Free The Warlock Rock by Christopher Stasheff Page B

scoffed. "Tis but entertainment."
    "Thou heartless wretches!" Cordelia stormed. "Dost thou think a woman's naught but a plaything?"
    "Believe them not!" Gregory shouted to Magnus. "They do seek to ensorcel thee, to draw thee into the Page 49
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    selfsame maelstrom of droning and stamping as they are caught in!"
    "Give in to it," a boy coaxed. "Thou wilt not believe the pleasure of it, the heady giddy feeling!"
    "Hold fast!" Gregory reached up to thump his big brother's arm. "Thou art thine own man, not some mindless puppet!"
    "The music is great, the music is all!" another boy countered. "Submerge thyself in it; let it roll over thee!
    Then reach to find another's hand, to touch, to stroke!"
    "Thou knowest right from wrong!" Gregory insisted. "Thou hast so often told me of it! 'Tis wrong, thou didst say, to let another think for thee! How much more wrong must it be, then, to let mere music make thee mindless?"
    "Aye." Magnus's face hardened and, with a huge effort, he squeezed his eyes shut, shook his head, and turned away from Lalaina. "I am my own man still."
    "Then thou art not ours!" the hulking youth cried. "Avaunt thee! Get thee hence!"
    "Didst thou say we are naught but things of play?" taunted a girl not much older than Cordelia. "What more should we wish to be? Thou art but jealous for that thou hast so little of thine own!"
    "What I have is mine own!" Cordelia answered hotly. "What! Wouldst thou give thyselves to boys who see thee as naught but toys?"
    A long, scandalized gasp raked along the line of dancers. Then the girls' faces hardened, and they stepped forward.
    "What a foul mouth thou hast!" a smaller boy snapped at Gregory. "We must stop it for thee!" And he caught up a fistful of dirt.
    "Stand away!" Geoffrey leaped in front of his little brother, glaring. "Thou shalt not touch him!"
    "Then we shall bury thee !" the hulking youth cried and, with a roar, several of the boys leaped at Geoffrey.
    "Thou hast spoke too much now," Lalaina grated, glaring at Cordelia. "Have at thee, wench!" Magnus leaped up beside his brothers, catching two of the boys by their collars and hurling them at the hulking youth, while Geoffrey dispatched the third with a left jab and a quick right cross.
    "Thoul't not touch my brothers whilst I can stand!" snapped Magnus.
    "Why, then, we shall hale thee down!" the hulking youth bellowed. "Out upon him, lads!" With a roar, the boys all leaped at Magnus.
    With one unified scream, the girls leaped on Cordelia.
    "Repel them!" Magnus shouted, catching his brothers' hands, and Gregory caught Cordelia's. Their faces turned to stone with strain, and the air about them glimmered a split second before the girls and boys fell Page 50
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    upon them with the howl of a wolf-pack…
    … and slammed into an invisible wall.
    They bounced back, crashing to the ground with howls of surprise and fright—but Lalaina screeched,
    "They are witches!"
    "Then we should fly," Magnus grated, tight-lipped. "Away, my sibs!" And the word ran through the mob like a trace of gunpowder: "Witches! Witches! Witches!"
    "Then we shall burn them!" cried the hulking boy, and the crowd answered with a roar. But the Gallowglasses had already disappeared down the woodland path and around the bend, so the pursuing mob careened into a great black horse, with a bong like a boxful of bolts in a belfry. They recoiled, yammering and clamoring, and ducked under, around, and over as the great horse danced about, maneuvering to make it harder for them—but they all twisted past somehow, and sprang after their quarry, howling in full voice.
    "We must go aloft," Magnus panted.
    "There is no space!" Cordelia answered, tears in her eyes. "There are too many branches, all too low!" The pack rounded the bend, saw them, and burst into wild yelling.
    Then out of the roadside brush sprang