Maquesta Kar-Thon Read online

  "Foolish ass-brained spawn of a misbegotten muckdweller. It'd serve him right to rot in a cell here for a few weeks," Maq sputtered angrily as she stomped up the steep flight of steps leading to the constabulary hall's narrow entrance. "I can't dawdle too long in this town. We've got to be after the morkoth. I've a good mind to leave the muddle-headed ignoramus here and pick him up on the way back. Do him some good."

  "Who taught you how to string insults together like that, a kender?" Fritzen asked wryly. "If you feel that way about the gnome, let's just leave him to his fate."

  Maq shot her companion a withering glance. "How could you say such a thing? I'd sooner cut off my right hand. He's my friend. And I need him. But I'm furious that he got himself into this mess and that we have to take time to get him out of it. He knows the urgency of our mission."

  At the top of the steps, Maq paused a minute to gather her breath, and her wits. Reflecting Saifhum's penchant for order, the constabulary hall dominated the other official buildings. Its massive, square-cut granite blocks reached up four stories, ending in a flat roof that was hidden by a parapet that, Maq was certain, itself hid a contingent of watchmen. If Lendle was being held here, they'd be hard pressed to extract him.

  "Wait out here for me," Maq told Fritzen.

  "But, Maq—" He began to protest, but she cut him off.

  "I know what these islanders are like, and they'll think they know me because I look like them. On the other hand, you would just put them on their guard. And if they're suspicious, they might have someone start following us while we're in Sea Reach, which is a complication we don't need. I'll have better luck getting information alone," Maq explained. "I'll meet you on the square. If I'm not out by suppertime, then you can try to find out what happened."

  "Yes, Captain," Fritz replied, making a mocking bow. "You ask, and I humbly obey."

  Maq poked out her lips and put her hands on her hips. She opened her mouth to offer a retort, but thought better of it. Instead, she turned on her heels and went inside.

  The Maquesta who entered the constabulary hall showed a far different mien than she had displayed on the steps. Suppliant rather than authoritative, Maq approached a tall counter that blocked access to the rest of the building. Behind it sat an officer busily scratching the nib of a feather pen across a long piece of expensive-looking parchment.

  "Please sir, would you help me?" Maq asked plaintively.

  "State your business," the guard said with an automatic brusqueness, still writing. When he looked up a moment later and saw an attractive young woman in obvious need of help, his manner visibly softened.

  Maq smiled sweetly at him.

  "My family and I live on the far side of the island, and I came into Sea Reach with one of our servants to visit the market. Only it seems he got himself in some sort of trouble at the Sea Reach Inn. Father will be so cross. Can you tell me how to find him and how to make amends for his offense?" Maq spoke softly, her hands held demurely in front of her. She still had the bags of provisions she and Lendle had purchased earlier, lending credibility to her story.

  "Servant, eh?" asked the constable, looking her up and down.

  For an instant Maq thought she had told the wrong sort of tale, that the constable wouldn't believe someone dressed as she was could come from a family with servants. But no, there were plenty of simple, hardworking folk on Saifhum, many of whom were wealthy enough to employ several servants.

  "What's the servant's name? And is it a man or a woman?"

  "Lendle, Lendle Chafka. He's a gnome."

  "Gnome! Oh, that fellow. Couldn't miss him. He kicked Officer Rappa when they brought him in, hard, in the shins, yelling about how he had to go win back his stake," the constable said, tapping his pen on the desk. "We don't get many gnomes in Sea Reach—wouldn't ha' thought any lived on the island." A clear note of suspicion had crept into his voice.

  "The far side of the island," Maq reminded him quickly, as she batted her long eyelashes. "He hasn't worked for us for long, and if this is how he's going to behave, he won't for much longer," she said, affecting indignation. "Is he here, then?"

  "Nope. Can't work off a debt if you're in jail, that's Salomdhi's thinking. We would have locked the gnome up for awhile, but Salomdhi wanted him to come back to his place right away to start working," the officer said approvingly. "When there's money at stake, you'll not see Salomdhi taking a loss, that's for sure."

  "Salomdhi?" Maq inquired.

