She stopped and regarded Zauna. “I’ve waited a long time to avenge my little bear, and now you’ve come to me with a problem for which I have the solution, and I have the opportunity I’ve waited for. By all means, go to the address Master Duncan gave you. Ask for Master Lazolo and make your request. If he grants it, and I believe he will, just let things take their course. For this you have received the crystal orb, and in this way you will repay me for letting you purchase it.”
§
The directions Allie gave her led Zauna to a small bistro bearing the name and address Master Duncan had given her. She entered and asked for the proprietor. A man as wide as he was tall waddled out from the kitchen. “Master Lazolo?” she asked.
“None other,” he boomed in the deepest voice she’d ever heard. “What can I do for ye?”
“I was referred to you by Master Duncan, the innkeeper.” She went on to explain her predicament, careful to tell the exact same story she’d told Master Duncan. “I’ve brought my crystal ball,” she concluded, “and I hope you will let me use it to tell fortunes here.”
“Ah, so that’s how it is, eh?” he rumbled. “Well, then, let’s see what you can do. Get the crystal out and tell me my fortune. If I like it, I’ll take ye on. Be warned, though, I want an honest reading. No trickery.”
She easily extracted the crystal ball and its bronze stand from the box, having left its wrapping of under garments and outer clothes in Allie’s shop. She made a bit of a show about settling the crystal into its stand on a table he’d provided, arranging it just so, while Master Lazolo waited patiently, an amused smile on his round face. When she sat down at the table and placed her hands palm down, one on either side of the stand, his eyebrows arched almost to his hairline.
“That’s quite an impressive bit of equipment,” he said. “It does make me believe ye might have genuine talent. Well, we’ll soon know, won’t we?”
Zauna smiled, hiding the knowledge that she would not have to invent this fortune. “Please sit down,” she said, nodding toward the chair on the other side of the table.
He shook his head. “My weight would be too much for that chair, I fear. I’ll have to stand.”
She felt her face flush in embarrassment. She should have realized that indeed the chairs provided for the customers could never bear the weight or accommodate the girth of the place’s proprietor.
He laughed at her obvious discomfiture, producing a sound alarmingly like rolls of thunder. “Not to worry, Mistress. I don’t mind standing, so long as ye do not take too long. Just look into that crystal and ask it what fate has in store for me. Don’t worry if it’s something bad. I won’t hold it against ye.”
Zauna cupped her hands around the crystal. Staring into its depths, she waited, willing a scene to appear, uncomfortable under the fat man’s steady gaze.
He doesn’t expect me to see anything. The thought alarmed her. More alarming was the absence of any scene taking shape within the crystal. Am I being blocked? I have to succeed at this. She concentrated, throwing all her power into the effort, and bringing forth—nothing.
Maybe if she could have a drink of water to refresh herself a bit. Walking in the heat had made her very thirsty. “Master Lazolo, if I could have a glass of cold water, it would help me concentrate. It was a long walk from Duncan’s Inn.”
“Ah, but of course,” came his jovial response. “I should’ve thought. Tell me, do ye see anything yet?”
“Not yet,” she admitted. “I’ve been trying to bring up some scene, some figure, something. But nothing has appeared. This is most unusual, truly.”
He summoned a young woman who had been waiting on a few scattered diners. Zauna had taken no notice of her until she hurried over at his call. “Fetch this lady a glass of water. Step lively,” he bade her in a voice that had to be audible to all in the room. As all of his utterances must have been. With that realization came understanding. He had set her up to fail. Somehow he was suppressing her ability to draw forth images from the crystal. How he could be doing this, she didn’t know, yet she felt certain of it.
With that certainty came the determination to overcome whatever he was doing. The waitress brought the requested water and set the glass down beside the crystal. Zauna reached for it but pulled her hand back. Moisture beaded on the glass, and in each drop Zauna saw reflected Master Lazolo’s grinning face.
She turned her gaze back to the sparkling sphere that held her fortune—or lack thereof. Instead of willing it to show Master Lazolo’s future, she willed it to reveal something else. A scene took form within the globe. A not unexpected scene.
The crystal revealed the store where it had been purchased. She saw clearly the sign above its entrance: The Brave Bear. As though she’d passed through that entrance she saw the interior of the shop. Allie stood not behind the counter but in front of it, facing forward, her anger evident in her fiery gaze. As Master Lazolo remained standing beside her, Allie raised her hand and traced a symbol in the air.
“You’ve been staring into that thing for far too long and saying nothing,” Lazolo said, breaking her concentration. “Trying to make up a plausible fortune for me? It won’t work, you know.” Again he let out that deep, rumbling laughter.
