the sun—now she is surely dead!”
“Hoorah!” several in the crowd shouted.
When there was silence Fregg stared all around. And sadly he shook his head. “Hoorah, is it? And how long before word of this reaches the outside world, eh? How long before the tale finds its way to Kliihn and Eyphra, Yhem and Khrissa and all the villages and settlements between? Have you forgotten? Chlangi the Shunned—this very Chlangi the Doomed—was once Chlangi the bright, Chlangi the beautiful! Oh, all very well to let a handful of outcast criminals run the place now, where no right-minded decent citizen would be found dead; but with Orbiquita gone, her sphere of evil ensorcelment removed forever, how long before some great monarch and his generals decide it were time to bring back Chlangi within the fold, to make her an honest city again? Not long, you may rely upon it! And what of your livelihoods then? And what of your lives? Why, there’s a price on the head of every last one of you!”
No cries of “bravo” now from the spectators but only the hushed whispers of dawning realization, and at last a sullen silence which acknowledged the ring of truth in Fregg’s words.
And in the midst of this silence:
“We killed a lamia!” Hylar Arf blustered. “Why, all of Theem’hdra stands in our debt!”
“Theem’hdra, aye,” answered Fregg, his voice doomful. “But not Chlangi, and certainly not her present citizens.”
“But—” Thull Drinnis would have taken up the argument.
“—But we come now to the third and perhaps greatest discrepancy,” Fregg cut him off. “Good Thull and Hylar returned last night with vast treasure, all loaded on these camelshere and now displayed upon the blanket for all to see. And then they took themselves off to Dilquay Noth’s brothel and drank and whored the night away, and talked of how, with their share, they’d get off to Thandopolis and set up in legitimate business, and live out their lives in luxury undreamed….
“But being a suspicious man, and having had news of this fine scheme of theirs brought back to me, I thought: ‘What? And are they so displeased with Chlangi, then, that they must be off at once and gone from us? Or is there something I do not yet know? And I sent out trackers into the badlands to find what they could find.”
(Thull and Hylar, until this moment showing only a little disquietude, now became greatly agitated, fingering their swords and peering this way and that. Fregg saw this and smiled, however grimly, before continuing.)
“And lo!—at a small oasis known only to a few of us, what should my trackers find there but a third beast, the very brother of these two here—and four more saddlebags packed with choicest items!” He clapped his great hands and the crowd gave way to let through a pair of dusty mountain men, leading into view the beast in question.
“We are all rich, all of us!” cried Fregg over the crowd’s rising hum of excitement and outrage. “Aye, and after the share has been made, now we can all leave Chlangi for lands of our choice. That is to say, all save these two….”
Thull Drinnis and Hylar Arf waited no longer. The game was up. They were done for. They knew it.
As a man they went for Fregg, swords singing from scabbards, lips drawn back in snarls from clenched teeth. And up on to his table they leaped, their blades raised on high—but before they could strike there came a great sighing of arrows which stopped them dead in their tracks. From above and behind Fregg on the courtyard walls, a party of crossbowmen had opened up, and their massed bolts not only transfixed the cheating pair but knocked them down from the table like swatted flies. They were dead before they hit the ground.
And again there was silence, broken at last by Fregg’s voice shouting: “So let all treacherous dogs die; so let them all pay the price!”
And someone in the crowd: “The fools! Why did they come back at all?”
“Good
“Hoorah!” several in the crowd shouted.
When there was silence Fregg stared all around. And sadly he shook his head. “Hoorah, is it? And how long before word of this reaches the outside world, eh? How long before the tale finds its way to Kliihn and Eyphra, Yhem and Khrissa and all the villages and settlements between? Have you forgotten? Chlangi the Shunned—this very Chlangi the Doomed—was once Chlangi the bright, Chlangi the beautiful! Oh, all very well to let a handful of outcast criminals run the place now, where no right-minded decent citizen would be found dead; but with Orbiquita gone, her sphere of evil ensorcelment removed forever, how long before some great monarch and his generals decide it were time to bring back Chlangi within the fold, to make her an honest city again? Not long, you may rely upon it! And what of your livelihoods then? And what of your lives? Why, there’s a price on the head of every last one of you!”
No cries of “bravo” now from the spectators but only the hushed whispers of dawning realization, and at last a sullen silence which acknowledged the ring of truth in Fregg’s words.
And in the midst of this silence:
“We killed a lamia!” Hylar Arf blustered. “Why, all of Theem’hdra stands in our debt!”
“Theem’hdra, aye,” answered Fregg, his voice doomful. “But not Chlangi, and certainly not her present citizens.”
“But—” Thull Drinnis would have taken up the argument.
“—But we come now to the third and perhaps greatest discrepancy,” Fregg cut him off. “Good Thull and Hylar returned last night with vast treasure, all loaded on these camelshere and now displayed upon the blanket for all to see. And then they took themselves off to Dilquay Noth’s brothel and drank and whored the night away, and talked of how, with their share, they’d get off to Thandopolis and set up in legitimate business, and live out their lives in luxury undreamed….
“But being a suspicious man, and having had news of this fine scheme of theirs brought back to me, I thought: ‘What? And are they so displeased with Chlangi, then, that they must be off at once and gone from us? Or is there something I do not yet know? And I sent out trackers into the badlands to find what they could find.”
(Thull and Hylar, until this moment showing only a little disquietude, now became greatly agitated, fingering their swords and peering this way and that. Fregg saw this and smiled, however grimly, before continuing.)
“And lo!—at a small oasis known only to a few of us, what should my trackers find there but a third beast, the very brother of these two here—and four more saddlebags packed with choicest items!” He clapped his great hands and the crowd gave way to let through a pair of dusty mountain men, leading into view the beast in question.
“We are all rich, all of us!” cried Fregg over the crowd’s rising hum of excitement and outrage. “Aye, and after the share has been made, now we can all leave Chlangi for lands of our choice. That is to say, all save these two….”
Thull Drinnis and Hylar Arf waited no longer. The game was up. They were done for. They knew it.
As a man they went for Fregg, swords singing from scabbards, lips drawn back in snarls from clenched teeth. And up on to his table they leaped, their blades raised on high—but before they could strike there came a great sighing of arrows which stopped them dead in their tracks. From above and behind Fregg on the courtyard walls, a party of crossbowmen had opened up, and their massed bolts not only transfixed the cheating pair but knocked them down from the table like swatted flies. They were dead before they hit the ground.
And again there was silence, broken at last by Fregg’s voice shouting: “So let all treacherous dogs die; so let them all pay the price!”
And someone in the crowd: “The fools! Why did they come back at all?”
“Good
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