The Quest of the Vanishing Chancellor
Aliv and Shaz melted quietly away through the trees until a thunderous crashing and yells of alarm caused them to halt and look back.
"It sounds," Shaz remarked slyly, "as if Aliehs has been trying one of her spells again."
"Then let's get out of here," Aliv responded quickly. "How on earth did she get to be such a powerful enchantress if her spells always go wrong?"
"Oh, they don't," Shaz informed him. "Most of the time she's very competent. It's only since King Jor sent us off on that last quest that she's begun behaving so oddly. Either she's lost her memory, or someone's put a hex on her."
"Well, whatever's caused it, I'm glad to be out of her company," Aliv said with a grin. "The others are welcome to her. Wait a moment."
They had come out of the trees at a place where three paths joined, and Shaz was looking around doubtfully. There was no sign of Chancellor Adnileb and, since she had been travelling by flying carpet, no sign of her trail either.
"I managed to pick up one of her little pets," Aliv said, swinging his pack forward. "I put it in here with the rest of the food and wine from the banquet. With any luck that funny little flat thing will head after its mistress."
He undid his pack and then his mouth dropped open as not one, but eight Elbbirts emerged. The pack looked a lot emptier than it should have done, too. Aliv gave a cry of anguish.
"The food! They've eaten all the food I snaffled. But the wine's still there," he added a moment later, a relieved smile spreading over his mobile features.
Shaz grinned. "Well, your furry little friends certainly seem eager to go somewhere," she conceded. "Although I don't think that's the direction the Chancellor took."
"Nonsense. It must be. Any fool knows they'd head straight for where their mistress went. You'll see."
She did. The Elbbirts headed off along the trail, and where it next branched took the turning that led back to the lake shore, where they slid out across the rapidly thinning ice to the island where Nalavres' palace had been.
"Any fool....?" said Shaz with a questioning note? Aliv shrugged.
"Oh well," he said philosophically. "What do you suggest?" he counter-attacked.
"I do have a spell or two that I bought from Aliehs," Shaz disclosed reluctantly. The spells had been expensive, and might be needed later, but they seemed to have no alternative.
"From Aliehs! Oh! Ah.....mm.....maybe....if we thought a bit longer....?"
"It's all right. I got them before she became so odd," Shaz reassured him, producing a slender arrow from her pack. She traced the Chancellor's name on it with a fingertip, reflecting that it was lucky Nalavres had been so free with introductions. Selecting a round topped rock, she spun the arrow upon its surface, keeping careful count of the spins.
"That way. About ten days travelling on foot."
Aliv moaned. "More walking. Can't we 'borrow' a horse or two?"
"You know what happens to horse 'borrowers' in these parts?" Shaz shook her head. "I don't want to see my hide tanned and made up into harness for the horse I 'borrowed'."
"But we need to get there as quickly as possible," Aliv urged. "Remember how much interest Pendar was taking in that treasure. We have to have time to steal it and get away before he turns up and takes it from us."
Shaz conceded his point with a sign.
"Get two decent sized branches from that horse chestnut," she commanded. "And then plenty of twigs from the planta genista."
Aliv cast her an exasperated glance. If she meant broom, why not say so? Women always had to add these fancy touches. He fetched the desired items, then watched with interest as Shaz bound the bundles of broom to the trimmed horse chestnut boughs with horse hair she produced from her pack. She then told him to rub his bough well with the wych hazel she had gathered, repeating the name he had chosen for his steed as he did so, and then to tie the horse hair reins tightly around the top of the bough. "And don't forget to tie a bunch of rowan berries in the reins," she added, handing him some.
More fancy touches, Aliv thought, ignoring her orders and dropping the berries unnoticed.
They each flung a leg over their improvised hobby horses and, "Up, up and away," Shaz called. "Fare forth to Adnileb's castle. Up Thunderbolt! Up Starlight!"
Up, up and away it was. Aliv felt exhilarated as the leagues of forest and hill melted away below them. This beat walking.
