before all of you are dead.” Corroboc made neat, thin
slices in one of his own feathers with the razor-sharp
sword while Zancresta looked suddenly wistful.
“Ah, the day that I stand at that fat fraud’s bedside,
holding the precious medicine he so desperately requires
just beyond his feeble reach, making him plead and beg
for it, that will be a day of triumph indeed.”
“What have you done with Folly!”
Zancresta came back from his private reverie. “Ah, my
pack animal and my insurance. I have never feared you,
spellsinger, but your talents act in ways wayward and
unpredictable. Sometimes it is awkward to deal with such
implausibilities, and I do worry some on the impetuous
nature of your companions.
“Knowing of your insipidly tender nature, I took care to
keep the girl tightly under my control, lest she foolishly try
to run to you for misguided salvation.”
“You hypnotized her?”
“I am unfamiliar with the term, but if you mean did I
blur her simple mind in order to make her compliant, yes.
I no longer have need of her as crude labor or as insurance
against your actions, however.” He pointed down the
aisle.
“These shelves reach far back into the mountain, which
you may have noticed is of volcanic origin. I would
presume that each aisle ends in a fairly hot place. Perhaps
the proprietress stores goods back there that require con-
stant heat. Being of a warm nature myself, I dismissed the
girl and bid her wander down to the end of the aisle. She
acquired on Corroboc’s ship a dark coloration which I
venture to say will change rapidly to red as she stumbles