The Warrior's Tale (29 page)

I slept for a few hours and rose early, quite refreshed, to prepare for our next encounter with the demon. I had no doubt he'd come, especially since we had his favourite slave for bait. Her name was Chahar, and she was quite nonplussed at being a captive. I had a tent made of cheerful material erected on the main-deck and had her brought to me for interrogation.

'You'll be sorry,' she said as soon as she entered. 'My Master, " Elam, loves me. He'll make you pay.'

I didn't tell her I was counting on her dear Elam trying that very thing. I merely indicated some soft pillows I'd had installed for her to plant her naked haunches on. Polillo hovered over her, anxious to apply whatever pain was necessary to learn what we needed to know. The image of the demon's chamber of horrors haunted her, as it did me, and it was not unnatural for her to want revenge for all those poor souls.

'Give me the fat little bitch for half an hour,' she growled. 'She'll spill her guts, or I'll cut them out to make sausage for our supper.'

Chahar shrank back in fear. I gave Polillo a wink, saying, 'We shouldn't be too hasty. Perhaps we have been wrong about Lord Elam.'

Gamelan, who was also in attendance for the questioning took up my theme. 'You are quite right, Captain Antero,' he said. 'We could have misjudged the good Lord Elam. Perhaps he really is a good master who will treat us handsomely if we serve him well.'

'Oh, he
would?
Chahar said. 'He can really be very kind. He just acts angry sometimes because he's so sad.'

'Sad?' Gamelan asked. 'Why would such a powerful lord be sad?'

'He's lonely 'cause he can't go home,' she answered.

'Oh,
really}'
I said. 'Tell us more, my dear. And while you're at it, Legate Polillo will bring you something to eat. This has all been such a trial, I'm sure you're famished.'

'Well, I could eat just a little bit,' she
said, holding two fingers slightl
y apart for illustration. 'It wouldn't be polite for me to refuse.'

Polillo glowered, but I tipped her another wink and the glower stretched into the best smile she could make under the circumstances -more a curling sneer than anything. She went off to do my bidding. I sat down on the deck next to Chahar and chatted idly about this and that until Polillo returned. She'd caught on to what I intended, and enlisted some help to bring huge platters of every variety of food we could manage. Chahar plunged in with both fists, and was soon a greasy mess.

When I thought her lulled enough by bloat, I resumed my questioning. 'You said your Master couldn't return home. Why is that?'

Chahar daintily wiped away a gob of food dangling from her lower lip.' 'Cause he's lost,' she said. 'See, he's not from here. He's from
...'
she waved her hands, searching for words. They didn't come.
'...
Not from this place. Not from any place. Sort of.'

'You mean, another world?' Gamelan asked.

'Yes,' Chahar said. 'Not our world. But another one. That's where he's from. That's where his home is.'

'How did that come to be?' I asked.

'Well. He 'splained it to me once, and it's kind of hard to remember everything. And I'm not too smart. I'm not too good at most anything. Except making my Master happy. I know what he wants, even if he doesn't ask me out loud. I can make him happv. That's what I'm good at.'

Gamelan's bushy eyebrows raised over blind eyes. 'She is his Favourite,' he said to me.

'Oh, I am!' Chahar said brighdy. 'I'm his favourite over everybody else.'

I knew that's not what Gamelan meant. He meant her role was the same minor demons played to some wizards in our world, such as the little fellow who cooked Gamelan's meals and now did my bidding when I needed small tasks performed. But I didn't say this. I patted her hand.

'I'm sure you are, my dear,' I said. 'Now, tell me, how did Lord Elam find himself in this terrible predicament?'

'As near as I remember, he said he was brought here by an evil wizard. He was
...
uh, summoned
...
that's the word. And this bad wizard was so powerful that my Master couldn't help himself. So he came. And the wizard made him do things. And then the wizard was killed in some kind of fight, and now my Master doesn't know how to get back home. He's lost, you see. And he's been lost for maybe two hundred years.'

