The harpies hovered in air made foul by their presence. The stench was a.s.suming an awful intensity. "You can defend yourselves?" the leader screeched. "Prove it!"
"You wouldn"t like that," Chem said wamingly.
"You"re bluffing!" the harpy screeched. No harpy seemed to have any voice other than the screech; too much of this conversation would give a person a headache.
"This woman is the Gorgon," the centaur said evenly. "One glance at her bare face will turn a person to stone."
"I don"t believe it!" the harpy screeched. "Hatty, rip that rag off her face, then pluck out her eyeb.a.l.l.s!"
A harpy lunged forward, spraying out small, soiled feathers in her eagerness to get at the eyeball tidbits. Irene kept her eyes on the harpy, not the Gorgon, as did the others of her party. She was aware, peripherally, of the Gorgon making a slight motion.
Then the harpy, Hatty, stopped in midair and dropped like a stone. This was only natural; she had become a stone. The Gorgon replaced her veil.
The other harpies flew down to look at their fallen comrade. Hatty was now an ugly statue that looked as if it had been too long under pigeons. Her calcified eyes gazed out in blind contempt, and her thin-lipped mouth was fixed in a perpetual scowl. Even a small drool of dirty spittle had frozen to stone on her lip.
"She"s petrified!" a harpy screeched.
"Completely stoned," Grundy agreed. "You dirty birds can"t say we didn"t warn you."
"And who the s.m.u.t are you, runt?" the leader screeched.
"I"m Grundy the Golem," Grundy said proudly. "I can talk to any living thing, even your kind, you nauseating hen, though I have to hold my nose. Who the upchuck are you?"
"I"m Haggy Harpy, leader of this motley flock," the harpy screeched. "We"re looking for goblins. Who are those others?"
Again, Irene was cautious about identifying herself completely. "I"m Irene. I grow plants."
"And I"m Chem," the centaur said. "I make maps."
Haggy hovered, pondering, while her flapping wings wafted the smell of her past them. "Stoning--talking--planting--mapping," she screeched, totaling it up. "A pretty collection of talents. You creatures are lucky; not everyone has magic." She rotated to address the others. "Hannah, execute plan SA," she said. Then she spun in air back to Irene. "What are you doing out here in harpy territory?"
"I"m looking for my lost child," Irene said. "A girl, three years old. Have you seen her?"
"Anybody seen her brat?" Haggy screeched to the other harpies, who were milling about in some private pattern that continually wafted their foul odor past the party on the ground. Irene hoped she could keep from gagging.
There was a discordant response. No one had seen any lost human child.
"SSAAA!" Hanna Harpy screeched. Suddenly the harpies Swooped in, acting together. Two carried a bag, which they dropped over the Gorgon"s head before the Gorgon could get her hand back up to her veil. Others carried vine-cords, which they wrapped around the others. The action was so quick and treacherous that Chem did not have time to raise her bow.
"Grow!" Irene cried desperately at any plant in range. The gra.s.s under Chem"s hooves shot up, and nearby trees put on new foliage, but there was nothing to interfere with the harpies. Naturally the confined seeds in the bag did not grow; that would have been a worse disaster than the harpies! In a moment all four of them were captive.
"Plan SA: Sneak Attack," Grundy said disgustedly. "I should have realized."
Irene cursed herself for the same oversight. Goblins and harpies were creatures largely without honor; she knew that. It had been folly to relax.
"Why did you dirty birds do that?" Grundy demanded of the harpies. "We did nothing to you, except for when Hatty forced the issue, and we had given you fair warning about that. You can fix her bad as new by carrying her statue out to Mundania, where the spell will be broken."
"We don"t care about Hatty!" Hannah screeched. "Who cares about a harpy? We wanted you!"
"Because we can use your talents," Haggy screeched, satisfied. "Now we can track down those goblins faster!"
"But--but you can"t just capture us and make us work for you!" Irene spluttered.
