Wall of Serpents

by L. Sprague De Camp

  -

  "Here's a river thou mayst drink of,

  Here's a pool that thou mayst splash in!"

  "Ha, ha!" bellowed Lemminkainen.

  "I'm no calf by women driven,

  Nor a bull with tail behind me,

  That I drink of river water,

  Or of filthy ponds the water."

  -

  His tone went lower, and without apparent effort he sang up an enormous ox, under whose hooves the floor creaked alarmingly. The ox, after a vague look around the company, began schlooping up the water by the bucketful.

  Shea said to his Belphebe, "Probably brought up in somebody's parlor, so he doesn't think a thing about it."

  The Master of Pohjola was already at work on a new spell. Its result was a great gray wolf, which took one look at the ox and bounded toward it. The ox gave a bawl of terror, whirled, and thundered toward the door, while the Pohjolans fell over one another to get out of the way. It plunged through, taking part of the doorframe with it, and vanished, with the wolf right behind.

  Louhi sneered. "You are vanquished in the contest of magic, O Kaukomieli! Now begone, or ever worse come upon you."

  "No man who deserves the name would let himself be driven from any place where he chose to stay," said Lemminkainen, "least of all a hero like myself. I challenge."

  The Master stood up. He moved lightly for so beefy an individual. "Let us then measure our swords together to see which is the better."

  Lemminkainen grinned and drew his broadsword. "Little of my sword is left me, for on bones it has been shattered. But come, let us measure them."

  The Master crossed over to the wall and took his sword from a peg. The Belphebe next to Shea said, "Shall I notch a shaft?"

  "I don't think so," he replied. "It's not likely to turn into a general riot unless somebody breaks the rules. They're too nervous about those bows."

  The contenders were measuring their swords in the cleared space. From where he stood, it seemed to Shea that the Master's was a trifle longer. The guests crowded forward to watch, while those behind yelled to them to sit down. At last the Master ordered them back to their seats.

  "And you newcomers, too!" he shouted. "Back against the wall!"

  That seemed to remind Lemminkainen of something. He said, "Before that we work out our challenge, I will challenge any present—to the point-sword against my companion Harol, or to the wrestle with my companion Piit. It will be rare sport to watch, after I have disposed of you."

  The duplicate Shea said, "Isn't he generous?" But one of the Belphebes put her hand on his arm and he felt better.

  "You will be watching no more sports," said the Master. "Are you ready?"

  "I am ready," said Lemminkainen.

  The Master leaped forward, swinging his sword up for a tremendous overhand cut, as if he were serving a tennis ball. The blow was never completed, however, for the swordblade struck a rafter overhead with a loud chunk. Lemminkainen made a pass at his opponent, who leaped backward with wonderful agility.

  Lemminkainen roared with laughter, saying, "What has the rafter done to you, that you should punish it? But that is always the way with little men when confronted by a true hero. Come, there's too little room in here. And do you not think that your blood would look prettier on the grass outside?"

  He turned and shouldered his way toward the door. As Shea followed him, Lemminkainen leaned close and, with his foxy expression, whispered, "I think that some of them are false seemings. Let you friend Payart watch sharply."

  Before Shea could reply, the others were coming. Outside, the phantom company sat or stood on the grass, talking. Shea wondered whether, when the spell came off, he would find himself remembering what the others had said. He wished he had Doc Chalmers around; there were times when this magic business got pretty complicated for an incomplete enchanter.

  The Master and Lemminkainen halted in the yard, between the main house and the hillock with its head-decorated row of stakes. A couple of serfs brought a big cowhide, which they laid on the grass to provide securer footing. Lemminkainen took his stance at one edge of it, stamping his feet to test the give of the hide. He jerked his thumb toward the heads, saying, "When we finish, that last stake will no longer feel ashamed of its nakedness. Are you ready?"

  "I am ready," said the Master of Pohjola.

  Shea glanced at his companions. The version of Belphebe nearest him was watching with an intent, studious expression that showed duels were nothing particularly new to her. One of the Brodskys said, "Shea, this may be for the monkeys, but these birds are no flukers. If we could make TV with this show, there'd be enough scratch in it to ..."

  "Sh!" said Bayard. "I'm concentrating."

  Clang! went the blades, the Master of Pohjola forcing the attack. His longer blade flashed overhand, forehand, backhand. "Wonderful wrists," said one of the phantom Sheas. Lemminkainen, not giving an inch, was parrying every swing. There was little footwork in this style of swordplay. They faced each other squarely, hewing as if trying to fell trees, pausing occasionally for a rest, then slashing away again.

  Once the Master's blade came down on Lemminkainen's shoulder, but at a slight angle, so that the scale-mail slipped the blow aside. Then Lemminkainen got in a cut at the Master's neck that the latter did not quite parry in time. Blood trickled from a small cut.

  "Ho, ho!" cried Lemminkainen. "Hearken, Master of Pohjola, true it is, your neck so wretched is as red as dawn of morning!"

