No one came forward, no attackers, nothing. “Rokhaset? Where’s the welcome wagon?”
“I admit my bewilderment, Clinton Slade. I cannot—”
But at that moment, the dais began to uncurl. The crystalline shape sat at the crest of a head fully five feet long, armed with black-shining spines, cutting blades of blue stone, a crushing maw, and grasping talons. It gave voice to a grinding screech like the unoiled hinges of Hell and turned towards us.
“Magon!” Rokhaset gasped. His shocked cry was echoed by his fellows, all of whom, the Nome King included, began backing away as fast as they could.
“Figures.” I stared at the monstrous thing as it continued to uncoil. “They brought one here as a last-ditch defense.”
The Magon shrieked again, and a steady humming began to emanate from it as it stalked towards us on many sets of legs.
“Matturan!” I heard Rokhaset shout. “Run, all of you, for we cannot fight if we cannot see!”
“Well, I can see perfectly—what the . . . YOW!”
My steel weapon had brushed my hand; that fleeting contact had burned me.
“Gevalt!” Jodi cursed.
The zipper on my wetsuit was heating up. If you have never experienced the sensation of a rapidly-heating zipper, my advice is simple: avoid it at all costs.
Jodi grabbed me and dragged me backward, away, running as fast as we could from the Magon. We both tore the earphones from our heads, as they were starting to burn our ears.
“The damn thing’s radiating electromagnetic waves!” Jodi said disbelievingly. “That’s why it makes the Nomes blind—it’s overloading their senses on some level. But for us, it’s inducing eddy currents and heating every bit of metal on us!”
“Damn! Damn, damn, damn! No wonder the Lisharithada bugged out. They knew this thing was waiting back there as a last-ditch weapon.” We stopped for a breather on the far side of the cavern we’d been fighting in for so long. Two of the exits had been closed off, but one was still open. That gave me an idea.
“Hey, Rokhaset! Our real goal’s to get inside that room and break up all the crystal things, right?”
“Correct.”
“Well, that being the case, why don’t we have one group of us keep the thing chasin’ us, and the other group runs inside? That Magon thing sure doesn’t look up to opening doors, so if we can all get inside ahead of it and close the door, we’re set.”
“A worthy plan,” Rokhaset said after a pause.
“Why isn’t Rokhaset answering?” Jodi demanded. “Is he okay?”
“He is answering. I guess my electronics survived, but yours fried.”
“Some of them, anyway. Lights and all are still working.”
I glanced in the direction we’d come from. Nothing was moving in the range of the lights. “Speaking of that, I’m swapping out for the spare lights and new batteries. I can’t see the thing at all.”
That did the trick nicely, but I didn’t like what I saw. “Shoot. The darn thing’s stopped with its head right in the doorway. Rokhaset, y’all said these things were hard to control, but looks to me like this one understands ‘guard dog’ just fine.”
Jodi gazed at it speculatively. “Wonder what its range is?”
“We should probably find out. Though to be honest I dunno what we’re going to do. My pistol’s just a popgun to something like that, and no way I’m gonna get close enough to hit it with the explosives—hell, I was lucky the detonators and my pistol rounds didn’t go off when it started doing its metal-heating trick.”
“Well, I don’t have any explosives on me, and most of my stuff that’s going to fry is already toasted.” Jodi dashed forward before I could stop her.
The Magon raised its head a bit as she got closer, and that eerie, high-pitched, monotonous hum began again. Jodi snatched up her weapon, which was about thirty feet from the thing, and ran back, juggling it like a hot potato until she got back to me and dropped it on the floor to cool.
“Oy! Looks like it’s got a range around seventy-five feet. At least, it didn’t seem to be cooling off until I got out about that far. You didn’t feel anything back here, did you?”