Gary Gygax - Dangerous Journeys 2 - Samarkand Solution (11 page)

"If you thought you could do that, efreet, you'd act, not boast," Inhetep shouted back. "Return now to your infernal realm, or it is I who will quench you!" Although the magister had expected to encounter some form of creature from the Spheres of Fire, this near-demoniac in its most potent form came as a surprise, but he didn't allow the monster to have an inkling of that. Even as he spoke, the ur-kheri-heb made preparations to carry out his threat.

The towering creature of hellfire form reached out to grab his antagonist, then withdrew his fiery arm with a shrieking howl as it contacted the freezing water. Its cry hurt Inhetep's ears, and the hemisphere trembled, bulged in where the efreet had struck it, then restored itself to smoothness again. It was noticeably smaller. "Son of a newt!" the fire being roared. "I'll soon have you out of that bubble and fry you slowly for your presumptuousness!"

With that, the flame-limbs struck down upon the shielding water, pounding upon it again and again. The monstrous thing howled in pain as it sought to destroy Inhetep's protection, but it was enraged and determined. Inside his watery shell, Inhetep worked desperately. He had to both maintain his defense and mount an offense against the efreet. No mere defense could prevail for long in such conditions as these. He worked with precision even as the water which protected him hissed and wavered and shrank to little more than a few inches of liquid but a foot above his sweating head. There was a sudden eruption of steam, and as vapors of superheated stuff rose round Setne, the priest-wizard called out, "Now, thing of perdition, you are doomed!"

Steam would slay Inhetep as surely as fire, but the stuff of fire and water mixed was nearly as deadly to the efreet as it was to human flesh. Magister Inhetep had managed to cloak the whole room in a curtain of billowing steam, while above them there was no longer flame-wrapped timbers but only an ever-darkening cloud such as might occur naturally in the sky and send down a torrent of rain. The elemental being of fire shrank from the billowing mass of superheated water vapors, peered up at the mass of coo! ones above, and hurled itself insanely upon the man who had wrought its demise. As it leaped to crush the shield and incinerate the man beneath, the cloud above suddenly released a downpour. The burst of drops extinguished the flames of the efreet's back even as its belly struck and demolished the protective shield which stood between it and the mortal. "DEATH!" it roared at Setne, even as it died.

Inhetep saw what was coming and sank. That is, the wizard-priest used the last of his power to alter his physical body so as to be able to pass through the marble floor and int® whatever lay below. The compression of the air in the shielding hemisphere as the efreet flattened and then destroyed that shield actually drove the magister down as a breath might propel a dart along a blowgun. Inhetep shot downward and struck another layer of stone some ten feet below. The force of the impact stunned him for a moment, but he was saved from real harm. "By Thoth's bill!" he muttered sacrilegiously. "That was too close and hot. Next time I go to see a fire, I'll be sure to carry along something to deal with elementals of that ilk."

"One must always have a long spoon when supping with efreeti," said a cool, sultry voice.

Inhetep started, spinning to face the speaker. He saw a girl with milk-white skin and coppery-gold hair, which flowed nearly to her waist. Those tresses were her only garments, although she was adorned with armlets and other jewelry of gold and jewels. She stood unashamed before his gaze, looking back at him with orange eyes. For once Setne Inhetep was so disconcerted as to be nearly speechless. "What are you doing here—and where are we?" the ur-kheri-heb finally managed to blurt out.

"And well might I ask the same of you, although I do know the second answer. I'll give you that if you tell me who you are."

"Magister Setne Inhetep of the Utchatu."

She smiled. "I am Xonaapi. It is a pleasure to meet a man able to drop through solid stone, especially here."

Inhetep looked away, for her beautiful face and body were distracting him. "Where is the 'here' you speak of—other than beneath Ram-f-amsu's quarters, that is?"

"You are correct. We are in a dungeon beneath that . . . that
swine's
apartments." The full lips moved to a frown, and she made her last words sound like a curse. "I
hate
that man, and when I get free of this place, I'll make him pay."

"Ram-f-amsu is beyond your vengeance," the magister told her matter-of-factly. "He was assassinated two days ago."

