The Serpent

by David Drake

  If a polite warning—which that was—saved Mistress Sarah some trouble, that was even better for all parties than me correcting the problem after I came back by, for I certainly would track the fellow down if he misused so nice a lady as Sarah.

  “I’m honest and the jewelry I carry is solid workmanship,” he said. “Anyway, they see it before they buy. Or do you need to approve them before I go on in?”

  “Like you say, they see it before they buy,” I said, sorry now for giving him a rough time. “My taste doesn’t matter. Good luck to you, sir.”

  Sam and I strode off down the Road.

  Mistress Sarah was the reason I had wanted to become a Champion; Mistress Sarah and my neighbors on Beune, the same sorts of folks. Ordinary people who just want to live their lives—and ought to be allowed to, without interference by human bullies or monsters from the Waste.

  The Road branched. I took the left branch and noted it down. We came to a node with enough population to call it a hamlet and another that provided us with beer, bread and pickled meat. Neither had a name that the locals called it by. They said that Allingham, just up the Road, was a big place ruled by a duke. I figured I’d go there and look the place over thoroughly for Mistress Toledana, then head on back to Elvira to see how Baga was doing. My reconnaissance of the southwest from Dun Add was going to be shorter than I’d intended it to be, but this didn’t greatly concern me.

  I met an old woman in a worn gray singlet. Her arms were as thin as articulated bones. Around her right wrist was a bracelet of what seemed to be rough stones. As I came near her she looked up and said in a cracked voice, “Sir? Can you help me for the sake of your own mother?”

  “What would you have, madame?” I said. Sam snorted. Now that he called himself to my attention, I realized that I didn’t see the woman’s guide animal. A human couldn’t go far on the Road without the eyes of a guide.

  “Sir, if you helped me retrieve the body of my son for burial, I would be eternally grateful,” she said, bowing low.

  “What happened to your son?” I demanded, suddenly alert.

  “The tyrant of Allingham had him hanged,” the woman said. “Duke Ronald, he’s called, and never a blacker villain than he in all humanity! My son had been prospecting in the Waste at the risk of his life and found a true wonder, a mirror that speaks. He took it to Allingham, but rather than pay him the worth of this thing, Duke Ronald called him a thief and had him taken out and hanged. They left the body to hang on a little node not far from this place and would not allow him to be buried as a dead man should be, for his soul’s sake. I cannot take him down myself, but with your help sir, I pray that I can.”

  “Lead me to his body,” I said. I had strong doubts about the woman’s story. I’ve done a considerable amount of prospecting in the Waste, and I see the items brought to Guntram at Dun Add which are surely the bulk of major items which are found in the Commonwealth. I’ve never seen anything really complex which has been found whole, and as described this mirror is surely one of the most complex.

  On the other hand, I couldn’t fault a mother for claiming that her son was innocent of the crime for which he was executed. Regardless there was no harm in helping retrieve a body. If the local potentate objected to that, he could discuss the matter with me.

  She went off down the Road in the direction I’d been traveling. Fewer than twenty yards from where I’d met her was a vertical shadow on the Waste through which Sam and I followed the old woman down a track so narrow that the Waste touched my shoulders to either side.

  We reached a node of only about ten feet in dimension. The surface was shingle—fist-sized pebbles as though it were on a storm-swept shore—which perhaps it was on the larger block of land of which this had been a part until the Ancients had caused a catastrophe which shattered the cosmos into Here and Not-Here—and the Road linking all.

  The cross on which a man hung was in the center of the node, his face toward us. He’d been tied onto the shaft and crossbar rather than being nailed. From the grayish color of his face and the way his jowls slumped, I guessed he’d been dead about a week. The body hadn’t begun to stink.

  “Oh, good sir!” the woman said. “My Charles was such a good boy. If you will get down on all fours, I will stand on your back and undo the cords at his wrists. Please? I weigh very little.”

  That was surely true, and she was barefoot. I wasn’t thrilled about this but I’d come this far. I got down carefully. Sam nudged my ear. I said, “Go away, boy,” and pushed his broad chest back, then settled myself on hand and knees. The side pockets of my tunic swayed almost to the shingle.

