“Fools. If you can’t keep me level and stop this bouncing I will have
you all thrashed. You’re doing it on purpose, I can tell. You, stop grinning,
you idiot, and what are you all waiting for. Let’s go. Let’s go.”
“You’re making a mistake,” said Garm, as the Guards
bundled him and Noot along at a brisk pace. They had been captured wandering outside
the south gate, bruised and confused.
“I don’t think so. You just shut up. I have enough problems with these
morons. And by the way, what happened to all the ‘thee’s’ and ‘thou’s’? Lost
your manners have you, you irritating little preek?”
“You can’t win you know. You’re on the wrong side.”
“I’m on the winning side, so I don’t care if it’s the wrong one. God I
hate you idealists. If I h…..Watch it! Idiots! Now where was I? Oh yes. If I
had to choose between you and the Seesh….well, let me think. What a difficult
choice.”
By now they had reached
the wall and the Counsellor fished out his bone medallion and held it up to the
light. Immediately a section of wall rolled back and the party moved forward
again.
“Glad we got in before that crowd came around again. The Seesh….IF YOU
DO THAT AGAIN I WILL HAVE YOU FED TO A GROB!”
“But the Seesh has already lost. Look at all his people. They all want
to tear him to pieces.”
“So? Rabble. They won’t get near him. Flotsam. Flotsam and jetsam.
Froth in the wake of his glorious journey to the stars.”
“And you think he’s going to take you along?”
“He needs me.”
Garm laughs out loud.
“You can laugh. You’ll see. I may be a fat fool with no discernable
virtues, but there’s one thing I can do that makes me indispensable to the
Seesh.”
“Oh yes. And what’s that?”
“I can eat.”
Garm looked at the
Counsellor as if he was out of his head.
“I eat for the Seesh. I am his vessel. You see, he can’t eat. All his
organs have atrophied, and yet he needs sustenance to remain corporeal. So he
feeds vicariously through me. I supply him with life energy and he gives me a
life of ease.”
“He’s a succubus?” asked Garm, horrified.
“In a manner of speaking. But you make it sound so creepy. He doesn’t
drink my blood you know. I just donate some of my metabolized energy to him.
That’s also why I live out in the country. I get the best fresh food. So all I
have to do is eat. And I love eating.”
“But why you? Why not anyone?
What makes you special?”
“I’m his son – one of them anyway – the only one willing to make the
deal. Well, you have to eat a lot to feed two people….and the other’s don’t
like eating. I was built for the job. And that’s why I am surrounded and
protected by so many Contrata. I’m a V.I.P.”
Garm walked on in
silence for a while and let this new information sink in.
“So where are we going now,” he said finally.
“I’m moving into the Cantave, a luxury apartment complete with spa and
steam room and a lovely view of the stars. Isn’t that nice. No more
mother-bloody-nature and her uncomfortable ways. If I play my cards right I
won’t ever have to go outside again. I can just sit indoors and eat.”
The Counsellor was
nearly drooling at the thought of it.
“Pick up the pace there sluggards – I’m famished.”
“So you’re going with the Seesh when he leaves?”
“And that has got me so excited. I hear that Earth has all sorts of
new delectations – figs, for example – I like the sound of them.”
“You do know that Earth’s solar system is in a different universe to
ours?”
“I don’t care. Please stop talking. I don’t like it when other people
talk.”
“There are different laws there.”
“So?” he said,
despite himself.
“Things might look the same on the surface, but the underlying
dynamics are different.”
“So? As long as the food is tasty I don’t care.”
“Well, do you know that the lifespan of a human is only one hundred
years?”
No comment from the
Counsellor.
“And you, who are way over five hundred years old, will probably
shrivel and die within minutes of landing there.”
Garm knew that this was the most rank conjecture and only a child would believe
something so outrageous.
“You’re lying.” But Garm could see that he wasn’t
quite convinced with what he said. “Anyway
the Seesh needs me. He wouldn’t let me die.”
“So you think someone as powerful and smart as the Seesh doesn’t have
a back-up feeder. That he’d rely his whole kingdom on a sub-intellectual
pea-brain like you? Do you really think he would put all his eggs in your
basket? Would you?”
This shook the
Counsellor to his very core. His confidence was crumbling rapidly. He needed
food to bolster his ego.
“The Seesh would never be so stupid.”
But when Garm saw the
effect he was having on the Counsellor, he felt a little bad for being so
cruel. He didn’t want to destroy him. He just wanted him not to be so cocky.
“But then again…what do I know.”
But the Counsellor was
busy dealing with his insecurity another way.
“Faster you fools. I’m hungry. And don’t jog me you lumbering
cretin…..”
Garm thought for a
while. If what the Counsellor had said was true, though he couldn’t count on
it, then he had a way of combating the Seesh. Cut off his food supply and the
battle was over. Or even just threaten it.
“I just can’t wait to never have to take another bloody journey again.
I’m going to sit in my room until I can’t eat anymore.”
*
Now that the snake was
there, Angelo felt no fear. They recognized each other, no doubt about that.
Relishing the moment, the snake flicked his tongue out, the tip almost touching
Angelo’s nose.
Belle was moaning
somewhere at his feet and he automatically bent over and picked her up. ‘Might
as well all face the music together’ he thought.
“Who’s the bimbo?” It
was certainly Rose’s voice, but Angelo’s mind just couldn’t reconcile it
emanating from the snake. Briefly he wondered if he was suffering from some
sort of heat stroke.
“I leave you for five
minutes and already you’re cuddling up to another woman,” said the all too
familiar and beloved voice.
“Rose?” enquired Angelo,
looking around as if she was hiding somewhere.
“Here. In front of you,”
she said.
Angelo looked at the
snake. It just lay there quietly, making no attempt to attack them.
“Who is that?” asked
Belle, bristling at the ‘bimbo’ reference.
“You can hear her too?”
asked Angelo, quite thankful that he wasn’t going crazy.
“We can all hear snake talk,” said Sam. “Lizard
talk. Snake talk, everybody talk. What new? All I say is you got one wery ugly
girlfriend.”
“Rose?”
“Sorry. I was just
joking. I think. I hope she’s not your girlfriend,” said Rose’s voice.
“No. Of course not.
Where are you?”
“I don’t really know,
but things are starting to happen. You have to go to the pit of dreamers. All of
you – especially Belle. I can’t explain why, but the snake will take you.”
Then he heard it again,
faint and far away, a bitter sweet melody threading through the dunes, the
snake’s head swaying lightly in time with the tempo. “I don’t know how long I
can hold the snake in check. You have to go now.”
“But what is happening?
How…..” through all his questions Angelo knew he was just wasting time but he
couldn’t help himself. Gennetta, however, understood the importance of Rose’s
message and jumped into action.
“We must mount the
snake,” she said. The others looked at her as if she was crazy but Angelo finally
snapped out of his dither and took control. “Time to go people,” he said
steering Belle towards the snake before she could register what was required of
her. Together he and Gennetta climbed a dune at the side of the snake and,
clambering up the protruding scales, managed to drag a protesting Belle up onto
the top.
“Come on Sam,” said
Angelo, settling them down between the vertebrae. “Trust me.”
“I dunno. This one wery
ugly worm.”