"Oh ... I didn't know," Xonaapi said slowly, and her frown turned to a very seductive-looking pout. "That's too bad, for I had hoped to kill him myself. Do you know the way out of here?"

He shook his head. "I had hoped you might. So! That means you and I must search for the exit from this place, but at least Ram-f-amsu was thoughtful in providing witchlights in this subterranean den." Inhetep paused, looking around to try and orient himself, but wasn't sure just which way was which. In the process, his eyes fell again upon the naked girl. "Let's get going, for who can say what the fire above will do to this place!"

Xonaapi smiled and took the magister's arm. "You are very forceful, Magister Setne Inhetep. I'm sure you will be able to find the way."

"Ah, pardon me, Xonaapi, but do you have anything to . . . er . . . put on?"

"I am wearing all of my jewelry."

"I was referring to clothing."

"Of course! How silly of me," the girl said as she gave his arm a hug. "Ram-f-amsu took it all away, but I could wear a bed sheet."

Inhetep didn't exactly mind the pressure of her full breasts, but it was truly beginning to distract him, and he felt that they had to get out of the underground place soon. He pulled his arm gently from Xonaapi's grasp. "Let's go to your bedroom, then," he agreed.

"Here," she said as they rounded a nearby turn in the maze of passageways beneath the palace, and she opened a door onto a large and lavishly furnished chamber. "Isn't it beautiful? I'd love to have such a bedroom somewhere else. One with big windows and a balcony overlooking a private garden. You don't have a dungeon like this do you, Magister Setne Inhetep?"

Without thinking he said, "Setne will do fine, my dear. And I wouldn't dream of it—having a dungeon, that is," he muttered hastily. "Fashion a toga or something from one of your sheets while I check for means of escape. There's warm air circulating down here."

Xonaapi held in one hand the silken spread she had pulled from the luxurious bed in the chamber, pointing with the other. "Over there, near the floor, I thought of that, but it is only a little ventilator shaft."

"Let's take a few moments to consider the problem, Xonaapi," the priest-wizard suggested as she wrapped herself in the material and pinned it at the shoulder with an emerald clasp of some sort.

She nodded, so he went ahead quickly. "I'm going to ask you a few questions. I need your answers to be brief and exact. All right?"

She smiled. "That's fine, Setne Inhetep—Setne, I mean. I like your name."

"Where do you come from; what land is your home?"

"Hvrkanian pirates took me from a ship sailing from Sinope to Sarai. I was returning home."

"You are a Khazar?"

"That's so—a White one and a noble, too! The pirates of Baku took me to a Sythian slave merchant. Then a Phonecian trader bought me and took me to Antioch. That's where Ram-f-amsu acquired me."

Inhetep thought she was remarkably pragmatic and calm, but he made no comment on that. Instead he asked, "The prince saw you and bought you in Antioch?"

Xonaapi shook her red-gold tresses. "Not Ram-f-amsu, actually. He had an agent, a greasy Cyp-riot who fondled me. That one brought me to On, and then Ram-f-amsu confined me here."

"What was the Cypriot's name?"

"Pyronos."

"How long have you been kept here?"

"A long time. I'm not sure, but I think it has been a month or longer."

"And did the governor come to see you often?"

"Yes, but he never tried to make love to me, Setne." There was wonder and hurt in Xonaapi's voice as she told the magister that. "Have I become so ugly?"

At those words, the ur-kheri-heb shook his head. "No, Xonaapi. I give you my absolute assurance that you are quite lovely still, despite being imprisoned here for so long."

"Then you wish to—"

"Escape!" Inhetep interjected brusquely. "Now, where did Prince Ram-f-amsu appear when he came down here to see you—for whatever reason."

"Come on, I'll show you the place," the girl responded eagerly. Xonaapi took him by the hand and pulled him through a series of large and small chambers to a many-pillared room with a fountain playing in its center and muraled walls. "There," she told the magister, pointing to the space between two lotus columns in an alcove of the room. "He always came from that spot, but when I searched for a door, I never found

anything!"

