said.
'I am sorry,' I said.
'You told me that the task was difficult, that it was dangerous,' he said, scornfully.
I was puzzled.
'Do you not know that the stone is now on public display,' he asked, 'for Ahn a day?'
'Yes,' I said. 'We know that.'
'It is in the open!' he said.
'In a way,' I said.
'It is not locked in a tower, encircled with a moat of sharks, behind ten doors of iron, ringed by deadly osts, circled by maddened sleen, surrounded by ravening larls.'
'No,' I said. 'Not to my knowledge.'
'I shall not do it!' he said.
'I do not blame you,' I said.
'Do you hold me in such contempt?' he asked.
'Not at all,' I said, puzzled.
'Do you ask me, me, to do such a thing?'
'We had hoped you might consider it,' I said.
'Never!' he said.
'Very well,' I said.
'What slandering scoundrels you are, both of you,' he said, angrily.
'How so?' I asked.
'It is too easy!' he said, angrily.
'What?' I asked.
'It is too easy,' he said. 'It is unworthy of me! It is beneath my attention. It would be an insult to my skills! There is no challenge!'
'It is too easy?' I asked.
'Would you come to a master surgeon to have a boil lanced, a wart removed?' he asked.
'No,' I admitted.
'To a scribe to read the public boards!'
'No,' said Marcus. I myself was silent. I sometimes had difficulty with the public boards, particularly when cursive script was used.
'Let me understand this clearly,' I said. 'You think the task would be too easy?'
'Certainly,' he said. 'It requires only a simple substitution.'
'Do you think you could manage it?' asked Marcus, eagerly.
'Anyone could do it,' he said, angrily. 'I know of at least one, in Turia.'
'But that is in the southern hemisphere,' I pointed out.
'True,' he said.
'Then you will do it?' I said.
'I will need to get a good look at the stone,' he said. 'But that is easily accomplished. I will go and revile it tomorrow.'
Marcus stiffened.
'It is necessary,' I said to Marcus. 'He will not mean it.'
'Then,' he said, 'once I have every detail of the stone carefully in mind I shall see to the construction of a duplicate.'
'You can remember all the details?' I asked.
'Taken in in an glance,' he assured me.
'Remarkable,' I said.
'A mind such as mine,' he said, 'occurs only once or twice in a century.'
Marcus had hardly been able to speak, so overcome he was.
'Do you, lad, know the stone fairly well?' he was asked by the paunchy fellow. 'Yes!' said Marcus.
'Good,' said the paunchy fellow.
'Why do you ask that?' I asked.
'In case I forget the color of it, or something,' he said.
'You do realize, do you not,' I asked, 'that the stone is under constant surveillance.'
'It will not be under surveillance for the necessary quarter of an Ihn or so,' he said.
'You will use misdirection?' I asked.
'Unless you have a better idea, or seventy armed men, or something.'
'No,' I said.
'There will be many guards about,' said Marcus.
'I work best with an audience,' said the ponderous fellow.
I did not doubt it. On the other hand he did make me a bit nervous. I trusted he would not try to make too much of a show of it. The important thing was to get the stone and get it out of the city, and, if possible, to Port Cos.
'Sir!' said Marcus.
'Lad?' asked the ponderous fellow.
'Even though you should fail in this enterprise and die a horrible death, I want you to know that you have the gratitude of Ar's Station!'
'Thank you,' said the fellow. 'The sentiment touches me.'
'It is nothing,' Marcus assured him.
'No, no!' said the fellow. 'On the rack, and under the fiery irons and burning pincers, should such be my fate, I shall derive much comfort from it.'
'I think you are the most courageous man I have ever known,' said Marcus. 'Twice this evening,' said the fellow, turning to me, 'it seems my well-wrought sham of craven timidity, carefully constructed over the period of a lifetime, has been penetrated.'
'Do you plan to seize the Home Stone by trickery or magic?' asked Marcus. 'I haven't decided,' said the fellow. 'Which would you prefer?'
'If it does not the more endanger you,' said Marcus, grimly, 'I would prefer trickery, human trickery.'
'My sentiments, exactly,' said the fellow. 'What do you think?'
'Whatever you wish,' I said.
'By using trickery,' said Marcus, earnestly, 'we are outwitting Ar, making fools of them, accomplishing our objective within the rules, winning the game honestly.'
'True,' said the fellow. 'I have nothing but contempt for those magicians who stay safe in the towers of their castles, consulting their texts, uttering their spells and waving their magic wands about, spiriting away valuable objects. There is no risk there, no glory! That is not fair. Indeed, it is cheating.'
'Yes,' said Marcus. 'It would be cheating!'
'You have convinced me,' said the fellow. 'I shall use trickery and not magic.'
'Yes!' said Marcus.
'There is danger,' I said to the ponderous fellow.
'Not really,' he said.
'I am serious,' I said.
'If I thought there were the least bit of danger involved in this, surely you do not think I would even consider it, do you?'
'I think you might,' I said.
'It all depends on the fellow involved,' he said. 'If you were to attempt to accomplish this, with your particular subtlety and skills, there would indeed be danger, perhaps unparalleled peril. Indeed, I think I would have the rack prepared the night before. But for me, I assure you, it is nothing, no more than a sneeze.'
'He is a magician,' Marcus reminded me.
'But he is only planning on using trickery,' I reminded Marcus, somewhat irritably.
'True,' said Marcus, thoughtfully.
