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"Any more traps here?" Norton asked Sning.
Squeeze, squeeze, squeeze.
"Any immediate threat to life or limb?"
Squeeze, squeeze.
He decided to chance it. "Keep close together," he told the others.
Excelsia and the Elf were happy to oblige. They crowded in so close to him that he worried about
insufficient elbow room if he had to use the Sword. He didn't want to cut any of his companions! On the
other hand, Excelsia was an extremely attractive woman, pleasant to be this close to. Now that he had
given up on Orlene, he was becoming more aware of that sort of thing-not that he had ever been
unaware.
Then they heard the tromp, tromp, tromp of a giant. Damsel and Elf crowded in even closer. "Sning, are
you sure...?"
Squeeze.
The tromping came to the intersection of halls at the torch. Norton braced himself to face the giant-and
saw nothing. The tromping continued toward them. No giant, just the noise of one.
No, not quite true. The boots of the giant were there. They were tromping along by themselves.
The three of them stared at the marching, empty boots. Was that footwear animated by magic or did it
contain an invisible giant? It did make a difference. Mere shoes they could probably ignore, but an
invisible giant was likely to be troublesome.
The boots halted immediately before them. The noise stopped. Now the boots looked exactly like
discarded apparel.
Norton set himself and poked the point of his Sword toward the knee of the theoretical giant. He
encountered no opposition. He sliced across the tops of both boots. Nothing. It seemed they were, after
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r r
all, only boots.
He tucked the Sword in his belt and reached for a boot. He put his two hands on it and tried to pick it up.
The thing would not budge; it was as if a giant did indeed have his foot in it.
Norton stood and turned back to the others. "I suppose-"
He was interrupted by a swift kick in the rear. He was boosted into the air and moved a yard down the
hall. One of the boots had booted him!
He caught his balance and rubbed his bruised posterior. The Elf was trying without complete success to
restrain a smirk, and even innocent Excelsia seemed amused. Norton himself didn't happen to find it
very funny, but realized that it would not profit him much to lose his temper. "Let's just go around
these."
The Elf obliged, walking to the side. The boots came to life again, walking swiftly to get in front of the
little man. The Elf stopped, not wanting to get kicked himself. Getting kicked oneself was never a
laughing matter.
"Maybe if we jumped over," Norton suggested.
"Sure," the Elf agreed. "You first."
Norton considered where he would get kicked if caught in the act of jumping over the boot and decided
not to risk it.
Excelsia tried another approach. She walked to the left, where no boot was. But suddenly a pair of giant
gloves or gauntlets arrived, hovering in mid-air about bead height. The right one closed in a fist before
Excelsia's face, then extended its massive forefinger and waggled it warningly. She emitted a frightened
squeak and stepped back.
Now the boots were before the Elf, to the right, and the gloves before the Damsel, to the left. Norton
strode up the center-and the right boot and left glove moved to close the gap. He, too, was blocked.
Well, at least it was clear what Sning had meant about there being no immediate threat or trap in the
hall. The disembodied boots and gloves were neither-but they were effectively blocking progress. There
would be no problem if the party simply retreated.
But retreat meant failure, and Norton had had enough of that. He became ornery. He drew his Sword
again. "Out of my way, objects, or pay the penalty!"
Nothing moved. He stepped forward-and the right boot swung up in a kick. Norton sliced down with the
Sword and cut it in half. The two fragments fell to the floor and lay there, twisting about like a
dismembered reptile.
"Ooo," Excelsia said with sympathetic horror. "You killed it!"
"I gave it fair warning," Norton said. He stepped forward again and cut the fingers off the glove that
grabbed for him. It, too, fell writhing to the floor. Excelsia twisted her own fair fingers as if afraid they
would separate, but did not protest again. Even delicate Damsels had to yield to practicality on occasion.
The other boot and glove attacked. Norton got the boot, but the glove caught him in a stinging slap to
the side of the head that sent him careening into a wall. The glove came at him again, forming a fist that
aimed at his nose; this time he got the blade up, and the glove split itself against the Sword and plopped
to the floor.
It took Norton a moment to recover his equilibrium, for that blow had had giant force! Next time he
encountered something like this, he would act more ruthlessly.
"Ooo, you're hurt!" Excelsia said, dabbing at his face with a dainty handkerchief. The dabbing did not do
much good for his face, but her attention uplifted his spirit.
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r r
They proceeded on to the torch. As they reached it, Sning squeezed Norton's finger three times: warning.
He paused. How he wished Sning could speak directly!
"Danger, maybe," he said.
Elf and Damsel looked around. "Where?" Excelsia asked.
Norton shrugged. "Sning warned me. There's something."
"Listen, Mac, we can't dawdle here forever," the Elf said.
"You dawdled for a century in that mud-puddle," Norton pointed out. "What's the hurry now?"
"A critter can build up a lot of impatience in a century," the Elf said. "I'm going ahead." He marched
past the torch, into the cross-passage.
The torch flared monstrously, sending out blinding brilliance. Norton covered his eyes as he stumbled
back, but the damage was done; for the moment he couldn't see a thing.
Gradually his sight cleared. He looked about-and found himself alone in the passage. Excelsia and the
Elf were gone.
Alarmed, he looked for them-but they remained lost.
The fragments of the boots and gloves were gone, too. That gave him a notion. "Sning, am I in the same
hall I was in before?"
Squeeze, squeeze.
"I blundered into another passage while blinded?"
Squeeze, squeeze, squeeze. "I got moved to a new passage, or got closed off from the other passage?"
Squeeze.
"By the action of the Evil Sorceress?"
Squeeze.
"Are the others in immediate danger?"
Squeeze, squeeze, squeeze.
Damn those indefinite answers! "Their safety-does it depend on what I do?"
Squeeze.
He was improving his touch! "Can I find them?"
Squeeze, squeeze, squeeze.
"Not till I deal personally with the Sorceress?"
Squeeze.
That was what he had suspected. The Evil Sorceress had perceived him as the leader and had separated
him from the others, and now intended to test him alone. Divide and conquer. If he prevailed, his [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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