Part 30 (1/2)

”Will you leave off?” Chex shouted. She unslung her bow, nocked an arrow, and let it fly at the beak.

”Uh, that might not be wise,” Esk said, somewhat too late. He was amazed at the facility with which she had attacked the face. He had known that centaurs were good with bows, but had not realized just how good.

The arrow pa.s.sed right through the beak, for it was only an image in the sky. But the face reacted with outrage. It roared, sending down a blast of frigid air admixed with sleet, and lunged down at them. Before they could move, the gaping orifice closed on them. The monster had swallowed their party whole!

The temperature plummeted, and the sleet quickly coated them with ice. In a moment they found themselves standing on a snow-covered hill, with the wind howling around them, driving off any heat remaining in their flimsy bodies.

”You're right,” Chex said, her teeth chattering. ”I shouldn't have done that.”

They huddled together for scant warmth, except for Marrow, who wasn't affected, though the snow was caking on his bones. The storm raged around them, blotting out the sun and, indeed, the sky. They were unable to look into the wind; the whole scene was just the rush of air. It was mean in the belly of the air monster!

And it was increasing! The force of the wind was threatening to sweep them right off the mountain, even before they froze to death. ”S-some easy p-path!” Esk chattered.

”I believe this is the realm of the Element of Air,” Marrow commented. ”The gourd annex, of course. Air becomes quite stormy when aroused.”

”Fanvy that!” Volney muttered from almost under the snow.

”Fancy that,” Chex repeated. ”Let's burrow down for some warmth until this pa.s.ses.”

”It will not pa.s.s,” Marrow said. ”When Air is offended, it will not rest until it destroys its offender.”

Indeed, the storm was still intensifying. The sleet and snow blasted at them like sharp sand. Their huddle was not effective; there was too much exposed surface, and the wind and cold were too intense.

”We shall have to tunnel down below it,” Chex said. ”Only I am unable to tunnel well, and am afraid of close confinement. Only the knowledge that this is all the world of the gourd has enabled me to endure the subterranean pa.s.sages we have navigated hitherto,”

”I am able to tunnel,” Volney said. He donned his special talons and more or less dived into the snow, sending up a shower of white. In a moment he disappeared into the hole he was excavating, with only the flying refuse signaling his activity.

”Your fear of confinement did not manifest in your bad dream,” the skull remarked.

”That is true,” she agreed, surprised. ”I was more afraid of rejection than of getting squashed. If I conquered my deepest fear, I should be able to conquer my lesser fear.” She squared her shoulders. ”At any rate, I will try. I think at this point I would rather be squoze than froze.”

”But it will take too long to dig a hole in the ground big enough for all of us,” Esk said.

”We can make a snow fort to shelter us partially until the digging is complete,” Chex said. She tried to move snow with her hands, but they quickly turned blue, and her activity slowed; she was freezing. ”Oh, if only I had a shovel!” she exclaimed, tucking her hands under her wings.

”I will be your shovel,” Marrow said. ”Kick me.”

”What?” Esk asked.

”Kick me apart and form my bones into a shovel,” the skeleton clarified.

”Oh, yes!” Chex agreed. ”Bend over.”

Marrow bent over, and she turned around and delivered a powerful kick to his bone posterior. His bones flew apart, but as they landed they connected in a chain. Chex formed this chain into a crude shovel, with the long leg bones serving as the handle and the tines of the rib cage serving as the scoop. There were a number of bones left over, so Esk formed these into a somewhat clumsier second shovel with the grinning skull as the scoop. There was a linkage of tiny bones between the shovels; it seemed that Marrow never came completely apart.

They proceeded to dig, and it went very well. The energy they expended warmed them, and the shovels worked very well despite their seeming clumsiness. Apparently the magic of the skeleton facilitated whatever task his bones were shaped to. Soon they had a ma.s.sive excavation, and the force of the howling winds was first cramped and then cut off.

Meanwhile Volney was still boring down. Abruptly his head appeared in the hole. ”I have found a cave,” he announced. ”However, it may not be wive to enter it.”

”Why not?” Esk asked. ”We can't stay here long; we'll freeze!”

”There may be another monvter.”

Chex paused in her labor. ”It is a warm cave?”

”Comfortable. But-”

”Then let's chance the monster!” she exclaimed.

”But what about the path?” Esk asked. ”We have to follow the path!”

”The path iv there,” Volney said.

”That does it,” Chex said. ”If I can scramble down your hole, I'm going to!”

”In a moment,” Volney said. He resumed tunneling, and the hole widened rapidly. Soon it was wide enough to allow Chex to squeeze through-or so she judged.

”Push me when I need it,” she told Esk, handing him her shovel. ”Ignore me if I scream; I may foolishly panic.” She had to lean her head and shoulders way forward, and grasp her front legs with her hands, and stretch her hind feet out behind. It looked like an extremely uncomfortable position for her, but she simply did what she had to to get by.

Volney helped pull her from below, and Esk helped push her from above, but the thickest part of her body wedged in tight and would not move. She was stuck.

”Now what do we do?” Esk asked rhetorically.

”Use one of my bones as a lever to pry her out,” the skull said.

Startled, Esk almost dropped it. But why shouldn't Marrow talk when re-formed into a shovel? He spoke by magic anyway. He set his shovel, which had arm bones for its handle, at the end of Chex's shovel, forming a double-length pole. ”Can you hold firm if I push at the side?”

”Certainly,” the skull said. ”We skeletons pride ourselves on our rigidity.”

Esk slid the business end of the shovel/pole down where the centaur was wedged, then slowly leaned outward on the handle, trying to wedge her body in just that amount needed to enable it to pa.s.s. It didn't work.

”A little to the left,” the skull suggested.

Esk tried again, to the left, beside one of her folded wings. ”Yes, that's it,” the skull said. ”I can feel the give, here. A little more . . .”

Esk pushed a little harder. Suddenly Chex gave a wiggle, and her torso slid down a little. It was working!

Following Marrow's suggestions, Esk pried carefully in different places, each time getting the torso down a bit more. Finally it slid the rest of the way down. She was through!

Esk dropped down behind her. The hole debouched in a cave, where the centaur and the vole were now standing. In the light from the hole he had come from, Esk saw that Chex was touching up some sc.r.a.pes on her hide. ”I, ah, had to pry a little,” he said.

”Good thing, too,” she said. ”I was in danger of suffocating, not to mention panicking.” Indeed, she seemed shaken, but she had survived the experience.

It was warmer in the cave, and that was a blessing. He spotted the faint glow of the pathfinder path; it did indeed pa.s.s this way. But what was this about a monster?

There was an ear-grinding bellow from the direction the path led. There was, indeed, a monster!

They exchanged glances. ”But we can't go back,” Chex said. ”Even if I could squeeze through, going up, I wouldn't care to; there's only the angry Element of Air up there.”

”And it is supposed to be safe,” Esk said. ”So far, it has been scary, but we haven't actually been hurt.”