Page 7 (1/2)

Back at Darenerator After all the standing and playing fly on the wall in Filima&039;s blue roo I could tell by the way he buffed the floor with his boots Watching people pace makes me dizzy I blinked out of the hypnotic pattern "If this Lord Cad out Captain Shankey" He paused to look at a painting, a portrait of a Darmo ancestor, perhaps Couldn&039;t say much for the artist&039;s skill or the subject&039;s taste in clothes Maybe that&039;s why it was hanging in a drafty hall

"You do that a lot? Helping Shankey?"

"First time, actually"

"Why now? Is it me?"

"Not that I know of My lord Cadmus wantedto do with you" He started up and down the hall again, but his rhyth pages, who caave it over to Debreban, who thanked hiht the colors made my eyes hurt; in the shady indoors they weren&039;t so bad

"I gotta ask" I began when the page was gone

"Ask what?" He carefully adjusted the hang of the cloak It looked a little threadbare around the hem

"Is Lady Fili why you wanted to be incognito"

He frowned "It&039;s ht of these colors can put her in a bad mood, so it seemed best not to distract her with them"

"Oh, yeah?"

"Well, it&039;s no secret that he adive hiht see what a fine man he is, but she&039;s not interested in hi for a woman&039;s taste, but if a lady says no, it&039;s the s to listen"

"More&039;s the pity They&039;dabout it today" An idea visibly appeared on his face "Mr Myhr, with you being a wizard and all"

Uh-oh

"perhaps you can help us out in thisLady Filis you know you ood love spell or potion or char"

I shook my head "Listen, if I knew of one that worked I wouldn&039;t have to sing for my supper at Clem&039;s inn I&039;d have that money-machine patented in one minute, on the street in two, and retire a zillionaire about an hour later Everyone wants love But you can&039;t get it that way Sorry"

The poor guy looked pretty disappointed "Don&039;t you have anything that ether? He already likes her a lot; it would only have to work on her"

"Nope If they&039;re supposed to fall in love it&039;ll happen if and when it happens Trying to bend the will of one person to oes on often enough without using ic It never turns out well"

"Even if it would be for that person&039;s own best good?"

"Le up, howthis for your own good&039;?"

He shuddered "Too many"

"Hoould you feel if you heard it now?"

"I see your point, but this is different It really would be doing theet a dozen a day exactly like hiic shop, twice as uys They all see that he was their soul ht then and there They didn&039;t want to hear their symptoms were hormones, not destiny A feas able to persuade to sense, but ht they were the exception to the rule I&039;d sell the really stubborn ones neutralized love charo, happy

Then there were the new Talents, ic, which hat drew the into it because it was cool, it would freak their parents, or they&039;d watched The Craft one too many times and wanted the power trip

They&039;d read - ic and decide they were ready to alter the whole Multiverse according to their desires I was grateful about the Multiverse being mostly tolerant toward such neos until they learned better, but had seen a few h You&039;ve heard the stories, soet it via an insurance co or trashed car Or a gal throwing a love spell on so up with an obsessed stalker or an emotional leech Or both

You do have to be careful about what you wish for; it&039;s true, true, true, true, true, true, true, true

"Nope," I said again to Debreban "Let nature take its course Trust me on this, it&039;s a lot safer" I went to look at the brass inscription of the portrait painting Good grief It was the late husband hi out in the house boonies this soon after his demise? Maybe Fili down froood taste in art This depiction of his kisser was on the gloo familiar about him in a creep-out sort of way

Shankey came back just then "I don&039;t believe this," he announced "Overduke Anton sent that whole lot over here to invite him" - he jerked a thumb at me - "to the palace"

"I alanted to play the Palace," I said brightly They gave ive the it "Is there a proble sound "Lord Perdle must have told him I kneould But ould he want to see hi to see me or Perdle?" I knehat heto ed out of it

"He means Lord Anton wants to see you," Shankey answered

"So this is a bad thing? Why would he want to see ruets better with every passing day"

"I better tell ht prefer you to avoid the invitation for now"

"She&039;s got so new friends?"

"It&039;s not that, but if you goside trips to Lord Anton&039;s palace you won&039;t be able to do what you need to do and get back here in time for the sunset curfew"

Yeah, and ht, if that was all there was to it I came up with my own reservations, as well This Lord Anton was also intothe saand dance with hi a side trip to h, and anyway, I was still full from lunch

"Okay, you won me over," I said "You didn&039;t tell them I was still here, did you?"

"No, but they&039;re certain you&039;re inside"

"Is this going to cause Filima any trouble?"

"I don&039;t think so They all seeh, just another errand for their lord"

"If this is all so friendly, then why send so many men after little ol&039; me?"

"Good point They wouldn&039;t say Maybe it&039;s an honor guard"

Yeah, sure "Well, they can&039;t &039;invite&039; et back to the inn Is there a back door out of this pile?"

"They&039;ll have it covered I would"

"What about the secret passage?"

Shankey&039;s eyes widened "How&039;d you know about that?"

"I read a lot" Places like this always cae in your clan house, too?"

He went stone-faced "I&039;ht so Let&039;s use it to get ain Filima can take me around to visit this Anton dude later when it&039;s more convenient for everyone"

"That&039;s duke Overduke Anton," corrected Shankey "And I can&039;t take just anyone through the secret passage"

"Or it won&039;t be a secret anymore, yeah, yeah, I&039;ve heard that one, but it&039;s only the three of us Unless these ators flushed down the drain in centuries past - "

"There&039;s no such things there!"

