The Stranger's Magic: The Labyrinths of Echo: Book Three (46 page)

I was puzzled. “Oh, come on!” I shouted at my Lethal Sphere. And it worked. The green blob of light sped forward, hit the palms of the prisoner, and disappeared. Then the fellow gave
himself a slap in the face with one hand. With the other hand, he gave himself the finger.
His hands seemed to have a mind of their own that was not in accordance with the rest of his body.

Kofa burst out laughing. I couldn’t say I wasn’t enjoying the show myself. Nevertheless, I had to launch another Lethal Sphere. This time, praise be the Magicians, the victim relaxed
and muttered “I am with you, Master”—the usual deal. I relaxed as well and reached into the pocket of my Mantle of Death for another cigarette. Kofa could laugh all he wanted, but
the first misfire sure made me nervous.

“Let’s hear your name, for starters,” I said.

“How wonderfully original,” said Kofa, laughing. “Don’t be offended. If you only knew how many thousands of times I have begun an interrogation with this
question.”

Our arrestee composed himself and began to speak. “My name is Nennurex Kiexla.”

“Have you heard this name before, Kofa?” I said, looking at him with hope.

“Vaguely,” said Kofa. “I seem to remember there was someone by the name of Kiexla among the members of the Order of Green Moons, but I never met him personally.”

“Okay, Sir Nennurex Kiexla. Get up from the floor and sit down in this chair,” I said. Then I pushed a cup toward him. “Have some hot kamra. You’re blue from the
cold.”

“Sometimes you’re so good at playing nice, Sir Max, that I even begin to believe that you are,” said Kofa.

“What do you mean?” I said. “I am a very nice fellow.” To my surprise, Kofa only shook his head. Well, I’ll be, I thought. What did he think of me then?

Sir Nennurex Kiexla drained the hot kamra in one gulp and put the cup down timidly on the desk.

“Pour yourself more, and you can have something to eat if you’re hungry,” I said. Then I turned to my colleague. “Kofa, let me just order him to answer your questions. My
head is too empty now.”

“Not too empty for a single sober thought,” said Kofa.

“Sir Nennurex, I will appreciate it if you answer all the questions put to you by this gentleman here,” I said to my “loyal servant.”

“As you wish, Master,” he said, and Kofa took over the interrogation.

“I’m primarily interested in one junior staff member of the Ministry of Perfect Public Order. Your accomplice. The police picked up the body. They say it was Itlox Bouba, but this
name doesn’t ring a bell. Who was he?”

“That wasn’t his real name. His name is . . . was Sir Unboni Marixva.”

“Oh, boy. Yes, you did take some measures,” said Kofa. He looked very displeased. He turned to me and said, “Would you believe it, boy, that the most famous Junior Magician of
the Order of Green Moons has been hanging around the Ministry of Perfect Public Order for a year and a half? He’s been dusting our desks, and we didn’t even know it. I’ll have to
personally run extensive checks on every new hire from now on. Come to think of it, we got off cheap this time. Tell me, Sir Nennurex, weren’t you a Junior Magician of the Order,
too?”

“I was an apprentice,” said Nennurex. “I entered the Order late. Besides, Magician Mener didn’t deem me a talented student. He was probably right: I have never even
learned to go down the Dark Path. But by the time I joined the Order, it needed good warriors more than talented magicians. The old man realized it too late.”

“You got that right,” said Kofa. “This is very interesting. What did Sir Unboni Marixva do here in the Ministry of Perfect Public Order? As far as I know, until last night he
was harmless. Had he reformed and decided to make an honest living?”

“He told me he was just waiting for his chance,” said Nennurex. “Marixva had a warped sense of humor. He found it hilarious that he was scrubbing the floors in the office of
the Kettarian, who had no clue who he was. I think that was why Marixva didn’t do anything. He was much happier knowing that he was fooling you than actually doing you any harm. He had no
aversion to you or Nuflin. He was a very dispassionate person.”