  The old woman stepped onto the small of my back then placed her right foot between my shoulder blades. She was as light as a cat walking on me. I felt her shift position and lean forward. I wondered how she proposed to remove the ropes.

  A noose dropped over my neck. Before I could react she’d tugged it tight and I couldn’t breathe.

  I jumped up and tried to fling her off, but her toes had become claws and they dug in. Her grip on the garotte stabilized her. I heard her laughing.

  My right hand came out with my weapon and I slashed through the cord that was throttling me. The woman shrieked and leaped off my back. The noose released from my throat. Looking at the ground I saw not only the garotte and the light stick which had served as a handle so that the woman could hold it, but also her bony left wrist and the bracelet still on it. I’d taken the hand off with the same wild swipe that freed my throat.

  The woman had leaped wildly into the Waste, whose creature she—it—must be. I didn’t react quickly enough to stop her and I wasn’t even sure I wanted to. All I really wanted in that instant was to breathe again. My throat burned where the thin cord had cut the skin but my windpipe wasn’t crushed.

  I sat down on the stones. Sam nuzzled close again. I put my right arm around and rubbed him with the butt of my weapon. I was glad of the contact but I wasn’t going to take my hand off the weapon even to pet my dog. He didn’t care: his master was rubbing him.

  I looked at the hand on the shingle beside me. There was no blood on the cut nor were there blood vessels visible in the stump. What I’d thought was an old woman was a Wraith from the Waste—not human and perhaps not even alive. Were the monsters of the Waste really machines that the Ancients had created?

  I didn’t touch the hand but the bracelet had dropped free when the hand fell to the ground. I’d initially thought the beads were coarse pebbles. When I examined them carefully I found that each bead was a separate Ancient artifact, though at a quick scan all I could be sure of was that they were so complex that I would need a month of careful probing to unlock their secrets.

  I sighed. What I really needed was Guntram’s insights. Perhaps I’d get them when I returned to Dun Add. But for now…

  “Come on, Sam,” I said, levering myself to my feet. “Let’s see if we can find Allingham.”

  We returned to the Road and continued on the way we’d been going.

  CHAPTER 9

  Allingham

  I reached a landingplace that opened onto a community of considerable size. There was no herald as there would have been at Dun Add, but there were several booths offering clothing and cheap jewelry; and one with demijohns of liquor. There was also a fellow with a peaked blue cap that looked official. He was wearing what struck me as pretty low-end equipment: a shield that wouldn’t have gotten him into the Army, let alone the Hall of Champions, and a weapon that wasn’t much better.

  I’d have to give it more than a quick glance to be sure, but I’d seen a lot of hardware since I first came to Dun Add.

  I walked up to him and said politely, “I have business for your ruler. On the Road they named him as Duke Ronald. Can you direct me to him?”

  The fellow had stiffened when I approached him though I didn’t wear my gear openly. My pleasant tone and smile caused him to relax a little. He gestured behind him and said, “Just go up the street there. That’s Du
ke Street. The palace is at the head of it and I suppose you’ll find the Duke there. This morning is his court day. Just go on up.”

  The path to the street wasn’t graveled but the street itself was laid with large cobbles. The houses to either side were mostly built of brick. Allingham was apparently well forested, making wood and charcoal available to fire bricks. In Beune the better houses were timber-framed, but the walls were often filled with wattle and daub, well plastered against rain.

  It was raining now. Not heavily, but enough to wet the pavement. In my pack was a closely woven cloak that doubled as a ground sheet when I had to sleep rough. There wasn’t a good place to unpack and the rain was barely a drizzle. I decided I’d hold off until I reached the palace and put the cloak on there if I needed to go out again.

  The buildings along the street were mostly two story with shops on the lower level and occasionally a business placard on an outside staircase as well. More often I suspected the owner lived over the shop.

