Horrors of the Dancing Gods Read Online Free PDF Page A

black armor and great bat's wings folded against their backs. Since then I've seen them again, but only in ones and twos and in the dark. Most of the time it'sbeen ones like those last night. Mercenaries and robbers hoping for some sort of reward. Well, perhaps my father's body is enough for them now!"
     
    Joe doubted it. They hadn't shown any care in taking the old boy out, yet they had bound her and had been making ready to take her someplace. No matter what, it was Alvi who was the prize here.
     
    This was getting interesting, and it had been a very long time since anything or anybody had interested Joe.
     
    A small creature, perhaps no more than a foot high, emerged from under one of the big roots . At first glance it seemed like some gigantic bug, but two four-fingered white-gloved hands, big round eyes, a round bright red glowing nose, and a purple mustache over two enormous protruding buck teeth said otherwise.
     
    "Hey, girl! Still want me to look at the halfling's bond spell?' the creature piped, whistling through its teeth. "Yes! Over here, old-timer!" Joe called.
     
    The Mossuk scurried over and looked at Alvi with a distasteful expression. "Well, don't just stand there! I can't climb up, y' know! Just set here and look the other way and I'll see what I can do about them cussed cuffs."
     
    Alvi was startled. "Um—I'm sorry!" She sat and put out her wrists as much as she could for the little creature. She realized that she was the stranger and the freak there, but all these creatures were so newand so very odd ...
     
    There wasa sudden click, and she felt the cuffs give way. The sudden pain in her shoulders as she brought her arms forward was more than compensated for by the relief of moving freely again and feeling blood course through her arms.
     
    There was a motion deep within the baggy dress. Joe could almost swear ... No, never mind.
     
    "Thanks! Maybe I can do something for you sometime!" Joe told the little creature.
     
    "Could be. Doubt it, though. No big problem here. Simple stuff. Cheap bonds, really. If you could see it clear, you could get it loose. Just a bunch of standard knots, that's all."
     
    Joe went over to Alvi as the little creature vanished back underground, stood in back of her, and began massaging Alvi's neck and shoulders as she sat, trying to get her fully back to normal.
     
    Alvi breathed an excited and heavenly sigh. "Oh, don't stop! That feels so very good!"
     
    Eventually it was time to stop, though. "Where are the rest of your things?" Joe asked her. "I'm sure you had a lot more than what I saw."
     
    "We did, but we had to leave it in a hurry. We had two pack mules, but when it was clear we were being followed, we had no choice but to leave them and hurry on."
     
    "You had no horses?"
     
    "We should have, but a wagon or surrey would have been too large and hard to manage on these kinds of roads, and I can't really handle much of a regular mount, I'm afraid."
     
    They reached the pool of fresh water. "Well, you're going to have to take off what you have in any case," Joe noted. "For one thing, you'd sink with all that on. For another, it's not practical out here. Third, they're pretty filthy and we're a long way from a laundry."
     
    "I—I'm sorry. I'm just not used to this! I mean—my whole life has been one of concealment! Now, suddenly, I'm here, with nobody I have known, and I'm—well, it is difficult. I never knew how much the monster I was until we were on this trip. There have been times—it could not be helped—when others have ... seen. And I have endured their looks, their pity, their revulsion, and whatever. You are so perfect. You cannot know what it is to be like this! You can never know how I envy you!"
     
    Joe was taken aback. Perfect? Envy me? If only she knew!
     
    But the fact was, putting aside the couple of extra inches of perfectly proportioned height and dimensions, Joe was physically about as perfect as one could be—for a wood nymph. It