Free Gary Gygax - Dangerous Journeys 3 - Death in Delhi by Gary Gygax

day proved to be unremarkable. Inhetep chatted with this or that one of the small band as they trudged slowly up and down ever-rising hill country. As predicted, at the end of it they made the town of Igatpur. There the band dissolved, everyone going their separate ways, a sprinkling of farewells and platitudes about visiting or meeting again heard. Inhetep had managed to learn a fair amount of information regarding the way beyond, so the magister and Rachelle went into the center of the community, walked on, and exited the place by moonlight.
    "We now walk the Indore Road, my dear," he informed her in /Egyptian as they left the dim lights of Igatpur behind.
    Rachelle giggled. "Indore Road? That's rather funny."
    "I don't see why."
    She was still amused. "Oh, come now, Setne. You speak Phoenician well enough to know slang!"
    "Flatulence isn't applicable to an artery of commerce," he responded after a moment of consideration. "Besides," he added, sniffing noticeably, "I can detect no trace of it here." They both laughed, glad to be free of their roles as natives. "I think it is time for us to bypass the intervening land. Let's get off the road, just in case. Find us a good spot, huntress."
    "No problem," Rachelle said, leading him into the scrub bordering the highway. She was a skilled outdoorswoman, and it was no problem for her to locate a hidden place where terrain and vegetation secluded them completely. "Of course, this is just the sort of place a prowling leopard or hungry tiger will come," she told the wizard-priest as he admired her find.
    "Ill leave the defense against such predators to you, my dear. Now then, have you got your dagger handy?" He was rummaging around as he spoke, then pulled out a flat leather wallet.
    Rachelle responded by producing that weapon from somewhere under her garments. Without being asked, she understood what the magister desired. Plainly, he wanted to study something. "Here is your light," she said, cupping her palms around the glowing amethyst in its pommel so as to keep the rays downward and confined to the area around him.
    Setne held a map, moving it so it was nearer the shining stone. "Yes. Good. Ill take us to a similar place beyond the city of Jaipur, so well be quite near the border between Sindraj and the maharajate of Delhi."
    "How great a distance is that?"
    "From what I can tell about the crookedness of the roads of these Hindic nations, Rachelle, I'd say something over two hundred leagues."
    "By all means, dear Magister! I have no desire to trudge dutifully behind you carrying this mountain of supplies over more than six hundred miles of hill roads. Get on with your casting, and 111 be eternally grateful."
    "How grateful?"
    "Sufficiently so as to refrain from nagging."
    "You are under a vow of silence."
    "Nonsense."
    "All right. How about—"
    Rachelle made as if to prod him with the point of her blade. "Get busy! We can discuss rewards for performance when the crown jewels are recovered."
    "I was afraid you'd say that," the magister said. His tone conveyed no hint of jest.
    BORDER CROSSING FROM JAIPUR
    "Nauseating or not, Setne, I am growing ever more positive about the art of dweomercraeft you practice. When we get back home I want you to teach me how to create spatial doors."
    He knew that Rachelle referred to the queasy feeling she had whenever she utilized the dimension-warping place created by his casting. "You are a dabbler in dweomers, my dear, barely initiated in the basic arts."
    "Then youH have a lot of instructing to do, won't you." It was a statement, not a question.
    "As you wish—but we'll see if you stick to it when the time comes," the wizard-priest added. Of course, Setne was pleased that his amazon companion thought it worthwhile to gain more skill in one of his most potent areas of ability. He had used his skill to enable them to traverse hundreds of miles. By application of several of the Laws of Magick, he had made a short-lived anomaly in the three