Castle Murders (25 page)

"That's so awful," Linda said. "Are you sure there's nothing we can do?"

"I am sure, thank you, please. But glad is in my mind for meeting my new friends. I will stay longer, not die yet."

"Oh, please don't die. You must have a lot to tell. Can you tell me, do you live in the sea?"

"Yes, my kind is sea-living."

"How long has your kind lived in the ocean?"

"Very long time, since when the Yvlem decreed there should be living in the sea again after long time deadness in the sea. Many . . . years ago, eons, long time."
 

Gene asked, "You obviously have technology, and it seems to be part of you. Are you part machine?"

The Ablomabel answered, "All living who does, are parts of machines, in part machine, and machine parts. Comprehend this?"

"I think I understand. Cyborgs."

"Indeed, there are machines who are living as well."

"So you have robots, cyborgs, but no living things that aren't either one of those?"

"Small organisms, some plants, yes."

"How long has civilization been on this planet?"

"Many long time. Cannot say with exacting. Since the sun was young."

"Billions of years," Gene said. "That's incredible."

"Permitted asking you questions?" the Ablomabel said.

"Shoot. I mean, of course. Go ahead."

"Where is it you are coming from?"

"I think you'll be able to understand this. From another universe."

"Yes, that has been thought, but nothing done in this matter. Another universe. Your machine. You built it?"

"No," Gene said. "I found it. A long-forgotten race of beings built it."

"They were indeed great beings, I think."

"They were pretty remarkable. Unfortunately, their machine doesn't work very well. It ceased to function. That's why we are here. We can't leave. We're stranded."
 

"This is very unfortunate in the way of bad luck," the Ablomabel said. "Have been attempting to repair the craft?"

"Have been attempting," Gene said, "but no luck so far. Our resources are limited. Tell me, can you possibly help?"

"Gene," Linda scolded. "Ablomabel's dying."

"Already have sent message to machine city not far from this place," the Ablomabel said. "Alerted to the possible trouble and help to be lending."
 

"That's decent of you," Gene said. "Machines, you say?"

"Yes, they still live and are active. They say they will come to help. But do not hope this much. Your machine in the nature of strangeness is great, I think."
 

"Yeah, you can't get parts. A real lemon. The warranty expired, and everything went."

"Detecting irony."

"You're detecting it. I mean to say that the craft has never lived up to expectations as far as successful operation is concerned. It was an experimental design. Do you understand? All the harder to fix, consequently."
 

"Understand. But is it permitted to attempt?"

Gene nodded. "It is permitted, and thank you very much."

The Ablomabel said, "I am fatigued. Conversation has depleted my energy reserves. I will, permission granting, rest awhile and not speak, until the machines arrive."
 

Linda said, "By all means. Take a nice nap. Don't tire yourself."

The wire mesh communications dish folded up, and the rod retracted into the creature's skin. The opening that received the whole affair closed up.
 

They had a picnic lunch on the beach. Snowclaw had collected an assortment of shellfish. Finding none edible he complained of hunger.
 

"Try this," Gene said, handing him a ham salad sandwich.

Snowclaw took it and popped it into his mouth, chewed twice, and swallowed. "Great," he said. "Now what else can I breathe?"

"Sorry, Snowy. But you ate all the stuff we brought for you."

"Canned fish. Great, but I need fresh stuff or my fur starts to fall out."

"There's the ocean," Gene said. He handed Snowclaw his gun. "Go out and shoot some fish."

Linda said, "Gene, there may be sentient creatures out there. Shellfish are one thing, but Snowy eats whales and like that. But he can't do it here. It wouldn't be ethical."
 

"She's right," Snowclaw said. "I'd probably get sick eating this stuff. I'm tired. I'm going to sack out."

Snowclaw stretched out on the sand, crossed his ankles, and closed his eyes.

The long red afternoon wore on. The green sea went on rolling in and out. All was still. No birds flew, no insects buzzed. Nothing crawled on the beach. For the most part, it was a dead world. Yet, in its way, it was beautiful.
 

"Gene, how come the sun's not going down?"