  The Master, stepping back half a pace, rolled his eyes downward for a fraction of a second as though to assess the damage. Instantly Lemminkainen, advancing so fast that Shea could not quite see how he did it, struck again. The blade went right through the Master's neck. The head, turning over in the air, fell in a graceful parabola, and the body, half-twisting as the legs buckled under it, fell spouting upon the cowhide. There was a gasping groan from the crowd. Louhi shrieked.

  Lemminkainen, grinning until it seemed as though his mouth must meet behind, like Humpty-Dumpty's, cried: "So much for the heroes of Pohjola!"

  He stepped forward, wiped his blade with care on the trousers of the corpse, and sheathed it. Then he picked up the head and strutted to the empty stake.

  "Now, wicked wretches, fetch me beer!" he bellowed.

  Shea turned to say something to the nearest Belphebe. It was not until that moment that he remembered Bayard had said, "I'm concentrating." He turned around and looked. Sure enough, there was Bayard, his back to the arresting spectacle of Lemminkainen's victory march, crouched on the ground over a little pile of grasses. He seemed to be muttering to himself; a tiny curl of smoke came from the pile.

  "Walter, no!" shouted Shea, and dived for him.

  Too late.

  There was a little flash of fire, a sound of displaced air, and in an instant all the duplicate Sheas, Belphebes and Brodskys had vanished. As Shea and Bayard rolled over together, they heard Lemminkainen's shout, "Fool! Bungler! Traitor! Your spell has cancelled mine. The agreement is ended!"

  Shea pulled himself to his knees in time to see the hero walking, not running, toward the sled with his sword out. Nobody seemed anxious to be the first to stop him.

  Down toward the edge of what had been the Pohjolan cheering section around the combatants, there was a half-muffled cry, and out of a struggling group projected a leg, dainty even in the shapeless garment.

  "Belphebe!" shouted Shea, getting to his feet and tugging at his sword with the same motion. Before he could get the epee out of its scabbard, he too went down under a swarm of bodies. He had just time to notice that they didn't bathe often enough and that Brodsky had laid out one of the assailants with a neat crack of his blackjack, and then he was hopelessly pinioned, being marched along beside Bayard.

  "Put them in the strong-house!" said the Mistress of Pohjola. Her face did not look as though she intended it to be a place of entertainment.

  As the captives were frog-marched along, Shea saw the Elk of Hiisi retreating into
the distance, with the sled bouncing along behind him.

  Chapter Eight

  The four were tumbled unceremoniously over each other on to a stone floor. Shea heard a massive door slam, and the clash as several large bolts were driven home behind them. He got up and pulled Belphebe to her feet.

  "Are you hurt, kid?" he asked.

  "Nay, not I." She rubbed one wrist where someone's grip had come down hard. "But there are places I would rather be."

  "It's a real jook-joint, all right," said Brodsky. "You got me on how we're going to push a can from this one."

  He was looking around the place in the dim illumination furnished by the single, eight-inch window, which was heavily barred. The strong-house itself was composed of massive tree-trunks, and its roof seemed abnormally thick.

  "Alackaday," said Belphebe. "What happened to those shapings of ourselves that so confounded these gentry but lately?"

  "Walter took care of that," said Shea. "I admit I'm just as glad to have only one wife, but he was a little precipitate. What in hell were you up to, Walter?"

  Bayard said, "I was merely trying in a small way to carry out the plan I mentioned of divining the future. It worked, too."

  "What do you mean, it worked?" said Shea.

  "I was trying to find out who would win the duel. There were little fiery letters on the ground that said 'Lem' as clearly as could be."

  "A big help," said Shea, "especially as he took off the other guy's head about that time, anyway."

  Bayard said, "The principle is established. And how was I to know it would counteract Lemminkainen's spell? Nobody warned me of any such outcome. What is the logical nexus between the two, by the way?"

  Shea shrugged. "I haven't the least idea. Maybe we can work it out sometime when we have the leisure. But in the meanwhile, we need to figure out some plan for getting out of here. These people don't fool around at any time, and that old witch has just lost her husband."

  He went to the little window and looked out. Or tried to, for he found his vision blocked by a familiar-looking bewhiskered countenance: Vuohinen, who spat through the bars at him.

  Shea dodged, wiped his shoulder with the cuff of the other hand, and turned to Brodsky. "Pete, he's your serf. Maybe you can order him ..."

  "Ha!" roared Vuohinen. "This one to order me? I am free of all serfdom now, and have been charged to see that you outlandish tricksters do not escape before the Mistress of Pohjola undertakes your punishment."

  "What do you mean?"

  "All details I do not know, but be assured it will be a memorable occasion. She is like to have you flayed and rolled in salt, to be followed by slow burning."

  Shea fell back and looked around. Whoever had planned this box had built for keeps. The massive simplicity of the structure would defy any amount of tinkering. For instance, there was no opening whatever on the inside of the door through which one could get at the outside.

  "I know your names!" shouted Vuohinen from the window. "Your wizardries will have no power on me."

  He was probably right, at that. But an idea occurred to Shea. He returned to the window. "Look here," he said. "I'm a champion and I challenge you."

