The golem glistened with tallow and wax.
She backed away.
Behind the golem she saw Cheri look down at the groaning Carrot and then up at a fire-axe hooked on the wall. The dwarf took it down and weighed it vaguely in her hands.
'Don't try - ' Angua began.
'T'dr'duzkb'hazgt't!'
'Oh, no!' moaned Carrot. 'Not that one!'
Cheri came up behind the golem at a run and hacked at its waist. The axe rebounded but she pirouetted with it and caught the statue on the thigh, chipping off a piece of clay.
Angua hesitated. Cheri's axe was making blurred orbits around the golem while its wielder yelled more terrible battle cries. Angua couldn't make out any words but many dwarf cries didn't bother with words. They went straight for emotions in sonic form. Chips of pottery ricocheted off the crates as each blow landed.
'What did she yell?' Angua said, as she pulled Carrot out of the way.
'It's the most menacing dwarf battle cry there is! Once it's been shouted someone has to be killed!'
'What's it mean?'
'Today Is A Good Day For Someone Else To Die!'
The golem watched the dwarf incuriously, like an elephant watching an attack by a rogue chicken.
Then it picked the axe out of the air, Cheri trailing behind it like a comet, and hurled it aside.
Angua hauled Carrot to his feet. Blood dripped from his hand. She tried to shut her nostrils. Full moon tomorrow. No more choices.
'Maybe we can reason with it - ' Carrot started.
'Attention! This is the real world calling!' shouted Angua.
Carrot drew his sword. 'I am arresting you - ' he began.
The golem's arm whirred across. The sword buried itself to the hilt in a crate of candles.
'Got any more clever ideas?' said Angua, as they backed away. 'Or can we go now?'
'No. We've got to stop it somewhere.'
Their heels met a wall of crates.
'I think we've found the place,' said Angua as the golem raised its fists again.
'You duck right, I'll duck left. Maybe - '
A blow rocked the big double doors in the far wall.
The king golem's head turned.
The doors shook again, and burst inwards. For a moment Dorfl was framed in the doorway. Then the red golem lowered his head, spread his arms, and charged.
It wasn't a very fast run but it did have a terrible momentum, like the slow slide of a glacier. The floorboards shook and drummed under him.
The golems collided with a clang in the middle of the floor. Jagged lines of fire spread across the king's body as cracks opened, but it roared and caught up Dorfl around the middle and tossed him against the wall.
'Come on,' said Angua. 'Now can we find Cheri and get out of here?'