Swords: 06 - The Third Book of Lost Swords - Stonecutter's Story (3 page)

      
Al-Farabi was frowning. “But such traces of a trail as we were able to find by moonlight led out into the desert in the opposite direction from the city.”

      
“That, I think, is hardly conclusive.”

      
“I suppose not.”

      
“Certainly not.” Wen Chang drank spiced wine. He nodded. “If I am to continue my investigation I shall do so in Eylau.”

      
“By all means—by all means.” The Prince appeared to be doing his best to look politely hopeful. “Will you require money for expenses?—but yes, of course you will. And naturally I will provide it, in advance. And in addition a great reward, a thousand gold coins or the equivalent, if you are successful.”

      
Wen Chang raised an eyebrow at the extravagant size of the reward. Then he bowed slightly in his seated position. “Both provisions will certainly be welcome. The expenses because I shall be proceeding as a private investigator, with no official status in this land, and the purchase of information—not to mention a bribe or two—may be essential. I presume that, although you will of course organize a pursuit, a part of your caravan will be going on into the city?”

      
“Yes. The remaining goods that my caravan is carrying must be delivered there, as well as our passenger. Meanwhile I, with some of my swifter riders, will endeavor to follow the thieves and overtake them—there is nothing else I can do.”

      
“Of course not—how many men are you going to send into the city, then?”

      
Al-Farabi took thought. “Perhaps a dozen. That should be an adequate guard for my passenger and my cargo for the remainder of the journey.”

      
“Good. When those dozen men have seen your remaining freight—and your passenger, of course—safely to their destination—by the way, I suppose there are no more Swords still with you? Or any comparable treasures?”

      
“No, nothing at all like that.”

      
“I see. Then, when your dozen men who are going on to the city have seen to the safe disposal of your remaining goods, will you place those men at my disposal? Since I will be unable to call upon official forces in Eylau, it may be necessary at some stage to use a substitute.”

      
“Of course—I shall place a dozen men, with Lieutenant Komi at their head, at your command.” The Prince paused delicately. “You realize I cannot be sure of the attitude of the Hetman, who rules the city, toward such a private army. I do not know him.”

      
“Nor do I. But a dozen men are hardly an unusually large bodyguard for a rich merchant, and many such must pass in and out of Eylau. And even if my true mission should become known to the Hetman, well, thief takers are welcome in most cities.”

      
“Then of course you may have the guard. And for your expenses, all the proceeds for the merchandise when it is delivered—may all the gods help you to recover and retain the Sword!”

Chapter Two

Chapter Two

      
Shortly after dawn on the following morning, Kasimir stood under tall palms beside the Magistrate, watching while al-Farabi and about two-thirds of his men finished packing up their tents, mounted their rested animals, and rode back out into the desert in the direction from which they had come yesterday.

      
Wen Chang’s pavilion had already been struck, and his temporary servant dismissed. It only remained for him and Kasimir to mount their own riding-beasts and start out in the direction of Eylau, which was still two days’ travel distant. Travelers going in that direction followed an obvious and well-traveled road that could hardly lead to anywhere but the great city. Lieutenant Komi, calling orders now and then to his comparatively small detachment of Firozpur troopers, rode a few meters behind Kasimir and Wen Chang. Eleven soldiers, looking fierce and capable, followed their officer today, with the pack animals bearing the caravan’s cargo bringing up the rear. Among the cargo were a few latticework crates containing winged messengers, small birdlike creatures used as couriers. Al-Farabi had ordered his officer to let him know immediately of any and all developments affecting the search for his lost Sword in the great city.

      
Wen Chang opened the morning’s conversation with his younger companion in a pleasant way, speculating on the nature of the city they were approaching, a metropolis neither of them had ever seen before. Soon Kasimir had been put thoroughly at ease. He found himself telling the older man more of his background, ending with the recent chain of more or less commonplace events which found him now on his way to the White Temple in Eylau, where the temple’s usually efficient placement service would more than likely be able to help him find a good place in which to practice medicine.

      
Their conversation gradually faded, but the ensuing silence possessed a comfortable and companionable quality. Presently, when no words had been exchanged for some time, Wen Chang brought out a folded paper from somewhere in his traveler’s robe; he unfolded this paper into a map, and squinted at it between glances at the ascending sun and the empty land around them.

      
“I suppose you are an experienced traveler, Magistrate.”

      
“Not as experienced as I should like to be. To enter a strange land is to be presented with a vast and intricate puzzle.”

      
By now they had been about two hours on their way. Wen Chang, map still in hand, muttered something and suddenly turned his mount aside from the well-traveled way. Making a detour to his right, he went riding for the top of a sizable hill that rose no more than a hundred meters from the road.

      
Kasimir turned his mount too, and followed, completely in the dark as to the purpose of this detour. Glancing back, he saw Lieutenant Komi, his expression stoic and incurious, bringing his men and the pack animals along.

      
At the top of the barren hill the leader halted, and then the whole group followed. From this vantage point there was nothing to be seen but more desert in every direction. Still Wen Chang sat his mount for what seemed to Kasimir a long time, his eyes narrowed to slits against the wind, and shaded under the folded gray hood of his desert robe. He was intently scanning the empty landscape on all sides.

      
Twice, as the silence lengthened, Kasimir almost broke into it with a curious question, but he forbore. He was for the third time just on the point of yielding to curiosity when Wen Chang spoke at last.

      
“The place where the Sword was stolen, according to the information given me by yourself and Prince al-Farabi, is a long way from the city. Too far, probably, for anyone to travel without stopping to renew his supply of water. And even if our thief’s destination was not Eylau, he would still most likely need to obtain water somewhere in this region.” The Magistrate paused. “But he did not come to Abohar Oasis for water while I was encamped there. The people there discussed each new arrival, whether by day or night. Therefore…”

      
“Yes sir?”

