Easy Money

by Rik Hunik

  "It belongs to one of the kidnappers?"

  "Maybe. Probably."

  He hesitated, disturbed by my lack of certainty, then made up his mind. "Let's go."

  He was halfway to the door before I turned around to follow him. "Should we bring the police along?"

  "There is no need. I have my own guards."

  "That's not exactly what I meant. They might get upset if you start picking on citizens."

  "Let me worry about that. Just take me to the place and stand back."

  I rode with Zareb in his fancy carriage, accompanied by a squad of black warriors on horseback. At a more sedate pace it would have been a pleasant ride, sitting on soft cushions, sheltered from the hot sun.

  # # #

  I stood behind a row of dismounted warriors as Zareb knocked on the door. It was opened by Magnus Camillus, the lawyer who had hired me three weeks ago to find a document that had gone astray, whose place I had been ambushed walking home from. He was somewhat taken aback by what he saw but he maintained his aplomb. "How can I help you?"

  The voice was altered but as soon as he spoke I recognized it. Before Zareb could reply I said, "You're the man behind the mask."

  I had no proof of that and, being a lawyer, he should have known enough to keep his mouth shut, but as soon as he saw me his anger boiled up and his first reaction spilled out unhindered. "You again. I should have had you cut you into tiny pieces when I had the chance."

  Zareb slapped him across the mouth. "Don't talk to my friend that way." Magnus backed up a step and tried to close the door but Zareb blocked it with his foot and asked me, "Do you know this man?"

  "He kidnapped me and left me to starve to death in a cell. He was a leader of the cult that kidnapped dozens of young women in the past month."

  "That's a lie," Magnus said as he backed into the room. Everybody followed him in. "Get out of here, all of you, or I'll call the police."

  I closed the door behind me and leaned on it.

  Zareb said, "Go ahead and call for them as loud as you like. I'll deal with them when they get here, but right now you're going to tell us everything you know about Princess Nyanza."

  "I don't know anything."

  Zareb punched the lawyer in the face and two of the warriors picked him up. "Ready to talk?"

  The lawyer's eye was already discolored and swelling, to match his fat lip. "Fuck you. You're all going to jail. Do you hear me?"

  Zareb said to me, "You don't have to see this." They took him down into his own basement and I stepped outside but I still heard his screams. I can dish out pain when I'm fighting a guy who's trying to clobber me, but I didn't approve of what they were doing down there. Not that I had any intention of telling them to stop. I could tell they were in no mood to listen to my moral qualms.

  When they came back Zareb said, "You were right about how they got her out of the hotel. They took her here in a coach, then switched coaches, thinking they would be clever and take their sacrifice away by land this time, but I know where they're taking her. This loser here sent his private yacht to meet them. How are you at riding a horse?"

  "I did it a few times while I was in the army but I wasn't very good."

  Zareb grinned at me and slapped me on the back. "Then just try to keep up."

  Chapter 44

  Zareb dispatched a message to the police and another to the African ship to tell them where Magnus's yacht was heading. The rest of us mounted up and headed south, out of the city. Depending on how fast the kidnappers were driving they could already be at the rendezvous, but we still had a chance to catch them on land because Magnus couldn't send out his yacht until the chain across the mouth of Old Harbor was opened. If they got her onto the yacht before the African ship or a police boat arrived we might never be able to find her.

  The road headed south for about five miles, then bent to the west paralleling the coast. I wasn't familiar with this region but Zareb seemed confident of his destination, galloping along at full speed. I rode an excellent steed with a smooth stride, but it was the longest horseback ride of my life and it gave me the worst beating I could remember, the heat and dust adding to the experience, removing from me any desire to ever climb onto a horse again.

  It felt like days passing in the saddle but the sun barely moved in the sky. At long last Zareb slowed a bit, searching for a landmark the lawyer had told him about. He found it and turned onto a rough, narrow, dirt road that wound down through the forest to the shore. The tired horses slowed down even more. Zareb dropped back to talk to me.

  The trees thinned and the two lead warriors on their mounts emerged from the shadows into a patch of bright sunlight. A brilliant flash of white light blinded everybody and the horses all skidded to a halt. When I blinked the afterimage out of my eyes I saw the two horses and their riders sprawled on the ground.

  "What on earth was that?" Zareb asked.

  "Wizard magic," I said, dismounting. "They have a wizard down there and he knows we're here."

  "Can you fight him?"

  I shook my head. "Not head-to-head. Judging by that spell, he's a lot stronger than me. We'll have to outsmart him."

  "Are they dead?"

  "I don't know. I think it was just a stun spell. See, the horses are still breathing. You can check on the men while I try to find out if the princess is down there, but stay low, I think that was a line-of-sight spell."

  I got out Nyanza's comb and held it in both hands. Now that I was no longer bouncing on the back of a galloping horse I could concentrate, and I was close enough to pick up a faint impression even through the block.

  I looked up to see Zareb watching me. I said, "She's down there."

  He said, "My men are alive. The kidnappers are holed up in a group of large boulders near the shore, where the Wizard has a line of sight to the road. Any ideas how to get to that Wizard?"

