The Stranger's Magic: The Labyrinths of Echo: Book Three (37 page)

“I called the police and made them happy with my find. Then I went to the House by the Bridge and sat in your chair, Max, because I was going to give the situation a lot of thought. The
policemen had stayed behind to ambush Zekka in his own bedroom, but I had doubts that the fellow would be so stupid as to come home. He was either increasing the distance between himself and Echo
at a very high speed or waiting for the morning to look for another place. I was almost positive that he’d prefer the latter: he loves the Capital and his mother. What’s more, Zekka
apparently had very good reason to consider himself impossible to catch, and a head stupid enough to believe that it would last forever.

“I thought I should probably stick to the protocol and call Melamori. She could stand on Zekka Moddorok’s trace, and that would be it. But I didn’t want to wake Melamori up an
hour before dawn. I told myself we could catch Zekka a couple of hours later—no hurry. I dozed off in the armchair, then sent a call to the Glutton and demanded some semblance of a breakfast.
Yet when I was about to take my first sip of kamra, my feet took me outside. I suddenly felt I was about to find Zekka. After all, I had promised myself to find him before dawn.

“I walked out of Headquarters, got into the amobiler, and drove off not knowing where I was going. I couldn’t get rid of the feeling that I was about to grab Zekka Moddorok by his
hair. It was like looking blindfolded for a piece of smelly cheese: you can’t miss it. I didn’t even notice when my amobiler swerved from the pavement to the sidewalk. It all happened
in a matter of seconds. The sidewalk looked empty, although I was having a hard time focusing my eyes again, just like earlier in the Drunken Rain. Then I felt a hard jolt and heard a scream. Trust
me, boys, I’ve heard plenty of screams in my long, long life, but that scream was one of a kind. I still have a ringing in my ears.

“My amobiler skidded to the side, and I crashed into the wall of a house. I was fine, except for some bruises. I got out of the wrecked amobiler and saw lying dead on the sidewalk the
object of my investigation, wrapped in the same raggedy old looxi. Zekka Moddorok was truly very unfortunate. My luck had led me to him like a magnet, so I had swerved onto the sidewalk. But I
hadn’t noticed him, nor had he noticed me or my amobiler, the quietest amobiler in the Capital. I had run over him. And I did it as skillfully as an executioner at the court of some
bloodthirsty emperor obsessed with newfangled forms of torture and death.

“But if you think my story ends with me bringing the body of the unfortunate Zekka Moddorok to the House by the Bridge, delivering him to the morgue, and calling Sir Skalduar Van Dufunbux
so he could officially determine the cause of death, you are mistaken.”

“We don’t think that,” said Melifaro. “You wouldn’t have wasted that much time just to tell us this weepy story. It’s clear you want something from us, and
the story of the late Zekka Moddorok is to be continued.”

“Precisely. It was clear to me that the poor fellow couldn’t have done all those things on his own. All those mysterious robberies in front of so many witnesses in broad daylight!
And the way he slipped away from me in the Drunken Rain? Besides, I never forgot for a minute that I had met Zekka when I was trying to find the thieves that had stolen the old pirate chest. Old
chests usually have old things in them, so while Skalduar was busy with the dead body, I was examining the dead body’s clothes and belongings. First I looked for some amulets or charms, but
Zekka didn’t have anything of that sort. Then I turned to his clothes—and look what I found!”

Kofa produced a small parcel from his looxi. It was another looxi—or, rather, it looked like an old gray cloak. Kofa put the cloak around his shoulders, but nothing happened. I thought he
would disappear like in a fairy tale.

“It’s all right, boys,” said Kofa, smiling. “Nothing’s going to happen while I’m sitting here at the table with you. But watch what happens as I’m
leaving. Watch me closely, though.”

Melifaro and I stared at Kofa. He got up and walked toward the door. I felt very disinclined to watch his back and wait for a miracle that wasn’t going to happen. It would probably turn
out—again—that I was a genius and those tricks didn’t work on me. Plus, there was something in my eye, and I couldn’t focus on the large silhouette of my older
colleague.

“Max, I think I just went insane,” said Melifaro. “Where’d Kofa go? Do you see him?”

“No,” I said, realizing “those tricks” worked very well on me, too. I had also lost sight of Kofa, even though I had been staring at him the best I could.

“How do you like them apples?” said Kofa. It turned out he had been standing by our table all the time. “Isn’t this something? Just what I need in my line of work. Our
wise Kurush says this cloak belongs to the category of ‘ordinary magical things.’ I like the way he puts it. This is a catch-all term for the various sorts of charms made far away from
Uguland. Usually, they are not very powerful objects, which is understandable: only the lowest degrees of Apparent Magic are used when making them. But when such things turn up in immediate proximity to the Heart of the World—here in Echo, that is—their magical powers intensify. Back when this cloak
belonged to the grandfather of your friend, Max, it probably could only distract an attacker and make the aiming harder, nothing fancier than that. Here in Echo, it makes whoever wears it
invisible. More than that, no one pays the slightest attention to him. At the same time, magic indicators don’t register a thing! What a neat little rag.”

“It sure is,” said Melifaro. “The best part is that you got hold of it so quickly. Otherwise we’d still be running around chasing it. Besides, this garment from overseas
suits you. All the beggars at the port will envy you.”

“Indeed,” said Kofa. “This is all fine and dandy, but we’re going to have to put our brains to work now. We’re going to have to imagine where that chest might be,
along with its mysterious contents. There could have been something else in it besides the cloak. Plus, there were two burglars hauling it off, and that second burglar could be anyone. We should
get down to it right away.”