"The planet's tidally locked. No rotation."

"You mean it's always like this?"

"Yeah."

"How sad. How sad to see a world end."

"Yeah. I think I'll take a nap, too."

Linda rested her head on Gene's shoulder.

"Gene, do you think we'll ever get back?"

"I don't know. It doesn't look like it."

She watched a high thin cloud drift toward the sun.

"Gene, I'm glad we're together."

"Yeah."

Linda stared at the watercolor sky. Presently, she closed her eyes.

 

 

 

Peele — Dining Hall

 

The lords and ladies had grudgingly assembled, rousted out of their beds in the early morning hours. Vehement protest was still being voiced when Tyrene arrived with Thaxton, Dalton, and Dorcas.
 

"We've not had our breakfast yet," complained a bewhiskered and indignant baronet.

"My lords and ladies," Tyrene announced, "I humbly beg forgiveness for this inconvenience, but we have arrived at what we think is a solution to the murder of the viscount Oren, and, perforce, to that of Count Damik."
 

A hush fell over the assembled nobility.

Tyrene continued: "We have been up all night with the working out of this solution. Much traffic has passed between the two castles, Perilous and Peele, and between the raindrops, as 'twere. What we would ask you to witness is in the nature of a demonstration. Ordinarily, for any other criminal case, we would hold off presenting this evidence until the preliminary hearing. But the nature of this evidence is so extraordinary and of such subtlety that I wish to reveal it here this morning. My reasons are twofold. One, a person of quality is involved. It has been so long since a scion of a noble house has been brought up on capital charges that I wish this individual's peers to be impressed with the strength of the prima-facie case, so that there is no feeling that we are merely casting about for a suspect, hauling in the first hapless fish to be netted. Two, I believe the evidence to be forceful enough to dissuade a lord magistrate from releasing this individual on his own cognizance after arraignment but prior to a hearing, as is the custom when the defendant is of high noble station. I have no doubt that, were this custom followed, the suspect would flee through a well-chosen castle aspect, where decades might go by before justice prevailed. I hope I have made myself clear."
 

Tyrene surveyed the room, as if to acknowledge anyone who would pose a question. No one did.

"Very well, my lords and ladies. I shall now turn these proceedings over to the individual by dint of whose unflagging determination and incisive intellect the case was cracked. I am speaking of Mr. Thaxton of the castle."
 

A murmur went up, borne on a note of surprise mixed with no little displeasure.

Thaxton strode forward. "My lords and ladies. What you are about to see is a demonstration of magic. Now, I well realize that, as castle inhabitants, you regard magic as a commonplace on the order of toast and tea or the Monday wash. But this magic is unusual in that the feats we will perform here this morning are among the few that are known to be possible in this aspect, this world. And they are, at first, not very impressive as magical tricks go. But bear with us, please. I should like at this time to beg the assistance of one of the castle's leading adepts, a person whom you all know, Her Royal Highness, the princess."
 

Dorcas stepped forward.

Thaxton held up something shiny. "I have here in my hand a coin, a shilling, which I've been carrying in my pocket for a good while now, not having any place to spend it. I'm going to ask Her Highness to make this coin invisible."
 

Thaxton gave Dorcas the coin. Dorcas held her right hand palm up and placed the coin in it. She brought her other hand down on top of it and stretched her arms out. Then she began to speak some strange words, a few sentences. When she was done, she held her stance for a moment longer, eyes shut.
 

She took her left hand away. The right was, apparently, empty.

No one seemed impressed.

"Mere legerdemain," someone said.

Dalton came to her, bearing a small cast-iron pot with a metal handle such as would be found in the castle kitchens. He held it below the princess's outstretched hand.
 

Dorcas slowly tilted her right hand. Something in the bucket clinked.

Mild surprise was evinced. Dalton shook the pot and it rattled dutifully. Thaxton reached his hand and seemed to pick something up. He held his hand up.
 

"As you can see . . . rather, as you cannot see, the coin is invisible." He poised his hand over the pot, and the pot clinked again. Thaxton repeated the action. He then picked the invisible object out of the pot again.
 

