‘You seem to have learned how to talk, Perraine,’ Sephrenia said. ‘You were always so silent before.’
He smiled. ‘It was my accent, little mother,’ he said. ‘I didn’t want people making fun of me.’ He took her wrists and kissed her palms in greeting and asked her blessing.
‘You remember Kurik?’ Sparhawk said.
‘Of course,’ Perraine replied. ‘He trained me with the lance Hello, Kurik. How’s Aslade?’
‘Very well, Sir Perraine,’ Kurik said. ‘I’ll tell her you asked. What was that business back there all about-with Ulesim, I mean?’
‘He’s one of the officious toads who’ve attached themselves to Arasham.’
‘Is he really a disciple?’
Perraine snorted. ‘I doubt that Arasham even knows his name,’ he said. ‘Of course there are days when Arasham doesn’t even know his own. There are dozens like Ulesim—self-appointed disciples who go around bothering honest people He’s probably five miles out into the desert by now and riding very hard to get away Arasham is very firm with people who overstep what little authority he gives them. Why don’t we all sit down?’
‘How did you manage to accumulate so much power, Perraine?’ Sephrenia asked him. ‘Ulesim behaved as if you were some king or something.’
‘It wasn’t really too hard,’ he replied. ‘Arasham has only two teeth in his head—and they don’t meet. I give him a tender, milk-fed veal every other week as a token of my unspeakable regard for him. Old men are very interested in their bellies, so Arasham is profuse in his thanks. The disciples aren’t blind, so they defer to me because of Arasham’s supposed favour. Now, what brings you to Dabour?’
‘Voren suggested that we look you up,’ Sparhawk said. ‘We need to talk with someone here, and we didn’t want to attract too much attention.’
‘My house is yours,’ Perraine said ironically, ‘such as it is. Who is it you need to talk with?’
‘A physician named Tanjin,’ Sephrenia told him, removing her veil.
Perraine looked at her rather closely ‘You are looking a bit unwell, Sephrenia,’ he said, ‘but couldn’t you find a physician in Jiroch?’
She smiled briefly ‘It’s not for me, Perraine,’ she told him. ‘It has to do with someone else. Do you know this Tanjin?’
‘Everybody in Dabour knows him. He keeps quarters in the back of an apothecary shop in the central square. His house is being watched, though. There are rumours going about that he dabbles in magic sometimes, and the zealots have been trying to catch him at it.’
‘It might be better to walk to the square, wouldn’t you say?’ Sparhawk asked.
Perraine nodded.
‘And I think we’ll wait until just before the sun goes down. That way we’ll have some darkness when we come out—just in case we need it.’
‘You want me to go with you?’
‘It might be better if Sephrenia and I went alone,’ Sparhawk replied. ‘You have to stay here, and we don’t. If Tanjin’s under suspicion, visiting him could jeopardize your position here in Dabour.’
‘Stay out of alleys, Sparhawk,’ Kurik growled.
Sparhawk motioned to Flute, and she came to him obediently He put his hands on her shoulders and looked directly into her face ‘I want you to stay here with Kurik,’ he told her.
She looked at him gravely, then impudently crossed her eyes at him.
‘Stop that,’ he said. ‘Listen to me, young lady, I’m serious.’
‘Just ask her, Sparhawk,’ Sephrenia advised. ‘Don’t try to order her around.’
‘Please, Flute,’ he implored. ‘Will you please stay here?’
She smiled sweetly, put her hands together in front of her, and curtsied.
‘You see how easy it is?’ Sephrenia said.
‘Since we’ve got some time, I’ll fix you all something to eat,’ Perraine said, rising to his feet.
‘Did you know that all your bottles are leaking, Sir Perraine?’ Kurik said, pointing at the dripping vessels hanging from the rafters.
‘Yes,’ Perraine replied. ‘They make a mess on the floor, but they help to keep it cool in here.’ He went to the hearth and fumbled for a few moments with flint, steel and tinder He built up a very small fire of twigs and twisted chunks of the branches of desert shrubs. Then he set a kettle on the fire, took a large pan, and poured oil in it. He set the pan on the coals and took several chunks of meat out of a covered bowl. As the oil began to smoke, he dropped the meat into the pan. ‘I’m afraid it’s only mutton,’ he apologized. ‘I wasn’t expecting company.’ He spiced the sizzling meat liberally to disguise its flavour, then brought heavy plates to the table. He went back to the fire and opened an earthenware jar. He took a pinch of tea from the jar, dropped it into a mug, and poured hot water from the kettle into the mug. ‘For you, little mother,’ he said, delivering the mug to her with a flourish.
