meal while the otter devoured a gigantic banquet more
suitable to the appetite of Madam Lorsha’s bouncer. As
Mudge explained between mouthfuls, he’d burned up a lot
of energy this past week and wanted to make certain he
embarked on their long journey at full strength.
Only when the otter had finished the final morsel did he
lean contentedly back in his chair.
“So you say we’re goin’ to distant Snarken, wot, and
beyond, and I say there’s nothin’ beyond. Wot did ‘is nibs
say it would be like?”
“He didn’t exactly say.” Jon-Tom picked at a sweet
dessert. “Just the town where the store with the medicine
is kept.”
“Yeah, I ‘eard you say somethin’ about a town. ‘As it
got a name?”
32
Alan Dean Poster
Jon-Tom decided the bittersweet berry dessert was to his
taste, finished the last of it. “Cranculam.”
“WOT?” Mudge suddenly was sitting bolt upright,
dribbling the last traces of wrinklerry jelly from his lips as
he gaped at the man sitting across the table from him. A
few curious diners spared him a glance, returned to their
business when they saw no fighting was involved.
Mudge wiped at his sticky whiskers and spoke more
softly, eyeing Jon-Tom sideways. “Wot did you say the
name o’ this dump was, guv’nor?”
“Crancularn. I see you’ve heard of it.”
” ‘Hard of it, you’re bloody well right I’ve ‘card of it.
That’s a place o’ the dead, mate.”
“I thought there wasn’t anything beyond Snarken.”
“Not supposed to be, mate, but then, nobody knows
where this Crancularn is supposed to be either, except that
it moves about from time to time, like lice, and that