“Max, I was a fool when I told you I wasn’t interested,” said Kofa. “I’m more curious now than ever. Go on, Sir Nennurex. Tell me how it all happened. How did it
all begin? Who learned about the cloak and what were you going to do with it?”

“I learned about the cloak. Zekka Moddorok told me. We got together often in the past few months. He found me almost half a year ago, right after I had arrived in the Capital. Zekka wanted
me to be in his gang like when we were young. During the Troubled Times, he and I used to murder and rob a little here and there. Then I left for County Xotta: staying in Echo was too dangerous,
and I didn’t want to risk my life before I could take my vengeance.”

“Take vengeance? On whom? For what?” said Kofa. “For old Magician Mener? As far as I know, even his favorite students couldn’t stand him.”

“Not for him—for the Order. It’s a matter of honor, not favoritism,” said Nennurex Kiexla.

“He talks like an Arvaroxian,” I said.

“Indeed,” said Kofa. “Out of all the survivors of the members of the Order of Green Moons, the only one who cares about its honor is the least talented of its apprentices.
Juffin’s going to love this. Moving right along, Sir Nennurex, how does Unboni Marixva come into the story, and why did you decide to kill him?”

“I told Marixva about the cloak after I found out that the Secret Investigative Force was on Zekka’s case. While Zekka had the cloak, I could take my time making a replica and
waiting for the opportunity. But only Marixva could steal the cloak from the House by the Bridge. I lied to him about the cloak so that he didn’t try to flee with it. I knew that he
wouldn’t help me if he found out that I was going to sneak into Jafax.”

“What did you tell him exactly?” I said. Kofa looked at me with an unfavorable eye. Judging from his expression, I was asking an irrelevant question.

“I told him the cloak made you healthier and even younger if you wore it long enough. I knew that Unboni Marixva cared about his health. Such magical things do exist, so he believed me
right away. I also told him that for its effects to manifest themselves, the cloak must be worn at dawn, just so he wouldn’t try to put it on.”

“Very clever,” said Kofa. “So he thought I was mending my health or even trying to rejuvenate myself. He would be in on all the rumors in the Department.”

“But why kill him?” I said. “You could’ve just taken the cloak and disappeared.”

“I had to kill him so you wouldn’t step on his trace. A human life is worth nothing when it comes to the matters of justice, especially the life of a man indifferent to the laws of
honor.”

“I’ll bet he has some Arvaroxian blood in his veins,” I said. “Okay, I’ll shut up now and not interfere.”

“You’re not interfering,” said Kofa. “On the contrary, you’re helping me. But we’re done now, I think.”

“Maybe,” I said. “But—Hold on a second. We can ask him about the boy so that Lady Melamori doesn’t have to step on the poor child’s trace. Who’s the boy
you sent to No-Nose Misa’s house, Nennurex?”

“He was my son.”

“Oh, this is neat,” I said. “In a hundred years or so when he grows up, he’ll come to the House by the Bridge to avenge his father. Well, at least I don’t have to
worry about my future. A hundred years from now, I won’t get bored. Where is he now?”

“I sent him home to his mother. Yesterday I arranged for a merchant who was going to County Xotta to take them both away with him. I didn’t think I would get out of Jafax
alive.”

“Did your son know about your plans? Has he been helping you?” I said. “Don’t lie to me.”

“He knows nothing, Master. Why would I tell him anything? Last night I just asked him to go to the old hag’s house, give her the money, and take the cloak. I raised my son
well—he didn’t even think of asking questions.”

I shook my head. I could hear the tone of a classic abusive parent in his voice. I wanted to cover him top to bottom with my venomous spit. I hate coercion, and talking to bastards like him
makes me furious, even when they have no way of coercing me personally. It was good that I had recently learned to contain myself.

