any of a hundred other people, each designed to your specification. One might be a super assassin. Another might be a master thief. One might be... anything. A werewolf. You see what I mean?"
"Oh. Yeah." I'd begun to catch on but not clearly enough. The possibilities I'd imagined originally had been much too picayune.
"Armed with a completed book, that witch would be almost invincible. And as long as she lived in the Book of Shadows, she'd be immortal. If you killed the persona she was wearing, she'd still have ninety-nine lives. If she prepared properly. Plus her own. And she'd only be vulnerable in her natural form. Which she would avoid assuming because she would be vulnerable."
I got it. Sort of. It didn't make a lot of sense the way be said it, but nothing much about sorcery does, to me. "We've got big trouble, eh?"
"The biggest if the book is complete. I doubt that it can be, though. But even incomplete, it's a powerful tool. And almost anyone who knew what it was could use it—if she was foolish enough to write it in a language someone else could read. You wouldn't have to be a sorcerer. You'd just look up the page for sorcerer if that's what you wanted to be."
I thought about it. Hard. The more I thought, the more possibilities I saw and the less I liked this book. It sounded like a triple shot of Black Plague. "You think there's a chance it really exists? That it isn't just somebody's fancy?"
"Something exists that people are willing to kill for. But it just can't be complete." He sounded like he was whistling in the dark. "Else the thief wouldn't have gotten to it. But it would be dangerous in any state. It has to be destroyed, Mr. Garrett. Please go straight to the Dead Man. Urge him to exercise his entire intellect. My people will do everything within their power."
Tinnie's place in the mess was fading fast. The stakes seemed huge. I should've known it couldn't stay simple. My life never does. "Let me know if you come up with anything."
Gnorst nodded. He had given me more time and information than either of us had planned. Now he seemed anxious to see me go. I said, "We ought to excuse ourselves and attack our respective tasks."
"Indeed. My life has been complicated no end." He signalled. The old boy from the front door popped out of nowhere. He took me back the way we had come. Somebody scampered ahead to warn all the dwarves. They were all hard at work when I passed by.
Nobody is that industrious all the time.
13
I slipped out into the afternoon, leaned against the wall a dozen feet from Dwarf House's door, pondered my place in this exploding puzzle. The Book of Shadows. A real nasty. Did I have a moral obligation here? Gnorst and his gang knew how to handle it.
I understood the danger better by the minute. I was tempted by the book and didn't yet know how it could be useful to me. Pretty easy to see why Gnorst was scared of it.
If I stayed involved, I was going to have to cover my behind. There were some rough players out there. I didn't know them, but they knew me. Maybe it was time to drop by the Joy House, see if Morley had anything cooking.
I started toward his place, not hurrying, still trying to figure angles.
I didn't get there.
There was a whole gang of them but they were dwarves, so I had the reach. And for once in my young life I'd had the sense to go out dressed. I dented three heads and chucked one dwarf through a window. The owner came out and cussed and howled and threatened and kicked a dwarf I knocked down. Nobody paid him any attention. The rest of us were having too good a time.
I started out not really trying to hurt anybody. I just wanted to fend them off and get away. But they were playing for keeps. I decided I'd better argue more convincingly. My stick wasn't getting the message across.
Somebody whapped me up side the head with a house. It had to be a house. Nobody dwarf size could hit that hard. The lights went out.
Usually I come around slowly after I've been sapped.
"Oh. Yeah." I'd begun to catch on but not clearly enough. The possibilities I'd imagined originally had been much too picayune.
"Armed with a completed book, that witch would be almost invincible. And as long as she lived in the Book of Shadows, she'd be immortal. If you killed the persona she was wearing, she'd still have ninety-nine lives. If she prepared properly. Plus her own. And she'd only be vulnerable in her natural form. Which she would avoid assuming because she would be vulnerable."
I got it. Sort of. It didn't make a lot of sense the way be said it, but nothing much about sorcery does, to me. "We've got big trouble, eh?"
"The biggest if the book is complete. I doubt that it can be, though. But even incomplete, it's a powerful tool. And almost anyone who knew what it was could use it—if she was foolish enough to write it in a language someone else could read. You wouldn't have to be a sorcerer. You'd just look up the page for sorcerer if that's what you wanted to be."
I thought about it. Hard. The more I thought, the more possibilities I saw and the less I liked this book. It sounded like a triple shot of Black Plague. "You think there's a chance it really exists? That it isn't just somebody's fancy?"
"Something exists that people are willing to kill for. But it just can't be complete." He sounded like he was whistling in the dark. "Else the thief wouldn't have gotten to it. But it would be dangerous in any state. It has to be destroyed, Mr. Garrett. Please go straight to the Dead Man. Urge him to exercise his entire intellect. My people will do everything within their power."
Tinnie's place in the mess was fading fast. The stakes seemed huge. I should've known it couldn't stay simple. My life never does. "Let me know if you come up with anything."
Gnorst nodded. He had given me more time and information than either of us had planned. Now he seemed anxious to see me go. I said, "We ought to excuse ourselves and attack our respective tasks."
"Indeed. My life has been complicated no end." He signalled. The old boy from the front door popped out of nowhere. He took me back the way we had come. Somebody scampered ahead to warn all the dwarves. They were all hard at work when I passed by.
Nobody is that industrious all the time.
13
I slipped out into the afternoon, leaned against the wall a dozen feet from Dwarf House's door, pondered my place in this exploding puzzle. The Book of Shadows. A real nasty. Did I have a moral obligation here? Gnorst and his gang knew how to handle it.
I understood the danger better by the minute. I was tempted by the book and didn't yet know how it could be useful to me. Pretty easy to see why Gnorst was scared of it.
If I stayed involved, I was going to have to cover my behind. There were some rough players out there. I didn't know them, but they knew me. Maybe it was time to drop by the Joy House, see if Morley had anything cooking.
I started toward his place, not hurrying, still trying to figure angles.
I didn't get there.
There was a whole gang of them but they were dwarves, so I had the reach. And for once in my young life I'd had the sense to go out dressed. I dented three heads and chucked one dwarf through a window. The owner came out and cussed and howled and threatened and kicked a dwarf I knocked down. Nobody paid him any attention. The rest of us were having too good a time.
I started out not really trying to hurt anybody. I just wanted to fend them off and get away. But they were playing for keeps. I decided I'd better argue more convincingly. My stick wasn't getting the message across.
Somebody whapped me up side the head with a house. It had to be a house. Nobody dwarf size could hit that hard. The lights went out.
Usually I come around slowly after I've been sapped.
Similar Books