“Not at all,” she told him, speaking loudly enough for the diners and wait staff to hear her response as they had certainly heard his accusation. “I’m merely focusing the scene to make it possible for you to view it too. See?” She slid her chair to the side so that he had a clear view of the crystal.
His face purpled and his scowl was terrible to behold. “Charlatan!” he bellowed. “You’ve conspired with that woman. She sent you here!” His fat fist crashed down on the table, shaking it so that Zauna’s precious crystal would have slid off had she not grabbed it and steadied it with both hands.
At his outburst the two waitresses scurried into the kitchen and the diners gaped at Zauna. One couple rose to their feet and headed for the door. Master Lazolo seemed not to notice the reactions of his audience. His fury-filled gaze was fixed firmly on Zauna.
She quailed before that gaze but kept her hands clasped tightly around her precious crystal ball. “I’ve shown you the truth you requested,” she managed to say in a voice that rasped with fright because Allie’s face had disappeared and only blackness filled the crystal. “You are seeing your future. It holds only death.”
His eyes bulged; his face purpled even more. His hands found her neck and pressed.
She sat very still. The hands that threatened to choke off her breath suddenly loosened their hold and lifted up to clamp on his own forehead. He let out a high-pitched scream. As he toppled, Zauna swept up the crystal ball in its stand. The table crashed to the floor as Master Lazolo fell against it. The weight of his immense body crushed the table beneath him, sending bits of the shattered wood stabbing into his flesh. The glass of water that had remained untouched beside the crystal shattered, water mingling with the blood that oozed from his nose and mouth and eyes.
Zauna scooted her chair back, cradling the crystal and its stand against her breast. Her legs were trembling. She couldn’t stand. She could only sit and shudder as she watched the two waitresses and a man in a cook’s apron rush to their employer’s side. She didn’t need to hear them say it. Master Lazolo was dead.
The waitress, the same young woman who had brought her the glass of water, left the others and came to Zauna. “Are you all right? He didn’t hurt you, did he?” she asked, placing a comforting hand on Zauna’s shoulder.
“No, not at all,” Zauna answered, her voice none too steady. “I thought he was going to … to choke me. But then he clutched his head and collapsed. I didn’t do anything to him. I only let him see what the crystal ball was showing me. It made him so angry that I think he must have had an apoplectic fit and died. I’m sorry.”
“By the looks of it, he died because something burst in his brain,” the waitress said, nodding. “Don’t apologize. You did us a great favor. We’ve
all been victims of his terrible temper. Look, you can help us out. He had no family, no dependents. We’ve been working for him a long time, the cook for years in fact, for pitiful wages, and we’ve taken his abuse because the customers have treated us well. They like the food, and we give good service, so they tip well. Now it’s almost time for the lunch crowd to arrive, but we’ve got to clean up this mess and remove his body. Could you set up right outside and offer to tell fortunes while we, uh, you could just say while we deal with an unexpected emergency that will make the lunch service just a bit late? Offer free fortunes? We’ll pay you.”
Zauna looked past the waitress and saw that the three customers who had remained were helping the cook and another skinny fellow who seemed to be cook’s helper drag Master Lazolo’s body out of the dining area. The other waitress was hurriedly gathering up the shards of chair and broken glass. “Yes, of course I’ll help,” Zauna said. “I’ll need a table for my crystal ball.”
Someone brought out a small writing desk and set it up for her just outside the restaurant door. Someone else made a sign to place on the door announcing the delay in opening for lunch. It amazed Zauna to see the alacrity and the fierce determination with which they worked. They didn’t seem disposed to summon peacekeepers and have the death investigated. She did not ask how they planned to dispose of the corpse. Some things it was better not to know.
She sat in a chair behind the writing desk and told fortunes for the people who arrived, persuading them that the gift of a free fortune was worth the short wait for the restaurant doors to reopen. Some fortunes were genuine, based on what the crystal showed her. Others she invented because the scene in the crystal was either too vague or in one or two cases, too unsettling to impart. She alone saw what the crystal showed, as was usually the case. Master Lazolo’s ability to see what the crystal showed had been a result of Allie’s power.
In a surprisingly short time the doors opened and the customers entered, not at all discomfited by the unexpected delay but laughing and joking, pleased with the surprise gift of a free fortune. Zauna remained outside until all the customers had entered. With no one waiting to hear his or her fortune, Zauna rose and peered inside. The young waitress saw her and beckoned her in. She packed the crystal and stand into its box and carried it inside, where she was ushered to a table and served a delicious meal of vegetables and rice with seasoned beans. And, true to her word, the young waitress slipped her a small cloth bag filled with coins—not just coppers but three or four triums. Overwhelmed by their generosity, she tried to thank the waitresses and the cook and his helper. They brushed aside her expression of gratitude. “You have brought us good fortune,” the cook said. “How could we not share it with you?”
