(For the previous entry in this series, see here.)
Having been knocked unconscious again –
I suspect Lanier has trouble knowing how to end a chapter – Our
Hiero awakens in the hold of the Evil Unclean Mutants' lightning-gun
boat. No good can come of this, we say to ourselves, and our
suspicions are confirmed when Per Desteen is taken off-board, none
too gently, by an EUM priest and a Hairy Howler heavy, “Chee-Chowk.”*
The Evil Mutants have taken Hiero to a small fort on a lifeless
black island, Manoon, located somewhere near present-day Mackinac.
The EUM priest, “S'duna,” tells Hiero that the isle has “the
spiritual emptiness we seek to encourage the growth of pure thought”
(133). S'duna would be right at home in one of the Bond rip-off
movies of the 1960s, perhaps even in Operation Double 007.
S'duna and Chee-Chowk fling Hiero into
a locked cell, where the super-psychic gun-slinging priest-warrior
springs into action, psychically speaking. After erecting a shield
against the Evil Mutant priests' Psychic Bad Touches, Hiero manages
to find a mental “wavelength” that lets him tap into the priests'
thoughts and perceptions without compromising his own defenses. He
finds that only one of the priests is monitoring him, while S'duna,
his handler, is drugged out and dreaming of recreational pleasures
“foul beyond belief” (137). This euphemism, incidentally, was
already quaint when Lanier wrote Hiero's Journey.
Today, saying “foul beyond belief” merely means one has never
been on the Internet, nor seen a John Waters movie. It also leads me to wonder whether the Church
in Hiero's time still practices the sacrament of absolution, and
whether Hiero, as an ordained priest, has ever heard any confessions.
Probably not, given his squeamishness about the Evil Mutants'
“perversions.”
It
does not take Hiero long to effect his escape. He uses his telepathy
to find Gorm, who along with Luchare has escaped the mutant attack
and is now a safe distance from Manoon, and promises to join him
soon. The killah priest then plants a psychic command – go check
on the prisoner, stat – in the monitoring priest's mind, and, when
the unsuspecting Evil Mutant unlocks his cell, kills him with a
Psychic Headbutt (unintentionally, but gladly).
On the way out of the fortress Hiero runs into Chee-Chowk, who seems
glad to have the opportunity to mash the escapee. Unfortunately for
the Howler, Hiero had just found his sword in a nearby storeroom, and
after a short fight he buries the blade in his assailant's head. “A
pity, Chee-Chowk,” he mused aloud. “Perhaps if decent men had
raised you, you'd have been just another kind of man, not a foul,
night-haunting ogre” (145). This is as close as Lanier comes to
the egalitarianism of Terry Pratchett, and one must give him
credit for not casting all evil mutants as irreparably so.
Some evil mutants are apparently less
competent than others. The Evil Unclean Mutant priests were
apparently too overconfident to guard the harbor, and Hiero manages
to steal a sailboat and head out into the lake. Shortly after
Hiero's departure the Evil High Priest S'duna wakes up, finds his
prize prisoner has escaped, and mentally commands giant lampreys to
attack Hiero's boat! Eek! Is this the end for Our Hero? Probably
not, because there are still nine chapters to go!
Though let's admit it: we're still mildly
curious about what happens next.
**
Coming next: The reunited adventurers
discover some radioactive ruins, like you do.
* Chee-Chowk is Hairy Howler slang for
“It's Society's Fault.”
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