The Knight and Knave of Swords

traced him this far — or have you?'

So Cif told Afreyt how the dowsing had gone and how the bob had tried to escape on the last trial of its powers and was no longer trusted, and also her guess that Loki was behind it all.

Afreyt commented at that, “Fafhrd himself warned me the evidence from dowsing would be uncertain and ambiguous compared with the clues got from actual digging, which he thought should be kept up in any case, to hold open an exit from the underworld for the Gray One at the same point he'd entered it. And you may very well be right about Loki trying to lead us astray. He was a tricksy god, as you know better than I, loving destruction above all else. For that matter, old Odin wasn't reliable either, taking Fafhrd's hand after the loving worship we'd provided him.'

Pshawri interposed, “Lady Cif, just before the Lady Afreyt joined us, you said you'd thought of a way to foil Loki's plots and clear the way for Captain Mouser's return.'

Cif nodded. “Since the cube cinder is of no use to us as a talisman, I think that one of us should take it and hurl it into the flame pit, the molten lava lake of volcano Darkfire, hopefully returning god Loki to his proper element and perchance assuaging his ire against the Captain.'

“And lose forever one of Rime Isle's ikons, the Gold Cube of Square Dealing?” Groniger protested.

“That gold's forever tainted with the stranger god's essence,” Mother Grum informed him, “something I cannot exorcise. Cif's rede is good.'

“A golden ikon can be refashioned and resanctified,” old Ourph pointed out. “Not so a man.'

“I cannot muster argument against such action, though it seems to me sheerest superstition,” said Groniger wearily. “This morn's events have taken me out of my own element of reason.'

“And if it must be done,” Cif went on, “you, Pshawri, are the one to attempt it. You raped the cube cinder from the Maelstrom's maw. You should be the one returns it to the fire.'

“If the damned thing will let itself be hurled into the flame pit,” Skullick burst out, his irreverence at last regenerated. “You'll hurl it and it'll take flight the gods know where.'

“I'll find a way to constrain it, never fear,” the young lieutenant assured him, an uncustomary iron in his voice. He turned to Cif.

“From my heart's depths I thank you, Lady, for that task. When I wrested that accursed object from the whirlpool, I do now believe I doomed Captain Mouser to his present plight. It is my dearest desire to wipe out that fault.'

“Now wait a moment, all of you,” Afreyt cut in. “I am myself inclined to agree with you about the Queller and Darkfire. It strikes me as the wise thing to do. But this is a step may mean the life or death of Captain Mouser. I do not think that we should take it without the agreement of Captain Fafhrd, his lifelong comrade and forever. I wear his ring, it's true, yet in this matter would not speak for him. So I come back to it: where's Fafhrd?'

“Who are these coming toward us from Salthaven?” Rill interrupted in an arresting voice. “If I don't mistake their identities, they may bring news bearing on that question.'

The fog blanket to the east was finally breaking up and shredding under the silent bombardment of the sun's bright beams, although the latter were losing a little of their golden strength as the orb mounted and the sky became heavy. Through the white rags and tatters two slight and white-clad figures trudged: who waved their hands and broke into a run upon seeing that they were observed. As they drew closer it was to be seen that the redhead's eyes were large in her small face but the silver-blonde's larger still.

“Aunt Afreyt!” Gale called as soon as they got near. “We've had a great adventure and we've got the most amazing news to tell!'

“Never mind that now,” Afreyt answered somewhat shortly. “Tell us, where's Fafhrd?'

“How did you know?” Gale's eyes grew larger still. “Well, I was going to build up to it, but since you ask right off: Uncle Fafhrd has swum up into the sky to board a cloud ship of Arilia or flag a flier from Stardock. I think he's looking for help in finding Uncle Mouser.'

“Stop talking nonsense,” Cif burst out.

“Fafhrd can't swim through air,” Afreyt pointed out.

“Sea tunnels of Simorgya! Cloud ships of Arilia!” Groniger protested. “That's too much nonsense for a cold summer morning.'