‘How very nice,’ she said. ‘You’re such a dear, Perraine.’
‘I live but to serve,’ he said a bit grandiosely He brought fresh figs and a slab of cheese to the table, then set the smoking pan in the centre of it.
‘You’ve missed your calling, my friend,’ Sparhawk said.
‘I learned to cook for myself a long time ago. I could afford a servant, but I don’t trust strangers.’ He sat down. ‘Be careful out there, Sparhawk,’ he cautioned as they began to eat. ‘Arasham’s followers are a bit limp between the ears, and they’re all obsessed with the idea of catching some neighbour committing a minor transgression. Arasham preaches every evening, after the sun goes down, and he manages to come up with some new prohibition every night.’
‘What’s the latest one?’ Sparhawk asked.
‘Killing flies. He says that they’re the messengers of God.’
‘You’re not serious.’
Perraine shrugged. ‘I think he’s running out of things to forbid, and his imagination is severely limited. You want some more of this mutton?’
‘Thanks all the same, Perraine,’ Sparhawk said, taking a fig instead, ‘but one chunk of mutton is my limit.’
‘One chunk a day?’
‘No. One a year.’
Chapter 22
The sun was turning the western sky a rusty colour when Sparhawk and Sephrenia entered the square near the centre of Dabour, and the light reflecting from the late-afternoon sky bathed the walls of the buildings and the faces of the people in the square with a ruddy glow. Sephrenia had her left arm bound up in a makeshift sling, and Sparhawk held her other elbow solicitously as they walked.
‘It’s right over there,’ he said quietly, nodding his head towards the far side.
Sephrenia drew her veil a bit tighter across her nose and mouth, and they moved through the crowd milling around in the middle of the square.
Here and there along the walls of the buildings leaned hooded nomads in black robes, their eyes alert and filled with suspicion as they peered at every face that passed.
‘True believers,’ Sparhawk muttered sardonically, ‘ever alert for the sins of their neighbours.’
‘It’s always been that way, Sparhawk,’ she replied. ‘Self-righteousness is one of the most common—and least attractive—characteristics of man.’ They passed one of the watchers and entered the smelly shop.
The apothecary was a chubby little man with an apprehensive expression on his face. ‘I don’t know if he’ll consent to see you,’ he said when they asked to speak with Doctor Tanjin. ‘He’s being watched, you know.’
‘Yes,’ Sparhawk said. ‘We saw several of the watchers outside Please advise him that we’re here. My sister’s arm needs attention.’
The nervous apothecary scurried through a curtained doorway at the back of the shop. A moment later, he came back. ‘I’m sorry,’ he apologized. ‘He said he’s not taking any new patients.’
Sparhawk raised his voice. ‘How can a healer refuse to see an injured person? Does the oath they take mean so little to them here in Dabour? In Cippria, the physicia
ns are more honourable My good friend, Doctor Voldi, would never refuse his aid to the sick or hurt.’
It hung there for a moment, and then the curtains parted. The man who thrust his head out between them had a very large nose, a pendulous lower lip, jutting ears, and weak, watery eyes. He wore the white smock of a physician. ‘Did you say Voldi?’ he asked in a high-pitched, nasal voice ‘Do you know him?’
‘Of course,’ Sparhawk replied. ‘He’s a small man who’s going bald, and he dyes his hair He has a very large opinion of himself.’
‘That’s Voldi, all right. Bring your sister back here and be quick. Don’t let anybody outside the shop see you.’
Sparhawk took Sephrenia’s elbow and escorted her back through the curtains.
‘Did anyone see you come in?’ the big-nosed man asked nervously.
‘Any number of them, I’d imagine’ Sparhawk shrugged. ‘They lined the walls of the square like a flock of vultures, trying to sniff out sin.’
