prodded izzy over, grabbed a couple of torched, and cleared a space buy singeing

anyone within reach. in a minute

the place was reeling with screams and the stench of burnt hair. after adamantly
whispering in izzy s ear, micah
walked back to amantu, jabbing a finger repeatedly at able as she strode. "watch
him!" malachi obediently buised himself with
abel. micah yanked back the professor s head. "okay," he breathed. "we s all set.
you two meets in the
center and you kicks the fat boy in the nuts just once. don t let him do you back!
i
telled him you d be instructed to faint-and-perry, so he won t be ready. it s what
we calls a
internal double-cross, just like what you done on him what taked it for us". his
eyes sizzled. "you remember how
to pull a fast one now, don t you, senator?" the prisoners were pushed face to
face. malachi released izzy,
who stood sagging like an abandoned marinette. "right in the nuts!" micah hissed,
and backed away. after half a minute
izzy open his puffy, oil-soaked eyes. trembling all over, he threw out his arms,
sobbed, "oh. . . hammer!"
and fell into the professor s wide embrance. "f-f-forfeit!!" malachi screamed,
stamping in circles while amantu stroked izzy s filthy
crown. "forfeit my hoary white arse!" micah socked amantu upside the head. the
professor didn t dudge. cussing up a
storm, the brute tore off his gloves and reached past o torn-gold shoulder for izzy
s collar. he was absolutely
stood chin to chin, their eyes locked. "know good fighting blood," the hammer said
evenly, "when you smell it," malachi
shrieked with anticipation. picking up on the excitement, the hundreds of babbing
crawlers made for the source, mucking up the
ring in the process. malachi waded through the prostrate swarm hissing, braining as
many as he could reach with a
torch-head. "sometime," micah mumbled. 'sometime soon". he grabbed an old man and
worked him over furiously for malachi s sake,
watching the stalwart professor all the while. amantu turned away. with malachi
distracted, abel was able to join his friends.
the reformed group, cowed by torches, were knocked wall-to-wall through the mob
like caroming billard balls. the flow halted at
the opening to low, untlit cave, where men and women began flogging themselves and
coughing out strange garbled sentences,
apparently directed to the tiny cave s interior. inside it was absoultely black.
micah threw his left arm around amantu
s neck, his right arm around the necks of abel and izzy, and pulled all three
together until the men
s crouns were touching. he was an immensely strong man, and he stank terribly, even
in this foul place. he
laid his bone-white chin on the moist nest of their contiguous heads and called
into the little hole. "we gone
and captured us the barberus! caught him and his pretty fairy-mates up in the
citydel. he s been taked to
the stone hollow now, but mama ll be wanting the little dots on these three flitty-
flight fancies". he gave amantu a
big smacking kiss on his hot wooly crown, and with that the group were kicked
headlong into the dark. they
immediately drew into tight seated huddle, panting frantically, nursing their sores
while theit eyes adjusted. bad as it was
outside, this little hellhole reeked videly. micah, crouching in the entrance, spat
out, "don t even think about leaving till
he s donw with you! you make us chase you again and i swears to the almighty soul
we ll
put and end to you, splickety-splat, and right where we catched ye. so keeps your
butts level, and your eyes
straight ahead. we ll be right here waiting, and boy, will we be watching". at a
barked command, malachi hunched
just outside the cave s mouth, using his spread doak to block the light. izzy
shuddered as he dung. "this
abuse must end! this abu . . . i can t brea- i can t brea-i can t brea-" "hang on,
man!" abel whispered. "i m right here". izzy slapped him furiously. right here!
where were you ten minutes ago,
when i and the hammer were standing off a madman?" abel smacked him right back.
"getting my teeth singed, you
miserable little turncoat". he craned and squinted in the dark. "what did he mean,
done with us? until who s
done with us?" the group froze a primitive dread of dens and lairs made them read
strange shapes out of
common contours. every little nook and protuberance demanded varying measures of
attention, but soon all eyes were fixed on a
single, too regular bulge that seemed to be pumping out of the pitch. the possle
approached in lunges and slithers, his
grostesque body dipping and rising side-to-side. he was unable to move otherwise,
as all four limbs had been amputated long
ago, leaving simple chubby outgrowths at the shoulders and hips. there were no
eyes, only black sockets that appeared to
search the dark. as the men backed away the heaving horror froze, and for perhaps
half a minute the head
felt the cave, rolling left and right a centimeter at a time. it took abel to break
the silence. "you
poor wretch. who did this to you?" the possle came directly at him, waving his
stumps for balance when he
was a yard away he stopped and raised his head like a sea lion. his struggles to
articulate were expressed
in sucks and whistles. "mama say possle stay, serve mama: good limb make bad
possle, mama say possle not see
elesewhere: good eyes see bad thing. mama say possle talk too much". he showed them
the wagging nub of his
severed tongue. "now good possle". he flopped round to each man in turn. "mama say
possle test all man-one man,
two man, three. all man three man-sell thief to punchus pilot. mama say thief
belong mama". "oh mercies!" izzy