“Before we put our brains to work, I suggest we listen to my story,” I said. “It’s a lot shorter than yours, and you’ll have just enough time to polish off your
dessert to the accompaniment of my soporific mumbling. I’m done with mine.”

“Order another one,” said Melifaro. “Maybe then you’ll finally burst, and I’ll have to comfort your numerous widows.”

“Not at all,” said Kofa. “If he bursts, you’ll be busy doing his job in addition to your own. Get on with your story, Max.”

And I told them the strange story of Captain Giatta. All the time I was telling the story, I hadn’t been able to get rid of the feeling that the captain had come to the House by the Bridge
not last night but at least two years ago. Something weird was happening to my sense of time.

“So there you have it,” I said when I finished. Now I was more convinced than ever that the story was as nonsensical as it was insignificant. I didn’t know why I’d bothered to tell it at all.

To my surprise, Kofa’s eyes lit up. “You’re so incredibly lucky, Max!” he said. “Did you ever stop to think that what you have in your hands is the other end of the
tangle of yarn that I was trying to unravel last night?”

“Uh, no.” I said. “Why? I mean, what makes you think so? Intuition?”

“This has nothing to do with intuition, my boy. Pure academic knowledge. I didn’t waste a minute this morning. I was gathering information about the traditional magic of the islands
of the Ukumbian Sea,” Kofa said, turning to Melifaro with a wink. “Your father must be cursing me left and right. I sent him the first call three hours before noon, and only just now
left him in peace.”

The offspring of the great encyclopedist smiled from ear to ear. “Cursing you? Please, Kofa! Sir Manga loves to chat, especially if during said chat he can demonstrate that he’s the
one and only true know-it-all in the World.”

“All right then,” said Kofa. “I hope Sir Manga got some pleasure out of the long, long, oh so incredibly long lecture I demanded from him. And his efforts were not in vain.
Imagine this, boys: among the numerous Ukumbian amulets and charms, pirates attach most value to those that give you some power over other people—that increase your powers of persuasion or
your personal charisma, as it were. It’s understandable: such things come in handy when you need to keep in check a whole gang of muscular drinking men who have not the faintest idea about
discipline. Imagine what such a thing might be capable of once it turns up here, in the Heart of the World.”

“Are you suggesting that the mysterious captain who was hiring a crew for his around-the-world trip had an amulet like that?” said Melifaro. “And as soon as he opened his
mouth, everyone around him was simply at the mercy of his oratory skills?”

“Let’s go to the port,” I said. “We’ll look for that Tobindona. The sooner we find it, the better.”

Melifaro jumped up. No flies on him, that’s for sure.

“In a minute,” said Kofa. “We still need to discuss one little detail. Did it occur to you that whoever he is, he is capable of persuading us to think whatever he wishes,
too?”

“We’re not that stupid!” I said.

“No, we’re not,” said Kofa. “And we’re not that blind, either. Yet none of us could see a person wearing this cape, no matter how close we were. Not one of us. What
makes you think the other talisman from that chest is going to be any less powerful?”

“Hmm. I guess you’re right. But you have this magic dust rag. That means no one will see you. He’ll be addressing his passionate speeches to Melifaro and me, and you’ll
be standing at a safe distance,” I said.

“Not so safe that I won’t hear his ‘passionate speeches,’ as you put it. I’m not so sure that he must see everyone he’s addressing. It’s enough that
they can hear him.”

“Then just plug your ears!” I said. Odysseus could protect his whole crew from the enchanting choir of the Sirens. It should be much easier to resist the sweet voice of one single
trickster, I thought.

“Good idea,” said Kofa. “That’s what we’re going to do. I’ll plug my ears and watch you succumb to the spell of one of the ordinary magical things. I’m
dying to see how it’s going to work on you.”

“Aren’t you afraid he’s going to suggest to us that we get rid of you?” said Melifaro. “Then we’ll go on his around-the-world journey with him. My father will
be happy to learn that his son is following to the family tradition.”

“He may persuade you to try to get rid of me, but you won’t be able to find me,” said Kofa. “I’ll be wearing the cloak.”

“Darn it,” said Melifaro. “There goes my dream of circumnavigating the earth. You’ll get us out of the holds of any ship. Let’s go then. Time is short.”

On the way to the port, Kofa was trying to make earplugs from whatever materials he had at hand.

“Drat it!” he said. “It’s not working. I still can hear fairly well.”

“Plug your ears with beeswax,” I said. “Let’s stop by some store where they sell candles. Show me the way. Beeswax is a versatile material.”
I decided to stick to the classical canon: what was good for Odysseus should be good for us.

“How do you know so much?” said Melifaro.

“Comes with the territory,” I said.

“There’s a place where they sell candles and slabs of soft beeswax around the corner there,” said Kofa. “Just what we need.”

When he came out of the shop, he was in the greatest of moods.

“So?” said Melifaro. “Just don’t tell me this monster was right for once. This will break my heart.”

“I can’t hear a word you’re saying!” said Kofa. He was yelling, like many people who are hard of hearing.

“See?” I said. I was very glad that my years of reading had begun to pay off.

I still think of the port in Echo as a labyrinth that only the initiated know their way around. Well, maybe a couple of geniuses like Sir Kofa can find their way in it, too. Unfortunately, as
soon as we climbed out of the amobiler, he put on the old pirate cloak, so I could only hope he was somewhere close by. Nevertheless, Melifaro was also one of those few geniuses: he was navigating
the motley sea of people here so effortlessly that it made me envious.