Name: Shabble.
        Place of Manufacture: Nadokov (a city on the planet Sendak
IV, a part of the Musorian Empire).
        Occupation: High Priest of the Cult of Cockroach.
        Status: messiah.
        Description: a full-sized sun contained in its own miniature
cosmos, and linked to the worlds of human action by means of a
transponder the size of a fist.
        Hobbies: ventriloquism; the making of music.
        Quote: "Loneliness, loneliness, that's the worst thing. Be
kind to the cockroach and you'll never be lonely, that's as firm
as a promise."

                                                 * * *

        Of Shabble's genesis and of Shabble's true nature no certain
account can be given. But one thing is sure. This free-floating
globular pyrotechnist was intrinsically more irresponsible than a
sea dragon - which is saying something! - and was potentially far
more dangerous.
        Therefore, on hearing that Shabble was on Alozay - Alozay, of
all places! - Guest Gulkan was much disturbed.
        "Alozay!" said Guest.
        The Witchlord Onosh then demanded to know who Shabble was -
and what might this personage be doing on Alozay.
        Then Guest explained that Shabble was a playful ball he had
met on Untunchilamon, a ball which could shine at will with a
brightness fit to rival that of the sun itself, and which could
fly. Lord Onosh, who was inclined to doubt the truthfulness of
this intelligence, then demanded to know the full story of Guest's
travels on Untunchilamon, of which he had heard but the barest
fragments since his liberation from a time pod in Obooloo's Temple
of Blood.
        "Well," said Guest, "it's, it's a long story."
        "Then suppose you hurry up and start it," said his father,
"because the day's getting shorter by the moment."
        But Guest was reluctant to begin, for he had no idea how he
could possibly go about telling the full story of his exploits on
Untunchilamon. For so many things had happened on that distant
tropical island, and to explicate those happenings would require
the telling of a tale so tangled that Guest could not so much as
sort it out in his own head.
        In truth, the Weaponmaster felt like someone who has been
embroiled in a riot, and is put to the difficulty of
reconstructing its events in the cold light of day for the
satisfaction of a court of law. When one is placed in such a
situation, it is very difficult to imagine that one ran around
without any trousers, assisted in the skinning of a tax collector
then proceeded to the local temple to have intimate connections
with its vestal virgins.
        Just as a person put in such a predicament is hard put to
know where to begin their explanations, so too was Guest beset
with perplexion when his father challenged him to outline that
part of his history. Indeed, the Weaponmaster's hesitation was so
great that Plandruk Qinplaqus was moved to violate the norms of
civilized behavior by using his powers as a wizard of Ebber to
look inside Guest's mind.
        The Weaponmaster did not notice this wizardly intrusion into
the intimacies of his psyche, hence did not resist it; but,
despite the lack of resistance, Qinplaqus got no profit from his
adventure. For Guest's mind was a moiling confusion in which
images of Penelope's nakedness were entangled with sharks,
dungeons, coral reefs, fireflies, mosquitoes, monkeys, coconuts,
the claws of a crab and the shadow of a bablobrokmadorni stick,
the leering teeth of Bao Gahai and (sheer randomness, this) a
memory of a long-ago day on the island of Spradley Rock, which had
been converted to one gigantic scrub-bath by the invasion of a
horde of Yarglat barbarians.
        Only Guest himself could possibly be the equal of sorting out
such a mess, so, Power having failed, Qinplaqus resorted to
interrogation.
        "The salient points," said Qinplaqus
        "Uh, myself and the wizards," said Guest, "we ventured to
Untunchilamon."
        This brief preamble served to offend Thayer Levant, who
considered that he had been an equal partner in that venture, and
was aggrieved at being overlooked. Of course, Levant was being
unrealistic, for a man does not say "I and my servant went venturing"
any more than he says "I and my walking stick went venturing" -
but his hurt was genuine, even if it was totally unreasonable.
        "So," said Qinplaqus, "what did you find on Untunchilamon?"
        "A therapist," said Guest. "A therapist, a dorgi, a Crab, a
conjurer, a large number of bad-tempered sorcerers, the analytical
engine, a madhouse, a slaughterhouse, a dosshouse ... that's about
it. Oh, and Shabble."
        "What about a Cockroach?" said Qinplaqus.
        "A cockroach?" said Guest in puzzlement, wondering if the
Silver Emperor was at last lapsing into outright senility.
        "Yes, yes, a Cockroach!" said Qinplaqus. "A Cockroach which
commanded the worship of men, yes, and women too, and dogs cats
and monkeys for all I know!"
        "Oh," said Guest, belatedly remembering. "Yes, there was a
Cockroach. It was a god, at least that's what Shabble said, and
there were tax advantages - but that was long ago, and in a
different country, and the insect must be dead by now."
        "It is not dead," said Qinplaqus. "It is an immortal god
which successively reincarnates itself in a series of cockroach
bodies."
        "Are you - are you then a worshipper?" said Guest, wondering
if he had mortally offended the Ashdan's piety.