  "That's the fellow your servant lost money to in the card game. He's a merchant, the biggest in Sea Reach. Started out with one fruit stand and now he owns half the shops in the marketplace."

  "Can you tell me where Mr. Salomdhi lives?" Maq asked. "Perhaps I can talk to him and arrange for my father to send him a payment. Lendle is our servant, after all. If he's going to work for nothing, he can do it for us."

  "Sure. Take the street behind the hall and follow it until it ends. Salomdhi lives in a big white house with a red tile roof, the biggest house on the street. You can't miss it," the constable offered obligingly.

  Maq had already thanked him and turned to leave when he called out to her.

  "Young lady! Good luck in striking a bargain with him—Salomdhi's a tough customer." The officer chuckled, amused at the idea of the uneven match-up between Maquesta and the merchant.

  Maq smiled to herself. He hasn't met a tough customer yet, she thought, but he will.

  In the square, Fritzen was amusing himself by winging small pebbles at the backs of passersby then quickly turning the other way while they tried to figure out what had hit them.

  "Don't you think one of the guards on top of the constabulary hall might spot you doing that? In this city, that could be enough to get you locked up," Maq said admonishingly.

  "I live dangerously, and I like it that way." Fritzen grinned as he replied.

  "Honestly! First Lendle, now you. I'm surrounded by a crew of juveniles—in behavior if not in age."

  A sudden image of her father and Averon wrestling on the deck of the Perechon flashed through Maq's mind. She winced at the memory. With the thought of Melas, her sense of urgency doubled.

  "Let's go. I know where Lendle is."

  While she and Fritzen walked, Maquesta related what the constable had told her about Salomdhi and Lendle's sentence. Fritzen's eyes lit up at the news of the merchant's wealth.

  "Sounds like there might be more to rescue at his house than just Lendle," he said mischievously.

  "Fritz! We can't risk it. We have to concentrate on getting Lendle out of there and finding the morkoth," Maq said heatedly. "If you don't see that, maybe you shouldn't be on this voyage."

  Suddenly serious, Fritzen reassured her. "I owe a great debt to both your father, for taking me in when the Torado sank, and to Lendle, who nursed me through a dark time." The half-ogre's face clouded as he mentioned those two events. "I am not one to either forget or neglect an obligation. You may rely on me, Maquesta."

  Sea Reach was, in truth, not a very big place, and they arrived at the merchant's house quickly. Built near the foot of one of the rugged hills that encroached on the city, the house stretched up and down the street, but was not exceptionally deep. A white stone wall, half again as tall as Fritzen and topped by the same tiles that covered the house's roof, extended from either side of the dwelling until it reached the base of the hill.

  Maq and Fritz decided to scout the walled garden before approaching the house's front door. Maquesta knew that though she had bluffed the constable into thinking the gnome was her family's servant, trying the same ploy on the merchant would be more difficult, especially if he had spotted her in the Sea Reach Inn. Fritzen knelt so Maq could climb on his shoulders, then stood up slowly.

  "You're very light, you know?" he quipped. "I could carry you all day."

  "Shhh!" she scolded. "Someone might hear you."

  Peering over the top of the wall, Maq saw an extensive garden consisting of a number of vegetable and flower p
lots as well as a small cherry orchard. At first, Maquesta could not spot anyone. Then movement at the back of the garden, where it met the hill, caught her attention. She saw Lendle emerge from behind a door that blended into the rugged hillside so well she never would have noticed it if it hadn't opened.

  He carried two hoes, a rake, and several other garden tools over to one of the vegetable gardens, where it looked to Maq as if he had already set up a pole on a cart with two wheels and a handle for pushing. Arms like spokes in a wheel extended out from the top of the pole. Despite the precariousness of her position, Maq chuckled. The gnome went about attaching the hoes and various other garden tools to his contraption. It looked as if Lendle were contriving some type of automatic weeding device, with the hoes positioned at just the right height to chop off the heads of the garden's vegetables. Salomdhi didn't know what he was in for.

  "You know what I said about your being light?" Fritz whispered. "Forget it. You're getting heavier."

  "Shhh!" she scolded again. "I'll just watch for a moment more."