  "Do you have any archers?"

  "All of my men can shoot, but we brought only two bows, and if the archers expose themselves too much they'll be stunned for sure, and they don't have much chance of hitting anything behind those rocks."

  "Tell them to give me five minutes, then start shooting anyway. I can cloak myself so he can't detect my aura, especially if he's busy worrying about you guys, then I'll circle wide and come at them from below."

  He nodded and started giving orders.

  I trotted back up the road about a hundred paces, then made my way down the wooded slope to the shore, all the time repeating the dull mantra that cloaked my aura, making my presence harder for the wizard to detect. I heard an occasional arrow rattle off the rocks without endangering anybody, and every now and then a flash of light from up the slope assured me the Africans had the attention of the wizard.

  At the bottom of the slope I came out of the trees and underbrush that had provided cover, so from now on I had to rely on the rocks, and I would be exposed from the sea side. Looking out to sea I spotted a distant sail, Magnus's yacht no doubt, speeding to the rendezvous point. I didn't have much time.

  I calmed myself, reestablished the mantra, then crept closer to the wizard's hideout, trying to hurry while keeping quiet and not thinking about the yacht getting closer.

  The wizard had four henchmen that I could see, all armed with spears and swords, but for now only the wizard was doing any fighting. All five men had their attention directed up the hill, but there was no way I could take them all out before they turned on me, and if I didn't do something to break this stalemate soon the yacht would arrive with reinforcements for them.

  My best bet was to take care of the wizard, and bluff the others until the Africans could get down here, but I could only do my stun spell well enough to knock out a man three times out of ten, so it probably wouldn't work against the Wizard, though I was pretty sure it would at least slow him down for a second or two, which might be all the chance I needed.

  I crept closer and closer, keeping my breathing steady and my mind as empty as I could make it while still movi
ng. When I was ready I stood up and threw half a dozen smoke pellets. All five men heard the slight sound the pellets made as they landed behind them and as they turned I blasted the wizard with the full force of my stun spell, then invoked the smoke pellets, which went off with a series of small pops, creating an instant, waist-high cloud of smoke that billowed upward. The wizard staggered and slumped a bit but recovered right away.

  By then all my flash packets were already in the air. I closed my eyes and set them off before the Wizard could point his finger to blast me with his stun spell, then dashed forward while they were all blinded, and thrust my sword through the wizard's heart. A jolt of energy stiffened every muscle in my body and I felt myself toppling over sideways, but couldn't do anything about it. I landed with a crash and slowly, painfully managed to turn my head enough to watch the wizard.

  He screamed as cold, blue flames shot out around the sword still stuck through him. Clawing at the sword he dropped to his knees and fell over, curled up into a fetal position. His whole body burst into blue flames that flared high for a few seconds then faded, his shriek rising and falling with the flames.

  For several seconds I was weaponless and paralyzed but the kidnappers showed their true colors and fled. My body still tingled as I got to my feet and I couldn't see more than ten feet through the smoke as I entered the narrow cave the wizard had been guarding.

  About ten feet in the cave jogged to the right and widened. Not much daylight made it back here but there was enough for me to see a dark-skinned woman huddled against the back wall.

  "I'm here to rescue you," I said, stepping closer.

  When she saw that I was not one of her captors she stood up and I heard the rattle of a chain. Even in the thread-bare peasant's dress she wore Princess Nyanza was a stunning beauty, but I didn't get much of an opportunity to look at her as she charged forward and wrapped her arms around me. "Oh thank you for saving me," she said, pressing her pert little teenage body against me. I started getting an erection right away and gently pushed her back.

  She took on a coy look and in mocking tones said, "What's the matter, don't you like me?" She reached out and put her hand on my growing erection.

  I felt like grabbing her and crushing her to me but I didn't move. "Of course I like you. You're beautiful, absolutely stunning, and I would love to make love to you, right here, right now, and I would do it too, if I thought I had even a ghost of a chance of surviving afterward." I gently pushed her hand away and took a couple of steps back, so the chain manacled to her ankle kept her from reaching me. "I'm tempted to do it anyway and damn the consequences, but there's no time, your brother is coming." She pouted her lips in an endearing fashion. "But don't worry, you'll get plenty of chances with better men than me. I'll find a key to those manacles."

  Zareb came into the cave then and hurrying to his sister he took her in his arms and said comforting things to her while she clung to him. To me he said, "I saw what you did. You risked your life. I will see that you are rewarded well, over and above your fee, and if you ever need anything from any Zenobian anywhere, you need only ask."

  I thanked him for his generosity and went out into the bright sunlight to search the wizard's body for the key. His clothing was dry and brittle, like it was a hundred years old, his skin had a bluish tinge and was wrinkled like a mummy's, and the flesh was already cold.

  When I turned him over to search his other side a small dagger tucked into his belt caught my eye. It was rather plain, with no jewels and only a simple leaf-pattern engraved near the hilt, but it was the same shiny, silvery-white metal as the knife I had found in the Minotaur's Mansion, and it looked familiar. I stared at it for half a minute before I realized where I'd seen it; in Silvina's store, when I bought my new knife.

