Read The A'Rak for Free Online Page B

'ware that thou be not the garment. . . ."
    * * *
    Our after-silence rang with one question: The garment of whom ? The poetic fragment was as obscure to me as to them, whatever gleanings of legend and vague conjectures I might bring to bear upon the lines.
    "It would be madness," Minim flatly declared, "to share these verses with the deity tonight—to associate yourself in any way with verses which embody an unmistakable threat to him."
    "I won't pretend, Nimmy, that I yet know what I am going to do. It all hangs upon what he's called me up to the Stadium for. It has occurred to me that if rumors are abroad, and the god has winded them, then it might be dangerous to conceal these verses from him. I must weigh this a while."
    No doubt he must. For me, it was time to arrange my lodging and begin finding my way about. I rose, and shrugged into my doublet. "You have shown me such hospitality," I told them. "This swim has been pure delight, and it seems ill bred to take short leave. But you two must take counsel, and I have planned a tourist's amble about your lovely countryside. May I come see you in two or three days, and perhaps learn what you have learned of the, ah, deity's communications—barring impropriety, of course?"
    "You will be welcome, and warmly, Nifft," beamed Paanja Pandagon. Fursten Minim bowed graciously, though his look was much more reserved. The Ecclesiarch produced a vellum chit. "Convey this card of mine . . . to the Weskitt and Fobb, an elegant hostelry near 'Change Row. You will be entertained as my guest."
    Minim's handclasp was politely firm. His eyes were still distrusting, though they perhaps looked less sure of what they doubted in me.
    In sum, I set out feeling content with my new acquaintance, and in general, well launched. It was already midday. Now I would bathe and dine at the Weskitt and Fobb. Early on the morrow would be soon enough to commence my reconnaissance of the nearby Monastia, whose renowned architecture I was keen to contemplate.
     
    |

LAGADEME II
    Still musing over the curious bit of stalking I had been witness to in the A'Rak Fane, I returned to find my crew, criss-crossing as I went the route by which Plectt had led me to the place. If I was sniffing for anything particular, it was for some sign from these citizens of any such repugnance and unease as troubled me. How could they so casually tread ground that was subterraneously trafficked by such a god as theirs, and his spawn? I suppose my naive thought was that surely some passer or shopkeep, thinking themselves unseen, would let slip a shudder, or that I might spy here or there two cronies guardedly sharing a treasonous murmur of loathing.
    But I glimpsed no such thing, not a jot of it. Even thus, they say, in cities near demon-vents, do people walk blandly about their business. My own obligation was plain enough in any case: to take a new grip on my Nuncial dispassion. So resolved, I returned to the quayside fronting the Maritime Museum.
    Here were my pullers with the 'shaw, but Olombo was absent. Bantril, fractionally less laconic than Shinn, informed me, "Widow took him that way, said follow with you."
    Off we set downquay, the pair threading the high-wheeled 'shaw amidst rattling freight wagons rushing empty from warehouse to waterside for new loads, dodging among the sedans and palanquins of substantial travellers being reverentially conveyed to 'Change Row to wield their fortunes, steering round thickets of stevedores resting where they could best obstruct traffic, darting between maids and housewives a-streaming all parcelled and basketed to and from early market.
    "Describe her, our commissioner!" I prompted Bantril as we jog-trotted. "What was she like?"
    "Short. All veiled."
    "Veils of mourning?"
    "Black veils, to the ground."
    We neared the Quay's southern end, where the city tapered to a spur as the crags angled to meet the riverside. The last stretch of quay here was a shabby, less trafficked precinct of