Then as the sun slowly sank in the west, a stronghold showed up bright red against the flaming orange of the sky. Slim, streamlined towers lifted towards the heavens as if longing to shoot upwards and leave the cumbering earth behind.
"There it is!" Shaz shouted. "Not long now. Keep an eye open though. We must be somewhere near the Warlock's Chasm."
Even as she spoke, they sped over the edge of the hill and there was the black gaping maw of the huge cleft just below them. The last rim of the sun disappeared below the horizon and a vast cloud of bats surged skywards, with larger forms among them. "Don't worry. The rowan berries will protect you."
The rowan berries! Aliv closed his eyes in despair.
"Not just a woman's fripperies, my pretty dear. No, indeed." A cackling voice spoke in his ear. "Come you away with me then. I've been wanting a lovely lover like you, for a long, long time. Those stringy warlocks are not to my taste, no, no. And they wouldn't make good eating after one got tired of them, would they now?" And she pinched his rather plump thigh greedily.
Her hand was a claw...thin, bony and grimy. Her breath was fetid and her body stank. Aliv moaned in terror.
But Shaz had seen his plight and came circling back.
"Ho! Starlight! Down!" she commanded. "Aliv! As soon as you get near the ground, grab the rowan berries I throw you and jump!" She spoke in thieves argot so the witch wouldn't understand.
Starlight swooped low. As Aliv caught the berries and fell rather than jumped, Shaz ordered,
"Starlight! By the power of your name, I command you. Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live. Drown the hag in the river."
As Starlight shot off fast and low towards the river flowing from the hills towards the distant sea, Shaz brought Thunderbolt to land beside Aliv and told him to ride behind her.
Thunderbolt groaned and shuddered at the double burden, but lumbered low and slowly towards the Red Spires. The other warlocks and wizards cackled derisively in a widdershins circle over their drowning comrade.
Starlight eventually caught up as Thunderbolt deposited them near a small copse not far from the castle. Shaz and Aliv dismounted and the two steeds began to caper about, thin whinnying little voices coming from them.
"Free! Set uss free. Set uss free. Free, free, free!"
"Oh let them go," Aliv said tolerantly. As Shaz hesitated he undid the reins from each of them , tucking the bunches of rowan berries into the binding of the broom as he did so.
Starlight and Thunderbolt shot into the air in delight, weaving in and out in a wild dance that gradually took them further away until they were circling the scarlet spires of Adnileb's home.
"Time we followed," Shaz said firmly as Aliv began to draw a flagon from his pack. "We'll probably need all our wits about us to get in there," she added, firmly refastening his pack.
Aliv sighed. Few people had any real sense of values, he reflected sadly. What good was treasure except to buy wine, and if you had wine already, why worry about treasure? That poet had had it right when he had said, 'I wonder what the vintners buy one half so precious as the stuff they sell.'
Still he did enjoy counteracting the various devices people used to protect their treasure, so he followed Shaz happily enough.
"How do we get in? Everyone else seems to be going in at the front doors."
"Not us," Shaz assured him. "We'll circle round and find a back entrance that's a bit less likely to be well guarded. Come on."
"If you say so. You have noticed there seems to be some sort of wall around the castle?"
Shaz snorted. "About three feet high, and with a nicely rounded top. Even you could get over that."
"If it's as easy to get over as it seems, why have it at all? It's probably a trap." Shaz slowed up and approached the wall more cautiously. From close up it looked grey and soft and rather slimy. She poked it carefully with a large cabbage leaf that had been lying on the ground nearby.
Immediately a dozen little horned heads poked sideways out of the main mass.
"Dinner time?" they queried hopefully, and the ones nearest the cabbage leaf began to tear at it voraciously with raspy tongues.
Heads began to ripple up along all the length of the creature, or creatures. Shaz wasn't sure which, but she hastily assured them, or it,
"No, not dinner time yet. Just a little extra snack because you're guarding the castle so well."
