Swords Against the Shadowland

FIVE CITY OF A THOUSAND TEMPLES

The front door of the Silver Eel opened quietly, and the pale gray light of an early misty morning seeped across the threshold. The heavy fog of night had retreated, but the sun had not yet warmed the streets, nor chased the chill from the air. Hugging his cloak about his shoulders, Fafhrd eased the door closed.

The tavern was silent and empty but for a single figure. Slumped over a table in the farthest corner, the Mouser raised his head sleepily and peeled open one eye. Fafhrd said nothing to his companion as he passed by, but he set a soft leather purse near the Mouser's hand before he proceeded up the stairs and sought the room they shared.

The lamp in the hallway had long since burned out, and within their rented room, darkness still held sway. The morning light, weak as it was, had not yet penetrated into the narrow alley beyond the open window. Putting aside his sword, Fafhrd pulled the shutters closed and latched them. Turning, he gazed around the room and wondered what he should do next. At last, he sank down to the floor, leaned his back against the wall beneath the window sill, hugged his cloak closer still, and put his head wearily upon his knees.

With the mildest of creaks, the door opened and shut. It was Fafhrd's turn to look up. An orange glow surrounded the Mouser as he held high one of the taverns lanterns. In his other hand, he bore a pitcher. Placing the lantern beside the wash basin on the room's only table, he handed the pitcher to Fafhrd, then crossed the room to sit on the edge of the bed.

"Rough night?" the Mouser asked. "Looks like you spent it in a pig sty."

Fafhrd took a long pull from the pitcher. The beer tasted warm and bitter, but it drove the chill from his body, and lifted his spirits a little. "Nice of you to wait up," he said.

With the strings looped around his first finger, the Mouser twirled the purse around and around until the speed of its motion made a small humming sound and the purse, itself, blurred. "I gather you encountered the Ilthmart of questionable character?"

Fafhrd only nodded as he rose and went to the table. Setting aside the pitcher of beer, he cast off his cloak and began to wash himself with an old cloth using the water that already half-filled the crude earthenware basin. The sound of gentle splashing filled the room.

The Mouser put aside the purse. "Did you kill him?" he inquired carefully. "Is that why your mood seems bleaker than this crippled daylight?"

Fafhrd cleaned mud from his feet and shins. "He preferred to be reasonable," he answered. "As for my mood—" he paused in his ablutions and glanced toward the shutters before rinsing the cloth with a violent effort. Water splashed from the basin, spilling onto the table and floor. Fafhrd ignored it. "Blame it on this fog-haunted city. I wish we were away from here."

A strangely grim expression shadowed the Mouser's face. Fafhrd looked away from his friend as he gnawed his lower lip. He wondered if he should speak of Vlana's ghost. Yet, could he be sure he had, indeed, seen the spirit of his one true love? Perhaps it was only his imagination or the fog playing tricks with his head. Perhaps it was only his grief catching up with him.

The Mouser patted the mattress. "Let us take a few hours' sleep," he suggested, "then, we'll rise and begin this evil quest. The sooner begun, the sooner done."

Fafhrd scowled as he threw the cloth back into the basin, splashing more water. "Sleep," he said, turning down the lantern's wick. Crossing to his side of the bed in the near-darkness, he crawled under a corner of the only blanket. "Then rise and head to work like good common little hirelings."

The Mouser's boots clunked onto the floor as he cast them off. His tunic followed, and he claimed his own piece of the blanket. "You should never go to bed angry," he said in a lighter tone.

"You are not my wife," Fafhrd grumbled as he turned onto his side, a movement that dragged the entire blanket to his half of the bed. "Shut up."

The Mouser snatched it back again, beginning a silent war that would continue until well past noon.

A drizzling rain fell from slate-gray skies, turning the backstreets and alleyways to ribbons of mud, slicking the cobblestones and paving tiles of the better thoroughfares. Along the Street of the Gods, the gutters roiled with dirty, refuse-strewn water. Huddled under hooded cloaks or brightly dyed parasols, pedestrians hurried in and out of the many elaborate temples that gave the way its name.

