Read Online Kavin's World by David Mason - Free Book Online Page B

you could not seem to learn, I recall.”
    “An untrustworthy trick, for me, I remember,” I said, smiling in spite of all. “Damn it, Thuramon, that ointment smelled so vile that none needed to see me who had a nose. And when I tried to use the trick, I could be seen, though not well. Such half-invisibility is less use than none.”
    “Ah, that was because you would not learn to hold your mind in check,” Thuramon said. “More than half of all magic rests with the magician himself, not with the spells or the potions. Well, some day you may learn.”
    “I could use such witchcraft now,” I said, staring out over the walls. “If Granorek still holds… how to reach it?”
    “Granorek still holds,” Thuramon said. “And reaching it… well, there are more ways than one to be invisible. I can conduct you there, if you wish.”
    “Thuramon!”
    “Wait. For all magic, there’s a price.”
    “I found that out yesterday,” I said, grimly. “I thought you a friend, Thuramon. What’s this talk of price?”
    “And I thought I had taught you the Three Laws,” he said, looking hard at me. “Even between friends, the Laws hold. No work without price.”
    “And what will you have?” I asked. “Yesterday, I would not pay. Today… well, what? My right hand, possibly?”
    He looked at my forehead, and I saw he had noticed my iron-gray hair.
    “Yes, I see you paid something,” he said. “Well, this price is not like that. I have an enemy. Your enemy, as well, I think… or you’ll discover it so. I cannot reach that enemy, but you can. I want your word that before all else you will seek him out, no matter how long it may take, nor how far a journey, and slay him.”
    “For this promise, you’ll aid me in all ways, magical and otherwise, to clear the riders from Dorada?” I asked.
    “Yes. By the holy names of the Two who stand on the West and on the East, I do swear that,” Thuramon said, and I knew he would keep his word on that oath.
    We went at once to the quays, where my Luck lay once more, back from her night journey. I noticed, as we passed the prow, how Thuramon made an odd gesture at the figurehead, and I asked him why.
    “I know that lady,” he said, and that was all.
    Once aboard, in the cabin, he repeated the gesture before the curtained niche where the smaller figure was hidden. He had never been aboard the Luck before, and I did not ask him how he knew she was hidden there.
    I had already given my orders to the crew; we would lie at the quay while my sailing master brought round an oared fishing galley, a small craft which lay nearby. On deck, there was a thumping and clatter, as the men prepared to transfer a gun and other arms, down to the valley.
    I opened a jar of good wine, of which I knew Thuramon was more than fond, and we shared it in silence for a while.
    “You asked nothing about my payment,” he said at last.
    “You have my word,” I told him sipping my wine. “No more’s needed.”
    “You asked for no name,” he said. “You were never so restrained when you were my pupil.”
    “I was much younger then,” I said. “My curiosity’s edge grows dull with hacking away at the walls of wisdom.”
    “Excellently put, Prince. And good wine, too. Well, I shall tell some part of the matter… not all, but some.” He leaned back, his eyes on the curtained niche where the goddess Tana lived. “Tell me first, my Prince: when you found this ship, and what was concealed aboard her… did you find aught else beside that pretty figurine?”
    I had never mentioned anything of my various finds, to anyone. I cannot say why I kept the matter so secret, but for some reason, I did. Had Thuramon asked me then, I would have gladly shown him the things, but he did not ask.
    The oddments, the box of wizard’s tools and the other things, still lay in a chest, here in the cabin. I rose, and went to the chest, opened it and laid the contents out. Thuramon turned each object around, touching