  Some people were standing in their doorways. Mostly they let me walk past briskly. An exception stepped directly into my path and offered to make me a suit out of whichever fabric I chose. What I was wearing had suffered during the trip, but it was still presentable in my opinion—and I think Baga’s wife, Maggie, would have passed it also. She was a stiffer judge than I was.

  “Thank you, sir,” I said. “But I think these’ll get me home.”

  I walked on, glad that the tailor didn’t follow along. I wondered if Duke Ronald would take exception to the mud stains and damage my clothes had taken while I was dealing with the termites. I supposed I could buy a new outfit if Ronald was so finicky—or I could simply go back to Baga and after that to Dun Add. I thought that I ought to warn the locals if there was a dangerous Wraith haunting the Road near Allingham, but I wasn’t really sure what Duke Ronald could do about it except warn people to be careful.

  Maybe the Wraith had died from the injury I’d given her. That would be nice, but she had certainly seemed sprightly when she sprang into the Waste after I cut her.

  Another man in a blue cap stood at the entrance of what I took as the ducal palace—the largest building I’d seen in Allingham. Wings had been built onto both sides of the original building in a different color of brick. There was a porch in front and half a dozen loungers. I started through them with Sam at my side.

  “You can’t take a dog in there,” the guard said harshly.

  I touched Sam on the flank to stop him and considered options. Allingham must have a stable, but instead I looked at the people on the porch. A fellow of fifty or so wore work boots and struck me as a farmer. The man he’d been chatting with I took for a lawyer; he was in sober urban clothes.

  I said to the farmer, “Sir, I’m here to warn the Duke about safety on the Road. Could you watch Sam here for the few minutes that takes me? I’ll pay you two coppers for the service.”

  He and the man he’d been talking to both looked at me. The lawyer said, “We can’t go anywhere till the Duke gets around to calling us. I guess we can watch your dog till then. And don’t worry about your money.”

  “Sam, stay,” I told him. To the men I added, “Thank you, sirs. This shouldn’t take long.”

  Court was being held in the large room to the left off the hallway. The blue-capped guard sitting on a stool near the inner doorway nodded to me. He doubled as a clerk and held a tablet with a list of names; the first three were checked off. There were about forty people in the room, three or four others wearing blue caps. I’d say that was heavy security, but most of them seemed to be court functionaries rather than serious guards.

  The man of forty on a low dais wore black judicial robes and must be Duke Ronald. Though dressed as a judge he wore a holstered shield and weapon that appeared to be of really good quality from where I stood at the back of the room. To Ronald’s left on a lower dais sat a very pretty young woman holding an ornate hand-mirror that was surely an Ancient artifact. This impressed me even more than Ronald’s equipment did.

  Allingham wasn’t a central node but it was a wealthy one and its leader could be expected to spread himself on arms: military defense was the basic duty of a leader. Ancient artifacts didn’t interest most people, though, and large complicated ones like the mirror seemed to be would be difficult and expensive to return to working order, as I knew better than most.

  I was still standing next to the entry clerk. I turned to him and whispered, “Who’s the blond girl?”

  “That’s the Duke’s daughter, Lady Claire,” he whispered back, “And she’s got her magic mirror.”

  “I have a danger to Allingham to report,” I said to the clerk. “When will I be able to do this?”

  “Wait till the Duke’s done with judging between Herman and his sister,” the clerk said. “He won’t like it if you bust in.”

  I nodded and concentrated on the trial. A man in his thirties stepped forward from a front railing and handed the Duke a rolled document. He said, “I’ve showed this to Bessy and Milt. It’s the deed old Waldeck gave us when he divided his land. Bessie got a copy then and hers reads just the same. Not a word about the creek.”

  He glared at the woman behind the other short railing to his right. The woman glared back. The slightly younger man beside her shouted, “Herman knows as well as I do that Waldeck told us both not to move the creek when he gave us the deeds in Master Quinaman’s office. Quinaman would say the same thing if he hadn’t died last Spring. But Herman went ahead and built a dam to divert the flow to his west pasture!”