"Yess, yess, we guard well. Slime and stickfast all who try to climb over uss. Then eat them. Yess, yess, good eating."
Just then a couple of buckets of garbage were tossed accurately out of a sudden opening high on the castle walls, and the heard began to busily dispose of it.
"Guard and garbage disposal unit all in one," Shaz said in admiration. "You've got to hand it to Adnileb's forebears, those slugs are a great idea."
"We could do with one of those ourselves."
"A slug fence?"
"No, a great idea. I take it you don't still want to climb the fence?"
"We'd better circle around and see what gives at the back entrance. There's bound to be one."
But there wasn't. The slug fence ran in an unbroken line right around, and no openings showed in the castle walls.
"Must be dark in there," Aliv muttered resentfully as they trudged wearily back towards their starting point.
"Oh, they probably have windows. But they'll be spellcast not to show from the outside," Shaz assured him. "There's only one thing for it. We'll have to try the main entrance. After all, there seem to be plenty of people going in, and it's getting pretty dark."
"We could just give up," Aliv proferred hopefully, but as Shaz treated this with the disdain it deserved, he trailed disconsolately after her towards the main doors. These stood open and they moved towards them behind a crowd of others.
"The bard, Flirdan, seeking shelter for the night," said the person immediately in front of them.
Shaz nudged Aliv. "I know him," she whispered. "He might help us if we land in trouble."
"Shaz and Aliv, pilgrims in search of the Veil of all Rest, seeking shelter for the night."
"Liars! Liars! Liars!" shrieked a large raven from a perch at the side of the door. He yanked a cord with his beak and a swarm of hornets rushed out from a vent beside the door. Fortunately for Shaz and Aliv, the hornets were a little more sluggish than usual. Shaz grabbed Aliv by the arm and yelled, "Run!"
Sluggish or not, the hornets soon began to catch them up, and Shaz gave a loud yelp as the leader stung her.
His wits stimulated into unusual activity at this evidence of hostile intent, Aliv began to babble rapidly, "I before H, R before O, NES stay, I say it is so!" and he flung a small pinch of green powder over his shoulder.
The ominous whine of hornets was abruptly altered to resounding thumps as numerous heavy and extremely ornate pieces of furniture clattered to the ground behind them, effectively blocking the corridor.
Shaz regarded Aliv with admiration.
"Just a little spell I....ah....picked up somewhere," he said airily. "Where to now?"
"Find somewhere to hide until the disturbance dies down."
"Right." Aliv glanced around and then pointed uneasily to an eye painted on the wall. "Spy eye?"
Shaz sighed. "Yes. Adnileb doesn't miss a trick, does she? Come on, quickly."
The lower regions seemed more likely sources of hiding places, so they scurried quickly down the first staircase they found. Noise to the right indicated that the kitchens lay in that direction so they turned left, peering into unpeopled storerooms as they passed. But always the ubiquitous eye peered down at them from the walls until, tucked under a stone stairway, they found a walled off space, dusty, neglected and eyeless. Shaz dropped down onto a wooden bench with a sigh of relief.
"They always overlook something," she said complacently. "It's one of the laws of magic. But I was beginning to think we'd never find it. Lucky that everyone was busy eating, so we had time."
"They were busy eating; we were just busy," Aliv said gloomily. "Have you any food?"
"Only journeycake," Shaz said, handing him a small dry slice. "We can wash it down with your wine."
They were just finishing off the wine when a sound at the door alerted them. It swung open and a head peered through.
"Yes, both present and correct. I told you they always make for the unwarded room. It's very convenient." The solid door swung shut and a key turned in the lock.
The two exchanged dismayed glances and Shaz went over and inspected the lock.
"It's a massive great thing," she reported in disgust. "Must be centuries old. Much too heavy for my lock picks to hand. We'll have to saw through the bolts which will take ages. It's lucky there's a small gap between the floor and the frame."
Aliv sighed. He needed a drink, but they'd just finished the last of the wine. Intent on getting the final few lingering drops he tilted the bottle to his open mouth and nearly choked on the resultant flood of liquor.
