Guardians Of The Flame - The Sleeping Dragon Part 16

Walter Slovotsky suppressed a chuckle at Andrea's bubbly enthusiasm as she led the group down a broad street toward the Inn of Quiet Repose.

"You should see it," she said, hurrying them along. "And I got a fine deal for the suitea"it's going to cost us just one hundred gold for the next ten days."

A hundred gold? By local prices, that wasn't much at all. Walter shrugged. Either she had landed them in some horrid hovel, or her Charm spell had been awfully effective.

Apparently, Ahira had the same idea. "If you charmed whoever's running it, won'ta""

"Nope." She took a smug, prancing step, "The owner has an amulet around his neck, one he thinks wards that kind of spell away." She spread her hands. "But it doesn't have any kind of aura at alla"either it's dead, or it's a phony. But here we are."

The inn was a three-storied edifice, a marble mansion like a stone version of something out of Gone with the Wind. Tall fluted pillars guarded the broad staircase, the foyer was a vast, soundless room, with deep, blood-red carpets that seemed to suck the weariness out of Walter's legs. He smiled as he tilted his head back to enjoy the mural that spanned the high ceiling: chubby nymphs chasing unicorns through a green glade.

He started to lower his pack to the floor, but six young women in filmy white kimonos descended on them, relieving them all of their burdens as others arrived bearing silver trays laden with steaming cloths to bathe their hands, feet, and faces, and yet others carrying thick towels to pat them dry, and tall, frosty gla.s.ses of ice and wine.

And all this when they were barely inside the door. Walter nodded. I think I'm going to like this.

And then, for a moment, he had his doubts. A huge man, yards of yellow silk caftan barely containing his oversize belly, stepped from behind a curtain. "Well, it seems as though you were correct, my little friend." He scowled down at Andrea, easily half again her height. Walter tried to guess his weight, three-fifty, four hundred perhaps? "I wouldn't have believed that there was so scruffy a group ifa"but never mind, pay no attention, Tommallo is but ranting, again And these are guests, their way has been paia"" He stopped himself, rubbing a finger against his almost impossibly aquiline nose, then shook his head. "My guests: Will you go to your suite now, or would you care to dine first?"

Ahira spoke up. "Is there a batha""

"You insult me!" The owner stood back, his hands on his hips. "This, my dear sir, is the Inn of Quiet Repose. Nowhere, I say, nowhere in glorious Pandathaway will you find an establishment so well kept, so replete with every facility necessary to provide a guest ease or comfort. Every comfort."

Walter looked the nearest of the serving girls up and down. Quite a difference from the ugly, unbathed serving girls of Lundeyll. Then he glanced at Karl. On the other hand maybe the stupid swordsman would give him trouble over thata"couldn't he see that there was a difference between here and home? When in Pandathaway...

The owner was still talking. "...you will even discovera"perhaps I should save this? No, noa"you will find that your suite's bath is complete with running water, requiring only the merest turn of a valve for its use." He stamped his bare foot soundlessly on the carpet. "And you will find your rooms to be quiet, your sleep will be deep and sound and filled only with light, pleasant dreams. Our table is the finest, with fooda"" He smacked himself on the forehead. "But I forget my manners! I am Tommallo, your host for the next ten daysa"and at an unusually low fee." Again, his forehead wrinkled, as though he were trying to figure out why he had agreed to such a relatively small charge. He glanced at Andrea and Aristobulus, in their gray robes. "It's as thougha"but no," he murmured. "I've a token to ward that away. But perhaps its potency has fled? No, no, pay attention, Tommallo, for you have guests, and yet to find out what their pleasure is, you old fool. Letting your mouth run free whena""

Ahira held up a hand. "I'm for the bath, first. I suppose everybody else is, too."

"Not me." Those were the first words out of Karl since they'd left the sewage pit. The stupida"but never mind I've got to help Jimmy contain the damage. Not sure what kind of police force they have here, not reallya"but whatever kind they have is going to be looking for Kari And they'll be b.l.o.o.d.y unlikely to overlook his accomplices.

"I managed," Karl went on, "to get myself cleaned up earlier. Right now, I could use some food. Anyone else?"

Well, that might have been true for Karl, but Walter hadn't been cleansed by firea"and had no desire whatsoever to try it out. He scratched at his arm, the itching from lack of bathing had subsided into a dull background of irritation, but now there wasn't anything he wanted more than a bath.

Except survival. And that means I'd better keep an eye on Mr. Cullinane. "I need some food, too." Walter patted at his stomach. "Been a long lime since breakfast. Tommallo?"

