The men-at-arms gingerly descended the steps, with Cugel marching to the rear. “Hack with a will!” he called. “There is ample glory for all! The man who fails to deal a stroke I blast by magic!”
The flickering lights shone on the pedestals, ranging in a long line to merge at last with the darkness. “Forward!” cried Cugel. “Where is this bestial being? Why does he not appear to receive his deserts?” And Cugel peered through the wavering shadows, hoping the ghoul by now would have taken alarm and fled.
To the side came a small sound. Turning, Cugel saw a tall pale shape standing quietly. The men-at-arms gasped, fled incontinently up the broad stones. “Slay the beast by magic, Exalted!” called the sergeant. “The most expeditious method is often the best!”
The ghoul came forward; Cugel stumbled back. The ghoul took a quick step forward. Cugel sprang behind a pedestal. The ghoul swung out its arm; Cugel hacked with his sword, sprang to the protection of another pedestal, then raced with great agility back across the terrace. The door was already closing; Cugel flung himself through the dwindling aperture. He heaved the door shut, and thrust home the bolts. The ghoul’s weight slammed against the timbers and the bolts creaked in protest.
Cugel turned to meet the bright-eyed appraisal of Derwe Coreme. “What ensued?” she asked. “Why did you not slay the ghoul?”
“The warriors decamped with the torches,” said Cugel. “I could see neither where to hack nor where to hew.”
“Strange,” mused Derwe Coreme. “There seemed ample illumination for so negligible an exercise. Why did you not employ the power of the amulet to rend the ghoul limb from limb?”
“So simple and quick a death is unsuitable,” stated Cugel with dignity. “I must cogitate at length, and decide how he may best expiate his crimes.”
“Indeed,” said Derwe Coreme. “Indeed.”
Cugel strode back into the great hall. “Back to the banquet! Let the wine flow! Everyone must drink to the accession of the new Lord of Cil!”
Derwe Coreme said in a silky voice, “If you please, Exalted, make some display of the power of the amulet, to gratify our curiosity!”
“Certainly!” And Cugel touched carbuncle after carbuncle, producing rumbles and groans of grievous woe, with occasionally a wail or scream.
“Can you do more?” inquired Derwe Coreme, smiling the soft smile of an impish child.
“Indeed, should I so choose. But enough! Drink one and all!”
Derwe Coreme signaled the sergeant of the guard. “Take sword, strike off the fool’s arm; bring me the amulet.”
“With pleasure, Great Lady.” The sergeant advanced with bared blade. Cugel shouted: “Stay! One more step and magic will turn each of your bones at right angles!”
The sergeant looked to Derwe Coreme, who laughed. “As I bade you, or fear my revenge, which is as you know.”
The sergeant winced, marched forward. But now an under-servitor rushed to Cugel, and under his hood Cugel saw the seamed face of old Slaye. “I will save you. Show me the amulet!”
Cugel allowed the eager fingers to grope among the carbuncles. Slaye pressed one of these, called something in a voice so exultant and shrill that the syllables were lost. There was a great fluttering, and an enormous black shape stood at the back of the hall. “Who torments me?” it moaned. “Who will give me surcease?”
“I!” cried Slaye. “Advance through the hall, kill all but myself!”
“No!” cried Cugel. “It is I who possess the amulet! I whom you must obey! Kill all but me!”
Derwe Coreme clutched at Cugel’s arm, striving to see the amulet. “It avails nothing unless you call him by name! We are all lost!”
“What is his name?” cried Cugel. “Counsel me!”
“Hold back!” declared Slaye. “I have considered —”
Cugel dealt him a blow and sprang behind the table. The demon was approaching, pausing to pluck up the men-at-arms and dash them against the walls. Derwe Coreme ran to Cugel. “Let me see the amulet; do you know nothing whatever? I will order him!”
“By no means!” said Cugel. “Am I Cugel the Clever for nothing? Show me which carbuncle, recite me the name.”
Derwe Coreme bent her head, read the rune, thrust out to press a carbuncle, but Cugel knocked her arm aside. “What name? Or we all die!”
“Call on Vanille! Press here, call on Vanille!”
Cugel pressed the carbuncle. “Vanille! Halt this strife!”
The black demon heeded not at all. There was a second great sound, a second demon appeared. Derwe Coreme cried out in terror. “It was not Vanille; show me the amulet once more!”
But there was insufficient time; the black demon was upon them.
“Vanille!” bellowed Cugel. “Destroy this black monster!”
Vanille was low and broad, and of a swimming green colour, with eyes like scarlet lights. It flung itself upon the first demon, and the terrible bellow of the encounter stunned the ears, and eyes could not follow the frenzy of the fight. The walls shuddered as the great forces struck and rebounded. The table splintered under great splayed feet; Derwe Coreme was flung into a corner. Cugel crawled after, to find her crumpled and staring, half-conscious but bereft of will. Cugel thrust the amulet before her eyes. “Read the runes! Call forth the names; each I will try in turn! Quick, to save our lives!”
But Derwe Coreme merely made a soft motion with her lips. Behind, the black demon, mounted astride Vanille, was methodically clawing up handfuls of his substance and casting it aside, while Vanille bellowed and screamed and turned his ferocious head this way and that, snapping and snarling, striking with great green arms. The black demon plunged its arms deep, seized some central node and Vanille became a sparkling green slime of a myriad parts, each gleam and sparkle flitting and quivering and dissolving into the stone.
Slaye stood grinning above Cugel. “Do you wish your life? Hand here the amulet and I spare you. Delay one instant and you are dead!”
Cugel divested himself of the amulet, but could not bring himself to relinquish it. He said with sudden cunning, “I can give the amulet to the demon.”
Slaye glared down at him. “And then we all are dead. To me it does not matter. Do so. I defy you. If you want life — the amulet.”
Cugel looked down at Derwe Coreme. “What of her?”
“Together you shall be banished. The amulet, for here is the demon.”
The black demon towered above; Cugel hastily handed the amulet to Slaye, who uttered a sharp cry and touched a carbuncle. The demon whimpered, involuted and disappeared.
