Gary Gygax - Dangerous Journeys 3 - Death in Delhi (24 page)

The pirimah had no choice. All of her plans rested with the precious regalia of state. All of it. If one small part were missing or inoperable, then her scheme would be for naught, all of her years of planning and work to reach her goal made useless. At this moment, when she saw fruition but a few days' distant, she could not allow the orb to fall and be damaged, even though it meant she must release her grip on Rachelle. With a small cry of anxiety, she loosed the amazon and reached to pluck the descending sphere of gem-encrusted gold from its arcing descent towards the stone floor of the vault.

But even with that distraction to absorb her, Sujata the witch, priestess of Kali, was not wholly concentrating on the physical act of preventing the orb from falling. As she did that, the pirimah called to mind a terrible curse. As her hand closed on the globe-like object, her other joining the first to assure the hold, Sujata's eyes sent forth a blast of heka, and her mouth spoke foul words of witchery aimed at slaying the /Egyptian.

Inhetep had expected such an attack. As he let the orb loose, he began uttering his own protective casting, so that the deadly eyebite sent at him by the pirimah flashed into nothingness without striking him. It was a stalemate for the moment, but only for that time. Already the witch was invoking the power of the globe she held, using it to link to the other objects which the /Egyptian had brought back to their places. Powers which she could employ but which were untappable by the foreigner. Once linked together, the energy and powers contained in the regalia were more than sufficient to overwhelm even the heka of the wizard-priest.

"I'll take that!" It was Rachelle who spoke, and as she did so she suited her actions to her words. As she plucked the globe from the witch's grasp with one strong hand, she used the other to slap Sujata across the face. The open-handed blow was sufficient to send the pirimah reeling aside. She fell to the floor, stunned.

"Well done, my dear Rachelle!" Inhetep cried. "I was hoping you'd be able to do something like that!"

"Thank you, Setne, for making that dirty bitch release her hold on me," the amazon said with a smile. "I've been wanting to do that for a long time." She laughed, looking over to where the Hindi witch lay sprawled in a most humiliating posture, her left cheek darkening where Rachelle's hard palm and fingers had struck.

Before either of the two could say anything else, however, Lady Sujata recovered sufficiently to shriek out in a voice filled with insane rage and fury, "Kali, come to your faithful priestess, I implore. A life here is yours, I swear!"

At the last utterance the whole room went dark, then light reappeared, but it was as if all were seen in negative. In the vault with them was a black-skinned figure, a woman over eight feet tall with four arms, her torso adorned by a necklace of human skulls. "I am here, daughter," boomed a voice from that dreadful figure. "Come to collect the life you have pledged."

"Yes, YES!" shrieked Sujata in frenzied joy. "Thank you, Mother of Death! There! There is the one who broke her oath to YOU. Take her!"

As the goddess reached forth with rumal and hook to strangle Rachelle, sink in the cruel iron point to drag the amazon's mortal remains physically to Kali's own sphere, Magister Setne

Inhetep interposed himself, his upraised ankh of gold the only glint of color in the weirdly illuminated strongroom. "Restrain yourself a moment, great goddess."

"What?! Who dares to challenge my right to the promised life?" the terrible voice of Kali boomed.

"Not I, great one. I only ask that you direct your efforts to she whose life is forfeit, your priestess called Lady Sujata."

The pirimah shrieked denials, cursing Inhetep and Rachelle. "She did break the oath she made in your name, Great Black Mother of Death. She agreed to give herself to you should she break it."

"Puny servant of the bird-headed Thoth, my priestess speaks right. I see the past events unfold as she claims. Out of my way, or I shall have your life as well as hers. Your lord has no power to save you here."

"La! Do not be so hasty, great goddess Kali. To make remarks about appearance demeans the speaker—and perhaps the Lord of Wisdom has allies here in the realms you are recognized in. In any event, form does not indicate content, does it?"