"Yes?" The innkeeper beamed at him. "Snacksa"I have a fresh, pungent beetlepastea"or would you prefer something more substantial?"

"Beef?"

"Ah... the cooks have a wonderful roast in the pit Hindleg of a virgin heifer, marinated in wine and herbs for a week, then cooked in a vat witha""

"Enough." Aristobulus held up a hand. "Let us get to it, shall we7"

Andrea nodded, as did Doria.

Ahira shook his head. "The rest of you go alonga"I'll head up to our suite, and get myself a bath and a nap."

Tommallo snapped his fingers. A buxom blonde led the dwarf away. "And for the rest of youa"would you care to dine in the common room, ora""

Walter shook his head. "We need some privacy."

The innkeeper tilted his head, smiling knowingly. "Aha"and will you require an additional wench ora""

"We're fine the way we are."

Tommallo nodded, and conducted the five of them down a hallway, to a staircase, then up two flights to another hallway, and finally to a room at the corner of the building, two walls composed mainly of open windows and bead-curtained exits to the veranda outside. He bowed them in, waiting until everyone was seated on a bench at the ma.s.sive oak table before clapping his hands together. "Wine for my guests!" he commanded the air.

As though they had been waiting behind the curtains, three women stepped out, bottles in hand, along with heavily laden trays. Bowls and small sharp knives were set in front of them, along with serving dishes of b.u.t.tery corn, served on the cob with a tangy brown sauce, small fowla"squab, perhaps?a"the skin broiled to a perfect golden crispness, a purple paste that was somehow sour and hot and sweet, all at the same time, and delightfully so.

Tommallo bowed. "Enjoy yourselves, my guests. If you have any desire at all, you need merely snap your fingers, or when in your room, pull a bellrope." He left, but the servitors kept bringing platters of food, setting them down, and leaving.

Walter sampled a k.n.o.bby sheet of bread. The bulges turned out to be a cheesy orange filling. A strange combination of flavors, but a delightful one; he debated for a moment whether to reach for another helping or sample the steaming slices of beef and lamb or the silver tureen of leeks floating in a clear broth before deciding to take all three, and more of the bread.

There was no sound for minutes, except for the noises of chewing and frequent oohs and ahhs as all sampled the fare. Do we talk here ora"stupid!

"Everybody," he said in English, "no Erendraa"just keep the talk in English, understood?"

Aristobulus shook his head. "No," he said around a mouthful of fowl, "I don't understanda"we've got nothing to hide."

"We do now." Walter jerked his thumb at Karl, who was silently chewing on an ear of corn, careless of the way the sauce was dripping on the tabletop. "Genius, here, decided to ruin the city's sewage system." He looked over at Andrea. "And besides, we don't want the staff here to overhear how we got the cut-rate price on the lodgings, do we?"

Andrea shook her head. "I wouldn't worry about it. As I said, Tommallo isn't the sort to talk things over with his employees, anda""

"Not employees," Karl growled. "Let's at least keep it honest."

"They are so employees, stupid. Slephmelrad, to be precise,"

Slephmelrad. Fealty servants. Walter shrugged. It had taken a while to get used to the way that oddities of the Erendra language awakened knowledge that he hadn't known he'd had, but it had become a frequent phenomenon. And, come to think of it, when I get some spare time it'd be worthwhile to ran through every Erendra word I know, and try to integrate all that.

"Oh." Karl shrugged, smiling awkwardly at a slender girl who looked to be about thirteen; she deposited another clay bottle of wine on the table before leaving. "Just women?"

"No." Andrea smiled broadly, "Male servants, too. And one of thema""

"Enough." Walter rubbed at his temples. Granted, the two of them had had a good time together aboard the Ganness' Pride, but it hadn't been that good. And the way she rubbed Karl's nose in her right toa"something had to be done about that.

You're a fine one to talk, Walter Slovotsky. You've never made any pretense with Doria that she was your one-and-only. "We'll talk about it later." Then again, that was different. For one thing, unless he was totally misreading Karl, and Andrea was a liar, those two had never gotten together. And, dammit, he didn't rub Doria's nose in it. Ever.

Complications... everything's got complications. And Jimmy was probably at the heart of one of the worst of them. Why hadn't he made a play for Doria? It was as clear as anything that the little guy wanted hera"and here, it might work. Or would that be some sort of perversion, come to think of it? What would you call it, huma.n.a.lity?

