The Pixilated Peeress (25 page)

             
Thor
olf did not feel he could spend time on this ar
chitectural puzzle. "Now castle!" he whispered.

             
They went back to where the tunnel widened. Gak's light ahead seemed to vanish, leaving a faint afterglow. Hurrying, Thorolf found that the troll had turned i
nto one of the side tunnels.

             
Again they walked and walked and climbed almost invisible stairs. The climb went on and on until even Thorolf, strong and inured to hardship though he was, found his breath coming faster. They wormed through passages even nar
rower than that which led to the Sen
ate chamber.

             
At last Gak stopped, holding up a hand. Thorolf found that he faced another rectangle of dark gray against the blackness. This aperture was smaller than that into the Senate chamber but still large enou
gh to squeeze through.

             
"Quiet!" murmured Gak. "Castle. Sophonomists here."

             
Thorolf examined the screen. The paint must be thicker on this picture, he thought; or else the light in the room beyond must be dimmer. He could not deci
pher the painting unti
l he noticed several black patches against the gray, each in the form of an oak leaf. Then he remembered the painting of the Divine Couple in the Chamber of Audience, whither Orlandus had con
ducted him on his first visit to the Sophonomist lair. The blac
k
spots were the oak leaves that a later artist had painted to conceal the deities' sexual parts, in def
erence to the Rhaetians' puritanism.

             
There was, however, a tiny spot of light high up on the back of the painting; Thorolf remembered that the picture
was slightly torn. He leaned forward and put his eye to the tear. By moving slightly he found that he could bring most of the chamber into view. The room seemed empty.

             
"Finish?" Gak asked. "Come away?"

             
Thorolf wagged a hand. "Wait!" he whispered. "Mus
t see Sophonomists."

             
"Bad!" muttered Gak. "Have magic. Find us
...
" Gak drew a finger across his throat.

             
"Fear?" asked Thorolf. Gak had put the same ques
tion to him at the tunnel entrance.

             
"No fear," said Gak rapping his chest with his knuckles. "No
damn fool, either."

             
"Wait
...
"

             
Thorolf stiffened at the sound of voices. One of the doors swung gently open. In came Yvette of Grintz, in a yellow robe, followed by the stout, red-haired, red-robed Parthenius, whom Thorolf had met before. The Countess
was saying in that toneless deltaic voice:

             
"
...
but my good Doctor, I must obey the Master's orders, and he has not commanded me to lie with you."

             
"But," expostulated Parthenius, "ye know I be Or
landus' second in command, his lieutenant in all
things. Aught I ask, ye may take as coming from him. Since he cares not for commerce with women, 'tis nought to him whose bed ye haunt. So take this as an order, my lady: Ye shall repair to my chamber after curfew, to pass the night there in pleasure. Ye
s
hall not regret it!"

             
"My pleasure is but to do my Master's will," said Yvette's flat voice. "Nameless, I will not comply with
out a direct command from the Master."

             
"Then bide ye here; I'll fetch our Psychomagus in person!"

             
"If he say so
—
" began Yvet
te; but Parthenius bus-tied out.

             
Thorolf's mind was in a whirl. The sight of Yvette aroused his passions to a feverish pitch. Parthenius' crude effort to extort her sexual favors filled him with blinding rage.

             
For the moment, the fact that Yvette was n
o gentle maiden but an experienced woman of the world mat
tered not at all. Thorolf wanted to get her out of Zurshnitt at any cost. What he would do with her, since she still acted as mechanically as one of the figurines that marked the hours on Rhaetian
c
locks, he had not figured out. He would get her away and let the future unfold as it would.

             
Thorolf pushed the back of the painting. Like the picture in the Senate chamber, this work of art was secured at the upper edge, so that it swung away from the wa
ll. He pushed it farther and lowered himself to the floor, a little over a yard below the lower edge of the hole in the wall. Below the bottom of the picture the unused fireplace gaped; its chimney must follow the same zigzag route up as that in the Senat
e
chamber.

             
As Thorolf gathered himself up and let the painting swing back, he heard a squawk from Gak: "Ho! Come back, fool!"

             
Yvette turned and stared at Thorolf, bringing her hand to her mouth with a jerky intake of breath. "Ser
geant!" she cried, her
blue eyes wide. "What dost?"

             
Thorolf bounded forward, reaching for her wrist. "Come, Yvette! I'll whisk you out of this prison!"

             
She backed away, avoiding his grasp. "I serve only the Master!" she said. Then she turned and fled toward the door through
which Parthenius had vanished.

             
A thump behind Thorolf told him that Gak had also dropped into the room. The troll roared: "You crazy? Back!"

