Horrors of the Dancing Gods by Jack L. Chalker Read Free Book Online

or both may gain a reward up to ten pieces of gold for submitting that information to a Consul, upon verification of the information by us. Note: creature will probably be disguised as human girl, possibly asthe Duke's daughter.' Creature! The nerve of them, whoever they are!"
     
    Joe understood the poster a lot more clearly than did the girl, knowing the type of people it would be going to. In point of fact, Alvi really was more creature than human and probably one of a kind at that, but putting it that way kind of ensured that she'd be delivered intact. It was a pretty effective sexual "keep off the grass" statement for thugs. "That's all it says? There is nothing else?"
     
    "No. Nothing more. Except this little thing down here that says 'Local 286, KBRSS.' "
     
    "Kidnappers, Brigands, Rogues, Scoundrels, and Sappers Union, printing division," Joe explained offhandedly. "Never mind about them. The fact is, you are not described."
     
    "Huh? That's my face there! As good a drawing asI've ever seen! In fact, if things were normal, I'd probably try and buy the original for my wall!"
     
    "Doesn't matter. The point is, because they're dealing with such crooked wretches, they didn't want to give anything at all away about how you differ from human or faerie normal. If they did, every Consul on the planet would be deluged with fake Alvis rigged up with fake arms, fake breasts, fake tails, even enchanted ringers that looked legit for all the world. But so long as you're one of a kind, asI think you are, there's no way to find out just what makes you different, so they have to deliver the real thing."
     
    "But what good does that do?"
     
    "Faces are easy. It's overall form that's hard. It's not that rough to do a little safe makeover of you so that you won't look anything like this sketch, and they wouldn't be looking real closely at the face, anyway. Short of you bumping into somebody who knows a lot of details, like one of those Consuls, the odds are pretty good that we can disguise you so that you can move around safely. Then maybe we can start trying to figure this thing out."
     
    "But why would the Alganzia want me?"
     
    "Not the Alganzia. If what you've told me about them is true, they're just middlemen, probably hired to do this for somebody or other, some client. Some very rich, very powerful, very important client, I have to say, if they risk being directly named like that on a broadside. The fact that they deal in black magic and darkest sorcery says a lot, too." For the first time Joe wondered if this had anything to do with the rising pervasive feeling of evil and malaise that was spreading throughout the whole land. Something was rising, something at least as powerful and evil as Boquillas and the crazy mad sorcerers and rebel Prince of Hell she'd already faced. What was it? Every five or ten years or at least once every generation?
     
    Why, she just might have accidentally stumbled into something as nasty and bizarre as anything in the history of this twisted world!
     
    Of course, she didn't really believe she could have that kind of luck, but maybe. Who could say for sure?
     
    She reached down, found the pouch with the gold, and brought it over to Alvi. The halfling looked at it, gasped at the amount in there, then frowned, reached in, and pulled out her father's ring. Joe had stuck it in there for safekeeping.
     
    "Sorry. Thought I told you about that," the nymph commented. "It was all I could really salvage."
     
    "It's—it's more than enough." She took it, found the ring finger of her top right hand, and slipped it on. It was much too loose, of course, but ...
     
    Suddenly there was a bright flash from the ring, and her whole hand seemed bathed in an eerie, unearthly glow. Joe was asstartled as Alvi, and both could see the intricate strands of a previously hidden spell there.
     
    Alvi nervously pulled the ring off her finger, and the glow died. "Some kind of spell! A trap!"
     
    "No, no!" Joe