"Hey, it's full again," he told Shaz joyously. "Not wine, though," he added, drinking more cautiously. "Cider this time."
"You must have swiped one of those everlasting flagons. Where did you get it from?"
"Nalavres' private apartments when we were hunting for her soul. Want some cider?"
"I want to get out of here. Let's get busy."
"I just want to find out what appears when the cider's all gone."
This remark was repeated with variations - perry, mead, ale, port - as Shaz sawed laboriously through the wards of the lock, until finally only a snore answered her announcement that the door was open.
Shaz gave a snort of disgust, and picking up the flagon as she left, set out to explore. She wanted to find Aliv sober when she got back. Sounds of revelry from above indicated that the castle's inhabitants were making a night of it, which meant they would probably sleep soundly when they did go to bed. In the meantime, Shaz decided to explore the lower regions. People did frequently keep their treasure in underground vaults.
A narrow winding stair led her downwards. It was dark down there, and Shaz paused with one foot on the bottom step. Something white stirred in the darkness, and she hurriedly withdrew her foot. The white thing flopped to the floor. Hesitantly she put one foot back on the bottom step; the white things stirred; she pressed more firmly and the ghost spread its arms wide and started to shriek. Shaz took her foot off, and both ghost and shriek deflated.
Oh well, that was easily by-passed. Shaz was on the point of jumping from the second bottom step when inborn caution pulled her up. Kindling the fire in her small globe, she held it high and inspected her prospective landing area. A dark pit yawned there. (It was tired of waiting for victims.)
Muttering curses (one of her first class accomplishments), Shaz made an awkward sideways scramble, leaning heavily on the newel post of the stair. There was a clicking sound as the newel turned and Shaz froze, but nothing happened, so she gave the post another cautious turn and one of the flagstones lifted a little. This looked interesting. Shaz got the gap wide enough to squeeze through and looked in. Iron spikes let into the wall made a rough sort of ladder which ended about twenty feet below. She slid feet first into the gap and began to descend. As her weight came fully onto the second spike the flagstone thudded shut and remained immovable.
This was becoming ominous rather than interesting, but with no alternative Shaz went on down to the bottom of the ladder. Retrieving the globe from her pocket, she looked about her. She was standing on a narrow ledge and to her left was a round opening from which issued a stream of murky water. It crossed before her in a foot wide ditch and disappeared through a similar opening on the right. The stench was terrible. This was evidently the castle drainage system. Another opening opposite looked more promising. She jumped the ditch and went on. The passage forked three ways and Shaz chose the central one. The passage forked once more. Darn, this was beginning to feel like a maze. She decided to keep taking left hand turns and finally found herself back at her starting place.
Muttering more curses she started off again; this time trying two right turns to one left, and finally stumbled into a large low-ceilinged cavern, lit by a phosphorescent glow from fungi on the walls. On the far side of the cavern a small stream issued from a vent high on the wall and fell into a stone basin it had made for itself. A spike of rock stood upright in the middle of the basin and the glowing colours of the hollowed out top attracted Shaz's attention.
A path wound through the boulders, towards the pool, with a branch half way leading to a flight of worn stone steps which went on up through a hole in the roof. Shaz had started along the path when a hissing voice halted her steps.
In the meantime Aliv had woken with a thumping headache. Moaning gently (one of his first class accomplishments) he reached for his flask. A hair of the dog, that's what he needed. But the flask had gone and so had Shaz. The cell door gaped open.
Mumbling nasty remarks about honourless female thieves, Aliv wavered out of the cell, his nose leading him unerringly in the direction of the kitchens. The guests upstairs had finished eating and the servants were busily disposing of the remains. Since many of the guests had brought their own servants, Aliv's presence went unremarked. A mug of porter and a bowl of soup banished his headache and he was soon tucking into a substantial repast, joining in the talk around the table. Inspired by the general spirit of conviviality he began to show off his conjuring tricks, producing an egg from someone's ear, a sugared comfit from the butler's moustache and a string of coloured kerchiefs from the bosom of a well-endowered maid servant.