Impatiently watching the traffic, Fafhrd waited outside the columned gates of the Temple of Mog, the spider god. The droning intonations of Mog's priests reached his ears, muffled only slightly by the rain's steady pitter-patter. The temple was actually a huge amphitheater with a cone-shaped administration building at its center. Come rain or shine, from dawn until sundown, priests and acolytes and worshippers ranged about the grounds singing the praises of their deity.

Huddled under a single blue and yellow parasol, a pair of old women passed by Fafhrd and through the columned entrance. Immediately, they began to sing, weaving their voices in a squeaky, tuneless harmony. Drawing the folds of his hood closer about his face, the Northerner turned his back to the gate and shook his head. How, he wondered, could any god abide such prayer?

He resumed watching the traffic until the Mouser emerged from the temple gate and tapped his shoulder. Fafhrd look down at his comrade. "I didn't hear your dulcet tones soaring among the voices of Mog's heavenly choir," he said with unveiled sarcasm.

The Mouser, looking miserable in his sodden gray cloak, took Fafhrd's elbow and steered him through the street in the direction of the riverfront. "You know I sing like a frog with a fly stuck in its throat," he answered. "Instead I convinced the priests of my piety by making an offering of the Ilthmart's ring."

Fafhrd grunted. To his mind, the ring was now wasted wealth. If Mog ever saw the pretty bauble, it would be adorning the finger of one of his priests. But above all the other gods of Ne-hwon, the Mouser worshipped the spider god, and when asked for permission to donate the ring, Fafhrd could not deny his partner.

"With such business as we are upon," the Mouser said, almost apologetically, "currying a little favor with the gods cannot hurt."

"Can't it?" Fafhrd said, giving a sidelong glance toward a line of saffron-robed priests of Issek as they marched down the middle of the rainy street, shaking chipolis and bells in accompaniment to some chant. "What is prayer, but a poor man's magic-making? What if it also attracts Malygris's deadly curse?"

The Mouser stopped in his tracks and pushed back the edge of his hood to regard his companion. His face seemed paler than usual. He looked up and down the Street of the Gods at all the citizens entering and exiting the various temples. "All these people ..." he said. Wiping rain from his eyes, he pulled up his hood again and resumed the course. He muttered to Fafhrd, "You have a talent for making a gloomy day gloomier."

Where Silver Street intersected the Street of the Gods, a team of four brawny slaves bearing a gaily draped palanquin momentarily blocked the way. The white wood frame, carved in relief with small figures of animals, resembled expensive ivory. Even in the rain, its cloth-of-gold and red silk curtains shimmered, and tiny golden bells on the bearing poles jingled in rhythm with the bearers' steps.

As the palanquin passed them by, delicate fingers with long, painted nails parted the curtains ever so slightly. A wisp of blond hair flashed, and kohl-blackened eyes focused briefly on them. Then the curtain closed again.

"Liara," the Mouser whispered, staring after the vehicle as it hurried on.

Never had Fafhrd seen such a strange expression on his partner's face. The Mouser's jaw hung, and his eyes seemed glazed, nor did he show any inclination to move. "Who?" he said. "You know that pretty dish?"

The Mouser seemed to shake himself, but still he stared after the palanquin, finally tearing his gaze away. "The Dark Butterfly," he said gruffly, abruptly leading the way across the busy intersection. With a note of scorn, he added, "Some whore, who happened into the Silver Eel last night. On her way to some assignation, no doubt."

The rain abruptly stopped. Fafhrd glanced up at the sky and observed the thick clouds that rolled and rumbled above the city. The sun, barely visible through the pall, floated like a pale, blinking eye, watchful and vaguely ominous.

A pair of shepherds drove a bleating flock of sheep through the intersection. Small hooves rang on the cobbled pavement, and a dog barked and nipped at the ankles of woolly stragglers. A wagon, pulled by two oxen and laden with heavy barrels, trundled noisily on huge wheels of solid wood after the shepherds, the driver scowling and cursing the slowness of the procession.