             
A glance showed Thorolf that Gak was rushing upon him with clutching hands. In quick succession, the three race
d through the door and down the corridor beyond. Simultaneously, the scarlet-robed Orlandus and Par
thenius appeared at the far end. Both gaped at the sight of Yvette, Thorolf, and Gak rushing toward them in single file, each trying to seize his predecess
o
r.

             
"Who be you?" Parthenius shouted at Thorolf.

             
"He's no diaphane!" cried Orlandus. "He's a mun
dane disguised! That's a stolen robe!"

             
Yvette dodged past the leaders of Sophonomy. Tho
rolf, thinking that here was a chance to behead this evil cult at
a blow, swept out his sword. The unarmed cult-ists should be easy prey.

             
Parthenius shouted: "Guards! To us!" Orlandus hurled something to the floor and shouted words. In
stantly there appeared, between Thorolf and the Sophonomists, the fearsome figure of
an ogre. It was half again as tall as a man, with a thick, warty hide. Webbed fingers and toes ended in talons, and a pair of horns surmounted pointed ears. From beneath its blob of a nose, like a weird mustache, sprang a pair of yard-long tendrils, whic
h
writhed like serpents. Looking sharply, Thorolf perceived that the ogre was slightly transparent. Bardi's anti-illusion spell was evidently still working.

             
Thorolf heard a yelp of dismay from Gak, who hurled his spear, turned, and ran back the way he had
come. The spear went through the ogre and clattered on the floor beyond.

             
The ogre spread its taloned hands as if to seize Tho
rolf, who instinctively struck forehand with his sword. The blade passed through the torose body without re
sistance, so that t
he force of Thorolf's blow spun him round and almost felled him. Seeing Gak rushing through the door to the audience chamber, he shouted:

             
"Come back! 'Tis mere illusion!"

             
Gak continued his flight. Hearing the clatter of ap
proaching guards, Thorolf ran
after the troll.

             
When Thorolf reentered the Chamber of Audience, Gak was disappearing into the passage behind the paint
ing. Thorolf slammed the door behind him, shot the bolt, and pushed the divan in front of the door. Leaning toward the door, he shout
ed in Rhaetian:

             
"Out the other door, Gak! It leads to the main gate!"

             
Then he, too, pulled the painting out from the wall and hoisted himself into the dark aperture. From the blocked door came shouts and hammering.

             
Gak had picked up the two rushlight
s, which he had left leaning against the wall. He handed one to Thorolf, growling: "Quick, fool!"

             
The troll's big, hairy feet slapped the floor of the tunnel as he led the way with reckless haste. When they reached the junction with the main tunnel, they
paused to catch their breath. Thorolf listened but heard nothing save his and Gak's heavy breathing. When their chests had ceased to heave, Gak said:

             
"You mad? Evil spirit have you?"

             
"My first mate," Thorolf gasped.

             
After a long pause, Gak said: "A
h! Understand. Come."

-

             
Back at the troll village, Thorolf told Wok of his ad
venture. Wok said: "Ye are lucky to escape the results of your folly at the cost of one spear. I will not let Gak or any other of my folk take part in another such foray. Too
risky."

             
"It behooved me to do
something,"
said Thorolf de
fensively.

             
"Wherefore? One lowland female more or less, what matter? I know not what ye see in lowland females anyway. Hideous, hairless, starved-looking creatures."

             
"Tastes differ," said Thor
olf. "Anyway, Gak and I have found how you and your warriors can invade the
Sophonomist stronghold and destroy this menace once and for all."

             
"Eh? Ye mean for us to trail through the tunnels and pop out of the hole behind that picture? Never! Those magic
ians would blast us with their spells. If those failed, their armored guards would fall upon us. We should be lucky if any got away alive. Besides, they probably know about the tunnel now and will have blocked it, or at least placed guards at the entrance.
"

             
"I doubt that. I called out a misdirection ere they broke into the Chamber of Audience, to send them out the other door as if we had fled by the main gate. Gak and I heard no pursuit in the tunnel."

             
"Ah! But Orlandus is clever. When the gate guards s
aid none had passed them, he would know ye had left some other way and command a search, if indeed he have not already discovered the tunnel by his magical arts."

             
Thorolf argued some more, trying to arouse in the Chief an eagerness to raid the Sophonomis
t headquar
ters and slaughter the lot
—
except Yvette, of course. But Wok remained adamant.

             
"Too much risk," he said. "We can fight you feeble, hairless lowlanders on even terms; but we have no magic like unto yours. At the bruit of the battle, your soldie
rs might come to investigate. When they saw the Sophonomists fighting us whom they deem beasts, they would join in against us. We are a small people and cannot afford to lose men.