      
“Therefore he sought out another source of water, somewhere in this region.”

      
“May I see the map, sir?” Gripping the paper tightly in the wind when the Magistrate handed it over, Kasimir pored over it for a few moments. Then he announced: “According to this there are no other oases or springs in the area we are considering.”

      
“Exactly. Therefore…”

      
“Yes?”

      
There was no immediate answer from Wen Chang, who was still staring into the blue heat-shimmer that ruled the far horizon, but now had fixed the direction of his eyes. Following the aim of the Magistrate’s gaze, Kasimir was at last able to make out what looked like traces of white smoke, or more likely dust, hanging in the distant air. He thought that if that dust indicated the presence of a body of people or animals, their movement must be very slow. The cloud, as far as he could tell, was remaining in the same place.

      
Wen Chang turned in his saddle. “Lieutenant Komi, have we reserves of water enough to safely take a side trip? An excursion as far as yon dust cloud?”

      
Komi, working his mount a little closer to them, squinted into the distance under the shade of a sun burnt hand. “Looks like that little cloud might be half a day’s travel from here. But if Your Excellency wishes us to make such an excursion, water is no problem. Our supplies are ample.” His tone was neutral, giving away no more than his expression did; it was impossible to tell what he thought of the advisability of taking such a side trip.

      
“Then we will do it.” And Wen Chang immediately urged his mount down the side of the hill away from the road.

      
Midday gave way to afternoon as they traveled. Kasimir sipped sparingly at his canteen, and chewed on some dried meat and fruit. There was a stop to freshen the animals’ mouths with water. In the hours since they had left the direct road to Eylau the country had changed, become more merciless, with smooth desert giving way to low crags and boulders and broken outcroppings of black rock. Here and there the landscape opened before the animals’ hooves in a sudden crevice, compelling a detour. But gradually the wisps of white dust in the sky grew closer.

      
Komi’s estimate of half a day for this side journey had been only a little too large. But eventually the source of the dust was near enough for them to identify it: a gang of laborers, several score of them, who toiled like well-disciplined ants in the hot sun, under the direction of whip-cracking overseers.

      
Before the investigators reached the work site, they came upon the recent product of the workers’ labor. It was a road that did not show on the map, obviously newly made. It was a real road, suitable even for wheeled vehicles, as opposed to a mere trail through the landscape, and plainly its making had not been an easy or a pleasant task. As Wen Chang and his party began to follow the road, moving now at increased speed, Kasimir noted where minor crevices in the earth had been filled in, and a steep-sided arroyo bridged with rude stonework, leaving a passage under the bridge for rushing floodwaters when they came as occasionally they must.

      
The road’s winding course among protruding rocks led Wen Chang and his followers inexorably toward the crew who still labored to extend it. But before the road drew very near the place where its creators were now toiling, it had to turn and run patiently along the side of a ridge. The ridge was a mass of sharp rock twice the height of a man, offering no soft spots to cut through, and no gentle slopes to offer a start for ramp-building. Then without warning the road turned again, almost at right angles, cutting straight and level through the obstacle.

      
Just as the Magistrate was approaching the smooth-sided cut driven through the rock, he stopped suddenly and held up a hand, halting his small cavalcade behind him. By now the workers on the far side of the ridge were so close that their metal tools, probably steel and magically hardened bronze, could be heard clinking against rock. A dozen or more of the laborers were chanting in surprisingly hearty voices as they worked.

      
So far there was no sign that anyone among the road-building crew had become aware of the approach of Wen Chang and his party.

      
A moment after Wen Chang reined in his riding-beast he had dismounted, and was closely inspecting the sides of the cut. Whatever he saw made him nod with satisfaction.

      
In an instant Kasimir had dismounted too, and was standing mystified beside the older man. But the young physician’s puzzlement was only momentary.

      
“These are strange marks in the ridge,” he breathed, with something like awe. “Long and smooth and easy, like those a knife or an ordinary sword might make in cheese or butter. I take these marks to mean that the Sword called Stonecutter has been used on this rock.” And he gave Wen Chang a glance of open admiration.

      
“Exactly so.” Wen Chang looked around, and it seemed to Kasimir for a moment that the Magistrate was almost purring with satisfaction. “Lieutenant,” Wen Chang ordered, “send a few of your men secretly around to the other side of this work camp. If anyone should attempt to sneak out that way when we enter, detain them, whether they are carrying a Sword or not, and bring them to me.”

      
The lieutenant had made no comment on the discovery of the Sword’s marks in the cut rock, though Kasimir thought he could hardly have failed to be impressed. Now Komi saluted and turned back to his small column to deliver some low-voiced orders.

      
Presently Wen Chang remounted, and, with Kasimir beside him, and Lieutenant Komi, now attended by only seven troopers, supporting him in the rear, rode boldly forth, through the divided ridge, along the just-completed last hundred meters of the road in the direction of the laborers’ camp. In a moment the first of the scores of workers had become aware of their approach, and the sounds of labor faltered. But almost at once the whips of several overseers cracked, and the chink of metal on stone picked up again.

      
From the square of shade produced by a square of faded cloth supported on rude poles, a foreman was now coining forward to receive his visitors. He was a corpulent man of modest height and middle age, wearing over his tunic a broad leather belt with an insignia of the Hetman’s colors, gray and blue. He looked worried, not unreasonably, at the sight of all these armed men in the garb of desert warriors, who outnumbered his small staff of overseers. Still, he managed to put a bold tone into his salutation.