She made a broad gesture with one hand, indicating the great sargasso we were trapped in. 'It's taken him all this time to make this. So he has a place to live, and can eat, and get servants and everything. He says it's sort of like a big spider's web. Except it's not really that big. That's what he says, at least. He's making it bigger all the time.'

I pretended to scoff at this. 'Come now! No one could have made something like this. Even your Master isn't powerful enough for that!'

Chahar was indignant. 'He certainly did! And he keeps on doing it. He makes the winds stop. And he makes the kelp grow and stick together. And he makes the others happy, even when he hurts them. He doesn't do that 'cause he's mean, or anything. It just makes his food taste better. 'Sides, he never hurts me. Well, maybe a teensy bit when he needs some of my blood for his magic. And that's not very bad. I make a little cut and drip some of my blood in his cup, which he mixes some other stuff in. It only stings a little, and he's so kind he lets me eat extra whenever he does, so I don't mind so much.'

'Why did he choose you for this, my dear?' Gamelan asked. 'What makes your blood so special?'

Chahar scooped up more food. 'My father was a witch,' she
said, matter-of-factl
y. She ate. We waited until she swallowed. 'I'm not a witch. But my father was. Then he died. And the new witch made a big ceremony for the funeral. My people built a long boat and put all his stuff in it. Also me and my mother and all my brothers and sisters. Ten of us, there were, 'sides my mother. Then they pulled the boat out and let the current get it and it took us away. Far away. Finally, I got here. And my Master found me.'

'Just you?' I asked. 'What happened to the others?'

Chahar shrugged. 'They got dead,' she said. 'We didn't have any food. So we had to eat the ones that died all by themselves. Then they started looking at me, 'cause I'm kinda fat, I guess. So one night I killed the ones who were left. With a knife. While they were asleep. Then I had plenty of food.' She gnawed on a bird haunch. Then she said: 'I ate my mother last. She was pretty skinny. Anyway, that's how I got here. And I guess my blood is special because even though I'm not a witch, I got enough of my father in me to make my blood just right for my Master's magic'

We were all struck dumb by her adventures.

Gamelan was the first to recover. He said: 'That makes you very
...'
he coughed
'...
special, indeed, my dear. But, tell us, don't you ever miss your home? Your people?'

Chahar gave a vigorous shake of her head, quaking her fat from jowl to thigh. 'Never,' she said. 'They weren't nice to me. Ever. Not even when I made the stick charts for them. The hunters would just grab them out of my hands and say mean things.'

'Stick charts?' I said, trying to hide my excitement. 'What stick charts?'

'The ones my father had me make, silly,' she said. 'Sometimes the hunters have to go a long way in their boats, so my father would give them stick charts so they could find their way to the places they had to go where there was game, and then get back.'

*Why did he have
you
make them?'

Chahar gave me a look like I was a dunce. "Cause we had to have lots of them. And they'd get lost or broken. So we'd have to make more. My father didn't have time to do all that, and my brothers and sisters were always busy working. I wasn't good at it, but since I used to get sick a lot and couldn't work, my father had me do it. Then he'd bless them and that was that!' 'Could you make one, now?' I asked.

Chahar snorted.' 'Course I could. I'm not smart, but I did so many of them I could never forget. Sometimes I even dream about it.' She shuddered. 'When I have bad dreams. About home.'

'Would you make one for us?' I pressed.

Chahar shook her head. 'I don't think my Master Elam would like that,' she said.

'He wouldn't mind,' I said, 'if in return we let you go.'

Chahar stared at me, hard. "What do you need it for? You're never going to get out of here.'

'Just the same,' I said. 'If you make one for us, I'll release you.'

I got another long, hard look. Chahar gobbled more food while she weighed my proposal. Finally: 'You promise?' she asked.

'I promise,' I lied.

