Hoss’k went on. “Some time ago I took some of the items Dennis Nuel brought with him from his homeland—those that my Lord Baron did not require for other purposes—and put them in a dark closet, where they received neither light nor practice. I wished to observe them as they reverted to their original forms and find out what principles of essence were at the heart of each.
“To my shock I found that, after a few days, the tools stopped devolving altogether! Left in a dark room, his knife remains sharp as it was a week ago. Some of this may be due to the fact that it is made of a prince’s ransom in iron, but the fastenings on his clothing and backpack also remained frozen in intricate shapes that could have been made by no craftsman alive.”
Dennis glanced at Kremer. The Baron listened with hands clasped in front of him. Heavy brows cast his eyes into shadows.
Linnora’s gaze darted from Hoss’k to Dennis to Kremer with an expression of apparent anxiety. Dennis wondered what was going on. Was it something the fool had just said? He decided to stop this foolishness before it got any more ridiculous. “I don’t think you…”
But the scholar wouldn’t be interrupted. “The wizard’s things are positively amazing. Only once before have I encountered their like,” he said. “In our recent expedition into the western mountains north of the lands of the L’Toff, I and my escorts found a tiny house in the wilderness, all made of metal…”
Dennis stared at Hoss’k and felt his hands become fists. “You!” He knew, now, that he had seen the deacon one time before, on the tiny screen of the Shara Tech exploration ’bot. It was this fool, dressed in his red formal robes, who had overseen the dismantling of the zievatron!
“Ah,” the scholar nodded. “I see from your reaction that that little house was yours, Wizard. And that does not surprise me. For I found a little box in the side of the house, which opened under prying. And there I found a storehouse of incredible little tools! I took home a few to examine at my leisure and, while I have not been able to make them do anything discernible, they, like the items in your backpack, have not changed a whit since I acquired them!”
Hoss’k reached into his voluminous robes and pulled out a handful of small objects.
“A few of these came from a pair of rather large, ferocious demons we found guarding the little house. But they were no match for the thenners of my Lord’s brave guardsmen.”
Bits and pieces of shiny electronics spilled from his hand onto the table. Dennis stared at a claw arm from a “ferocious” little Sahara Tech exploration robot, and a broken elevatronics circuit board whose components alone were worth hundreds of thousands of dollars!
“Of course, we could not stay long enough to pursue a full investigation, you’ll understand. For that was when we encountered the Princess. It took our men two whole days to—ahem—track her from the little metal house to the rock cleft where she had become lost…”
“I wasn’t lost! I was hiding from your thrice-cursed northmen!” Linnora bit out.
“Hmm. Well. She claimed that she had come to the mountain glade because she sensed that something unusual had recently occurred in the area. I felt it wise to invite her to accompany our expedition back to Zuslik… for her own safety, of course.”
Dennis could barely contain himself. “So you’re the cretin who tore apart the return device,” he growled.
Hoss’k laughed. “Oh, Wizard, I completed the job of dissection, but our L’Toff Princess had already begun investigating the strange cabin when we arrived.”
He glanced at her to see if this was true, but Linnora only looked away, fanning herself. At that moment Dennis didn’t feel any favoritism. He gave Linnora some of the hot glare he had offered Hoss’k. Both of them had meddled where they had no business!
“Anyway, Wizard,” Hoss’k went on, “no harm was done, I’m sure. When my Lord Baron decides it is time for you to return to your homeland with your property, I’m sure we can return the metal I took and lend you all the help you’ll need in order to practice your little house back to perfection.”
Dennis swore softly in Arabic, the only way he could properly express his opinion of the idea.
Hoss’k seemed to sense some of the message, if not the meaning. His smile narrowed. “And if my Lord decides otherwise, why, then I will lead another expedition to the little house and reclaim all of that wonderful metal for my Lord’s treasury.”
Dennis sat back in stunned silence. If the airlock itself were ever actually moved, let alone dismantled, he would spend the rest of his life here!
Kremer had remained quiet during this exchange. Now he cut in.
“I believe we have strayed from the topic, my good Deacon. You were explaining to us what was so unusual about the tools once owned by our alien wizard. You said that they appear to remain unchanged, no matter how long they are left unpracticed.”
“Yes, my Lord.” Hoss’k bowed. “And there is only one way known to freeze a tool into its practiced form so it will remain in that condition forever, unable to revert to its starter state. In our land this technique is controlled only by the L’Toff.”
Linnora sat rigidly, not looking at Hoss’k or even at Dennis.
“The technique, as we all know, involves a member of the L’Toff race willingly investing a portion of his or her own life-force into the tool in question, spending a part of his or her life-span to make the Pr’fett permanent.”
Kremer spoke pensively. “A great gift, is it not, Wizard? The priests claim that the L’Toff were chosen by the gods…blessed with the talent to be able to make beautiful things beautiful forever.
“But all gifts have a price, do they not, scholar?”
Hoss’k nodded sagely. “Yes, my Lord. The talent has been a mixed blessing to the L’Toff. With their other gifts, it elevated them above other peoples. It also led to many unpleasant episodes of, well, what might be called attempted exploitation by others.”
Dennis blinked. This was all coming too fast, but even without reflection he could imagine how the L’Toff had suffered for their talent.
The Princess looked only at her own hands.
“Of course, the rest of the story is common knowledge,” Hoss’k said, chuckling. “Fleeing the greed of mankind, the L’Toff came to the western mountains, where an ancestor of our King Hymiel ceded them their present territory and made the old dukes of Zuslik their protectors.”
And Baron Kremer’s father deposed the last of the old dukes, Dennis realized.
“We were speaking of the wizard’s property,” Kremer reminded softly but severely.
Hoss’k bowed. “Of course. Now, what can we suppose when we find that the wizard’s property does not decay, does not devolve into crude starters? We are forced to conclude that Dennis Nuel is a member of the aristocracy of his homeland, a homeland in which both metal and life itself are cheap. Furthermore, it seems clear that the equivalent of the L’Toff in his country have been enslaved and put to use freezing Pr’fett within practiced objects so that they remain refined even when left unused for long periods. This exploitation has gone so far as to freezing even Nuel’s clothing. Here in Coylia no one has ever considered squandering the L’Toff talent on clothes—”
“Now just a darned minute,” Dennis cut in. “I think there are a few things that need to be—”
Hoss’k grinned and hurried on, cutting Dennis off. “—We must conclude, at last, that their expertise at different lands of essence—including the enslavement of little animals as integral parts of tools—plus this power over the L’Toff of their own land explains the wizardry of Dennis Nuel’s country.