  Vuohinen shook his head. "I am no longer a champion myself since losing the wrestle to this Piit, and cannot take your challenge until he has been beheaded."

  "Wait a minute," said Bayard, "If ..."

  "Ya!" said Vuohinen. "I see your plot. Be known that I shall take care that your head comes off first, and his the last of all." He turned his back and walked away from the window.

  Shea turned to Brodsky. "Pete, you should know a lot about busting out of places like this. What do the chances look like to you?"

  Brodsky, who had been moving slowly around the cell, poking and testing, shook his head. "This is a real tough can. It would be a soup job, and even then there'd be the strong-arm squad out there to play."

  Bayard said: "Couldn't we lure Vuohinen up to the bars and then grab him and choke him?"

  "No good," said Brodsky. "What do you get except a good feeling in your biscuit? He ain't got no keys."

  Belphebe said, "Yet while you are an approved sorcerer, Harold, it seems to me that we are not utterly without resource." She took her turn at stepping to the window. "Ohe, Vuohinen," she called.

  "What now, female toad?"

  "I understand how you are angry with us. We were lacking in sympathy, in not thinking of the damage to your hand. But we will make amends. If you will tell us somewhat of yourself, my lord, who knows no little magic, will make it good for you."

  Shea squeezed her hand. "Nice try, kid," he said under his breath. But Vuohinen saw the point, too.

  "And put myself in his power? Ya, the hand will heal itself quickly enough when I see your heads on stakes."

  Shea took over with, "You're a pretty tough guy, aren't you?"

  "That I am."

  "Yes, sir," said Shea. "Some of them are good where I come from, but for plain toughness, I'm afraid we're not in your class. Must be the diet or something. How did you get that way, anyway?"

  "Ya," said Vuohinen, "you seek by flattery to disarm me, so that you may persuade me to let you go. I am not so simple."

  Bayard said, "He seems to be up on psychology, too, doesn't he?"

  Shea sighed. "Psychology worked in the world of Norse myth when I got thrown in the jug."

  "The trouble seems to be," said Bayard, "that this animal is a Finn. In our own world the Finns are about the stubbornest race on earth, like the Dutch and maybe the Basques. There's something in the culture-pattern. I don't think you're going to get anywhere with him ... I wonder how much time we have left?"

  Belphebe said, "Harold, my love, I think the answer stares us in the face, but we have so looked at small details as to miss the great. Why cannot we leave this whole world of Kalevala by the same door we entered in: item, your symbolic magic?"

  Shea slapped his thigh. "Just the thing! Wait a minute, though ... Any kind of magic in this continuum takes a lot of music, and I guess my voice just isn't equal to it. That's why I've had trouble so far."

  "Alas, I fear I can do but little more for you," said Belphebe. "Not that I croak like you, my love, but my voice is so slender. I could attune a harp if we had such a thing. Timias, my fiancé in Faerie, taught me the art."

  Bayard shook his head. Brodsky said, "Not that I want to noise off, but if my schnozz was on the up-and-up ..."

  Shea said, "Wait a minute here. I think I see a way. Have you ever had that polyp taken out, Pete?"

  "Naw."

  "Why not?"

  "I been busy ... And besides, I don't want no croaker putting me through the mill." His voice was defensive, but Shea rushed on. "Well, why don't we begin by curing your polyp by magic? That ought not to take much of a spell, and if your voice were working right, we could tackle something harder."

  "Say, maybe you got a right steer there. But how are you going to wrap it up without music?"

  "I think that Belphebe's voice with the help of a harp ought to be enough for the smaller spell. Then she could accompany you, and I'll work out the big one. Wait, I'll try."

  He stepped to the window again. "Oh, Vuohinen!"

  "Well, what now?"

  "Do you know what a kantele is?"

  "What child does not?"

  "Good. Could you get us one to lighten our last hours?"

  "Why should I lighten your last hours, filth?" He turned away again.

  Shea sighed again. "No cooperation—that's the trouble with this damned continuum," he said.

  Bayard asked, "What's a kantele?"

  "The primitive harp. Vainamoinen invented it at some point in the runes, by making it out of a fish's jawbone, but I wasn't sure he'd done it yet, so I asked this guy if he knew what it was."

  "If we had a fish's jawbone ..."

  "We could make one ourselves. Yes, I know. But our chances of getting a fish's jawbone out of that big lump of insensitivity are about as good as those
of biting our way through those logs."

  "I can fix that," said Brodsky, suddenly.

  "Oh, yeah?" said Shea, and "Can you, indeed?" said Bayard, both together.

  "Oh, yeah," said Brodsky firmly, and strode to the window again. "Hey, lug!" he called. "So you're going to clip our pumpkins tomorrow. Okay. But where's the kiss-off banquet?"

  "What use is food to you, who will so soon be beyond the need of it?"

  "That's right, play it dumb, lug. Listen, we're from Ohio, see? In our country, when a ghee doesn't get what he wants for his last meal, his ghost comes back on the roach that turned him down, and pretty soon the muzzier is playing with the squirrels."