The Wordsmiths and the Warguild (26 page)

       
"Not so," said
the wizard. "I'll fly to Sung myself, later in the year. I'll have a word
with Brother Troop. We'll sort it out."

       
"What's in it for
you, then?"

       
"Don't worry your
head about that. Whatever I get will be from the Wordsmiths, not from you. I'll
be adequately remunerated, you can be sure of that."

       
Togura was no longer a
beggarly castaway. Instead, he was a valuable commercial property. The wizard
of Drum, who had sworn never to set foot in Sung again - he still had painful
memories of a certain game of Stone the Leper and the devaluation of the punt -
had changed his mind entirely now that profit beckoned.

       
Togura had certainly
guaranteed his immediate survival. But there was a penalty for his deceit - he
must now play the part of a death-dealing questing hero, at least while he was
on Drum.

       
"You should set out
in spring," said Hostaja. "I'll take you to Estar myself."

       
"In spring!"
said Togura, alarmed at the prospect of being on Drum for so long. "I'm
ready to leave now!"

       
"You can't leave
before we've renegotiated your agreement with the Wordsmiths," said
Hostaja. "Risking your neck for one percent? That's lunacy!"

       
"But, really -
"

       
"I have spoken.
You're staying here till spring. That way, I'll be able to teach you something.
The young are always over-confident, it's the ruling characteristic of the
breed."

       
"I don't need any
training."

       
"I see. You don't
need any training. You know everything, is that it? Well, boy, tell he this -
what's the Word you need to open the box which holds the index?"

       
"That's a
secret."

       
"Fiddlesticks! The
truth is, you've forgotten it, if you ever knew. Don't think there's anything
secret from me, boy. Do you know the history of the Book of the Odex?"

       
"Brother Troop
found it."

       
"No! Nonsense!
Brother Troop wasn't even born at the time! Troop's father helped find it. There
was an expedition to the Old City in the Valley of Forgotten Dreams, in
Penvash. There were three survivors. Troop's father was one of them. They
brought back the odex and the Book of the Odex. They wer lucky to bring back
their own lives, if you ask me."

       
"Why? What's so
terrible about the Old City?"

       
"Most of the people
who have gone there to find out have never come back," said Hostaja.
"Some of those unfortunates were wizards far more powerful than me. Consequently,
I know better than to investigate. The Melski stay out of the whole valley,
and, to my mind, that's the wisest thing to do. Anyway. Tell me. Who translated
the Book of the Odex?"

       
"Brother
Troop?" said Togura uncertainly.

       
"No! No! A thousand
times no! It was me! Troop's father brought the book here more than a
generation ago. I've laboured heartily since. Ah, but what thanks do I get for
it?"

       
"I think ...
perhaps Brother Troop did mention your name."

       
"A passing mention,
perhaps! I know those people. They play down my role the best they can. It's
the scholarly ego, my boy! A terrible thing, a terrible thing. I tell you - no,
I'd better not. There's nothing to be gained from rehearsing these old, old
quarrels. Just remember that I know as much about the odex as Brother Troop -
no, more! - and what he knows, I taught him."

       
"I understand,
sir."

       
The Word you need to
open the box is Sholabarakosh. You'll know it as well as you know your own
name, by the time you leave here. And more, besides. It's death to teach some
of the things I've a mind to teach you, but the Confederation of Wizards has
sentenced me to death five times already, with no visible effect."

       
"Why would they do
something like that?"

       
"Internal politics,
boy! I can explain it, if you've got a month to spare - but you've got better
things to learn. Tell me, boy, what have they taught you about the ancient
wizard castle?"

       
"Well, I've seen
this one, so - "

       
"Boy, this is a
pirate castle. It was built by the sea raiders a thousand years ago, when Drum
was the center of piracy. Barring my own occupation, it's got nothing to do
with wizards. But when you get to Estar you'll find a true power stronghold.
Prince Comedo of Estar lives in Castle Vaunting, which was built by wizards.
Tell me, boy, how many towers does it have?"

       
Togura guessed one, then
guessed fifty. Despite the instruction he had had from Brother Troop, he had
never known a great deal about the quest he was one; what he had known had been
mostly forgotten during the course of his traumatic adventures.

       
"When you dare your
indigestion on this quest," said Hostaja, "ignorance is death. I'll
do my best to instruct you, boy, though I suspect it'll be painful for the both
of us."

       
And lessons began that
very same day.

       
Togura Poulaan studied
through the autumn, learning more than he really wanted to know about the eight
orders of wizards, the Confederation of Wizards, the nature of magic and the
history of the troubled continent of Argan. Autumn turned to winter. Bleak
winds scoured the island, bringing cold, slate-grey rain, which hammered
against the window while Togura laboured to memorise Words of power and
command.

       
As the weather grew
colder, the sea dragons, having gorged themselves on pine needles, retreated to
a deep, dank dungeon to sleep. When Togura went down to have a look, he found
them all reciting poetry in their sleep. The wizard of Drum, told of this,
laughed:

       
"The pretentious
little brats are only shamming. When they're really asleep, they snore."

       
And, indeed, when Togura
went down a few days later to have another look, the dungeon was a sonorous
slother of snoring dragons. At first, they worke up every few days, and would
come stumbling up the stairs for meat and drink. They were no longer the
lively, argumentative creatures he had met at the end of summer; winter made
them slow, sluggish and dim-witted. As the days shortened, they woke no more,
but hibernated, while fleas bit them with impunity. The cats, which had fleas
of their own, kept to the fireside, also sleeping.