        "No!" said Qinplaqus, hammering his pelican-headed walking
stick against the floor. "I have no time for this trifling
nonsense! But the problem with nonsense is that it becomes serious
when enough people believe in it. Shabble and Shabble's god have
installed themselves on Alozay. And this - "
        "A god!" said Lord Onosh, interrupting with intemperate
force. "Since when is a cockroach a god?"
        "Oh, many things can be gods," said Qinplaqus. "Why, this
walking stick of mine was once a god in its own right, though it
is a god no longer. So. As I was saying, the world's worst
nonsense must be taken seriously if enough people believe in it.
Shabble has set up a god upon Alozay, and we have no choice but to
treat with this problem in a serious manner."
        Lord Onosh shook his head. He was still having trouble
adjusting to the news. His home island - invaded by a cockroach!
The Witchlord Onosh had often feared that the Safrak Islands might
be invaded by the Red Emperor, the fearsome Khmar, whose horsemen
currently dominated the Collosnon Empire. He had feared, too, that
he might be betrayed by the treachery of the Partnership Banks, or
face an intemperate challenge from his son Guest. But never in his
wildest dreams had he thought himself likely to suffer invasion
from a talking ball and an immortal cockroach.
        "You say that Shabble is installed upon Alozay," said Guest.
"Do you mean that this Shabble-thing is there as a conqueror?"
        "Not yet, not yet," said Qinplaqus. "At the moment, Shabble
is but an uninvited guest. But I fear that it will be but a matter
of time before Shabble declares itself the lord of Alozay, and the
lord too of all the Doors of the Circle."
        The Plandruk Qinplaqus called for tea, for coffee, for wine,
for chocolate, for sweetmeats, for roast polyps and boiled water,
to afford them a break in which they could chew over their
difficulties as they chewed over their food.
        Guest chewed with some anger.
        The Weaponmaster had thought of Untunchilamon as a mere
waystation in his life; and, though he had sojourned there for
some considerable time, and though a great many things had there
happened to him, he had never expected any of the strangers
encountered on Untunchilamon to intrude into his future. Least of
all on Alozay! After all, there was an entire ocean between
Untunchilamon and Alozay.
        While chewing, Guest suffered the most horrendous sense of
overwhelming difficulties. As a hero whose multiple heroics had no
precedent in myth, legend or affidavit, the Weaponmaster had dared
unimaginable dangers (including the temptations of therapists and
a great Flood of his father's saliva), and had succeeded where
many had failed. In the face of all the odds, he had won the
wishstone from Untunchilamon and had got it as far as Dalar ken
Halvar - but now the wishstone didn't work, or not yet at any
rate, and his return home was problematical.
        During his earlier sojourn in Dalar ken Halvar, when he had
spent four years convalescing from injuries, Guest had learnt
something of the rise of the religion of Nu-chala-nuth, which was
now the dominant faith in Parengarenga. If Shabble was intent on
seizing the Circle of the Doors of the Partnership Banks and
converting the world to the doctrines of the Holy Cockroach, then
there was surely the potential for a horrific holy war when the
adherents of the Cockroach clashed with the Nu-chala-nuth.
        So, with a potential religious war added to his own problems,
Guest felt positively depressed. And things were all the worse
because he was facing his current difficulties without the help of
his wizards.
        So where exactly were those dignitaries?
        When Guest had escaped from Untunchilamon by ship, he had
left behind the wizards Pelagius Zozimus and Hostaja Sken-
Pitilkin. At the time, Sken-Pitilkin had been trying to build
another of his flying machines.
        Assuming that he had succeeded ....
        "Is Sken-Pitilkin on Alozay?" said Guest, with a note of
intense suspicion in his voice.
        "Why, yes," said Qinplaqus. "I forgot to mention that. Sken-
Pitilkin arrived with Shabble."
        "I knew it!" said Guest, speaking like a man who has just
discovered a scorpion beneath his pillow. "Only Sken-Pitilkin
could have tempted that bubble to Alozay. Shabble could never have
got there by accident, not ever! What would Shabble know of
Alozay, Safrak, demons, Doors? It's Sken-Pitilkin, he's the one!"
        "Yes," said Lord Onosh, relieved to find they had an obvious
target to blame for the mess they were in. "I blame it all on
Sken-Pitilkin. Him and his flying machines!"
        "Yes," said Guest, "if he hadn't got into this business of
flying, we'd never have been in this mess. I knew right from the
start that those stickbirds of his was bad news. Why, back at
Locontareth he wanted to build one especially to drop bombs."
        "Bombs?" said Lord Onosh.
        "Those rock-things which fly from volcanoes," said Guest. "He
wanted to build a stickbird to drop bombs. Drop them on peoples'
heads."
        "No, no," said his father. "It was nothing to do with
volcanoes. It was donkeys! He was going to load them up then -
then drop them on people. He almost killed me with one of his
infernal experiments. He dropped a donkey from a roof."
        "It might be," said Plandruk Qinplaqus, "that the donkey was
a beast of burden which he intended to transport by air, and that
its fall was an accident."
        "Nonsense!" said Lord Onosh. "For we were preparing for war.
And - and there was an armchair on the donkey! One does not go to
war with an armchair, not even if one is a sotted old wizard like
that worthless Sken-Pitilkin."
