 Chalker, Jack L - Vengeance of the Dancing Gods VENGEANCE OF THE DANCING GODS come in so short a time. Less than three years ago we were unheard of. Then the Master came, with the power of the Lord in his hands and mind, and walked among many of you and healed you of what science could not.

He cured your cancers, made sick hearts healthy, and even regrew and restored limbs that had been severed from you, or made useless. This was his sign to you, and those of you who understood came to him to serve! Together, we have built this place. Together, we are building the capital of a new tomorrow for ourselves and our children and our children's children!.

There were many spontaneous "Amens" and other such comments from the crowd.

"Together, we will reform this wicked land, where the rich live off the sweat of the poor and consider unemployment of nine percent to be just fine and ten percent below the poverty level to be acceptable. Where none can walk down the streets of a major city at night without fear, and probably not without being mugged or raped or shot. Our courts are courts of law but seldom of justice.