Роберт Асприн - Forever After

Gar frowned and whispered to Osina, “I thought you didn’t do transformations, just untransformations.”

“My brother, the Horned One, sometimes travels among mortals for his amusement. He calls himself Longlegs when he does so.”

Gar raised an eyebrow at Goodwife Blott and she blushed.

Osina doubled her size so she towered over the people of Torfay. “Before you go home with dreams of venison, mark me. You are farmers. Your crops blossom by my will. Let one of you harm a golden deer in this valley, let one of you deny them any food, and so shall you be denied.”

Gar looked up and saw Spido on the crest of the hill his uncle had descended. The sunlight sparked fire in his rack. The assassin waved before he could catch himself, then smiled. He metamorphed that smile into a cruel grin and nodded. “Tell any hunters who think to prove their prowess by hunting the golden stag that I also hunt. I seek stupid prey that does not heed the words of Osina and who would seek to kill the blessed deer of Torfay.”

Squashblossom fingered Gar’s tunic. “Does that mean you’ll be settling down here, handsome?”

Gar answered her with a Firetalon Touch to the shoulder that induced instant labor, and dragged Dolonicus’s body off during the ensuing chaos.

Dolonicus opened his eyes as the golden glow from Anachron faded over him. He looked down at his foot, then shivered. “I was dead. What happened? Did Anachron bring me back to life?”

Gar shook his head. “No, it did not. It healed you.”

“What?”

The assassin tucked the amulet back in his tunic. “You addressed me as Pariah. This term has some significance to me. I had intended to let Spido kill you, but the need for information superseded the need for your death. When I touched you I used a kuo-tak technique that rendered you unconscious with Spido’s strike. Had I not revived you, you would have come awake in three days, by which time the people of Torfay would have buried you.”

“Yuck.”

“Of course, as I had things set up, had they decided to cremate you, you would have awakened—”

“I get the picture.”

“Do you? It is rude to interrupt.”

“Sorry.”

“I doubt it.”

“I really am sorry, really,” Dolonicus moved his left foot around. “So, now what?”

“You will tell me where Udan Kann is.”

“I don’t know what you’re— ouch !”

“Believe me, I have no great love of inflicting unnecessary pain on someone, but I do have ample facility in doing it. And your willingness to lie is making this quite necessary.” Gar poised two fingers above Dolonicus’s kneecap. “Do you fancy the nickname Gimpy?”

“Udan Kann will kill me if I tell.”

“Had he not wanted me to have the information, he would have already killed you.” Gar’s two fingers drifted lower toward the nerve center in Dolonicus’s leg. “You would not have called me Pariah had he not told you he did not tolerate having my name spoken in his presence. In addition, Spido said his uncle’s knowledge of current events outside Torfay were limited to things twenty years in the past. Twenty years ago, Udan Kann labored in obscurity at Armbruss, yet Gordo knew his name and my nickname! You or your henchmen let word slip. And for that Udan Kann would have you killed.”

“You win, you win.” Dolonicus shook his head. “Udan Kann said you would come. He waited for you to the north. He waits for you at Gelfait.”

“Gelfait?” Gar’s finger’s twitched and he almost treated Dolonicus to the Twelve Agonies, but he knew the man was not lying. Either Udan Kann seeks Gelfait because he believes that he can escape me when the city fades or …“ Gar shivered with the alternative. ”That can’t be.“

“Oh, it is. He is waiting for you.” Dolonicus drew his legs up and clutched them to his chest. “There, I have told you. You should reward me.” Gar shrugged. “I have.”

Dolonicus stood and stepped back. “You’re going to let me live?”

“No.”

“Death is not much of a reward.”

“You’re not much of a person, but that’s not what I awarded in you.” Gar pointed back down the mountainside toward Torfay. “You terrorized those people. You made their lives hell, and in doing so you have defined yourself. I have slain you, but you will only die when you imagine yourself superior and invincible. Modesty and humility will allow you to live a long life. Your old way will kill you.”

Dolonicus sat down hard. “You… how could you… that’s not fair.”

“It is justice.”

“It’s torture.”

“Torture would be rendering you paralyzed except for the two hours directly after you listened to Gordo tell a story of his fabled career.” Gar patted Dolonicus on the shoulder. “I’ll extend to Udan Kann your humble regrets at missing his death.”

The trek to Gelfait passed quickly for Gar, yet each step became torture for him. He tried to focus on the pain of his shoulder and side, but that could not deflect him from the dark ruminations spawned by Udan Kann’s choice of hiding place. Choosing a city renowned for its warrior tradition might make sense, especially when the city seemed to travel in time and could afford escape from temporally hostile political circumstances. Udan Kann was capable of making that choice, and Gar would have believed it except for one thing.

Udan Kann had never run from a fight in his career. His disappearance had bothered Gar Quithnick but not for the reason many had supposed. Gar had begun to accept that he had been upset at not being able to avenge the sloppy death of his parents, and even he had failed to identify the true source of his discomfort. Then, slipping through the forests to Gelfait, the true reason revealed itself to him.

Udan Kann had not been present at Kalaran’s defeat. The reason for that could only have been orders from the demigod to absent himself. Kalaran could only have given those orders if he had a plan. While it was possible Kalaran’s plan had not accounted for his death, Gar did not believe it. Having served Kalaran, Gar knew of the tyrant’s prescience, and he respected it. Kalaran had anticipated his defeat, and had worked to circumvent it.

Osina’s information concerning the people waiting along the course Spido had reported them taking dovetailed with his knowledge that Udan Kann was coordinating the effort against him. The assaults in the desert meant only one thing: Udan Kann wanted Anachron.

And if Udan Kann wanted Anachron, that meant Kalaran wanted Anachron.

I have to deny it to him . Kalaran, or his skull, was in Caltus. That meant the best place for the amulet was in Gelfait. Getting it there was Gar’s mission, and one he would accomplish. “First things first. Take care of the amulet, then find a way to warn the others about Kalaran’s plan.”

Gar cut up and over a ridgeline and in the valley below saw the shimmering village of Gelfait. It had been laid out much akin to Torfay, but the narrowness of the valley stretched and contracted the village into more of a lozenge shape. What had been whitewashed wattle and daub in Torfay became polished opalescent stone in Gelfait. Straw thatching in Torfay gave way to amethyst tiles and vast roof gardens laden with legions of rainbow blossoms.

Central to it all lay the Chapel of Anachron. It seemed more substantial than the rest of the village, and it had fallen into disrepair. The main dome had collapsed and had taken one of the opal walls with it. As Gar came down the mountain, he caught glimpses of the chapel’s interior through gaps in the trees. Were the stone not so elegant, it would have appeared like the many sand-smothered buildings the desert winds dug up and buried from time to time.