Part 14 (2/2)
He glanced back. The huge cup was still there, and beyond it, the body of the dragon. He regretted the slaying; he really shouldn't have done it. He was not ordinarily a violent man. What had come over him?
His mouth had a bad taste, and a headache was starting. His stomach roiled as though wis.h.i.+ng to disgorge its contents. ”I don't feel well,” he said.
”A little hangover,” Therion said quickly. ”Ignore it; it will pa.s.s.”
Hangover? Oh-a reaction from the drink. Instant high, rapid low. It figured!
Now they were at the castle environs, mounting the winding pathway that led up the steep mountain upon which it perched. Progress was swift, for it was a very narrow mountain, but Brother Paul was tiring even more rapidly. Then he saw an inlet in the almost vertical clifi face, a kind of cave. And in this cave stood another cup. It was filled to overflowing with jewels: pearls, diamonds, and a.s.sorted other gems. Beautiful!
Brother Paul started for it, but found himself abruptly too tired to get all the way there. He also saw, now, that the cup was within a kind of cage, with a combination lock. In the lock was a picture of three lemons in a row.
”Oh-an ancient one-armed bandit,” he muttered. ”Well, I don't like to gamble.”
”But look at the potential reward!” Therion exclaimed. ”You could be rich-a multimillionaire in any currency you name!”
”Wealth means nothing to me. Brothers and Sisters of the Order dedicate their lives to nonmaterial things, to simplicity, to doing good.”
”But think of all the good you could do with that fortune!”
”I just want to get into the castle and find the answer to my quest,” Brother Paul said. ”If I can only get up the strength to complete the climb...”
”Here, have a sniff of this,” Therion said, opening a tiny but ornate silver box.
Brother Paul looked at it. The box was filled with a whitish powder. ”What is it?”
”A stimulant. Used for centuries to enable people to work harder without fatigue. Completely safe, non-addictive. Try it.” He shoved it under Brother Paul's nose, and Brother Paul sniffed almost involuntarily.
The effect was amazing. Suddenly he felt terrific strong, healthy, clear-minded.
”Wow! What is it?”
”Cocaine.”
”Cocaine! You lied to me! That's one of the worst of addictive drugs!”
Therion shook his head solemnly. ”Not so. There is no physiological dependence.
It is nature's purest stimulant, without harmful aftereffects. Much better than alcohol. But if you disbelieve, simply return the sample.”
”Return the sniff? How can I do that?”
”It's your Animation. You can do anything.”
Brother Paul wondered. If he could do anything, why couldn't he find his way out of this mora.s.s? Well, maybe he could, if he just willed it strongly enough. But he felt so good now, why change it? He did want to achieve the castle, after all, and he had already invested a lot of effort in that quest that would be wasted if he quit now. ”Oh, let it stand.”
His eyes returned to the cup of jewels. ”But first, this detail.” He strode across to the cage and reached for the handle of the one-armed bandit. ”What do I have to put into this machine, to play the game?”
”A piddling price. Just one-seventh of your soul.”
”Done!” Brother Paul said, laughing. And felt a strange wrenching that disconcerted him momentarily. If the price per cup were one-seventh, and there were seven cups in all, and he had already been through several... but he felt so good that he soon forgot it. He drew down powerfully on the handle.
The symbols spun blurringly past in the window of the lock. Swords, wands, disks, and something indistinct-perhaps lemniscates? What had happened to the lemons? Then they came to rest: one cup-two cups-three cups!
The cage door swung open. The cup tilted forward. Its riches spilled out over the floor of the cave. Jackpot!
”I gambled and won!” Brother Paul exclaimed.
Therion nodded. ”It's your Animation,” he repeated. ”I merely show the way to your fulfillment.”
There was something about that statement-oh, never mind! ”Donate these jewels to the charities of the world,” Brother Paul said. ”I must proceed.” He stepped carefully over the glittering gems in his path and left the cave.
The ascent was easy again. In moments he reached the front portal. It was open, and he marched into the castle.
”Like the palace of Sleeping Beauty,” Therion remarked.
”Like a fairy tale, yes,” Brother Paul agreed.
For some reason Therion found that gaspingly funny. ”Show me what you laugh at, and I will show you what you are,” he said between gasps. But it was he, not Brother Paul, who was laughing. Odd man!
”Strange,” Brother Paul said, ”how I start an Animation sequence to find out what is causing Animations, and find myself diverted into this fantasy world, where I must slay a dragon and see my reflection as a skull and gamble one-seventh of my soul on a worldly treasure I don't need. Why can't I just penetrate to the root immediately?”
”You could, if you knew how,” Therion said.
”I acquired you as a guide! Why can't you show me the way?”
”I am showing you the way. In my fas.h.i.+on. But the impetus must be yours.”
”I never sought to slay a dragon! Or gamble for riches! You and your d.a.m.ned drugs-”
”Apt description, that.”
And why was he swearing, since he was not a swearing man? There was a lot of wrongness here, intertwined with the intrigue. ”What do I do now?” Brother Paul demanded irritably.
”Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.”
”You said that before. But it doesn't help. It's from Rabelais, which I gather is prime source material for you. Here I am, restrained from doing what I wilt.
What I wish, I mean. And you just tag along, spouting irrelevancies.”
Therion turned to face him seriously. ”However right you may be in your purpose, and in thinking that purpose important, you are wrong in forgetting the equal or greater importance of other things. The really important things are huge, silent, and inexorable.”
”What things?”
”Your will.”
”My will is to unriddle this Animation effect! Yet here I wander in this forsaken castle, as far from it as ever! What is this place, anyway?”
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