Wizards’ Worlds (66 page)

Wowern had already taken back his cloak; now I flung this musty-smelling length about
the thing’s shoulders, fastened the rusty throat buckle. To my astonishment the
creature, as if it were indeed a man and not grotesque beast, used its forepaws to
pull the hood up over its misshapen head, well forward so that its ugliness was completely
hidden. I could almost believe that I fronted a man—not a monster.

Ort chirped, one of those sounds my human throat could not equal. Our disguised one
swung about, stumping after my seconding, out of the tent and into the shadows beyond.
With an exclamation I hurried after.

Ort apparently had no such thing as escape in mind, nor did the other, who was certainly
powerful enough to leave if it wished, deviate from the path shown it. Rather, it
squatted down at the end of the row where our mounts were tied, concealed behind the
bales of hay now stacked as a back wall. In those shadows the dull gray of the cloak
was hidden, one would not have known that anything sheltered there.

The horses and ponies had stirred uneasily at first, but Ort paced down their line,
giving voice to that soothing throat hum which he had used many times over to reassure
nervous beasts. They accepted this newcomer because of his championship.

I hurried to change clothing, catching up some cold food to eat between the doffing
of one robe, the donning of another, the fastening of buckles, the setting of sham
jewels about my throat, wrists, and in hair strings. Nadi and Erlia were already prepared
and on their way to lead forth their teams, but Mai stood before our mirror applying
a thicker red to her lips.

“What do you plan to do?” she asked bluntly. “To carry with us a spy—even though it
seems to have no liking for its true master—that is to endanger all of us. Why do
you bring this upon us, Kara?” There was no softness in her voice, rather hostility
in the eyes that met mine within the mirror.

“I—I had no choice.” To me that was truth. I had clearly been drawn to the merchant’s
booth; once there I
had been enspelled. . . . Enspelled? I shivered, the cold was well within me now and
I could not rid myself of it.

“No choice?” She was both scornful and angry. “This is foolishness. Would you say
you are englamored by this bestial ugliness out of the dark? Ha, Kara, you cannot
expect the rest of us to risk its presence.”

She swept away and I knew that she gave a truthful warning. Those of the clan would
not long accept—even at Garner’s and Feeta’s bidding, if I could depend upon that—this
addition to our party. I did not want it, either. I—

Yet I had paid that silver without a question. Unless . . . Again I shivered and stood
very still, my hands clasped tightly on the handle of my team leader’s wand. Unless
there was something in
me
which that robed one had been able to touch, to tame to his or her will, even as
I lead my team! If that were so, then what flaw lay inside me that evil could reach
out so easily and twist to its own usage? At that moment I knew fear so sharp it made
me waver where I stood, throw out a hand to the edge of the mirror table and hold
fast, for it seemed that the very earth moved under my feet.

I heard the thump of drums in the show tent. Habit set me into motion without thought.
Nadi was dancing with her long-legged birds now—next I must be ready with my marchers.
I staggered a little, still under the touch of that fear. Ort awaited me, his hand
drum slung about his thick neck. Behind him, in an ordered row, were Oger, Ossan,
Obo, Orn—just as they had been for months and years. Tall all of them, their talons
displayed in order to astound the audiences, their bush combs aloft, and their long
necks twining back and forth to the beat of the drums.

Nadi’s music faded. She would be issuing from the other side of our stage. I breathed
deeply twice, steadying my nerves—putting out of my mind with determination all except
that which was immediately before me—the need to give my part of the show.

We had finished the first appearance of the evening and Garner was talking to several
who wore the shoulder ribbons and house marks of lords, making arrangements for private
performances. Those would be steady for us all during the two ten-days we were in
Ithkar. However, another stood in the lesser light just at the edge of the torch beams
as if waiting his or her turn at bargaining. Enveloped in a cloak, it might well be
a woman—and of that I was sure when a hand bearing a ring-bracelet came out of hiding
to draw closer the cloak. She made no effort to push forward until Garner had finished
and the others were gone. I saw her speak and Garner raise his head, stare across
the crowded yard between our tents where fairgoers came to see closer our teammates.
He looked at me, nodded, and I could not escape that silent order.

So I went to join him and the other. Her gem-backed hand touched her hood, pushing
it back a little. I saw a face, deeper brown in color—some southern-born lady, I thought.
Her features were thin and sharp, with an impatient line between her straight brows.
No beauty—but one who was obeyed when it pleased her to give orders.

“Speak with this one.” Garner was also impatient. “What we know is her doing.” He
left abruptly. The lady regarded me as I would a beast unknown—curious, perhaps. However,
there was a sting in that survey. I lifted my chin and eyed her as boldly back.

“You made a purchase.” She spoke abruptly. There was a slurring in her speech new
to me. “It was one not meant for you.”

“I was asked a price and I paid. The merchant seemed satisfied,” I returned. This
might be the answer to our problem. If she wanted the swamp dweller, then let her
have him. But I would not strike any bargain until I knew more. At this moment it
seemed to me that I saw between the two of us those wide green eyes.

“Paugh!” Her lips moved then as if she would spit, as
might any common fair drab, highborn though she seemed. “That merchant exceeded his
instructions. I have come”—a second hand appeared from beneath her robe, in it a purse
weighing heavy by the look—"to buy what is rightfully mine. Where is he?”

