Myth-Fortunes

Chapter 13

Now that Aahz and I had become known as people who paid for service and even left tips (Aahz's a little less generously than mine), we were customers to be sought after among the local transportation industry.

"Mister Skeeve!" cried Tritza, a Camel with rich sable hair and eyelashes three inches long. She sidled up to the pier and fluttered her eyelids at us. "Climb up, climb up. Beautiful day for a ride. Where are you going?"

"Not your turn for a fare, Tritza," snapped Mobor, a stout Camel whose fur was patchy brown and white. He cut in front of her and made it to my feet first. "It is for me to ask. Where would you like me to take you?" he demanded, turning his piebald snoot my way.

I couldn't decide between the two. They were both reliable, safe drivers, and hadn't tried to cheat me too badly on fares. Yet.

"You know you shouldn't take the first or second cab to offer itself," Aahz said dryly, as the beasts clamored for our attention.

"Why not?" I asked.

"Rules of Victorian detection," he said.

"What's a Victorian?" I asked.

"No fun, uncomfortable clothes, really awful food," he replied, and counted off among the Camels waiting for our attention. "Eeny meeny miney moe, catch a taxi by the . . . you guys have toes on those feet you don't want anyone to see? Forget it. Balu, you win." He beckoned over a young Camel. "You're reliable. You promise not to glyph while driving?"

"No, sir, no!" Balu exclaimed, then looked down guiltily at where his forepaws would be if they were visible above the sandline. "I will stop, sir. Climb aboard."

"Not fair!" complained Chibar, a tan Camel.

"He jumped the line!" Tritza protested.

"The end of the line is where he belongs," insisted Obrigadu, a jet black Camel.

Aahz and I paid no attention and clambered in between Balu's humps. The young Camel looked pleased with himself. He eased smoothly away from the jetty. The others crowded in, bumping him. He bucked as if someone pinched or kicked him underneath the surface of the sand. Aahz and I bounced.

"Hey!" I protested. The others looked shamefaced and moved a little farther away.

"Where do you wish to go?" Balu asked over his shoulder.

"Diksen's pavilion," I said.

Suddenly, the Camels stopped and stared. "You don't want to go there," Mobor said. "Why the hell not?" Aahz asked.

"He is merciless to intruders," Tritza said, her eyes wide. "How do you think Mobor lost most of his hair?"

"I told you, it is a bad haircut," the piebald Camel protested. "She is lying, sirs. But she is right about Diksen. He is a terrible Ghord."

"What about it, Balu?" Aahz asked. "Are you going to chicken out, or will you take us?"

The young Camel swallowed hard. "If you will protect me, I will take you. But it must cost extra, sirs. Hazard pay is required for certain destinations."

"Hazard pay—!" Aahz bellowed.

"I'll pay you double the usual fare," I cut in. "Can we go? I want to get there before business hours are over."

"Very well, sir," Balu said with a sigh. He paused. "One moment. I must glyph to my wife to tell her I love her, in case I do not come back."

"It can't be that bad," Aahz snapped. Balu said nothing, his forepaws busy beneath the sand. In a moment, he kicked out into the quicksands and set out due east across the desert. The other Camels bade him a mournful farewell.

I shrugged. "Maybe it could." We had met plenty of powerful magicians in our time, some of whom wanted to kill us, like The Ax (who became a close friend later on5), some of whom were actually insane, like Istvan, and some of whom just liked being the only ones in town with power.

As we cut across the expanse of desert, Samwise's low-rise project disappeared behind the sand dunes. In no time you wouldn't have been able to tell anything was there except for the tiny shapes of glyphs flying around and the magikal framework that thrust upward from the partially-finished pyramid. Ahead lay the gleaming white of Diksen's building. At sand level, it was awe-inspiring and beautiful, but from a magician's point of view, it was completely overshadowed by the much smaller shape hovering behind it, yards above the desert floor.

Yes, so a ball of water was ostentatious in an arid dimension, but it was truly impressive.

Aahz and I offered guesses on what kind of power structure he used to keep its shape, and whether he had problems with evaporation or not. I looked forward to friendly discussions with Diksen. I admired his imagination.

We were able to get within a dozen yards of the pyramid's base. The afternoon sun glared at us from the tilted white wall. I had to throw up a sheet of magik to keep us from being toasted from sheer reflected heat. Balu veered around the square foundation and made his way toward the glimmering office building, which looked just like a giant crystal ball.

I took a good look around. Samwise had been right. I saw no security measures, not even lines of force laid down to prevent intruders. Diksen clearly felt he had no reason to populate his remote fortress with the army of guards that Samwise employed. I felt a twinge of envy for the kind of reputation that could keep people away without what I considered the minimum of actual protection. I said as much to Aahz.

"Don't count him out yet, kid," Aahz said, peering even more critically at the two structures than I had. I felt a little annoyed, but I had nothing on Aahz when it came to functional suspicion. He'd saved me before by assuming the worst about other people. I hated to think that I was naive— but I had to be honest: in comparison with him I was naive. Still, I hardly ever found a problem with assuming the best about other people.

Diksen was so unconcerned about intruders that our Camel managed to glide directly underneath the wavering sphere.

"How do we get in?" I asked.

"It's water," Aahz said. "We'll swim."

Making it look good for Balu, Aahz held out his arms and pretended to be dredging power up from one of the force lines underneath the desert floor. I sat watching him, but I was the one who really internalized some of the available magik and lifted us straight off the Camel's back.

"Wait for us," Aahz called down to Balu. The Camel nodded nervously at us, and the sand in front of his chest began to roil. He was glyphing to his wife again.

