Nodgen, as a bristly Brokelsh, was content to dunk his head in the stream and splash water vigorously all over himself. Hunch, being a Tryfant — and you know how foppish they can be on occasion — had to go the whole hog and give himself the full treatment. Mind you, although I say I have no feelings one way or the other for Tryfants, I had seen enough of Hunch by now to have summed him up better, I fancy, then he guessed or knew himself. And Nodgen shared my opinion. Hunch was a Tryfant, sure enough, not above four foot six in height and full of quivers and quavers and always with an eye open for the nearest bolt hole — but he had gone with us through the horrors of the Moder.
“Jak,” said Quienyin as I turned away from the stream, shaking myself like a collie.
“Aye,” I said, blowing water. “Aye, Quienyin. What you have to say is overdue.”
“Come a little way apart. Much Is To Be Said.”
Those capital Capital Letters, as it were, alerted me. I followed the Wizard of Loh into the shadows of the tufa trees and we settled down, facing each other so that we might keep an eye open on each other’s back.
I said, bluntly, “You have sussed Phu-Si-Yantong and you do not care for what you have found.”
He rubbed his fingers through that reddish hair, shoving the turban aside, uncaring if it fell to the ground.
“We Wizards of Loh set store by certain standards. We have power and we try not to abuse it. Certainly we lust after gold and gems and suchlike baubles — or some of us — but it is the pursuit of knowledge and its manipulation that is our goal and that sustains us. We do not seek petty princely dominion.”
“But…”
“But, Jak the Sturr, I have been overcome. I entertain the liveliest respect and admiration for San Yantong. He represented all that was fundamentally encouraging about us Wizards of Loh. He would make a stir in the world, we all said-”
I stared at Quienyin. “He was your tutor.”
Quienyin did not flinch back. “No. We do not work on that basis in Loh, where we are trained. Not at all. And, also, we never discuss this training. But our comradeship down the Moder has-”
“It seems to me, Quienyin, there has been altogether too much talk about this comradeship. Methinks there is too much protestation going on.”
He would not know my source for the adapted quote; but Nalgre ti Liancesmot expresses similar sentiments in Part Three of the Seventh Book of The Vicissitudes of Panadian the Ibreiver. He nodded again; but it was not an unthinking nod. Rather, it was the expression of a man who has reached a conclusion.
“Now that I am a little aware of the quality of person I am to do business with, I agree with you.”
“So you think you know who I am?”
“Certainly. You are Jak, calling himself the Sturr, claiming to hail from Hamal — or Djanduin or Hyrklana if the mood takes him — a paktun, probably a hyr-paktun. Is there any other quality you would wish me to assume you possess?”
The old devil was thrusting the gimlet right in, well enough. I warmed to him.
“I have had dealings with Wizards of Loh before. I respect their arts. I respect their integrity insofar as I have met with it. I own to a grievous debt outstanding to a Wizard in Ruathytu-”
“You refer to San Rening? Que-si-Rening who was resident and secret Wizard of Loh to Queen Thyllis?”
I shook my head in amazement. “I do. He assisted me and I promised to aid him, and I have not done so.”
“Do not trouble your head over San Rening-”
“No!” I said. “He is not dead?”
“No. He effected his escape. It was prettily done. I did not know you knew him. He lives now in safety and practices at a small court in the Dawn Lands. It is not a useful thing for you to know which-”
“No. I agree. But I am glad he is a free man again.”
“But San Yantong…”
“Do you also know Khe-Hi-Bjanching?”
Bjanching was that certain Wizard of Loh with whom Delia and I and others had gone through the adventure of the doors and the test — and the pit, too, by Vox! — and he had taken up residence in my home of Esser Rarioch. Now he had been banished back to Loh by superior sorcery and I wondered if he was well, as I wondered if all my friends who had been sent sorcerously packing off to their homes were well.
“I have heard the name, only. He is a new and young adept and has his name to make.”
“If you contact him on whatever astral plane you go wandering in when you are in lupu, tell him he is missed.”
He inclined his red-haired head.
“As you please.”
“And now — about this kleesh Yantong.”
He talked, slowly at first and then warming to his subject as his indignation overcame him. Yantong had been defying the sacred tenets of the Wizards of Loh. Always the Sans exercised their power from the background, from the shadows. Now Yantong wanted to strut forth and hog the limelight, to take the power and be seen to take it. slaying all who stood in his path. Quienyin was quite clearly shattered. He told me a few things I did not know; but generally he merely recited what I knew of Yantong’s sins against humanity.
“And yet,” I said, “he is a man. There must be something of good in him. Surely, everything has not been thrown away?”
“I would like to think that, Jak. But if there is aught of goodness left in him, I have not descried it.”
I let out a breath.
“Well. I’ll put a blade through his guts if we meet, if I can; but I’ll still like to think he’s not all evil. Can there be such a thing as a totally evil man?”
“Theory says not. But we have to test that theory.”
“Yes — and my Khamorro?”
“You mean, of course, Turko the Shield?”
I refused to be amazed.
“You know much. I accept that, and I respect your still tongue and your friendship. Yes, I mean Turko.”
“He quitted Herrelldrin. You will not be surprised if I tell you he attempted to reach Vallia-”
“Attempted?”
“He is down in South Pandahem. As a Khamorro he works in a booth in a fairground-”
“My Turko!”
“It is a common occupation for the Khamsters-”
“Aye, it is. And they do not like anyone but themselves calling them Khamster.”
“So I believe. He is well, and seems to be resigned to his fate. There is a girl and a man — but they veil their emotions.
If you go to South Pandahem you will find him at the Sign of the Golden Prychan in Mahendrasmot.”
“I’ve never been there. But I shall go.”
Quienyin shifted around. He licked his lips. If he weren’t a Wizard of Loh I’d have thought he was nerving himself to ask something. We spoke a little, then at random, waiting for the burs to pass so that we might resume our flight. At last he said, in a straight, fierce voice, “And if I went to Vallia, you believe I would be well received?”
If he wasn’t going to come out with it, neither was I.
“Yes. Go to Vondium. Go to the Imperial Palace. You have the presence to gain audience of the empress. She will receive you kindly, if you tell her — certain things she will wish to know.”
“Thank you — Jak. The prospect pleases me.”
“You will be right royally welcome, Quienyin.”
Tyfar was moving about down by the fluttrells and a general animation stirred our little camp as we prepared to carry on.
“Of course,” I said. “The empress may not be in Vondium. She is often away about her own affairs. Then ask to see the Prince Majister, Drak. Or Kov Farris. You will, I am sure, know just who best to see.”
“I shall — Jak.”
I stood up. I stretched. Then, sharply, I said, “And my friends in Hyrklana?”
“I shall attempt to obtain news.”
“Good. Now it seems we are moving on.”
Chapter six
We reached Astrashum, the city from which expeditions set out for the Humped Land. In this place Hunch, Nodgen, and I had been auctioned off on the slave block. The man who had bought us, Tarkshur the Lash, a Kataki, had ventured into the Moder filled with avarice. He had been left with his tail fast gripped in the uncuttable tentacle of one horrific kind of Snatchban. The decision seemed to me sound to banish memories of the Moder from my mind.