This last antic decided his fate. The butler had already decided to investigate those endowments for himself, but her giggles and glances of far from coy invitation to Aliv revealed a potential rival to be disposed of.
He clapped enthusiastically and swept Aliv from the room, saying,
"You must reveal your skill to Milady. She will be vastly entertained, I vow." Aliv had all but forgotten his somewhat ungracious reception on entering the towers, and went along willingly, pleased and flattered by the butler's attention.
In the hall the main dishes had been cleared away, but bowls of fruit, nuts and sweetmeats remained on the tables, and wine and ale were circulating freely. A visiting minstrel was performing for the company, but unfortunately Flirdan had imbibed rather too freely which always rendered him melancholic and the lugubrious ballad he was singing was ill suited to the mood of his listeners. He received scant applause and retired sadly to his chair, reflecting on the poor taste of his audience. The butler presented Aliv to the Countess Adnileb (for the one-time Chancellor and step-daughter to the Enchantress Nalavres had now resumed the reign over her own country). She eyed him narrowly but her words were gracious as she bade him perform for her guests.
Far more gracious than the words being hissed at Shaz at that moment.
"Who are you, legged one, who dare approach the sacred eggs without permission from their guardian?"
Shaz gulped as a large python oozed from between the boulders and coiled up across her path. She had better do some appeasing pretty quickly, she decided.
"Your pardon, oh....oh Undulant One! I did but venture upon the path in search of your most gracious presence. Word of your exceeding grace and beauty reached my people and they sent my humble self to ask if you would permit us to make obeisance to your majestic self."
The python rippled her coils in appreciation of this treacly flattery.
Nevertheless, "Your obeisance should be made to the sacred eggs rather than to their guardian."
"Nay, that would be too much honour for such humble folks as we." What were these sacred eggs, Shaz wondered, trying to peer in that direction without being caught at it.
"Ah! Your modesty does you well. I accept your homage. What libation do you bring?"
Libation?
"Aah, ahh," Shaz stuttered. The serpent reared higher.
"You did bring a libation?" The sibilant tone held a threatening note and with a sudden jolt of relief Shaz remembered Aliv's flagon. Heaven knew what was in it now. Rum had been the last thing Aliv had mentioned, but most snakes seemed to like milk. Perhaps if she wished hard enough....
"Of course I bring a libation, Exalted One. I did but wonder where to pour it, since the flagon as you can see - " as she held it out for inspection, "is not fitted to be a drinking vessel for you."
"Aah!" There was satisfaction in the tone. "Follow after, in your clumsy fashion," and she glided gracefully away along the path, finally coiling around a hollow topped rock below the pool.
Shaz, who had been clasping the flagon and desperately muttering, "Milk, milk, milk," now unstoppered it and poured the white contents into the hollow. A faint smell of rum pervaded the air, and the serpent flicked her tongue in and out tasting the aroma suspiciously before beginning to drink.
Shaz tensed, ready to run if the snake objected to the flavour, but she continued drinking until the bowl was empty. "Your libation was like no other I have tasted. Milk of the gods indeed. There is more?"
Oh, oh. Hastily fixing her mind on milk again, Shaz nodded.
"Indeed there is more if you will condescend to accept it, most serpentine of serpents." She unstoppered the flagon, again muttering her litany of, 'Milk, milk, milk.' This time it appear to be laced with brandy and Shaz hoped that this change of flavour would not be condemned. Nor was it. True the great snake drank more slowly now, but this appeared to be more due to the effects of the rum rather than to any distaste for brandy.
Nor did she appear to have any objection to the advocaat that came next. (Shaz had forgotten to wish for milk this time.) Though perhaps by now she was too drunk to notice what she was drinking. Having slowly sipped the advocaat to the last dregs, she coiled down into a mottled green and gold heap and appeared to be fast asleep. Shaz moved closer to the 'sacred eggs'. Three ovoid shapes lay there, glowing even in the dim luminescence of the cavern.
