Glen Cook - The Tower Of Fear

The Witch sighed again. "I guess you win, Azel. If the Fates will a thing, nothing we do will change it. Tell the General I'll do his boy next. Pick himup tomorrow night." She patted her dead husband the way a mother patted acolicky baby.

Azel bowed. "Thank you, lady." He backed out and returned to his charge, notconvinced that he had been granted a triumph. "Come," he said, and led thetraitor away.

He decided to take the man home through the maze. Less likely to be seen byanybody that mattered.

He was ten steps in when he realized they were not alone in the darkness. Hisnose warned him, catching a hint of camel and horse. He stopped, turned hischarge, whispered, "We just walked into an ambush. When I take the hood off, you run like hell. Straight home. I'll hold them off." He lifted the sack andgave the man a shove.

The traitor ran.

The Dartars began to move.

Azel squeezed his eyes shut, placed a hand over them, faced away from theambushers, threw a packet of flash.

They screamed.

He drew his knife and went after them.

As he stalked the last of the three he heard shouts from others approaching.

He finished it, got the hell out, and headed for Muma's.

If they got in his way one more time, some night when he wasn't exhausted hewas going to go in there and show them how to run the maze. They'd be pickingup pieces of camel jockey for a week.

The night was still and the fire was banked. The children were snoring and thewomen were sound asleep. But Aaron was not. Each time he started to slip off, something brought him back.

He was conscious of the warmth of Laella beside him. That kept his filthy mindstraying across to Mish ... For a while he thought it was the ferociousguilt from thinking the unthinkable. That carried a speck of the blame, butonly a speck. The main culprit was that business in the street, that reminderthat the horror was out there still, waiting to pounce. He did not want to goto sleep because the nightmares were waiting on the other side.

He did not at first recognize the sound for what it was, someone tapping atthe door. Then, more puzzled than frightened, he went and peeked.

"Reyha? What in the world?"

"I have to talk to Laella. I don't have anyone else."

"Come in." Aaron opened up. let her slip inside. He peered into the foggystreet. "Where's Naszif?" He could not imagine a woman-especially timid Reyhahazarding the Shu's night streets alone.

"Wake Laella. Please? I'll tell it all at once."

"I'm awake," Laella said, sitting up.

Aaron saw the stir had wakened Raheb, too, though she was pretendingotherwise. He said, "Sshh!" and followed Laella to the hearth. They settledthere. Aaron began stirring and feeding the coals, building up a small firefor the comfort. Reyha seemed troubled.

She said, "I don't know how to say this. It's so new to me. And so dangerous.

But I have to talk to somebody. Promise me you won't say anything to anybody, ever. Please? Laella? Aaron?"

Laella nodded. "Of course."

Troubled, Aaron did not respond. He liked Reyha a good deal, but ...

"Aaron?"

Laella gave him a look. "I'm sorry, Reyha. My mind wandered. Sure. Of course. But where's Naszifr" "The kidnappers. They took him somewhere to show him they have Zouki. To make him do what they want."

"But ..."

"I have to get home before they bring Naszif back. So let me tell it first. All right?"

"Of course we will," Laella told her.

"Sometimes I suspected but I never really believed it till he told me. Naszif is part of the Living. Very high up. They just promoted him to where he's thethird or fourth highest man in the Shu. But he's in the Herodian army, too.

They let him join right after the conquest. He's a colonel and he's beenspying on the Living."

"He told you all this?" Aaron asked.

"Keep your voice down," Laella cautioned. "You'll wake the children."

"Yes. He did. This morning. He broke oaths to do it. But he said he had to tell me because of Zouki. He said the Living found out he was a Herodian andthey took Zouki so they could make him do what they want, which is lie toGeneral Cado and spy on the Herodians."

Aaron thought she was awfully calm about the whole thing. But Reyha was a sortof passive person, accepting of things that were beyond her control. Hegrunted. Laella said, "Why are you taking a chance, telling us? Aaron and Ihave no reason to love the Herodians."

"I'm too confused about my feelings. I need somebody to help me think."

Nobody said anything. Aaron could feel Reyha's pain. Nothing he could say would change that.

She finally observed, "You don't seem very surprised."

Laella rested her hand on Aaron's. "We suspected for a long time. Naszif did strange things sometimes."

"Oh."

"What do you want, Reyha?" Laella asked.

"I don't know. Except I want my baby back. If we had Zouki, Naszif says the Herodians would send us somewhere where we'd be safe and he wouldn't have to spy on people anymore."

Aaron wondered if they'd do that, really. Maybe. The tie that bound the Herodian empire together was its strange and bitter religion. If Naszif had adopted that, they might consider him one of their "confederates," with acitizenship only slightly more restricted than that of native-born Herodians.

He said, "I don't know how we could help, Reyha. Anything we did would put usin the middle between the Herodians and the Living. I won't speak for Laella, but I'd just as soon not have anything to do with any of them. I have my ownfamily to worry about."

Laella said, "Aaron!"

"I don't know what you could do. I just wanted Laella to know because shealways stays calm, no matter what, and I get rattlebrained, so maybe she couldthink of something when I couldn't. I wouldn't ever ask you to do somethingthat would get you in trouble."

Laella told her, "We'll do whatever we can to help you, Reyha. You know that."

"Thank you. I'd better run home. Before Naszif gets back. He'd be very angryif he knew I told you anything."

"He won't know," Laella said. "Aaron, you'd better walk with her."

Aaron sighed. "Yes. I suppose I'd better."

Reyha had little to say during the walk. She had exhausted her reserves ofcourage and talk. When he got back home, Laella said, "Well? Something got toyou while she was telling us. What was it?"

"Zouki was kidnapped before they found out about Naszif. So that couldn't bewhy he was grabbed. And bel-Sidek promised me the Living didn't have anythingto do with it. Even Naszif didn't believe the Living would be involved inchild-stealing. So how come all of a sudden they tell him they've got Zoukiwhen they want to twist his arm?"

"Maybe they lied."

"But they're taking him to see Zouki."

"Don't bark at me, Aaron. I don't know who's doing what to whom, or why. I'mnot sure I care. Reyha and Zouki are what I care about. Do you understand?"

"Yes. There's no point fussing about it till we find out what they showedNaszif or did to him. I guess."

"What if he doesn't come home, Aaron?"

"Huh?"

"What if they ... they did something with him: What would Reyha do?"

"We're getting ahead of things. When Reyha needs help-if she needs it-we'll dowhatever we can. So let's not get fussed. Let's get back to bed. I have towork tomorrow."

Naszif burst out of the mouth of the Shu maze, turned left, lengthened hisstride, ran all the way to the side door of Government House. He gave thepassword and his emergency code. To his amazement he was in to see Colonel Bruda before he got his wind back. "What is it?" Bruda asked, knowing it would be dramatic if it had to be done this way.

"They've found me out. I can't take more than a few minutes or they'll know I came here. They're trying to force me to work against you."