Myth-Fortunes

Chapter 26

I was so startled I took a step back into nothingness. My arms wheeled in wild circles as I tried to save myself. A strong hand clasped around my wrist and dragged me back onto the invisible framework.

"Watch it, kid," Aahz said, releasing me. He glared at the small courtier. "What in hell are you doing here?"

"Just as I was about to congratulate you on being saved from a sandy grave," Gurn said, with a wicked grin that did nothing for his distorted looks. "You nearly achieve it a second time."

"Get lost," Aahz said. "This is private property."

"All property in Aegis belongs to her majesty," Gurn said. "But by all means, send me away! I can go back to her majesty with the news that her precious pyramid is infested with a curse!"

Aahz and I looked at each other. It would be the end of Phase One, let alone Phase Two, if the Pharaoh withdrew her permission to build. We'd be sunk.

"How do you know that? I've been keeping an ear on the gossip, and no one's talking about it," Aahz said.

"No one but her majesty's esteemed wise man, he who

travels in the outer lands until he is needed—or so he says."

"Ch— Lord Wat-Is-Et would never tell you anything like that."

"Oh, it was not me he told, but the words came from his mouth," Gurn said. "You should pay closer attention to the discretion of your friends."

"One of which you aren't," Aahz said lazily. "You keep turning up like a bad coin."

"I go where I want to, in her majesty's name!" Gurn said. "Observing, for example, all of the accidents that have occurred on the site of what should be her most glorious monument."

"Causing all those accidents, I wouldn't be surprised," said Aahz.

"You fool! I have been preventing accidents!" Gurn shrieked.

He aimed his little finger at Phase One. I reached out to stop him, and found my hands encased in a crackling sphere of magik.

"Hold your fire until you know what I am doing, Klahd," he said. "Foolish heroics . . . idiotic waste of time. Use your mind's eye, if you call yourself a magician."

I peered down. Beltasar's people were moving a stone up a ramp. It had stopped dead, Gurn's doing. I watched the turquoise dot that was the chief Scarab fly around and around them, haranguing her USHEBTIs into getting it going again. I couldn't tell what she was saying at that distance, but the shrill tone was unmistakable.

Then, a red-shelled Scarab, whom I knew as Rayd, came flitting toward her from upslope. The two of them flew in a circle, shrieking to one another, then zipped toward a portion of the invisible ramp.

It was not only invisible, but nonexistent. Gurn sneered at me.

"Before you ask, Klahd, no. I didn't do that. The curse did it."

We watched as the Scarabs called for a site magician. A female in pleated robes came hustling up the slope, obviously called away from lunch, food still in her hand, to perform an emergency repair. She put down her meal and started drawing down power from the force lines in the sky. Once the foundation was filled in, Gurn waved his hand again. The Scarabs tugged the stone into motion. They got it safely up onto the fourth tier and settled it in place.

"That's a really good spell," I said admiringly.

Our little moment of camaraderie was at an end. Gurn glared. "Don't patronize me, Klahd!"

"I'm not," I said. "I am impressed. But why not tell people what you've been doing here to help?"

"Instead of turning up like a bad coin?" Gurn threw our words back at us. "Why? It's none of their business. Just as I do not tell her majesty all the things that go on here, such as playing around with the help ..."

Aahz scowled. "That's nobody's business, either."

"It has become everyone's business, thanks to your partner in mischief. You had to pick the one lady who talks," Gurn said, amused. "Or that one of her trusted ministers has another name? Cholmondley, is it?"

"Just Chumley," I said. "So what? Does it change what he is? His intelligence isn't fake. He's one of the smartest and wisest people I know."

"He is fortunate in his friends, but her majesty should be served with all truth. I could have you thrown in the deepest dungeons in the coldest and darkest part of Aegis!"

"Been there, done that," I said, with a yawn.

"This time you will not have Necrops to weave you warm underwear. To lie to her majesty is to insult the Ghords!"

"Gotcha there, pal," Aahz said, turning up on one elbow and grinning. "You're not telling her everything, either. You say she still doesn't know about the curse. That's withholding information. Or, as you insist on calling it, lying."

Gurn looked furious, as if he was about to throw his amazing stopping spell on Aahz.

"But why keep our secrets at all?" I asked, trying to defuse the situation. "You know the pyramid's cursed."

"Because her majesty sincerely wants this," Gurn said, with a sigh. "She is my life. I would do anything

not to put her nose out of joint." Once again, I was captivated by a memory of her face. Aahz, too. He must have known what we were thinking, and gave us a fierce look. "You call yourselves problem-solvers. You are accepting that fool Samwise's capital to do it, but you spend your time up here feeling sorry for yourselves. I would call you frauds."

"Hey!" Aahz said. "Taking a little time off to recharge is not fraud."

"It is if you are failing to earn your commission," Gurn said. "I lay a second charge upon you: break the spell. Now. Her majesty must be freed of the affliction that causes her to lose the royal lunch almost as soon as it is consumed. If you figure out a way to solve the problem, she need never know. Otherwise, I will see you and that idiotic Imp locked in that dungeon until you have use for this invisible pyramid stone you keep visiting. My patience is not infinite. You must solve this problem quickly, or I will see to it that you suffer every punishment. I give you one week."

"Don't you think we have been working on it?" Aahz demanded.

"Perhaps without a sufficient goad to your back. Here is mine. I can have you imprisoned and tortured if you don't succeed. And I will enjoy it."

"Do you know how to undo the bad luck?" I asked.

Gurn looked up at me. "Why should I help you? Perhaps Diksen will change his mind and construct a pyramid fit for her majesty instead of this commercial monstrosity."

"And maybe pigs will go into investment banking," Aahz said. "I'd give the same odds to each event. This is the only stone triangle she's going to get, and you know it."

"Do I?" Gurn asked, aiming a pugnacious chin at him.

"We all want this to work," I said, getting between them. "Okay, maybe for different reasons, but we want it to be a big success. On a theoretical basis, how would you lift a curse that the maker refuses to undo?"

"Why, get him involved in it," Gurn said, with an innocent look. "Use your imagination."

Before I could ask him more, he vanished.