«Get her back onto the altar!» the vicar ordered. Morris and MacCab immediately departed their positions and moved toward the supine girl. Larry's sides were still heaving heavily, and his eyes were closed. There was a lot more blood, on his head, neck, shoulder, now.
«Stop!» the Count said. «Players are forbidden to move a sacrifice once the ceremony is in progress!»
The vicar stared at him. Morris and MacCab halted, looked back and forth from the vicar to the Count.
«I never heard of such a restriction,» the vicar said.
«It is a part of the tradition,» Jack stated. «There must always be a small, even if only symbolic, exit open to a sacrifice in this. They may go as far as they can. They may be stopped. The place where they fall becomes the new altar. Do otherwise and you destroy the pattern we have created. The results could be disastrous.»
The vicar pondered for a moment, then said, «I don't believe you. You're outnumbered. It's a closer's bluff, to make things more awkward for me. Morris! MacCab! Put her back!»
The Count stepped forward as they advanced.
«In a case such as this,» he said, «the opposing parties are permitted to resist the desecration.»
I heard heavy, clumping footsteps in the distance, but they seemed to be passing the hill rather than approaching it.
Morris and MacCab had hesitated but then they moved forward, reaching for Lynette.
The Count flowed forward. No single limb seemed to stir, but suddenly he was there beside them. Then he raised his arms, out to the sides, his cloak dependent therefrom; and he moved them forward, completely engulfing the men within its folds. He stood thus for only an instant, arms across his chest, before a succession of snapping sounds could be heard.
He opened his arms and they fell to the earth, to lie at odd angles, blood emerging from their ears, noses, and mouths. Their eyes were wide. They did not breathe.
«You dare?» the vicar cried. «You dare to touch my people?»
The Count turned his head slowly, raising his arms again.
«You presume,» he said, «to address me so.»
He flowed toward the vicar, but much more slowly. The music came clearer and clearer, the chanting louder, the inscription brighter. And as he moved, I beheld a silent form in the shadows to my right, whose presence had first reached me in the form of his scent, which I recognized from an encounter in a wood by moonlight. He approached soundlessly, the stranger wolf.
The vicar's hand snaked out from beneath his cloak, casting something toward the Count. Immediately, the flowing ceased and the Count stiffened. In the meantime, shielded from the vicar's view by the Count's body, the stranger wolf entered the firelight, took hold of Lynette's shoulder and continued what Larry had begun, dragging her back into the darkness.
The Count was suddenly less than graceful. He swayed. He took an awkward step toward the vicar, whose hand dipped beneath his own cloak to emerge and repeat whatever he had done.
«What, is it?» the Count asked, reeling toward the vicar, who retreated before him.
Then the Count fell.
«Dirt from one of your own caskets,» the vicar replied, «mixed with pieces of my church's altar stone relic, left over from more papish times. Fingerbone of St. Hilarian, according to the records. You require your consecrated soil, but overconsecration is like the difference between a therapeutic and a debilitating dose of strychnine. Do you not agree?»
The Count muttered a reply in a foreign language, as the wolf disappeared with Lynette; and I realized that, from all his talks with Larry, plus his knowledge of drugs, and the samples he had obtained, he had succeeded several days ago in developing his own ideal dosage, and I had just witnessed the Great Detective's greatest disguise yet. I howled a «Well done!» into the night. Later, a «Good luck!» came back to me.
The inscription glowed brilliantly now. Whether the deaths of Morris and MacCab had contributed to this was hard to tell. The vicar looked up and saw that Lynette was gone. He glared at Jill.
«You should have told me,» he said.
«I didn't notice till now,» she replied.
«Neither did I,» said Nightwind.
The vicar picked up the sacrificial knife which he had dropped, moved back to his position, and drove the blade into the ground at his feet.
He straightened then, repeated the word of power, and said another. Immediately, his face became the snouted, tusked visage of a boar with a shredded ear. This lasted for perhaps a minute before Larry's eyes opened. He turned his head, saw that Lynette was gone, looked immediately to the altar, saw she was not there either. He tried to rise, failed. I wondered how serious his condition was. True, there was a lot of blood, but head wounds are often that way. Even a silver bullet still has to hit something major. Larry tried to crawl forward, succeeded in moving perhaps half a foot, paused, and panted.