He shook his head. It'd probably take Jimmy a while to work things out. If he slept with Doria, was he, Ahira, being queer for humans? And if he made it with a female dwarf, was James Michaela"

The trouble with me is that, way down deep, I'm shallow. My best friend is finally in a situation where he can be a whole person, and all I worry about is whether that's a perversion of some sort.

And whether I have to sleep alone tonight. He caught Doria's eye, tilting and raising his chin in an unvoiced question. She glanced at Karl, then at Andrea, frowned, and nodded. Well, at least that's taken care of. That's the trouble with me, thougha"I'm just a slave to my hormones and digestive juices. He reached out and speared another slice of red, rare beef.

"Sewage system?" Aristobulus looked over. "You mean that little dragon?"

"How'd you hear about it?"

"I spent some time in the wizards' section of the Library, chatted with a few guild members taking a break from doing some research. Found out some... interesting things, between my reading and talking."

"Well?"

"Hmmm, I think I'll save it for later. There are some calculations I want to recheck. But for now... did you realize that this whole Guilds' Council thing is a sham?"

Karl frowned. "Wait a minute. Ia""

"You didn't spend the afternoon with some of the people who really run Pandathaway, Karl. It's the wizardsa"the rest are just window dressing. Which is why we don't have to worry about Toa"about our host's getting angry, even if he does find out what Andrea did." Aristobulus smiled smugly. "a.s.saulting any wizard is a capital crimea"ditto an authorized cleric, member of any of the five recognized sects. Including"a"he nodded to Doriaa""the Hand, by the way." The wizard frowned and shook his head. "I'd leave you all right now, if it wasn't..."

d.a.m.n me. I've got a mind like a sieve. Ever since he had learned about the Great Library, Walter had worried that Aristobulus might choose to leave the group in Pandathaway. He hadn't said anything; nothing could be done about it. If Aristobulus wanted to go, he could. "And why won't you?"

Aristobulus took a long swig of wine before answering, "It's the d.a.m.n spell books again." He drained the mug and slammed it down on the table. "I may be good, but I'm not a Wizards' Guild member."

"So?"

"So, if and when I apply for membership, I'll be better off having a set of books of my own. Otherwise, I've got to apprentice, of all things."

Walter chuckled, The notion of Aristobulus apprenticing to some other wizard was almost absurd. Ari was pretty far along as a wizard; it was unlikely that there were many others in Pandathaway as powerful as he was. But it was a certainty that there were plenty of wizards who could gang up on him and make him toe the line. "How long an apprenticeship?"

He scowled. "Until mya"get thisa"my master decides that I'm worthy." He shook his head. "And that's not the worst of it. All apprentices in the guild have to submit to being put under geas."

Now that was bad for Aristobulus, but good for the rest of them. A geas would rob him of his ability to disobey his master's orders. And it was unlikely that any master wizard would want to dispense with the services of someone with skills as developed as Ari's. Normally, the tradeoff between master and apprenticea"in any professiona"was that of training in the craft for doing all the trivial gruntwork. But Ari was capable of doing much more than preparing a potion under supervision; whatever guild wizard he'd be apprenticed to would quickly find his services indispensable.

But it was good for the group, at least. With a lifetime of apprenticeship to look forward to if he stayed in Pandathaway, Aristobulus was certain to stay with the group. At least until they reached the Gate, and Deighton. "You're a.s.suming that Doc'll furnish you with another spell book or two."

"Very good." The wizard popped a ball of deep-fried prawns and garlic into his mouth. "And then I'll come back here, apply to the guildmaster, and live off my earnings and the stipend guild members get, just like all the others." He chuckled. "Including the extra earnings from selling phony charms, like the one that Tommallo has. The foola"why would the wizards bother to sell him a real protection when he can't tell the difference?"

As Karl reached for his third helping of beef, the wizard c.o.c.ked his head. "I thought you're supposed to go light on food, before?"

"Before what?"

"The Games, stupida"the every-ten-days ones are tomorrow, aren't they? I thought that's whata"" Aristobulus wrinkled his brow. "You mean you didn't bother asking anyone about them? I thoughta""

Walter held up a hand. "We got distracted." And it's just as well that the Games are tomorrow, at that. The cops are going to be looking for Karl, Aristobulus is probably trying to figure out a way to swipe a set of books from a local, anda"

And the simple fact is that I'm scared. He rubbed a thumb against the spot where Lund's henchman had cut him. I know I won't stop being scared until we get home. But will it stop, even then?

He stood. Somehow, the food didn't taste so good anymore.