"My lord, if you would be so kind?"

Uncertain, Lord Arl looked around, touched his chest and said, "Are you addressing me?"

"Yes, my lord. Please take this coin so that everyone knows no sleight-of-hand was involved."

Reluctantly, Lord Arl came forward. Thaxton handed him nothing.

Arl took the non-thing and hefted it. He nodded. "I feel it. It's invisible all right." He handed it back to Thaxton.

"Thank you, my lord. Now, Her Royal Highness has told me that she did not put so great a charge on the coin as the instructions call for. Consequently, it should become visible very shortly."
 

Thaxton knelt, tilted his hand. There came the unmistakable sound of a coin clinking against the stone floor and settling into a spin. The sound eventually stopped.
 

Thaxton rose and stepped back, his eyes on the floor. The crowd edged closer.

It took about a minute. Suddenly, the shilling appeared on the floor.

Thaxton picked it up and pocketed it. He looked over heads and made a motion.

Two servants moved a table to the back of the room, and the crowd shifted, clearing a way to it.

Thaxton took a handful of something from another servant. "I have here about half a dozen common tavern darts," he said, holding them up, "borrowed from the Peele Castle recreation room. On the far wall — there, in front — we have placed a target such as could be found in any pub in half a hundred worlds."
 

Dorcas approached the circular target, reached out, and touched the center ring with her right index finger. Then she accompanied Thaxton to the table, which stood about forty feet away.
 

Dorcas took a seat at the table. Thaxton handed her a dart. She took it and laid it on the table in front of her. She then began to trace complex patterns above it with both hands. This done, she picked it up with her left hand and gently stroked it with her right.
 

"I bid thee fly, and strike where I laid my touch."

She handed it to Thaxton. He took it, faced the target, made a few peremptory motions, and threw.

Forty feet away, the dart struck the target dead center.

Dorcas was already working on a second dart. Her preparations done, she gave it over to Thaxton. This time Thaxton faced in the opposite direction and threw the dart over his shoulder.
 

The dart flew with amazing and quite unjustifiable speed toward the round corkboard target, thunking squarely into the inner ring, tight against its mate.
 

The crowd by this time was quite impressed.

Thaxton took another prepared dart. He faced the target this time, and simply held the dart between thumb and forefinger. He relaxed the pressure of his fingers and the dart jumped from his hand, streaking to the target with astonishing speed.
 

Thaxton threw the fourth dart toward the left wall. The dart's curving trajectory led it inevitably toward the front of the room and the target. It struck the bull's-eye with a solid thud.
 

Thaxton said, "My lords and ladies, what you have seen is simple parlor magic. Real magic, to be sure, not sleight-of-hand or illusion, but — nevertheless — quite trivial. The spells employed came from a book."
 

Dalton handed it to him.

"They come, in fact, from this arcane tome, my lords and ladies.
The Book of Magical Diversions
by Baldor of the Cairn. This copy comes from the Peele Library, and I'm told it's been there for generations, quite conceivably dating to the time when the castle was occupied by the aboriginals of this aspect. I am also informed, by qualified scholars, that the book originated in this world, and is in fact the only volume extant dealing in the magic here. As you have no doubt by now guessed, these two spells — the Coin Invisible and the Charmed Dart, could be combined into something quite deadly."
 

A wave of murmuring realization spread through the assembled nobility.

"Yes, I think you all see what I'm driving at. Some adaptation would be necessary, but the two innocuous spells you have just seen could be cobbled together into an effective assassination spell. A malevolent spell of black magic."
 

Thaxton set the book on the table. "Of course, the question is, who did the thing? Let's tick off a list of qualifications which any suspect must have. First, he or she must be an adept magician. That would include a large portion of the population of Castle Perilous. But the degree of skill would have to be rather high. High enough to exclude the average magician, which would eliminate most of the castle's Guest population except for a very few, but would include most if not all the castle nobility. And as no Guests were present at the princess's fête, we must cross them off the list entirely. No, only members of the castle's noble families would qualify."