Swords: 08 - The Fifth Book Of Lost Swords - Coinspinner’s Story Read Free Page A

explain its presence in the Temple.
           Scarcely had Kristin finished listening to this most unlikely story when more news came, a fresh discovery almost as difficult to believe. A lock on one of the Temple’s doors had accidentally jammed last night when the door was closed, effectively preventing the door from being secured in the usual way. The defect was a peculiar one—highly improbable, as the locksmith kept insisting—and it must have seemed to the woman who had turned the key at the hour of sunset that the door was securely locked as usual.
           Karel gave a slight shrug of his heavy shoulders. “The theft was accomplished by means of magic, Princess,” he said in his soft voice. “There’s no doubt of that.”
           “And a very powerful magic it must have been.” After a momentary hesitation, she asked: “A Sword?” Already she thought she knew the answer; and it would not be hard, she thought, to guess which Sword had been employed.
           “Very likely a Sword.” The old man nodded grimly. “I feel sure that Coinspinner has been used against us.”
           Once more their talk was interrupted. Now at last a witness had been discovered, one besides the poisoned guard who could give direct testimony. A shabby figure was hustled before the Princess. One of Sarykam’s rare beggars, who had spent most of the night huddled in a doorway on the far side of the square, and who now swore that at the height of the rainstorm he had seen a man wearing the blue-and-orange uniform of Culm carrying a bright Sword—it had certainly been no ordinary blade—carrying it drawn and raised, into the White Temple. Meanwhile, the beggar related, others in the same livery had stood by outside with weapons drawn.
           “This man you saw was carrying a Sword into the Temple, and not out of it? Are you quite sure?”
           “Oh, oh, yes, I’m quite sure, Princess. If I’d seen a foreigner taking something out, I would’ve raised an alarm.
           Thought of doing so anyway, but—you see—I’d had a bit too much—my legs weren’t working all that well—”
           “Never mind that. Did you see him come out of the Temple again?”
           “Yes, ma’am, I did. And then he had two Swords. I tried to raise an alarm, ma’am, like I said, but somehow—somehow—” The ragged man began to blubber.
           After hearing this testimony of the sole witness, Kristin made her way into the inner sanctuary, and carried out her own belated inspection of the actual scene of the crime. There, on the very altar of Ardneh, she beheld the crystal repository in which the Sword of Healing had been kept, a fragile vault now standing broken and empty under the blank-eyed marble images of Draffut—doglike, but standing tall on his hind legs—and Ardneh, an incomprehensible jumble of sharp-edged, machinelike shapes.
           The actual breaking of the crystal vault and carrying away of the Sword would have been simple, and staring at this minor wreckage told her nothing.
           Leaving the Temple now, the Princess went to survey the status of the Swords still kept in the royal armory, beside the Palace and only a short walk distant.
     
    * * *
     
           If the Princess and her people were able to speak of Coinspinner with a certain familiarity, it was because the Sword of Chance had reposed for some time within the stone walls of the armory’s heavily guarded rooms. But about seven years ago that Sword had vanished from the deepest and best-watched vault, vanished suddenly and without explanation. Under the circumstances of that disappearance there had been no need to look for thieves. One of the known attributes of the Sword of Chance was its penchant for taking itself spontaneously and unpredictably from one place to another. Forged by the great god Vulcan, like all its fellow Swords, Coinspinner scorned all obstacles that