Of the demon and Arpo Relent, there was no sign, but we could see Flea’s body lying among boulders just this side of the muddy bank, and Midge’s bloody form was sprawled flat on its face two-thirds of the way down the track. Tiny, however, seemed to have vanished, perhaps inside the burning wreckage, and perhaps the same fate had taken Tulgord Vise, for he too was nowhere to be seen.
Skidding and stumbling, Relish had almost reached Midge.
And the ferry?
Fifty or more reaches out on the river, a large, flat-decked thing, on which stood four horses, and a tall carriage, black and ornate as a funeral bier. Figures standing at the stern rail were visible.
Sardic Thew, our most venerable host, was staring intently down at the burning carriage. He licked his lips. “Is she-is she?”
“Dead?” asked I. “Oh yes, indeed.”
“You are certain?”
I nodded.
He wiped at his face, and then reached a trembling hand beneath his robes and withdrew a silk bag that jingled most fetchingly. He settled its substantial weight into my palm.
I dipped my head in thanks, hid the fee beneath my cloak and then walked a half-dozen paces away to settle my gaze on that distant ferry.
Behind me a conversation began.
“Gods below!” hissed Apto Canavalian. “The Dantoc-an old woman-”
“A vicious beast, you mean,’ growled Sardic Thew. “Relations of mine got into financial trouble. Before I could assume the debts, that slavering bitch pounced. It was the daughter she wanted, you see. For her pleasure pits. Just a child! A sweet, innocent-”
“Enough!” I commanded, wheeling round. “Your reasons are you own, sir. You have said more than I need hear, do you understand?” And then I softened my eyes and fixed them upon a pale, trembling Purse Snippet. “So few, Lady, dare believe in justice. Ask our host, if you must hear more of this sordid thing. For me, and understand this well, I am what I am, no more and no less. Do I sleep at night? Most serenely, Lady. Yes, I see what there is in your eyes when you look upon me. Does redemption await me? I think not, but who can truly say, till the moment of its arrival. If you seek some softness in your self-regard, find it by measure against the man who stands before you now. And should you still find nothing of worth within you, then you can indeed have my life.”
After a time, she shook her head. That, and nothing more.
Sellup arrived. “Anybody see Nifty’s head? I lost it. Anyone?”
“Do you believe that art possesses relevance in the real world?”
“Now, that is indeed a difficult question. After all, whose art?”
To that I shrugged. “Pray, don’t ask me.”
Knives, garrotes, poison, so very crass. Oh, in my long and storied career, I have made use of them all as befits my profession, but I tell you this. Nothing is sweeter than murder by word, and that sweetness, dear friends, remains as fresh today as it did all those many years ago, on that dusty ridge that marked the end of Cracked Pot Trail.
Did I receive my reward from Purse Snippet? Why, on the night of the tumultuous party upon the awarding of the Century’s Greatest Artist to Brash Phluster (such a bright, rising star!), she did find me upon a private island amidst the swirl of smiling humanity, and we spoke then, at surprising length, and thereafter-
Oh dear, modesty being what it is, I can take that no further.
It was a considerable time afterwards (months, years?) that I happened to meet the grisly Nehemoth, quarry of ten thousand stone-eyed hunters, and over guarded cups of wine a few subjects were brushed, dusted off here and there in the gentle and, admittedly, cautious making of acquaintances. But even without that most intriguing night, it should by now be well understood that the true poet can never leave a tale’s threads woefully unknotted. Knotting the tale’s end is a necessity, to be sure, isn’t it? Or, rather if not entirely knotted, then at least seared, with finger tips set to wet mouth. To cut the sting.
So, with dawn nudging the drowsing birds in this lush garden, the wives stirring from their nests and the moths dipping under leaf, permit me to wing us back to that time, and to one last tale, mercifully brief, I do assure you.
Thus.
“It is a true measure of civilization’s suicidal haste,” said Bauchelain, “that even a paltry delay of, what? A day? Two? Even that, Mister Reese, proves so unpalatable to its hapless slaves, that death itself is preferable.” And he gestured with gloved hand towards all that the passing of the dust cloud now revealed upon that distant shore.
Emancipor Reese puffed for a time on his pipe, and then he shook his head. “Couldn’t they see, Master? That is what I can’t get. Here we were, and it’s not like that old ferryman there was gonna turn us round, is it? They missed the ride and that’s that. It baffles me, sir, that it does.”
Bauchelain stroked his beard. “And still you wonder at my haunting need to, shall we say, adjust the vicissitudes of civilization as befits its more reasonable members? Just so.” He was quiet for a time until he cleared his throat and said, “Korbal Broach tells me that the city we shall see on the morn groans beneath the weight of an indifferent god, and I do admit we have given that some thought.”
“Oh? Well, Master,” said Emancipor, leaning on the rail, “better an indifferent one than the opposite, wouldn’t you say?”
“I disagree. A god that chooses indifference in the face of its worshippers has, to my mind, Mister Reese, reneged on the most precious covenant of all. Accordingly, Korbal and I have concluded that its life is forfeit.”
Emancipor coughed out a lungful of smoke.
“Mister Reese?”
“Sorry!” gasped the manservant, “but I thought you just said you mean to kill a god!”
“Indeed I did, Mister Reese. Heavens forbid, it’s not like there’s a shortage of the damned things, is there? Now then, best get you some rest. The city awaits our footfalls upon the coming dawn and not even an unmindful god can change that now.”
And we can all forgive their not hearing the muttering that came from the ferryman’s dark hood as he hunched over the tiller, one hand fighting the currents, and the other beneath his breeches. “That’s what you think.”