~*~
“I’m going to run ahead and make sure she doesn’t do something hasty,” MO-126 told his partner.
Leaving Tork and Gault to lead the sheep back toward the village, he raced past Ryenne. She ran as if demons were chasing her, which she undoubtedly believed to be the case. The artificial dog kept his distance, circling well around her, and reached the spot where the old woman was tied ahead of her.
Galinda was muttering to herself when he arrived, sitting in her own filth and heedless of the stench.
He turned to face the approaching mad woman not tied to a pole.
Ryenne waved the dagger dangerously. “Be gone, Demon! I command it!”
Galinda lifted her graying head at the sound of Ryenne’s voice. She raised her arms as much as the rope would allow and echoed the holy woman’s words. “Be gone, Demon!” she croaked.
This gave MO-126 an idea. Galinda did not know that Ryenne was addressing him or, more specifically, the demon she believed resided in him. The old woman apparently thought the village’s speaker to the gods was trying to cast out the evil spirit in her by scaring it with the knife. This might allow for a better solution than any the canine android imagined possible only a minute ago.
He charged toward Ryenne. She abruptly backed away, almost tripping in the loose dirt. Before she could regain her footing, he turned and lunged at Galinda, snapping and growling a finger’s width from her tortured face. He could tell he scared her because of the shriek and the puddle.
His behavior apparently confused Ryenne because she froze, staring at him, the knife held loose and forgotten in her hand.
Come on, psycho lady, he thought. Don’t start being sane now. He turned and growled again at the woman tied to the stake. She cowered, drawing in her scraped and wrinkled knees beneath the smeared tunic.
Ryenne ventured closer, again waving the knife, this time far less certainly. MO-126 dodged and snapped at both women in rapid succession. They shied away, Ryenne by retreating a few steps and Galinda by moving to the opposite side of her pole.
“Be gone, Demon,” Galinda choked out. MO-126 hoped she would say that again. Ryenne was being less accommodating, but he could still make this work.
“I hope you’re nearby, Trader. I need you,” he broadcasted.
“I can hear you. What are you doing?”
“I’m casting out demons. When you get here, try getting the villagers to chant, ‘Be gone, Demon.’”
“What?”
“Just do it, and when things calm down, tell Ryenne what a good job she did.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You’ll understand. You’re a clever android. Get here quickly.”
“We just left the sheep with the rest of the flock. I’ll be there in a minute.”
A crowd formed around the pole. So much entertainment in so short a span of time was a rare event in villages like this and not something to pass by.
Ryenne, obviously not one to ignore an attentive audience, resumed her threats with the knife. Now, however, her movements became more theatrical. The wild madness she exhibited before diminished. She even remembered her line. “Be gone, Demon.”
MO-126 cringed and yelped as if beaten and congratulated himself on his acting ability. “Now would be a good time, Tork,” he signaled.
“Be gone, Demon,” the trade android’s voice rang out above the sounds of the gathered crowd.
“Be-Gone-Demon,” Tork said again, spacing the words to prompt the others to join in.
“Be-Gone-Demon.” A few people in the crowd took the cue.
“Be-Gone-Demon.” This time, Galinda croaked along.
“Be-Gone-Demon.” Ryenne joined in, and then Gault. Soon, the whole village seemed to be chanting the three words.
MO-126 howled, and snapped, and rolled in the dirt. He wanted the villagers to believe he fought an invisible demon as a good dog should, but their perceptions of the event could be shaped by what they heard afterward. He counted on Tork to take care of that. The trader could communicate with the primitives in their own language.
The android dog screamed what he hoped would sound like a victory howl. He snapped again at a vacant spot of air and shook his head violently as if he held an invisible demon clamped fatally in his jaws. The crowd hushed to watch the finale, and he dropped his imagined prey.
“Are you done?” the trade android asked. Sarcastic overtones were embedded in his transmission’s metadata.
“Yeah. I think so. Pretty good, huh? You’re up. Do you know what to do?”
“I have a pretty good idea.”
Tork stepped out of the crowd. “It’s gone, I think. Ryenne, you’ve done it. You scared the demon out of Galinda. I think it tried to enter my dog, but he must have fought it off.”
Before the holy woman could answer, he strode into the open area near the post and addressed the old woman tied there. “Can you still feel it, Galinda? I’m sure it is gone, now. In fact, I believe there are no demons near here at all.”
“Woof,” MO-126 said in full agreement with his partner’s last statement.
“Well,” the old woman began, “I was pretty scared. I knew Ryenne just wanted to help, but when your dog came, well, he frightened me something awful. I know something happened. My heart was racing like I’d just run all the way to the orchard and back. All of a sudden, I felt more alive, and I felt like I really wanted to stay that way, if you know what I mean. I think you’re right. I think the demon fled from me then, and it tried to go into your dog because he was sure fighting with something.”
Tork smiled sagely and nodded. “What do you think, Gault?” he asked, turning to the village headman. “Are your people and your sheep free of danger now?” He placed a special emphasis on the sheep.
Gault glanced at his sister who stood by herself, still holding Tork’s knife. Her attention seemed to shift from one thing to another rapidly. Not all of the items catching her interest were readily apparent, and some probably resided only within her head.
“Well, I don’t see any signs of demons,” the village headman said cautiously, again glancing at his sister.
She gave no sign of noticing.
“Well, then, Ryenne must be truly blessed by the gods,” the android trader said loudly.
This, she noticed because she turned toward him and said, “What?”
“The gods have blessed you, Ryenne,” the trader said. He took a step toward her but did not come too close. The unstable woman still held his dagger. “I don’t know how you managed, but somehow you got my dog to help you, and together you scared the demons away.”
“She’s always been persuasive when it comes to animals,” her brother said.
“Rommy’s goat never tried getting back into the redfruit grove after she hit it with a stick,” a voice from the crowd said.
“I remember that,” another voice chimed in. “She pulled that log right out of the fire and smacked it in the head. It went cross-eyed and ran back to the goat pen with the tip of its ear still smoking.”
“Very persuasive,” Gault said.
“Well, I don’t suppose it matters how,” Tork said. “She did it! Congratulations, Ryenne. You may have saved your village. You certainly saved Gault’s sheep and poor old Galinda.”
“The gods speak to me.” The uncertainly in her voice probably owed little to any doubts about her personal relationship with the gods but rather arose from the way in which recent events unfolded.
“Thank you, Ryenne,” the old woman said from her place in the dirt. “Gods bless you.”
“Galinda,” Ryenne mumbled, waving the knife in the old woman’s general direction.
“Here, let me do that for you,” Tork said, deftly moving forward and snatching the knife. “I’m sure you’re exhausted.”
“The gods speak to me,” she said again.
“I’m sure you hear them often,” he replied tactfully. “Right now, I think you should rest.”
“
I’ll help her,” Gault said, taking her by the arm. “Come along, Ryenne. You’ve had a busy day.”
She let her brother lead her away, and Tork went to cut Galinda’s bonds.