A Shadow All of Light (42 page)

I was heartened then when my brother announced that a site for negotiations had been agreed upon and that my exchange for Guido and Gracchio was arranged for this same evening. I looked forward to returning to the comforts of our villa, to its baths and beds and to the prideful dishes of Iratus. The crusts and orts that Osbro had allowed me to eat gave me gut-gripe and a sharp temper.

“Where is this happy event to take place?” I asked.

He paused before replying, wondering perhaps how I might use the intelligence. Then: “At a château north'ard of the town a little.”

“You have inspected the place and are satisfied?”

“I am not wholly at peace, but in the main they have met my demands. It is not the big house you live in where I could not discover all the traps. It is not here on the wharves where Astolfo can count on so many friends and allies unknown to me. For the same reason, I said no to two places in the middle of town. The château is set off alone in the fields and there is just one road going to it. I have somebody already watching that road. No one can get there without being seen.”

“You must have looked over the interior also.”

“From top to bottom, through every passage and corner. Nobody is staying there, unless we count a brace of cats.”

“A large house needs skillful mousers,” I said.

“A deserted house? The man that owned it has died and no blood-kin has come to put a claim on the place.”

“All the more reason.”

“The cats mean nothing,” he said. “They are but cats.”

“Are the rooms and corridors well lit and open?”

“As open and bare as a desert plain.”

“Then you have struck a good bargain,” I said, thinking that Mutano must have removed our maze of shadows and made the site seem as harmless as a mug of fresh cow's milk. For this was the site of the château of the baron Tyl Rendig. Astolfo was in process of petitioning the provincial magistrates for the property as our reward for revealing the crimes of the murderous monster. The maestro told the judges that the Fates had punished the man, bringing him to fall by accident to his death. This tale was credited and we thus avoided years of legal delays and entanglements. It would be long before a final decision was forthcoming; the magistracy was not friendly toward Astolfo. They who deal in shadows are always suspected by high-minded civic leaders.

Where Osbro had procured his mount I could not say, but mine was familiar. It was Defender, Mutano's habitual transport, and his lending of it to me was a signal favor. He had supplied a comfortable saddle too, one of my own. I took the stirrups and reins well contented.

The half moon that hung over our lonely track was of a reddish-gold color and when I gazed at it I thought how in the lunar last quarter fell the hour that the ritual burial of Bennio's coffin must be performed. We must conclude this business with Osbro in haste. Astolfo would say,
Well-ordered haste.

The land on both sides of our road was mostly level, but there were shallow declivities here and there from which we could be watched by a prone onlooker. Osbro was taking all the precautions he could, but he knew he was vulnerable, not least because he was unwilling to reveal the identities of his superiors in the confederacy. That secret he thought his best advantage at this point. In this present exchange of prisoners his position was favorable to the extent that Astolfo desired to have me back in sound health while Osbro was not greatly concerned to regain Guido and Gracchio. His position was unfavorable because when the names of those with whom he was complicit were spoken, Astolfo would know more of them and of their histories than my brother knew, he being lately come to Tardocco. The maestro would then be nearer to glimpsing our opponents' complete design.

Tired as I was, I still had to be wary and ready to act upon the instant, whatever the situation. When we arrived at the château and entered into the courtyard where the exchange was to take place, I gave the area a quick glance-over. It was as Osbro had desired. The moon stood directly above and cast no shadow from walls or battlements. The space was empty except for the well mouth, a knee-high rude structure of stone. In our previous reconnoiter of the château, Mutano had let me down into this well by a rope. There seemed no place for Astolfo to make use of his sciomancy and the order of exchange was to be the simplest possible: Guido and Gracchio were to amble their horses to one side of the courtyard. Once they halted and were examined by Osbro, I would urge Defender toward Astolfo and Mutano. This part was most awkward for me, for if my brother desired to betray me, he could plant a knife in my ribs and gallop away with his henchmen and spur out of reach in moments.