"Watch your step," Fafhrd said to the Mouser when the way was clear and they started forward again. He wrinkled his nose. "That's not mud, where you're about to plant your boot."

The Mouser did a dainty dance around a series of small sheep pies. "Brag now about the sharpness of your barbarian senses," he said in a nasal voice, his mood lightening again, as he pinched his nostril shut with a finger and thumb.

They made it across Silver Street at last. Continuing down the Street of the Gods, they passed the five-storied Temple of Aarth, the largest and most lavish of all the Lankhmaran temples. A semi-circle of white-washed columns formed its gate, and white-robed neophytes with shaven heads greeted the lines of worshippers that filed through.

In all his travels, never had Fafhrd seen a city with so many gods and temples. The Street of the Gods ran from one side of the city to the other, from the Marsh Gate to the River Hlal, with nothing but temples on either side of it, or shops selling incense, herbs, or other offering materials to hurried worshippers. Every god or goddess in Lankhmar had a temple on this street, as did many gods from other nations.

Only Godsland itself, in the far north where the gods lived, could have more temples, Fafhrd figured.

Aarth's temple marked the end of the Street of the Gods, but it was not the last of the temples in Lankhmar. Turning south, they started down Nun Street, and Fafhrd spied the first of the seventeen black towers of Lankhmar's forgotten gods.

No one knew the names of the gods those black structures had been erected to honor, nor when they had been built. Already ancient and abandoned when the first Lankhmaran settlers came to this land, they were places of crumbling mystery, foreboding and forbidden. Some stood slender and tall, like thin claws thrust up from the earth to rake the sky, while others sat squat and low, like dark-skinned frogs watching the river.

Despite the oppressive shadows those temples cast, a bustling commerce flourished all along the riverfront. Lankhmar sat near the mouth of the River Hlal, which opened into the Inner Sea. Trading ships from Ilthmar, the Land of the Eight Cities, and even the far-off Cold Wastes from where Fafhrd hailed regularly docked at Lankhmar's busy wharves, and Lankhmar's own merchant navy stood second to none.

Shops and industries lined the streets of the riverfront. In addition, many of the city's nobles had built their homes and established fine estates in the district.

Another palanquin passed them, jangling with scores of tiny golden bells, born by four powerful men in red liveries who wore long dirks sheathed on their belts. Crimson and silver draperies fluttering somewhat in the breeze allowed no clue as to the occupant. A trio of servants, dressed in the same red garments, followed hurriedly after it, bearing packages and covered baskets.

Fafhrd scratched his short red beard. "She had a familiar face," he said thoughtfully.

"Who?" the Mouser asked, glancing from Fafhrd to the palanquin and back again.

"Your whore," he answered.

A dark look clouded the Mouser's face. Wordlessly, he strode off toward the first of the forbidden towers, stepping off Nun Street and taking Fishbloat Lane, which ran straight to the wharves. With long-legged strides, a puzzled Fafhrd easily caught up with his smaller companion.

"I want a look at each of the towers," the Mouser said quickly, as if preventing Fafhrd from reviving the previous subject. "If necessary, all seventeen."

Fafhrd nodded agreement. "Will Malygris be waving a hanky prettily out a window, or are we just reacquainting ourselves with the city's sights?"

"I don't know," the Mouser snapped with uncharacteristic rudeness. "Nuulpha's rumor may be just a rumor. But it's also a place to start. Do you have a better suggestion?"

Stung by his partner's tone, Fafhrd hesitated. "No," he finally admitted.

Forcing a path through a crowd of shoppers at an outdoor fish market, the Mouser spoke over his shoulder. "Then do me two favors," he said. Pulling back a corner of his hood, he forced a grin. "First, forgive me for my harsh speech." He held up one finger, then another as he abruptly stopped. "Second, look over the heads of this rabble and tell me where in Mog's name is the tower?"

