Encyclopedia of Xanth by Jody Lynn Nye

Author:Jody Lynn Nye
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Fantasy, General, Fiction
ISBN: 9780812564174
Publisher: Tor Books
Published: 1987-07-14T22:00:00+00:00

Section 42

Alister rolls under the pillow bush to avoid the harpy's grasp. His staff is no longer within reach, so he pulls an over-ripe bolster off the bush and springs to his feet. Swinging the hard pillow with both hands, he knocks Henrietta flying to one side and she slams into a dogwood tree. The tree barks furiously as the harpy slides heavily to the ground. Her filthy wings spread wide, and she is airborne again.

Marbles joins the fight, leaping from pillow to pillow and snapping at Henrietta. After one attempt to gouge out the rock hound's eyes, she stops attacking him. Shaking one foot whose talons have been substantially blunted on the dog's skull, she turns in midair to swipe at Alister, who is sneaking up on her with the bolster. He strikes anyway, but misses. She backwings and flies at him, claws out. The smell of her feathers alone is enough to make him gag, so he pulls some sweet woodruff out of the ground and flings the ruff in a neat arc. It lands around her neck, distracting her into looking down.

"Now you smell better, Henrietta," Alister taunts, taking advantage of her inattention to hit her again with the pillow. The rock-hard bolster is beginning to leave its marks on the harpy. Her reactions are slower and she moves as if it hurts to do so. She is bleeding from a few small wounds caused by the stem end of the cushion, and there are bruises on her breasts and neck.

She screams and turns on him fiercely, knowing her advantage in this fight is waning. Her wings bat away the bolster while one claw grabs onto his tunic front and the other rakes down his chest.

The pain shoots through him like a lightning stroke. Alister gasps, his arms falling to his side. Henrietta cackles in his face. She rattles her smelly feathers and claws him again. The talons close in the flesh of his belly. "Such sweet blood, such a delicious meal for me and my sisters," Henrietta coos, her rasping voice filled with satisfaction. "You won't throw rocks in our nesting places again, will you?"

"I'll give you indigestion, you old crow!" Alister kicks upward with his knee. The movement dislodges the harpy, but she tears out a chunk of flesh when she falls away. Alister lifts the bolster over his head and brings it down on her. Marbles leaps toward her, catching the edge of Henrietta's wing in his shiny teeth. He growls and worries it. She screams and pulls away, displaying two deep dripping gouges in the wing. Marbles spits out the feathers with disgust and leaps again.

Alister watches the fight between his dog and the harpy with amazing detachment. It is as if he is seeing it through someone else's eyes. Marbles fights bravely, but his growling is getting softer and softer. Alister has to strain to hear it. He decides that it is too much trouble to watch the battle. Better to sit down against the soft pillow bush and go to sleep.

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