Titans of Chaos

You picked unwisely. Your fate was sealed.

Today you die, ladies: You have my word.

For the Father of Lies, you made yourselves whores,

Thought you could cheat Hell? One final lie,

To sucker you into the hell of his wars

But I tell it straight, ladies: Today you die.

For war is chaos, and Chaos is ours!

And, as he sang, the mountainside danced. Break-dancing, I guess you could call it. Slam dancing.

Avalanche dancing. And once the rocks and boulders started doing pirouettes and tumbling tricks,the fires started from the incendiaries and explosions of the Victor-dragon wanted to join in.

Rolling balls of flame many yards wide, surrounded by billowing black smoke, now hopped andleaped and rocked and rolled all up and down the slope, tossing battalions in the air, quaking withlaughter made of yellow flame.

Quentin floated or was drawn upward by a smoke shape that issued from his cloak. Surroundedby wraithlike shapes of mists and motes, Quentin raised his hands and found a white staff in them.

He stepped out onto the deck and stood in the shadow of the giant worm-thing. Pointing hisbright wand, he spoke. "Spirits with whom I have a pact: I unleash you from my wrist as a falconupon my prey. Seize my foes and hold them helpless."

He threw the wand to the deck behind him; it blazed too brightly for any eye to look upon,brighter than a lightning flash, but silent. His shadow was cast upward.

His flesh turned into fine clay, pale and immobile.

The sky from one horizon to the zenith turned black as ink and fell down on the enemy army. Thiswas the real Quentin, too large to fit in any mortal body.

I said to Vanity, "Open a trapdoor beneath them."

Vanity said, "Can I do that? My powers are not working here. Besides, I can't get a door thatbig."

Victor, speaking over the cell phone in her pocket, said in a small, tinny voice: "I have beenstabilizing the matter in the area. Try it again."

The dragon breathed out an azure hurricane. The black sky-stuff rolling over the screaming armyturned to a slick black glass. The screams stopped. Movement stopped. I could see dim figures ofwomen trapped inside it, flies in amber.

Vanity opened a trapdoor no bigger than my fist. It was enough for me. I rotated the whole massof the trapped army into four-space, folded it into two and then one dimension, made it into apoint, and sent it through the opening.

When the army reached the chaos, I released the pressure of the dimensional fold.