and I will tell you whether you are likely to live.'
Then Guest told the demon of the plan which he had hatched with Sken-Pitilkin, drawing on Sken-Pitilkin's by- now-detailed knowledge of the various Doors of the Partnership Banks.
The questing heroes would venture through the Circle of the Partnership Banks to the city of Obooloo. The Door in that city was housed in the Sanctuary of the Bondsman's Guild, a structure which stood atop a tall triangular rock known locally as Achaptipop, from which it was possible to overlook the Temple of Blood.
By studious reconnaissance, Sken-Pitilkin had already determined the layout of the Temple of Blood. It was built around a central courtyard in which stood a Burning Pit into which human sacrifices were periodically cast.
'From the Sanctuary of the Bondsman's Guild,' said Guest, 'we will overlook that Burning Pit. Sken-Pitilkin plans to improvise a flying ship. He will not build a full-scale stickbird. Rather, he will make a small device good enough for the descent from Achaptipop to the Burning Pit.'
'So,' said Iva-Italis, 'you will float downwards through the air, landing by the Burning Pit.'
'Precisely,' said Guest. 'But we're not sure how to find the Great God Jocasta.'
'That's easy,' said Iva-Italis. 'The great rock Achaptipop stands directly to the north of the Temple of Blood. The central courtyard in which you find the Burning Pit has four sides.'
'Most courtyards do,' said Guest.
'The sides are orientated to the north, south, east and west,' said Iva-Italis, ignoring Guest entirely. 'It is easy to orientate yourself. Once you land in the central courtyard, look for the great rock Achaptipop. It lies to your north.'
'And?' said Guest.
'Where does Achaptipop lie?' said Iva-Italis.
'To the north!' said Guest impatiently. 'As I face that rock, the east will be to my right, and – '
'Go east,' said Iva-Italis.
'East?' said Guest.
'Yes,' said Iva-Italis. 'A single archway is set in the eastern side of the central chamber of the Temple of Blood. Go through that archway and you will find the Great God Jocasta.'
'What does the Great God look like?' said Guest.
'The Great God,' said Iva-Italis, 'looks like a doughnut.'
'A doughnut?' said Guest, baffled by this description.
'Take a single link from a chain,' said Iva-Italis. 'Beat that link into a circle, and there you have your doughnut. The wizard Pelagius Zozimus commonly bakes a kind of sweetened bread in just such a shape. Have you never eaten such?'
'Ah!' said Guest, 'now I understand!'
'So,' said Iva-Italis. 'The Great God Jocasta is a doughnut, a doughnut about the size of your head. The Great God is trapped in a force field. Do you know what a force field is?'
'Tell me,' said Guest.
'A force field,' said Iva-Italis, 'is a wall of light which is hard to penetrate.'
'Then how is Guest to penetrate this particular wall of light?' said Sken-Pitilkin.
At which Guest almost jumped out of his skin, for the Weaponmaster had been so engrossed in his dialog with the demon that he had not heard the wizard of Skatzabratzumon enter the Hall of Time.
'The Weaponmaster Guest can cleave through this particular wall of light by the mere application of his sword,' said Iva-Italis.
'Really?' said Sken-Pitilkin, sounding somewhat sceptical.
'Yes,' said Iva-Italis, 'for these force fields are but poor and trivial devices. Once Guest has hacked the force field apart with his sword, the Great God Jocasta will be free. The Great God will then confer upon Guest the powers of a wizard, and will secure your exit from the Temple of Blood.'
'So you say,' said Sken-Pitilkin, who still had reservations about this venture.
'Rest assured,' said Iva-Italis. 'It is as I say. Besides, you will have a demon to help you.'
'You're coming with us?' said Sken-Pitilkin.
'No!' said Iva-Italis. 'For I am scarcely portable! But a demon stands in the Temple of Blood already. The demon stands beside the imprisoned Great God.'
'There's a demon which guards the Door of the Bondsmans Guild,' said Sken-Pitilkin.
'The demon Lob, yes,' said Iva-Italis. 'But that's not the demon of whom I'm speaking. There are two of my siblings in Obooloo. One is Lob, of whom you have spoken. The other is Ungular Scarth, who stands beside the Great God Jocasta.'
'Then why can't this Scarth claw away this force field?' said Sken-Pitilkin.
'Because,' said Iva-Italis, 'a force field of the kind of which we are talking about can only be destroyed by the application of metal. Iron will do, or steel. Bronze. Tin.
Whatever. But it must be metal!'
'Then I will remember to leave my wooden sword at home,' said Guest.
'Do that,' said Iva-Italis. 'Go, now! Go! Do as you have vowed to do! Rescue the Great God! And you will be a wizard within the week!'
'The week!' said Guest. 'You too know of this business of weeks!'
'It is true,' said Iva-Italis, 'for I am mighty in knowledge, and anything a wizard knows I know too. Go now! And do well!'
So Guest and Sken-Pitilkin departed from the Hall of Time, paying no heed to the cobwebbed time pods which were set about its walls, and occupied themselves with preparations for their journey. Guest found the time to seek out his brother Morsh Bataar, and to question him about his alleged wife; and Morsh inspired Guest's jealousy by confessing that he had indeed married one of the women of Ema-Urk, and that he had his own small sheep farm on that island, and had sired two sons.
'I will likewise have sons,' said Guest, 'for my wife Penelope will bear them for me. Once I have the powers of a wizard, I am sure I will be able to overcome her barrenness.'
Comforted by this thought, the Weaponmaster occupied himself by choosing gear, and by climbing up and down the stairways of the mainrock Pinnacle to put a keen fighting edge on his fitness. And, once his father had recovered from his transitory illness, the questing heroes gathered together.
Need the heroes be named?
There was Witchlord and Weaponmaster; there was the servile Thayer Levant; and there were the wizards Pelagius Zozimus and Hostaja Sken-Pitilkin. Guest had wanted to bring with the wizard Ontario Nol, but Sken- Pitilkin had vetoed this.
'If your demon is telling the truth,' said Sken-Pitilkin,
'then we have strength sufficient for our mission. And if your demon is lying, then the mere addition of another wizard will not help us if we have to fight the city of Obooloo as a whole.'
'Of course the demon's telling the truth!' said Guest. 'It wants to have Jocasta liberated!'
'Doubtless,' said Sken-Pitilkin grimly. 'But if the task were so simple, then one suspects it would have been performed long ago. Anyway, let us be going!'
So the questing heroes passed through the Circle of the Partnership Banks to the city of Obooloo, where they enjoyed the hospitality of the Sanctuary of the Bondsmans Guild on the heights of the great rock Achaptipop.
There Sken-Pitilkin improvised a kind of air-raft, a primitive flying device sufficient to sustain the weight of the heroes and moderate their descent from Achaptipop to the central courtyard of the Temple of Doom.
When all was ready, the heroes gathered by the edge of Achaptipop, and, aided by Sken-Pitilkin's air-raft, they floated gently down to the central courtyard of the Temple of Blood. In the gloom of night, they located the archway on the courtyard's eastern flank. The arch opened onto a tunnel of uncommon darkness, a tunnel which could have doubled as part of the gut of a whale.
The heroes drew their swords and ventured into that darkness.
It was an uncommonly moist darkness, which smelt alternately of the sewer and the brothel. As he shuffled forward through that absolute blackness, the Weaponmaster Guest started to find it difficult to keep his balance. A momentary dizziness beset him, and found himself breathing swiftly, too swiftly.
'We should have brought a lamp,' said Thayer Levant.
