Fritz Leiber - Ill Met in Lankhmar

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2024-12-13 0 0 378.92KB 37 页 5.9玖币
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ILL MET IN LANKHMAR
Fritz Leiber
Silent as specters, the tall and the fat thief edged past the
dead, noose-strangled watch-leopard, out the thick, lock-
picked door of Jengao the Gem Merchant, and strolled
east on Cash Street through the thin black night-smog of
Lankhmar.
East on Cash it had to be, for west at Cash and Silver
was a police post with unbribed guardsmen restlessly
grounding and rattling their pikes.
But tall, tight-lipped Slevyas, master thief candidate,
and fat, darting-eyed Fissif, thief second class, with a
rating of talented in double-dealing, were not in the least
worried. Everything was proceeding according to plan.
Each carried thonged in his pouch a smaller pouch of
jewels of the first water only, for Jengao, now breathing
stertoriously inside and senseless from the slugging he'd
suffered, must be allowed, nay, nursed and encouraged to
build his business again and so ripen it for another pluck-
ing. Almost the first law of the Thieves Guild was never
to kill the hen that laid eggs with a ruby in the yolk.
The two thieves also had the relief of knowing that
they were going straight home now, not to a wife. Arath
forbid! --or to parents and children, all gods forfend!
but to Thieves' House, headquarters and barracks of the
almighty Guild, which was father to them both and
mother too, though no woman was allowed inside its ever-
open portal on Cheap Street.
In addition there was the comforting knowledge that
although each was armed only with his regulation silver-
hilted thief's knife, they were nevertheless most strongly
convoyed by three reliable and lethal bravoes hired for
the evening from the Slayers' Brotherhood, one moving
well ahead of them as point, the other two well behind
as rear guard and chief striking force.
And if all that were not enough to make Slevyas and
Fissif feel safe and serene, there danced along soundlessly
beside them in the shadow of the north curb a small, mal-
formed or at any rate somewhat large-headed shape that
might have been a very small dog, a somewhat under-
sized cat, or a very big rat.
True, this last guard was not an absolutely unalloyed
reassurance. Fissif strained upward to whisper softly in
Slevyas' long-lobed ear, "Damned if I like being dogged
by that familiar of Hristomilo, no matter what security
he's supposed to afford us. Bad enough that Krovas did
employ or let himself be cowed into employing a sorcerer
of most dubious, if dire, reputation and aspect, but that"
"Shut your trap!" Slevyas hissed still more softly.
Fissif obeyed with a shrug and employed himself in
darting his gaze this way and that, but chiefly ahead.
Some distance in that direction, in fact just short of
Gold Street, Cash was bridged by an enclosed second-
story passageway connecting the two buildings which
made up the premises of .the famous stone-masons and
sculptors Rokkermas and Slaarg. The firm's buildings
themselves were fronted by very shallow porticoes sup-
ported by unnecessarily large pillars of varied shape and
decoration, advertisements more than structural members.
From just beyond the bridge came two low, brief whis-
tles, a signal from the point bravo that he had inspected
that area for ambushes and discovered nothing suspicious
and that Gold Street was clear.
Fissif was by no means entirely satisfied by the safety
signal. To tell the truth, the fat thief rather enjoyed being
apprehensive and even fearful, at least up to a point. So
he scanned most closely through the thin, sooty smog
the frontages and overhangs of Rokkermas and Slaarg.
On this side the bridge was pierced by four small win-
dows, between which were three large niches in which
stood another advertisement three life-size plaster stat-
ues, somewhat eroded by years of weather and dyed
varyingly tones 'of dark gray by as many years of smog.
Approaching Jengao's before the burglary, Fissif had
noted them. Now it seemed to him that 'the statue to the
right had indefinably changed. It was that of a man of
medium height wearing cloak and hood, who gazed down
with crossed arms and brooding aspect. No, not indefin-
ably quite the statue was a more uniform dark gray
now, he fancied, cloak, hood, and face; it seemed some-
what sharper featured, less eroded; and he would almost
swear it had grown shorter!
Just below the niches, moreover, there was a scattering
of gray and raw white rubble which he didn't recall hav-
ing been there earlier. He strained to remember if during
the excitement of the burglary, the unsleeping watch-
corner of his mind had recorded a distant crash, and now
he believed it had. His quick imagination pictured the
possibility of a hole behind each statue, through which it
might be given a strong push and so tumbled onto passers-
by, himself and Slevyas specifically, the right-hand statue
'having been crashed to test the device and then replaced
with a near twin.