“But it's what happened,” the girl insisted. “Why, Aunt Afreyt, you yourself saw Fafhrd and Mara flying high through air when the invisible princess Hirriwi of Stardock rescued them from Hellfire on her invisible fish of air. Fingers saw more than I did. She'll tell you.'

The Ilthmar cabin-girl said, “Aboard Weasel the sailors all assured me that the strangest sorts of vessels dock at Rime Isle, including the cloud galleons of the Queendom of the Air. And I did see Captain Fafhrd swimming strongly atop the fog toward a cloud that could have been such a vessel.'

“Arilia is a fable, child,” Groniger assured her gently. “Sailors tell all sorts of lies. Actually Rime Isle's the least fantastic place in all of Nehwon.'

“But Uncle Fafhrd did mount up the sky,” Gale reaffirmed stubbornly. “I don't know how. Maybe Princess Hirriwi taught him to fly and he never told us about it. He's awfully modest. But he did it. We both saw him.'

“All right, all right,” Cif told her. “I think you'd best just tell us the whole story from the beginning.'

Afreyt said, “But first you need a cup of wine to calm you down and also warm you. You've been long out on a chilly morning that may go down in legend.” She opened her hamper, took out a jug of fortified sweet wine and two small silver mugs, filled them halfway, and made both children drink them down. This led to serving wine to all the others.

Gale said, “Fingers should start it. At the beginning I was asleep.”

Fingers told them, “Captain Fafhrd came back from the diggings just after the rest of you all went off. He drank some gahvey and brandy and began to pace up and down, frowning and rubbing his wrist against his forehead as if he were trying to think out some problem. He got very nervous and fey. Finally he took up a jug, hung a lamp on his hook, and went off after you. I waked Gale and told her I thought he needed watching.'

“That's right,” Gale took over. “So we jumped out of bed and ran to the fire and got dressed.'

“That explains it,” Afreyt interjected.

“What?” Pshawri asked.

“Why Udall kept watching Fafhrd so long. Go on, dear.'

Gale continued, “It was easy to follow Uncle Fafhrd because of his lamp. The darkness was fading anyway, the stars going out. At first we didn't try to catch up with him or let him know we were behind him.'

“You were afraid he'd send you back,” Cif guessed.

“That's right. At first he seemed to be following you, but where you turned south he kept straight on east. It was getting quite light now, but the sun was still in hiding. Every so often he'd stop and look ahead at the fog and the rooftops and the wind-chime arch sticking up out of it and lift his head to scan the sky above it — that's when I saw the little fleet of clouds — and raise his hand before his face to invoke the gods and ask their help.'

“That was the hand that had the jug in it?” Afreyt asked.

“It must have been,” the girl replied, “for I don't recall the lamp going up and down.

“And then Uncle Fafhrd began to run in the strangest slow way, he seemed to float and almost stop between each step. Of course, we started to run too. We were all into the fog by now, which seemed to slow him and support him at the same time, so his steps were longer.

“The fog got over our heads and hid him from us. We got to the Moon Arch and Fingers started to climb it before I could tell her that was frowned on. She got above the fog and called down…'

Gale stretched a hand toward Fingers, who continued, “Truly, gentles, I saw Captain Fafhrd swimming strongly through the top of the fog, up its long white slope, while a good distance beyond him, the goal of his mighty self-sailing, there was — I know the eyes can be fooled and my mind was full of the sailors’ tales, nevertheless, my word as a novice witch — there was a dense cloud that looked very much like a white ship with a high stern-castle. Sunlight flashed from its silver brightwork.

“Then that same sun got into my eyes and I stopped seeing anything clearly. I'd called some of it down to Gale and I climbed down and told her the rest.'

Gale took up again. “We ran through Salthaven to the eastern headland. The fog was breaking up and burning off, but we couldn't see anything clearly. When we got there, the Maelstrom was seething and mists rising from it. But overhead it was clear and I could see Uncle Fafhrd, very high now, beside the white cloud-ship, showing only its keel. There were five gulls around him. Then the mists from below came between us. I thought you should