"Blub!" I exclaimed, as my head plunged through the water barrier. Aahz grinned at me, bubbles filtering out between his teeth. I had not been paying attention, as he had, to how high we were rising. The outer shell of the sphere was more than eight feet deep. Once I was completely surrounded by water, I kicked with both my feet, desperate to reach air.

My lungs burned. My cheeks bulged as I struggled to hold in my half-breath. A solid rim that rested on the interior surface came into view. I swam to it, grabbed the edge, and pulled myself up. There, I lay there on my back, gasping in as much air as I could.

"Good afternoon," a young Ghordess said. She sat crosslegged on the floor, which I now observed ran in a broad ring all the way around the bottom level of the bubble of water. A fold of her linen skirt was stretched across her knees to create a level platform. On it lay a papyrus sheet inscribed with a dozen symbols. The feather pen in her hand was black with ink at the end, as if I had interrupted her in her work. "May I help you?"

"Hey, baby," Aahz said, with an ingratiating grin. "We'd like to see your boss."

She regarded him primly. "Do you have an appoint-ment?"

Once I had recovered from nearly drowning, I realized that she was a very pretty girl by Klahdish standards. She had a narrow face with large, dark eyes and high cheekbones. She wore the usual headdress, but I noted that there was a hole in the middle on top of her head to make room for three tall feathers like the one in her hand. The rest of her hair hung like long strands of black down. A couple of large, sand-colored cats sat on pedestals behind her and batted at the erect plumes. It seemed to annoy her, but she did not chase them away or even chastise them.

Even though there were no chairs, the rest of the office was modern, even more modern than Bunny's back at M.Y.T.H.,

Inc., headquarters. A computer, a philosophical device with which I had become familiar in Kobol, sat on a low table behind her. The three rows of keys were marked with hieroglyphs. Ornamented chests stood with their lids flung back to expose rolls of papyri with colored labels stuck to the uppermost edge. From where I sat I tried to read the glyphs on the labels, but I was too far away. A sharp glance from the secretary reminded me I was snooping. I gave her a grin.

"We're new in town," I explained. "Visiting magicians. This is Aahz, and my name is Skeeve. We thought it would be polite to drop in on Diksen and get to know him a little. We'll probably be around for a month or so."

She beamed at us. "That is good news!" she said. "He will welcome you with a full heart."

"See," Aahz said. "That's not what we heard."

"Oh, no, he enjoys conversation with other magikal practitioners."

One of the cats took a swipe that bent all three feathers over the girl's eyes. She raised a hand to straighten them, and the cat recoiled with a protesting mew.

"Oh, I am sorry!" she exclaimed, turning to bow to the animal. She put her hands together and closed her eyes, intoning a phrase I couldn't understand, but which sounded like the ancient Aegistian that some of the Ghords on site used to offer apologies to the ancestors.

"Why don't you just shoo them out?" I asked.

She gave me a look of outrage. "They're sacred cats! I can't do that. You can't tell them to stop. They must do whatever they are divinely inspired to do."

"She must just like being inconvenienced," Aahz said. "Beats working. How's your boss's schedule looking for now, sweetheart? Has he got a couple of minutes?"

"I will ascertain. It is not my employer's custom to be interrupted in the middle of the day, yet he would be pleased to become acquainted with you as brothers in the arts magikal, of that I am sure." She put aside the letter she was writing and picked up a scroll on the edge of the table near the computer. "Hmm," she said, unwinding it. "It would appear that he has finished his noonday meal and meditation. For the next hour he will be reading from ancient texts."

"How ancient?" Aahz asked. "Like a millennium ago, or last week?"

"Oh, very ancient," the girl assured him solemnly. "But it is a forgivable interruption under the circumstances, and the texts will become even more ancient in the waiting. It would be an honor to assist the three of you to meet. My employer will take great pleasure in your visit."

She raised her eyes to the heavens and put her hands out, palms up. "O great Diksen, he of the endless wisdom . . . " she chanted.

"Looks like Samwise was wrong," Aahz said to me. "He said Diksen wouldn't stop for visitors. The guy sounds reasonable to me."

"... Worker of wonders, son beloved of Maul-De and Omphalos, brother to—did you say Samwise?" the girl asked, halting her invocation.

"Yeah," Aahz said. "We're working with him on the big project across the way." He gestured vaguely toward the west. Through the wall of water the partially-finished building was a wavy blob.

The girl stood up, scattering the sacred cats and her manuscripts.

"I apologize deeply to you honored gentlemen, but I must ask you to leave."

"What about meeting Diksen?" I asked.

The girl's cheeks flushed. "He is not available. I am greatly sorry, but no one will be allowed in to see the magician."

"No one? How come?"

"No one," the girl said firmly. "No way, no how." She pointed toward the shimmering floor that we had

swum through. "Please go and do not return."

Aahz and I shrugged at one another. We weren't going to insist. As far as we could tell, everything was running smoothly in Diksen's domain. Aahz wasn't going to leave as though he had been chased away.

"I can tell when a guy's too busy," Aahz said. "Tell him if he can get over the snit, we'd still like to buy him a drink sometime. See you around, babe."

Now for a smooth exit.

As Aahz stepped off the edge of the office floor, I stretched out a small magical platform underneath his feet to lower him elegantly through the building's outer shell.

Just as I did so, something large flashed by in the water. It was too fast for me to pick out more than just its streamlined shape. I was so surprised that I was distracted from my spell. Aahz plunged in feet first. With an irritated look at me, he plummeted out of sight. The girl laughed musically. I blushed, hoping that Aahz couldn't hear her. "Excuse me," I sputtered.

The girl kept laughing as I dove in to follow my partner.