Page 5 (1/2)

Back at Darmo House

Man, was I full All that food I&039;d lost count of my seconds, thirds, and fourths and had to loosenfor some hours yet No way could I take a deep breath now If Filiet Monty Python one rather well, considering that when it came to the Hell-river we had wildly opposite views She was positive I could help her, and I was positive I couldn&039;t, not unless she caive to Terrin And , she&039;d e and hadn&039;t onceat ed and said it was a "retiring place" What the hell did that mean? Was it an upper-class toilet?

Heh No way

Just because I&039;ic doesn&039;t mean I can&039;t sense it That curtain-shrouded question h to make ic I&039;d detected since we got here I&039;d have to tell Terrin He&039;d be all over it like a cheap suit

"Le to Filiht a couple weeks back this Hell-river just appeared?"

"Yes"

"And no one can say what it is or where it comes from?"

"You know that to be true"

"Pretend I don&039;t know anything" Which ay too right "So happened to cause its appearance here Rivers don&039;t change course without a reason, even the metaphysical kind"

"Yes, we&039;re all aware of that Those of us who can see it have discussed nothing else"

"The &039;those&039; being a few people in high society Why is that? What makes them different froh-born and wealthy, I suppose"

That couldn&039;t be it She ealthy, but in o into oochie-coochie dancing for a living I didn&039;t ic?"

"Not everyone Just those with Talent, and not many of them"

"None of the townspeople have any Talent?"

"Of course some of them did, but they&039;re not around anymore"

"Hah?"

"When the river appeared they left"

"Where&039;d they go?"

She looked unhappy "No one knows"

Uh-huh "Someone must They had relatives and friends, maybe a nice little job where they&039;d be missed"

"They didn&039;t leave in that sense They just weren&039;t around any ood Maybe the river had sucked them in The way it crept up the outside wall of the inn like a h I realized now it probably hadn&039;t sensed uy was atwenty-four/seven to anyone or anything geared to pick up his kind of signals "That&039;s pretty serious," I said "Didn&039;t you try to find them?"

"Once orked out what had happened, Overduke Anton had investigators running all over town looking for theh they&039;d all been forgotten by all their friends"

"If they&039;d been forgotten, then how did you know they were ?"

"Those of us with Talent who remained remembered them"

Oh

"But it took us days to work that ust, whether for her slowness or that of her friends was hard to judge

"And nobody&039;s upset about it? Like this overduke?"

"Of course he&039;s upset, we all are, but he can&039;t draw a lot of attention to it or thereto be a panic, it&039;d have happened by now Maybe you should have a panic, a real big one It ht stir up an answer" I could use a few of those "The Hell-river appears, a few practitioners in the upper classes can see it, but the rest of the town folk don&039;t, and all the ic-types down there vanish, only no one else notices or ed

"Aside froo?"

Behind lance at hiue and it wasn&039;t an after-dinner ly

Fili, too

I turned back to her She had the same look as Shankey "Yeah, lady?"

"I don&039;t see how it could be connected" she began Her trailing off gave me to think otherwise

"Hohat could be connected?"

"Well, it was about the time my husband died that the river appeared"

I sensed ic?"

"Actually, yes He did Yes"

"And no one&039;s put together that there ht be a connection between the two?"

She lifted her chin, frowning a lot She was still gorgeous "I have But I don&039;t knohat it could be You do"

Gawd, she was still playing that tune I&039;d have to do soave a deprecating shrug "Maybe so If I do, I&039; to need your help"

"What sort of help?"

"The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but Accept no substitutes"

The frown turned into a scowl An adorable one

I gave a bigger shrug "It&039;s not really a lot to ask Wouldn&039;t you want the sa faces and nodded

"Okay, then it&039;s cards on the table time, Lady Filima First: How did you know to find me?"

She shook her head, plump lips sealed shut A quick thinker but with a really bad stubborn streak

I kept a patient I-don&039;t-care kind of tone "If you wantIt&039;s in the rules"

"What rules?"

"Myhr&039;s Rules for Magical Investigation 101 You talk or I walk"

Shankey shifted again, e, but neither of us needed to worry about as faster at the fifty-yard door dash Filih She sounded like she meant it

"Very well, I&039;ll show you"

It took some effort for me to lever myself andplace" Man, what a lunch I hoped there was a bed in the pavilion so I could take a nap Filih to allow us to slip inside, then let it fall into place again

Drat No bed, just a sile candle on a sturdy floor stand It was very dark and stuffy with the srant brand, either Flat on the table was a scrying mirror similar to the ones Terrin and I sold at his Dallas shop: round, about a foot across with a highly polished black surface Terrin worked the things all the ti-screen TV with a remote and cable

"You knohat this is?" she asked

"Sure, I&039;ve seen &039;em before That&039;s how you found me?"

She nodded, solemn

"Cool that you can use one of those; not many people have the knack"

"It&039;s difficult, but not i forthat would help against the Hell-river"

"And it pickednear the bell tower and sent Captain Shankey to find and bring you here"

Oh, lucky, luckylottery nuic never lies I know that for a fact"

Boy, did she have a lot to learn Like the river, her raphically focused where she could find him A literal interpretation to her request I&039;d just walked onto the stage at the wrong ht uffaws from a bemused audience A quick exit would be the wise course, but I hadn&039;t heard Shankey or his pal Debreban et past either of them without a fuss Besides, I was still too full of lunch for feats of derring-do Hanging around here didn&039;t appeal since I wasn&039;t eager to get involved with this Hell-river stuff Not without pay She&039;d still not mentioned money yet Wizards don&039;t work for free, especially Terrin

On the other hand, Fili I could also understand why she was hanging on s and posh airs, she was scared Really, really scared "Just what is your stake in this?" I asked

"Stake?"

"Why&039;s it so iet out of it?"

She blinked "I don&039;t get anything I just want the Hell-river sent back to wherever it came fro all the townthe pants off tourists like ht now that&039;s especially threatening?"

That one netted me another scowl It was still adorable, but I&039;d touched a nerve "It&039;s come to a place where it shouldn&039;t be! That&039;s s so seriously out of balance without consequences"

I had the feeling she and Terrin would get along just fine He was really big about cause-and-effect stuff in ic

"If we don&039;t find a way to put the river back I&039; truly dreadful will happen," she continued, voice rising

Talk about a stress case, she needed cal for a couple of weeks and no harht be able to sniff them out; he could find other Talents als won&039;t be as bad as - "

"Don&039;t you see?"

"Not very well, no" It was pretty diets a little bit bigger"