Scott Thraxas and the Dance of Death

1. Auflage 2002
ISBN: 978-1-62675-662-5
Verlag: BookBaby
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 180 Seiten

Thraxas, private investigator, lives in the poor part of town, with a barbarian for a landlord, and a female ex-gladiator to help him when the fighting gets rough. This is the sixth book in the Thraxas series.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Scott, Martin

Leseproben

Chapter Two

I'm dreaming about the time I won a beer-drinking contest down in Abelesi. Seven opponents, and every one of them unconscious on the floor while I was still demanding more ale, and quickly. One of my finest moments. I'm rudely awakened by someone shaking my arm. I leap to my feet and make a grab for my sword.

"It's me," says Makri.

I'm angry at the invasion. "How often do I have to tell you to stay out of my room!" I yell at her. "I swear if you walk in here uninvited again I'll run you through."

"You couldn't run me through if I had both arms tied behind my back, you fat ox," retorts Makri, never one to smooth over a disagreement.

"One of these days I'm going to break you in half, you skinny troll-lover."

I notice that Makri is not alone.

"You remember Dandelion?" she says.

My heart sinks. It plummets. Even in a city full of strange characters, Dandelion stands out as a particularly odd young woman. She hired me on a case last year, and while I admit this worked out all right in the end, the whole affair didn't endear her to me. Dandelion is weird. Not barbaric like Makri or ethereal like the Elves. Just weird. Not least among the things I dislike about her is her habit of walking around with bare feet, something I'm utterly unable to account for. In a city full of refuse-strewn streets, it defies common sense. You're liable to step on a dead rat, or maybe worse. Besides this, she wears a long skirt covered with patterns from the zodiac, and spouts rubbish about communing with nature. She hired me on behalf of the talking dolphins in the bay, which was probably to be expected.

"What do you want?" I grunt. "The talking dolphins having problems again?"

The dolphins don't actually speak Turanian. Just a lot of strange whistles. I saw Dandelion communicating with them but I'm half-convinced she was making it up as she went along.

Dandelion tries to smile, but she seems nervous. With my sword in my hand I guess I don't put people at ease. I sheathe it, just in case the woman has anything useful to say. She did pay me with several valuable antique coins, and I'm not in a position to turn away paying clients no matter how peculiar they might be.

"Dandelion has a warning for you," says Makri.

Makri's keeping a straight face but I sense she's secretly amused. Springing Dandelion on me when I'm sleeping off ten beers is probably her idea of an excellent joke.

"A warning? From the dolphins?"

Dandelion shakes her head. "Not from the dolphins. Though they're still very grateful for your assistance. You should visit them some time."

"Next time I need to commune with nature I'll get right down to the beach. What's the warning?"

"You're about to be involved in terrible bloodshed."

Dandelion gazes at me. I gaze back at her. There's a brief silence, interrupted only by the cries of the hawkers outside. At the foot of the steps leading down from my outer door to the street there's an ongoing dispute over territory between a woman who sells fish and a man who's set up a stall for sharpening blades. They've been screaming at each other all week. Life in Twelve Seas is never peaceful.

"Terrible bloodshed? Is that it?"

Dandelion nods. I hunt around for my klee. It's finished.

"I'm an Investigator. I'm always surrounded by bloodshed. Comes with the territory. People round here just don't like being investigated."

"You don't understand," says Dandelion. "I don't mean a little violence. Or even a few deaths. I mean many, many deaths, more deaths than you can count. An orgy of blood-letting such as you've never encountered before."

My head's starting to hurt. The sight of Dandelion with her bare feet and odd clothes is irritating beyond measure. I'd like to bounce her down the stairs.

"Who gave you this warning? The Brotherhood? The Society of Friends?"

"No one gave it me. I read it in the stars."

Makri fails to suppress a giggle. I stare at both of them with loathing.

"You read it in the stars?"

"Yes," says Dandelion, nodding eagerly. "Last night on the beach. I hurried here as fast as I could to warn you. Because I owe you - "

"Will you get out of my office!" I roar. "Makri, how dare you bring this woman in here to bother me like this. If she's still here in five seconds I swear I'll kill you both. Don't you know I'm a busy man? Now get the hell out of here!"

Makri shepherds Dandelion from the room. She pauses at the door. "Maybe you ought to listen to her, Thraxas. After all, she came up with the goods during the dolphin case."

