FILBERT, RETURN TO THE KITCHEN
ewancummins wrote:FILBERT, OUTSIDE THE HOUSE OF THE MASTERS
Having exited the stone and timber building and climbed up the wall to the kitchen window.
Peering through the thin gaps in the slats, he sees shadows and light playing in the kitchen, but cannot tell what's going on.
Just then, something rattles and thuds from beyond the shutters. It sounds like a commotion deeper into the kitchen. Again the rattling and thudding, and this time he hears wood cracking.
Filbert takes out his tools and jimmies the latch open. He stuffs the tools back in his bag, pulls open the shutters, and crawls through...
Sticking his head and shoulders through the small window, Filbert sees Lord Runcible across the kitchen, standing in front of the oven. Ugo lies on top of the oven lengthwise, stiff and still.
A shuddering thud echoes through the kitchen. The closed door between the kitchen and the hall shakes in its frame, sending pots and pans tumbling from the heap of objects piled against it.
Another loud impact from the far side.
The panel cracks.
Filbert drops into the room, running at Lord Runcible’s back with his short sword held out point first.
The fat ghul steps away from the oven just as Filbert closes. Filbert nearly tumbles into the open oven. The Halfling reels back from the bed of glowing embers, hot air blowing in his face.
Runcible grabs Filbert by the collar and pushes him into the oven.
But Filbert wedges his sword in the iron door over the oven, which hangs open on his right, and grabs at the stone lip of the opening with his free hand.
Thus braced, the Halfling pushes against Runcible with all the desperate force his small body can muster.
Runcible, gray and horrible without his mask, leans in close and grimaces at Filbert as he struggles to force the Halfling onto the hot coals.
The kitchen door thuds for a third time. Wood splinters. Furniture and pots clatter to the floor.
Runcible pushes harder. Sparks fly from the open grate as Filbert's sword blade grinds along the wrought iron.
Filbert smells burning clothes--
his own.
He heaves with everything he has left.
Runcible slides back, arms flailing.
Filbert drops. The ghul master kicks him, trips, staggers-- and pitches straight into the oven as Devlin slams into his back.
The Duke pushes the fat ghul deeper into the oven, grabbing him by his kicking legs and shoving.
Runcible shrieks, trapped with his head and shoulders inside the hot compartment.
Devlin lets go, lunges to the right and grabs the cage that had been Filbert's prison. He lifts it with a grunt and wheels in a half-circle, slamming the cage sideways into Runcible's legs.
The wooden part of the cage cracks. Devlin shoves with the iron frame, forcing Runcible all the way into the oven.
Filbert sees Devlin's face turn red, and then purple.
The iron bars rattle as Devlin strains to keep the Master trapped in the hot oven.
The stench of burning fat fills the kitchen.
Delight is to him- a far, far upward, and inward delight- who against the proud gods and commodores of this earth, ever stands forth his own inexorable self.
-from Moby Dick (Hermann Melville)