  Taking another look around the walled enclosure, Maq thought Lendle was alone, but she couldn't be sure. The place was too big. Even if he were alone, calling out to him would be risky. Sun glinted off the rows of windows that lined the back of Salomdhi's house. Because of the sun's reflection in the glass, she couldn't tell if someone were behind one of those windows, watching the garden.

  Pondering what to do, Maq saw a rotund man with slicked-back hair and a prosperous air bustle out of the house. Maq ducked down slightly so her head wouldn't show above the top of the wall. She recognized the man from the card game. The merchant, no doubt Salomdhi, motioned the gnome to come to him, calling his name, "Lendle Chafka!" as if it were a disease. Luckily, the summons brought Lendle closer to Maq's vantage point, so she could listen in on the conversation.

  "What's happening?" Fritzen whispered.

  "Shhh. I'll tell you in a minute," Maq whispered back.

  "No more shhhhs. What's going on?"

  She poked her head up again. "I see Lendle. Shhh!"

  "I have a business appointment," Salomdhi announced self-importantly. "Here, lift up your pantleg."

  Maq didn't hear what response, if any, the gnome made, but she couldn't imagine he was very happy. She raised herself a little higher to get a better view. It looked as if Salomdhi were bending over and attaching something to Lendle's ankle. Maq ducked down again as the merchant stood up.

  "There's no way out of this garden except through the house, and the servants will not allow you in," Salomdhi said. "You may as well not bother to think about escape. That charm locked around your ankle will allow me to track you, and I have the only key to unlock it. Of course, you're welcome to try to escape. That will give me your service for many more months. I've needed a gardener for quite some time."

  As the merchant disappeared into the hillside cave, Lendle started to trail after him. Before the gnome got to the doorway, though, Salomdhi emerged carrying a burlap sack. The merchant looked around the garden, seeing little evidence of work having been done.

  "Remember, I want all three vegetable gardens weeded by nightfall. You can start pruning the cherry trees tomorrow." With that, he left the garden as officiously as he had entered.

  When Maq peeked over the wall again, Lendle, momentarily distracted from his plight by the introduction of this new toy, was fingering the ankle bracelet the merchant had put on him.

  Maq jumped down to confer with Fritzen, who rubbed his shoulders and feigned a grimace. "The merchant's left," she said. "I don't think there's anyone in the house except servants. It would be easy to get him out, except…"

  "Except what?" Fritzen demanded.

  "Except that Salomdhi put some sort of charm on Lendle's ankle. Said it would let him track Lendle if he tried to escape."

  Fritzen looked doubtful. "That merchant didn't look like the type to have magic charms lying around his house. Maybe it's a trick. Let's get inside first, talk to Lendle. Then we can worry about the trinket. Besides, maybe it's valuable and we'll want to take it along with us."

  "All right," Maq agreed. She began climbing onto Fritzen's shoulders again.

  This time he offered a weak protest. "I'm not a ladder."

  "Just give me a minute," she sputtered. "I can lift myself over the wall by standing on you. But whose shoulders are you going to stand on?"

  "No one's," Fritzen said as Maq stood on his shoulders. "Some of us need a helping hand," the half-ogre teased, "while others of us are self-sufficient."

  At that remark, Maquesta kicked back at Fritzen, only half in jest, narrowly missing his nose. Looking up at the sky, Maq saw the sun had shifted a bit so there were shadows along the garden wall here that would provide her some cover in case anybody was watching from the house. With her arms braced on the top of the wall, she began to lift herself up and over.

  Only when Maq had dropped lightly down to the ground on the other side was she noticed by Lendle. Showing no surprise, he hurried up to her, a scowl playing under his big nose. "Wherehaveyoubeen?" he asked crossly. "DoyouhaveanyideahowlongIvebeenwaitingforyou?"

  "Stop right there, Lendle. With all the trouble gambling has caused us recently, I'd think you would have known better than to get involved in a Bounty Hunter game, and then a brawl when you lost," Maq scolded. "We don't have time for this. My father. The morkoth. Remember?"

  Lendle at least had the good grace to blush, a deep red suffusing his nutty brown skin, before plunging into his defense. "Ididntlose," he fumed. "Itwasatemporarysetback."

