Part 34 (1/2)
He handed me a pair of rather shabby gloves. I almost dropped them because of their unexpected weight.
”There's a quarter-weight of sand sewn across the knuckles and an eighth in the palm,” he said briskly.
”Slap someone and they shall stay slapped.”
He picked up a murderous-looking double-edged dagger whose sheath hung down the back of his neck along his spine, and we went looking for Elias Malebranche.
This time I was ready for Seer Tenedos when he said he wished to accompany us. Kutulu looked horrified, not yet familiar with the seer's admirable habit of leading from the front.
”You arenot going,” I said firmly. ”You arenot expendable, especially when all we intend to do is peer about. Don't you think your face is well known to most of Nicias by now? Don't you imagine Malebranche would be delighted to meet you in some dark alleyway? Don't you think Chardin Sher would reward him well to have your pelt in front of his fire, sir?”
*”You pick amazingly picturesque imagery, Damastes,” Tenedos grumbled. ”Very well. I see your point. But can you tell me one reason why I shouldn't try to use sorcery to spy out where the Kallian goes and what his business is?”
”Thak,” was all I said, and Tenedos's shoulders tensed involuntarily as he remembered how the demon had almost risen out of the mercury pool to take both of us.
”Very well.” Tenedos sighed. ”As Captain Mellet once said, I'll stay and tend the home fires. But as for some sort of spell to protect you. Hmm. I'll give you that, and something for emergencies.”
He dusted us with a powder, said unfamiliar words, while his hands moved in strange figures in the air.
”You don't want to show up reeking of magic, but this is a simple spell that will encourage a sorcerous sentry to overlook you, without ever quite realizing why. Now for the other device.”
He went to one of his trunks and fished through it until he found a rather ornately carved box made of several different-colored woods. Inside I saw what appeared to be tiny, perfectly sculptured animals, animals such as I'd never dreamed of.
”Here,” he said, handing me one. It was like a tortoise, but with the edges of its sh.e.l.l spiked, and it stood clear of the ground on four stocky, clawed legs. Its tail was an armored mace, and its head was fanged and malevolent looking.
”What is it, a model of some sort of demon?” Kutulu asked.
”It's not a model at all, but rather the creature itself, perhaps a demon, I was able to fetch from another world and then shrink and put into a suspended state. I think I'm the only sorcerer who's come up with a series of spells that can do this. I call it, and the others I made, animunculi. I'd never found a use for them until now, although I suppose it would be possible to shrink a guard dog, carry it as a charm on a woman's bracelet, and she would be quite safe from any attack. So too with your small creature. In its normal state it is about ten feet long, plus the tail, and it has the temperament of a rabid bear.
”It will be activated by the slightest contact with water, so I'd suggest you keep it in this.” He handed me a bottle with a stopper, and I gingerly inserted the tiny figurine in it. ”Please try to return it to me undamaged,” he said wistfully. ”A great deal of probably wasted time went into creating it.”
”If we have to, er, activate it,” Kutulu wondered, ”how do we render it safe?”
”You don't. You can't. Run like demons are after you, which they may well be. It will return to its own world after a few moments.” Tenedos thought about what he'd said and smiled a bit sheepishly. ”It might be well to provide you with a weapon against your weapon, I just realized. Put the creature away safely first, since I am giving you a spell of water.”
He found herbs, and added them to a beaker of water. He took an oddly carved wand that more resembled a twisted bit of driftwood from a shelf, and stirred the mixture. He began chanting in another tongue, then his words became understandable: ”Water, guard Water, help Seek water Find safety. Varum take heed These are now yours Guard them Help them Now they are thine.”
As he spoke, he sprinkled the mixture on us. Then, in a normal tone, he said, ”this should be a bit of help, I should think. Again, it's a simple spell, and requires a bit of work on your part. If this creature, animal, demon, or whatever it is, does come after you, cross water. Any water will stop it. If the spell works as it should, you should be momentarily safe.”
”Momentarily,” I said. ”That's a fairly imprecise time.”
tf”You're both in good health. As I said, run like you've never run before, and you'll escape handily. I'm fairly sure of that.”
Kutulu was looking rather skeptically at Tenedos. I suspected this was the first time he'd ever realized his hero might not be able to do all things perfectly. I took the warden by the arm.
”Come on,” I said. ”That's but his way of making sure the hayseed can't complain about the philter he purchased if it doesn't work. Thank you, Seer.”
”Captain,” Tenedos said, ”has anyone ever suggested you're impertinent?”
”Frequently, sir. And they're always right. We'll report back to you as soon as possible.”
Tenedos turned serious. ”Please do that, regardless of the hour. Be most careful. I do not know what you might encounter.”
”This is another trick of the police,” Kutulu explained. ”If you are following someone, someone who seems to have a regular route, and you lose him or he becomes suspicious, go to the last point you were able to track him, wait for his next appearance, then continue following.”
We were hidden behind barrels on the very edge of a wharf. About twenty yards away was the end of the alley I'd followed Malebranche down to find nothing.
The night was quiet, no sound except the splash of small waves as the river flowed past behind and below us, and the occasional hoot of a s.h.i.+p's horn.
How much, I mused, of a soldier's time is spent waiting in perfect silence, from peacetime formations to wartime ambushes, yet no one ever considers it a part of his lot.
I heard m.u.f.fled hoofbeats, and crouched lower.
A dark figure rode swiftly out of the alley, and I thought for a moment that it was about to ride straight off into the water. But the rider dismounted, knelt, and suddenly, noiselessly, part of the pier lifted, a hatch, and the rider, who must be Male-
branche, led his horse down an unseen ramp. As rapidly as it had opened the trapdoor closed, and all was as before.
”Interesting,” Kutulu said. ”Shall we follow?”
It took a few minutes of close examination to find the round metal-lined socket in the wooden pier. It was made to accommodate some sort of tool, which we did not have, but I pried carefully with the haft of my dagger and suddenly the portal yawned open.
Kutulu took a tiny dark lantern from his cloak, lit it, and opened one shutter enough to illuminate the ramp. I spotted the closing lever not far along. He latched the shutter and we crept down the incline, closing the hatch, and darkness closed around us.
I started onward, but Kutulu feh my movement, and held me still. I obeyed. I thought my eyes were already night-familiar, and we would be forced to move by feel, but in a few moments realized they weren't. We weren't in total blackness, but there was enough light from the end of the tunnel to see dimly.
Kutulu tugged me onward. I made sure my knife was loose in its sheath and we went down the tunnel.
About twenty yards along, we found an alcove, and here the rider's horse was tethered. The tunnel leveled, and turned, away from the river, back under the hill.
I wondered how the conspirators had been able to dig such an elaborate work without being seen, but when I brushed against the tunnel's walls, which were heavily nitered brick, I realized they'd merely happened on it. Perhaps this had been a smuggler or pirate's lair in the distant past, abandoned or forgotten.
I heard a rat chitter, then we came around a curve, and saw light. At the same time, we heard a voice booming, for all the world like that of a priest in a temple.
The tunnel mouth was a low arch, and I saw the outline of a figure, a man with a sword in one hand.
But his back was turned to us, and he was intent on whatever was going on in the chamber inside.
I looked at Kutulu, and he gestured me back around the bend.
”So there's more than one entrance,” he whispered. ”That isn't Malebranche's voice, so whoever's speaking must have come in some other way. Either that, or people live down here. I think we should see more.” I was impressed with the little man. There was not the slightest sign of fear in his voice.