Titans of Chaos

Shrill screams and yells came in the near distance. I saw three or four trees flipping end-over-endthrough the blue sky above the tree line. The maenads were near, and getting nearer.

Nine or ten svelte figures in black catsuits lay prone on the wet grasses near the edge of the glade,motionless as dropped dolls. These were the Amazons I had knocked senseless when I swept alltheir controlling monads out of alignment. Only one of them was up; she was on her knees,weapon to her shoulder, and firing at her fleeing comrades-I had taken more time with the firstAmazon I struck, and implanted an entelechy, a set of instructions, into her brain atoms.

Unfortunately, now with two sirens in the area, I could not open up any energy-channels inhyperspace to pass any new instructions to my doll. Like a windup toy, she merely fired till hermagazine was empty, and then she knelt, motionless, eyes blank, finger still depressing the trigger.

I wanted to send more instructions to her, but could not. I dearly wanted to wake up all tenAmazons and have a personal force of deadly attack dolls-but hyperspace was confused andrippling. The pressure was patchy: immense in some places, weak in others. I was gettingintermediate visions from my higher senses, but it hurt to try to open my higher eyes, and mysense-impressions were uncertain and blurry.

One thing I did sense was a flare of usefulness. With a flicker of motion, I detected a little crystalmarble, one of the eyes of Lamia, sail past through the trees, not far from my position. I could notsee where the marble was with my eye-the leaves blocked my vision, and my sight was impeded bysurfaces at the moment. But that eye was so useful, for a moment, to Lamia, that I was sure shehad found me.

The pressure in hyperspace increased. Now I heard the sirens singing. My senses dimmed andwent entirely blind.

I started scrambling down from branch to branch.

Through a gap in the leaves, I saw a girl. To her lips was pressed a double-flute, and her cheekswere belled out. With her right hand (on one flute) she played a tripping melody; with her left (onthe other flute), she fingered the harmony. The reed had a buzzing quality like a recorder.