"Fusinian was not altogether unprepared for such a reception. Knowing the might of the giants, he had constructed a battery of the largest wheeled catapults that anybody had built up to that time. The catapults went off with great bangs, hurling sixty-pound balls of stone. Some missed and some plowed into the hapless Kortolians, but one came straight at one of the Teeth. The Tooth leisurely caught it, as one catches a handball, and threw it back as accurately as it had been shot at him and with somewhat greater force. For it struck the Hereditary Usurper of Govannian, where he sat his horse in the midst of his host, and took off his helmet with the head inside it.
"After that, there was not much of a battle. The mammoths on the wings closed in, and Fusinian's mighty array dissolved into a mass of shrieking fugitives, among whom the Teeth amused themselves by striding and riding and smashing people like so many bugs with their ten-foot clubs.
"For some months, little was heard of Fusinian save rumors of his appearing and vanishing like a ghost along the borders of Kortoli. At length he sought the cave of Gloe the witch.
" 'Well, King,' she said, stirring her cauldron, 'How about my license?'
" 'Bugger your license madam!' quoth he. 'That cure you gave me was worse than the disease.' "
"That was your fault, laddie,' she said. 'When you gave the Teeth their orders, you forgot to tell them to vanish or to turn back into dragon's teeth after they had routed the Aussarians. As it was, they were free of all obligation as soon as they had carried out your complete command.'
" 'How in the forty-nine Mulvanian hells was I to know that?' he yelled. 'You never told me!'
" 'Why should I?' said she. 'Knowing you for a king and a smart one at that, I assumed you would have the common sense to do so without my telling you.' And they fell to shouting and shaking fists at each other in most unkingly wise until they ran out of breath.
" 'Well, let us forget what has been said and be practical,' said Gloe. "You want more help, yea?'
"Fusinian muttered something about damned women who can never give precise directions, but aloud he said: 'Yea, but Zevatas help us if it avail us no better than the last time! These creatures are eating my kingdom bare, not to mention niggling the wives of all the leading men, including mine.' "
"Their voracity is explained by their draconic origin,' quoth Gloe. 'Now, I know a spell to call an army of aerial demons from the Sixth Plane. It is a spell of the utmost difficulty and danger. It also requires human sacrifice. Whom are you prepared to dispense with?'
"The king looked at his escort, and each member of the escort looked as if his keenest wish were to become invisible. But one man spoke up at last, saying Take me, O King. The physician assures me that, with my leaky heart, I have not long to live anyway.'
" 'Nobly spoken!' cried Fusinian. 'You shall have a monument when I have reconquered my kingdom.' And in a good sooth, this monument was duly erected and stands in Kortoli City even yet. 'So, madam.'
" 'Just a moment, sire,' said Gloe. 'I need something for myself as well, to put me in the right mood to cast an effective spell.'
" 'Here we go again,' said the king. 'What is it this time?'
" 'I want not only a proper license as wizardess, but also to be made your court magician.'
"They argued, but in the end Fusinian gave in, not having much choice in the matter. So the spell was cast. The moon turned to blood, and the earth shook, the forests were filled with weird wailings, and down from the sky swooped a horde of demons in the form of bat-winged lizard-men, to assail the Teeth.
"But, when a demon or other spirit takes material form, it is bound by the laws of matter. The Teeth merely laughed and seized the demons out of the air and tore them to bits like a bad boy dismembering a butterfly. And the survivors of the demons fled back to the Sixth Plane and have refused to be invoked from that day to this.
"Disgusted with Gloe and her spells, Fusinian disappeared again. From time to time he would be seen, in worn, patched garments, in one or another of the Twelve Cities, for he had friends and partisans everywhere. At last, whilst idling in the marketplace at Metouro, he saw a gang of boys raid the stall of a greengrocer, snatching fruit and dashing away ere the wretched merchant could summon aid. The thing that struck him about this incident was the fact that the greengrocer was so enormously fat that he could not even squeeze out of his stall in time to call for assistance.
"That made Fusinian think, and he recalled the tales he had heard of the monstrous appetites of the Teeth. Soon thereafter, the Faceless Five, who rule Metouro summoned Fusinian to ask his advice about a demand for tribute, which they had received from the Teeth in Kortoli. Fusinian looked at the five black masks and said:
" 'Send them not only what they ask, but also twice as much.'
" 'You are mad!' cried one of the Five. 'It would beggar us!'
" 'Have you had a good harvest?' asked Fusinian.
" 'Aye; but so what?'
" Then pay what I advise in farm produce. Let me explain…'
"Then for a while Fusinian went from city to city, expounding his plan. So food poured into Kortoli in groaning oxcart loads. This continued for six whole months. When one of the Twelve Cities ran short of agricultural produce, it borrowed money to import more from another of the Twelve or even from Shven and Mulvan.
"And at length came the day when King Fusinian rode into Kortoli at the head of his army while the Teeth, now grown so fat they could scarcely move, looked on helplessly and mouthed futile threats. And, whereas the skins of the Teeth were still too tough for ordinary weapons to do more than scratch, the Kortolians bound the giants by massive chains to huge blocks of Othomaean granite, towed them out to the deep sea on rafts, and overturned the rafts. And that was the end of that.
"Or nearly so. Fusinian had an affecting reunion with his queen, the lovely Thanuda. But sometimes, when he had finished making love to her, he would catch her looking at him with a curious expression—a trace of disappointment, or as if she were comparing him unfavorably with someone else. And once during a quarrel she called him 'shrimp.' So his later life was perturbed by the thought that, whatever the faults of the Tooth who had borrowed his wife, the giant must have had certain superhuman capacities that he, Fusinian, lacked. But, being a philosophical man, he made the best of things. And the moral is: Choking a cat with butter may not be the most obvious way of killing it, but sometimes it is the only one that works."
A moment later, Jorian picked the lock of the door of the cell that held the slave girls. They threw themselves upon him; Mnevis caught him round the neck and smothered him with kisses.
"Na, na, easy all, lassies," he said. "I'll get you out of this, but you must be absolutely quiet. No talking, whispering, laughing, giggling, squealing or other sounds! Now come along. Keep behind me and watch my signals. Softly now."
He led the twelve on tiptoe down the corridor. At the first of the locked doors he halted, picked the padlock, and went in. A quick look showed that the room was full of agricultural implements. The second storeroom proved to be full of heavy winter clothing: felt boots, woolen cloaks, and sheepskin greatcoats.
The third storeroom had shelves on which stood rows of objects that glimmered in the gloom, while on the floor a line of coffers ran around the wall.
"This," said Jorian, "is what I sought. One of you girls fetch that candle in from outside. Careful lest you blow it out. Ah!"
The girls echoed Jorian's ejaculation, for this was the treasury of the Brotherhood. The objects on the shelves were jeweled goblets of gold and silver, pictures in jeweled frames, golden candlesticks and lamps, and similar precious artifacts. The coffers, as Jorian soon discovered by picking the lock on one, contained money and jewels. Some of the Brothers must have saved up tidy fortunes—probably, Jorian suspected, by taking bribes from prisoners not to cause them much pain.