He would keep close watch on all the statues as he
and Slevyas walked under. It would be easy to dodge if
he saw one start to over-balance. Should he yank Slevyas
out of harm's way when that happened? It was something
to think about.
His restless attention fixed next on the porticoes and
pillars. The latter, thick and almost three yards tail, were
placed at irregular intervals as well as being irregularly
shaped and fluted, for Rokkermas and Slaarg were most
modern and emphasized the unfinished look, randomness,
and the unexpected.
Nevertheless it seemed to Fissif, that there was an in-
tensification of unexpectedness, specifically that there was
one more pillar under the porticoes than when he had
last passed by. He couldn't be sure which pillar was the
newcomer, but he was almost certain there was one.
The enclosed bridge was close now. Fissif glanced up
at the right-hand statue and noted other differences from
the one he'd recalled. Although shorter, it seemed to hold
itself more strainingly erect, while the frown carved in its
dark gray face was not so much one of philosophic brood-
ing as sneering contempt, self-conscious cleverness, and
conceit.
Still, none of the three statues toppled forward as he
and Slevyas walked under the bridge. However, something
else happened to Fissif at that moment.
One of the pillars winked at him.
The Gray Mouser turned round in the right-hand niche,
leaped up and caught hold of the cornice, silently vaulted
to the flat roof, and crossed it precisely in time to see the
two thieves emerge below.
Without hesitation he leaped forward and down, his
body straight as a crossbow bolt, the soles of his ratskin
boots aimed at the shorter thief's fat-buried shoulder
blades, though leading him a little to allow for the yard
he'd walk while the Mouser hurtled toward him.
la 'the instant that he leaped, the tall thief glanced up
over-shoulder and whipped out a knife, 'though making
no move to push or pull Fissif out of the way of the
human projectile speeding toward him.
More swiftly than one would have thought he could
manage, Fissif whirled round then and thinly screamed,
"Slivikin!"
The ratskin boots took him high in the belly. It was like
landing on a big cushion. Writhing aside from Slevyas'
thrust, the Mouser somersaulted forward, and as the fat
thief's skull hit a cobble with a dull bang he came to his
feet with dirk in hand, ready to take 'on the tall one.
But there was no need. Slevyas, ibis eyes glazed, was
toppling too.
One of the pillars had .sprung forward, trailing a vol-
uminous robe. A big hood had fallen back from a youthful
face and long-haired head. Brawny arms had emerged
from the long, loose sleeves that had been the pillar's
topmost section. While the big fist ending one of the 'arms
had dealt Slevyas a shrewd knockout punch on 'the chin.
Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser faced each other across
the two thieves sprawled senseless. They were poised for
attack, yet for 'the moment neither moved.
Fafhrd said, "Our motives for being here seem identi-
cal."
"Seem? Surely must be!" 'the Mouser answered curtly,
fiercely eyeing this potential new foe, who was taller by a
head than the tall thief.
"You said?"
"I said, 'Seem? Surely must be!' "
"How civilized of you!" Fafhrd commented in pleased
tones.
"Civilized?" the Mauser demanded suspiciously, grip-
ping his dirk tighter.
"To care, in the eye of action, exactly what's said,"
Fafhrd explained. Without letting the Mouser out of his
vision, he glanced down. His gaze traveled from the pouch
of one fallen thief to that of 'the other. Then he looked up
at the Mouser with a broad, ingenuous smile.
"Fifty-fifty?" he suggested.
The Mouser hesitated, sheathed his dirk, 'and rapped
out, "A deal!" He knelt abruptly, his fingers on the draw-
strings of Fissif's pouch. "Loot you Slivikin," he directed.
It was natural to suppose that the fat thief 'had been
crying his companion's name at 'the end.
Without looking up from where he knelt, Fafhrd re-
marked, "That . . . ferret they had with them. Where did
it go?"
"Ferret?" the Mouser answered briefly. "It was a mar-
moset!"
' "Marmoset," Fafhrd mused. "That's a small 'tropical
monkey, isn't it? Well, might have been--I've never been
south--but I got the impression that"
The silent, two pronged rush which almost over-
whelmed them at that instant really surprised neither of
them. Each had unconsciously been expecting it.
