If at Faust You Don`t Succeed

CHAPTER 3

Charon had quite an interesting load of dead that day. He had picked up three fishermen drowned off the coast of Sparta, brought to the underworld in a sudden squall that had blown up from the north. The fishermen were penniless but had promised payment through a cousin, one Adelphius of Corinth, who maintained a fund in the Dead Souls' Ferrying Society Relief Scheme. They explained that an obol for each of them had been deposited into a bank account in the Greater Hellenic Savings & Loan with offices in upper Corinth. All Charon had to do was call at any time, or send his representative with proper documentation, and he could collect his money for their passage.

Charon couldn't find an argument to use against it but he still didn't like it. Of course, even he had to stay up with the times. In strange ports that he called at when he needed repairs for his boat, the people didn't take obols. Funny money, they called it.

In any event, it was all academic now. Here he was, wrecked on a reef in the Styx, at a place where there shouldn't have been any rocks at all.

It was a noisome spot, dark and marshy, with lowering skies and a constant little wind that smelled of dead fish. Small, scum-covered waves lapped at the lapstraked sides of the boat. There were low misshapen trees near the bank, and from several of them hung dead men. The dead men waved their arms and begged to be taken down. Coals to Newcastle, Charon had all the dead he could handle. He had twenty or thirty of them packed onto his little boat. They sat on the forecastle and played cards with a tattered Tarot deck. They lounged on the deck, their loathy shirts open to their scabrous waists, paddling their feet in the water under a gibbous moon. Leaving the becalmed vessel they splashed around in the marsh, playing water polo with a moldy old head that had floated by.

Charon walked up to Faust and said, "This is your fault, you know. What are you going to do about it?"

"There's nothing I can do," Faust said. "It's the fault of that damned demon, Azzie. He doctored my good luck charm."

"Why don't you throw it overboard, then?" Charon asked.

. Faust shook his head. "That's the worst thing you can do. No, we simply must ride it out."

"That's what you keep on telling us," Charon said. "But time goes by and we're still sitting here. You better do something pretty quick or it's over the side you go."

Faust looked at the noisome waters. It would almost be a relief. Down below he could see vast shapes swimming sluggishly. He knew that beneath the Styx there was a vast kingdom that men know nothing of.

It almost tempted him. Why not give up this ceaseless travail which availeth naught? Let them throw him over—what did he care? What a pleasure it might be to drown forever, and to join the slimy swimmers of these dark waters!

But he roused himself. He was Faust! And Faust would not give way to despair! That was for lesser men, not him. He would find a way out of this situation.

And then there was a faint brightening in the air. Could there be lightness even on the Styx? He looked into the distance. Yes, there was something moving on the waters. As it came out of the mists he saw that it was a little rowboat. And there was a little man rowing, bending to the oars with a lusty stroke.

Charon looked and said, "Who in hell could that be?"

The rowboat came up to the side of Charon's bark. Aboard was Rognir, dressed in a yellow sou'wester, with a big flappy rubber raincap on his large shaggy head. "What ho!" he cried. "Do you happen to have Faust aboard?"

"Why, yes, as a matter of fact we do," Charon said. "But who are you?"

"I'm Rognir," said Rognir. "I come from an entirely different realm of discourse. But I know who you are.

Hail, Charon! Why are you parked here in the doldrums? On my way I passed docks and loading stages packed with dead souls. They were crying out for you, Charon, and they had coins in their hands."

"Damn it," Charon said, "I knew I was missing out on business. I am here, Rognir, because some baleful person has put a curse on my boat, a rudder curse I believe it is called, and my goodly little ship will only go in circles, and so has run itself on a sandbar, the only sandbar within a hundred miles of here, and here my boat hangs and refuses to get off. And what are you doing here?"

Rognir explained that he had come to speak to Faust, because he had important news for him.

"I have been listening in to the demons," Rognir said. "You are acquainted perhaps with one Azzie Elbub, demon, and a bad lot even by the standards of Hell?"

"I have met him," Faust said. "He sought to turn me aside from my purpose, which is to take my place in the contest of Dark and Light and so win redemption for mankind and undying glory for myself. Not only that, he gave me a defective Motive Spell, one infected with Jinx, as I see now, which has brought Charon's boat to a standstill."

"I think I can do something about that," Rognir said. "Here. Try this." He handed over a tangled cord.

"What is this?" Faust asked.

"A Spell of Unloosening. Untie the knot, and you will be free."