Jack Vance Dying Earth 03 Cugel's Saga

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an alert look-out.
164
The night passed without incident, but in the morning, when breakfast was
served, Ermaulde failed to make an appearance.
As before Varmous searched the ship and the area enclosed by the guard-
fence, but, like Ivanello, Ermaulde had disappeared as if into thin air.
Varmous went so far as to knock on the door of Nissifer's cabin, to assure
himself that she was still aboard.
"Who is it?" came the husky whisper.
"It is Varmous. Are you well?"
"I am well. I need nothing."
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Varmous turned to Cugel, his broad face creased with worry. "I have never
known such dreadful events! What is happening?"
Cugel spoke thoughtfully: "Neither Ivanello nor Ermaulde went off by choice:
this is clear. They both rode the
Avventura, which seems to indicate that the bane also resides aboard the
ship."
"What! In the 'premier' class?"
"Such are the probabilities."
Varmous clenched his massive fist. "This harm must be learned and nailed to
the counter!"
"Agreed! But how?"
"Through vigilance and care! "At night no one must venture from his quarters,
except to answer the call of nature."
"To find the evil-doer waiting in the privy? That is not the answer."
"Meanwhile, we cannot delay the caravan," muttered Varmous. "Cugel, to your
post! Watch with care and discrimination."
The caravan once again set off to the east. The road skirted close under the
hills, which now showed harsh outcrops of rock and occasional growths of
gnarled acacia.
Doctor Lalanke sauntered forward and joined Cugel at the bow, and their
conversation turned to the strange disappearances. Doctor Lalanke declared
himself as mystified as everyone else. "There are endless possibilities,
though none carry conviction. For instance, I could suggest that the ship
itself is a harmful entity which during the night opens up its hold and
ingests a careless passenger."
"We have searched the hold," said Cugel. "We found only stores, baggage and
cockroaches."
"I hardly intended that you take the theory seriously. Still, if we contrived
ten thousand theories, all apparently absurd, one among them almost certainly
would be correct."
165
The three mimes came up to the bow and amused themselves by strutting back and
forth with long loping bent-kneed strides. Cugel looked at them with disfavor.
"What nonsense are they up to now?"
The three mimes wrinkled their noses, crossed their eyes and rounded their
mouths into pursy circles, as if in soundless chortling, and looked toward
Cugel sidelong as they pranced back and forth.
Doctor Lalanke chuckled. It is their little joke; they think that they are
imitating you, or so I believe."
Cugel turned coldly away, and the three mimes ran back down the deck.
Doctor Lalanke pointed ahead to a billow of clouds hanging above the horizon.
"They rise from Lake Zaol, beside Kaspara Vitatus, where the road turns north
to Torqual."
"It is not my road! I journey south to Almery."
"Just so." Doctor Lalanke turned away and Cugel was left alone at his vigil.
He looked around for the mimes, half-wishing that they would return and
enliven the tedium, but they were engaged in a new and amusing game, tossing
small objects down at the farlocks, which, when so struck, whisked high their
tails.
Cugel resumed his watch. To the south, the rocky hillside, ever more steep.
To the north, the Ildish Waste, an expanse streaked in subtle colors: dark
pink, hazy black-gray, maroon, touched here and there with the faintest
possible bloom of dark blue and green.
Time passed. The mimes continued their game, which the teamsters and even the
passengers also seemed to enjoy; as the mimes tossed down bits of stuff, the
teamsters and passengers jumped down to retrieve the objects.
Odd, thought Cugel. Why was every one so enthusiastic over a game so trifling?
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. . . One of the objects glinted of metal as it fell. It was, thought Cugel,
about the size and shape of a terce. Surely the mimes would not be tossing
terces to the teamsters? Where would they have obtained such wealth? [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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