“Well, to each their own,” Myakk said a bit stiffly. “I myself have never had a ‘bad trip’ as you put it, and I have been snorting yarrow root for years!”
“You’ve been lucky then,” Need said grimly. “You never can tell which snort is going to plunge you into a hellscape you can’t get out of.”
“As you say.” Myakk looked offended. “Well, how do you propose to test the product if you’re so against taking it yourself and you won’t let the pretty lady try any either?”
“Nobody is going to be ‘trying’ the product. We’ll do this the safe way.”
Need handed Lan’ara the bag of fruit and pulled several things out of an inside pocket. One was a test tube, filled with blue liquid and the other was a kind of mask which fit over his nose.
“Stand back,” he said to Lan’ara sternly. “And hold your nose while I do this. The yarrow root only works if it gets into the nasal passages and affects the olfactory nerves.”
“Indeed, it does,” Myakk said, nodding. “Very well then—if you’re ready?”
“Ready,” Need said, making sure his nose was covered with the mask.
“Ready,” Lan’ara echoed, her voice coming out nasal since she had her nose pinched carefully shut with one hand while she held the bag of fruit with the other.
“Very well then.” Myakk slit open the little bag and dipped just the tip of his knife into the fine blue powder which looked like fine, sky-blue sand to Lan’ara. Need held out the test tube and the other man tipped the powder into it. They all watched as it swirled down to the bottom of the tube.
At first Lan’ara thought nothing was going to happen. The liquid in the tube stayed blue and inert and not even a single bubble rose to the top.
But then, just as she was thinking it was all over, the blue liquid began changing colors. At first it was a subtle change—the deep blue turned ever so slightly greenish so that it was turquoise. Then it swiftly turned bright green, lemon yellow, and shocking pink all in the space of two or three seconds.
“Ohhh!” Lan’ara murmured, leaning forward around Need’s arm to see better. She kept her nose tightly pinched shut with her left hand but her right hand was still holding the heavy mesh bag of fruit.
And that was when it happened.
The bag of tanska fruit bumped lightly against the front part of Myakk’s ride. In fact, it bumped right against Velda’s pink, pursed, cupids-bow mouth.
Velda’s dainty pointed nose wrinkled appreciatively and she made a sudden lunge for the bag.
“Oh!” Lan’ara saw it just in time and pulled the bag back with a cry of surprise. She ran behind Need to keep away from the hungry beast, but this only made the tubb-oh more determined to get at the fruit.
Velda reared up, sloshing blue liquid over her sides and making Myakk swear loudly in a language Lan’ara didn’t know. She rammed into Need, trying to get past him and get to Lan’ara and the bag filled with fruit.
Need shouted and dropped the test tube—which by now was changing colors too quickly for the eye to follow. Not that Lan’ara was looking at it anymore—she was trying to get away from the rampaging pink bathtub, who seemed very likely to trample her if she didn’t get to higher ground.
In the confusion, Lan’ara stopped holding her nose. And at that moment, Velda reared again, spilling both Myakk and most of the liquid inside her out onto the heap of pillows. The packet of powder the half-fish man had been holding flew into the air and split open, spraying the fine, sky-blue sand everywhere.
At the same time, Velda charged around Need and rammed into Lan’ara’s thighs. The tubb-oh might have been trying to trample her but instead, the forward momentum pitched Lan’ara head-first into the mostly empty body of the tub.
The wind completely knocked out of her, Lan’ara took deep, gasping breaths, trying to get some air back into her lungs. There was suddenly an odd, sweet taste at the back of her throat and a funny smell in her nose—something really strong and floral as though every flower she’d ever smelled had suddenly come together to ram themselves up her nostrils at once. What was that?
She was vaguely aware of Myakk shouting Velda’s name and Need shouting hers but then everything got blurry and she was suddenly out of the shade and back into the blazing sunshine. She had the sensation of galloping, just as she had when she was riding Nettie back at Twyleth Tigg. But who ever heard of galloping lying flat on your back and looking up at the sky?
“What’s happening? Where in the Seven Hells is that damn thing taking Lan’ara?” Need was yelling but his voice was getting fainter, as though receding into the distance.