The Windsingers (18 page)

'When you interrupted me at the speaking egg, I...'

'Come, come, let us stop the falsehoods before they begin. Had you even begun to speak through that egg, it would have been hot enough to blister Ki's untrained hands. You have spoken to no one as yet.'

The Windsinger bit her lower hp. The hidden anger flashed out once from the dark eyes, and was gone again. 'You offer me nothing, wizard. If Rebeke knew I spied on her, she might kill me. But if I help you to regain your body and escape, will not both Rebeke and my patron take a vengeance on me?'

Ki knit her brows over her closed eyes, but Dresh's voice was smooth as honey. 'Of course they would, if they knew it was your doing. But it seems to me that if you have played a two-faced game this far, it would not overly tax you to make it three-faced. Put your mind to it, breezemaker. I shall make it simple for you. All I ask is that you escort me safely to the place where my body is held, and draw off any guards. I shall handle my own escape from there.'

'Certainly,' the Windsinger replied sarcastically. 'And shall I pack a moon for you to take along?'

Dresh smiled hard. 'Don't bother.' He lifted Ki's hand with the speaking egg in it. 'I shall be content with this.'

The woman stood still, listening perhaps. Her dark eyes were veiled with her own darker thoughts. Ki shifted her weight, juggling the head and egg into a more comfortable counter-balance.

'My time is short,' Dresh warned her. 'Debate on this too long, and others will decide for you. You must agree, or be discovered.'

'Do you think I don't realize that, head?' the Windsinger asked coldly. A slender hand strayed up to touch her mouth. 'Wait here for me, then.' And she was gone, moving swiftly and silently.

'She will bring them all down on us,' Ki muttered.

'Not while we hold the egg. She will do anything in the hopes of regaining it unharmed. But it all rides in our little traitor now. If she is creative enough in her deceits, we may yet win back my body.'

'And if she is not?' Ki's voice was flat.

'Then hold that egg ready for throwing, my dear. We shall open a doorway that lets in the otherness as we wink out. We shall not die cheaply.'

'A grand comfort, that,' Ki replied sourly. She shifted egg and head again. The egg weighed heavily at the end of her arm. Her shoulders and back ached. The strain of seeing through Dresh's eyes fuzzed her mind. Her reasons for accompanying him on this ridiculous quest had paled to idealistic idiocy in her own mind. Pride and honor seemed but foolish trinkets compared to the living of life to its end. She found herself wondering if Dresh had not somehow bent her mind into going along with it. That kiss... if that was not proof of how he could twist her will, what was? And to so demean her independent will must be an indication of his small regard for her. She was a tool for him, a mindless gadget to be used at his whim. And what real grudges did she have against Windsingers? A few unvoiced forebodings in the back of her mind, her father's vague accusatory hints, Vandien's foolishness, Dresh's own long-winded harangues. In fact...

'Ki, if you let the egg seduce you now, we are both lost.'

Ki jarred back to wakefulness. Dream cobwebs snapped in her mind. Pyramids of reasoning collapsed under the weight of their own conclusions. She brought the egg up to Dresh's eye level, but he flicked their gaze away from it.

'It is dangerous enough that you hold it in your bare hand, with its hide against your skin. It would be folly to gaze untrained into its depth. Its loyalty is to the Windsingers that feed it. Listen to it, and it will bid you to dash out your brains against the walls, to cut your own throat, and you will obey. Concentrate on our task.'

She shook her head. She felt spidery hands tugging it her mind's skirts for attention, but she joined her thoughts to Dresh's vision and stared at the chamber door.

'She comes,' whispered Dresh.

Ki held her breath, listening. She heard nothing. But the door swung open, and their Windsinger peered in.

'Come swiftly now. I have lured them all from their watching, sent the last watcher to follow Rebeke, telling her that she was summoned. The body is yours for the taking. But you must come swiftly, for this ruse will not keep them away long. Come!'

Ki shrugged her load up and followed. She moved out into the passageway behind the Windsinger. Cautiously she pointed Dresh's head first in one direction and then the other, to be sure all was clear. Then she followed. Her lips tightened in a smile as she realized she was using Dresh's head as a torch. It was his turn to be the tool.

