Norton, Andre - Chapbook 04 (5 page)

Modic's
hand fell heavily on his shoulder.

"Quiet
as the sand when there is no puff of air to give it life."
 
He was crouched beside
Rentam
again, his mouth so close to the
Betweener's
leathery
cheek that the foulness of his breath for an instant made
Rentam
gag as he had from the mask.

"There
are those who come to feast at such a table...."

"Yet,"
Rentam
dropped his own voice and half hissed, half
whispered, "you have not been here before.
 
Then how do you know what chances here? Let me guess, Seeker.
 
You had full knowledge of that which killed
and took precautions that you should not be among the slain by coming
last.
 
Why chose you ..."

His
question was interrupted by a soft sound like a heavy sigh such as a beast of
burden might give when loosed of that burden, the need for going on.
 
The darkness was not quite as complete as it would
have been outside the ruins.
 
Rentam
was not sure just where the pale light came from,
unless it was from the uncovered bones of the city itself.
 
But he was able to see the outline of a
horse's head against whitish block a little beyond them.

Modic
chuckled.
 
He might not
have been viewing a fatal battlefield, but rather was anticipating some coming
gift.

"So
... SOOOO ...
sssoooo
...
Dus
,"
again that whispering voice but he did not address
Rentam
this time.
 
The mount's ugly head swung
in his direction and the horse took one step and then another as one answering a
detested jerk upon dangling reins, edging by as far as it could from the horror
about the pool.

"Never
judge a mount by looks."
 
Modic
dug an elbow into
Rentam's
ribs.

"
Dus
has been a-questing before.
 
But he has been thrice blessed by the Voice
of
Ugan
and also endowed at birth with more brains
than many a man!
 
Ugly and spare he may
look, but he is as fresh at the trail's ends as when he first stepped out.
 
Ah!"

Modic's
first touch on the guide's arm became a grasp which twisted flesh
and brought pain.

"Look
you,
Betweener
!
 
Here comes those to the banquet their protector has laid out for
them!"

The
horse had managed to reach their crowded hide just as his master spoke.
 
The animal made no sound but his sweat was
that of fear and it was rank in their small space.
 
Giving voice to a harsh whinny
Dus
turned and pulled away.
 
Modic
did not appear to notice his going.
Rentam
saw a dark shape detach itself from a fraction of
wall to scuttle towards the basin of blood and flesh.
 
It was only the first. However
Rentam
was not to be turned by such a sight from his need
for the truth.

"You
know this place."
 
He made a
statement out of that, not a question.

"Yet
you swear you have never been here before."

"Nor
have I,
Betweener
.
 
But I have been to
Lyrh
and
Kenzy
...."
 
He spoke
with pride in his voice.

"Though
never within these walls.
 
Yet I saw a
Seeker disappear into
Lyrh
with all his company.
 
And he did not return, nor did any one or thing,
save my fool
Dus
here, when the sun arose the next
morning. There were sounds in a plenty during the night and they were not pleasant
ones.

"If
you were so near, how does it that you were not caught in the same trap?"

Again
Modic
chuckled.
 
"
Twas
my own thinking which saved me
there.
 
I was well behind the Seeker, not
a member of his crew, and when the killing light came I was beyond its
radius.
 
Also ..."

His
hand strayed inside his robe again and
Rentam
would
swear that what he sought was that map.... "Also, I sat at the feet of
many story tellers... in all the Down Lands.
 
Some had one small bit to spew forth, some had nothing ... but I
listened with patience for more than a year.
 
I even had such brought to tell to me alone.

It
was one of those, an ancient Speaker of your own kind,
Betweener
,
who gave me the first clue."
 
He
settled back into the shadows and sat more at ease with his back against a
broken wall.
 
Yet he still spoke in so
low a tone that
Rentam
had trouble making sure of all
the words.

"What
do you know of the tale of
Lonscraft
,
Betweener
?
 
Or is
that legend so' old it has dried up in all men's minds, to be blown away in an
autumn tempest?"

Truth?
 
Rentam's
tongue
tasted the air.
 
There were many foul and
dangerous odors about but he could still pick up this Seeker.

Modic
told the truth, or what he believed to be the truth, or... at least
a portion of it, destined to hook
Rentam
to him.

"
Lonscraft
."
 
He
remembered back to days not so long ago when he had toiled over learning...
names, places, events which had been the portion of the
Betweeners
lore for such a long time.

"
Lonscraft
," he repeated, "is a tale...."

"What
are the past doings of us all but legends when time speeds further and further
away from the event,"
Modic
wanted to know.