‘It’s not safe to talk that way in Dabour, my friend,’ Tanjin warned.
‘Perhaps.’ Sparhawk looked around. The room was shabby and was piled high in the corners with open wooden boxes and stacks of books. A persistent bumblebee batted its head against the single dirty window, trying to get out. There was a low couch against one wall and several straight-backed wooden chairs and a table in the centre. ‘Shall we get down to business, Doctor Tanjin?’ he suggested.
‘All right,’ the physician said to Sephrenia, ‘sit here, and I’ll have a look at that arm.’
‘You may if it’s going to make you happy, Doctor,’ she replied, taking the chair and removing her arm from the sling. She pulled back the sleeve of her robe to reveal a surprisingly girlish arm.
The doctor looked a bit hesitantly at Sparhawk. ‘You understand, of course, that I’m not being forward with your sister’s person, but I must examine her.’
‘I understand the procedure, Doctor.’
Tanjin took a deep breath and then bent Sephrenia’s wrist back and forth several times. Then he gently ran his fingers up her forearm and bent her elbow He swallowed hard and probed at her upper arm. Then he moved her arm up and down with his fingers lightly touching her shoulder. His close-set eyes narrowed. ‘There’s nothing wrong with this arm,’ he accused.
‘How kind you are to say so,’ she murmured, removing her veil.
‘Madame!’ he said in a shocked voice ‘Cover yourself!’
‘Oh, do be serious, Doctor,’ she told him. ‘We’re not here to talk about arms and legs.’
‘You’re spies!’ he gasped.
‘In a manner of speaking, yes,’ she replied calmly ‘But even spies have reason to consult with physicians once in a while.’
‘Leave at once,’ he ordered.
‘We’ve just got here,’ Sparhawk said, pushing back his hood. ‘Go ahead, sister dear,’ he said to Sephrenia. ‘Tell him why we’re here.’
‘Tell me, Tanjin,’ she said, ‘does the word “Darestim” mean anything to you?’
He started guiltily and looked at the curtained doorway, backing away from her.
‘Don’t be modest, Doctor,’ Sparhawk told him. ‘Word’s been going about that you cured the king’s brother and several of his nephews after they’d been poisoned with Darestim.’
‘There’s no proof of that.’
‘I don’t need proof. I need a cure. A friend of ours has the same condition.’
‘There’s no antidote or cure for Darestim.’
‘Then how is it that the king’s brother still lives?’
‘You’re working with them,’ the doctor accused, pointing vaguely out towards the square. ‘You’re trying to trick me into a confession.’
‘Them who?’ Sparhawk asked.
‘The fanatics who follow Arasham. They’re trying to prove that I use witchcraft in my practice.’
‘Do you?’
The doctor shrank back. ‘Please leave,’ he begged. ‘You’re putting my life in terrible danger.’
‘As you’ve probably noticed, Doctor,’ Sephrenia said, ‘we are not Rendorish. We do not share the prejudices of your countrymen, so magic does not offend us. It’s quite routine in the place we come from.’
He blinked at her uncertainly.
‘This friend of ours—the one I mentioned before—is very dear to us,’ Sparhawk told him, ‘and we’ll go to any lengths to find a cure for this poison.’ To emphasize his point, he opened his robe. ‘Any lengths at all.’
The doctor gaped at his mail-coat and sheathed sword.
‘There’s no need to threaten the doctor, brother dear,’ Sephrenia said. ‘I’m sure he’ll be more than happy to describe the cure he’s found. He is a healer, after all.’
‘Madame, I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ Tanjin said desperately. ‘There is no cure for Darestim. I don’t know where you heard all these rumours, but I can assure you that they’re absolutely false. I do not use witchcraft in my practice.’ He threw another quick, nervous glance at the curtained doorway.
‘But Doctor Voldi in Cippria told us that you did, in fact, cure members of the king’s family.’
‘Well yes, I suppose I did, but the poison wasn’t Darestim.’
‘What was it then?’
‘Uh Porgutta—I think.’ He was obviously lying.
‘Then why was it that the king sent for you, Doctor?’ she pressed. ‘A simple purge will cleanse the body of Porgutta. An apprentice physician knows that. Surely it couldn’t have been so mild a poison.’