The vicar spoke another word. Graymalk was suddenly striped like a small tiger. This, too, passed quickly. Tekela was starting to look like a vulture. Suddenly, Jill was an ancient hag, bent far forward, hooked nose almost touching her jutting chin, strands of white hair hanging about her face. I glanced at Jack and saw that he suddenly wore the shaggy head of a great brown bear, yellow eyes staring forward, saliva running from the corners of his mouth. Looking downward, I saw that my fur was blood-red and moist; and I felt as if horns jutted from my brow. I had no idea what I might resemble, but Graymalk drew back in alarm. The boar spoke again, and the word rang like a bell in the chill air. The Count was suddenly a skeleton wrapped in black. Something unseen passed high overhead, laughing like a demented child. Pale mushrooms sprang up all about us, and a shifting of breezes brought me sulfurous scents from the fire. A green liquid flowed outward from that blaze, spreading in bubbling streams. The chanting now seemed to contain all of our names. MacCab had become a woman whose painted face began to peel off in long strips. Beside him, Morris was now an ape, his long hairy arms reaching to the ground, and he leaned to rest upon his knuckles. His mouth was opened wide, showing an enormous expanse of teeth and gums. Larry was now a bleeding man sprawled upon the ground. The air before us shimmered and became a mirror, giving this entire prospect back to us. Then our reflected heads detached themselves and drifted leftwards. It was a strange feeling, passing out of one and into another, for I seemed unmoved, though I felt the sudden weight of the bear-head, saw the hog's drift by to settle upon Jack's shoulders. Graymalk suddenly wore an overlarge one, horned, demonic; Jill, a small striped cat's head, and so on along our crescent. Then the bodies shifted to the right, and I was a cat with a bear's head, lying flat because of its weight, my heart thudding like a steam engine. Jack had become a boar-headed demon. Again, the laughter rang from overhead. If I were not my body or my head, what was I, sprawled there amid the mushrooms and the stench, another wave of chanting rolling in my ears? Illusion, it must all be illusion, mustn't it? I never knew before and I still didn't know. The mushrooms blackened, shriveled, and fell when the hot green flow reached them. Our images in the mirror wavered, became splashes of our dominant colors, flowed together. I looked downward again, but everything was hazy. Upward then, at some half-noted change. The moon had gone blood-red and was dripping upon us. A shooting star cut past it. Another. Another. Soon multitudes of them rained down the heavens. The mirror cracked, and Jack and I stood alone at our end, our forms returned to us, as a great gust of wind out of the north blew away the haze. The others came clear, also, restored, in their piece of reflection. The starfall lessened. The moon grew pink, then turned back to butter and ivory. I sighed and held my place, felt Graymalk's gaze pass over me. The green tendrils from the fire began to congeal, lavalike. For a moment, I seemed to hear a collection of animal sounds from within the flames, baas, nickers, whinnies, whimpers, a sharp barking, several varieties of howling, the coughing of a giant cat, a croaking, a mewling cry. There followed a stillness, save for the fire's own cracking and snapping.
I felt a familiar tingling in the
air. The time had come for the opening. I glanced at Jack and could tell that he felt it, too.
Larry dragged himself another foot forward.
I was looking at the vicar as he spoke the final word. I saw the Count's left hand twitch. But apparently the vicar did, too, and he stooped and raised the pentacle. Something dark fled forth from the Count's ring, but the vicar caught it in the pentacle bowl and it was reflected off into the night. It was probably too late for killing the man, anyway, for the opening was definitely beginning. The vicar stooped again, raised the icon, and placed it upon the Count's chest. The ring did not flare again. All in all, as I regarded both Larry and the Count, I was forced to a sort of grudging respect for the fellow. He was much better at his business than I'd have guessed.
«Jill,» he called out, «use the wand now.»
Jill reached inside her cloak, produced the wand, raised it. Oddly, the growing brightness of the stone halted for a moment. Jack had his wand out in an instant, raising it and training it upon the same target. I heard the heavy footsteps again, this time approaching us. The rectangle began to brighten once more, and a great depth occurred within it, swimming with colored lights. The cries from the banefire grew louder and louder: «Ia! Shub-Niggurath! Hail to the Black Goat!» The music also increased in intensity, and the moon blazed like a beacon overhead. Larry began dragging himself farther along. The experiment man came into view off to the right, heading toward us. I glanced at Jack. Beads of perspiration had formed upon his brow. I could tell that he was pouring his will and spirit into the wand, but the opening continued.