"Why can"t we?" Haggy screeched reasonably.
"For one thing, we"ll refuse to do your bidding," Chem said, swishing her tail in irritation.
"No bidding, you old biddy!" Grundy agreed.
"Oh, will you now?" the harpy chieftainess screeched. "Well, then, we"ll just tear your stonemason friend to pieces, one piece at a time. We"re due for a meal anyway." She turned in the air to face her subordinate hen. "Hannah, old cackle, let"s see how fast you can get the first arm off that creature. Don"t go near her hood!"
Hannah screeched with delight. "Hold her tight, hens! I don"t want her thrashing about while I"m at work. That would spill too much tasty blood. Maybe I"ll start with her gizzard; that"s easier to claw out!"
The other hens converged on the hooded and bound Gorgon, sinking their filthy talons into her limbs, securing her for the ordeal. Irene knew they weren"t bluffing; harpies really did like to tear flesh apart and cause anguish to feeling creatures.
"And fetch a basin," Haggy screeched. "So we can have a blood bath afterward!"
Irene"s stomach tried to take flight like a harpy. No, they weren"t bluffing! "All right! We"ll cooperate." Irene said quickly. "Don"t hurt her!"
Haggy Harpy screeched out a mind-rotting string of epithets. "Oh, you"re spoiling our fun! Can"t you wait until we"ve done with this one? She"s a fine, healthy specimen and I just know she"s got a lot of hot blood in her!"
"No, I can"t wait!" Irene cried, in her desperation sounding almost like a harpy herself. "Don"t touch her!"
"Oh, all right, spoilsport!" Haggy screeched. "I guess we can use her talent on the goblins as we planned. Hannah, you"ll have to wait."
"Go suck eggs!" Hannah screeched back. She had been hovering, waiting for the others to secure the victim properly, exposing the Gorgon"s midriff for the gizzard operation. "I want blood!" She launched herself at the Gorgon, talons extended, mouth gaping with l.u.s.t for gore.
"Don"t tell me to suck eggs, you bloated bag!" Haggy screeched, launching herself after her. She moved very swiftly; harpies had had many generations of experience s.n.a.t.c.hing things, and could zip forward in the blink of a smudged eye.
The two collided in the air; Haggy lifted a claw and made such a swipe at the other that several greasy feathers were wrenched out of her tail a.s.sembly. Hannah spun out of control, sideswiped a tree, and landed on her back, her spindly chicken legs poking straight up. She screeched such an oath that the gra.s.s around her turned brown. Then she flipped over, and flapped up, leaving a smudge of discolor on the ground. She perched on a branch, shaking out loose feathers. Discipline had evidently been a.s.serted in the normal harpy fashion.
"Now, this is what you"ll do," Haggy screeched to Irene. "You"ll grow us some blood lilies and a pitcher plant of gall for us to snack on, and the horse"s rear will show us a map so we can guess where the goblins are, and the imp--"
"I"m a golem, not an imp!" Grundy said.
"--will ask around for the goblins," Haggy finished. "And if we don"t find them by nightfall, we"ll tear Stonestare up instead. That seems fair enough, don"t you agree? I"ll bet those little snakes on her head are mighty tasty morsels!"
Irene didn"t even ask whether the harpies would let the party go if they found the goblins. Harpies didn"t make positive promises, only threats. "You"ll have to free my hands so I can sort through my seeds," she said. "I can"t grow what you want if I don"t have the seeds."
"We"ll do it," Haggy screeched. "But if you grow any wrong thing, your hooded friend will be gutted before you can do anything else, and we"ll make you drink the first blood."
"Unfair!" Hannah screeched. "You promised me first blood!"
"Oh, all right. We"ll give you the blood, and stuff the first entrails into the captives" mouths," Haggy decided, being a fair-minded hen.
