"Okay. This is really kind of creepy. I don't really care for you being in my head."

  Lilchta only smiles, dropping his left arm from Aurelia's waist and grabbing her right hand. He speaks to her without a single movement of his lips.

  "Let me show you where it is," Lilchta whispers in her head.

  -

  -

  The mental image of Zifawid Lilchta leads Aurelia around the pillar of stones where Wispyri is perched. He guides her to a hole in the wall and points inside.

  "The book of spells is inside that hole," image Lilchta whispers.

  "Okay, great," Aurelia says inside her head, reaching as if to stick her right hand into the dark hole.

  "I wouldn't do that!" Image Lilchta warns. "The ziz-zee-zee lives in there."

  "The ziz-za-what?" Aurelia almost hisses aloud.

  "The ziz-zee-zee," Lilchta repeats.

  "I'm going to ask you...One more time...What a ziz-zee-zee is," Aurelia says. "And then, I'm leaving this chamber."

  "A ziz-zee-zee is a long, scaly creature with horrific fangs which can insert venom into its chosen prey. The ziz-zee-zee slithers along the ground and can climb vertically up any wall."

  "A snake? You're talking about a snake?" Aurelia exclaims.

  "I suppose. Upon this planet, we call the creature a ziz-zee-zee because of the sounds which it makes. You may call them whatever you like."

  "I'd rather not call it anything. Care to tell me why you shoved the spell book into a hole with a...Ziz-zee-zee in it? Was that Wispyri's idea too?"

  "Of course," Lilchta states almost too enthusiastically.

  "Of course," Aurelia repeats after him. "Why did I even ask? So, if I can't reach inside...How do I get the book?"

  "You must coax the ziz-zee-zee out of the hole," Lilchta says.

  "And just how do I do that...Without alerting--," Aurelia nods over one shoulder in Wispyri's direction. "...You know who?"

  "The ziz-zee-zee can be enticed by offering her a ball of hair and fingernails. She loves to use them for her nest," projection Lilchta says matter of factly.

  "A ball of hair...And fingernails?" Aurelia asks, disbelief in her tone.

  "That is correct."

  "Anything else? No prostration before the glorious snake queen? No unclothing myself and whispering soft incantations for her enduring protection? Are you sure...All I need to do...Is sacrifice a bit of hair and fingernails? Are you sure that coaxing the ziz-zee-zee out won't require...Just a little more effort on my part?" Aurelia says, stepping close to Lilchta and capturing one of his neck tentacles with her right hand.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  She twirls the thin end of the captured tentacle around her index finger, grinning slyly at Lilchta the whole time. The zifawid's projected image seems to shiver and then slightly dissolve. After a moment, he reconstitutes--his voice strong and his posture confident.

  "No. That's all. Only a bit of hair and fingernails."

  "Good!" Aurelia says, releasing the tentacle around her finger.

  Reaching up to the top of her head, Captain Hilyard removes the elaborate pin keeping her Old World pirate hat atop her head. She hands imaginary Lilchta her sailing hat, while tugging on a patch of hair near the center of her scalp. Lilchta watches her closely as she works. When she has a sizeable clump of hair, Aurelia forms it into a tiny hairball. She immediately begins biting off the fingernails of her left hand. She bites the nails so low that they are barely above the nail bed. Each nail, she situates inside the ball of her own hair. She glances at Lilchta for approval.

  "Is that enough?"

  "Yes, I think that will do," Lilchta says with a weak smile.

  "Good," Aurelia says again. "Now, how do I let the cursed thing know I'm here?"

  "Oh, she knows. She always knows. Place the ball of hair on your palm and put your hand near the opening of the ziz-zee-zee's nest. She will come."

  "Okay."

  Aurelia's hand is barely at the opening when a hiss issues from deep within the dark space. A large forked tongue snakes out of the entrance of the nest--a tongue as big as Aurelia's entire right arm. Aurelia looks from the gigantic snake tongue to the black hole in utter disbelief.

  "How big is this thing?" Aurelia shrieks in her head, backing up a step.

  "Uh. Pretty big. The ziz-zee-zee can be whatever size she wishes. I believe she feels threatened."

  "Threatened? I gave her the damned hair and nails? What does she have to feel threatened about? You said it would work."

  "It should have,' Lilchta says, peering over at Wispyri.

  So far, the spider robot queen seems uninterested, her multiple eyes scanning the entire cave. How long will that last if this ziz-zee-zee thing makes a scene?

  To Aurelia's surprise, the snake creature does not attack upon leaving her nest. Nor is she as big as Aurelia originally expected. The ziz-zee-zee raises up her coiled body and stares Aurelia in the eye. After a moment, the beast opens its mouth. On the ziz-zee-zee's tongue rests the book of spells.

  "Oh, yes. Yes. This is wonderful," Aurelia muses in her head. "Thank you, ziz-zee-zee. Thank you."

  The snake allows Captain Hilyard to take the spell book. Retreating back into her nest, the ziz-zee-zee all but disappears. Aurelia turns to imaginary Lilchta with a beaming smile. She turns the book of spells over in her hands, jubilantly showing it off.

  "Got it! So...What now?"

  "Now...We leave."

  "Leave? I thought we were here to get rid of Wispyri?"

  "We are. Just not yet. Once we're clear of the chamber."

  "That's no fun? Why not just let me set off a plasma bomb? I can--."

  "She'll sense it. Come on. Follow me out of the chamber. Stay close. My protection shield is weakening. Focusing on it...And the shield over your friends is difficult. They are making it difficult."

  "What do you mean?"

  "One of your crew members...A simian fellow... Keeps making a terrible racket. The others are trying to hush him, but he is refusing to listen. I believe one of the girgogh sentinels has heard him. They are moving in your team's direction."

  "Fenfeld, you stupid ape! I should never have agreed to take him off the hands of the Apsuzette authorities."

  "The what?" Lilchta says, confused.

  "Never mind. Let's go," Aurelia replies with a flustered wave of her hand.

  Lilchta and Aurelia have hardly gone ten feet when loud whirring fills the chamber. Behind them, Wispyri rises up to her true height--metal legs fully extended. Lilchta looks back in time to see the robot spider queen's mandibles open wide and then shut.

  "She's coming. Hurry. I'm powerless inside the chamber. Run, Aurelia. Run."