The experiment man lumbered up to us.
«Pret-ty kit-ty,» he said, pausing in front of Jack, which might have killed anyone else, but he already smelled of death and seemed aware of nothing untoward.
Suddenly, the opening was arrested, the Gateway lost some of its depth. The experiment man stooped and quickly snatched up Graymalk.
«Pret-ty kit-ty,» he repeated. Then he turned and walked away in the direction whence he had come.
«Put me down!» she cried. «I can't leave now!»
He sat down just beyond the firelight and commenced petting her.
Larry continued his crawl, steady now. Depth returned to the Gateway. I thought I saw a tentacle stir within it. Then something large and amorphous seemed to be drifting our way.
«This isn't working well,» I heard a small voice say.
I sought its source.
Bubo's head had emerged from the left side pocket of Jack's coat.
«Bubo, what are you doing here?» I asked.
«I had to see it,» he said, «to learn whether what I'd done was right. I'm not too sure now.»
Yes, it was a tentacle, extended from the dark, approaching mass, reaching for the Gateway… .
«What do you mean?» I asked.
«I'm a pack rat,» he said. «I thought you were outnumbered and outgunned, and I wanted your side to win. So I did the only thing I know how…»
«What?» I asked, already beginning to guess.
The dark mass was much nearer, and I smelled a deep reptilian musk. The experiment man had put down Graymalk and risen. He was approaching us again. Larry had moved much farther to my left. A tentacle emerged from the Gateway, groped about, located Morris's right foot, wrapped about it, dragged him back inside. A moment later, it returned for MacCab. Slurping sounds followed.
«I fixed it so they'd defeat themselves after they'd disposed of you,» Bubo said.
«How?»
There were great masses of tentacles now, all of them writhing toward the Gateway.
«I sneaked about last night,» Bubo said, «and I switched the wands.»
I seemed to hear the odd sounds of a cat's laughter. It's so hard to tell when they're smiling. The old cat hadn't been telling me to fetch a stick… .
Carpe baculum: Seize the wand.
I sprang into the air, catching it in my teeth, twisting it out of Jack's grip. I could see the astonished expression on his face as I did so.
A terrible wind began to blow past us. I heard the vicar cry «No!» Tekela sprang up from his shoulders, wings beating.
Turning my head, I saw that the Gateway was closing.
There followed a roar Growler would have been proud of as Larry leaped at the vicar. They rolled upon the ground, passing right over the Count, knocking the icon from his breast. Then the mighty wind caught them and they were carried toward the closing Gateway and on through it. Jill looked puzzled as she continued to wield the closing wand, hair and cloak streaming forward. Jack had braced himself. Then his arm moved, hand dipping into the satchel and out, emerging quickly, casting the wine bottle of slitherers into the Gateway, to gunk it up. He grinned at me. «Any port in a storm,» he observed. I felt the wind pushing me forward. Nightwind was trying to get behind a rock.
Then the experiment man came up and halted before us and the pressure was suddenly eased.
«The, Count?» he asked. Had Graymalk sent him after our ally?
«The man on the ground!» I replied. «Take him away!»
He continued past us, swaying but holding his own against the wind. He stooped and caught hold of the supine figure, raised it in his arms. I glanced at the Gateway. It had already grown somewhat darker. The fire, scattered, flamed at a dozen small points, glowed from as many more. A few of these faded and winked out as I watched.
Jill stared at the wand that she held, and I could read the realization coming into her expression.
I heard Graymalk's voice from the shadows:
«Come on!» she called. «Let's get the hell out of here!»
Bubo had already ducked back out of sight into Jack's pocket as we moved to take her advice.
A single note, as of a crushed crystal goblet, filled the air. The stone was blank again. Abruptly, the wind ceased. The voices had already died away.
We made our way northward toward the slope. Overhead, the moon seemed enormous.
«Let's go!» Graymalk urged, as we came up beside her. And she was right. The hilltop would remain dangerous till dawn.
I turned and looked back in time to see the experiment man start down the southern slope, carrying the Count.
«Hi, cat,» I said. «I'll buy you that drink yet.»
«Hi, dog,» she said. «I think I'll let you.»
Jack and Jill went down the hill. Gray and I ran after.
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A Night in the Lonesome October Page 18