‘Uh—well, maybe it was something else. I forget, exactly.’
‘I think, dear brother,’ Sephrenia said then to Sparhawk, ‘that the good doctor needs some reassurance—some positive proof that he can trust us and that we are what we say we are.’ She looked at the irritating bumblebee still stubbornly trying to break its way out through the window. ‘Have you ever wondered why you never see a bumblebee at night, Doctor?’ she asked the frightened physician.
‘I’ve never given it any thought.’
‘Perhaps you should.’ She began to murmur in Styric as her fingers wove the designs of the spell.
‘What are you doing?’ Tanjin exclaimed. ‘Stop that!’ He started to move towards her with one hand outstretched, but Sparhawk stopped him.
‘Don’t interfere,’ the big knight said.
Then Sephrenia pointed her finger and released the spell.
The buzzing sound of insect wings was suddenly joined by a tiny, piping voice that sang joyously in a tongue unknown to man. Sparhawk looked quickly at the dust-clouded window. The bumblebee was gone, and in its place there hovered a tiny female figure directly out of folklore. Her pale hair cascaded down her back between rapidly beating gossamer wings. Her little nude body was perfectly formed, and her minuscule face was so lovely as to stop the breath.
That is how bumblebees think of themselves,’ Sephrenia said quite calmly, ‘and perhaps that is what they truly are—by day a common insect, but by night a creature of wonder.’
Tanjin had fallen back on his shabby couch with his eyes wide and his mouth agape.
‘Come here, little sister,’ Sephrenia crooned to the fairy, extending one hand.
The fairy swooped about the room, her transparent wings buzzing and her tiny voice soaring. Then she delicately settled on Sephrenia’s outstretched palm with her wings still fanning at the air. Sephrenia turned and stretched her hand out to the shaking physician. ‘Isn’t she beautiful?’ she asked. ‘You may hold her if you like—but be wary of her sting.’ She pointed at the tiny rapier in the fairy’s hand.
Tanjin shrank away with his hands behind his back. ‘How did you do that?’ he asked in a trembling voice.
‘Do you mean that you can’t? The charges against you must be false then. This is a very simple spell—quite rudimentary, actually.’
‘As you can see, Doctor,’ Sparhawk said, ‘we have no qualms about magic. You can speak freely to us with no fear of being denounced to A
rasham or his fanatic followers.’
Tanjin tightly clamped his lips shut, continuing to stare at the fairy seated sedately on Sephrenia’s palm with fluttering wings.
‘Don’t be tiresome, Doctor,’ Sephrenia said. ‘Just tell us how you cured the king’s brother, and we’ll be on our way.’
Tanjin began to edge away from her.
‘I think, dear brother, that we’re wasting our time here,’ she said to Sparhawk. ‘The good doctor refuses to co-operate.’ She raised her hand. ‘Fly, little sister,’ she told the fairy, and the tiny creature soared once again into the air. ‘We’ll be going now, Tanjin,’ she said.
Sparhawk started to object, but she laid one restraining hand on his arm and started towards the door.
‘What are you going to do about that?’ Tanjin cried, pointing at the circling fairy.
‘Do?’ Sephrenia said, ‘why nothing, Doctor She’s quite happy here Feed her sugar from time to time, and put out a small dish of water for her In return, she’ll sing for you. Don’t try to catch her, though. That would make her very angry.’
‘You can’t leave her here!’ he exclaimed in anguish. ‘If anyone sees her here, I’ll be burned at the stake for witchcraft.’
‘He sees directly to the central point, doesn’t he?’ Sephrenia said to Sparhawk.
The scientific mind is noted for that.’ Sparhawk grinned. ‘Shall we go, then?’
‘Wait!’ Tanjin cried.
‘Was there something you wanted to tell us, Doctor?’ Sephrenia asked mildly.
‘All right. All right. But you must swear to keep it a secret that I told you this.’
‘Of course. Our lips are sealed.’
Tanjin drew in a deep breath and scurried to the curtained doorway to make certain that no one was listening outside. Then he turned and motioned them into a far corner where he spoke in a hoarse whisper. ‘Darestim is so virulent that there’s no natural remedy or antidote,’ he began.