So she had us fetch some sticks and whatever shells and small rocks and yarn we could find. It took her about an hour. Her fingers moved swiftly for such a lazy, obese creature, but the primitive map that formed seemed well made - although I had never seen such a thing before, but had only heard traders' tales of the extremely accurate maps that savages made.

When it was done, she handed it to me. As I held it, she pointed out its main features. 'We're sort of here,' she said, indicating a shell near the top of the chart. 'I'm not exactly sure, but that's the way the current was going when they put us on the boat.' Her finger traced a blue strand of yarn woven through the stick frame.

She showed us important islands, but said the people who lived there didn't take kindly to strangers. And finally, she indicated a whole scatter of large islands near the bottom.

'That's Konya,' she said. 'Lots of people live there. It's so far, only a few of my people have ever visited, and that was a long time ago. They said there were hundreds of big islands, all crowded with people. And they had all kinds of wonderful things, and never got hungry, because their wizards are the most powerful in the whole world. They have a king, and big buildings instead of huts, with fireplaces that don't smoke: They've also got things they look at for hours, called books,

and ships that go almost every place.' She shrugged. 'I guess they don't come to visit us because we're all pretty stupid.'

Polillo smiled for the first time since the interrogation had begun. 'Civilization!' she said.

Chahar shook her head. 'No. I said it was Konya. Not ciliiz -whatever it was you called it.' She sneered at Polillo. 'You must be pretty stupid too.'

But Polillo only laughed. Gamelan was practically squirming with glee. Her chart was like finding the key to a fabled treasure house -
except in this case the value of that treasure was our very lives.

Chahar was looking at us, suddenly alarmed. 'I did what you told me,' she said, indicating the stick chart. 'Now, it's your turn. You really are going to let me go when my Master Elam comes, aren't you?'

'Absolutely,' I said as heartily as possible. 'I wouldn't dream of doing otherwise.'

Gamelan rapped his stick to catch my attention. 'I think you and I should have a little chat about that very thing, Captain Antero,' he said. 'Privately, if you please.'

I left Polillo to guard her, whispering stern instructions about not harming the bitch, and led Gamelan from the tent.

When we were out of earshot he said: 'I hope you intend to keep that promise.

I was startled. 'By all the gods swear is holy, why would I ever do such a thing? She's trading fodder. The only thing we've got that the demon wants.'

'Oh, I don't oppose some bargaining. Obviously, you don't expect him to keep his side of it. But a bit of bargaining for appearances sake might be wise so he doesn't become suspicious that we're giving her up too easily.'

"Wizard,' I said, 'I sense a plan budding in that white-fringed noggin of yours.'

Gamelan's teeth shone through his beard. 'Not a plan,' he scoffed, 'but an outright plot.'

'Tell me more, my wise friend,' I said.

He did. It was brilliant, it was simple, and it was evil. In short, it contained all the key ingredients that go into the best of plots. The magic required took only a few stale sweetmeats I scrounged from the bottom of Corais's seabag - she has a weakness for such things that she does her best to control. I freshened them with a potion any
market crone could make and chanted a few words I will not repeat. Murder is easy enough as it is. We returned to the tent and made casual conversation. When I presented the sweetmeats to Chahar she purely blubbered with joy. And yes, the wordplay
was
intended.

By the time the sun reached its highest point she was growing sleepy. A few minutes later, the demon returned.

Gerasa was the first to see him. I'd set her to watch with half a dozen of our be
st archers in case Elam tried a
surprise attack. When her warning came, at first I all I could see was what appeared to be a large wave rolling under the thick kelp. It was moving at great speed and coming straight for us. About
ten yards out, it stopped abruptl
y. A hole gaped and a thick black column of smoke boiled out. We all braced, not knowing what to expect. The smoke whirled, hurling off hot sparks. Gradually the smoke formed and we saw Elam. He was twice as big as when I'd first seen him. His eyes were pools of fury and his tail lashed angrily. Knowing he wouldn't have come alone, much less so close, if he hadn't have cast protective spells, I whispered to Gerasa and the others to hold their fire.