        Then Guest remembered Sken-Pitilkin talking with the demon
Icaria Scaria Iva-Italis about flight. Sken-Pitilkin's intensity
had helped convince Guest that the demon was truly a creature of
Power. Consequently, Guest was more than half-inclined to blame
Sken-Pitilkin for all their subsequent disasters.
        And had it not been Sken-Pitilkin who had been truly
enthusiastic about questing to Untunchilamon for the x-x-zix? Of
course it had been! And why? Perhaps - this was Guest's dire
thought - perhaps Sken-Pitilkin had not been intent on winning the
wishstone. Perhaps Sken-Pitilkin had bethought himself of the
Shabble which lived on Untunchilamon.
        So ....
        If Sken-Pitilkin had seen Iva-Italis on Alozay, and if Sken-
Pitilkin had then gone to Untunchilamon, then might it not be that
the wizard's true intent had ever been to introduce Shabble to the
demon Italis?
        Guest could not help but think that, while a Shabble in
isolation was not necessarily particularly dangerous, a Shabble in
combination with a demon - or in combination with all the demons
of the Circle of the Partnership Banks - might prove an alliance
capable of dominating the world.
        "We will not be contending with Shabble," said Guest grimly.
"Rather, we will be contending with Sken-Pitilkin, for I fear him
in conspiracy against us."
        "How so?" said Qinplaqus.
        "I fear that Sken-Pitilkin may have deliberately sought out
Shabble on Untunchilamon with the sole purpose of introducing that
delinquent to the demon on Alozay," said Guest. "I fear that
Shabble and the demon may now league with Sken-Pitilkin, matching
their powers with his powers of flight, and producing a world-
dominating combination."
        "Then," said Lord Onosh, with the ferocity which befits a
Yarglat warlord, "we must hurry to Alozay and cut off Sken-
Pitilkin's head!"
        But it was not till three days had passed that they were
conveyed at last to the Bralsh in covered palankeens.
        By this time, Yubi Das Finger had obtained clearance from all
the Banks through which Witchlord and Weaponmaster would travel on
their way home. They were free to travel.
        Plandruk Qinplaqus then assigned Thayer Levant to Guest
Gulkan's service, partly so Levant could later bring Qinplaqus an
independent account of the activities of Witchlord and
Weaponmaster, and partly because Qinplaqus thought that Levant
might be of use to those Yarglat barbarians.
        After all, had it not been for Levant's audacity and
endurance, the x-x-zix would never have reached Dalar ken Halvar
and the mazadath would not have been saved for Guest Gulkan.
Instead, both those treasures would have fallen to the Mutilator
of Yestron.
        Levant was not particularly keen to again be of service to
Guest, for the Weaponmaster had proved singularly ungrateful for
the magnificent service which Levant had rendered him. The shifty-
eyed knifeman was beginning to think he had had quite enough of
this adventuring business, and that it was time for him to be
thinking of settling down in his native Chi'ash-lan, or perhaps in
Dalar ken Halvar itself.
        But Qinplaqus was adamant.
        Levant must go!
        "Then we will take Levant," said Guest. "And we will leave
you the cornucopia which we won from the Stench Caves of Logthok
Norgos. On our behalf you may use it to generate wealth, piling up
the treasure which we may need for the financing of our future
wars."
        So spoke the Weaponmaster. For his part, the Witchlord Onosh
was not at all sure that he wished for Plandruk Qinplaqus to take
charge of the cornucopia. Nevertheless, the offer could not be
unsaid, so the cornucopia was handed over to Qinplaqus. But - to
the mutual dismay of both Witchlord and Weaponmaster - the thing
had been corrupted by over-use.
        For it proved capable of generating nothing but an outflux of
black slime, regardless of what was put into it - silver, gold,
grapes, chocolate, sand, water, urine, cockroaches, mice, kittens,
steel, copper, zinc.
        A great disaster, this!
        So died all visions of world-conquering wealth; and,
depressed at realizing they had won no profit from their raid on
the Stench Caves, Witchlord and Weaponmaster prepared to leave
Dalar ken Halvar.
        In accordance with the insistence of Plandruk Qinplaqus,
Thayer levant accompanied Witchlord and Weaponmaster as they
traveled to the Bralsh. There, the three adventurers were
admitted to its weirding room; and stepped onto the marble plinth
in that weirding room; and stepped through the archway sustained
by that plinth; and found themselves in the Singing Dove Pensions
Trust of Tang.
        Again through the Door, and they were in the Taniwha
Guarantee Corporation of Quilth. Another passage through that
humming silver screen took them to the Orsay Bank of Stokos. Then
to a room of hanging skeletons - the weirding room of the Morgrim
Bank of Chi'ash-lan.
        The next step would take them home.
        Home to Alozay, the ruling island of the Safrak archipelago.
        Witchlord and Weaponmaster braced themselves. Levant saw
their bracing, anticipated swordplay, and sighed.
        They stepped through the Door.
        And found themselves in the weirding room in the uppermost
chamber of the mainrock Pinnacle, the great spike of rock which
dominated the island of Alozay.
        And there -