Saberhagen, Fred 03 – Stonecutter’s Story

Someone from the Blue Temple, not wishing to have fewer words to say than anyone else on this occasion, pronounced: “No one’s claims to the Sword are going to mean anything unless it is found. I would like to know how the world-famed investigator we have with us plans to go about recovering it.”

The Hetman, determined to assert himself, seized this opportunity. “It does seem,” he told Wen Chang, “that so far your efforts have contributed nothing to that end.”

“It may seem so, sir.”

“What evidence can you give us that you are making progress?”

“At present I can give you none.”

Eventually, under pressure, the Magistrate pledged to the Hetman that if given a free hand he would be able to provide some information on the Sword’s whereabouts, if he had not succeeded in actually recovering the blade itself, within the next twenty-four hours.

This was taken up by many of the people present as a promise that the Sword would be recovered within a day. All were eager for that-if Stonecutter were to remain in the hands of nameless thieves, it was hard to see how any of the legitimate segments of society could hope to profit from it in any way.

So, Wen Chang could more or less have his way for twenty-four hours. In the meantime, according to the Magistrate’s recommendations, the Blue Temple would be more heavily guarded than usual, as would all the city’s other main depositories of wealth. And all patrolmen of the Watch, wherever they were on duty, would be alerted to watch for Stonecutter.

With that the meeting broke up.

CHAPTER 15

THE Prince was of course invited by the Hetman to partake of the hospitality of the palace. Declining the invitation would have been diplomatically difficult if not impossible, and so al-Farabi was more or less constrained to dine and lodge there, along with the small retinue he had brought into the city with him from the desert.

Though it was plain to Kasimir that the Prince would have preferred to leave the palace at once and have a long talk with Wen Chang, there was no opportunity inside the palace for the two men to converse without a high probability of being overheard. In the brief public exchange of conversation they had before parting, the Magistrate managed to convey to his royal client the idea that things were not really so bad as they might look at present. Wen Chang affirmed earnestly that he still had genuinely high hopes of being able to recover Stonecutter.

Kasimir, listening silently to this reassurance, could only wonder how such hopes might possibly be justified. Reviewing in his mind the situation as it stood, he did not find it promising. The twenty-four hours of Wen Chang’s grace period were already passing, and nothing was being accomplished. Of course Wen Chang might have learned something encouraging during the hours he and Kasimir had been separated; the two of them had had no real chance to talk alone since Kasimir had been routed out of bed this morning.

Now, just as Kasimir and Wen Chang were reclaiming their mounts from the palace stables, they were joined by Captain Almagro. The Captain had a meaningful look for each of them, but he delayed saying anything of substance as long as they were still within the palace walls.

The delay, Kasimir discovered, was to be even longer, for as soon as they were outside those walls the Captain left them, with a wink and a wave. Kasimir, not understanding, watched him go.

“He will soon rejoin us, I think,” the Magistrate assured him.

“If you say so.”

They started for their inn, this time without stopping to watch the rebuilding of the scaffold.

Kasimir had expected the Magistrate himself to have a great deal to say as soon as they were away from the palace. But now, on the contrary, Wen Chang was content to ride along in near silence. Instead of joining Kasimir in trying to plan a last desperate attempt to recover the Sword, he seemed almost to have given up. His precious twenty-four hours were passing minute by minute, and if anything he appeared more relaxed than he had before the meeting at which the deadline had been imposed upon him.

If this was only resignation to the whims of Fate, then in Kasimir’s opinion it was carrying that kind of attitude too far. As for himself, he saw no need to carry patience to extremes.

“Well?” he demanded, after they had ridden in silence to a couple of hundred meters’ distance from the palace walls. “What are we to do?”

A dark eye gleamed at him from underneath a squinting brow. “Have patience,” his companion advised him succinctly.

Kasimir found this, in the circumstances, a thoroughly unsatisfactory answer. But he had to be content with it until they had reached their inn.

There they found Almagro waiting for them in the courtyard, having evidently completed whatever urgent errand had drawn him away. The Captain was impatient too. “Where can we talk? I’ve got quite a lot to say.”

Wen Chang gestured. “Come up to our suite-it is about as secure as any place can be, outside a wizard’s palace.”

When the three of them were established in the third-floor suite, with Komi and some of his men on watch in the room below, Almagro began to talk, quietly but forcefully.

His pleas that Wen Chang get busy and find the Sword without delay were considerably more urgent than Kasimir’s might have been.

“Magistrate, if you know where the damned thing is, or might be, then let’s get it and deliver it without delay.” The Captain was now obviously worried for himself. “Whatever might or might not happen to you two if you fail, nothing good is going to happen to me. My neck is on the line. I’ve stuck it way out for you, and His Mightiness the desert Prince is not going to put himself out to protect me.”

Wen Chang responded with every appearance of sympathy. “He might very well offer you protection if I ask it of him. And I shall certainly ask it if I think it necessary.”

“If? Look here, Magistrate, tell me straight out-do you know where that Sword is now, or don’t you?”

“If you mean, can I walk straight to it and put my hand on it-no. Can I send a message from this room, and have it brought here to me within the hour? Again my answer must be no. Nevertheless I do have some definite ideas on the subject of Stonecutter’s location.”

“Hah! If you have any useful ideas at all, I wish you’d share them with me!”

“The time is not yet right for that . . . look here, old friend. You have trusted me in the past. Can you not trust me once more?”

The Captain blew out a blast of air that made his mustache quiver. “I’ve seen you act like this before . . . damn it all, I suppose you know what you’re doing.”

“Thank you. I appreciate the confidence. Now, have the arrangements that I requested been completed?”

“They have.” Almagro looked at the room’s windows and the closed door. “If you mean about that fellow Umar. We’ve picked him up, and brought him into the city, as quietly as we could. One of my own men is now temporarily in command out at the quarry.”

“Were you able to determine anything from the records out there, about which prisoner or prisoners might be missing?”

“Nan. My people brought in what records they could find, and I’ve taken a look at them. Hopeless, I’d say. Kept by a bunch of illiterates.”

“I feared as much.” Wen Chang rubbed his own neck, as if the long strain were beginning to tell on him. “And where are you holding Umar now?”

“At one of our auxiliary Watch-stations. It’s a very quiet little place, hardly used for anything anymore, out near the Paupers’ Palace. I doubt very much that anyone besides the men I trust know that he’s there. The men who took him there and are watching over him are the most trustworthy I have.”

“Good.” Now Wen Chang was nodding eagerly. “I want to talk to Umar at once.”

Kasimir shook off his own recurrent tiredness as well as he could, and made ready to accompany Wen Chang and Almagro through the streets yet once more.

Leaving the inn, they rode through the streets upon a broadly looping course, the Magistrate doubling back and changing his route unpredictably in an efficient effort to determine whether or not they were being followed. At length he was satisfied, and they set out straight for the Paupers’ Palace.

Their trip through the streets was somewhat delayed by these precautions, but otherwise uneventful. Presently a familiar landmark came into Kasimir’s sight-the isolated, disconnected, crumbling section of high stone wall, with the winged scavengers rising from its top and settling there again, shrieking in their quarrels over food.

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