Horrified, Irene knew they had effectively prevented her from growing a tangle tree or anything else that would be useful against this awful flock. She opened the big bag of seeds and sifted through it, looking for the proper ones. She was in luck, for what that was worth; she found the items she needed. She dropped them to the ground. "Grow!"
The blood lilies came up and formed deep red bulbs, while the pitcher plant developed pitchers filled with liquid that would kill flies. The harpies s.n.a.t.c.hed both eagerly and slurped them down messily. The dirty birds were even more repulsive when eating than when screeching.
While the hens were distracted, Irene consulted with Grundy. "Do you think you can locate the goblin band? Our lives may depend on it."
"I"ll locate something," the golem promised. "I can start by going toward the mouth organ; since it has seen them, I know they were in that region."
"Good enough," Irene said. "And if, somewhere along the way, you get a chance to lift the Gorgon"s hood--"
"You scheming females are all alike," Grundy said.
Irene smiled cynically. "Some day you"ll encounter one your size, and she"ll make you happy to be schemed into captivity--if you live through this present crisis."
"I can hardly wait." But the golem was momentarily thoughtful.
Soon the harpies were through gobbling their food. "Now get on it, imp!" Haggy screeched. "Find those goblins!"
Grundy jumped to the ground and made a show of questioning the local plants. Naturally none of them had seen the goblins. "That way," he announced, pointing in the direction of the mouth organ.
The harpies were so eager for blood and gore that they didn"t realize he was pointing toward their own public-address system. "Map! Map!" Haggy screeched.
Chem projected a map of the region. It didn"t have much detail, because the centaur hadn"t seen enough of the local terrain yet. But it did show sufficient gross accuracy to satisfy the harpies that it was valid.
The harpies had to free Chem"s feet so she could walk, but they left her arms bound, and one of them hovered near enough to attack her if she tried to bolt. They tied Irene"s hands again and had her ride the centaur. They kept the Gorgon walking separately, another harpy screeching directions at her so she could find her way despite the hood. Irene was both saddened and angered to see her friend stumbling blindly, her hands bound, but she could do nothing about it.
They proceeded slowly north, constantly harra.s.sed by the harpies, who wanted them to do the job faster. Then Grundy got a break--he intersected the trail of the goblins. Thirteen goblins were traveling southwest. There was no harpy with them.
"That means they killed him, sure enough," Haggy screeched. "We"ll tear out their hearts and stuff them up their--" The rest became unintelligible, which was just as well, for the leaves of the nearest trees were turning brown and curling up. Harpies did seem to have a certain flair for that sort of thing.
Hot on the trail, the harpies spread out and became silent. They knew their screeching would instantly alert the enemy and put the goblins on guard. One bird flew high above the trees, trying to spy the new prey, casting her baleful glare hither and yon. And soon she succeeded.
She swooped low. "Straight ahead, on an island in a water table," she reported in a whispering shriek. "We can surround it. They think they"re safe there, but they can"t fly."
Irene realized that this was a typical mistake; creatures who could not fly had little awareness of the threat from the air until it was upon them.
"We won"t take a chance," Haggy decided. "Thirteen against thirteen--that"s too nearly even. We don"t want a fair fight, we want an easy slaughter. We"ll make Stoneface look at them." They had it backward, Irene saw; they didn"t realize that it was not the Gorgon"s gaze that petrified people, but the sight of her full face. Irene was not about to correct their misimpression.
"But she"ll look at us, too," another warned.
"That"s right. Better not risk it right now. We"ll bomb them instead. Get your eggs ready."
How the harpies carried eggs, Irene wasn"t sure, but it seemed they had them somewhere. She also was not certain what good it would do to drop eggs on the goblins, unless the intent was to blind the enemy with the splats of whites and yokes.
The harpies flew into the sky, trailing small swirls of greasy feathers. "Oh, Hannah," Haggy screeched in an afterthought. "Now you can take care of these creatures here; they have become surplus."
