Thieves' Carnival Part 5

"Why should we trust you?" Mouse asked. "You may be planning to turn us in to the Cators." Anadir shrugged. "You will be caught sooner or later if you do not dispose of the Cube. But no, I will not betray you. Come." Mouse squinted at Ciaran. He nodded his a.s.sent. Together, they followed the woman down a series of narrow, cobbled walks, along winding side alleys and paths, away from the market and deep into the finest sector of the Fourth. Here, the streets were swept daily, the blocks of each building mortared, one upon the other, in neat lines. All was order, clean order and red brick. At the side of a great house built of dark stone, Anadir paused to unlock a small door. She turned right and left to survey the street, then beckoned the two thieves inside. They entered a hallway draped with rich tapestries in hues of blue and gold. The magisterial seal was emblazoned across them, glinting with golden thread.

"Is this the home of the Fourth's Magistrate-General?" Ciaran asked, his tone wary.

Anadir shook her head.

"His brother," she said. "Wait here."

She left them in a small, blue-carpeted room whose overstuffed furnis.h.i.+ngs repeated the heraldic colors and motifs of the hangings. Great shelves displayed trophies and gifts in glittering metals. Mouse's eyes got bigger and bigger as she looked around the room.

"Kiri," she whispered, "we could live off one of those golden ewers for a year.Melt it down and make coins. Sell the handles as ornaments."

"I know, Mouse," he whispered back. "And look at all the windows. Why, the valances alone would buy us meals for a month." Mouse's fingers itched to lay hold of the finery.

"Do you think we could find our way out of here?" she asked.

Ciaran frowned. "Not quickly. And do you want the Magistrate of Fourth to set his hounds on our heels as well? No, Mousie. Much as it hurts, we'd best act as respectful guests here."

"It's not fair!" Mouse stamped her foot. "In all my thieving days, I've never been able to get inside a place as fine as this. And now that I've been invited in, I've got to pretend to be something I'm not."

"Hush, Mouse." Ciaran took her hand. "It might be a test. If these people really do intend to conduct business with us, they might first want to see how civilized we are.

If, the moment we're in their home, we start tearing things from the wall, they'll dismiss us as dirt and throw us in the deepest dungeon they can find. Or to the Cators. Besides, they can take the Cube at any time. They're doing us supreme courtesy, and we'd best return the favor." He sat down on a plush blue settee and placed his harp in his lap. Idly, he strummed it, noodling a soothing lament that filled the room up with sweetness. Mouse settled in beside him and put her head on his shoulder. In moments, the music had lulled her away into a dreamy reverie where goblets glittered in her hands and a full haunch of grilled meat sat, waiting, on a fine gla.s.s salver.

How long she slept she did not know. Mouse awoke to the tinkling of bells as the door to the room opened and a servant appeared bearing trays of food and drink.

"Anadir bade me bring you refreshment," the slave said, his lip curled. Obviously, he felt he had no business serving thieves. Ciaran stopped playing and put his harp away. He speared a hunk of meat with his knife and made a great show of chewing it noisily while the servant stood there, frowning. Between them, Mouse and Ciaran cleaned the trays of food and drained the wine pitchers. As the servant turned to go, Anadir entered the room.

"You've eaten," she said. "Good. Jodayn will join us soon. He has been delayed."

Mouse stared enviously at the woman's fine clothing and regal carriage.

"Are you the lady of this house?" she blurted out. Ciaran gave her a sharp look.

Anadir's laughter pealed through the room.

"No," she said. "I am house minister and amanuensis. Jodayn's lady is ill and keeps much to bed."

"I see." Mouse's smile was wry. The door opened again and a tall man entered, clad in midnight blue. He was as dark as Anadir was light, with thick black hair that fell in waves almost to his shoulders, deep-set eyes, and a strong nose.

"This is Jodayn," Anadir said, her lips curving upward. A look pa.s.sed between them, fleeting and poignant. It was not that of master and servant. Jodayn turned to the thieves.

"So she has found you. Good." He settled heavily into a thick-legged chair by the window. "You possess the Cube?" "Yes," Ciaran said. "I would have it from you," Jodayn said. "Fair price, of course. May I see it?"

Mouse pulled the relic out of her pouch and let its strange fires dance before the dark lord's eyes. "May I hold it?" She pulled back, but Ciaran urged her forward.

Jodayn extended his palm toward her. Reluctantly, she placed the Cube in his hand.

"Odd," he exclaimed, hefting the gem. "Warm, isn't it?" He held it up to the light, examining each facet. Leaning over, he showed it to Anadir, who stood close by, at his right.

"How it glistens, my dear, with the secrets of the ages."

She stared at the gem, entranced.

"Do you like it?" he asked.

"If it pleases my lord, it pleases me." Jodayn smiled gently and brushed her cheek with his hand.

"I will buy it," he said, and turned back toward Ciaran and Mouse. "Is seventy decols enough?" Mouse grabbed Ciaran's hand in excitement, but he gave her a warning look.

"We'd like eighty, my lord," he said. Mouse scowled but said nothing. Jodayn chuckled.

"Eighty it is, then." He paused to admire the relic again. "The fabled Portal Cube.

You will show me how to use it, of course."

Ciaran's smile faded.

"Use it? How can we use it?" Mouse asked. Jodayn's eyes blazed into her.

"You mean to tell me you have stolen the Portal Cube without knowing what it is you have taken?" The two thieves stared at him. Throwing back his head, Jodayn laughed heartily.

"If I were not an honorable man, I would toss you both out onto the street, without payment."

Mouse glared at him. He caught the look and waved a finger at her.

"Calm yourself, little thief. I am a man of my word. Anadir, have the decols brought in." "Done." With a graceful movement, she pulled a long, silken cord attached to a deep-voiced bell.

"The Portal Cube," Jodayn continued, "is the key to the the past. The path to Bas."

"Kiri, I think he's crazy," Mouse whispered.

"Shh!" But Jodayn had overheard. He smiled, but there was scant amus.e.m.e.nt in his dark eyes.

"You do not believe me, little thief? Well then, you will observe and learn."

"Learn what?" Ciaran asked.

Jodayn stood and stretched.

"My counselors have noted the wild time fluctuations that have swept Bergamel ever since the Cube was taken, this so-called Dream Plague." Mouse turned to stare at Ciaran.

"Time fluctuations," she said. "Oh, Kiri, that's what was happening to us. But he's saying that the Cube caused them." Jodayn nodded.

"I suspect you may have taken some, shall we say, unusual excursions." Eagerly, he leaned toward them. "I want to know about everything you saw. Anything that might lead me to Bas." "Bas!" Mouse exclaimed. "The sleeping G.o.d?"

"Do you know any other?"

"If you're looking for Bas, why not scale Ben Beatha?" Ciaran said, his tone skeptical.

"No, no. I do now want Bas now. I want Bas then. And I will use this Cube to part the ages and find him." Jodayn's eyes shone like polished gems. Anadir smiled lovingly at him. Mouse was about to suggest that they both pay a visit to the healers when the door opened, and the servant who had brought them food walked in carrying a tray covered with golden decols.

"Ah, Eckmar. Please pay our friends." Ciaran and Mouse met him halfway and began scooping the coins into their pouches until the seams threatened to burst.

Jodayn dismissed the servant. Then he turned back to the two thieves and held up the Cube.

"I believe I may consider this my property now?" Mouse nodded.

"And good riddance to it," Ciaran said. Jodayn's smile was knife-edged.

"Please accept my hospitality for the evening. My scribes will meet with you tomorrow."

"Thanks all the same, but . ..."

Two hefty young men in gla.s.splate armor entered the room. They held wickedly pointed pikes in their gloved hands.

"I insist," Jodayn said.

"We wouldn't think of offending you." Ciaran said sharply.

"Then it's settled. We'll meet again tomorrow." With a nod, the dark lord rose from his seat, took Anadir's arm, and led her from the room.

"Kiri, I don't like this," Mouse said.

The harpist frowned. "Nor do I. But let's play along, Mousie. We have no choice."

They allowed the guards to herd them into a nearby chamber containing pallets and a well-stocked table.

"At least we won't go hungry," Mouse said. Ciaran settled into a chair by the glowing fire.

"Time travel to find Bas!" he muttered. "The man's a lunatic. I hope it's not catching."

The next morning, Mouse and Ciaran awoke to the sound of rain on cobblestones.

They filled their bellies with a hearty breakfast of porridge, steak, and ale. Then the scribes entered the room, and both thieves told of their adventures in time until their heads ached.

"Enough," Mouse snarled. "I can't remember anything more, I tell you!" Her eyes glinted dangerously. The pale young man who'd been recording her tale nodded and fled. With a kick, Ciaran sent the other scribe scrambling out the door. Mouse ran a hand through her wild black hair and yawned.

"Moneyed folk must not know what to do with their riches." A snicker from Ciaran encouraged her.

"Were we on white or yellow sand?" she mimicked. "Did the grain keeper say three or four years after Bas?"Ciaran's expression hardened, but so intent was Mouse on her j.a.pery that she failed to notice the entrance of Jodayn. Grabbing her tunic, the harpist set his hand roughly over her mouth.

"Be quiet," he growled. Mouse started to jab him with her elbow, but saw the dark lord standing before them and dropped her hands.

"So," Jodayn said. "You think my task is foolish? Well, maybe so. We shall see.

Your reports have given me hope. You said you encountered a man who called you grain thieves and referred to the famine of the third year. Our records show that there was such a famine soon after Bas brought our ancestors here. You were very close to the beginning of things. And this by mere chance." The dark lord prowled the room like a hungry cat.

"Bas sleeping is no good to me. But Bas awake, well, there's possibility!"

He spun to face them.

"I have devised a framework for the Cube that may control it," he said. "If so, some initial testing is required."

He moved toward Ciaran.

"You, harpist, will accompany me on this test."

Ciaran pulled back. "Why?"

"I must have someone along who has already tread the paths of time. The place is still fresh in your mind. You will act as guide on the first trip out. Then, if it is successful, I'll carry the imprint as well. The next trip I'll undertake alone." Mouse watched the man's eyes glow. Her stomach shrank in fear.

"Kiri, don't go. He's mad."

"Mouse, what choice do I have?" the minstrel asked. His voice was soft. "Besides, this probably won't work." The two thieves followed Jodayn down into the belly of the house. In a dark workshop lit by tapers and glowstones, a sphere made of spun gla.s.s threads s.h.i.+mmered in a dark crucible. Nestled in the top of the sphere was the Portal Cube. Mouse no longer feared the peculiar fires that flashed along its surface, but she was relieved to be free of its burden. Let Jodayn fool with it all he liked.

Anadir was waiting by the crucible. She smiled sweetly at the thieves, then went to Jodayn's side.

"Here, Mouse." Ciaran handed her his pouch bulging with decols, then his harp. "In case something goes wrong."

"Kiri!"

Suddenly frightened, Mouse clung to the minstrel's neck. He touched her face gently, then moved out of her embrace to stand with Jodayn by the gla.s.s sphere.

"Put your hands on the base of it, harpist."

Ciaran complied.

Jodayn mirrored his actions on the other side of the gla.s.s ball.

"Now concentrate on that grain keeper. The stone arch you described. Think, man. Think!"

For long moments, nothing happened. Mouse s.h.i.+fted uneasily, from one leg to the other. Perhaps this strange, dark man would give up in frustration. Perhaps there was nothing to his crazy plan. She looked at Anadir. Her gaze was set, unwavering, upon Jodayn. With a sigh, Mouse turned toward Ciaran. Sweat hung, glittering like gaming beads, on the minstrel's brow. He closed his eyes in concentration, lips trembling.Flas.h.!.+ The Cube burst into eerie life, casting a thousand colors against the walls, upon the faces of the two men.

Mouse gasped. Ciaran's figure seemed to blur. Was he fading away before her eyes?

She glanced at Jodayn. The dark lord was also growing indistinct, his features wavering. Ever so slowly, Ciaran and Jodayn thinned into the surrounding air until, with a whispering sigh, they were gone. The Cube subsided into muted flashes.

Sobbing, Mouse sank down against the crucible. "

"I'll never see him again. Never!" A gentle hand on her shoulder stopped her tears.

"Faith," Anadir said softly. "You must believe they will return. My lord has never disappointed me yet." Her face glowed with belief. With love. Mouse dried her tears.

Her cheeks were burning with embarra.s.sment. Why was she getting so upset over a silly harp player anyway?

The moments stretched until half a day had pa.s.sed. Anadir sent for wine and food.