  Maybe he had just walked into the store and bought it off the shelf, but I suspected that wasn't the case. I remembered the night last week, on my way home after escaping from the rock in the harbor, when the stench of dark sorcery had blown past me, and then, a bit later, I thought I saw Silvina leaving the police station just ahead of me. Suspicious, but far from conclusive. What would she want with a dark wizard? Was she involved in the volcano cult?

  I continued my search until I found a ring of keys in one pocket, then went back to free Nyanza.

  When the yacht showed up twenty minutes later we pretended to escort Princess Nyanza to the shore, then jumped the small crew. They fought hard but they were no match for the Africans, who subdued them without any casualties or serious injuries to either side.

  There was sure to be a bit of scandal when they were brought back to Agrippina to face charges because they were all of a higher class than the cultists who were arrested last week. I guess they were the leaders and financial backers who hadn't wanted to risk getting their hands dirty before. I remembered a quote from the mayor in a News Bulletin a few days ago, "Cultists in other cities remain at large, as do leaders and financial supporters here in Agrippina." Not quite so many now.

  When the African ship arrived Zareb invited me aboard. Anything was better than riding a horse all the way back to the city so I accepted. I was toasted as a hero. When Zareb told the story I thought he put too much emphasis on my part but nobody listened to my protests.

  When the ship returned to port Zareb insisted I join the African delegation at the hotel for a banquet. It would have been an insult to refuse, but I was too hungry to even think about that. Besides, I deserved to unwind a little.

  The celebration was marred by a minor mishap when I dropped a crystal goblet of wine and it shattered on the table. I apologized for the slip, the mess was cleaned up in a jiffy, and everybody carried on as though it hadn't happened. I didn't explain that when I had picked up the goblet with my left hand I had seen blood pouring from my palm. There was no pain and as soon as I dropped the goblet the vision vanished, leaving me to wonder what it was about. I didn't let it trouble me.

  It was after dark before I got back to my office but I'd had a good day. A hard day, granted, but a good one. If I included the bonus from the mayor and all the gold Prince Zareb had paid me I had come out well ahead in the past month.

  My reflections ended abruptly when I saw my office door standing open a couple of inches.

  Chapter 45

  Standing to one side I gave the door a push to swing it wide open, waited a few seconds, then poked my head in. Nobody there. I stepped inside and closed the door. It was after Zena's quitting time so she was free to go, but if I wasn't in the office she always closed and locked the door when she left. Everything in my office seemed to be in order, and when I checked my apartment everything appeared to be untouched, but something felt wrong.

  I went back downstairs, sat in Zena's chair and picked up her pen. I got a picture of her as I had last seen her, sitting in this chair, but I couldn't tell where she was or how she was. She had been working for me for almost two weeks, sitting right here in this chair, so she should have left a strong enough impression for me to locate her or at least get some idea of her location.

  I put myself in a trance and tried again. Still a blank. Granted I was still rather drunk but I should have sensed something, so even though there was no sense of danger I felt more uneasy.

  I caught a cab to her parent's home. When I asked about Zena her mother said, "Zena hasn't come home today but we weren't worried because we thought she was still with you."

  I realized we had been spending a lot of time together, and now I felt guilty for enjoying myself while she was in danger. "I was out on a case all day, chasing down a wizard and rescuing a princess. I haven't seen her since this morning."

  Her worried eyes found mine. "You're a Magician. You can find her can't you?"

  "I'd like to say yes, but if it was that easy I wouldn't be here now."

  "You're saying you can't find her."

  "No, I didn't say that, but my talent is being blocked, so I'll have to find a way around the block. You should notify the police right away and t
ell them she's missing. If you use my name they might treat it more urgently. I'm going back to my office to pick up the trail there." I tried to sound more optimistic than I felt but I didn't manage to cheer her up at all.

  Back in my office I gathered what I needed for my five-elements spell. For extra potency I used some of the moonwater I had exposed to the last full moon. I had made sure the sky was dark before I set the bowl out, and I brought it in before morning twilight, sealed it and stored it in the dark. It would be its strongest tonight, when the moon set with the sun.

  I performed the ritual and got a picture of what had happened. A slim, black-haired guy dressed in black walked into the office and handed Zena a note. I couldn't recall ever seeing him before, but there was a nagging familiarity about him, perhaps because he reminded me of Renzo, but I knew it couldn't be him.

  Zena read the note, then went out with him. He pulled the door closed but it didn't latch and swung open just a bit as he turned away. They disappeared down the street, which was in shade, which meant it could have happened anytime in the afternoon. It wasn't much, but at least I had a direction to start.

  Stars shone down from a clear sky that sucked the heat right off the earth. I hurried down to Knife Avenue and stopped at the corner. My street didn't carry on past Knife Avenue, so I had only two choices. I remembered the knife on the Wizard, the one he had obtained from Silvina's store, and even though I didn't know if it was connected in any way to Zena's disappearance, after only a second of hesitation, I turned right, to Silvina's store. Maybe she had seen Zena or the man if they went past this way.