  Maq rolled her eyes.

  "ThatbaboonSalomdhidoesntunderstandcardplayingetiquette," Lendle complained, warming to his subject. "Hedoesntunderstandhowtogardenorhowtosetupaproperweedingsystem." Lendle grabbed Maq by the hand and began dragging her toward the back of the garden, toward the door she had seen him use.

  "But, Maquesta Kar-Thon—" Lendle's speech started to slow, signifying growing excitement on his part. "You must come with me. That fool must understand something." Lendle said, continuing to tug at her hand.

  "Hold on a minute, Lendle, I think Fritz is going to be joining us."

  A thud against the outside of the garden wall signaled the half-ogre's imminent entrance. Fritzen had taken a running jump at the wall, leaping up as high as he could and using the small purchase his feet found on the vertical surface to push himself higher, so that his hands could grasp the top of the wall. In one smooth movement, he pulled himself up and over, doing a backward flip into the garden and landing easily on his feet.

  "Show off," Maq said coolly. Fritzen grinned.

  "What about the charm?" he asked.

  "It looks as if you have enough charm," the gnome remarked, then resumed dragging Maq along with him.

  "Lendle wants to show us something else first," Maq advised him.

  Not having seen Lendle's earlier exit from within the hill, Fritzen looked duly impressed when the gnome opened the hidden door. They walked into a cool and spacious cave where Salomdhi stored garden implements, seed stocks, root vegetables, burlap sacks, and the like. It was virtually a gardener's paradise that attested to the merchant's wealth.

  "This is what you're so excited about?" Maq asked in surprise. "Lendle, we have to get out of here. We don't have time for this."

  "No. No. No, Maquesta Kar-Thon. You've got to see this." Lendle took them to the right rear corner of the cave. He picked up a gardening trowel and ran it along the rough-hewn rock of the walls until he came to an unobtrusive handle cut from the same rock. When Lendle jerked on the handle, Maq saw it was attached to a small, rectangular, metal plate that emerged from the rock as he pulled. Once the plate was pulled all the way out, what sounded like a weight shifting position echoed from within the wall, touching off a series of such shifts.

  "Weights and counterweights," Lendle explained briefly. "Very ingenious."

  An opening appeared in front of them as a stone door slid to the right. The main cavern received li
ght from the open door to the outside, but the second cave was pitch-dark.

  "Wait," Lendle admonished. He bent down, feeling on the floor just inside and to the left of the new doorway and came up holding a lantern. Fritzen struck a flint from a box he spied by a bag of turnips. When the half-ogre held up the lantern, Maq gasped.

  A burlap bag filled with gold coins had split at the bottom seam, spilling some of its contents onto the vault's floors. That was the first thing Maq saw. Stacked behind it, extending down the left side of the cave and rising nearly to the roof, stood bag upon bag, also filled with coins, judging by their lumpy silhouettes. Assorted treasure was piled haphazardly around the bags: golden candlesticks inlaid with brilliant rubies, gold and silver bowls and platters, lacquered boxes and chests studded with jewels. Maq flipped back the lid of one. It was stuffed with a variety of gems, sapphires, diamonds, and emeralds.

  The other side of the cave truly took her breath away. Metal shields, some inlaid with gold, leaned against the wall, coats of mail piled nearby. Leather weapon harnesses decorated with silver clasps and stiff leather breastplates occupied one corner. Nearby, bundles of swords, some with jeweled hilts, stood on their points, packaged together like sheaves of wheat. Tall spears lay on the cave floor next to a small mound of daggers.

  Fritzen strode forward, selected a dagger with a ruby in the pommel, and stuck it in his belt. A pearl necklace found its way into his pouch, as did a small silver case the size of his hand. "We'll need some empty sacks," he stated.

  "No!" Maq's tone was sharp. 'This isn't ours to take. We're not thieves."

  "Yeah? Well, I expect Lendle's merchant friend didn't come by this stuff honestly. And I'm sure he won't miss a bauble or two." The half-ogre stuffed gold coins into his pouch until no more would fit, then he strode across the small cave and pointed.