       
Between study sessions,
which increasingly bored him, Togura did a lot of sleeping himself. He also
cleaned and sharpened old blades he found about the castle, then practised
solitary swordplay in echoing halls and cloisters. The great outdoors, a
wasteland of rock, wind and tumbled sea, held no attraction for him.

       
Togura, as befitted his
student status, did the cooking. They lived on salt beef, pickled octopus,
boiled abalone, fried turnip, pig weed, sea anemone soup, garlic, onions and a
noxious substance which Hostaja named siege dust. After meals, Hostaja would
smoke a little opium, pick his nose with a golden spoon, sandpaper his false
teet - which were made of metal - or fall asleep in his chair to dream of
whatever it is that old men dream of.

       
Hostaja also spent a
great deal of time closeted in a private room which was secured against
intrusion by a green door which was locked and bolted. He claimed that he spent
the time meditating, though Togura had no way to verify this; his teacher still
found plenty of time to scold Togura for his lackadasical attitude to his
studies, and to exhort him to greater efforts.

      
 
Toward the end of winter,
when the winds were quiet for once, and the dragons still deep in hibernation,
the wizard of Drum flew to Sung to confer with Brother Troop. Togura
desperately wanted to go with him - to go to Sung, and stay there - but did not
dare ask for the privilege. Hostaja, having spent so much time and effort on
Togura's education, would be enraged if his hero reneged just because he was
homesick. The time to back out would be later, when he got to Estar; if he was
ever questioned, he could always say that Johan Meryl Comedo, prince of Estar,
had refused him access to Castle Vaunting - it would be most unlikely that
anyone would check.

       
Before going away, the
wizard of Drum warned Togura that he was not to open the green door into the
wizard's private room.

       
"Understand?"
said Hostaja. "You will not, may not, must not open that door. No matter
what! Not even if the door smokes, screams, or dances a split polka."

       
"Is it likely to do
that?" asked Togura anxiously.

  
     
"With that
door," said Hostaja, grimly, "anything can happen."

       
Then he levitated his
ship of sticks, and flew away to Sung. He expected to be gone three days, but a
storm broke out, and he did not return for thirty. On his return, he seemed disappointed
to find that the green door had not been tampered with.

       
"Why didn't you
open the door, boy?"

       
"You told me not
to!"

       
"Since when did the
words of the old carry weight with the young?"

       
"I've adventures
enough ahead of me without seeking them here. Who cares what's behind the green
door? It might be something which wants to eat me!"

       
"So it might, boy,
so it might," said Hostaja, sounding troubled. "But where's your
spirit? You're a bit of a disappointment to me, boy."

       
"I've killed a
monster," said Togura. "I've matched my skills against Zenjingu
fighters. I've fought against the Warguild. I've started a revolution. I've survived
the treachery of pirate. I've ridden a sea serpent - you don't believe me, but
I swear it. Now if that doesn't make me a hero, what does?"

       
The wizard of Drum shook
his head.

       
"Boy," he
said, "you've had your accidents and you've scraped your way out of them,
but I've got my doubts about you all the same."

 
      
Now
Togura understood. The green door had been a test, and he had failed. He felt
crushed. But the news from Sung helped revive his spirits. The wizard of Drum,
a seasoned negotiator, had extracted formidable concessions from the
Wordsmiths. Togura Poulaan was appointed to the rank of wordmaster, with
seniority backdated one year; when he brought the index to Keep, he would be
guaranteed eleven percent of the return from the odex, plus a minimum payment
of one hundred crowns; the Wordsmiths would persuade, bribe or coerce Cromarty
into withdrawing the reward he had offered for Togura's head.

       
"With all that on
offer," said Hostaja, "I hope you start to take your responsibilities
seriously. Study hard. We don't have much time."

       
Togura did study hard,
and found that they didn't have much time. Soon winter was at an end, and they
were on their way to the east in the wizard's flying ship. The journey was a
nightmare; the ship thrashed about in the air turbulence, plummeted, dropped,
spun, twisted, raced and decelerated, making Togura sick, dizzy and terrified.
He was thoroughly glad when they grounded in a clearing in Looming Forest,
somewhere east of Lorp and north of Estar.

       
As the wizard had
already explained, he had no wish to fly any closer to Lorford because of the
danger posed by the dragon Zenphos, which lived in Estar in a cave in the
mountain of Maf.

       
"Are you sure you
know where you go from here?" said Hostaja.

       
"I go east,"
said Togura, "and pick up the Hollern River, which flows south. I follow
it south. Just before it reaches Lorford, it turns west. I'll know when I get
to Lorford because there'll be a bridge, a town and a castle on a hill."

       
"Right."

       
"I've had a
thought," said Togura. "Why don't I walk south? Then I could pick up
the Hollern River as it flows toward the Central Ocean, and follow it upstream,
toward the east, and get to Lorford that way."

       
"You could,"
said Hostaja, "but it wouldn't be wise. In Lorford, they're used to people
coming down the Hollern River. It's part of the Salt Road, after all. But
soemone coming out of the west, from the sea, is a different proposition
altogether. They might take you for a pirate scout, which would be unfortunate,
to say the least. Yours wouldn't be the first head to decorate Prince Comedo's
walls.