Man From Mundania (41 page)

"Thank you," Grey said, uncertain what she meant.

He guided Ivy back the way they had come. Nada and

Electra followed, pausing only to thank the Muse individ-

ually for her attention. Soon they were on their way back

down the mountain.

The descent was hardly less arduous than the ascent.

Ivy's tears in due course condensed to sniffles, and then

to mere depression. She had evidently put more hope in

this than she had let on. Grey's mood was hardly better.

To have come so close to an answer, only to have that

hope dashed—

"Are we far enough away?" Electra asked.

Ivy stared at her dully. "For what?" Grey asked.

"To talk."

"Maybe we should get the rest of the way down, before

we relax," Grey said, not certain what she had in mind.

She looked disappointed. "I suppose so. But I'm about

ready to burst!"

Grey looked around. "Oh. Well, there're bushes around.

We could wait while you—"

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Man from Mundania

She laughed. "Not physically, dope! Mentally! With my

news!"

"Tell us your news when we're clear of Parnassus,"

Nada said. She was in her giri-headed-serpent form, slid-

ing fairly readily down the slope.

They resumed their motion. In due course they reached

the fork in the path. But they had hardly gone beyond it

before there was a clamor from below.

Ivy came to life. "The Maenads!" she exclaimed.

"They're below us!"

"And the Python," Nada said, changing briefly to full

snake form, then back. "I smell them both, now. They

must have crossed the path and smelled our scent."

"We must run!" Ivy said, flustered.

"We're too tired," Nada pointed out. "Even fresh, we

could not go faster than those, monsters."

"Maybe if we split up," Grey suggested. "That might

confuse them, and they might go the wrong way—"

"Which wrong way?" Ivy asked. "If some of us are

each way—"

"I'll decoy them!" Gray said. "You three go back up

the path where your scent already is, and I'll run down

the other and make a noise to attract them.''

"But you don't know the first thing about this moun-

tain!" Ivy protested.

"It's my responsibility," he replied. "I—"

The noise below grew abruptly louder. The Maenads

were rounding a curve and would soon be upon them.

"Go!" Grey cried, pointing to the path they had just

come down. He himself ran down the other.

Ivy and Electra turned and started up. Nada was on the

other side of him; she assumed woman form and started

to step across just as he began running. They collided.

At another time he might have found this event inter-

esting, for Nada was contoured somewhat like soft pil-

lows. But in this rush he was afraid he had hurt her.

"Nada! Are you—"

He broke off, for she had disappeared. Realizing that

she had changed form to avoid falling to the ground, he

ran on. She would join the others, in one form or another,

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and they would hide. All he had to do was decoy the mon-

sters.

He slowed, and glanced back. There was a Wild

Woman! She was indeed naked, with flaring tresses and a

figure suggestive of an hourglass. She was gazing up the

path the others had taken.

"Over here, nymph!" Grey called, waving his arms.

Her head turned, rotating on her shoulders as if mounted

on ball bearings. Now he saw her eyes. They were in-

sanely wild. He had not taken these Wild Women seri-

ously, but those eyes sent a chill through him. This was

no sweet young thing; this was a rabid tigress!

The Maenad launched herself in his direction, uttering

a harsh shriek of hunger. Her legs were beautiful, her

breasts were beautiful, her face was beautiful, but that

shriek was spine-tingling. She opened her mouth, and he

saw her pointed teeth, and saw her tongue flick out the

way Nada's had when she was in serpent form. There

seemed to be candle flames inside her eyeballs. "YUM!"

she screamed, reaching for him with hands whose nails

were like blood-dipped talons.

Grey spun about and resumed his running. But the Wild

Woman was fast; she kept pace. He couldn't draw far

enough ahead of her to get off the path and hide; he had

to keep going. He heard the screams of the other Maenads

farther behind. They sounded just as bloodthirsty.

The path twisted as if trying to make him stumble, but

he ran with the surefootedness of desperation and kept up

speed. He began to leave the Maenad behind. But now his

breath was puffing, and he was tiring rapidly; he had not

been fresh when he started. He could have used a dose of

Ivy's Enhancement!