The 'three bravoes racing down upon them in concerted
attack, all with swords poised to thrust, had assumed that
the two highjackers would be armed at most with knives
and as timid in weapons-combat as the general run of
thieves and counter-thieves. So it was they who were
thrown into confusion when with the lightning speed of
youth the Mouser and Fafhrd sprang up, whipped out
fearsomely long swords, 'and faced them back to back.
The Mouser made a very small parry in carte so that the
thrust of the bravo from the east went past his left side
by only a hair's breadth. He instantly riposted. His ad-
versary, desperately springing back, parried in turn in
carte. Hardly slowing, the tip of the Mouser's long, slim
sword dropped under that parry with the delicacy of a
princess curtsying and then leaped forward 'and a little
upward and went between two scales of the brave's
armored jerkin and between 'his ribs and through his heart
and out 'his back. as if all were .angel food cake.
Meanwhile Fafhrd, facing die two bravoes from the
west, swept aside their low thrusts with 'somewhat larger,
down-sweeping parries in seconds and low prime, then
flipped up his sword, as long as the Mouser's but heavier,
so that it slashed through the neck of his right-hand
adversary, half decapitating 'him. Then dropping back a
swift step, he readied a thrust for 'the other.
But there was no need. A narrow ribbon of bloodied
steel, followed by a gray glove and 'arm, flashed past
him from behind and transfixed the last bravo with 'the
identical thrust 'the Mouser had used on the first.
The two young men wiped their swords. Fafhrd brushed
the palm of his open right hand down his robe and held
it out. The Mouser pulled off his right-hand gray glove
and shook it. Without word exchanged, they knelt and
finished looting the two unconscious thieves, securing the
small bags of jewels. With an oily .towel and then a dry
one, the Mouser sketchily wiped from his face the greasy
ash-soot mixture which had darkened it.
Then, after only a questioning eye-twitch east on the
Mouser's part and a nod from Fafhrd, they swiftly walked
on in the direction Slevyas and Fissif 'and their escort had
been going.
After reconnoitering Gold Street, they crossed it and
continued east on Cash at Fafhrd's gestured proposal.
"My woman's at the Golden Lamprey," he explained.
"Let's pick her up and take her home to meet my girl,"
the Mouser suggested.
"Home?" Fafhrd inquired politely.
"Dim Lane," the Mouser volunteered.
"Silver Eel?"
"Behind it. We'll have some drinks."
"I'll pick up a jug. Never have too much juice."
"True. I'll let you."
Fafhrd stopped, again wiped right hand 'on robe, and
held it out. "Name's Fafhrd."
Again the Mouser shook it. "Gray Mouser," he said a
touch defiantly, as if challenging anyone to laugh at the
sobriquet.
"Gray Mouser, eh?" Fafhrd remarked. "Well, you killed
yourself a couple of rats tonight."
"That I did." The Mouser's chest swelled and he threw
back his head. Then with a comic twitch of his nose and
a sidewise half-grin he .admitted, "You'd have got your
second man easily enough. I stole 'him from you to dem-
onstrate my speed. Besides, I was excited."
Fafhrd chuckled. "You're telling me? How do you sup-
pose I was feeling?"
Once more the Mouser found himself grinning. What
the deuce did this big fellow have that kept him from
putting on his usual sneers?
Fafhrd was asking himself a similar question. All his
life he'd mistrusted small men, knowing his height awak-
ened their instant jealousy. But this clever little chap was
somehow an exception. He prayed to Kos that Vlana
would like him.
On the northeast corner of Cash and Whore a slow-
burning torch shaded, by a broad, 'gilded spiral cast a
cone of light up into the thickening black night-smog and
another cone down on the cobbles before the tavern door.
Out of the shadows into the second cone stepped Vlana,
handsome in a narrow black velvet dress and 'red stock-
ings, her only ornaments a silver-hilted dagger in a silver
sheath and a silver-worked black pouch, both on a plain
black belt.
Fafhrd introduced the Gray Mouser, who behaved with
an almost fawning courtesy. Vlana 'studied him 'boldly,
then gave him a tentative smile.
Fafhrd opened under 'the torch the small pouch he'd
taken off the tail thief. Vlana looked down into it. She
put her arms around Fafhrd, bugged him tight and kissed
him soundly. Then she thrust the jewels into the pouch on
her belt.
