| King looks briefly at it....and blinks and grunts, recognizing what
is written on it!
"Oy?" asks Oy the billy bumbler, having been uncharacteristically silent
during this entire time.
"It's from Wizard and Glass!!" King whispers fiercely, pointing
at what was written on the sheaf of paper.
Lady Joshine (having already met Flagg one time and not like the memory),
not familiar with the book, nonetheless likes not what she reads on that
paper. It's Flagg's style, alright....
Several others glance over and see what King's pointing at. It was a
newpaper, of sorts, but a very odd one. Indeed, it is exactly what some
have seen in the book: Wizard and Glass!
The Oz Daily Buzz
Vol. MDLXV111 No. 96 'Daily Buzz, Daily Buzz, Handsome Iz as handsome
Duuzz'
Wheather: Here today, gone tomorrow Luck Numbers: None
Prognisis: Bad
Blah blah blah blah blah blah . . . same yak yak yak yak yak yak
blah blah blah blah blah blah . . .yak yak yak yak charyou tree all
blah blah blah blah blah blah . . .the stuff's the same blah yak
blah blah blah blah blah blah . . .blah blah yak yak blah blah blah
blah blah blah blah blah blah . . .yak yak yak baked turkey cooked
blah blah blah blah blah blah . . .goose all the stuff's the same
yak yak yak yak yak yak yak . . .blah blah yak yak ride a train die
yak yak yak yak yak yak yak . . .in pain all the stuff's the same
yak yak yak yak yak yak yak . . .blah blah blah blah blah blah
blah blah blah good is bad bad is . . .blah blah blah blah blah blah
good all the stuff's the same good . . blah blame blame blame blame
is bad bad is good all the stuff's . . . .blame blame blah blah blah
blah
the same go slow past the drawers. . .blah blah blah blah blah blah
all the stuff's the same blah blah . . . blah blah blah blah blah blah
blah blah blah blah blah blah . . .blah blah blah. (Related story p.
6)
Blaine is a pain all the stuff's the
There was a picture of Roland, Jake, Susannah, and Eddie crossing some
green glassy courtyard and some more print underneath the picture, but
that was when Flagg on the other end of the line began to speak again!
Something again from that book!
"Flagg," Joan 2 whispers, recognizing the demon from her encounter with
him long ago (re: 9570).....
It had been such an.....usual day..... Back when she had been a "he"
and had been called "Fred"......
Fred suddenly found he could not control his movements. The blank
look remained on his face as he began to move across the floor.
At first, he moved jerkily and without grace, but soon, he was dancing
as though he had been doing it his whole life - which he had. His mother,
the daughter of a bard and an accomplished dancer herself, had insisted
he learn some rudimentary dancing skills. He'd never thought much about
it (except when squiring some lovely lady across the castle dance floor),
but now, it seemed to be all he could do.
"Very graceful, Sir Knight," Belboz snickered from off to the
side. "No, I'm afraid I can't help you at all. The dragon and his family
are quite powerful, you see. If I lend aid to you, I open myself up for
all sorts of retribution. Including lawsuits!" he added with a shudder.
"In fact, I'm afraid I have to tell you that a contract I signed
with the dragon a century or so ago means I have to prevent you from fulfilling
your quest. In fact, I plan to arrange it so you'll never pose a threat
to the dragon again. Nothing personal, you understand - although I've never
had much use for knights and so forth. So - away with you!"
Belboz sprinkled an odd dust around the still-dancing Sir Fred,
chanted something arcane sounding, then made an elaborate gesture - and
with a soundless flash, Sir Fred vanished from the chamber.
Elsewhere, Fred rematerialized, unheralded by either flash or sound,
and still dancing away. I feel - different! What's that old crank done
to me? he thought.
The answer soon came.
In a nearby shiny surface, Fred caught a glimpse of himself
- and if he hadn't been compelled to keep dancing, he would have collapsed
in shock! Now he knew what Belboz had meant when he said he'd arrange it
so Fred could never threaten the dragon! He had been transformed into:
A buxom, dark-skinned woman, dressed in a series of flowing veils,
swaying before a leering group of rich drunkards!