  “Waldeck didn’t say that, and Quinaman’s dead as sure as Milt’s a liar!” Herman said, raising his voice also.

  The clerk beside me and the other guards in the hall perked up, putting their hands on their weapons, but nothing worse than shouting occurred. Nobody except Duke Ronald and the officials in blue caps were openly armed.

  “Daughter?” said the Duke, leaning toward Lady Claire. Claire was looking half away from the doorway where I stood. Instead of turning to face the Duke squarely, she held the mirror beside her head so that her oblique profile showed on the glass. She didn’t speak but the mirror said in a young woman’s voice, “So, Master Herman. Your father didn’t say to you and your sister, ‘Now, the two of you act like kin ought to and don’t go messing with the creek after I’m gone. Do I need to put that in the deed?’ And didn’t you tell him, ‘No, you don’t. Bessie and me, we’re kin without you needing to do that’?”

  “That’s a damned lie!” Herman said.

  “You’re calling my daughter a liar?” snarled Duke Ronald.

  “No, your highness!” Herman said quickly. “But that mirror in her hand would be a liar if it had the balls to say what it’s hinting. I swear it is.”

  “So you say,” the mirror sneered. “You know that the stipulation isn’t on paper so you can get away with it in court. Whether any of your neighbors will ever trust you again—that you can’t be so sure of, can you?”

  “I’m telling the truth!” Herman said. “Bessie, you know that?”

  “I know that our milk has been off by a half since you changed the creek, Herman!” said the woman beside the younger man at the right-hand railing. “Our father wouldn’t have wanted that and you know it!”

  “But that’s not what he said!” Herman continued desperately.

  “Duke Ronald,” the female voice said. “You’re the ruler. You could put the business aside for a few days before you decide whether to make a fair judgment or one based only on the written documents.”

  Duke Ronald said, “Come back in two days for an answer. You’re both dismissed for now. Next case.”

  Herman clutched the bar in front of him with both hands. “Duke Ronald!” he shouted. “She’s lying!”

  His own attorney was trying to quiet him and move him out of the court. “Come back in two days,” the Duke said. “You’re not helping yourself, citizen. Next case!”

  I glanced at the clerk beside me; he nodded. I
said, “Your highness, I am a traveller on the Road from Arpitan.” I was from a lot farther away than that, but it might not suit the Leader to have it known that he was scouting this region. Jon hadn’t expanded the Commonwealth by aggressive wars, but there was certainly concern among the rulers of neighboring nodes that his practice might change.

  “I was set upon by a monster of the Waste just outside Allingham,” I said. “I was able to escape, but the monster got away also and may still be lurking in the region. I came here to warn you and your citizens of the danger.”

  “How dangerous can this monster be if this ragged fellow got away?” the mirror said. I hadn’t heard Lady Claire speak in her own right yet and I wondered whether the girl had the same unpleasant tone as her mirror.

  “I took this from her,” I said, bringing the bracelet out of my pocket and holding it up on my index finger. “If it helps you identify her.”

  “Let me see that,” Duke Ronald said curtly.

  I walked up to the throne and offered the bangle still hanging from my finger to the Duke. Lady Claire and her mirror were looking up at us.

  “That’s Ancient workmanship,” the mirror said correctly. “Where would a vagabond like this have gotten it?”

  “I’m not a vagabond,” I said. I was definitely losing my patience with this unmannerly couple and their mirror. “And I took it from a Waste Wraith, as I told you.”

  I tried to close my fingers on the bracelet; Ronald snatched it away. He said, “I think I’ll hold this for the time being, citizen. What does it do, anyway?”

  “Hanged if I know,” I said. “I just cut it off the wrist of a monster of the Waste and I haven’t had time to look closely at it.”

  “It’s a map of this region,” said the mirror. “Each of the four beads is a separate map which interlock when they’re expanded on the proper tool.”

  The reflection on the seeming mirror turned and appeared to be looking directly at Lady Claire—instead of showing the lady’s profile as it would have done if it were really a mirror. “Lady,” it said, “might it be part of your jewelry which you lost after being visited by an old woman?”