When that was done, he said, "Look, I'm going to buy
a jug. You tell her what happened, Mouser."
When he came out of the Golden Lamprey he was car-
rying four jugs in the crook of his left arm and wiping his
lips on the back of his right hand. Vlana frowned. He
grinned at her. The Mouser smacked his lips at the jugs.
They continued east on Cash. Fafhrd realized that the
frown was for more than the jugs and the prospect of
stupidly drunken male revelry. The Mouser tactfully
walked ahead.
When his figure was little more than a blob in the thick-
ening smog, Vlana whispered harshly, "You had two
members of the Thieves' Guild knocked out cold and you
didn't cut their throats?"
"We slew three bravoes," Fafhrd protested by way of
excuse.
"My quarrel is not with the Slayers' Brotherhood, but
that abominable guild. You swore to me that whenever
you had the chance"
"Vlana! I couldn't have the Gray Mouser thinking I
was an amateur counter-thief consumed by hysteria and
blood lust."
"Well, he told me that he'd have slit their throats in a
wink, if he'd known I wanted it that way."
"He was only playing up to you from courtesy."
"Perhaps and perhaps not. But you knew and you
didn't"
"Vlana, shut up!"
Her frown became a rageful glare, then suddenly she
laughed widely, smiled twitchingly as if she were about to
cry, mastered herself and smiled more lovingly. "Pardon
me, darling," she said. "Sometimes you must 'think I'm
going mad and sometimes I believe I am."
"Well, don't," he told her shortly. "Think of the jewels
we've won instead. And behave yourself with our new
friends. Get some wine inside you and relax. I mean to
enjoy myself tonight. I've earned it."
She nodded and clutched his arm in agreement and for
comfort and sanity. They hurried to catch up with the dim
figure ahead.
The Mouser, turning left, led them a half square north
on Cheap Street to where a narrower way went east again.
The black mist in it looked solid.
"Dim Lane," the Mouser explained.
Vlana said, "Dim's too weak too transparent a word
for it tonight," with an uneven laugh in which there were
still traces of hysteria and which ended in a fit 'of stran-
gled coughing.
She gasped 'out, "Damn Lankhmar's night-smog! What
a hell of a city!"
"It's the nearness here of the Great Salt Marsh," Fafhrd
explained.
And he did indeed have part of the answer. Lying low
betwixt the Marsh, the Inner Sea, the River Hlal, and the
southern grain fields watered by canals fed by the Hlal,
Lankhmar with its innumerable smokes was the prey of
fogs and sooty smogs.
About halfway to Carter Street, a tavern on the north
side of the lane emerged from the murk. A gape-jawed
serpentine shape of pale metal crested with soot hung 'high
for a sign. Beneath it they passed a door curtained with
begrimed leather, the slit in which spilled out noise,
pulsing torchlight, and the reek of liquor.
Just beyond the Silver Eel the -Mouser led them through
an inky passageway outside the tavern's east wall. They
had to go single file, feeling their way along rough, slimily
bemisted brick.
"Mind the puddle," the Mouser warned. "It's deep as
the Outer Sea."
The passageway widened. Reflected torchlight filtering
down through the dark mist allowed them to make out
only the most general shape of their surroundings. Crowd-
ing close to the back of the Silver Eel rose a dismal,
rickety building of darkened brick and blackened, ancient
wood. From the fourth story attic under the ragged-
guttered roof, faint lines of yellow light shone around and
through three tightly latticed windows. Beyond was a nar-
row alley.
"Bones Alley," the Mouser told them.
By now Vlana and Fafhrd could see a long, narrow
wooden outside stairway, steep yet sagging and without a
rail, leading up to the lighted .attic. The Mouser relieved
Fafhrd of the jugs and went up it quite swiftly.
"Follow me when I've reached the top," he called back.
"I think it'll take your weight, Fafhrd, but beat one of you
at a time."
Fafhrd gently pushed Vlana 'ahead. She mounted to the
Mouser where he now stood in an open doorway, from
which streamed yellow light that died swiftly in the night-
smog. He was lightly resting a hand on a big, empty,
wrought-iron lamp-hook firmly set in a stone section of
the outside wall. He bowed aside, and she went in.
Fafhrd followed, placing his feet as close as he could
to the wall, his hands ready to grab for 'support. The
whole stairs creaked ominously and each step gave a
little as he shifted his weight onto it. Near the top, one
step gave way with the muted crack of half-rotted wood.
