[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
follow him would be in for some major distress.
Azel stood, handed a coin across, collected his provender. "Later, Muma."
"Good luck."
"With him I may need it."
The night had grown cool and clammy. Dew had started to form. Down nearer the
harbor it would be getting foggy. The air was still as death. His heels sent
echoes frolicking through the night. He did not sense anyone following him. He
saw no sign of Muma's sons. But they were good. They would not be seen, unless
by a watcher a moment before the risks of his trade caught up.
Nevertheless, Azel took his usual detour through the Shu maze, where the only
way a follower could stay on him would be by sorcery. He knew the maze well
enough to walk it eyes closed at midnight.
In places it was just as dark at noon.
He left the maze for Char Street through the same alleyway he had used that
afternoon. Fog had gotten that far up the hill already. He turned right.
And three steps later nearly collided with a man and woman coming downhill. He
muttered an apology as, startled, they dodged around him. His own damned
fault, walking on cat feet, listening for footsteps behind him and paying no
attention at all to the path ahead. He followed their hasty footsteps and
urgent, whispered reassurances without turning his head. He let his heels fall
like those of an honest man so they would know he hadn't doubled back on them.
He walked a hundred yards past his destination, then crossed Char Street and
returned downhill on quiet feet. A hundred yards below his destination he
crossed again and walked uphill. There was no sign of the couple he had
startled. Nor were there any of the watchers against whom his maneuver was
directed. He had not expected any, but when you had an al-Akla and a Cado
finagling on the occupier's side you took precautions.
Page 35
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
He glided to the door and inside with serpentine grace.
Salom Edgit had not gone home after leaving the General, though his
lieutenants were there awaiting his report. Instead, he had gone a half mile
out of his way, to an upthrust of rock called the Parrot's Beak by most but
remembered as the Kraken's Beak by a few of the old folks. It was supposed to
be haunted by the shades of eight brothers who had been murdered there in the
year of the city's founding.
Salom had been fleeing to the Parrot's Beak for time out to think for as long
as he could remember. If ghosts there were, they accepted him. He'd never been
discommoded by a supernatural intervention.
He perched on the tip of the Beak and without focusing on anything, stared out
at what could be seen of Qushmarrah by starlight. A tide of mist was rising
from the harbor.
He spent an hour there,then went off down into the Hahr.
Salom hammered till Ortbal's man opened up. "Yes, Khad-ifa?"
"I need to see Ortbal."
"His Lordship is sleeping, sir."
"His Lordship? You go tell Ortbal to get his fat royal butt up before . . .
Never mind. I'll tell him myself. His Lordship. Aram have mercy on fools." He
pushed past the protesting batman, stamped through the house. It had several
storeys but Ortbal, being lazy, seldom left the ground floor. He noted that
the house, like Ortbal himself, had begun to take on airs. He kicked open
Sagdet's bedroom door.
There was light aplenty inside. Ortbal was at his pleasures.
"You! Out!" Salom snapped at the woman.
She fled like a whipped dog.
Ortbal reddened, but he restrained his anger. Salom Edgit was not the kind of
man who busted in on people. And he was mad as hell. You were careful with
Salom when his temper was up. He was unpredictable. Dangerous. Ortbal Sagdet
was not the sort to put himself at risk. "You're upset, Salom."
"Damned right, I'm upset. Look at you! . . . Yes. I'm upset. I'm overreacting.
I know it and I can't stop."
"Rough meeting?" The slightest concern edged Sagdet's voice.
"You should have been there."
"I was making a statement by staying away."
"Your statement was heard, understood, and dismissed as trivial. That wasn't a
blind, senile, dying old man, Ortbal. That was the General and he was in
charge every second. He did the talking. Not a word got spoken that he didn't
ask for. He didn't ask, he didn't argue, he just told. And he knew about
everything that's been going on."
"King."
Page 36
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
"No. More than King."
"You'd better give me the details." Sagdet's concern was plain now.
Salom told it. Sagdet interjected questions as he progressed.
"No reprisals at all?"
"Those were his orders."
"My people are going to be real irritated about that."
"I don't think he cares, Ortbal. You know that? I don't think he's concerned
about your ..."
"Stuff the moralizing and get on with it." And a minute later, "Did he say how
I'm supposed to raise operating funds?"
"If the old man was here he'd just look at this bordello and tell you he lives
where he lives."
"He would. The old bastard expects us all to live like vermin."
And later, Sagdet exploded with incredulity. "He said I'd be there tomorrow
night?"
"He did. And you'd better show. You miscalculated your time and started your
break too early. You'd better back off. Let time finish its work."
"Time, huh?"
Ortbal asked several questions. Then, "What did he hit you with, old friend?"
"He told me I had to decide if I was a thief or a soldier."
"And you've made up your mind, haven't you? You still buy this foolishness
called the Living. After six years of Herodian occupation you still think that
crazy old man can do what armies couldn't."
"That isn't the question, Ortbal. I don't know if he can do it or not.
Probably not. That doesn't matter. He told me to decide if I'm a thief or a
soldier. I'm not a thief. I came here because I owe you the debts of
friendship. I had to caution you. I've acquitted my obligation."
"Probably expected you to run straight here, too. Twisted your tail just so
and here you came."
"Maybe."
"So we come to a parting of roads. If I don't show up tomorrow night. What
will he do if I don't show?"
"I don't know."
"What can he do?"
"You take that attitude you might find out. He for sure won't sit still."
"So I'd better do some thinking."
Page 37
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
"Will you be there?"
"You'll find that out when you walk in the door, Salom." Sagdet smiled. That
only made his pudgy face look malicious. Edgit knew he had no intention of
showing.
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]