breaking his silence at last. 'But instead I have a mind to slit yours. I possess the skill. Has your Angel promised to keep me from doing so, this very moment?'
'Yes,' said Mugstur, his confidence absolute. 'For she has given unto me the one thing you cherish above yourself, little lord. Steldak has seen the proof — he will tell you. But you blaspheme when you talk of suicide. To harm the body is a sin.'
He belched, and spat some chewed and bloody flesh onto the planks.
Felthrup squirmed and struggled, fearing his arms were about to break. I must go, I must flee, I will doom them.
'What do you want from us, you foul sack of grease?' demanded Taliktrum.
'Peppermint oil,' said Master Mugstur.
'What?'
'Or brysorwood oil, or red lilac. We are tortured by fleas. They have always been vicious on Chathrand. But lately they have become unspeakable.'
'It's true!' croaked Felthrup.
What is true, rodent? The sorcerer was in the hold, his footfalls ringing on the catwalk, seconds away.
'They gnaw us like termites,' said Mugstur. 'They will drive us mad. Do this, and with the Angel's consent I shall give you what is in my keeping. Fail and my people shall devour it.'
'But where in the black Pits am I to get peppermint oil?' demanded Taliktrum.
Felthrup saw Arunis across the hold, a few steps from the bridge. With a wrenching final effort he shot out a hand and grabbed Taliktrum about the waist. The ixchel's eye's went wild, Mugstur leaped snarling into the air, Arunis shouted, ' There you are! ' And Felthrup dropped like a stone into the darkness.
He was flat on his back, his hand empty. No longer in the hold — the dream had moved him again. He blinked. A crystal chandelier. Scent of leather and ladies' perfume. He was in the first-class lounge.
He sat up, straightening his glasses. Taliktrum and Mugstur were gone. He had done it; he had saved the ixchel for another day.
'Witless oaf,' said Arunis.
Felthrup jumped violently. The mage was seated in an elegant chair, eyes fixed on him. His pale hands issued from the black sleeves of his jacket like two cave creatures, unused to the light. His tattered white scarf was knotted at the throat. A second chair stood near him, and between the two was a little table supporting a round silver box.
'How did you manage to fall like that?' Arunis demanded.
Felthrup scrambled to his feet. 'I saw — a rat! A number of rats! They startled me.'
'So naturally you leaped into the hold.'
'I-'
'What did you mean by shouting It's true?'
Felthrup chuckled nervously, brushing himself off. 'It's true that they're loathsome — that we are loathsome, we rats. Once you're used to human form.'
'Do not get used to it,' said Arunis. 'You will not get to play at being a man much longer, unless you give me what I seek. But I shall not threaten you tonight, Felthrup. I think we both understand the situation. Come and sit beside me.'
His eyes indicated the empty chair. Felthrup did indeed understand the situation. He could refuse, he could turn and walk away, but Arunis had found him now and would not lose him until he woke from the dream. Better to keep the mage from anger, if he could. He went to the chair and sat down.
'Try these candies, won't you? Men call them pralines.' Arunis raised the lid of the silver box and chose one of the multicoloured sweets within. Felthrup hesitated, but only for a moment. He chose a large square candy and bit it in half. Despite himself he gave a whimper of delight.
'Raspberries above, hazelnuts below! It is two delicacies in one!'
'And you are two beings in one, Felthrup. A rat who collaborates with fools, plagued by dreams he cannot remember. And a man who remembers everything, what the rat sees and what Arunis teaches, the shame of being a filth-creature and the nobility of human form. A man who could spare the rat much agony, and make him the loved and lauded scholar he was meant to be.'
'Please don't, Arunis,' said Felthrup softly.
'And all so simply, what is more. No one need ever know what he'd done. Why, the rat himself would never know. Do you realise that, Felthrup? Your dream-self can do everything. Your rat-self will not even be aware that it has happened, and none of his friends will suspect a thing!'
'I am one being, not two. You have interfered with my dreams.'
The mage shook his head. 'I have but listened to them. We want our dreams heard, after all. It's the deepest wish of every woken creature, to be heard by those with power to make dreams come true. I alone have paid attention to the longings of your heart.'
Felthrup smiled oddly. 'That's not true, not true in the least.'
'But of course it's true. Felthrup, you give your loyalty too cheaply. What has it brought you? Ramachni saved your life — but only because you knew about the Shaggat Ness, and could inform him. What I ask is no different, except that I put our relations on a more honest footing.'
'Honest?' Felthrup wrung his hands, still smiling. 'You say you will make me a man for ever, but you never say how you would accomplish this miracle. You cannot even make your Shaggat back into a man.' He looked up, suddenly fearful. 'Pardon my bluntness, sir, I didn't-'
Arunis lifted a reassuring hand. 'No need to apologise; it's a business-like question. And I'm happy to answer, since you have no means of passing on what I say to your waking self. I shall make you a man by the power of the Nilstone. I am destined to wield it, Felthrup, and by its might I shall remake the world. Your friends have not the least inkling of my purpose. They are the rodents, truth be told. They are ground-hugging mice; they see but inches through the grass. You have chosen to stand up, to comprehend a larger world. You see further, Felthrup — but I see for ever. I see the grim truths, the choices, the destiny of Alifros. With the Nilstone I can guide that destiny as surely as the gods themselves.'
'Do the gods require such assistance?'
Arunis' smile disappeared. After a pause, he said, 'Isiq's stateroom. It is the one place on the Chathrand that I cannot see, cannot enter. Give me this simple gift, won't you? Tell me what happens in that stateroom, and the world is yours.'
'I suppose,' said Felthrup, averting his gaze, 'that you want to know if they speak of when Ramachni might return, and how they shall fight you in the meanwhile — that sort of thing.'
The sorcerer's soft jowls broke once more into a smile. 'Exactly so — and you have just answered the first question I would have put to you, without my even asking. You have told me that he is not back yet.'
He appeared immensely relieved. He laughed, gazing almost fondly at the other man. Felthrup laughed too, but only to disguise his horror at what he had just said.
'Not back,' said Arunis, 'and perhaps never to return at all. I knew it. Deep inside, I always knew he was not so great a mage as they claim. Now then, my good rat, there is one thing, one very essential thing, that I am certain is never discussed outside that room. Who is Ramachni's spell-keeper? Whose death will turn the Shaggat back into a living man?'
Felthrup snatched another candy and popped it into his mouth. He didn't know; as far as he was aware it was a secret kept even from the spell-keeper himself. Felthrup swallowed the candy and smacked his lips.
'You're very clever, Arunis,' he said.
'I am three thousand years old,' said the sorcerer amiably.
'And what would you do if I couldn't help you? If I couldn't bring myself to say another blessed word about the stateroom, or my true and only friends?'
Arunis considered his nails for a moment. Then he too reached for the candy box, and lifted the lid.
White froth erupted from the container. Felthrup tried to leap up, but found his arms and legs bound to the chair by iron shackles. The mage rose and stepped away as the cascade poured from the little table to the floor. Not froth, but worms: slick, ravenous white worms, gushing into the room through the silver box like the sea through a hull breach. Felthrup was screaming, he could see their faces, their barbed and distended mouthparts, their intelligent eyes. They reached his right ankle first, punctured the skin there like nails through dough, he
