Slaves of the Volcano God by Gardner Craig Shaw

Author:Gardner, Craig Shaw [Gardner, Craig Shaw]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-03-25T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER

^^ 12 ^^

"Now we've done it!" Big Louie moaned.

"Done what?" Roger asked. "What can happen to us in the middle of the desert?"

Louie mopped his brow with his neckerchief. "You mean, besides becoming victims of the elements, with no food or water, baked during the day and frozen at night, at the mercy of the desert sands?"

Roger admitted Louie had a point.

"And that's not the worst of it!" the small man continued. "What happens if Doctor Dread figures we're alone and comes back to get us?"

Roger sighed. If there was one problem with Louie, it was his slight tendency to get hysterical. "Doctor Dread has just escaped to some other place—some place in a Cineverse so vast we can't even begin to guess where it is," he replied evenly. "Why would he want to come back after us?"

Louie's gaze was still rather panic-stricken. He made a small mewling sound in the back of his throat.

Roger decided he'd try again. He calmly waved at his surroundings. "Besides, this isn't as bad as all that, is it? We sang ourselves out here only a few hours ago. If Doc can sing them back to Sagebrush, why can't I do the same for us?"

"Oh, yeah?" Louie laughed hysterically. "Where do you think Doc got the guitar?"

Roger looked back at his now empty saddlebags.

"He's got my guitar?" Roger hesitated, feeling a bit of Louie's panic himself. "Oh, dear. And does Movie Magic work—"

"If you don't have a guitar?" Louie shook his head as he finished Roger's sentence for him. "Unfortunately, it's one of the Laws of the West. You either need a guitar, or a full orchestra, or you're stuck riding all the way back."

"A full orchestra?" Roger asked incredulously.

But Louie only nodded complacently. "You'd be surprised how handy they are, especially when you're singing songs about lovely Spanish señoritas."

The small man frowned as he changed the subject.

"And you're wrong about Doctor Dread, too. He does have a reason to come back.

You see, I can find him."

"Oh," Roger replied. Was this good news or bad news? Good, he guessed, because it gave him a destination in his quest to rescue Delores. Then again, what wasn't so good was that—if Doctor Dread knew he might be pursued— the villain or one of his assistants could show up at any minute to put Roger and Louie "out of the way," as the Doctor would put it.

Of course, Roger realized upon reflection, this whole train of thought could be nothing more than the result of Big Louie's paranoia.

"Uh-oh," Big Louie whispered.

There was a cloud of dust before them where there had been nothing but desert before.

Then again, Roger thought, this whole train of thought could be totally, even overwhelmingly justified paranoia.

He stared into the dissipating dust, expecting at any second to discern a tall, thin man decked in signature snake-skin. And, indeed, he spotted a lone figure, walking toward them through the murky yellow cloud. However, instead of shiny black or green, the man in the dust

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