Chapter 21: Sword World

Chinzel darted nervous glances all around, trying to peer in all directions at once. His friends might have dealt with sorcery before, but not he...

Were his eyes playing tricks on him? The spreading ripples in the musty air, like heat waves above the pavement of a sun scorched street, might have been but the flickering of their lantern. The first thing that he was sure of was the appearance of a hazy blob of light that quickly grew bright enough to make him want to blink and look away.

"Come through!" The voice was deep and slow, hard to understand. The words were slurred, strangely accented. Chinzel eyed the magic doorway with distaste, wishing that he was somewhere, anywhere else. It was as though a gap had opened in the solid masonry of the corridor wall. But no, the doorway hung in the air inches away from the stonework. He suppressed a vagrant desire to see what the back side of the doorway looked like.

"Hurry up!" Shantar voiced the command impatiently. His voice, too, deepened and slowed as he crossed the glowing threshold. Taking his fading courage in both hands, Chinzel followed his friends.

"There, that wasn't so bad, was it?" Orzad gave him a comradely thump on the shoulder, nearly knocking him over. "Now, I wonder where Nurm is."

"He is... come." The demon who greeted them spoke hesitantly, as one who knew little of human speech. "Please to... wait."

Chinzel suppressed another surge of panic. His stomach roiled as though it wanted to crawl up his windpipe. At the same time he felt light, almost bouncy. The keeper of Nurm's doorway, another of Nurm's demons, seemed tame enough. Its... his hair and beard were a dirty white, his face pale under its tan. His eyes were an unusually light shade of brown. Of nearly human form, he was as tall as Shantar, but painfully thin.

"Are... are you sure that this is the right place?" Chinzel whispered the question to Orzad. "It doesn't look like what you told me about. Why is the demon's voice high pitched? It was deep, before."

"Be calm, old friend." Orzad smiled reassuringly. "This is but another of Nurm's magic caves, smaller than the ones Shantar and I saw. The demon's voice was deep because it came from this world to ours. Our voices, coming the other way, must have sounded shrill. Nurm says that time runs more slowly here. Now that we are all on the same side of the doorway, all seems normal again. Your stomach will feel all right in a little while, if we stay here that long."

"If you say so." Relaxing slightly, he studied the room and its contents with interest. Floor, walls, and ceiling were of some smooth white material, and bright light shone down on them from glowing patches in the ceiling. The demon of the door sat at a low table whose slanting top was inset with strange devices, plainly magical even to his untrained eye. Though fresh, the air held a tang reminiscent of summer lightning, underlain with other, stranger odors...

"Shantar, Orzad! It is good to see you again. What brings you and your companion here?"

Chinzel spun to face the booming voice, catching a glimpse of open space beyond as a panel slid shut. The sorcerer, clad in a close fitting garment of many colors, loomed over them in the enclosed space.

"This is Chinzel, who has been of great help to us in these difficult times." Orzad came directly to the point. "We have come to you for help. We are in desperate need, and have no other place to turn. Sholim has conquered all of Kath. King Khamul is dead, his army turned into slaves. Still, Sholim's hold is shaky. A strong and determined thrust, well planned, could yet topple him. Shantar's blood has given a way to dispel the slave drug, and we have used it to gather the men we need, but we have no weapons."

"Easy, easy." Nurm's gesture checked Orzad's flow of words. "I must know more before I can act. You know that I am bound by the rules of my guild. I am not allowed to take a direct part in your affairs, no matter how much I would like to do so."

"There is no need for you to!" Chinzel dared to break in. "You are a trader; sell us what we need. Or if you cannot, find us someone else who can and will!"

"That may indeed be possible. Yes, and I think that I know who it could be. Ch'Lee!"

He spoke to his demon, a rapid flow of words in a low voice. The demon rapidly turned the pages of a heavy book that rested on a stand by his table, nodding as he found the entry that he wanted. He moved knobs and levers, and once more the magic doorway opened, this time in a gleaming frame that was set into one wall of the room.

A gust of chill air greeted them as they stepped through. Chinzel's stomach felt at ease as once more things weighed what they should. For a moment he thought that he was back home, but the sun was an angry crimson ball in a purple sky. The hills were wrong, too, low mounds carpeted with a feathery moss.

"Where is... What is this place?" Chinzel whirled to face Nurm, his dagger half drawn.

"A place where you may be able to barter for swords and spears," Nurm hastened to explain. "The people who live here are great workers in metal, but they can be difficult to deal with. Much depends on how we approach them."

"People?" Shantar looked about them, studying the eerie landscape. "There are people here?"

"Not people as you know them, but still they are people. Their dwelling place is nearby. I will help you to trade with them, since you do not speak their language."

"And what are we to use to trade?" Chinzel glanced down at his belt pouch, dangling nearly flat at his belt, and spread his empty hands for emphasis. "What do we have that they would want?"

"Orzad has dealt with me for many years, and much of his wealth from that trade is held by me as in a bank. You may draw on his credit for what you need. If that is not enough, we can arrange for a loan on easy terms for the rest of it."

"If we fail, you will never collect," Shantar reminded him bluntly. "We will be dead, and dead men don't pay their debts."

"My money against your lives," Nurm chuckled as they walked along through waist high moss. "I shall take that small risk gladly, but be sure that I shall charge you accordingly."

Chinzel cast uneasy glances around them as they plodded along. His protesting muscles told him that they had gained back even more weight than they had lost going to Nurm's abode, and he could see that Nurm was in even worse shape. The big man was breathing heavily when they finally stopped at the base of a barren knoll.

"We are here," Nurm announced. "This is the village called Kurtzne, after its Queen."

Cupping his hands to his mouth, he gave a shrill, quavering call. After a moment or two, he called again, and this time he was answered. Shrill but harsh, the cry that grated on their ears came from no human throat. A large square of moss swung back, exposing the mouth of a tunnel and the monsters that guarded it.

"By the Gods..." Shantar's whispered curse died in his throat as his hand leaped to the hilt of his sword. Norm's demons were at least nearly human looking. These... these creatures didn't even have the right number of arms and legs!