'How do you know that?' said Guest. 'I mean, you can you look through the Doors, or what?'
'I see as if through a glass darkly,' said the Lobos. 'I hear as if through a wall. It is enough. If Chi'ash-lan is your destination, then there is your Door.'
As the Lobos was so saying, the light of all but one of the red hoops died away to nothing. Guest waded through the wet, cold water to that last remaining hoop. When he peered through it, he seemed to see – as if through thick mist – the weirding room of the Morgrim Bank in Chi'ash-lan. It was identifiable on account of the skeletons which hung from the ceiling.
'Go ahead,' said the Lobos, as Guest hesitated. 'It's perfectly safe.'
'Maybe I should think about this a little longer,' said Guest.
'Then, then,' said the Lobos. 'But don't spend too long about it. You've been here too long already.'
'What do you mean?' said Guest.
'Look at yourself!' said the Lobos. 'Look at your hands!'Guest did look at himself. He looked at his hands. And saw, to his horror, that they had grown transparent. He could see right through them.
'Don't worry,' said the Lobos. 'The condition's not irreversible. As long as you leave now! Go! Go! Quick! Quick! Or you're doomed to be ghost forever, mazadath or no!'
Compelled by this command, Guest took one last look around, then stepped through the red hoop, leaving the world of the Lobos and entering the weirding room of the Morgrim Bank in Chi'ash-lan.
Chapter Forty-Eight
Chi'ash-lan: city at western end of Ravlish Lands. This city was the birthplace of Banker Sod (sometime Governor of the Safrak Bank) and of Thayer Levant (Guest Gulkan's servant, who previously served Plandruk Qinplaqus). The Bank in Chi'ash-lan is the Morgrim Bank. In this Bank is a monster twice man-height. The monster is of jade green stone, and is known to the world as the demon Ko (or, to give it the dignity of its full and formal name, as the demon Koblathakatoria. This demon is not actually a creature of the world of gods and shadows – rather, it is a machine, a military farspeaker of Nexus make.
Guest stood on the marble plinth, momentarily uncertain as to whether it was the real thing or a delusionary illusion. Then he was abruptly shoved from behind by an unruly Banker who came pushing through the humming silver screen which filled the arch of Chi'ash-lan's Door.
'Time is money!' said the Banker, as Guest went stumbling.
Then the Banker promptly turned and made his way back through the Door, pushing on to the Safrak Bank on the island of Alozay. Guest realized he truly was in Chi'ash-lan, and that its Door was in use, and that there was no telling who or what might come through that Door unless he acted quickly. He jumped down from the marble plinth. Water squelched in his boots as he landed, for his boots were still soaking wet from the water in which he had lately been standing.
That squelching water assured Guest that at least some small fraction of his recent experience had been for real. Otherwise, he might have dismissed the Lobos and its cave as sheer hallucination.
He checked. Did he have the yellow bottle? Yes, it was still tightly tied to his swordless swordbelt with a moligok.
Presumably, Sken-Pitilkin and Thayer Levant were still safe inside that bottle. And the ring which controlled it was still safe on Guest's finger.
Right, then. Guest looked for the niche in the plinth of the Door, found it, and found it occupied by the star- globe, as he had expected.
He hesitated.
As soon as he seized the star-globe and pulled it from that niche, then the Circle of the Doors of the Partnership Banks would abruptly close. Then Guest would be stuck in Chi'ash-lan, and would be put to the trouble of fighting his way free from the Morgrim Bank – if he could. He was sorely tempted to take an easier course: to abandon the star-globe and simply jump through the Door, making the passage to the island of Alozay in the tricing of an eyeblink.
But -
But did Lord Onosh still rule on Alozay?
That was the first question which troubled Guest Gulkan. And the second was this: what would his father say if he knew that Guest had been within grasping distance of the star-globe, but had declined its challenge? Guest came to a quick decision.
He seized the cold cool of the star-globe and snatched it from its niche. The silver-buzzing hum of the Door died away on an instant. When Guest rose, the star-globe in his hand, no screen of shimmering silver remained in the arch. Instead, the arch was but a loop of metal.
Now to get out of here. Guest hastened toward the exit of the Morgrim Bank's weirding room. But halted abruptly, for of course the demon Ko stood on guard in that exit.
'Ko,' said Guest, challenging that monolith of jade-green stone.
'I see you and here you,' said Ko. 'You are welcome, thrice welcome. You are free to pass – with or without that which you have won.'
All this was said with immaculate courtesy, and was said moreover in Guest's native Eparget, which in itself was sufficient to tell Guest that he was recognized. Ko knew who he was, and what. And Guest remembered a terrible day on which that very demon had seized his brother Eljuk, had torn away his clothes, had -
Remembering, Guest realized he could not trust Ko for so much as half an eyeblink. Courtesy was not the custom of demons, which meant that this demon meant to seize him and tear him. Guest had a rough and ready idea of the demon's reach. It could extrude quick-striking tentacles, smash him and mash him, grip him and clutch him, drag him in and slaughter him. Or hold him prisoner – as Eljuk had been held. Eljuk had eventually been released. But would Guest be so lucky? Somehow, he doubted it. Guest glanced back at the arch of the Door. He was half- minded to open it, then make his retreat, leaving the star-globe in Chi'ash-lan. But if his father still ruled on Alozay, then -
'Come to me,' said Ko, softly. 'Come to me. It's perfectly safe.'Guest looked back to the demon, which saw his hesitation, his fear, his intense suspicion. In response, it laughed.
'Now you see,' said Ko, with a sudden change of tone. 'Now you realize. There is no way out.'
Then the demon laughed again, with brutal frankness.
But -
The thing's laughter was so frank that Guest thought it to be too frank. One could trust a demon in nothing. The brutality of the laughter was so theatrically overstated, so brilliantly triumphant, that Guest was immediately sure that the demon must be trying to distract his attention from something.
But what? Guest remembered Sken-Pitilkin's performance on the day of the battle for the mainrock Pinnacle. Sken-Pitilkin had levitated above the demon Icaria Scaria Iva-Italis, taking advantage of the headroom between the demon and the roof. There was just as much headroom between the demon Ko and the ceiling of the doorway it guarded.
While Guest was still deliberating, he heard footsteps approaching. He had no sword, hence did not even momentarily think of fighting his way out of difficulty. Rather, he turned the ring on his finger – and was promptly sucked into the yellow bottle.
It was the work of moments for Guest to retrieve Sken-Pitilkin from the yellow bottle, but unfortunately such was his haste that he accidentally retrieved Shabble as well.
As Guest and Sken-Pitilkin emerged from the yellow bottle, sweeping out as so much smoke, and solidifying to their proper forms instants later, Shabble swept and solidified likewise.
True, Shabble was still secured in a net of silver – but the bubble was free!
'Where are we?' said Sken-Pitilkin.
The yells of a dozen Zenjingu fighters instantly gave him the answer to that question. Sken-Pitilkin could not for the life of him work out how he had been abruptly transported from the Shackle Mountains to the Morgrim Bank, but the sight of the black-clad Zenjingu, combined with the sight of the demon Ko and the skeletons which dangled from the ceiling, orientated him instantly.
