After five minutes, Hildegard started ringing the bell again. Greyboar tightened up further. He was scowling fiercely, his great shoulder muscles bunching up, the tendons in his forearms like so many steel cables.
Hildegard’s face was now bright purple. Her tongue was out a mile. Her eyes began protruding like a toad, except a toad’s eyes don’t show that horrid network of bright red veins in the eyeballs.
Ralph wasn’t looking much better. His complexion was now gray. His horns were starting to curl in. His cloven hoofs were crossed. Drops of oily sweat were pouring down his bat’s face.
Five more minutes went by. Hildegard rang the bell again. Greyboar went into overdrive. His shoulders hunched up like a bison’s. The enormous muscles in his arms were rippling like a nest of anacondas. His own face was red, and sweat was pouring off his forehead.
I was flabbergasted. Only once before had I ever seen Greyboar throw this much into a choke. That was three years before, at the Barbarian Games, when he faced the Terrible Talon in the finals. Been champion at the Games for six years running, Greyboar had—ever since he started competing, in fact—and the Terrible Talon was the only one ever really gave him a run for the title. Would have made a great rematch. Of course, rematches are unheard of in the choking event.
Even the Terrible Talon hadn’t lasted but a minute, once Greyboar hit his top speed. But Hildegard! After two minutes, the crazy woman rang the bell again! By now her face was black, her tongue was writhing like a huge worm, her eyes were almost completely out of their sockets.
Ralph quit. He looked almost dead himself. He started spasming, as if in a seizure. His hideous bat mouth opened, and out came—
The Harmony of the Spheres.
Yeah, Hildegard was right. Like nothing you’ve ever heard. It’s impossible to describe, and you can’t begin to imagine what sort of instruments could produce such music. But you can’t mistake it.
All the composers were now scratching away furiously in their sheets, their expressions combining concentration and awe.
Hildegard wasn’t just crazy, she was absolutely insane. She kept ringing the bell until the fallen angel had run through the entire score three times.
Finally, it was over. After the third run-through, Hildegard stopped ringing the bell and the Big Banjo, after glancing around quickly and seeing the nods of his fellow composers, told Greyboar to let go. The strangler staggered back and crouched over, his hands on his knees. He was gasping, for all the world like he was the one who had been choked. Hildegard leaned forward in the chair, rasping for breath, massaging her throat.
I think she recovered faster than Greyboar did. She certainly recovered faster than Ralph! The fallen angel was truly a fallen angel—flat on the floor, wailing like a lost soul. Don’t blame him, really. Later, Hildegard told me the Old Geister was so furious with Ralph that he turned him into a devil, permanent. Probably worked out for the best, though—at least the guy got a pecker out of the deal.
“Marvelous!” cried Hildegard, when she got her voice. “Oh, just marvelous!”
She turned in her chair and bestowed a look of great approval on Greyboar.
“You were simply splendid, young man! Simply splendid! Gwendolyn was certainly right—I can’t imagine a finer choke. There’ll be quite an excellent bonus for your work today, you can be sure of it.” My spirits perked right up, hearing that. “And I shall certainly not even think of hiring another chokester, should the occasion ever arise again.” She frowned slightly. “Though I can’t imagine it will. I am, after all, the Abbess of the Sisters of Tranquility.”
She turned back and bestowed a very different look on Ralph.
“You may go,” she announced haughtily. A split second later, the fallen angel vanished.
Chapter 15.
Aesthetics and Reason
After it was all over, Hildegard announced that she was
going to need a bit of rest before she did anything further. I didn’t doubt that in the least. I was amazed that the woman was still alive, much less that she didn’t really look any worse than someone who was completely exhausted.
Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151