The Minstrel Boy shook his head. 'No.'
Reave went a little further. 'We know what he is.'
'And what might that be?'
' He was an urthugee
Diamenti's bushy eyebrows shot up. He turned to Heet. 'Is this true?'
Heet quickly examined the body. 'It sure looks like it.'
Diamenti faced his men. 'I don't want word of this running all over the Great Hall, you understand? Keep your mouths shut.'
The keepers nodded. Diamenti quickly ushered Reave and the Minstrel Boy down the corridor. 'Let's go and talk about this in private.'
The Minstrel Boy and Reave returned to the private dining room, followed by Diamenti and Heet. Billy and Renatta looked startled as the big man and his lieutenant came through the door.
'What's going on out there?'
The Minstrel Boy flopped into a chair. 'Someone tried to kill me. I need a drink.' He glanced up at Diamenti. 'Can I ring for a bottle of brandy? I was going for one when that guy jumped me.'
Diamenti gestured to Heet. 'Go get him a bottle. We don't need a steward coming up here right now.'
Renatta actually seemed concerned. 'Who tried to kill you?'
The Minstrel Boy looked at Diamenti again. Their host gave an imperceptible shake of his head. The Minstrel Boy avoided Renatta's eyes. 'It seems like it might have been a hired assassin.'
'What?'
Diamenti ignored Billy and Renatta's questions and addressed himself to the Minstrel Boy. 'So who wants you dead?'
'Nobody. I don't have a beef with anyone anymore. I've been out of circulation since God knows when.'
Renatta stared into her martini. She looked worried. 'I can vouch for that.'
'Where were you?'
'In the Caverns of the Presence.'
Diamenti smiled. 'Living the lotus life?'
'I needed the rest.'
'So why did you leave?'
'I didn't like the way things were going. People were getting jaded and weird, and the Hunters were out. I figured that some kind of cull was about to start.'
Diamenti turned his attention to Billy and Reave. 'Maybe someone wants to stop this little reunion.'
Reave's eyes narrowed. 'What reunion might that be?'
Diamenti grinned. 'Come on. The whole of the Great Hall is talking about it. The DNA Cowboys are back together.'
'We never called ourselves that.'
'We aren't back together.'
'It's pure coincidence.'
'Are you telling me that, right at a point when the wholeDamaged World seems to be on the edge of another round of violence, you three suddenly turn up in the same place at the same time, quite by accident?' It was the Minstrel Boy's argument almost word for word.
'You can believe it or not. It's what happened.'
Diamenti shrugged. 'It doesn't really matter if I believe it or not. Everybody else believes it, and I figure that you're going to have to go along with it.'
He had a point there. General perception was a powerful force. Billy, who had been staring morosely into his drink, suddenly looked up at Diamenti. There was an odd light in his eye. 'Yeah, but do you believe it?'
Diamenti looked at Billy curiously. 'Is it important?'
'You really think that another cycle of violence is coming?'
'Haven't you felt it for yourself?'
Billy's hands made an awkward gesture. 'I've been on a bit of a vacation myself.'
'Then the answer is yes, Billy Oblivion. Yes, there is another round of violence coming. The moods of civilizations change, even in a fragmented civilization like ours. It's the inevitable turnaround, day and night, summer and winter. All we can do is weather it.'
The Minstrel Boy raised a questioning eyebrow. 'Doesn't it seem like this is shaping up to be a particularly hard winter?'
Diamenti nodded. 'It does rather look like that.'
'Maybe we won't weather it.'
Diamenti smiled. 'Maybe we won't. I'm something of a fatalist in these things. After all, there's only one death per customer.'
At that moment Heet returned with a bottle of very good cognac and cut short the philosophy. It must have come from Diamond's private stock. Despite all the trouble they were in, the Minstrel Boy examined it admiringly. 'This is excellent.'
Heet was not alone. Axel was with him. He whispered something to Diamenti and then handed him two small objects. Diamenti placed them on the table where everyone could see them.
'These were on the body. Do they mean anything to you?'
The Minstrel Boy felt his blood chill. One was a small gold insignia — a tiny sword. The other was a wafer of transparent crystal. He glanced quickly at Renatta. She also looked frightened.
'The sword is the insignia of the Hunters in the Caverns,'he replied. 'The crystal is one of the wafers they give to their designated victims.'
'And you were a designated victim?'
'They hit on me just as I was leaving.'
'They seem to have followed you here.'
The Minstrel Boy did not believe what he was seeing. 'This isn't possible. The Hunters are just a bunch of localized sickos. They couldn't track me across the nothings, let alone employ an urthugee.'
Billy Oblivion was stunned. 'An urthugee?'
Diamenti shot him a hard look. 'We're trying to keep that to ourselves.'
Billy nodded. 'I can understand that. What I don't understand is how come an urthugee is working for these Hunters. Like the Minstrel Boy says, they're just localized sickos.'
Diamenti's face was grave. 'Things change. The kali-rouge Yuba is supposed to last 200,000 years before Shiva is finally slain by the goddess and chaos takes over. Perhaps the goddess has done a deal with the Presence. You can pick up a lot of strange allies in 200,000 years.'
Reave was shaking his head. 'That's ridiculous. All this is legend.'
'What isn't these days?'
'Hell, I don't know.'
'The evidence is on the table.'
Billy picked up the tiny gold sword and turned it between his fingers. 'The immediate question is what you're going to do about this. It's your place — you call the shot.'
Diamenti poured a sizable shot of cognac into his sampling cup. He seemed to be thinking. 'You'll all have to leave here. That goes without saying.'
Billy started to protest. 'Why do Reave and I have to leave? It's only the Minstrel Boy that's in trouble.'
'Can you be sure of that? The world sees you as a trio. All for one, one for all, and the rest of the male bonding rituals.'
'It's those words again.'
Diamenti went on. 'I'm not going to argue about it. I want the three of you out of here inside of forty-eight hours. You're trouble, and that's all the cause I need. If you'll take a piece of good advice, though, I'd stick with each other for the moment. Times are getting rough, and you three always do well in roughtimes. You may not like the idea anymore, but you'll find that you're a lot less vulnerable as a triad.'
The DNA Cowboys were silent. The reunion was beginning to look inevitable.
Diamenti finished his brandy. 'Forty-eight hours. It'd be better if you kept away from the public halls during
