Out of Phaze

“Surprised you, didn’t I!” the Citizen’s voice came from the toothy maw of the monster. Then it lurched right over the staff, those teeth coming for Bane’s face.

Bane snatched the goblin sword from its mooring with his left hand. He drove the point at the demon’s gaping mouth. The blade went in, puncturing the back of the mouth. Again there was a crackle, and the monster became nonfunctional.

Bane pulled out the sword and replaced it in his belt. “Aye, this be an easy game.”

“But don’t you see,” Agape said. “Each time you kill one, another comes. And they seem to know where we are! The Citizen must be able to see us, before he animates a robot!”

“What wouldst thou have me do?” Bane asked, irritated. “Not kill a monster?”

“Maybe that would be best,” she said.

“Let it kill me instead?” he demanded acidly.

“No, Bane. Just—avoid it for a while. So that no new one can come. Better to retain the known danger, than to bring on an unknown one. After all, there’s a lot of time—a whole week, and—“

“Flee from a goblin or a harpy I could readily kill? What kind of man would folk take me for then?”

“A sensible one!” she flared.

“It be not sensible to leave an enemy creature on my tail!”

“But Bane, don’t you see, there are things we don’t understand—“

“I understand well enough!” he retorted. ‘Thou dost not like to hurt robots!”

“That’s not true! It’s just that—“

“Get away from me, woman!” he cried. “I need not counsel of the like of this!”

“Well, if you feel that way—!”

“Aye. Go thine own way, and let me be.”

She gazed at him for a moment, then turned and walked away. Bane watched her go, furious at her betrayal, then struck for higher ground. He wanted to get where he could look about, to see whether there was something watching him, such as one of the magic screens.

Just to be sure, he made a loop: he circled carefully, and stopped just before he crossed his own prior trail. If something were following him, this should foil it. Nothing did; all he saw was another deer, browsing amidst the leaves of a copse of small trees. He settled down and kept quiet, so as not to disturb it. When it spooked, he would know something was coming.

His thoughts returned to Agape. She had supported him so loyally, until now; why had she started second-guessing his strategy, that was so obviously successful? He had proved himself readily able to handle the assorted imitation creatures the Citizen had sent against him; she should have been satisfied with that!

There was a thunk beside him. Bane jumped. There was a feathered arrow in the trunk of the tree he squatted near. He was being attacked!

He scrambled away as another arrow whistled through his region. He dived behind another trunk. This time the Citizen was striking from a distance; neither staff nor short sword could do much about that!

How had the man found him, and come up behind him, without even alerting the deer? Bane’s loop had made no difference. The Citizen had not followed his trail, but had simply arrived at his location.

Bane poked his head around the tree, trying to spot the Citizen. But another arrow swished by, too close. The Citizen has good aim!

“Now let’s see you club me in the head!” the Citizen called.

Had the man come in person, this time? If so, the Citizen was taking a serious chance, for he was fat and slow, while Bane was young and fast.

Another arrow thunked into the ground just beyond Bane’s tree. But this one was different. It sparkled. In a moment the dry grass and leaves of the forest floor were burning. A fire-arrow!

Bane went to stamp out the fire—but another normal arrow whizzed by his head, and he had to retreat. But the fire was spreading rapidly toward him. Soon he would have to move, or get burned. But when he moved, he would become vulnerable to the arrows of the Citizen!

He had no choice. He saw the deer running by, spooked by the smoke, in its alarm actually cutting past the fringe of the fire and leaping toward the Citizen. Well, maybe that would distract the man for the necessary instant!

Bane charged for the next tree. But an arrow passed ahead of him, making him dive to the ground.

“I’ve got you covered, apprentice!” the Citizen called, striding forward, his bow ready, the next arrow already nocked. “You weren’t as much competition as I had hoped, after all. Too bad.”

Bane scrambled up. The Citizen’s bow moved to track him with unerring accuracy. He had no chance!

Then the deer hurtled into the Citizen. Both fell to the ground. Bane, amazed, nevertheless grasped his opportunity; he launched himself in that direction, intending to club the Citizen before the bow came back into play.

But he discovered that the job had already been done. The deer was striking at the man’s head with its sharp front hooves, and the head was crackling. It had been another robot, fashioned into a man’s image, and it had been put out of commission.

But by a wild animal?

Then Bane caught on. “Agape!” he exclaimed.