One was pearl coloured with a faint iridescence showing rainbow colours on its surface with a rich golden gleam below. The second was dark red; at the heart was a rose, with richer red, lambent as fire in its centre. The third was the rich purpling blue of twilight with golden stars shining in its depth.
Shaz drew a deep breath. Never in a life of thievery had she ever seen gems like these. Almost unbelieving, she reached out to touch them and drew back her hands with an involuntary yelp at the coldness of the air above the water. She hastily drew on a pair of gauntlets, took the gems up one by one and stowed them safely away in her pouch. She tiptoed along to where the path branched and made her way stealthily up the flight of stone steps, all thoughts of returning to Aliv put aside. He could have the Chancellor's treasure if he could steal it, but she wasn't going anywhere near such a skilful thief with treasure such as this in her possession.
So Shaz passes out of this story and into another quest....
Aliv's performance drew to a close and he flourished a bow to his delighted audience as the Countess rose to her feet with a small flutter of applause from her hands and a smile on her lips that was not reflected in her eyes.
"Good guests, I cannot offer you better entertainment than this jester has provided, so let this bring our feasting to a close. I bid you all good dreaming and to all who fare forth on the morrow a safe journey. Accompany me, jester, for I would see your talents fittingly rewarded."
Aliv smirked and followed her jauntily from the hall. The Countess led him to a small room evidently used for administration purposes and then turned to face him. "And what rewards do you think fitting, oh man of many titles? Aliv the Jester, Aliv the Pilgrim, Aliv the Liar, Aliv the Thief."
Aliv gaped at her indignantly.
"Hey! That's not fair. I didn't steal anything. I didn't get the chance. As soon as I came into the place I got chased by hornets, and then locked up. I was worn out by all the turmoil and fell asleep. When I woke up the door was open so I went to ask for a drink and a bite to eat, and I did some tricks to pay for that. You can't call me a thief."
The Countess regarded him thoughtfully. She was small and slight but had a commanding presence and her dark eyes were shrewd.
"And is your companion as innocent as you claim to be?"
"Her! Her name's Shaz. I don't know much about her," Aliv lied fluently. "She said she wanted to come along with me to look for the Veil of All Rest," he added, suddenly remembering the cover story Shaz had used to try to get into the castle.
"Ah yes. The Veil of all Rest. What do you know of it?"
Aliv netted stray bits of knowledge from the depths of his memory.
"It was made by the magician Nairod. He wanted to wed the Princess Niloos, but she refused him, so he cast the Veil over the topmost tower of her father's palace and all within it fell asleep. He's supposed to remove it for a day once in every hundred years to renew his courtship. Though why he'd think any girl would want to marry someone as old as he must be by now, beats me."
"Do you know where the palace is?"
"No. We were just wandering about in the hope of finding it."
"The palace of Ahplas lies to the southwest of here, beyond the Woods of Windri. A knight of my father's who went in search of it sent word back to us of that. But we have heard no more from him for some years, and I wish to know what became of him. I also wish to acquire the Veil. Sooner or later Nalavres will find her way back through the dimensions to Diandee and we must have some means of dealing with her. If you consent to resume your search for the Veil," (her voice subtly emphasised 'resume'), "together with a part of my people, I will ask no inconvenient questions about your reasons for entering my stronghold or about your companion and her whereabouts."
"And if I don't?"
"My methods of obtaining truthful answers to questions are both painful and prolonged." Aliv shrugged philosophically.
"All right, I'll go." After all, people were always dragging him off on quests of one sort or another, and he always managed to wriggle out of the worst consequences. The Quest for the Veil of All Rest shouldn't be too difficult for a clever thief to achieve, and as clever thieves went, he was one of the best. No reason why he shouldn't get his hands on the Veil, and no reason why the Countess Adnileb should, come to think of it. An article like that could be very useful. Very useful indeed, for someone who liked acquiring other people's property.