Chapter Forty-Three
Name: Vernon Brigadoon Sod (aka Banker Sod).
Birthplace: Latimore (a small town near Chi'ash-lan).
Occupation: merchant banker.
Status: Owner of the Morgrim Bank of Chi'ash-lan; claimant to the Safrak Bank; sometime Governor of the Partnership Banks; owner of the wondrous Pazabantsen mansion (most notable building in all of Chi'ash-lan); father of the voluptuous Damsel.
Description: florid male of iceman race, with the black fingernails and thick white bodyhair so typical of that breed.
Hair, eyes and teeth all similarly yellow.
Hobby: breeding snails.
Quote: 'The world's one great hidden secret is that we live in a great Age of Agiotage. This is the real significance of the Circle of the Doors.'
The conspirators required a night of cloud and fog, something they could not wish into being by mere force of will alone. The right conditions first came some five nights after the banquet which had greeted the return of Witchlord and Weaponmaster to the island of Alozay.
With a night of cloud and fog having been secured to their satisfaction, the conspirators gathered in the banquet hall in Dolce Obo, the Pillow Stratum of the mainrock Pinnacle. In that great gloom, they confirmed their federation. Sken-Pitilkin had a stickbird airship waiting on the Palace Docks of Alozay. The wizard of Skatzabratzumon, accompanied by Ontario Nol and Eljuk Zala, would fly the airship to the heights.
As a wizard of Itch, Ontario Nol had powers to command the winds, and Nol's ability to summon up a miniature tornado or a minor whirlwind could conceivably prove useful if things went wrong and they found themselves locked in outright battle with Shabble.
With those three confirmed in their roles, they departed, going downward toward the Winch Stratum, where bribed washerwomen were waiting to lower them to the docks where Sken-Pitilkin's stickbird waited.
For his part, the Witchlord Onosh would play no active role in the assault on Shabble. Rather, he would withdraw and wait.
Once the star-globe had been stolen, Lord Onosh would stay on Alozay and play at being innocent. If Shabble chose to remain on the island even with the star-globe gone, why then, Lord Onosh would accept Shabble's authority.
But if Shabble left the island, then Lord Onosh would seize power – easy enough to do, since everyone on the island was loyal to him but for a few bandits such as Yilda and Uckermark who gave their allegiance to Shabble.
'Unfortunately,' said Lord Onosh, 'I do not think it wise to barbecue this Uckermark, or pull his teeth out one by one, lest Shabble hear of it and one day take revenge. But you can be assured that his authority will cease the moment the bubble flees this realm!'
'Yes,' said Guest. 'All well and good. But remember that Yilda has my ring! Don't let her swallow it!'
'I won't,' said Lord Onosh. 'I'll make very sure I get hold of that ring.'
It had already been agreed amongst the conspirators that the star-globe would not return to Alozay until three years had passed. That should prove long enough for Shabble to lose interest in the island and depart.
Banker Sod had insisted on accompanying the star-globe into exile, hence was to accompany the raiding party which would shortly venture upstairs to steal treasure from Shabble.
'You realize,' said Lord Onosh, who did not trust Banker Sod any further than he trusted the demon Italis, 'that if you do not return at the end of three years, then I will execute your daughter Damsel.'
'I know it,' said Sod.
Sod had pledged his daughter Damsel as a hostage – without consulting that young woman on the matter.
That, then, was the plan.
The star-globe would be stolen, and carried far from Alozay, and kept away from that island for three years. To safeguard the star-globe, those who stole it would not decide upon their place of exile until three years had passed. That way, even if Shabble interrogated Lord Onosh, the Witchlord would not be able to say where the star-globe had gone to.
At the end of three years, with Shabble having departed – back to Port Domax and its Temple of the Holy Cockroach, or back to Untunchilamon perhaps – Sken-Pitilkin would return the star- globe to Alozay by stickbird, and the Circle of the Partnership Banks would once more be reopened.
With all confirmed, Lord Onosh took himself off to his bed – not to sleep, but to worry.
That left three. Sken-Pitilkin, Ontario Nol and Eljuk Zala Gulkan had gone downwards to the docks of Alozay. All going right, they should have claimed Sken-Pitilkin's stickbird already, and have lofted the thing to the air. Lord Onosh had taken himself off to bed.
So the only people left in the banqueting hall were those who were going to tackle Shabble head on head: the Weaponmaster Guest Gulkan, his faithful servant Thayer Levant, and Banker Sod of Chi'ash-lan.
'Well,' said Guest, uneasily. 'Let's get on with it.'
Then, with Thayer Levant lighting the way with two lanterns carried on a bablobrokmadorni stick – an implement unknown on Alozay until it had been imported by some of the piratical refugees from Untunchilamon – they made their way upward through the mainrock. As they went, Guest Gulkan worried. In particular, he worried about Sod, and the difficulties of guarding against Sod's treachery for three long years of exile.
And where would they spend that exile?
The idea of not deciding on a destination until they had quit Alozay was a good one. It secured them against accidental betrayal. But it also made Guest profoundly unsettled not to know where he would spend the next three years.
Where could they go?
Galsh Ebrek? Possibly, but rumors from Galsh Ebrek reached Port Domax by way of trade. Ashmolea? A highly civilized place, by all accounts, but also another place which traded with Port Domax.
Dalar ken Halvar? Too dangerous, since Shabble knew that Witchlord and Weaponmaster had lately been in that city. Drangsturm? Sken-Pitilkin could go nowhere near Drangsturm, since he was a renegade wanted by the Confederation of Wizards. Sken-Pitilkin's home island, then? No, for Shabble would surely think to seek for the wizard of Drum on the island of Drum. What about Chi'ash-lan itself? Too dangerous, for it would put them in Sod's power.
So where? Sken-Pitilkin seemed so confident that he would be able to hide in a place beyond Shabble reach that Guest was slowly coming to the conclusion that the wizard of Skatzabratzumon intended to fly them to Argan South, and land them in the terror-lands of the Deep South, those wastelands which were commanded by the monsters of the Swarms.
He did not like that idea at all.
Revolving such complexities in his mind, Guest Gulkan walked as rearguard behind Sod and Thayer Levant as they quit Dolce Obo, the Pillow Stratum, home to the mainrock's living quarters.
Quitting Dolce Obo, they ventured upward through the office layer of Inic Obo, the enforcement layer of Brondon Obo and the paper-storage layer of Trilip Obo. At Trilip Obo, they paused for long enough to set fire to the outer wooden staircase which led upwards to the weirding room. Then they took the inner stairway which led upwards from Trilip Obo to Zi Obo, the Pod Stratum.
Zi Obo had but the single room, this being the Hall of Time.
As the three made their way across the skull-pattern tiles to the stairway at the eastern end of the Hall of Time, Guest Gulkan was not at all sure whether the demon Iva-Italis would allow them to pass. If not, their plan would be doomed to failure, for they had already set fire to the wooden outer stairs which connected Trilip Obo with the weirding room of the Safrak Bank.
But Iva-Italis maintained a glow-worm's silence, and allowed them to pass without challenge or comment.