Gently as he could, he sprawled himself hand and knee
on as many steps as he could get, to distribute his weight,
and cursed sulphurously.
"Don't fret, the jugs are safe," the Mouser called down
gayly.
Fafhrd crawled the rest of the way and did not get to
his feet until he was inside the doorway. When he had
done so, he almost gasped with surprise.
It was like rubbing the verdigris from a cheap brass
ring and revealing a rainbow-fired diamond of the first
water. Rich drapes, some twinkling with embroidery of
silver and gold, covered the walls except where the shut-
tered windows were and the shutters of those were
gilded. Similar but darker fabrics hid the low ceiling,
making a gorgeous canopy in which the flecks of gold
and silver were like stars. Scattered about were plump
cushions and low tables, on which burned a multitude of
candles. On shelves against the walls were neatly stacked
like small logs a vast reserve of candles, numerous scrolls,
jugs, bottles, and enameled boxes. In a large fireplace was
set a small metal stove, neatly blacked, with an ornate
firepot. Also set beside the stove was a tidy pyramid of
thin, resinous torches with frayed ends fire-kindlers and
other pyramids of small, short logs and gleamingly black
coal.
On a low dais by the fireplace was a couch covered
with cloth of gold. On it sat a thin, pale-faced, delicately
handsome girl clad in a dress of thick violet silk worked
with silver and belted with a silver chain. Silver pins
headed with amethysts held in place her high-piled black
hair. Round her shoulders was drawn a wrap of snow-
white serpent fur. She was leaning forward with uneasy-
seeming graciousness and extending a narrow white hand
which shook a little to Vlana, who knelt before her and
now" gently took the proffered hand 'and bowed her head
over it, her own glossy, 'straight, dark-brown hair making a
canopy, and pressed its back to her lips.
Fafhrd was happy to see his woman playing up prop-
erly to this definitely odd, though delightful situation.
Then looking at Vlana's long, red-stockinged leg
stretched far behind her as she knelt on the other, he
noted that the floor was everywhere strewn to the point
of double, treble, and quadruple overlaps--with thick-
piled, close-woven, many-hued rugs of the finest quality
imported from the Eastern Lands. Before 'he knew it, his
thumb had shot toward the Gray Mouser.
"You're the Rug Robber!" he proclaimed. "You're the
Carpet Crimp! and the Candle Corsair too!" he con-
tinued, referring to two series of unsolved thefts which had
been on the lips of all Lankhmar when he and Vlana 'had
arrived a moon ago.
The Mouser shrugged impassive-faced at Fafhrd, then
suddenly grinned, his slitted eyes a-twinkle, and broke
into an impromptu dance which carried him whirling and
jigging around the room and left him behind Fafhrd,
where he deftly reached down the hooded and long-
sleeved huge robe from the latter's stooping shoulders,
shook it out, carefully folded it, and set it on a pillow.
The girl in violet nervously patted with her free hand
the cloth of gold beside her, and Vlana seated herself
there, carefully not too close, and the two women spoke
together in low voices, Vlana taking the lead.
The Mouser took off his own gray, hooded cloak and
laid it beside Fafhrd's. Then they unbelted their swords,
and the Mouser set them atop folded robes and cloak.
Without those weapons and bulking garments, the 'two
men looked suddenly like youths, both with clear, close-
shaven faces, both slender despite 'the swelling muscles of
Fafhrd's arms and calves, he with long red-gold hair fall-
ing down his back and about his shoulders, the Mouser
with dark hair cut in bangs, 'the one in brown leather
tunic worked with copper wire, the other in jerkin of
coarsely woven gray silk.
They smiled at each other. The feeling each had of
having turned boy all at once made their smiles embar-
rassed. The Mouser cleared his 'throat and, bowing a
little, but looking still at Fafhrd, extended a loosely
spread-fingered arm toward the golden couch and said
摘要：

VERSION1.0dtd032600ILLMETINLANKHMARFritzLeiberSilentasspecters,thetallandthefatthiefedgedpastthedead,noose-strangledwatch-leopard,outthethick,lock-pickeddoorofJengaotheGemMerchant,andstrolledeastonCashStreetthroughthethinblacknight-smogofLankhmar.EastonCashithadtobe,forwestatCashandSilverwasapolicep...

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