He had had the bright idea to be the decoy. It had been

the gallant thing to do. But now he was in trouble. How

was he going to get out of this?

Something touched his chest at his breast pocket. He

reached up, thinking it was a snag of a branch—and felt a

tiny snake. Its head was poking out of the pocket.

For an instant he felt shock. Then his fevered mind put

two and two together. "Nada!" he gasped.

190 Man from Mundania

Indeed it was she. Instead of falling to the ground, where

she might have been trodden on, she had evidently clung

to his shirt and slipped into his pocket. In his preoccu-

pation with the Maenads, he had not noticed.

"Sorry I got you into this!" he puffed. "I don't know

where I'm going, but I don't dare stop!"

The snake did not reply, which was perhaps just as well.

At least she understood that it had been an accident.

Despite his tiring, he was leaving the leading Maenad

farther behind. Was she also tiring or merely hanging back

to allow the others of her ilk to catch up? He might have

turned and dealt with one, though he did not like the idea

of striking a lovely bare woman. But he knew he would

have no chance against the pack of them.

But if he got far enough ahead, he could dodge off the

path and hide. They would charge on past, and then he

would return to the path and run the other way. He hoped.

If he went off the path and they winded him, he would be

in deep mud for sure!

He rounded a bend. Suddenly he was charging toward

a pretty spring. Another hate spring? The others had con-

cluded from the evidence of the Tapestry that that one had

been valid, but had somehow lost its potency by the time

he and Ivy reached it. Certainly it had not worked on

them! But there was no guarantee that this one would be

similarly powerless. In fact it might be a love spring. It

glimmered with a pale reddish hue, as if potent with some

kind of magic. Suppose he splashed through it, then saw

a Maenad?

These thoughts flitted through his pulsing brain as he

ran toward it. By the time they had run their course, he

was almost at it. He veered to avoid it, but stumbled; only

by frantic windmilling did he stop himself from pitching

headfirst into the water.

Nada fell from his pocket and splashed into the spring.

Appalled, he watched the little snake thrashing. Should he

reach in and pull her out? Then he would be affected too!

She changed to her human form. She shook the water

from her eyes and looked directly at him. "Hey, hi, hand-

some!" she exclaimed.

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191

Well, it wasn't a hate spring! "Nada, get out of there!

The Wild Women are coming!"

She hiccuped. "No! You come in! It's nice!"

Was it a love spring? He didn't dare touch it! "Get

out!" he repeated. "If they catch you they'll tear you

apart!"

But she demurred. She sat in the shallow water, her

breasts lifting clear and dripping. Even in this danger, he

was struck by her sex appeal. She might be half serpent,

but she was all woman! "Come in! You'll like it!" she

invited. She hiccuped again. "This wine's wonderful!"

"You're intoxicated!" he exclaimed, catching on.

"No, I'm drunk!" she corrected him. "This must be

the Maenad's wine spring. Pretty soon I'll be raving wild

just like them! What fan!"

Now the Maenads came into sight. They spied Nada in

the wine spring, and screamed with outrage.

There was no help for it. He had to haul her out of there

before the wild woman got their claws on her. He would

just have to resist the intoxicating effect of the water.

Grey waded in. The water was bathwater warm, and felt

somehow soft against his legs as it soaked his trousers.

He reached down to take hold of Nada.

"Oooo, goody!" she exclaimed, reaching up to em-

brace him.

"None of that!" he rapped. "Come on out! We have to

run!" But she was slippery with the wine-water, and his

hands merely slid over her marvelous flesh, stroking

regions they should not.

"Oooo, fan!" she said, wrapping her arms around his

neck and hauling his face in for a wet and sloppy kiss. He

turned his face aside, but that was the least of his prob-

lems.

He couldn't get her out! She was too slippery and too

affectionate. Meanwhile the Wild Women were charging

in; already it was too late to escape them. He would have

to try to fight them.

"Change into your snake form!" he told Nada. "Get

back in my pocket! I'll need both hands free to shove

them away; I can't hold on to you."