[Kelvin 03] - Chimaera's Copper (with Robert E. Margroff) by Piers Anthony Page A

Maybe it was true, but the notion took some adjusting to. Was it that those two human heads counted double?

    "Could the squarears stop the chimaera?" Kelvin asked. "With their timelock?"

    "Magic is magic. Why'd they want to try?"

    Kelvin couldn't have answered. It was just a long shot, that they might get help. Long shots seemed to be their best shots, now.

    A sudden unbarring of the door drew all of their attention. The door opened enough to admit Mervania's head. She peered in at them, seeming so much the coppery-tressed woman as almost to fool them. She evidently liked doing that! Then the door swung wide and there was Mertin-head and Grumpus-head beside Mervania-head. The scorpiocrab body scuttled inside.

    Mervania looked down on them while Mertin added more food to their trough from a large bucket. Deliberately, teasingly, she lifted something large and green to her mouth and sank her pretty white teeth into it.

    Kelvin felt his stomach twist. That thing she was eating. Like a giant pickle, but--

    It was a forearm. Green, with little seeds stuck to it. Fingers, a thumb. A pickled arm.

    Kelvin's stomach heaved, but it was already empty. He was able only to retch without substance.

    "Really, Kelvin!" she said reprovingly, licking off her petite lips. "It is as you thought, a pickle. Pickled arm. Very tasty with added copper." She took another bite, her teeth now showing points.

    Kelvin retched again.

    "And you, Stapular," she continued between bites. "I'm thinking of a new recipe. First I'll dip you in lye while you're alive, and then--"

    "Mervania!" Mertin snapped. "Don't give away your recipes!"

    "Oh, all right! I'll just leave that for a surprise." She sucked on some now-fleshless fingerbones, then bit them off with a crunch. Those dainty jaws were stronger than they looked!

    "This is boring," Mertin complained. "We've slopped the stock; let's go."

    Mervania's mouth curved into a frown. "Spoilsport!" she muttered.

    Tail raised over its back, the chimaera departed.

    "Whew," Kelvin said. "Whew!" Cold sweat beaded his brow in large drops. He felt even sicker than his stomach did.

    CHAPTER 6

    Dupes by Default

    St. Helens wasn't happy about having Charley Lomax and Phillip Blastmore along. Young bloods were hot bloods and youthful self-control was not ideal. He himself had never had self-control at their ages, and look at all the trouble he'd seen! Yet the young fellows remained as good companions and took his few orders in soldierly fashion. He had been afraid that when they reached the palace in Herlin, capital city of Hermandy, there would be questions. But no guardsman of the dictator bothered the official messenger, and neither did the boys.

    King Bitler looked mean. Ornery lock of black hair over his eyes, aggressive black mustache under sharp nose, he was just plain ugly. St. Helens mused on it as he watched the king unseal and read the official letter.

    "Sean Reilly," the dictator's slightly mad voice said as his moderately mad eyes gazed down at him. "Kelvinia and Hermandy are now allies."

    "Yes, Your Majesty." And how I wish it wasn't so!

    "Our mutual enemies are the twin kingdoms of Klingland and Kance. By order of Kelvinia's King Rufurt and myself you are to be put in full command of Hermandy's armed forces. Your rank is to be commanding general. Do you accept the commission?"

    I'd better, St. Helens thought, or I'll never live to accept or decline another. You'd like that, wouldn't you, pigface!

    "I do, Your Majesty."

    "In that case you will proceed against the enemy as soon as you are issued the proper uniform." The tyrant leaned back, a palace flunky bowed to him, and then with a peremptory, sweeping gesture he motioned St. Helens out of the Royal Presence. The audience with the Hermandy king was at an end. None too soon, by his reckoning! St. Helens knew that like it or not he would be fulfilling the wishes of both Bitler and the king he suspected was Rowforth. He felt his stomach do