“What in the world—” Helena began.
“It’s Pearlamon and Gonius, at it again!” Hogar the Poisoner said. He put the raspberry-apple back in the basket, turned and hurried into the main hall, his robes fluttering behind him.
“Who are Pearlamon and Gonius?” Jessie asked Tesserax.
“Two gods,” the alien said.
They followed Hogar into the corridor and saw the source of the thumping racket that was still going on. In the middle of the hall, half-way back toward the elevators, two huge maseni males, dressed in little loincloths and headbands, were wrestling, tossing each other into the walls, lacking and punching and twisting ears, battering noses and pulling hair and biting necks.
“Maseni gods are a lively sort,” Tesserax explained. “They always have to be up to something. Wrestling, boxing, engaging in relay races, drinking and singing…”
“Well, anyway,” Jessie said, “it’s not going to get dull around here.”
Chapter Nineteen
That same night, Jessie woke in the dark bedroom and found something soft and warm filling his mouth. For a moment, he suspected someone was trying to jam a pillow down his throat, but when he came fully awake, he realized the truth. He and Helena had gone to sleep while lying on their sides, facing each other; in the hours since, he had slid toward the foot of the bed, and now he held one of her delectable, round breasts in his mouth. Or part of one of her breasts, anyway. It was difficult, if not impossible, he knew, to hold all of one of Helena’s breasts in his mouth.
He relaxed when he realized no one was trying to smother him. He would have been perfectly content to remain like that, nipple on his tongue, until morning, had he not heard the sound that—he realized upon hearing it once more—had originally awakened him: a moan.
He tensed, staring into the darkness.
Silence.
Imagination?
Then it came again, a low and agonized cry that originated either in the drawing room of the suite or from the corridor beyond. It cut across his spine like an ice pick and ended his sleepy satisfaction. He let go of Helena’s breast and drew gently away from her, sat up and listened for the sound to come again.
It did: louder, more drawn out, more agonized than ever, like the cry of a man who knew he was rapidly dying….
Jessie slid out of bed, felt around on the floor and found his robe, put it on and belted it tightly around the waist. His narcotics dart gun was on the dresser, and he managed to pick it up, check that the magazine was in place and slip it in a robe pocket without waking anyone. He walked quietly into the drawing room and stood there in the darkness, waiting.
Again: moaning.
Now, he realized that the injured party—whoever or whatever it was—was in the corridor beyond the drawing room. Moving quickly across the room, he pulled the door open and looked into the dimly lit hallway. One of the gods lay there, in front of the door, sprawled on his back, his hefty arms thrown out at his sides, his legs spread like two lifeless hunks of dark blubber. His tentacles wriggled senselessly as he groaned.
Jessie bent over the prostrate giant and looked into the amber eyes. “What’s the matter?”
“I’ve been done in,” the god said.
“Poisoned?”
“Ah, that dastardly Hogar!” the god said, and he moaned twice as loudly as before. “He’ll do anything for a price.”
“What can I do to help you?” Jessie asked.
The tentacles wriggled more quickly than ever. “Nothing. Nothing at all! I have been dealt a foul intestinal blow, and I must succumb. But don’t fear, my friend. I know who paid the dastardly Hogar, and I will seek revenge in my next life! It was Pearlamon, that odorous piece of godflesh, that pretender to true divinity!”
“What’s going on here?” Helena asked. She had come, nude, from the bedroom and stood in the doorway, blinking her eyes.
Brutus appeared at her side and said, “Skullduggery.”
“Exactly!” the god roared. “I had consumed but a cup of broth when the convulsions took me. I staggered this far and collapsed, seeking help. Now I am all but paralyzed, and I know help cannot be obtained. I die, I die!” Down the hall, Tesserax’s door opened, and the maseni official came swaying toward them, nodding his bulbous head. “What’s wrong with you, Gonius?”