Golem in the Gears Read Online Free PDF Page B

him, and Grundy was dependent on them to carry the bed. He had no choice. "I guess that's what we'll do, then," he agreed reluctantly.
    "First let's get a good night's sleep," Bink said. "We'll have some heavy traveling coming up."
    "But we have to travel by night!" Grundy protested.
    "That's true," Bink agreed. "I had forgotten. Well, let's get a good night and day's sleep, and be fresh for tomor- row night."
    Grundy chafed at the delay. Then he remembered Stella Steamer, the lady Gap Dragon, and decided that delay was no bad thing. What a bad beginning for this Quest!
    Grundy worried that someone from Castle Roogna would discover them, as they were not very far from it,
    but still their luck held. That was gratifying, of course, yet still he felt out of sorts. This was supposed to be his Quest, but the others seemed to be running things pretty much their way. He was still just a golem, the least con- sequential of creatures.
    The following evening, well-rested, they started off. Grundy rode Snortimer, and had to admit that the monster got around quite well. The only problem was the wan moonlight; Snortimer would not venture into even that dim illumination, and plowed through the densest brush to avoid it. Since the magic path tended to be open, quite a lot of it was moonlighted, so Grundy spent half his time off the path. However, Snortimer's big hairy hands grasped the brush with sure grips and seemed unbothered by even the thickest tangles, and soon Grundy stopped being con- cerned.
    After an hour or so, they came to a surprise: a detour. A dark sign blocked the path. Grundy approached it until he was able to make out the print, even in the shadow. It said:
    "CONSTRUCTION: D-Tails @ Shopping Centaur."
    "That's odd," Bink remarked. "I hadn't heard about work on the magic paths."
    "Well, we might as well go leam the details," Chester said. "They seem to be at a good place."
    He was a centaur; naturally he saw nothing odd about the location. But Grundy didn't like this.
    They took the indicated side trail. They had been pro- ceeding north, toward the Gap Chasm; the detour took them east. The path seemed all right, but Grundy remained uneasy. He had never heard of a magic path being closed off for construction.
    Soon they came to the shopping centaur. This turned out to be not a place but a creature: a lady centaur carrying a huge shopping bag. She carried a lamp, which made Snortimer scurry to cover in the shadow off-trail, so that Grundy did not hear her dialogue with Bink and Chester.
    In a moment she continued on her way, and Grundy was able to rejoin the others. "She says the tails belong to the Bulls and Bears, and to be careful," Bink said. "The Bulls always go up, while the Bears go down, and
    it can get violent."
    "What are Bulls and Bears?" Grundy asked. "Mundane animals. Some must have strayed." Bink
    evidently wasn't worried.
    They moved on. The detour continued roughly east,
    evincing no intention of turning north. Grundy's discom- fort increased. He wasn't eager to encounter the Gap Dragoness, but this eastward drift was only wasting time
    and effort.
    As the first wan light of dawn threatened ahead of
    them, Snortimer got nervous, and they had to make camp. They found an open field, and Chester pitched the bed there, and the Bed Monster scooted under it just before
    the light brightened.
    Chester and Bink went foraging for food. Grundy, tired,
    simply lay down on the bed and slept. That aspect was very convenient; he would always have a comfortable
    place to retire.
    Grundy woke abruptly. The sun was shining down
    slantingly, and creatures were all around him. At first he thought Bink and Chester had returned, but this was not the case; instead, a herd of huge four-footed, hooved crea- tures were milling around the bed. They seemed to be heedless of the bed's presence, and Grundy was afraid
    they would knock it over and thus expose Snortimer's retreat to the direct sunshine. That would be disaster! "Hey!" he