"Yes,
there is the tale of
Lonscraft
... but it is worn
ragged by passing through so many tellers, each changing a little to make it
suit his or her own ideas of what was exciting, or fitting, or proper.

Your
people tell dark stories of the cities within this dead land, yet they learn
its trails and mark its guide posts as if such acts are a matter of
unchangeable law.
 
You do believe yet,
deep inside of you, there is a faint stirring when one calls the name of a
vanished city.

You
have built up a number of taboos and most of them have truth in them.
 
Your training tells you that death was here
... and it was. Still you are not aware of what kind of death ... only of its
shadow. But me,
Modic
," he thumped himself on
the chest, "I allow no story to stand alone and be only half
believed.
 
Always have I sought for more.
I heard of the woman
Kasiu
, she who was first wife to
Amers
.
 
Her I hunted
out and she was afraid, for there were many in her village who knew how much
she hated her husband and who were skeptical of her story of Demons entering
him when he came here.
 
I made a bargain
with her, that she could travel with my company down to the River towns and
that she was grateful for, also she could not guess that more lay in her husband's
journey bag upon his return than crumbs of food.
 
But I learned where she had spilled the bag,
so I found what I sought for what seems now half my life.

"There
was the map and I hardly think truly that it was of his own making ... it may
be generations old.
 
Also there were some
guide scratches... look for yourself,
Betweener
."

Modic
was holding out an oblong of slate painstakingly ground into a narrow
slip.
 
Rentam
accepted it gingerly, then might have gasped had his species been that of the
Seeker.
 
It was hot in his hand, not as something
which had gathered body warmth from resting against flesh, but with a heat
which radiated from it.
 
He could have
been holding an actual part of the sun's beam.
 
To the sight in this part-dark it was bare, but when his fingers quested
over it, ridges and curves lay plain against his skin.
 
Deep in him was that first flutter of fear
known when a thing which is thought to be without truth suddenly throws aside the
cloak of falsehood.
 
His lips shaped
words which his voice whispered:

"In
the ninth month when the Lords of the Three Lands strove together, there came
out of the depths of the dead and
riven
land one who
was veiled and lacking in speech.
 
Yet no
one raised hand to pull aside the veil and cloak, or spoke.
 
Rather did they draw back away from this one who
was not like unto others of the world.

"Then
rose up
Utyr
of
Lonscraft
who
was ever of hasty tongue and impatient hand.
 
He spoke, saying that truth was to be known and if there was a message
then let this one speak it forthwith.

"So
that one from the dead land turned to
Utyr
and made
certain gestures which no one understood, but which had an ill look to them.
Utyr
, though he shifted from one foot to the other as a
person ill at ease, did not speak again.
 
Nor did he give any orders to his men as

that
shrouded one turned and walked from him.
 
Those before the walker hunched to either side making a free path for
the cloaked one.
 
Thus the stranger came
to the first opening of the broad marsh which was then to the gates of
Lonscraft
, that city being partly built on landing of stone
long and deep set in unsteady earth.
 
Going out upon one of the piers of the swift flying marsh boats, the
stranger opened wide his cloak, which then hung in the air itself like
wings.
 
Although all the company stayed
ashore and none could see what the cloak had hidden.

"But
a hand flashed forth bearing such a weapon as no man had seen ... white, and
gold, blue, red and green, color followed color across its surface.
 
Then the stranger whistled, a clear, sharp
sound like the cry of some sea bird.

"Down
one of the aisles of open water which served for the boats came that which
those of the land had never seen.
 
It was
both a fish and a crawler upon the land for it showed stubbly legs.

When
it came to a belt of weed it climbed over that growth, not giving way to it.

"As
for the staff, this flashed with color, mainly green, but also swirling red,
blue, and gold.

"The
head of the water one was held high above the surface, and from its mouth
issued words which all man could hear but none could answer, for there was no
understanding them.
 
Then the voice grew
louder, boomed and belled, until it filled the ears of all those in
Lonscraft
and there was no escaping it.
 
Also it carried in it, even if one could not
understand the words, a feeling of coming shadow and ill fortune. So that those
waiting by
Utyr
drew sword or battle knife, even
though no challenge had been offered.

"
Utyr
himself strode forward near enough to the stranger
that he might grasp that one's shoulder if he wished; he even put forth his
hand as if to do that very thing.
 
Yet he
did not complete that gesture for the thing in the water ceased upon an instant
its calling and there was a strange and abiding silence which held for five
breaths, perhaps more. Then he who stood at the pier's end turned slowly around
so that those gathered there could see, that though he walked upright and
cloaked as might a man of the city, he was not of their form nor wore any
covering known to them...."