So when the two sheepish knaves had made their way to our side and I began my approach to my colleagues, I felt my hairs prickle and the flesh rise on my forearms. Something was out of order.

The sky had darkened and the light of the reddish moon was uncanny and unrevealing. Except for the slow plod of Defender's hooves, there was no sound, and the silence emphasized the strangeness of the light. Another light was in play, I realized as I passed the well mouth. From that cavity issued an intermittent yellow glow. The glow came from the chamber I had found earlier at the bottom of the well, but the passage of the light was hindered by some moving object.

I reined Defender to a halt and watched as a black creature emerged slowly into the courtyard. One part of it curled over the edge of the well curb on my side. Another part oozed over the stones directly before it. Defender snorted and stamped and his nervousness underlined the surrounding silence and the gradual, dark advent of the creature.

Then there were sounds of alarm from behind me where Osbro and the other two stood. Guido it was who uttered a curse, but stopped off in mid-phrase. Gracchio groaned. I heard nothing from my brother.

The emergence of the thing continued, tentacles and pseudo-pods lapping over the stones onto the sandy arena, and then the bulky black central body lugged its way out of the hole. With the light streaming from beneath, the dreadful thing cast a great, misshapen shadow in every direction around itself. Now I could hear its breath, a low raspy wheezing. There was something mournful in the sound, some quality that suggested the black creature regretted the reality of its own existence.

Onward it came, slowly making its way toward Osbro's group.

I looked to Astolfo and Mutano. They watched the beast with interest but without apparent fear. I nudged Defender toward them, then reined him round so that I could observe from a middle distance.

The monster was almost wholly unearthed now, and it tumbled the curbstones down in its progress. It made a huge moan, a garbled roar that sounded something like an angry lion's threat mingled with the neigh of a terrified horse. This savage trumpeting was enough to cause Gracchio and Guido to wheel their horses about and gallop out of the courtyard gateway into the broad darkness of the outer world.

Osbro stood his ground. After a brief time of indecision, he trotted toward the monster, unsheathed his sword, and began chopping at various appendages. He swore a number of mighty oaths, like those I had heard him utter many years ago when a cow stepped on his foot or a pig escaped the sty and ran away into the woods.

Mutano burst out laughing and Astolfo allowed himself a broad smile. I urged Defender toward them and then reined in and we stood as a trio.

Then, with a long and sorrowful sigh, the monster died a flabby death and collapsed upon itself to reveal its true nature of cloth and canvas, hog bladders and silk bladders, its armatures of wire and cable.

This revelation of the creature as an elaborate puppet set Osbro into a fury. He rushed at us to attack, but then, seeing that the three of us stood ready at defense, reined in and came to a standstill. “What mummery is this?” he cried. “Do you think me a child to be frightened by such a deception? What are you about?”

“Child or man, you were deceived,” Mutano said, “for you fell upon the puppet with might and main. I doubt there is enough whole cloth left to fashion a nose-rag.”

“I did not expect to be tricked so stupidly. We had made a bargain. Your false monster served no purpose.”

“Well, as to that,” said Astolfo, “you are now in our hands and without your henchmen to aid you. We have regained Falco in sound health, though a little mishandled, I should judge. And you shall find it much to your good to respond to our inquiry.”

“Break my bones, then,” Osbro said, “but I will reveal naught.”

“The breaking of bones is an unfriendly sport,” Astolfo said. “A polite colloquy over cold fowl and a passable wine offers a more civil entertainment. I do hope that you will accept our invitation. We can go at once and be at table within the hour.”

“I mistrust your big house,” Osbro muttered. He gave me a straight, black look.

“And what if you mistrust?” Mutano said. “You are our prisoner and any invitation is but a polite formality.”

“Let us leave now,” I urged. I was tired, hungry, thirsty, and befouled. I much desired the refuge of the villa.

“We must await Sbufo,” Astolfo said, “but now I see he is with us already.”

A small, plump man was pulling himself out of the well, stepping from a ladder or some other support onto the firm sand. With a rueful countenance he examined the ruin that Osbro had made of his large toy. The complicated contrivance must have cost him many an hour of intricate labor. Then he turned to greet us with a brief bow and a happy grin.

