Free Norton, Andre - Chapbook 04 by Serpent's Tooth (v1.0) Page B

knowing within him that Modic was
well aware of his inbred fear and was now studying the Betweener closely, a small evil smile about his lips.
     
    "Ah,
yes."   The Seeker kept his voice low
and confidential in tone, as if he and Rentam shared
some secret which was unknown to the others.
     
    "This
is the way to Lonscraft .   Though that was not the name it bore in other
days when the world was still all for men and not for sand-dwelling rats!"
     
    He
scrabbled inside his outer robe with his left hand, bringing out a small sheet
of dull metal, near as thin as the skin of a ripe wavel .
Still keeping one finger firmly on the edge of it he pushed the plate a little
closer to Rentam .
     
    "Do
you know the reading of maps, Guide, or do you only carry such information in
your scaled head?"   His slight smile
now held no amusement, rather cruel, taunting humor.
     
    So
this one did not know of those treasure places located by villages... to which
the youths went to learn ... by heart and deep in the mind ... the ancient
roads and more than roads, the dangers and few secrets of the Sand Sea .   One quick glance told Rentam much.   That which Modic held must have been graven by a master worker in metal. However only as far as
the hillock behind them now did the lines assume any kinship with the records
he himself had long ago memorized.   This
map displayed the warning blue of the Before Time road leading to a city of even
darker blue, a color which seemed to pulsate in the light as if a breathing,
and perhaps sentient, creature.
     
    "Well,
and what have you to say to this, Guide?   I needed your steering to that hillock, knowing that what I sought lay
beyond."
     
    Dry
as it was, a droplet of saliva gathered at the corner of the Seeker's mouth, as
he no longer gazed at Rentam ... rather at his map.
     
    It
was the colors which confused the sight, Rentam decided.
     
    Certainly
those lines did not really coil or quiver.   From which clan had Modic stolen this record
... one of the forbidden ones used to warn?
     
    "It
is true!"   There was a sharp note in
the man's voice as if Rentam had openly questioned
that fact.
     
    " Lonscraft lies awaiting us."
     
    "That
is a death place," Rentam replied evenly.
     
    "He
who rashly adventures into one of those gathers to him an ill for which there
is no treatment.   His skin rots upon his
body, pain wrings him to death.   There is
nothing worth such a death ... all the Betweeners know that."
     
    Modic laughed, "Guide, you and your kind have been content to
exist for years on the border of this demon-haunted land with no reason for it.
Every illness runs its course and then disappears.
     
    Have
you not heard of the burning fever which may strike out of nowhere for a season
and then be utterly gone ... or the Great Cough which has devastated whole
cities, such as Quaadad , yet men may, live there in comfort
now.   There is no death which lingers
forever ... especially in a desert city where there is naught to feed its
hunger.   Long ago Lonscraft must have been deserted even by demons.   Yet there still lies within its walls secrets...."   The fingers of his hand clenched over the map
as if he would pluck what he wished from the surface.
     
    "Riches
beyond richness.   Guide think on
it!"
     
    Riches,
of course, were what had drawn this Seeker and his following of ragged men
(who, nevertheless, carried well-kept arms) into the desert. How many such maps
had been shown briefly to the Betweeners in the generations
since they had begun their very cautious ventures into the parched land?   Rentam knew that it
was not in the inner walls of Lonscraft which he
himself feared, but perhaps the fact that he knew too much now.   He guessed that Modic ,
on the threshold of what he thought an exciting and profitable discovery, would
not parade and plume himself before his rag-tag crew.   No, but he might talk freely before one who
was destined never to come out of the Forgotten land.