Part 12 (2/2)
Persh shrugged. ”Oh, a few are getting to a fairly uncomfortable size, but nothing is really critical. We're careful to keep our tools as primitive as possible, you know, while still being able to serve our customers. Of course, we'd surely appreciate it if you'd clear some of the Shadows out while you're here, but it's not like you have to for your-uh-””For my room and board?” Turek felt his expression hardening.
”Uh... yes, Master. Of course your stay here is without charge-we honor the old customs!-”
”Just bring me my dinner,” Turek interrupted him. ”I'll clear out your Shadows later.”
”Yes, Master; thank you, Master.” Persh hurried away across the room.
Turek watched him go, his irritation melting into a mild depression. Fear; and an exaggerated deference that bordered on apotheosis. Simple friends.h.i.+p-the kind he'd had with people in his first few years as a Shadow Warrior-seemed to have all but vanished from his life. Only with other Shadow Warriors could he really be accepted just for who he was.
The other tables were filling up as the workday drew to a close and people stopped in for dinner or a quick drink. Frequent bursts of laughter began to punctuate the growing din of conversation; clearly, Akkad as a whole didn't seem unduly concerned by the presence of a large Shadow in their village. Turek listened silently to the noise, feeling more isolated than ever, and found himself watching the girl behind the bar. As recently as a couple of years ago he would've taken Persh up on his implied offer of feminine company. But that same fear had permeated that type of interaction, too, and the results were increasingly disappointing. Resolutely, he turned his gaze from the girl. No sense torturing himself.
Persh arrived a few moments later with a large plate heaped with food and set it down in front of Turek, snagging a pitcher of tarri from a pa.s.sing waiter and refilling the Shadow Warrior's half-empty mug. Bowing nervously, he backed away, a trifle too hurriedly. Sighing, Turek picked up his flatware and began to eat.
The meal was something of a disappointment. The tannu, while juicy enough, lacked some of the subtle flavors he remembered from his last visit. The green roll, too, seemed to have been overcooked, leaving some of the vegetables on the tasteless side. Only the tarri tasted right, and even it was no better than the tarri a man could get anywhere.
Engrossed in his meal, Turek didn't notice the slight dip in conversation noise; didn't notice anything, in fact, until the bulky man settled into the chair opposite him.
Startled, Turek looked up-and smiled. ”Weege! What're you doing here?”
The other man slid his blue Shadow Warrior's cloak off onto the chair back with a sigh that bespoke tiredness. ”Oh, that feels good. h.e.l.lo, Turek. What am I doing here? Eighty percent pa.s.sing through; twenty percent looking for you.”
”Oh, I'm flattered.” Turek signaled, but he needn't have bothered; Persh was already hurrying over with a mug and pitcher. ”What is it, trouble somewhere?”
”Not really.” Weege nodded his thanks for the tarri as Persh poured, waving off the innkeepers offer of dinner. ”I'd hoped to catch you at Keilberg, but when I arrived they told me you'd come here. It was more or less on my way, so I thought I'd drop by with the current rumor,” He took a sip from his steaming mug. ”Tell me, have you ever heard of a guy named Javan? Comes from somewhere north of Lazuli.”
”The self-proclaimed mystic? Sure. Claims to have a new way to destroy Shadows. Standard fruitcake.”
”Maybe,” Weege said, gazing into the depths of his mug. ”But he's causing quite a stir. I hear he's got close on a hundred disciples and students now and is claiming a high success rate against Shadows.”
Turek frowned. ”A hundred students, eh? That's a good-sized army for a charlatan.”
”Yeah. Some of us think it's time we challenged him, put him to a real test.”
”Not our problem here, though. Lazuli's a long ways off.”
”Javan isn't, though,” came the dry response. ”He's just a few hours' walk from here, up at Lander's Waste.”
Turek sat up straighter. ”Up by the old s.h.i.+p? What for?”
”Probably going to practice his technique. You can't find a bigger Shadow on the planet, you know.”
”The kid sure thinks big,” Turek growled. The old colony s.h.i.+p that had brought mankind to Vesper hadn't been approached since the day it landed, the day when its seven hundred pa.s.sengers and crew ran gasping from it and the Shadow which had begun to grow around it. For a while they'd feared the Shadow might grow forever, engulfing the whole planet in agony, but it had finally stopped.
Legend had it that right by the s.h.i.+p itself the Shadow was dense enough to kill.
”Maybe he'll try to walk to the s.h.i.+p. That would settle the whole thing right there.”
”I doubt he's stupid enough to do that. No, he's probably doing this for the psychological value-you know, brave new Warrior camping on the doorstep of Shadow.”
”Yeah.” Turek gazed unseeing around the room, drumming his fingers thoughtfully on the table. ”Maybe we ought to go up and challenge him. I'm on a job, but I could put it off a day.”