The child is very lucky, I thought to myself. For the next couple hundred years, his abusive daddy won’t be able to practice his perverted parenting methods. If I were him, I’d run
away. I could hardly stand my own parents, who had been much more normal. But then again, people get used to everything.

“Right, then the boy can go home,” said Kofa. “The last thing we want is to arrest a child. Max, I’m afraid you’ll have to move your backside after all. Take Sir
Nennurex to some vacant cell. We’ll call the guys from Xolomi later. Juffin won’t forgive us if we deprive him of his favorite pastime.”

I took the great avenger to the doors of one of the small detention cells. Instead of walking inside, he shuffled his feet in the doorway, boring a hole in me with the look of a martyr. Of
course, I thought. He can’t stand parting with me without getting a command, and letting him go would be dangerous—Sir Nennurex is a slyboots. Who knows what’s on his mind?

“You must be without me now,” I said. “I want you to feel good and behave yourself. Actually, why don’t you just go to sleep, Sir Nennurex? Go to bed and sleep until
somebody wakes you up.”

He obediently got into bed, closed his eyes, and fell asleep. The submissive indifference of this iron-willed man was something so abnormal that I shuddered. I found my own ability to make
normal people stare at me with a devoted look and prattle “I am with you, Master” somewhat revolting.

But by the end of my journey back to the office through the long hallways and corridors of the Department, I had put this silly problem out of my head. It certainly wasn’t worth jumping
off a bridge into the Xuron over.

While I was gone, Kofa hadn’t been wasting any time. He had put the pitcher with kamra on the burner and heated it up. I sank into the armchair and stretched my legs. There’s nothing
better than a hardearned break.

“You can go home now if you want to,” said Kofa. “I don’t know how many gallons of Elixir of Kaxar you’ve consumed today, but you don’t look all that chipper
to me.”

“I’m just malingering so that you’ll feel sorry for me,” I said. “And it looks like I’m really good at it.”

“You’re so good at it I’m about to cry,” said Kofa. “Finish your kamra and scram. I’m going to stay here and wait for Juffin. He’d better fix my foot if
he doesn’t want me to stay home in bed until the Last Day of the Year. Also, if I were you, I’d start collecting your amobilers now. You’ll have all but forgotten where you left
them by morning.”

“You’re absolutely right,” I said. “At the very least I should pick up the one I left by the Jubatic Fountain, or the locals will strip it for parts. Which would be sad:
it’s a good amobiler. Not cheap, either.” I poured the contents of the cup down my throat and got up—not without regret—from the cozy armchair. “Good night, Kofa. And
thank you for sending me home.”

“In some sense, I owe you one,” said Kofa, smiling. “You helped me hush up the consequences of breaching my job protocol. Good night, boy.”

“Speaking of hushing up,” I said, “I’m willing to keep my mouth shut about it if you buy me a good dinner. And something else maybe. I’ll have to think about
it.”

“How quaint, Sir Max,” said Kofa. “You have a natural bent for professional blackmail.”

The guy who had driven us away from the inhospitable walls of Jafax was still behind the steering lever. To his utter surprise, I told him to move over but to stay in the amobiler. Then I took
the driver’s seat and drove off at a suicidal speed through the orange light of the street lamps, contemplating with a great pleasure the reverential horror in the eyes of my passenger.

A few moments later, I stopped by the Jubatic Fountain and got into my own amobiler.

“Did you enjoy the ride?” I asked the young driver. He just nodded.
The poor thing was lost for words. I felt great. It was as if I had been awarded the Nobel Prize in spite of my relatives, former classmates, and ex-girlfriends—everyone who had once given
me up for lost. A moronic feeling. I shook my head, ridding it of the excess of stupidity, then smiled at the driver. “Remember this ride next time you get behind the lever. You’re
pretty good at driving this thing, and if you really want to, you’ll be able to drive as fast as I do. Or even faster. There are no special skills involved. You just have to stop fearing high
speeds. You should dream of it.”