"What are you saying, man?" Kali thundered. Her expression was menacing, terrible, but she stayed her hand.

Inhetep pointed at the witch. "The form of the oath was in blood. The content was a demand for action which if not carried through made the one swearing yours."

"By your own words you give your leman to my goddess! Take her, Black Mother, don't listen to the /Egyptian! Why do you hesitate? Run your noose round that white throat and choke the life from she who is yours!"

Ignoring the ranting words, the towering goddess stayed her hand to ask, "Is there meaning in your words, man? If so, tell me. If not, or if you are wrong, then I shall slay you as well as the other."

"The form was blood. You did not give blood to your faithful, Kali. You forbade them to take life by shedding it, in fact. Yet that would be the effect of what you propose if Rachelle*s life is taken by you. You would be a surrogate of the witch, Sujata. She as your priestess shed blood, and that blood would then be the proximate cause, the means bringing death to another human."

"A fine point you make, mortal."

"Indeed, goddess, but in the end do not even the deities stand or fall on being able to distinguish such?"

"Don't listen to him! O My Great Black Mother, Lady of Death. Kill them. Kill them both! I promise for that I will—"

Kali pointed, Sujata was struck dumb. "I need quiet to think on this a moment. I do not come in answer to a call from one of my faithful to be made to look foolish, still ..."

"Goddess, it is the half-hearted woman you have silenced who is the cause of all this. As to her faith, only you can judge, but the oath she extracted from the woman she implores you to strangle is the true problem. Its exaction will violate your own law."

"So I am to be made foolish by returning empty-handed?"

Inhetep shook his head. "No, goddess. She who dared to call you here is the one to die in payment—a dual justice for causing the dilemma of the contract of blood and death as well."

"You would have me slay my own priestess?" Kali was angry at that, raising her four hands menacingly towards the man before her who dared to suggest such a thing.

The magister retired a pace, but spoke with no fear in his voice. "If it please you, goddess, the delivery of payment can be made by other means. The king she pretends to serve as pirimah, whom she would soon betray and replace, awaits outside. Sujata has pledged her life on a matter which will cause it to be taken forthwith, if I am free to do as I please."

"Which is?"

"Leave here, taking the woman, Rachelle, with me."

Kali leaned towards the wizard-priest. The goddess fully understood many connotations of what he had just said about Lady Sujata, deeming them true. Her so-called priestess was one who sat astride fences, would serve only to dispossess and herself be served. "What of the objects? They are sacred to this land, and 1 cannot stand idly by while you make off with them."

"Never had I contemplated such action, goddess. I wish only to send them back to the place in which they were sequestered. In essence, the crown jewels will never leave this vault."

It was not entirely satisfactory. Sujata's continued existence would be more favorable to Kali, make her stronger among the other gods. She moved the rumal she held, speculating, considering.

Seeing that it was not going as smoothly as he had hoped, the magister dared one thing further. "Goddess?"

"What now, man?"

He cleared his throat. "Thoth may not be potent in this place, just as you have pointed out. Still, he knows what is occurring and will be aware of my fate. He will communicate your compromise to those of your own pantheon, Kali."

"Is that a fact? Dare you threaten ME?!"

Again the tall /Egyptian took a hasty backward step to stand pressed against the cases. "Threaten? Never, goddess. It is simply a fact I state," and as he spoke, Inhetep brought forth the little coffer and opened it. A bright radiance came forth as if he had unhooded a lantern. There the green, ibis-head of Thoth showed its hue atop the golden man's body below. The atef crown with its plumes and horns adorning that head was bright, so too the striped headcover-ing, colorful collar, and linen kilt. Such rainbow hues as were displayed from the foot-high figurine indicated one thing. The spirit of that deity was present and signified its awareness of what transpired by casting the light which defied the negative darkness of the Black Goddess.

"I see ..." Kali said more softly.