From the bistro she went directly back to Allie’s shop to collect her belongings. Allie welcomed her with a big smile, exposing missing teeth. “I’ve waited long for this day,” she said. “I knew it would come eventually. I feel my work here is done, or nearly so. I know it is time now for you to get on with your task. But when it is finished, please come this way again and bid me goodbye. I’ll be waiting for you.”
Zauna made no promise. She felt that Allie could have foretold the outcome of the journey and whether it would succeed or fail. She didn’t ask. Instead she bid Allie farewell and headed for the train station.
She’d had no opportunity through her busy and harrowing time at the restaurant to try to mindspeak with Renni. She needed to contact her, if she could, to learn how she fared and whether she’d found Lore. She also needed to tell her that she would be taking the train to Harnor, a port on the Soileau River. From Harnor she could get passage on a boat north to Highpoint. That way, if all went well, she could arrange to meet her companions in Pescatil, where with good luck they would all meet and continue on together to Hillcross.
Although there was no train service between Highpoint and Pescatil, with her newly acquired funds, she could surely obtain a ride to Pescatil with someone traveling in that direction.
CHAPTER TEN
ENCOUNTER
Lore awoke with aches throughout his body. He let out a loud groan, recalling his ride and fall. He might have broken bones. Internal injuries. Probably had a concussion, judging by the pain in his head. Did he dare try to sit up? He lay still awhile longer, thinking about all the possible injuries he might be afflicted with.
Awareness of terrible thirst and of the growing heat of the day finally drove him first to sit up and then to attempt to stand. He didn’t succeed on the first attempt or on the second, but on the third try he managed with much moaning to heave himself up onto very shaky legs. A couple of wobbling steps took him to a tree he could lean against. When he’d caught his breath and assessed his condition again, he concluded that miraculously he had no broken bones. Most of his aches were muscular. The pounding and aching head and a very queasy stomach still indicated a concussion. He supposed he should consider himself lucky to be alive, but he didn’t feel lucky. He was lost, alone, in pain, and without any means of transportation other than his own two feet. Which were attached to legs that were none too steady. And he had no one to blame for his present condition but his own foolhardiness.
Even if his companions were looking for him, it was unlikely that they could find him. He could see no way out of the predicament he’d gotten himself into. Maybe it would have been better had the fall killed him.
In that morose state of mind he looked around for something he could use as a walking stick. He needed at least to get out of the immediate vicinity of the dead horse, which was beginning to give off a foul odor that added to his queasiness. He spied a dead tree not far away. One of its limbs should make a good walking stick if he could break it off. He limped slowly toward it, nearly falling several times but finally reaching the tree without major mishap.
He could reach a branch that would be perfect for his purpose, but was his strength sufficient to break it off? He cursed the weakness that not only made any physical activity difficult but that, he realized, was robbing him of his powers. Not daring to lower himself to the ground lest he be unable to rise again, he rested by leaning against the tree trunk while summoning the strength to wrest off the desired branch.
After some time he made his first try and got only scraped palms for his effort. Moments later he tried again, with no better result. It took six or seven tries—he lost count—before the branch yielded and broke free from the trunk. Then before he used it he was forced to rest awhile after all the exertion of trying and finally succeeding at breaking it loose. He settled down at the base of the dead tree and without meaning to fell fast asleep.
He awoke to the realization that he had slept not a few moments but several hours. Judging by the light and the position of the sun as he viewed it through the trees, it was now midafternoon. He had lost most of the day. He struggled to his feet, determined to find water and perhaps something he could eat. Using the hard-won branch as a walking stick, he looked around for some semblance of a path. Finding none, he merely set off through the trees, hoping to find a stream. He couldn’t make rapid progress, having to go around fallen logs, negotiate narrow passages between trees and mossy rocks, and avoid tripping over the ubiquitous aboveground tree roots. When the burble of a distant stream reached his ears he cried out for joy. Tracing the sound to its source, he came upon a narrow stream of fast-running water. He threw himself down on the bank and leaned over to lap up water like a dog. His thirst quenched at last, he sat back on his haunches and thought about what to do for food. Small fish swam in the stream, but he had no way of catching any, even if they’d been large enough to be worth the effort.
Deniably Dead (Arucadi Series Book 4) Page 11