“Safe enough.” I made no move to take that purse. The hand holding it had come fully
under the light and on the forefinger I saw the ring—the same smiling face of the
merchant’s pendant formed its bezel.

“Summon him.” She moved a little, almost as if she wanted to be well away from us.
“Summon him at once!”

Had they then learned, these followers of Thotharn, that the swamp creature had betrayed
their purpose, and so were eager to reclaim him? What would be his fate at their hands?
I knew that Garner would report to the temple all we had learned. These could reclaim
the creature, slay it, and deny all. What proof would we have then that they had tried
to move so against the peace of Ithkar?

“I—” Fear I had known, even disgust, when I had made that purchase; still, I would
betray no living thing. For the Quintka might not deny refuge to the Second-Kin. Second-Kin—a
swamp creature out of the dark land? Yet Ort and the others had made it welcome after
their own fashion, and their instincts I trusted.

“Summon him!” Her order was sharp; she waved the bag back and forth so it gave out
a clink of metal. It must be well filled with coin. “I give you four—five times what
you paid. He is mine—bring him hither!”

I heard the guttural throat sound from Ort and looked over my shoulder. My Brother-Kin
led a cloaked shape into the open, the swamp creature. Still, Ort lifted his lips
a little, showing fangs, and I knew that what he did was not in obedience to such
as she who stood with me, nor even to me. He moved for himself—and perhaps another.

Those who had come to see the animals had passed along—I heard the boom of a gong
signaling the second
part of our performance and the thud of hooves as the horses moved out into the circular
space beyond. We were alone now—the four of us.

“Ran . . .” Her voice was far different from that with which she had addressed me.
“Ran, I came as I had promised—freedom!” She swung up the purse to give forth again
that clinking.

I saw a warty paw in the open, tugging at the hood so it fell free upon his broad
shoulders. His nightmare face was clear. She bit her lip and could not suppress the
shadow of distaste, near of loathing. She is not, the thought flashed into my head,
as good an actress as she believes.

“Take it!” Again she shoved the bag in my direction.

I put my hands behind my back as the green eyes turned toward me. I could not pick
up any clear mind-speech, and I dared not touch him to establish linkage. But somehow
I felt again that blaze of red rage—not for me, but for this woman.

“I will not,” I said firmly. Though I could not find any true reason why—except those
eyes.

“You shall!” She thrust her head forward and her hood fell away, her eyes bored into
me. Then I saw her gaze change a fraction; she caught her breath. “No . . .” Her voice
was a half whisper. “Not that—the blood—”

I am no voice of the All Mother, I wear no robe of the Three Lordly Ones—I am no shaman
of any tribe. Still, there awoke in me then something that I had sensed twice before
this day—an ancient knowledge. Nor was that of the Quintka. Partly of their blood
I might be—yet who knew what other strain my dead mother had granted me?

What I did came in that moment as natural as breathing—I brought forth both hands
as I took two quick steps toward my monster. He pawed at the buckle of his cloak and
that fell away from him, leaving his nightmare body bare. My hands fell to his shoulders,
the roughness of his skin was harsh under mine. He had to bend a little from his height.
All that filled the world now were his green
eyes—and in them was a flashing light of eagerness, of hope reborn, of pain now fading—

“By the thorn and by the tree,

By the moon and by the sea,

By the truth and by the right,

By the touch and by the sight,

Let that which is twisted,

Straightened be.

That the imprisoned go free!”

I pressed my lips to the slimy cold of his toad mouth. Fighting revulsion—pushing
it utterly from me.

When I drew back I cried aloud—words that had no meaning, yet were of power—and I
felt that power fill me until I could hold no more. My fingers crooked, bit into his
odious flesh. I tore with my nails—The skin parted, as might rotted cloth. As cloak
so old that nothing was left but tatters, that skin gave to my frantic hands, rent,
and fell away.

No monster, but a man—a true man—as I shredded from him that foul overcovering. I
heard a shriek behind me—a keening that arose and arose. Then the man I had freed
flung out one arm, to set me behind him, confronting the woman. She had her beringed
hand up, held close to her lips, ugly and open, as she mouthed words across the surface
of that head-set ring. Frantically she spilled forth spells. His hand shot out, caught
hers. He twisted her finger, pulled free the ring, flung it to the ground.

There was a barking cry from Ort. One of his ponderous hind feet swept between the
two at ground level, stamped that circlet into the beaten earth.

The woman wailed, then spat in truth, before she fled. Where the ring had been pounded
there arose a small thread of smoke. Ort leaned forward and spat in turn, full upon
the thread, setting it into nothingness.

“So be it!” A deep voice.

A well-muscled arm swooped, fingers caught up the cloak, once more twisting it about
a bare body, but this time a human body. “So be it.”

“You are a man—” The power that had filled me vanished as quickly as it had come.
I was left with only amazement and a need to understand.

He nodded. Gone from him was all but the eyes—those were rightly his, marking him
even through the foulness of the spell. “I am Ran Den Fur—a fool who went where no
man ventured, and by my folly I learned. Now . . .” He gazed about him. I saw the
cloak move as he drew a deep breath, as if inhaling new life to rid him of the old.
“I shall live again—and perhaps I have put folly behind me.”

He looked at me with the same intentness as when he had tried to link earlier.

“I have much to thank you for, lady. We shall have time—now—even in the shadow of
Thotharn, we still have time.”