THE SEA HAG by David Drake

And in every image, a distorted princess scuttled to meet an equally monstrous youth.

“Wait!” Dennis shouted. His right hand touched his sword hilt—snatched itself away as intellect overcame instinct—and patted back, though without drawing the weapon.

Aria paused with a look of amazement on her face. “Darling?” she said. Then, “Ooh! What are those?”

The manikins had shuffled up the last of the staircase. They hissed and bubbled softly, their faceless visages turned toward Dennis like the eyes of retainers in Emath Palace.

“What are you?” Dennis said harshly. “Just like them, aren’t you? One more trick.”

Aria’s face jerked back as though Dennis had slapped her. “What do you mean?” she said. “I—Oh. Did you lose your memory when the sea hag held you? I’m your wife, darling. You’ve saved me from the sea hag.”

She stepped toward Dennis again with a radiant expression and her arms spread wide.

“Wait!” Dennis screamed. He thrust the baton out in front of him to ward away the princess. “You’re not really Aria!”

“Dennis?” Aria said in bewilderment. “Of course I’m Aria. You’ve reached the heart of the sea hag’s power, and she’s surrendered me to get you to leave. There’s a boat on the shore that we can take wherever we please.”

Dennis’ mouth was dry. The baton was shaking so badly that he clasped his right hand over his left to control it. “I don’t think you’re really Aria,” he said, enunciating very carefully. “I think you’re another, another sending from the sea hag, like, like those.”

He nodded toward the manikins with an awkward twitch of his head, but he couldn’t bring himself to take his eyes away from Aria—what looked to them to be Aria.

“Those things?” Aria said in horror and amazement. “Dennis, are you all—”

“Now, I’m going to touch you with this,” Dennis said firmly. He stared at the end of the baton, so that the princess’s figure blurred beyond it. “It won’t hurt you if you, if you’re Aria…”

“It will just turn me into something like—them,” the woman said with icy unconcern. “Very well, Dennis. I was willing to forfeit my life to save yours. I just didn’t realize that you’d be the one to destroy me yourself.”

“No, it’s not like that!” the youth said desperately.

“Dennis,” Aria said. He met her eyes.

In tones as precise as if she were cutting them out of stone, she went on, “If your heart has so little love in it that you can’t tell me from those things, then go ahead—strike me with your weapon. But if you do that…”

The look Aria gave him was by turns pitying and hurt. “But if you do that,” she repeated, “you and I are through forever. I can’t love a man who trusts me so little.”

Dennis’ heart froze and shrank away from him, until there seemed to be nothing in his chest but a mote as frigid as the dust between the stars.

“The fiend overcomes the wise man through cunning,” Chester murmured.

“The woman I love wouldn’t have offered that choice,” Dennis said quietly. “It remains to be seen whether I loved a real woman or a woman my mind imagined.”

The baton darted out. At the last instant, the princess tried to dodge past and embrace him—but Dennis had a warrior’s eye and a swordsman’s hand. The baton’s white tip brushed Aria’s cheek; and it wasn’t Aria, just a thing of gray-white metal that creaked as its outstretched arms settled back against its sides.

Even on this manikin there was no hint of a face. The metal was smooth, not molded into features. It wasn’t polished enough to reflect the iron certainty of Dennis’ stare.

“Where now do we go, Chester?” Dennis whispered as he watched the thing that was not Aria and felt his heart start to beat again.

“The life of the sea hag is within the pavilion, Dennis,” the robot said.

“Then we will go into the pavilion,” the youth said. His voice still lacked emotion, but the color was beginning to return to his cheeks.

Holding the baton ready, Dennis and Chester walked deliberately into the pillared structure. The feet of the manikins followed with a muted spat!/squelch/click!

Pages: 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

Leave a Reply 0

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *