Cugel Page 22

  Cugel made a hissing sound between his teeth. Finding an old cushion and a ragged tarpaulin, he contrived a tent on the foredeck, and there took up residence.

  The river Chaing meandered down a wide valley demarcated into fields and folds by ancient stone walls, with groups of stone farmsteads huddling under black feather trees and indigo oaks. At the side, weather-worn hills basking in the red sunlight trapped lunes of black shadow in their hollow places.

  All day the caravan followed the banks of the river, passing through the villages Goulyard, Trunash and Sklieve. At sundown camp was made in a meadow beside the river.

  When the sun lurched low behind the hills, a great fire was built and the travelers gathered in a circle to warm themselves against the evening chill.

  The ‘premier’ passengers dined together on coarse but hearty fare which even Clissum found acceptable — all except Nissifer, who kept to her cabin, and the mimes, who sat cross-legged beside the hull of the Avventura staring fascinated into the flames. Ivanello appeared in a costume of the richest quality: loose breeches of a gold, amber and black corduroy twill, fitted black boots, a loose fusk-ivory shirt embroidered with gold floriations. From his right ear, on three inches of chain, dangled a milk-opal sphere almost an inch in diameter: a gem which fascinated the three mimes to the edge of entrancement.

  Varmous poured wine with a generous hand and the company became convivial. One of the ordinary passengers, a certain Ansk-Daveska called out: “Here we sit, strangers cast willy-nilly into each other’s company! I suggest that each of us in turn introduces himself and tells his story, of whom he is and something of his achievements.”

  Varmous clapped his hands together. “Why not? I will start off. Madlick, serve more wine … My story is essentially simple. My father kept a fowl-run at Waterwan across the estuary and produced fine fowl for the tables of the locality. I thought to follow in his footsteps, until he took a new spouse who could not abide the odor of burning feathers. To please this woman my father gave up the fowl and thought to cultivate lirkfish in shallow ponds, which I excavated from the ground. But owls gathered in the trees and so annoyed the spouse that she went off with a dealer in rare incenses. We then operated a ferry service from Waterwan to Port Perdusz, until my father took too much wine and, falling asleep in the ferry, drifted out to sea. I then became involved in the caravan trade and you know all the rest.”

  Gaulph Rabi spoke: “I hope that my life, in contrast to that of Varmous, will prove inspiring, especially to the younger persons present, or even to such marginal personalities as Cugel and Ivanello.”

  Ivanello had gone to sit beside the mimes. He called out: “Now then! Insult me as you will, but do not pair me off with Cugel!”

  Cugel refused to dignify the comment with his attention.

  Gaulph Rabi showed only a faint cold smile. “I have lived a life of rigid discipline, and the benefits of my regimen must be clear to all. While still a catechumen at the Obtrank Normalcy I made a mark with the purity of my logic. As First Fellow of the Collegium, I composed a tract demonstrating that succulent gluttony sickens the spirit like dry rot in wood. Even now, when I drink wine I mix therein three drops of aspergantium which brings about a bitter taste. I now sit on the Council and I am a Pantologist of the Final Revelation.”

  “An enviable achievement!” declared Varmous. “I drink to your continued success, and here is a goblet of wine without aspergantium, that you may join us in the toast without distraction from the vile flavors.”

  “Thank you,” said Gaulph Rabi. “This is a legitimate usage.”

  Cugel now addressed the group: “I am a grandee of Almery, where I am heir to an ancient estate. While striving against injustice I ran afoul of an evil magician who sent me north to die. Little did he realize that submission is foreign to my nature —” Cugel looked around the group. Ivanello tickled the mimes with a long straw. Clissum and Gaulph Rabi argued Vodel’s Doctrine of Isoptogenesis in a quiet undertone. Doctor Lalanke and Perruquil discussed the hostelries of Torqual.

  Somewhat sulkily Cugel returned to his seat. Varmous, who had been planning the route with Ansk-Daveska, finally noticed and called out: “Well done, Cugel! Most interesting indeed! Madlick, I believe that two more jugs of the economy-grade wine are in order. It is not often that we celebrate such festivals along the trail! Lalanke, do you plan to present one of your tableaus?”

  Doctor Lalanke made signals; the maidens, preoccupied with Ivanello’s nonsense, at last noticed the gesticulations. They leapt to their feet and for a few moments performed a set of dizzying saltations.

  Ivanello came over to Doctor Lalanke and whispered a question into his ear.

  Doctor Lalanke frowned. “The question is indelicate, or at least over-explicit, but the answer is ‘yes’.”

  Ivanello put another discreet question, to which Doctor Lalanke’s response was definitely frosty. “I doubt if such ideas even enter their heads.” He turned away and resumed his conversation with Perruquil.

  Ansk-Daveska brought out his concertina and played a merry tune. Ermaulde, despite Varmous’ horrified expostulations, jumped to her feet and danced a spirited jig.

  When Ermaulde had finished dancing, she took Varmous aside: “My symptoms were gas pains only; I should have reassured you but the matter slipped my mind.”

  “I am much relieved,” said Varmous. “Cugel will also be pleased, since, as captain of the Avventura, he would have been forced to serve as obstetrician.”

  The evening proceeded. Each of the group had a story to tell or a concept to impart, and all sat while the fire burned down to embers.

  Clissum, so it developed, had composed several odes and upon urging from Ermaulde recited six stanzas from an extended work entitled: O Time, Be Thou the Sorry Dastard? in dramatic fashion, with vocal cadenzas between each stanza.

  Cugel brought out his packet of cards and offered to teach Varmous and Ansk-Daveska Skax, which Cugel defined as a game of pure chance. Both preferred to listen as Gaulph Rabi responded to the indolent questions of Ivanello: “… no confusion whatever! The Collegium is often known as ‘the Convergence’, or even as ‘the Hub’, in a jocular sense, of course. But the essence is identical.”

  “I fear that you have the better of me,” said Ivanello. “I am lost in a jungle of terminology.”

  “Aha! There speaks the voice of the layman! I will simplify!”

  “Please do.”

  “Think of a set of imaginary spokes, representing between twenty and thirty infinities — the exact number is still uncertain. They converge in a focus of pure sentience; they intermingle then diverge in the opposite direction. The location of this ‘Hub’ is precisely known; it is within the precincts of the Collegium.”

  Varmous called out a question: “What does it look like?”

  Gaulph Rabi gazed a long moment into the dying fire. “I think that I will not answer that question,” he said at last. “I would create as many false images as there were ears to hear me.”

  “Half as many,” Clissum pointed out delicately.

  Ivanello smiled lazily up toward the night sky, where Alphard the Lonely stood in the ascendant. “It would seem that a single infinity would suffice for your studies. Is it not grandiose to preempt so many?”

  Gaulph Rabi thrust forward his great narrow face. “Why not study for a term or two at the Collegium and discover for yourself?”

  “I will give thought to the matter.”

  The second day was much like the first. The farlocks ambled steadily along the road and a breeze from the west pushed the Avventura slightly ahead of the foremost carriage.

  Porraig the steward prepared an ample breakfast of poached oysters, sugar-glazed kumquats and scones sprinkled with the scarlet roe of land-crabs.

  Nissifer remained immured in her cabin. Porraig brought a tray to the door and knocked. “Your breakfast, Madame Nissifer!”

  “Take it away,” came a hoarse whisper from within. “I want no breakfast
.”

  Porraig shrugged and removed both the tray and himself as rapidly as possible, since the fetor of Nissifer’s ‘taint’ had not yet departed the area.

  At lunch matters went in the same style and Cugel instructed Porraig to serve Nissifer no more meals until she appeared in the dining saloon.

  During the afternoon Ivanello brought out a long-necked lute tied with a pale blue ribbon, and sang sentimental ballads to gentle chords from the lute. The mimes came to watch in wonder, and it became a topic of general discussion as to whether or not they heard the music, or even grasped the meaning of Ivanello’s activities. In any event, they lay on their bellies, chins resting on their folded fingers, watching Ivanello with grave gray eyes and, so it might seem, dumb adoration. Ivanello was emboldened to stroke Skasja’s short black hair. Instantly Sush and Rlys crowded close and Ivanello had to caress them as well.

  Smiling and pleased with his success, Ivanello played and sang another ballad, while Cugel watched sourly from the foredeck.

  Today the caravan passed only a single village, Port Titus, and the landscape seemed perceptibly wilder. Ahead rose a massive stone scarp through which the river had carved a narrow gorge, with the road running close alongside.

  Halfway through the afternoon the caravan came upon a crew of timber-cutters, loading their timber aboard a barge. Varmous brought the caravan to a halt. Jumping down from the carriage he went to make inquiries and received unsettling news: a section of mountain had collapsed into the gorge, rendering the river road impassable.

  The timber-cutters came out into the road and pointed north toward the hills. “A mile ahead you will come upon a side-road. It leads up through Tuner’s Gap and off across Ildish Waste. After two miles the road forks and you must veer to the right, around the gorge and in due course down to Lake Zaol and Kaspara Vitatus.”

  Varmous turned to look up toward the gap. “And the road: is it safe or dangerous?”

  The oldest timber-cutter said: “We have no exact knowledge, since no one has recently come down through Tuner’s Gap. This in itself may be a negative sign.”

  Another timber-cutter spoke. “At the Waterman’s Inn I have heard rumors of a nomad band down from the Karst. They are said to be stealthy and savage, but since they fear the dark they will not attack by night. You are a strong company and should be safe unless they take you from ambush. An alert watch should be maintained.”

  The youngest of the timber-cutters said: “What of the rock goblins? Are they not a serious menace?”

  “Bah!” said the old man. “Such things are boogerboos, on the order of wind-stick devils, by which to frighten saucy children.”

  “Still, they exist!” declared the young timber-cutter. “That, at least, is my best information.”

  “Bah!” said the old cutter a second time. “At the Waterman’s Inn they drink beer by the gallon, and on their way home they see goblins and devils behind every bush.”

  The second cutter said thoughtfully: “I will reveal my philosophy. It is better to keep watch for rock-goblins and wind-stick devils and never see them, than not to keep watch so that they leap upon you unawares.”

  The old cutter made a peremptory sign. “Return to work! Your gossip is delaying this important caravan!” And to Varmous: “Proceed by Tuner’s Gap. A week and a day should bring you into Kaspara Vitatus.”

  Varmous returned to the carriage. The caravan moved forward. After a mile a side-road turned off toward Tuner’s Gap, and Varmous reluctantly departed the river-road.

  The side-road wound back and forth up over the hills to Tuner’s Gap, then turned out across a flat plain.

  The time was now almost sunset. Varmous elected to halt for the night where a stream issued from a copse of black deodars. He arranged the wagons and carriages with care, and set out a guard-fence of metal strands which, when activated, would discharge streamers of purple lightning toward hostile intruders, thus securing the caravan against night-wandering hoons, erbs and grues.

  Once again a great fire was built, with wood broken from the deodars. The ‘premier’ passengers partook of three preliminary courses served by Porraig aboard the Avventura, then joined the ‘ordinaries’ for bread, stew and sour greens around the fire.

  Varmous served wine, but with a hand less lavish than on the previous evening.

  After supper Varmous addressed the group. “As everyone knows, we have made a detour, which should cause us neither inconvenience nor, so I trust, delay. However, we now travel the Ildish Waste, a land which is strange to me. I feel compelled to take special safeguards. You will notice the guard-fence, which is intended to deter intruders.”

  Ivanello, lounging to the side, could not restrain a facetious remark: “What if intruders leap the fence?”

  Varmous paid him no heed. “The fence is dangerous! Do not approach it. Doctor Lalanke, you must instruct your wards as best you can of this danger.”

  “I will do so.”

  “The Ildish Waste is a wild territory. We may encounter nomads down from the Karst or even the Great Erm itself. These folk, either men or half-men, are unpredictable. Therefore I am setting up a system of vigilant look-outs. Cugel, who rides the Avventura and makes his headquarters at the bow, shall be our chief look-out. He is keen, sharp-eyed and suspicious; also he has nothing better to do. I will watch from my place on the forward carriage, and Slavoy, who rides the last wagon, shall be the rear-guard. But it is Cugel, with his commanding view across the landscape, to whom we shall look for protection. That is all I wish to say. Let the festivities proceed.”

  Clissum cleared his throat and stepped forward, but before he could recite so much as a syllable, Ivanello took up his lute and, banging lustily at the strings, sang a rather vulgar ballad. Clissum stood with a pained smile frozen on his face, then turned away and resumed his seat.

  A wind blew down from the north, causing the flames to leap and the smoke to billow. Ivanello cried out a light-hearted curse. He put down his lute and began to toy with the mimes, whom, as before, he had hypnotized with his music. Tonight he became bolder in his caresses, and encountered no protest so long as he evenly shared his attentions.

  Cugel watched with disapproval. He muttered to Doctor Lalanke: “Ivanello is persuading your wards to laxity.”

  “That may well be his intent,” agreed Doctor Lalanke.

  “And you are not concerned?”

  “Not in the least.”

  Clissum once again came forward, and holding high a scroll of manuscript, looked smilingly around the group.

  Ivanello, leaning back into the arms of Sush, with Rlys pressed against him on one side and Skasja on the other, bent his head over his lute and drew forth a series of plangent chords.

  Clissum seemed on the verge of calling out a quizzical complaint when the wind rolled a cloud of smoke into his face and he retreated coughing. Ivanello, head bent so that his chestnut curls glinted in the firelight, smiled and played glissandos on his lute.

  Ermaulde indignantly marched around the fire, to stand looking down at Ivanello. In a brittle voice she said: “Clissum is about to chant one of his odes. I suggest that you put aside your lute and listen.”

  “I will do so with pleasure,” said Ivanello.

  Ermaulde turned and marched back the way she had come. The three mimes jumped to their feet and strutted behind her, cheeks puffed out, elbows outspread, bellies thrust forward and knees jerking high. Ermaulde, becoming aware of the activity, turned, and the mimes capered away, to dance for five seconds with furious energy, like maenads, before they once again flung themselves down beside Ivanello.

  Ermaulde, smiling a fixed smile, went off to converse with Clissum, and both sent scathing glances toward Ivanello, who, putting aside his lute, now gave free rein to his fondling of the mimes. Far from resenting his touch, they pressed ever more closely upon him. Ivanello bent his head and kissed Rlys full on the mouth; instantly both Sush and Skasja thrust forward their faces for like treatment.

>   Cugel gave a croak of disgust. “The man is insufferable!”

  Doctor Lalanke shook his head. “Candidly, I am surprised by their complaisance. They have never allowed me to touch them. Ah well, I see that Varmous has become restless; the evening draws to a close.”

  Varmous, who had risen to his feet, stood listening to the sounds of night. He went to inspect the guard fence, then addressed the travellers. “Do not become absent-minded! Do not walk in your sleep! Make no rendezvous in the forest! I am now going to my bed and I suggest the same for all of you, since tomorrow we travel long and far across the Ildish Waste.”

  Clissum would not be denied. Summoning all his dignity, he stepped forward. “I have heard several requests for another of my pieces, to which I shall now respond.”

  Ermaulde clapped her hands, but many of the others had gone off to their beds.

  Clissum pursed his mouth against vexation. “I will now recite my Thirteenth Ode, subtitled: Gaunt Are the Towers of My Mind.” He arranged himself in a suitable posture, but the wind came in a great gust, causing the fire to wallow and flare. Clouds of smoke roiled around the area and those still present hurried away. Clissum threw his hands high in despair and retired from the scene.

  Cugel spent a restless night. Several times he heard a distant cry expressing dejection, and once he heard a chuckling hooting conversation from the direction of the forest.

  Varmous aroused the caravan at an early hour, while the pre-dawn sky still glowed purple. Porraig the steward served a breakfast of tea, scones and a savory mince of clams, barley, kangol and pennywort. As usual, Nissifer failed to make an appearance and this morning Ivanello was missing as well.

  Porraig called down to Varmous, suggesting that he send Ivanello aboard for his breakfast, but a survey of the camp yielded nothing. Ivanello’s possessions occupied their ordinary places; nothing seemed to be missing except Ivanello himself.

  Varmous, sitting at a table, made a ponderous investigation, but no one could supply any information whatever. Varmous examined the ground near the guard fence, but discovered no signs of disturbance. He finally made an announcement. “Ivanello for all practical purposes has vanished into thin air. I discover no hint of foul play; still I cannot believe that he disappeared voluntarily. The only explanation would seem to be baneful magic. In truth, I am at a loss for any better explanation. Should anyone entertain theories, or even suspicions, please communicate them to me. Meanwhile, there is no point remaining here. We must keep to our schedule, and the caravan will now get under way. Drivers, bring up your farlocks! Cugel, to your post at the bow!”