Anthony, Piers - Xanth 13 - Isle of View by Anthony Piers

Author:Anthony, Piers
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf

Click here to buy

w

w

w

w

w

o m

.

w

A B B YY.c "I'll tell him to find the noose with the stick through it. He won't move until it's there to find."

.A B BYY.com

The roar of the approaching horde was getting louder. They did not have time to waste. "Okay, I guess,"

he said.

"Who tries first?" Nada asked.

"She does," Godiva said, "because I chose the game."

Dolph was impressed. Not only was the gobliness a remarkably comely example of her kind-he wished he could see more of her, but her hair somehow always managed to fall into the path of anything interesting, obscuring it-she seemed both sensible and fair.

Electra took her stick, pondered the dirt briefly, and poked it in. She glanced at the cat, but Sammy seemed to be asleep. So much for that aspect! Electra twisted her stick and brought up the end, but there was no string on it. The way she had done it, she probably would have brought up the noose, it she had speared it.

Godiva stuck her stick in another place, but came up similarly empty.

Electra tried again, and missed again. So did the gobliness. The smooth patch of dirt was getting messed up by the failed attempts, but that did not necessarily make future prospects easier, Dolph realized; the loop might be right alongside of a failed effort, under the stirred-up dirt.

As the game went on, and the hullabaloo of the approaching horde grew, Dolph had a disreputable thought: suppose Metria was having her idea of fun with them? Suppose she had put the noose

somewhere else so that it would never be found no matter how long they dug-until distracted by that, they allowed themselves to be caught by the horde? What a laugh!

Yet the demoness knew that Dolph alone could hold off the horde. He had done so before, by assuming the form of the Gap Dragon. He could do it by becoming a huge sphinx, threatening to step on them, or an invisible giant, whose mere stink would gag them, or a salamander, setting fire to them. So the horde was no longer a real threat. So it made no sense for Metria to do that. She would get more amusement from watching the party settle its conflict of interests in a civilized manner. Demons did not understand civilization, having none themselves. She would also be entertained if Godiva won, because then he would have to help take Che to Goblin Mountain, and he wouldn't like that at ail, and she knew that.

How fascinating she found his trials of conscience!

Could she have somehow rigged it so that Godiva would win, then? Dolph didn't see how. So he just had to assume that she was playing it straight, and hope.

Electra came up with something. She squealed with girlish excitement-she was sort of cute when she did that, he noticed with mild surprise-and brought up her stick. There was something hanging on it. But it was a root.

Play continued. Then Godiva put in her stick-and Sammy the cat jumped. It was so sudden that it startled them all.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.