It swiftly became apparent that what she had regarded as a corridor was part of a labyrinth. When the Windsinger turned left through a door, Ki shadowed her, but instead of the expected chamber, she found herself in another passageway identical to the first one. They wound their way through a universe of stark walls and plain doors. Ki tangled her mind trying to remember how many doors they had passed each time before turning, and the directions of each turn. After a hand of turns, she gave up the notion. She snorted softly as she decided that even if she had been able to retrace their route, it could only lead them back to the dubious sanctuary of the Windsingers chamber.

So it was that Ki was totally unprepared when her guide stepped through one more door, and stopped. Ki trod upon the hem of the Windsinger's gown before she realized they had arrived. Swiftly mumbling an apology, she stepped back and swept Dresh's gaze over the room.

There was little to see. Ki ignored the sky windows. There were the two empty stools for the watchers. There was the small black table with Dresh's bared hands resting upon it. Ki's heart squeezed at this eerie sight; it was as chilling as her first glimpse of the bodiless head that she now carried so casually. Yet this time it was not just the magic that appalled her, it was the evidence of the superior skills of the Windsingers to undo it. The lid of the hand casket had been left on the floor. Beside the other stool was the square enamel box that contained Dresh's body. Another sweep of Dresh's eyes flashed over the sky windows, and the lush hides scattered on the floor. The high ceiling receded into shadows. A sourceless light gave an appearance of afternoon to the chamber. It did not come from the sky windows; some of them were in full night now, while in others the rising sun stained the skies. Ki wasted no time on what she now knew were illusions. She swung Dresh in a swift scan of the room, seeking other exits.

'Confound it, girl!' the wizard growled. 'Whirl me about once more, and I shall be as sick to my stomach as a head without one can be. My eyes do move independently of my skull. Besides, we have no time for gawking. This procedure takes some little time, even under the best circumstances. We cannot make even one mistake now, for I doubt if even our little friend's fertile imagination can invent lies enough to keep Rebeke away for long.'

'At least your hands are already opened for you,' Ki pointed out.

'I shall have to remember to thank the Windsingers for that small saving of time. Take me over by the casket. I shall require your hands again.'

'What about her?' Ki asked, jogging Dresh's head in the Windsingers direction.

'What of her? Do you propose to stand a watch over her to prevent her escape while I work this magic? Be logical, Ki. Should she begin to scream and run, what could we do? Shall you chase her down the hall, my head ajounce upon your arm, to fling me rudely to the floor when you catch her? No, all we have to bind her with is her own deceitfulness. And a small blue egg. Come. To work now.'

But when she stood beside the coffin, a second problem arose. With Dresh on her left arm and the egg in her right hand, she had no hands left for stone pressing. After a moment's juggling, she settled Dresh's head with the egg tucked under his chin in the crook of her elbow. She took a deep breath. With a shiver of trepidation, she set her free hand on top of the casket.

Just as it had by her campfire, her arm took on a life of its own. Through Dresh's eyes, Ki watched her hand dance over the colored stones on the lid. A center crack appeared. Gently her hand eased back the two sides of the lid to reveal Dresh's body. He was huddled within the box, neatly tucked into the cube. Neck and wrists were neatly stoppered with black cubes of red-veined stone. Ki returned the egg to her right hand and hiked Dresh's head higher for a better look.

'Now what?' she whispered to Dresh.

'Now the work begins,' Dresh growled in reply. 'Step back, Ki, and give me some room.'

She stood back from the coffin. An eerie foreknowledge afflicted her. She was not surprised, but strangely revolted when a forearm that ended in a block of stone groped its way over the side of the box. Next, a brown clad shoulder pushed itself into view. With a sudden heave, the chest and block head swayed upright.

'Deucedly hard to balance a body with no head on it,' Dresh grumbled to himself.

