The Quest of Kadji
- Автор: Картер Лин Спрэг
- Серия: Chronicles of Kylix #1
- Год: 1973
- Язык: английский
- Год: Five Star Paperback
- Жанр: Научная фантастика
Электронная книга - «The Quest of Kadji». Краткое содержание книги:
At any rate, Kadji did not intend to ride into the jaws of the wolf in order to ascertain his mood. Forewarned was forearmed, as the saying had it. He would take refuge elsewhere, but there was no reason the old Easterling wizard should any longer be involved in his troubles, and it might well prove dangerous to the old man should he be. So he suggested they part company here.
Akthoob was not happy at the thought. He pointed out that the anger of Cyril, Jashpode might well be aimed at himself as well as Kadji, since his clumsiness had been the cause of the trouble. The Nomad youth could see the sense of the argument. They debated as to a possible course of action.
Since Shamad had perhaps already fled from Khôr, according to Kadji’s theory, the boy no longer had any reason to linger in the troubled city. And to remain in Khôr might be to involve him in the civil war and the coming siege: he was anxious to be gone and on the road in pursuit of his wily and cunning quarry. Akthoob, too, had no wish to endure the miseries of the siege or the vengeance of the kugar bully, and would prefer to leave the dust of Khôr behind him. So they resolved to ride without further delay directly to the little unused postern gate whereof Kadji had spoken; if possible, they might discover that Shamad had, in truth, left the city by that means; at worst, they could leave the city themselves by that Ill-guarded way. Under the lowering sky of afternoon they crossed the city by means of alleys and side-streets and drew up before the postern where two sleepy kugar mercenaries, wrapped in fleece-lined cloaks, huddled about a small iron cauldron of smouldering coals.
“Permit this lowly person to do the talking,” Akthoob hissed, and Kadji nodded and remained in the saddle while the little Easterling dismounted and walked over to the guards, plucking something from a pocket of his robes, perhaps a coin to bribe their passage.
Kadji watched with narrow, alert eyes as the little old man ambled over to the surly guards, nodding and bowing in his timid, self-effacing way, while all the time a flow of courteous speech poured from his lips. The thing he had drawn front the concealed pocket was a gem, a luminous and twinkling crystal, and as he babbled on, the wizard turned the crystal between his fingers In an absentminded way, as if through nervous habit.
To the guards, the jewel was a potential bribe, and one of princely value, and they eyed it with greedy interest, not noticing that as Akthoob turned it and played with it, the gem became alive with glittering lights that played in a bewildering and mesmerizing fashion over their faces. Amber and coral and rose, azure and palest yellow and opal blue the twinkling lights of the sorcerous gem played across their stolid, unshaven, loutish features. And all the while their greedy little pig-eyes followed the shimmering lights of the moving gem while Akthoob talked on and on in a low murmurous voice.
At length the moving play of colored lights held them bedazzled. It was as if their minds were asleep while their bodies remained awake. One even let go of his heavy spear which fell to the frost-crusted cobbles with a clang and aclatter that Kadji thought was enough to wake the dead—but the two guards did not even seem to hear the noise. They listened sleepily to the low singsong voice of the little wizard and, after a time, began to answer his interrogations in dull grunting tones, too low for the young warrior to hear.
Finally Akthoob turned away from them, opening the postern gate and then returning to his mare. The flashing jewel he carefully stowed away in his voluminous garments.
“It worked, I gather?” Kadji grinned.
Akthoob nodded in bland satisfaction. “The mind jewel seldom fails. Yonder kugars tell that just before dawn two men bribed their way through this same gate with much gold—”
“Two men? Did they describe them?”
“Unfortunately, they could not see their features, for they were robed and cowled in black garments like priests. But one of the men was hulking and brutish, like a great ape, and the other, who conducted the bribery, had smooth white hands, strong and fair and well-kept, like a princely lord. The guards say the two rode east inconsiderable haste.”
“Then I am right! I must be right—it could be none other than Shamad and Zamnog, his reptilian slave!”
The old Easterlluig shrugged. “Doubtless the young sir was correct in his assumptions. However, the guards also state that one other person used this gate, and that but recently, scarce an hour ago.”
“Could they describe him, at least?”
“Alas, it was not a him; it was a young woman,” replied Akthoob.
Kadji gasped, and swore feelingly.
“A young girl—my own age—a flamehaired girl with smoky amber eyes?”.
“I cannot say. She, too, went heavily robed against the cold wind; my two friends yonder could not describe her appearance, save that her saddle was silver-mounted, and her robes of expensive fur.”
It is that girl again—Thyra—the girl we glimpsed looking at the corpse at the foot of the throne—it must be her!” Kadji growled. “At every twist and turn of the way, I encounter this girl! She is a puzzle, aye, a great puzzle …”
“They say she rode alone, but that there was a great dog with her, like a tame wolf,” offered the little wizard.
Kadji grinned. “Aye, the grey plains-wolf, her pet. Then it is the girl Thyra! But why should she have left the city? Could she be in pursuit of Shamad as well as we?”
“I know not the answer to these riddles, young Kadji, but if this lowly person may suggest haste … yon two guards remain ‘mazed and bewildered by the art of the mind crystal, and I have opened the gates for our passage. We should be on our way, for the power of the jewel will not hold them in the magic slumber for very much longer.”
And so Kadji, accompanied by the little Easterling wizard, rode forth from imperial Khôr on a bleak wintry late afternoon, and turned east on the tracks of Shamad the Impostor.
The boy thought that with luck they might catch up to the fleeing traitor ere nightfall, for the Impostor could have no suspicions that he was being followed.
Kadji was determined to ride as far as was needful, however.
He did not dream how far his journey would take him in truth. Had he somehow known, he might well have turned back. As it was he rode on into the gathering shadows, following the triple trail of tracks across the snowy ground … east and ever east they led, and the Red Hawk and the little wizard followed ever after.
iii. Flaming Eyes
WHEN IT became too dark to any longer follow the trail, Kadji was forced to· halt, to make camp amidst the frozen plains, and to wait for.day.
Because they had so swiftly left the city to avoid the vengeance of the kugar Jashpode, they had with them neither those of their belongings which had been left behind in the inn nor any provisions whatever. But Akthoob had cleverly “borrowed” the winesack wherewith the two guards of the postern, gate had been driving off the chill, together with a few wheaten cakes one of the guards had been munching. So it was not entirely on empty bellies that the two travelers went to sleep that night, wrapped in their saddleblankets and curled about a small fire.
WHEN THEY woke to the first light, of dawn, Kadji cursed with great feeling. For soft fat flakes of white snow were falling and, from the thick white blanket that covered the ground, had obviously been falling for an hour or two. Thus the slight track left by Shamad in his flight was now hopelessly obscured.