"Goody!" Hannah screeched back. She looped about and flew toward Irene"s party. She was slightly unsteady because of the recent loss of tail feathers but could maneuver well enough. Her hideous face gloated.
"Grundy!" Irene cried. But the golem was too far from the Gorgon to reach her before the harpy did.
Instead, it was Chem who leaped to the Gorgon"s rescue. Her hands were tied, but she tried to use her teeth, bending to take a grip on the hood.
But Hannah did not come in that close. She banked, spread her legs, and laid an egg in midair. "Die!" she screeched as the missile slanted down.
"Watch out!" Grundy cried at the same time. "I just remembered what those eggs do!"
Chem lurched away from the falling egg, pushing the Gorgon down. The egg struck the ground beside them and exploded. There was a dirty boom, and brush and turf were blasted out, leaving a small crater.
The eggs really were bombs! Irene realized that the harpies probably ate pineapples when forming a battle wing to get the explosive ingredients. They really were prepared for war!
Grundy, unhurt, skirted the crater and reached them. He climbed on the Gorgon"s bagged head, tugging at the cloth. But it was tied on, and the cord was too firmly knotted for him to budge. Meanwhile, the harpy circled. Did she have another egg?
"No wonder they don"t reproduce much!" Chem exclaimed. Grundy laughed. It would be hard to hatch a live harpy chick from an exploding egg!
But the peril wasn"t funny. "Grundy, get me a seed!" Irene cried. "Hurry!"
The golem scrambled to her bag and fetched out a random handful of seeds. "Grow!" Irene ordered the handful.
The seeds sprouted immediately. Irene could, of course, grow plants with her hands tied behind her. But it was chancy starting a random sample. Those seeds could develop into anything, and the result might be harmless or negative.
A coral plant began to form coral on the golem"s hand, and he hastily dropped the seeds. A sugar palm sent out a hand formed of sugar. Ironwood speared up, points already coated with rust because of their proximity to the water table. A saucer plant presented its dishes. A hunter"s horn plant blew a loud note. Mistletoe nudged the earth with its toenail and fired off its seedpod. And a split rock plant dug its roots into the nearest rock and split it into two sharp-edged fragments.
Grundy jumped down and lifted one of those fragments. He brought it to the Gorgon"s bound hands and started sawing.
But now Hannah Harpy was coming in again. Evidently she had another egg ready.
Chem projected a map. It showed a boulder where the people were, and people where a nearby boulder was. The harpy blinked, then corrected course and dropped her egg. It smacked into the boulder and broke it into a pile of rocks. Sand showered around them.
The Gorgon"s hands came free. She reached up to draw the hood from her head, but the tie was at the back and did not yield to her fumbling fingers.
"Use the stone to cut it!" Irene ordered.
The harpy had realized that something was wrong. Chem"s maps were good, but were not true illusions; a person could see reality through the maps when the proper effort was made.
Hannah looped about, ready to lay another egg on them, and this one would not miss.
"Here she comes again!" Grundy said. "And that old hen has blood in her grotesque eye!"
Irene was horribly sure that was true. But there was one chance. "Gorgon! If you can see anything at all--throw that stone!"
The Gorgon scratched the sharp edge of the stone across her face, ripping the bag in front of her eyes. Now she could see out, vaguely. She hurled the stone at the swooping harpy.
Her aim was good. The stone struck--and the egg detonated. The harpy had not yet released it.
The explosion was m.u.f.fled. Truly appalling hail pelted them, and the stench was beyond belief.
Irene wiped the gook out of her eyes and peered up. There was nothing left of Hannah Harpy but a foul cloud of smoke. It was dull gray, tinged with streaks of blood-red.
"Hey, the prisoners are making a break!" another harpy screeched.
"We"ve got to get out of here!" Irene said tersely.
Now there was a clamor on the water table. The remaining harpies had attacked the goblins, and great and awful was the sound and fury thereof.