Free Gary Gygax - Dangerous Journeys 1 - Anubis Murders by Gary Gygax Page B

mages—and payment of an additional tribute of one thousand griana-nas, and no lesser coin.
    "As to the proclamation of Set as Lord of Lyonnesse, you have until Beltaine to comply, and immediately after the council you must do so throughout the land. Failure will bring doom to your male children and yourself. You must show your intent, slave of mine, by yielding up to me the Wheel of the Tuatha de Danann. Be ready. When I tell you what to do you will have only one week to comply.
    "Now go about your petty affairs. Say nothing of this to anyone or I will smite you down for the sport of it. I am the Master of Jackals, and Great Set is my companion."
    The fire died in the statuette's eyes. It was as if someone had shuttered a lantern. The projection vanished simultaneously. A depressed silence filled the salon. The prince looked at Inhetep. "Well?"
    "Odd," the ^Egyptian said noncommitally. "Odd and intriguing." Setne had found false notes in the performance, but the wizard-priest was unprepared to articulate his suspicions. In fact, he felt he was a long way from that point. "This gold coin called griananas, what value has it?"
    Aldriss supplied the answer. "It is a grianana, Magister Inhetep. The sun-wheel coin of official state business of Lyonnesse, although there are some in circulation elsewhere, of course. The grianana is made to equal the Atlantlan orb— an ounce of virtually pure orichalcum," the bard added by way of explanation. "One of either sort of coin is equal to three thousand of your Egyptian bronze dinars."
    "Surely you have more to ask!" Crown Prince Llewyn was agitated.
    Setne nodded, face stoic. "But certainly, Highness, yet no small detail can be overlooked. I will now, with your kind permission, ask the questions you expect of me."
    "Proceed."
    "Who did this thing's words address first, your . . . king?"
    That seemed to unsettle the prince. "No," he admitted slowly. "One of my servants intercepted it before it reached my—the king."
    "As I thought," the copper-skinned man said in clipped voice. "It came a month ago. You paid over the gold?"
    "Yes. I saw no choice, for Tallesian is indispensable. It bought time, too. Never will the kingdom give over its own gods in favor of Set!"
    Inhetep smiled a little. "No, that would be unthinkable. Does King Glydel know anything of this matter at all?"
    The prince shook his head sharply. "No, and why should he?" Llewyn asked defensively. "Six months is ample time to suss the matter out, find the culprits, and have their heads!"
    "Perhaps, Highness," Setne murmured. "Yet one thousand of your triple-gold grianana are certainly not so trivial as to escape the attention of the king—"
    "Griananas," Aldriss interjected. Llewyn shot him a dark look, and the bard shrank in his chair.
    "I managed it so as to cause no shortage in the royal treasury," the young prince told the Egyptian.
    "And who is privy to the matter?"
    "Besides those here assembled? No—" He bit his words short when he saw the small smile of incredulity on Inhetep's face. Prince Llewyn cleared his throat, sat straighter still, and in his most imperious voice added, "Nobody—save certain nobles of other kingdoms of Avillon, that
    Setne inclined his head toward the royal prince, his shaven pate glistening a little in the subdued light of the magickally shrouded salon. "As I thought, Highness. You say that the sovereigns of the other four kingdoms know of this? That each has likewise received such an object?"
    "How did you guess that?!" the Behon demanded, forgetting his place.
    "A small thing actually," Setne said with apparent humility, but his statement cut off the rebuke the prince was about to utter. "Even one of moderate wit would realize that to make the evil Set the over-deity of all Avillonia, each of its five royal houses would have to be forced into compliance. That means five of these figurines were delivered: to Albion, Cymru, Caledonia, Hybernia, and this one before us to Camelough, capital of