Snowclaw swallowed hard and ran his tongue across his frost-white fangs. He stood up.
Come on right at me, big fellow.
Snowclaw made his shot. The harpoon skidded off the blubbery flank of the jhalrakk and plopped into the water. Snowclaw grabbed the line but his numbed hands couldn’t stop it until it had paid all the way out, pulling taut against the iron anchor spike which had been pounded into the ice. Snowy growled and pulled on the line, but the jhalrakk had run over it, and now the big animal was diving. The beast slid out of sight, disappearing into the frigid, blue-black depths of the inlet.
Big it was, the largest that Snowy had ever seen. The jhalrakk was now underneath the floe. Snowy prayed that it would stay submerged and pass on out to sea. But the way it had looked at him …
The floe lifted out of the water, tilting sharply to the right. Snowclaw threw himself flat and hung on to the iron spike.
The floe soon became almost vertical and seemed about to tip over. Snowy knew he was in for a dunking, anyway, so he let go and slid into the water, hoping that he could swim away before the huge slab of ice flipped over on him.
It didn’t. Snowclaw surfaced and watched the massive ice island slide off to one side and slip back into the water edgewise. The jhalrakk appeared satisfied that it had done enough damage. With a mocking wave of its flukes, it moved off serenely toward the open sea.
Snowy couldn’t recall ever hearing of a jhalrakk big enough to lift an ice floe; a good-size one could overturn a large boat, for sure. But a huge, weighty mass of ice? It was ridiculous.
He swam back to the floe and climbed painfully back up on the ice. The wind hit him, making his waterlogged hide feel like a suit of fire. He pulled in the line, only to discover that he’d lost his best harpoon. With a savage growl, he yanked out the spike and threw it and the line as far as he could out to sea.
Some time later, grumbling, cursing, and generally bad-mouthing the world and everything that crawled or swam or walked in it, Snowclaw waded through deep drifts on his way to the only really warm spot he knew. He hadn’t thought he would ever go back, but he was at the end of his tether. Maybe the time he’d spent away had made him go soft. He was losing his touch. You couldn’t have asked for a more perfect setup shot on that jhalrakk. And he’d missed. Blown it completely.
He was just about frozen through, and could barely move, his fur a stiff mat of ice. The wind was howling out of the north throwing light snow, and night was falling. He could barely see through the icy rime forming over the fur around his eyes.
He found the crevasse and the steps he’d cut out of the ice going down into it. Minding where he put his feet, he descended the treacherous staircase.
The mouth of the cave was only a few steps from the bottom of the stairway. He went in, and the temperature immediately rose a few degrees. A few more steps inside the cave brought a warm draft from within. It felt like heaven.
There was a Gothic arch at the end of the tunnel, passing him through to a stone-walled corridor.
He was back in Castle Perilous.
The first time he’d stumbled in here, he and his hairless buddy Gene had met up and trooped around together. They’d wandered through the damn place for weeks, hopelessly lost. But after a while they’d become seasoned Guests of the castle, acquiring a sixth sense that allowed them to navigate the vast edifice with a reasonable chance of at least finding a way to the lavatory.
He made a series of lefts and rights, moving through bare hallways lit by jewel-tipped light fixtures in their wrought-iron mounts.
At length he smelled food: human food, which ordinarily he found rather tasteless. But if he talked nice to the cooks, they would whip up something more to his liking. If Linda was around, she’d do it for him no questions asked.
He found the Queen’s dining room and walked in. There were a number of hairless types — humans — at the table, his old friends among them.
“Snowclaw!”
Linda jumped up, ran over, and hugged him. He hugged back, careful not to crush the little human female, of whom he was greatly fond.
“Snowy, you’re soaking wet!”
“Yeah, I been swimming.”
Gene Ferraro thumped him on the back. “I knew you’d come back.”
“You knew something I didn’t,” Snowclaw said. “Not that I didn’t miss you, Gene, old buddy. How’s it going?”
“Oh, been pretty quiet around here.”
“Find a way back to your world yet?”
“Nope,” Gene said. “Still working on it.”
“That’s too bad. We’ll have to mount a search party. After all, you helped me find my aspect.”
“It was nothing. Yours is one of the stable ones.”
“So far. You know what they say, though. Any aspect can close up on you, anytime.”
“Yeah, but I wouldn’t worry about it.”
Linda asked, “Why did you come back, Snowy?”
“Couldn’t make it in the real world. I’m hungry.”
Snowclaw scanned the table for anything he could eat. He grabbed a candle out of its sconce, dipped it into gooey white salad dressing, and took a bite. The thin man sitting in front of the empty sconce looked up and smiled bleakly at him.
“Sorry, pal,” Snowclaw said. “Was that yours?”
“No, quite all right. You ought to try the silverware.”
Gene said, “I’m glad you showed up, Snowy. I’ve been giving some thought to going exploring. Just picking an interesting aspect and heading off into it. Feel like going with me?”
“Sure, let’s go. Just so it’s someplace warm.”
“I thought you didn’t take to heat.”
“I’m slowly becoming a convert to your way of thinking.”
“Well, let me finish breakfast, and we’ll scout around and see if we can find something interesting. Have a seat, Snowy.”
Snowy said, “Linda, can I talk you into whipping up some grub for me?”
“Sure thing. What would you like?”
“Oh, the usual.”
“You mean that fishmeal mush you like? The icky green stuff?”
“If it won’t make you puke.”
“Don’t be silly. You have to eat the food your body needs. Hold on a minute.”
Linda closed her eyes briefly, extending her right hand palm-down over the table. A large wooden bowl materialized under her hand. It was filled with icky green stuff.
“Thanks, Linda,” Snowclaw said, taking the bowl and scooping out a gob of mush with his fingers. His fierce yellow eyes lit up as he sat down and began to eat in earnest.
“I don’t know about you two running off like that,” Linda said. “I’m going to worry about you.”
“We’ll be fine,” Gene said, helping himself to more chicken a la king.
Snowclaw had sat down next to a chubby young man with a straggly beard who was staring at him with a mixture of awe and repugnance. Snowclaw caught his stare.
“Something bothering you, friend?”
“Huh?” The young man’s face turned a shade paler. “No! Not a thing. Really. Uh … ”
Linda intervened with, “Snowy, this is Barnaby Walsh. He’s a new Guest. Barnaby, I’d like you to meet our friend, Snowclaw.”
“A pleasure to meet you, Mr. Snowclaw.”
“Same here. Pass that salt, would you?”
“Certainly. Here you are.”
“Thanks.”
Linda said, “Barnaby is an American, just like us.”
“That’s real nice.”
“Uh … ” Barnaby smiled sheepishly. “I don’t understand. I mean, obviously Mr. Snowclaw is … well, he’s not a human being. But I can understand him perfectly. He even sounds American! But how could that be?”