Compleat Traveller in Black Read Free

Mightiness!” the guardsmen cried respectfully, bowing their heads as one, then let their captain continue.
    “Sire, we found these two clasped dying in each other’s arms. Each bore one bloody cudgel; each has a broken skull.”
    “Throw them in the river,” snapped Duke Vaul, and resumed his converse with the traveller.
    “You arrogate to yourself the right to laugh at human foolishness,” he said, and gave a wicked grin. “Then tell me this: are you yourself entirely wise?”
    “Alas, yes,” was the answer. “I have but one nature.”
    “If so, you can succeed where all my so-called wise men have failed. See you this idol?”
    “I could hardly avoid seeing it. It is a remarkable work of – ah – art. ”
    “It is claimed that a way exists to endow it with life, and when this way is found it will then set forth to lay waste the enemies of this city and execute justice upon them. By every means we have sought to bestow life upon it; we have given it blood, which as you doubtless know is life, from every class and condition of person. Even my consort, who but a few hours ago sat beside me on this throne” – the duke wiped an imaginary tear – “now hangs, throat gashed, on yonder gibbet. Still, though, the idol declines to come alive. We need its aid, for our enemies are abroad in every corner of the world; from Ryovora to the ends of the earth they plot our downfall and destruction.”
    The traveller nodded. “Some of what you say is true.”
    “Some? Only some? What, then, is false? Tell me! And you had better be correct, or else you shall go to join that stupid chief priest who finally tired my patience! You can see what became of him!”
    The traveller glanced up and spread his hands. Indeed it was obvious, what with the second, redly oozing, mouth the priest had lately acquired below his chin.
    “Well, first of all,” he said, all trace of laughter fading from his tone, “there does exist a way to bring the idol to life. And, second, yes, it will then destroy the enemies of Acromel. But, third, they do not hide in distant corners of the land. They are present in the city.”
    “Say you so?” Duke Vaul frowned. “You may be right, for, knowing what a powerful weapon we wield against them – or shall wield, when we unknot this riddle – they may well be trying to interfere with my experiments. Good! Go on!”
    “How so, short of demonstrating what I mean?”
    “You?” The duke jerked forward, clutching his throne’s arms so tightly his knuckles glistened white as mutton-fat. “You can make the idol come alive?”
    The traveller gave a weary and reluctant nod.
    “Then do it!” roared Duke Vaul. “But don’t forget! If you fail, a worse fate awaits you than my chief priest suffered!”
    “As you wish, so be it,” sighed the traveller. With his staff he made a curved pass in the air. The idol moved.
    Agshad in the posture of devotion did not open his clasped hands. But Lacrovas swung his sword, and Duke Vaul’s bearded head sprang from his shoulders. Pellidin let fall the three crushed persons from his hand and seized the body. That he squeezed instead, and the cupped hands of Agshad in the attitude of accepting sacrifice overflowed with ducal blood, expressed like juice from a ripe fruit.
    After that the idol stepped down from the altar and began to stamp on the priests.
     
    Thoughtfully, having made his escape unnoticed in the confusion, the traveller took to the road again.
    Perhaps there would be nothing worse to witness during this journey than what he had beheld in Acromel. Perhaps there would be something a million times as bad. It was to establish such information that he undertook his journeyings.
     
    In Kanish-Kulya they were fighting a war, and each side was breathing threatenings and slaughter against the other.
    “Oh that fire would fall from heaven and burn up our enemies!” cried the Kanishmen.
    “Oh that the earth would open and swallow up our enemies!” cried