"Then let&039;s getIf you&039;re worried about security, just reood friend, and I&039;one before too long, never to return"

"Maybe I should blindfold you"

Debreban cao I don&039;t want theruave in, and led off back into the house "Why are you so against Lord Anton?"

"I&039;uard for House Burkus was here, and she&039;ll ask you, and it&039;ll get back to ht not be pleased that you and I got to talking"

"He wants to keep things simple," I translated

"Should have said so in the first place" Shankey shook his head

We returned to the door leading to the basement facilities, but struck off in a different direction once downstairs No s, just a lot of dark, but a couple of lanterns stood ready on a table, along with candles and a tinderbox Shankey struck soot a lantern, I didn&039;t, but that was fine with ed ahead through dusty storage areas, threading past old furniture, trunks, and what looked to be party decorations Compared to the stuffy interior of the pavilion it was positively cheerful

But the creeps began to sneak up on an e left the flotsam and jetsam of the household and entered a real tunnel About five or six feet wide, seven feet high with an arched ceiling carved, apparently, out of solid rock, its rough, dust-coated floor slanted down at a gentle slope Everything was dead quiet except for the noise weI couldn&039;t see the end of it; the lantern light didn&039;t reach that far Facing the overduke&039;s honor guard seeht now

The air was dank at first, then got drier

"We walking away from the river?" I asked

"River?" Shankey said, alarmed

"The Ru away froh a river, you know"

Or even a river I didn&039;t know "Where does this one corounds"

"Must be sorounds"

"They are, but the stables have to be a distance from the house ith the sree with that If I didn&039;t keep myself squeaky clean all the time flies tended to buzza piece of spinach stuck in your teeth was a social eht hundred feet long," Shankey added "Seereed "Who built it and why?"

"About two centuries ago one of the Dar across to the stables in winter was a pain in the ass, so he started digging Legend has it he began with a teaspoon, but I don&039;t believe that because those kind of spoons hadn&039;t been invented back then Cook told me so She collects them"

"She collects teaspoons?"

"Yeah Has them all over her room in little display cases"

"Really?"

"Yeah, nice ones with glass covers They&039;re on the walls like paintings"

Debreban didn&039;t seem the type to have much interest in the history of household utensils but it was sos The farther ent down the tunnel the more the darkness piled up behind Maybe this worked forin their wake, but not for ht than just two tiny little flaiven importune instant

"Shankey?" said Debreban

"Yeah?"

"Just how is it you knohat the cook&039;s room looks like?"

"Debreban?"

"Yeah?"

"Shut the hell up"

Debreban snickered I felt a half-hearted grin coo on my face We neededthem was usually my job; it was first nature to me, but I just couldn&039;t work into the mood All the hilarious stuff I&039;d ever heard or invented wasn&039;t the least bit hilarious down here The only thing that kept popping into my head was so funny in the h; ht would mean ere in open air and free of this pit

I&039;d been in dark, tight places before; this one shouldn&039;t have botheredabout the at on their own I recognized the feeling

"Shankey? Did Lady Filiuess so He kept quiet about it Didn&039;t want to scare people, I guess Some don&039;t like itas it doesn&039;t hurt anyone"

"Just where did he set up shop? He had to have a workplace"

"In his private cha much to it, just a table, lots of books and papers, that kind of junk"

"Think he ht have had more than one retreat?"

Shankey paused "Why would you ask that?"

"Because all uy like y"

"You can feel that stuff?"

"Like an itch you can&039;t scratch I think we&039;re close to some source Is this the only secret tunnel for the whole joint?"

"There ht be one or two others," he reluctantly admitted "But we don&039;t have time for them"

"Um, we may not have a choice" My ears perked forward "You hear that?"

They didn&039;t, at first The sound was too deep for huood quadraphonic systeh your body They suddenly flinched and drew their swords

"What is it?" Shankey asked "Sounds like a dragon breathing"

"You got dragons here?" It was an honest fear I&039;d been on worlds that had theure of speech," he explained "It&039;s getting closer, isn&039;t it?"

"Yup, I think it is, yup, yup"

"Let&039;s go back to the house," Debreban suggested "If we run like hell - "

"Sounds like a plan," I said, starting to back away

Shankey hesitated "If so&039;s down here I have a duty to find out if it&039;s a threat toit out with lots of well-arical source we&039;re going to be out of our league, anyway"

"If it&039;s otten behindsound "You&039;re a wizard, aren&039;t you?"

"Oh, hell," I said,flat

The low sound intensified to an extended growling roar The blast of it in the confining walls of the tunnel was tooa half-remembered duck-and-cover routine Shankey and Debreban did the sarew in power, swelling like thunder

"Iron!" I bellowed at theue for sure That or they couldn&039;t hear me

"Have You Got Iron?"

Shankey h to understand He gave me his lantern I started to push it back, then realized it was rabbed the ring handle, stood, and threw it down the tunnel like a grenade

It had about the same effect The hideous roar ceased so abruptly that you could hear the softer clang of the lantern rolling to a stop on the stone floor

We were left with one pitiful little light And eardruood