Mayer Alan Brenner - Spell of Intrigue

“Of course, sir,” said the guard. “I don’t take the affairs of business lightly, I can assure you.”

He wasn’t going to continue until I asked the right question. ‘‘I’m sure you don’t,” I said. “Neither do we. Let me review the situation for you. We need to accomplish a transaction with a banking establishment. You tell us that this one, the one we had planned to use, the Oolvaan Mutual Bank, is unavailable, and you suggest we take our business instead to this Bank of the New Dawn. If we’re going to change our arrangements, though, we could just as easily pick a new bank at random or consult with our colleagues for their referral, so unless you have a particularly convincing justification for this New Dawn place I doubt we’re going to bother visiting it. Why should we consider the Bank of the New Dawn?”

“I surely wouldn’t insult you by stating the obvious, sir,” the guard said.

“Go ahead,” I told him. “I can take it.”

Finally the guy’s mouth quirked; he knew I had him. He could just refuse to say anything, of course, but I didn’t think that was the game he was playing. He thought about it for a second or so, though, before responding. “Although it’s not rightly my place to say, I believe the Bank of the New Dawn will be taking over the accounts of the Oolvaan Mutual Bank. If you and your colleagues are already customers of the Oolvaan Mutual, I’m sure the Bank of the New Dawn will be in touch with you soon.”

“Thank you,” I said. “That’s very helpful. Zhardann, why don’t you tip this helpful fellow?”

“You must be -” said Zhardann.

“I agree,” Jill hissed. “Do it.”

Zhardann dug in his belt and came up with a few coins which he extended toward the guard. The guard touched two fingers to his forehead and reached out his hand for them, although he didn’t move his pike from its position in front of Zhardann’s nose during the process. Before the guard could grab the money, though, Zhardann lifted his hand out of reach. “What about the patron of the Oolvaan Mutual Bank? I have dealt with him corporeally in the past.”

‘‘I’m sure I don’t know, sir,” said the guard. He eyed the money but kept himself from out-and-out licking his lips.

“You could guess,” I suggested. ‘‘I’m sure my colleague would be content with a guess.”

“I don’t think that would be very prudent, sir.”

“The patron’s name is Pasook,” said Zhardann. “Soaf Pasook.”

The guard shook his head. “Can’t say I can help you, sir. I’m a guard, sir, not an information agency.”

“ Hand it to him,” Jill told Zhardann, “don’t throw it in his face.”

“Thank you very much, sir,” said the guard, finally pocketing the coins.

“It must have been busy for you,” I remarked to the guard in a conversational tone, “dealing with all the other customers coming up here, wanting to know what’s happened to their bank.”

The guard looked at Zhardann. He may have stiffened his shoulders, but he still took the hint and went again for his coin-bag. The new coin in his hand, Zhardann narrowed his eyes and tried to stare the guy down. “Don’t know if I can rightly say, “ the guard repeated thoughtfully, absently letting the pike slip so that its point rested gently between Zhardann’s eyes. Zhardann carefully handed him the coin.

The guard straightened up and adjusted the pike backward away from Zhardann’s face. “I beg your pardon, sir. This midday sun and all these questions, don’t you know, and perhaps a touch of the sunstroke. Your party must be new to the city, I wager.”

“What makes you say that?” I asked him.

“Why, only because you’re the first ones to inquire about this establishment all day.”

“And why wouldn’t the locals be doing the same?”

“I’m sure I don’t know, sir,” said the guard, “but because of the sunstroke perhaps I’ll venture a guess. Perhaps it’s only that they’ve heard about old Groot.”

Groot ? I thought. “What about this ‘old Groot’?”

“Only that he’s in prison, sir, and some speculate on the coincidence, seeing as his company had its dealings with this very establishment.”

“Are you saying -” said Zhardann.

“Was I saying something?” the guard inquired. He shook his head. “It must be that sunstroke, damn me; can’t rightly remember from moment to moment what I was talking about. No telling what nonsense might be slipping from my mouth in an instant of confusion.”

I glanced around at the other three guards. They had edged in smoothly to surround us but had otherwise kept their own mouths shut. “Perhaps one of your fellow sentinels could help in your time of incapacitation?”

“As you can see, sir, this entire post is exposed to the full force of the sun. My men and I suffer together in experiencing its effects.”

“Then my friends join with me, I’m certain, in wishing you all a full and prompt recovery,” I told him. I turned to Zhardann. “Shall we leave this poor fellow in peace?”

“I -”

“Yes,” said Jill, “let’s do that.”

I jockeyed my horse around and let Jill drag Zhardann after me as behind us the other guards converged on their spokesman to help him split up the loot. After a moment, Zhardann trotted up level with me on the left and Jill matched him on the right. “I thought that was interesting,” I said. “Didn’t you?”

“What’s so interesting about a disrespectful mortal?” said Zhardann sharply; he was still fuming. “There are ways of dealing with that kind of useless -”

“Yes, there are,” I said, “and if you were paying attention you will have noticed that I used one of them. To digress for a second, you don’t want everybody in the city to know there’s a unhappy god stalking the streets, do you?”

“It achieves results.”

“It also sends folks into hiding under the bed, them and their valuables. Like their rings. On top of that, there’s no reason for us to reveal our hand until we absolutely have to.” If Zhardann was honestly thinking the way he was talking, no way could he really be Gashanatantra in disguise; from his reputation Gash was prone to spinning off stratagems and intrigues even in his sleep. “Let’s keep the advantage of surprise, why don’t we?”

“Oh, yes,” Zhardann said caustically, “surprise. For beings of our stature, there are worthy tactics and unworthy tactics. Power is meant to be used for domination, not hidden away for -”

“It’s the difference between an army with broadswords and a trained assassin with a knife,” I said. “They each have their uses. You may be the master of one, but I’m the master of the other, and we happen to be playing my kind of game at the moment. Don’t worry about it; you’ve got potential, I think you’ll do just fine.”

“What did you think was so interesting?” Jill said quickly.

“It’s a strange coincidence,” I remarked, “wouldn’t you think? Somebody else making a move on Pasook just when we’ve arrived to search him out.”

A wagon loaded with crates and drawn by a pair of morose oxen moved slowly across the intersection in front of us and we stopped to let it pass. “Could someone else have discovered the connection between Soaf Pasook and the ring?” Jill said.

“It does make you wonder, doesn’t it,” I said. “I haven’t talked about the ring to anyone else, but who knows about Pasook himself: maybe he let something slip, or maybe somebody had something on him that made him slip. And, of course, we all know there are other ways as well.”

“Hmph,” said Zhardann. “This is all quite improbable.”

“Nevertheless,” Jill said, “something more is going on here than we anticipated.”