The dancing went on for hours on end, and Fred finds that he doesn't
tire....in fact the more he dances the more....energizing it becomes for
him.
However, this is something of a runners high. Not a euphmism for
the acts and desires that her drunken audience keep shouting and groping
her for. Fred realizes that he can't stop....and even raise his voice in
protest. All he can do is dance......
Then a strangely dressed man walks into the room, drawing shouted
oaths and drunken bellows of rage from Fred's audience. All of which goes
silent as the man looks at them in the eyes.....and Fred shivers inside
as he sees them go slack jawed and start to laugh.....and drool on themselves.
Fred shivers again but continues to dance as the oddly dressed man (who's
dressed in blue jeans and jeans jacket with a dozen buttons....including
a button with a picture of a dead pig and a question about: "How do you
want your pork?"). "Well, move over Madonna!" the Walking Man leers, laughing
as Fred struts his (er....her) stuff. "Let's just make one adjustment on
that Matrix thing....as they call it at this one interesting sight.....and
then......."
Fred gasps as he feels her entire being tingle....as if something
was altered deep inside.
She then freezes in place as the Walking Man (RF of "The Stand" by
Stephen King) puts her in stasis, making her appear as a marble statue.
He then sends her off elsewhere to play in a game he's set up.
Flagg then chuckles and changes to his alternate, demoness form,
and goes off to see a certain mage about a contract. Gotta keep the boys
in the Home Office happy. That is, until thing change for the better for
him....
Joan 2, as she now called herself, hadn't seen the last (being a statue
and all that), but now saw it in her mind's eye....as did those around
her. Annafrid 2, Astra 9a, and Jarlath 2 lean over to give quiet support
as Flagg continues to look at something only he could see.
Indeed while Flagg may have made permanent this new lovely body that
she and Joan now wore, it hadn't been out of any kindness....but out of
a malicious sense of humor. Eventually she'd come to like being as she
now was, but it hadn't been easy (as Flagg had obviously intended).
But right now something hung in the balance......
"Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain," Flagg titters, My
friend Andrew is having another in a long series of days. Poor boy. I suppose
I was wrong to bring him out of Luf, but he just looked so lost...."
He tittered again.
Now Roland isn't a genius, but he's hardly an idiot. Not imaginative,
but he's swift enough to recognize Flagg seems caught up in a spell of
some type.....or a bit of king sized KA. And Roland realizes where
he can see what Flagg will say next....and what he (Roland) must
say next. Roland (as well as some others at one level or another) know
that if he fails.....the spell could be broken.....and God help them all!
Or....perhaps not.
A sense of calm comes over Roland, remembering that while he'd talked
with the Champions they'd said that Flagg's fate was sealed and he couldn't
change it. Flagg would die.....but he got the feeling that those Celestrials
were....giving him the honor of setting the Demon more firmly on his path
to destruction. Indeed, Roland could just say silent....but the
cost could well indeed be rather high.....
Could even cost me and my ka-tet ever seeing the Dark Tower,
Roland admits to himself, and then smiles a terrible.....terrible smile.
A smile that his young friends had seen right before he'd challenged (and
won) against his trainer, Cort, wining the right to be a Gunslinger five
years early (the youngest ever, being aged only thirteen years).
He'd be d**ned of he'd back down now! Hey, he might very well be d**mned
if he failed to do this....and allow the disaster that would surely follow....
Flagg, winning a temporary freedom, may take out his anger on those
around him....without care of any consequences. What with Flagg knowing
now what before he'd lost through death and destruction so many times before.....well,
Flagg now knew a LOT and through that had much power and his fingertips.....
Queen Astra had already guessed what Roland was going to ask for,
and quickly turns to the pages in one of her books so Roland could read
from it.....
-
 Queen Astra
had already guessed what Roland was going to ask for, and quickly turns
to the pages in one of her books so Roland could read from it.....
Go Back
|