Just as we started up the steps to the landing, a voice sounded behind us.
“Hold there, sirrahs!”
We turned and beheld a bizarre sight, even for the Flankn. A small man stood before us, clad in the most ridiculous costume: billowing green cloak, baggy yellow pants tied up at the ankles, tasseled slippers curling up at the toes, his head bound in a bright red strip of cloth. A “turban,” it’s called.
“Who’re you?” I demanded.
The fellow glanced about. “Please, lower your voice! My business is confidential.”
“Confidential, is it?” boomed Greyboar. “Well, out with it!”
The man hissed his agitation. “Quietly, please! It is not to be discussed on the public thoroughfares!” He cupped his ear.
Greyboar snorted. “It’s as good a place as any. There’s none to listen but the urchins of the street, who’re loyal to their own.” The strangler gazed benignly over the refuse, debris and tottering tenements that encompassed a typical street of the Flankn. His eyes fell upon a ne’er-do-well lounging against a wall some steps beyond. “And the occasional idler, of course.” Greyboar cracked his knuckles; it sounded like a coal mine caving in. The layabout found urgent business elsewhere.
“Nevertheless,” continued the turbaned one, “I must insist on privacy. I represent a most important individual, who demands the utmost discretion.”
Left to his own, Greyboar would have quitted the fellow with no further ado. But that’s why he needed an agent.
“Important individual, you say? No doubt he’s prepared to pay handsomely for our services?” I spoke softly, since there was no reason to aggravate a potential client. Strangler’s customers were always a twitchy lot.
“He can be quite generous. But come, let us arrange a meeting elsewhere.”
“Done!” I said, cutting Greyboar off. “In three hours, in the back room of the Lucky Lady. Know where it is?”
“I shall find it. Until then.”
“It’ll be twenty quid for the meeting—whether or not we take the job.” For a moment, I thought he would protest. But he thought better of it, and scurried around the corner.
* * *
And that’s how the whole thing started. It was bad enough when Greyboar was wasting his time (and my patience) searching for a philosophy of life. But now that he’s found one, he’s impossible. If I’d known in advance what was going to happen, I wouldn’t have touched the job for all the gold in Ozar. But there it is—I was an agent, not a fortune-teller. And even though we were flush at the moment, I always had an eye out for a lucrative job. “Folly ever comes cloaked in opportunity,” as the wise man says.
Three hours later we were in the back room of the Lucky Lady. The tavern was in the Flankn, in that section where the upper crust went slumming. Greyboar didn’t like the place, claimed it was too snooty for his taste. I wasn’t too fond of it myself, actually. Much rather have been swilling my suds at The Trough, surrounded by proper lowlifes. But there was no place like the Lucky Lady for a quiet business transaction. Especially since almost all our clients were your hoity-toity types, who’d die of shock in The Trough.
Mind you, my discretion was all in vain. The man was there, all right, accompanied by a fat, frog-faced lad barely old enough to shave. And both of them were clad in the same manner, except that the youth’s costume was even more extravagant. Customers. As the wise man says: “Wherefore profit it a man to be learned, if he remains stupid in his mind?”
“You could have worn something less conspicuous,” I grumbled, after we took our seats across the table from them.
The stripling took offense. “I am the Prince of the Sundjhab! The Prince of the Sundjhab does not scurry about in barbarian rags!” Typical. Sixteen years old, at the most, and he was already speaking in ukases.
Greyboar’s interest was aroused. “The Sundjhab? It’s said the Sundjhab is a land of ancient learning and lore. Sages and mystics by the gross, you stumble over ’em just walking down the street.”
“Let’s to business!” I said, rather forcefully. Once let Greyboar get started on this track, we’d never get anything accomplished.
Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151