“Your Mardrake performed well,” Astolfo said. “It will be the most memorable part of the tableau wherein heroic Perseus rescues Andromeda from its gruesome clutches.”

“It will perform more ably there than here,” Sbufo said, “for Cocorico conforms better than I to the apparatus. He has the Jester's gift of gesture that I have not.”

“You have done excellently,” Mutano said. “I believe that Falco too was taken in, along with his straw-wit brother.”

“I was deceived,” I said, and Sbufo bowed and grinned and bowed once more.

“I was not,” said Osbro. “Whatever kind of thing it was, I knew it would fall to my attack.”

“And so it did,” I said. “You braved your dread foe and now the puppet is no more. Perhaps you shall fare as well if ever you battle Dirty Bennino.” Another rhyme rose unbidden and I gave it voice:

“Lo, the conquering hero's come

With a pimple on his bum

And with gore upon his blade

Stained with lopping a cabbage head.”

“No more!” cried Mutano. “The lanes and avenues are filled with clumsy Jesters cackling out infantile rhymes. We need not add our clamor to the rabble's.”

“I shall desist,” I said.

Sbufo brought a donkey cart from outside the western wall of the courtyard, piled his broken engine into it, and we returned to Tardocco in contented silence. Osbro contributed to the silence but not, methought, to the contentment.

*   *   *

I made a thorough but hasty toilet and joined the company out in the garden. The servants had hung lanterns and set other lights about a large table covered with yellow oilcloth. The viands were the afore-promised cold hen, together with sallets, peppered beans, and wines red and white. Upon this stalwart repast I made quick inroads and listened as Astolfo unfolded his plans to Osbro.

“You need not name Pontoso, Arachnido, and Cherrynose as your confederates,” he said, “for of them we know already. And understanding that we know so much, you may well comprehend that we shall find out further intelligence without your aid. But we are under the constraint of an approaching hour by which time our commission must be resolved. Thus, it is to our advantage that you tell us all you know. We shall make it to your advantage also.”

Osbro denuded a thighbone and pitched it into the dark grass. His eyes gleamed bloodshot in the flickering light and a gauze of sweat stood on his forehead.

He was afraid. But Astolfo had offered him no violence. I was willing to bestow a healthy kick or two upon him in the interest of fraternal regard, but those blows he would not fear.

“You are apprehensive,” Astolfo continued, “that those whom you betray to us will come against you in quest of your life when your treachery is known to them.”

“They will do so,” Osbro said.

“But now you will be under our protection,” Astolfo said. “They will not come against us. We shall be well prepared, and we have the civil authorities on our side.”

“They care nothing for your authorities, and you are but three men. You have others to call to your aid, yet in the end you can count yourselves but a small company. And they will not be frightened by any play-toy this bellows-mender can invent.”

Sbufo grinned and raised his glass in salute. He must have felt he had bested Osbro, for all my brother's bluster.

“You speak,” Astolfo said, “as if you knew a great deal about these persons you have leagued with. You speak as if they had taken you into their innermost circle.”

“They have told me little. I have made some findings in my own interest.”

“You have spied upon them. Do you trust your findings so wholly?”

“Spying is not hard to do,” Osbro said. I recalled that he had uttered that thought before. He was always slow to learn.

“Perhaps not,” Astolfo said. He was careful to keep amusement out of his voice. He, who had all the resources of umbrae, had found some of our commissions difficult. One of his familiar proverbs ran thus:
When the watching is not troublesome, the watcher is being watched.
Osbro seemed not to comprehend that his hireling confederates had abandoned him, that though treated like a guest he was our captive, and that his only way forward now was to join with us and divulge all that he knew. He had been visibly startled when Astolfo named certain of his associates. Pontoso, Arachnido, and Cherrynose were overseers between them of a half dozen storehouses and lading docks. This trio was best known about the wharves for their bullying manners and not for their honesty.