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too, and his friend is armed. Wait-there are two of them,
both armed, and loose in the grounds. The security system
was told to ignore them, but I'm tracking them now. You
have let things get out of hand, Iachimo."
"I had no reason to believe the security system was not
operating correctly, master, but it proves my point. Here
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is a
rare treasure."
Yama turned his head back and forth, but could see nothing
but red mist. There was a splinter of pain in each of his eyes.
He said, "Am I blinded?" and his voice was smaller and
weaker than he would have liked.
"I suppose it isn't necessary, " the merchant said, and the
red mist was gone.
Yama knuckled his stinging eyes, blinking hard in the sudden
bright light. Two of the guards stood at attention behind
the merchant's couch, their red and white uniforms gleaming,
their falchions held before their faces as if at parade.
The merchant said, "Don't mind my toys. They won't
harm you as long as you're sensible." His voice was silkily
unctuous now. "Drink, eat. I have nothing but the best. The
best vintages, the finest meats, the tenderest vegetables."
"Some wine, perhaps. Thank you."
The naked woman poured wine as rich and red as fresh
blood into a gold beaker and handed it to Yama, then poured
another bowl for the merchant, who slobbered it down before
Yama could do more than sip his. He expected some rare
vintage, and was disappointed to discover that it was no better
than the ordinary wine of the peel-house's cellars.
The merchant smacked his lips and said, "Do you know
what I am? And do stop trying to take control of my servants.
You will give me a headache."
Yama had been trying to persuade one of the machines
which illuminated the room to fly down and settle above his
head, but despite his sense of expansion, as if his thoughts
had become larger than his skull, he might as well have tried
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to order an ossifrage to quit its icy perch in the high foothills
of the Rim Mountains. He stared at the gold circlet on the
merchant's fleshy, hairless pate, and said, "You are really
one of those things which crew the voidships. I suppose that
you stole the body."
"As a matter of fact I had it grown. Do you like it?"
Yama took another sip of wine. He felt calmer now. He
said, "I am amazed by it."
"You have been raised to be polite. That's good. It will
make things easier, eh, Iachimo?"
"
I'm sure he could stand a little more polishing, master."
"I've yet to find a body that can withstand my appetites, "
the merchant told Yama, "but that's of little consequence,
because there are always more bodies. This is my-what is
it, Iachimo? The tenth?"
The ninth, master."
"Well, there will soon be need for a tenth, and there win
be more, an endless chain. How old are you, boy? No more
than twenty, I'd guess. This body is half that age."
The merchant pawed at the breasts of the woman. She was
feeding him sugared almonds, popping them into his mouth
each time it opened. He chewed the almonds mechanically,
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and a long string of pulp and saliva drooled unheeded down
his chin.
He said, "I've been male and female in my time, too.
Mostly male, given the current state of civilization, but now
that I've made my fortune and have no need to leave my
estate, perhaps I'll be female next time. Are there others
like you?"
"That is what I want to discover, " Yama said. "You know
of my bloodline. You know more than me, it seems. You
called me a builder. A builder of what?"
But he already knew. He had read in the Puranas, and he
remembered the man in the picture slate which Osric and
Beatrice had shown him.
Iachimo said, " 'And the Preservers raised up a man and
set on his brow their mark, and raised up a woman of the
same kind, and set on her brow the same mark. From the
white clay of the middle region did they shape this race, and
quickened them with their marks. And those of this race were
the servants of the Preservers. And in their myriads this race
shaped the world after the ideas of the Preservers.' There's
more, but you get the general idea. Those are your people,
boy. So long dead that almost no one remembers-"
Suddenly, the room brightened: white light flashed beyond
the lake which hung above the long room. Rafts of waterlily
pads swung wildly on clashing waves and there was a deep,
heavy muffled sound, as if a massive door had slammed in
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the keel of the world.
The merchant said, "No hope there, boy. You put some
of my guards to sleep, but they're all under my control again,
and almost have your two friends. Iachimo, you did not say
that one of them was a cateran."
"There was another boy, master. I knew of no other."
The merchant closed his eyes. For a moment, Yama felt
that a thousand intelligences lived in his head. Then the feeling
was gone and the merchant said, "She has killed several
guards, but one caught a glimpse of her. She's of the Fierce
People, and she's armed with one of the gatekeeper's
pistols."
"There are still many guards, master, and many machines.
Besides, the lake will absorb any blast from the pistol."
The merchant pulled the woman close to him. "He's an
assassin's tool, you idiot! Why else would a cateran come
here? You know I have been expecting this ever since my
old ship returned through the manifold."
"There was the man who broke into the godown, " lacbimo
said, "but we dealt with him easily enough."
"It was just the beginning. They won't rest-"
There was another flash of white light. A portion of water
above the glass ceiling seethed into a spreading cloud of
white bubbles, and the glass rang like a cracked bell.
The merchant closed his eyes briefly, then relaxed and
drew the naked woman closer. "Well, it doesn't matter now.
There's a weapon in his satchel, Iachimo. Take it out and
give it to me."
The white-haired man lifted out the sheathed knife and
said, "It is only a knife, master."
"I know what it is. Bring it here."
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Iachimo offered the sheathed knife, hilt first. Yama implored
it to manifest the horrible shape which had frightened
Lob and the landlord of The Crossed Axes, but he was at the
center of a vast muffling silence. The merchant squinted at
the knife's goatskin sheath, and then the woman drew it and
plunged it into Iachimo's belly.
Iachimo grunted and fell to his knees. The knife flashed [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]