The body braced a block hand on the edge of its crate and awkwardly clambered to its feet. An unnaturally high step, like a marionette in an amateur's hands, and the body placed one of its feet on the floor. The other root followed, and the headless, handless body swayed on its feet. Ki and the head looked it over. Dresh's claims were true, Ki found herself admitting; he was not a badly made man. An acorn-brown tunic covered his torso to his hips; the bare arms that moved and flexed now were evenly muscled. Hose of a darker brown sheathed his muscular legs. His feet were shod in light buskins. Not ill made at all. But at each wrist and on the stump of the neck was a block of the familiar red-veined stone. With a queasy feeling, she noted that the chest rose and fell very slightly; she had no doubt that within that chest a heart lightly fluttered. Slowly the body extended a stone-ended right arm in Ki's direction.

'Body, Ki. Ki, I'd like you to meet my body. Touch hands, or whatever!' Dresh barked out a macabre laugh. Ki shuddered and took an involuntary backward step.

'Enough levity!' Dresh thundered suddenly, as if she had been the one to begin it. 'We have no time for it. We have the pieces, Ki. Now we have to put the puzzle back together, and then return to your world. We shall need a piece of brown chalk. I think you will find some in my purse, at my waist. Place my hands at my feet. Then draw a circle around my body equal to my normal height. And, Lord of Fishes, hurry!'

She suppressed a shudder as she gently frisked Dresh's body for the chalk. Once more she had to jumble egg and head together as she moved the hands over to Dresh's feet. When one of the hands on the block stirred and gave her a pat on the wrist, she did not find it reassuring.

'Put the egg in my hand. I suppose I can trust myself with it,' Dresh remarked gaily.

Ki was beginning to wonder if he was mad. But his fey mood was infectious. Head tucked securely against her, she crawled in a backwards circle around the body, sketching in the circle with the soft chalk on the polished floor.

'And now?' she asked as the two ends of the circle nearly met.

'And now set the head upon the floor and back away from it, mortal!'

Dresh's eyes flickered to the doorway. A tall Windsinger robed in deepest blue was poised there. Her brown eyes had the wide white rims of the full Singer. Their mocking stare froze Ki's blood. She remained crouched on the floor, chalk poised in her hand to finish the circle. Dresh's head was clutched to her breast.

'Do as I say, mortal!'

The Windsingers voice brooked no denial. Ki moved to place Dresh's head upon the floor. But she did not move. The hands she willed to lower the head remained clutching it. The legs she willed to back away from Dresh remained crouched. In her hands she felt the muscles of Dresh's head harden in a grin.

'Medie! I had scarcely expected to encounter you here! Something more than my sundered body has drawn you here, I'll wager. How, now, cast not your eyes so menacingly upon Ki. Would you slay the cow because the farmer displeased you?'

'Not a farmer's cow, Dresh. But I would slay the battle horse that carries the warrior. So!'

Medie raised her hand. Something flashed in her fingertips. Ki squinted her eyes more tightly shut, but Dresh's went on seeing for her. She flinched in anticipation.

It seemed to Ki that Medie grew taller as she stood, her threatening hand raised for an eternity. Her brown and white eyes were wide and staring. Her scaly lips moved silently. The raised hand wavered. Like a great tree falling, Medie swayed forward. She struck the floor face first, making no effort to catch herself. Whatever had flashed at her fingertips ran sparkling about the floor for an instant, and then dispersed. Medie lay still, soundless.

Ki breathed again. 'What did you do to her?' she whispered in awe.

'I? I did nothing,' Dresh said softly. 'Medie lies dead, Ki, not merely struck senseless. That is not my way.'

'No. It is my way.' Stepping through the doorway, their traitor-ally stooped over Medie's body. Ki felt her gorge rise as the younger Windsinger drew from the concealing folds of Medie's robe a long narrow blade. With a dainty wiping motion, she fastidiously cleaned the blood from the blade with her fingertips, and dried them upon Medie's robe. She smiled as she looked up and her eyes met the wizard's.

'Now you may set the head down with the other parts and back away,' she coolly informed Ki.

'Think well on what you do, breezemaker. Medie may be dead, but that will not free you from Rebeke's vengeance. In fact, it will cause her hands to fall on you more swiftly. It was the act of a fool!'