I tell Makri brusquely I'll be grateful if she never wastes my time again, and add a few curses I usually save for the race track. Makri departs, slamming the door. I open it to curse her again, then sit down heavily. My mood just got worse. I need more sleep. There's a knock on the outside door. I ignore it. It comes again. I continue to ignore it. My outside door is secured by a minor locking spell which is sufficient for keeping out most people, and I'm not in the mood for company. I lie down on my couch just as the door flies open and Lisutaris, Mistress of the Sky, strides into the room. Lisutaris, number one Sorcerer in Turai. Number one Sorcerer in all the Human lands, in fact, since she was elected Head of the Sorcerers Guild. She glares down at me.

"Why didn't you answer the door?"

"I was counting on the locking spell to keep out unwanted intruders."

Lisutaris smiles. A locking spell placed by the likes of me is never going to be a problem for such a powerful Sorcerer.

"Are you planning on lying there all day?"

I struggle to rise. Lisutaris is an important woman, and wealthy. She deserves respect, though as I've frequently seen her in a state of collapse due to overindulgence in the narcotic thazis, I don't feel the need to be too formal.

"Do you always greet your clients this way?"

"Only when I'm trying to sleep off the effect of beer. Is this a social call? And incidentally, why are you in disguise?"

"It's a professional call. I'm here to hire you. And I'm in disguise because I don't want anyone to recognise me."

Turai's Sorcerers wear a distinctive rainbow cloak, and as Lisutaris is an aristocratic woman, she'd normally have a fine gown under her cloak, along with jewellery, gold sandals and the like. Instead she's dressed in the plain garb of the lower classes, though any observer could tell that her extravagant hair wasn't coiffured at one of the cheap establishments you'd find in Twelve Seas. Even in a plain robe, Lisutaris, Mistress of the Sky, is a striking woman. She's only a little younger than me, but she's always been an careful with her looks.

"I see nothing's changed around here," she says, sweeping some junk off a chair and sitting down lightly. "Is it absolutely necessary for you to live in such squalor?"

"Private investigation never pays that well."

"You were well remunerated for your work at the Sorcerers Assemblage, I believe."

"Not as well remunerated as I should have been. And some recent investments have turned out less well than I anticipated."

"You mean you lost it all at the chariot races?"

"That's right."

Lisutaris nods. "I too lost money at the last meeting. Of course, I can afford it. Well, Thraxas, as you're in need of money, I expect you'll be glad to take on the case."

"Tell me about it."

There's a slight delay while Lisutaris lights a thazis stick. She offers me one, which I accept. Thazis is a mild narcotic for most people, but Lisutaris is a very heavy user. She invented a new kind of water pipe and developed a spell for making the plants grow faster. The citizens of Turai are proud that one of our own was recently elected as Head of the Sorcerers Guild, but they might be surprised if they knew the full extent of Lisutaris's habit. Generally she's too intoxicated to walk by the end of the day. She was never that suitable a candidate for Head of the Sorcerers Guild, but there wasn't a better one available from our city-state. Suitable or not, it was a relief for the Deputy Consul, the Consul and the King to have a Turanian elected. It guarantees us help from all the Sorcerers in the West should we come under attack from the Orcs again, which we will, sooner or later.

"Have you heard of the Sorcerer's green jewel?"

I shake my head. "I never made it past apprentice. My sorcerous knowledge has a lot of gaps."

"Not many people have heard of it. It's what you might call a state secret. Even I was unaware of its existence till I became privy to government secrets after my election as Head of the Guild. The green jewel is Turai's guarantee against unexpected invasion. In the hands of a powerful Sorcerer, the jewel acts as an all-seeing eye. No matter how private the Orcs might try to keep their affairs, we will always be able to tell when they're massing armies against us. So it's an important piece of rock."

I'm surprised to learn of this artefact, and a little puzzled by Lisutaris's explanation. "It sounds like a handy thing to have. But don't the Sorcerers Guild have plenty of spells for giving us advance warning?"

"In theory, we do. However the Orcish Sorcerers Guild has spent the last fifteen years in a concentrated attempt to negate every one of them. There used to be twenty or more far-seeing spells we could use. Government intelligence now indicates that this is down to two or three. The Orcs have successfully developed counter-spells to the rest. The Orcish Sorcerers Guild is a far more cohesive unit than most things in the East. Even when their states have been riven by internal wars, they've kept working away on the problem. If they come up with...