”It's completely up to you,” Weege said. ”I can't go with you; like I said, I'm just pa.s.sing through. Calneh's got a crisis situation on their hands, and they need my help. In fact, I can't even stay the night.” He got to his feet, scooping his cloak with one hand and his mug with the other. Draining the latter, he dropped it back on the table and nodded at Turek. ”We'll see you around, Turek. Give Javan a boot for me if you go.”
”Sure. Safe trip to you.”
Turek brooded for several minutes after Weege left, trying to decide what to do. The idea of facing down a hundred zealots did not especially appeal to him, even if they weren't far enough gone yet that they would actually attack a Shadow Warrior. But allowing a charlatan to operate unchallenged was a bad idea, too.
Among other things, it tarnished the image of legitimate Shadow Warriors.
The decision actually came easily. Merken's shop would just have to wait an extra day. Turek couldn't feel particularly sorry about it-after all, the mess was the jeweler's own fault. Maybe next time he'd think before playing with advanced technology.
Flagging down Persh, Turek asked that a message be sent to Merken informing him there would be a short delay in the clearing out of his Shadow.
Then he returned to his meal, discovering in the process that it wasn't any more palatable cold than it had been warm. He ate it, though, and downed two more mugs of tarri before calling it an evening.
And before going to bed, he spent an hour clearing Shadows from the inn's kitchen and toolroom.
He was up with the sun, and after a tolerable breakfast he set off for Lander's Waste.
It turned out to be a surprisingly refres.h.i.+ng walk. He was in no particular hurry for this confrontation, and as a result set a more comfortable pace than usual for himself. The meal Persh had packed at his request-Turek had no intention of breaking bread with Javan-rode easily on his shoulder, over his blue cloak. For the first time in months Turek found himself paying attention to the landscape around him, really looking at the multicolored plants dotting the gently rolling scrubland. Small animals darted around or sought cover as he pa.s.sed; twice he spotted the double-wedge of migrating oriflammes, their red-gold plumage vivid against the deep blue of the sky. It was invigorating and strangely restful, as if he'd somehow been transported back to his youth, to the days before he became a Shadow Warrior. The blue cloak carries great weight, as the double-edged aphorism went, but even those who wore it seldom realized just how heavy the load was. To be free of the weight for even a few hours was an unexpected blessing.
An hour before noon, he reached Lander's Waste.
The term ”waste” was somewhat misleading, since it looked no different than the area immediately surrounding it Native Vesperian plants and animals thrived there, completely unaffected by the eight-mile diameter Shadow that had enveloped them for the past two hundred years. A ring of red granite boulders, laboriously moved there by the original colonists, marked the Shadow's edge. Just for practice, Turek used his afterimage technique and confirmed the edge was still where it always had been. No surprises there. Someday, he knew, the s.h.i.+p at the center would start to fall apart, its tools and machines collapsing back into dust- and when that finally happened, the Shadow would begin to shrink. Even as Turek began his circ.u.mference of the Waste, he shook his head in wonder. Two hundred years. Someone had really built that s.h.i.+p to last.
He'd gone less than a mile before he came upon Javan's camp, a sprawling tent city pus.h.i.+ng nearly to the edge of the Shadow. A quick count showed Weege's estimate had been, if anything, conservative-there were easily enough accommodations here for a hundred and fifty people. A fair percentage of that number were visible around the area, doing various ch.o.r.es or sitting motionlessly just outside the boulder ring. Squaring his shoulders, Turek strode forward.
They saw him coming, of course, and a committee of five teenaged youths met him a hundred feet from the nearest tent. ”Greeting to you, Master Shadow Warrior,” their spokesman said formally in a voice that mixed friendliness, respect, and wariness. ”I am Polyens. How may I serve you?”
”I am Turek,” the Shadow Warrior told him. ”I am here to see Javan.”
”May I ask your business?”
Turek felt the first stirrings of anger. ”My business is with Javan, not his gulls.”
A low rumbling from the group cut off instantly at a signal from Polyens, and Turek revised upwards his estimate of the youth's position in the organization.
Polyens' next words confirmed it. ”I'm an aide to Javan, not merely one of his students. Do you pledge safety?”
Turek smiled sardonically. ”In the middle of his own camp? Of course.
Besides”-he raised the sides of his cloak away from his body-”you can see I'm unarmed.”
”Very well. Please come with me.”
Polyens led the way inward, the other four youths falling into step a few feet behind Turek. An untrusting lot, he thought, ignoring the covert looks others in the camp threw at him as he pa.s.sed. Once more he was among people who feared-or even hated-him, and the youthful feeling of the early morning was gone without a trace. He was again a veteran Shadow Warrior, with all that that meant.
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