Part 13 (2/2)

Now the girls picked up their baskets and hauled them out of the craft. ”Bye, Esk,” each murmured as she pa.s.sed, in low tones that the matron was not supposed to hear.

When all were gone, the matron strode up. ”Come on, intruder,” she snapped. ”You'll be seeing the Magistrate.”

He went where directed, climbing up and out of the hatch. He found himself inside a room whose floor was water. The boat was sitting in this, its hatch beside another pier. This time Esk could see down around it, as the water was illuminated and clear. Now the mechanism for the craft's travel was apparent: there was a winch and a rope attached to it! The boat had simply been hauled in to the underwater city, as it had probably been hauled out to the edge of the lake. Obviously, there would be no people sneaking in by night; the boat would not be sent out for strangers. He was lucky he had cultivated the girls. Not that he had minded that particular diversion; he had not realized before how pleasant such an a.s.sociation could be!

The matron marched him upstairs to a grim office. Here the Magistrate frowned from his desk. ”What do you mean by intruding where you aren't welcome?” the man demanded.

Esk was tempted to say that the girls had made him welcome, but suspected that would not be smart. ”My grandmother was a curse fiend,” he said. ”I came to ask a favor from my relatives.”

”A favor? A favor?” the man demanded, reddening. ”We don't do favors for anyone; we curse!”

”Not even for relatives?”

The Magistrate huffed indignantly, but evidently felt obliged by his office to investigate this matter. ”Who was your grandmother?”

”Well, I don't know what she was called here, because she gave up that name when she married my grandfather. But maybe you know of the case. She was an excellent actress-”

”All of us are excellent thespians,” he said stuffily. ”The theater is our vocation.”

”Who impersonated an ogress,” Esk finished. ”My grandfather is an ogre.”

”An ogre?” the man demanded, outraged. ”None of our citizens would touch so brutish a beast!”

”I understand he abducted her from a set. But she married him from choice.”

The man turned to a shelf behind him and pulled down a ma.s.sive tome. He set it on the desk, opened it, and turned the pages, running his forefinger down the margins. ”Ogre, ogre,” he muttered as he searched.

”Crunch Ogre,” Esk said helpfully.

The Magistrate grimaced. ”Yes, here it is. Helpless damsel abducted by villainous ogre. We blasted him with a ma.s.sive curse that killed all the trees of the region, but apparently the brute escaped.”

”He became a vegetarian,” Esk said. ”The curse couldn't find him, because it was looking for a bone cruncher.”

”A loophole!” the Magistrate said with withering disgust.

”They had a son named Smash, who married a nymph named Tandy, and I am their son,” Esk said. ”So I am related to the curse fiends, and now I come to ask a favor of my relatives.”

”You may be related, barely, in a distasteful technical sense, but that gives you the right only to visit, not to make demands on us. I will grant you a two-day visa; after that you will be banned.”

”Oh, I don't intend to stay longer. All I'm asking is help for-”

”Don't tell me your business!” the man exclaimed. ”You have no right even to ask, unless you earn it.”

”Earn it? How do I earn it?”

”By providing something we need. What can you do?”

Esk considered. Obviously they would not be impressed by his ogre mode, even if he could invoke it, and he doubted that his sometime acting ability would be anything remarkable here. Then he remembered something his grandmother had mentioned that had seemed like a joke. ”I can be an audience,” he said.

”Someone must have told you,” the Magistrate grumped.

”My curse fiend grandma,” Esk agreed smugly, though he was surprised that this had worked. ”You have everything you need except advance audiences, right? You need to try out your plays on ordinary folk, before your season commences, to be sure they register correctly. Well, I'm about as ordinary as they come.”

”I'll grant you that, youngster. Very well, it is evident that you do have curse fiend lineage, even if you are a bad actor. Here is your visa; you have two days to be a good enough audience to warrant our consideration of your plea. Don't waste them.”

”I won't,” Esk promised. ”If you will just tell me where to go to get to work-”

”First you must clean up. Did you expect to perform as an audience in that condition?” The Magistrate's nose wrinkled. He snapped his fingers, and a girl appeared.

Esk recognized her. She was Doris, the one he had seen on the ladder.

”Take this person to a guest room and clean and dress him appropriately,” the Magistrate said.

”Yes, sir,” the girl said meekly. She turned to Esk. ”If you will follow me, person.”

”His name is Esk,” the Magistrate said. ”He will be a sample audience for two days only.”

”Yes, sir,” Doris repeated. ”Please follow me, Desk.”

”Esk!” the Magistrate roared. ”Can't you servants get anything straight?”

”No, sir,” Doris said.

Esk followed her, intrigued. Doris knew his name; why was she pretending not to?

As soon as they were alone in the hall, he found out. ”I subbed for the girl on duty,” Doris confided. ”If the Magistrate caught on, he'd have me flayed.”

”But why? You've already put in a day's work harvesting shoes.”

”I think you're cute. I thought if I showed you my legs, you'd like me. Now I get to wash you. That will be fun!”

”You-on the ladder-on purpose?” he asked, almost choking.

”Wasn't I naughty?” She giggled. ”I knew you'd look.”

But now the other part of this situation registered. ”You are going to wash me?”

”It's part of the duty. We're servant girls, until we serve our apprentices.h.i.+p. Then those with proper promise get to try out for parts, unless we manage to marry above our station. What's your station?”

Now it was clarifying. She was looking for a way to get a better position; her interest in him was little more than an act, taking advantage of an opportunity. He had been fascinated by what he had seen of her legs, but he found her motive less appealing. ”My station is very low,” he said. ”I'm a crossbreed.”

She gazed at him, appalled. ”What a dirty word!”

”Yes. So you don't want anything more to do with me.”

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