The Stranger - Max Frei [278]
“I know. That seems to make matters even worse.”
“It certainly does. It’s always harder to come to grips with a dead Magician than a living one. What else do you know, Max?”
“That’s all.” I shrugged. “I thought you would know how to find him and all that.”
“Finding him won’t be hard. I’m curious about what you know about Kiba Attsax.”
“Nothing. Only that he’s a dead Magician, and he somehow poses a threat to Kettari. Or intends to. I didn’t quite understand. Oh yes, of course! He’s an ‘unjustly killed Grand Magician.’ Strange way of putting it, isn’t it?”
“Why strange? That’s the way it was. When I killed him I didn’t know how it was done. Moreover, I didn’t realize I was killing him.”
“You killed him?” I finally began to understand. “He wasn’t by any chance the original owner of your gloves?”
“The left one, to be exact. The owner of the right one is one of the junior Magicians of the Order of the Icy Hand. I would have far less trouble with him.”
I was starting to feel very uneasy. “Listen, Shurf, I remember your story very well. But it would never have occurred to me that . . . I suppose it’s not absolutely necessary to deal with this fellow. Let him—”
“You don’t understand, Max,” Lonli-Lokli cut me off gently but firmly. “I’m not afraid of an encounter with him. It’s more like I can’t believe my luck.”
“Your ‘luck’? I don’t understand a thing, I guess.”
“Of course it’s a rare opportunity. To meet Kiba Attsax, not in my sleep, when I’m quite vulnerable, but wide awake, when I can do battle with him. I think you can understand how lucky I am.”
“Judging by the expression on your face, I wouldn’t have thought it,” I murmured.
“That’s natural. I have to consider the situation that has come about, and try to understand how I should behave. You see, Max, it’s not every day that a person is given the chance to relieve himself of such a heavy burden. And I can’t allow myself to make any mistakes, so I think I need to begin to act right away.”
“We,” I said. “I’m a third-rate fighter, Shurf, and not a very good sorcerer. Maybe I’m just good at the card table. Or when I spit poison—that I know how to do. But I’m very curious. Do you think I’d be satisfied with a short synopsis of this Battle of the Titans? No offense, Shurf, but your oratorical style is quite laconic. Besides, I’m lucky here in Kettari. So you can take me with you as your talisman.”
“Very well,” Lonli-Lokli said with an air of indifference. “Maybe your luck will be far more useful than my skill. Besides, I have to obey you.”
“Oh, I forgot!” I burst out laughing. “Instruction number one: act like you don’t notice anything.”
Lonli-Lokli looked at me in surprise. I took my next-to-last cigarette out of my pocket. Sir Maba Kalox could have been a bit more generous; I deserved a few packs of cigarettes, at least. I don’t have time to hang over that blasted pillow all the time. I’m out there creating Worlds, or playing cards. I laughed, and lit up.
“Max, don’t you think that’s too much?” Lonli-Lokli asked sternly.
“No,” I replied. “I’ll explain later if you want me to. For the time being, just do my bidding, since I’m the big boss. By the way, instruction number two: banish from you head all this nonsense about doing my bidding. I’d never advise anything very sensible anyway. Eat, Sir Shurf. Nothing’s worth a spoiled appetite.”
“That pearl of wisdom could have dropped from the lips of the ancients,” Lonli-Lokli said placidly.
I looked at him out of the corner of my eye—could he have learned how to joke? No, I was hallucinating. My nerves had always been unreliable.
“Well, let’s go look for your friend,” I suggested when Shurf’s plate was finally emptied. “By the way, how will we do it? Can you pick up his trail?”
“Sometimes you say the oddest things, Max,” Lonli-Lokli said. “How, I wonder, can you pick up the trail of a dead man?”
“Me? I never intended to pick up his trail at all. It’s not my department. Do I look like Melamori?”
“You