Foster, Dean - Spellsinger 03 - The Day of the Dissonance

good luck and this spellsinger's determination and this

one-horn's knowledge o' the lay o' the land that we ...!"

THE DAY OF THE DISSONANCE

261

Snooth interrupted him, smiling at Jon-Tom. "So you

are a spellsinger? I noticed the duar you carry right off, but

I imagined you to be no more than a traveling musician."

"I'm still an amateur," Jon-Tom confessed. "I'm still

learning how to control my abilities."

"I think one day you will, though I sense you still have

along way logo."

"It's just that it's so new to me. The magic, not the

music. Everything's so new to me. I'm not of this world."

"I know. You smell of elsewhere. Do not let your

transposition faze you. Newness is life's greatest pleasure

and delight." She indicated the shelves wailing them in.

"Every new product I encounter is a source of wonder-

ment to me."

"1 wish I could share your enthusiasm. But I can't help

my homesickness. You can't, by any chance, send me

home by the same means you use to stock your goods?"

he asked hopefully.

"I am truly sorry," Snooth told him softly, and it struck

him that she was. "This is only a receive-and-disperse

operation. I can only ship products, not people."

Jon-Tom slumped. "Well, it's no more than what I

expected. Clothahump said as much."

"You must tell me about your travels. Oddly, I know

more about many other worlds than about this one. The

result of being tied to my business."

So partly to please her and partly to help relieve his own

disappointment, Jon-Tom regaled her with a recitation of

the adventures they had experienced during their long

journey. It took at least the half day Snooth had claimed

before she finally called the march to a halt. Jon-Tom

looked down the aisle. They stili were not in sight of its

end.

Strange medications filled bottles and jars and contain-

ers of unfamiliar material. The twenty-foot-high shelves

they had halted before represented a cosmological phar-

macopia. Jon-Tom made out pills and drops, salves and

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unguents, bandages and bindings, scattered among less

recognizable items.

Snooth regarded the shelving for a moment, consulted

her blue metal bar, and hopped a few yards farther down

the aisle. Then she climbed one of the motorized ladders

that ran from the topmost shelf to tracks cut in the stone

floor and ascended the shelving halfway.

"Here we are," she said, sounding gratified. She opened

an ordinary cardboard box and removed a small plastic

container. "Only one. I'll have to restock this item. I don't

have the room to keep more than one of any item on the

shelves. There are instructions on the side which I presume

your wizard will know how to interpret."

"I'm sure he will," Jon-Tom said, reaching relievedly

for the container.

"Stop right there, please."

Jon-Tom whirled. Roseroar growled and reached for her

swords as Mudge tried to ready his longbow.

"Don't!"

A figure emerged from behind a translucent crate

containing frozen flowers and came toward them. In his

hands Jalwar held something resembling a multiple cross-

bow. At least three dozen lethal-looking little darts were

clustered in concentric circles at the tip of the weapon.

"Poison. Enough to kill all of you at once. Even you,

mistress of long teeth." Roseroar continued to glower at

the new arrival, but let her paws fall slowly from the hilts

of her swords.

"A wise decision," Jalwar told her.

Jon-Tom was staring past him. "Folly. Where's Folly?"

When the ferret did not immediately reply, Jon-Tom felt a

surge of excitement despite the precariousness of the

situation. "So she didn't go with you voluntarily, did

she!"

"No." Jalwar made the admission indifferently. "But

she came, and that was all I required. I needed assistance

in hauling rudimentary supplies, and she struck me as the

THE DAY or THE DISSOJKAJVCE

263

easiest of all of you to manipulate. As a beast of burden

she proved adequate." He smiled thinly, enjoying himself.

"Then, too, the destruction of innocence has always appealed

to me, and she still had a little left."

Jon-Tom struggled to restrain himself. He didn't for a

second doubt the lethality of those multiple darts or Jalwar's

willingness to employ them.

"Where is she? What have you done with her?"

"In good time I will tell you, my impetuous blind

friend." The ferret cocked an eye toward Snooth. "So that

is the precious medicine our friend Clothahump requires so

desperately. How interesting. I suddenly feel the need for

some medication myself. You, proprietress! I'll take that

container, if you don't mind."

"Take a 'elluva lot more than that to cure wot ails you,

mate," said Mudge insultingly.

"You think so, do you? Yet I am not so sick that I have

failed to outwit you all. I did not think you would make it

here without the map, and in my confidence I slowed my

approach. I thought in any event that with the aid of my

help I would always know your location. Indeed, without

that help I would not have been able to rush in close on

your heels and track your progress within this place from

two aisles over."

"What help?" Jon-Tom asked warily.

"Now, be that the right tone with which to greet an old

comrade, man?" said a voice Jon-Tom had hoped never to

hear again. He turned to his right.

"Corroboc."

The parrot executed a half bow. ' 'It be right good of you

to remember me name. That singing magic you worked on

me ship, that be my fault for not guessing you had more

than entertainment for old Corroboc in mind. But I'm not

the one to dwell on old regrets. No, not I, even though me

worthless crew chose a new captain and set me adrift

barely within flying range o' the mainland.

"There I found your strange boat and picked up your

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trail. I knew o' your aims and thought somehow to follow

until 1 found a way o' repayin' you all for your kindnesses

to me. In the forest I saw two of you leave from the rest."

He nodded toward Jalwar.

"When I saw the respect with which he were treatin' me

old friend Folly, I thought to meself, now here be one after

me own heart. So I settled down for a chat, and after an

exchange of pleasantries me and the good ferret here, we

came to an understandin', har."

"That bird will cut out our hearts and dance on them,"

Roseroar whispered to Jon-Tom. "We might as well rush

them now."

"Steady on, you oversized bit o' fluff," Mudge warned

her. "All the cards 'aven't been dealt yet, wot?"

"Whisper all you want," snapped Jalwar. "It will avail

you naught."

Corroboc pulled a short, thin sword from the flying

scabbard slung at his waist. Holes in the blade made it

light and strong. He caressed the flat side of the blade

lovingly.

"Many days have I had to anticipate the pleasures of our

reunion. I beg you not to provoke me new friend lest he

put an end to you all too quick. I want our meeting to be a

memorable experience for all. Aye, memorable! You see,

I've no ship, no crew anymore. All I have left to me be

this moment, which I don't want to hurry."

Realization rushed in on Jon-Tom as he turned on

Jalwar. "You work for Zancresta, don't you? You've been

working for Zancresta from the first! Running into you on

the northern shore of the Glittergeist was no coincidence.