Something enabled the witch to break free from her enforced silence. She jumped up and ran to the goddess. "No! No! You cannot allow this to happen. I am your priestess, and I forbid it!"

"You
were
my servant, Sujata. But not even my most faithful priestess ever, ever forbids me anything!"

The next instant, the witch was no longer in the vault. Kali touched her, and the woman disappeared. Then the goddess glared at Inhetep. "It shall be as you suggest, man of ^figypt. It will go hard on you if we ever meet again." Then the black form likewise vanished.

Outside there was an uproar when Lady Sujata suddenly appeared before the maharajah.

She was limp, unable to move properly or to speak. Around her neck was a strangling cloth. "What is going on?" roared the frightened monarch. He got no response. He stared at the pirimah, then a sound distracted his attention. The door to the vault had come open with a popping noise. The place appeared to be empty, and he ordered the chamberlain inside to see if the Egyptian and his woman were concealed in a near corner so as to make it appear that they had somehow escaped. Gorvan trembled but obeyed.

In a minute, he came flying from the treasure room with horror-filled face. "They are not there, Radiance, and neither are the crown jewels restored!"

After watching his personal guard cut the head from Gorvan's shoulders with a single backhand stroke, Maharajah Sivadji took personal pleasure in strangling the pirimah with his own hands, slowly tightening the noose, watching her eyes that tried vainly to convey something to him. Who cared what she meant by those looks. . . .

HOME IS REWARD ENOUGH

"That is as close as I ever hope to come to premature death," the magister said with an explosive sound as he threw himself down into his favorite chair in the study. "What a team we are though, girl!" he had to say as he sprawled there. He was absolutely delighted, surprisingly animated in expression and words, despite his physical exhaustion. "We may have managed it only by the proverbial hair's breadth, but we did it!"

Rachelle was not so effusive. "I agree that it was much too near a thing, Setne. What I don't see is what you are so pleased about!"

"Why, my dear, we have done our part to see that a most miserable tyrant has but numbered days on his throne. Had we assisted in the recovery of those jewels as the Maharajah Sivadji hoped we would, then we would have been guilty of a true injustice—perpetuating his rule and worse."

"Worse?"

Inhetep got up and rummaged around until

he found some tobacco to stuff into his hookah, which rested on its usual brass stand next to the big armchair. He again sat, puffing contentedly, soothed by the soft burbling sounds that it made. Rachelle was reclining on a couch, resigned to her wait, for she knew that now he couldn't resist talking about what they had just done; especially those parts where his deduction alone enabled them to follow through properly.

"Much worse," the magister said as if there hadn't been a delay of several minutes between her query and his response. "Lady Sujata would have been made the chief priestess of Delhi, the worship of Kali the only one supported by the crown, and then the Afghanis would have come—unless the witch managed to do in that toad before then."

"Now you truly have gone over my head, Setne, as well you know!"

Having elicited the response which he sought, the magister chuckled. "Just wanted your full attention, Rachelle. Where shall I pick up the threads so you will see the pattern?"

"How about the place where I missed something?" she said sarcastically.

"Then let's go to the beginning!"

She jerked upright. "Now just a moment, Setne. There's no need to belittle me."

"Not in the least, my dear. It is merely a matter of me being older and less taken by . . . appearances, let us say. You see, I was put off when the maharajah's parcel was opened."

"Do tell? What was there in that package to make you uncomfortable?"

Inhetep puffed, blew a big smoke ring skyward. "Bribery. Pleas and fawning promises which obviously weren't meant to be kept. The one obviously aimed at winning you to the maharajah's cause, the other added inducements meant for both of us."

"Me? That toad was aware of me when he sent his messenger here?"

"Don't be modest. To solicit my aid is to ask Inhetep and his companion, Rachelle, to attend to the matter. That much is known by anyone aware of my services. Certainly I am not to go about sporting a ruby necklace, so the gift was sent not to me but to you, despite the omission of your name."