There in the alcove, Inhetep saw a painted door with the glyphs and depictions typical of a transporter. "Damn! This is not going to be of much help."

The girl came in and stood beside him. "I know. That's just a mural painted on plaster."

"No. It is a magickal portal. Weakened as I am, I have sufficient magickal energy to operate it, but . .."

"But what?"

"If we use this it will take us into the fire above!"

"Then what can we do to get out?" she asked, and now she looked frightened.

Inhetep led her away from the place and began a quick but systematic exploration. It seemed obvious to him that the prince had merely sectioned off a portion of the labyrinth under the palace in order to have a secret and wholly private area. As the priest-wizard searched, he asked Xonaapi to tell him what she knew about Ram-f-amsu.

"He said that one day he would be a great sovereign, you know. I asked him if he were going to make me a queen, but he laughed. 'Not even a concubine of mine, pale and beautiful temptress,' he said, and I was flattered and insulted all at once.

" 'Am I to be a sacrifice or what?' That's what

I asked him, for I suddenly thought of the things you /Egyptians do."

"Nonsense! Not even . . . well, human sacrifice is a crime in this land, Xonaapi. There are suspicions that Set's followers still . . . Do get on with your story. Sorry to have interrupted."

She smiled and gave him a kiss on his cheek. "I don't mind. Your words are reassuring. You are a priest—I can tell by your shaven head and your manner. I was afraid that this might be a trick and perhaps you had come to take me off to .. . you know."

"What did Ram-f-amsu say he wanted you for, Xonaapi? It is highly unusual, even in mysterious
Mgypt,
shall we say, for a royal governor to confine a beautiful slave in a hidden dungeon."

"I was to be a special gift. That is what he said, but I didn't believe him. Now I think he must have been telling the truth. He said I was the gem to adorn the crown."

Although his heka energy was depleted after the encounter with the efreet, the magister used his powers of observation and knowledge of the construction and concealment of secret portals as he worked his way along the perimeter walls of the place. "Hah! There's a large area unaccounted for here, my dear. Use those lovely topaz eyes of yours to look for scratches on the floor."

"How nice of you to say that," Xonaapi said, but she stooped and peered down as Inhetep began another circuit along the walls in question.

"What will the scratch marks look like?" she inquired.

"Little lines which have a curve to them. There might be one or several, either deeply etched or very faint, depending on how able the mason was who made the stone which pivots. If there are two or more lines, they'll be parallel."

"Like those are?" Xonaapi was pointing at the floor.

It was Inhetep's turn to hug the girl. "You've found the place, Xonaapi! Come on, now help me find the unlatching mechanism." The magister told her what to look for as he went about his search. The locking device was discovered under a flagstone. It was a metal bar which moved on a fulcrum, and pulling upward on their end released a stud which was thrust into the bottom of the rock and held the stone section fast. It was then an easy matter to pivot the section of wall and enter the place beyond. It was a storeroom filled with armor and weapons, and it extended for a long ways.

"What do you suppose all this is for?" Xonaapi asked as they peered into the dark chamber.

"You tell me. To whom were you to be given?"

"He would never say, although once he said a name by accident, I think. He wouldn't repeat it, but I remember it was Yarban sounding—or Shamish, perhaps. I'm not sure."

The spell-created lighting of the area in which the girl had been confined was absent in the arsenal they had entered, but Inhetep used his ankh for illumination. Xonaapi asked how he could make the gold talisman shed light, but Inhetep only told her that the device was imbued with a heka. "Think of it as a sort of lamp, and by speaking a word I make it bright as would lighting the wick of a lamp." That was more than sufficient for her.

There were enough arms in the palace to equip several thousand troops. Fine mail, steel helmets, bows, barrels of arrows, spears, shields, swords, and axes. The magister was tempted to take along a sampling but decided against it, for they had yet to find another means of egress from the storeroom. After a couple of minutes, though, he saw a wide place which could only be a gateway. It proved to be concealed on its other side, but here it was easy to open. He and Xonaapi then entered the regular cellars of the palace, and before long the wizard-priest had located a tunnel which ran straight and led away from the subterranean rooms.