Myth 13 - Myth Alliances Asprin, Robert (top 100 novels .TXT) 📖

know about everyone who lived in them, but his advice was awful. I blamed myself. I had gotten caught up in his plau?sibility, and believed whatever he said without judging for myself whether what he told me to do made sense. I promised myself from then on I'd listen to whatever he had to say, then do the opposite of what he advised. If I'd done that, I could have been home by now.

I paced back and forth until my feet hurt, then I spent some time looking out the window. My cell faced the street. It seemed to me that at least half the people out there had Storyteller Goggles on, wandering blindly as their keen sense of smell kept them from running into obstruc?tions, and most of the other half looked envious. But I thought that I had done some good: a few of the passersby looked disapprovingly at their fellow Scammies who were wearing the Pervect Ten's device. Maybe I'd gotten through to a few after all.

A clattering at the door announced the arrival of my dinner tray, pushed through a panel at the bottom of the door, which was firmly closed and locked as soon as the following edge of the tray was inside. A covered dish, a jug of wine and a jug of water lay on the wooden trencher, along with a candlestick, two candles, and flint and steel. By my calculations the candles would burn from sunset to midnight. I supposed I could try to set the room on fire, but there was nothing to burn except my clothes. The neces?sary was a covered metal bucket shoved underneath a wash stand consisting of a china bowl and pitcher on a stone shelf in the corner. The bed was a stone shelf, too. Not very comfortable, but then, nothing to attract insects, either. I didn't really need a blanket; the room was warm. I looked under the plate cover. The Scammies may have thought I was crazy, but they treated their prisoners well. The food looked and smelled as good as anything at the best restau?rants in the Bazaar. I ate my supper, then spent the rest of the remaining daylight clutching the bars of my small win?dow and watching the people go by. A few of them spotted

me; with my Klahdish looks I had to be about as incon?spicuous as a porcupine on a silk rug. They made faces or obscene gestures. With those flexible noses, obscene ges?tures took on new impact.

The sun woke me just before another tray was shoved un?der my door. I sprang up and pounded on the heavy wood.

“Hey!” I cried. “Let me out of here!”

I heard no other sounds for a long time, until there was the scrape of a heavy bolt moving on the other side of the door. It creaked open, and Officer Koblinz came in. He pointed at my pendant.

“That won't work in here,” he spoke, haltingly, as he took his notebook out of his pocket, this time with a pencil, “but I speak Klahd. Let's hear your side of the story. Start at the beginning.”

“Well,” I began, settling down on my blanketless bunk, “I was working on my magik studies when this Wuhs popped in...”

In between meals I had nothing to do but peer out of the window. Shortly after lunch I saw Officer Koblinz and Gelli talking on the drawbridge that led from the prison. Gelli threw him a half-​salute and marched down to street level. A female, probably Mrs. Gelli by the way their snouts reached out lovingly to touch one another, met him at the bottom. They started talking and walking along the river front. When they met another female, this one wear?ing a pair of the Pervect Ten's enchanted spectacles, they halted to speak with her. She listened with growing alarm, then took off her goggles and threw them away from her. They landed in the river, and sank in a circle of growing

ripples. The Gellises passed on, and the now worried woman rushed over to talk to a cluster of young people with spectacles on. A few of them ignored her, but a couple must have listened, because they took the glasses off and looked at them closely. I cheered.

“What do you mean, you don't want the shipment?” Pal-​dine demanded in disbelief. Bofus, the shop owner, cringed behind his counter, his long nose pressed against his face for protection. “We have an exclusive contract! You were going to sell a thousand a week!”

“Dear madam, I believed it! I was absolutely convinced you were right,” Bofus protested, his back against the wall. He felt along the edge for the curtain that led to the back room, and probably a handy alley on the other side. Pal-​dine wasn't going to let him escape that easily. She spread her hands out and spat out a chant that caused the cloth to stiffen harder than wood. Bofus prodded it with the tips of his fingers, then gave her a sickly smile.

“If you don't want to get the same treatment,” Paldine snarled, showing all her teeth, “you will take these boxes and give me the money we agreed on. Then I will leave, and come back next week with your next order.”

“Please, madam, don't!” Bofus begged. “You don't un?derstand! There won't be another order. I haven't