Rubbing at his hair with a thick flannel cloth that served as a towel, Ahira decided that Tommallo hadn't been bragging. Their suite in the Inn of Quiet Repose was broad and s.p.a.cious, oozing comfort from the deep crimson carpet that tickled his ankles, all the way to the chandeliers overhead, scores of candles burning almost smokelessly, dripping only a sweet fragrance into the common room. Beeswax, perhaps?

He sighed. And there was even half-decent plumbinga"superior, by local standards. Granted, the hot water for his bath had been taken, bucket by bucket, from a copper kettle, but at least it had been hot.

He dropped to the floor next to his weapons and stretched out on his back, pillowing his head on his hands, letting his eyes sag shut. With a bit of luck, he could catch a nap before the others returned from dinner.

And it was good to be alone, without having to worry about where the others were, what the others were doing....

The world slowly faded away into the warm twilight of oncoming sleep.

"Shh." Hakim's whisper boomed. "Don't wake him; he needs his rest."

Ahira opened his eyes. "Thanks for the thought, anyway."

As the others filed into the room, he shrugged, deciding against slipping away to one of the sleeping rooms. There was much to talk about; they had to figure out what the next move was.

Karl stretched out on a fur-covered couch and patted at his belly. "Sorry. Hey, you missed one h.e.l.l of a good meal, though. I don't think I'll be able to eat for hours. How was your bath?"

"Restful." Ahira forced himself to sit up. "Very restful. You all should try it, a bit later."

Doria sat beside him, hugging her knees. "Why not now? You go get some sleep. We've got a long day tomorrow, what with the Games and all."

"Tomorrow? Then never mind." He rubbed at his eyes. "All right, everyone, gather around. Let's get this over with."

Hakim sat down next to Doria, followed by Karl, then Aristobulus, then Andrea. Ahira could almost see bands of tension flowing between her and Karl; it was evident in the way he avoided looking at her, and in the curious little pursed-lips headshake that she would give every time she looked at him. Probably there was some intelligent thing to do, to get the two of them to agree to better than a coldly hostile coexistence.

Trouble is, I don't have a single idea what that intelligent thing to do is. Oh wella"what cannot be cured, must be endured. "I'll go first," he said. "I know where the Gate is; I've got it right here"a"he tapped a finger against his templea""and I'll sketch out a map sometime tomorrow. Somebody pull a pencil and some paper from their pack. I don't have any."

"I do." Andrea nodded. "But how far is it?"

"Looks to be a fairly long haul from herea"a month of traveling, easily."

Karl c.o.c.ked his head to one side, a faint smile playing across his lips. "And once we get to Bremen, it'll be tougher, maybe. Almost certainly."

"What do you mean?" Ahira hadn't mentioned Bremon; he hadn't said anything about it since they'd all met at the fountain.

Karl rubbed his hand across his face. "I... had a talk with a friend. He says there's a big mother of a dragon under the mountain, guarding the Gate. Sleeping."

"A friend?" Andrea snapped. "What sort of friend?"

Hakim raised a palm. "Best not to talk about ita"he's talking about the baby dragon that isa"that used to be a part of Pandathaway's sewage system. But it's best to keep quiet about it. We'd just better get ourselves together and get out of here. Could be the authorities are looking for us, even now."

Karl shook his head. "I don't think so. We were down in the slums. The folks who live there probably won't be eager to talk to the... cops. Even if they saw us."

Walter sneered. "You ever live in the slums, genius? Sometimes you have to talk to the cops, even when you don't want to."

Aristobulus nodded his agreement. "And when the sewage starts rising around their ankles? You know who's going to have to take care of it, and they won't like it. Not at all."

Ahira didn't know what they were talking about, but the fact that Karl knew about Bremona"apparently knew more about Bremen than he dida"was something that had to be explained. The best way, probably, would be to wait, to escape the worry of being overheard if they spoke in Erendra, or being labeled as strange if they talked in an unknown language like English. But too many precautions, too much paranoia, was in itself a chancy thing. "Just talk, Karl. Keep your voice low, by all means, but please tell me what the h.e.l.l you're talking about."

Karl nodded slowly. "Fine. They have a funny sort of sewer system here. It dumps out into a pit, where the sewage used to be flamed into ash by a dragon, a young one."

"Used to be?" Andrca arched an eyebrow. "I take it ita""

"Doesn't anymore." Karl smiled. "They had the dragon chained there. I didn't like that, so I set him loose. End of story." He shrugged. "Probably not a big deal; all they'll have to do is get some high-ranking wizards down there, every now and then, to Fire the slop into ash."

Ahira shook his head. The brainlessa" "How long ago?"

"An hour or so before we met at the fountain, Why?"