Fafhrd laughed, his hurt forgotten. A narrow street, the shops and warehouses that lined Fishbloat Lane formed virtual walls on either side of the way, and so thick were the crowds, now that the rain had ended, that his short friend was nearly engulfed in a sea of humanity. Even with the advantage of his height, Fafhrd could barely see the tip of the forbidden tower that marked their goal.

"Through here," he said suddenly, catching the Mouser's gray-clad arm and jerking him into an alley. The passage was barely worthy to be called such. The rough wooden walls on either side, so close that they forced the two friends to walk sideways, scraped their backs and chests as they inched along. Mud squished under their boots, and the smell of rancid fish seemed trapped in the air.

Fafhrd dared to look down. The thin ribbon of ground glimmered with fish scales, old and new. It was not mud alone they walked on, but mud mixed with fish guts. Rolling his eyes, he uttered a short prayer to Kos that no merchant dumped more garbage until he and the Mouser reached the other end.

"Come here often?" the Mouser muttered sarcastically as he shook a fish-head off his toe.

Fafhrd didn't answer. The alley joined another street where the shoppers were fewer. Fafhrd stepped out and let go the breath he'd been holding. Instantly, he jumped back as an ox pulling a cart nearly ran him down. His sudden lunge for safety caused him to collide with the Mouser, who was not yet clear of the alley. The Mouser gave an awkward cry and clutched frantically at Fafhrd's borrowed cloak with one hand, at the wall with the other.

The big Northerner caught his friend's arm and apologetically set him on his feet again.

"Pissing on me last night, that I can forgive," the Mouser warned. "Knocking me into this slime, however, would have required retribution."

Fafhrd peered carefully around the edge of the alley before stepping out again. The way was clear. At the end of the new street where they found themselves the tall masts of a sailing ship rocked gently to and fro. On the wharf, half-naked men busily loaded barrels and sacks of grain onto the vessel.

Halfway down the street, the line of warehouses parted, yielding to the cracked marble tiles of an old courtyard. Surrounded by an iron fence that offered no gate, a slender, black-stoned tower rose three stories high. Only the third and highest story offered any windows or apparent openings. Birds flew in and out, having made their nests in its shadowed recesses. The courtyard, even the side of the tower, was stained with centuries of droppings.

The Mouser approached the fence, walked back and forth before it, ran his fingers along the spear-pointed iron bars. Fafhrd stood back. His gaze climbed the stones, noting the crumbling mortar, the gaping rent in the structure near its parapet, the way the birds cooed in their nests while their mates circled.

"He's not here," he said in a low voice to the Mouser. When his partner turned toward him, he explained. "The birds are too carefree. The nests would be empty if the tower were inhabited."

Nodding agreement, the Mouser backed away from the fence.

Returning to Nun Street, they worked their way south through the growing throngs that choked the busy thoroughfare. Exerting itself, the sun made slight headway through the clouds, and though the sky remained gray, the air warmed.

A pair of temples stood side by side on Sailors' Row. The taller one stood two stories and loomed over the second temple, which was a low, square building. The tower, badly crumbled on one side, leaned at an unlikely angle. Slumped over, Fafhrd thought to himself, as if the god it was built for had died. The box-like temple appeared ageless, seamless in construction. Neither structure showed doors or windows. They shared a common courtyard, and in the center of that lay the shattered ruins of an ancient fountain. A common iron fence separated the grounds from the rest of the city.

The feeble sun slipped toward the horizon, and twilight stole quietly through Lankhmar. The sounds of industry lessened in the riverfront district, and the streets slowly emptied of shoppers and workers.

Frustration gnawed at Fafhrd as he wandered with the Mouser to the southern end of the wharves and stared across the glimmering water of the wide Hlal. A rising wind played an eerie tune in the riggings of ships moored in their berths. He listened, noting also the creaking of the boards beneath his feet as the river lapped at the pilings. It all made a strange, lonely music.

"I think I have never felt so thin as now," Fafhrd murmured to himself.

Overhearing, the Mouser raised an eyebrow. "Thin?"

Far across the river, a black-cloaked old man poled a flat skiff patiently across the dappled water. Fafhrd watched with an odd foreboding, that he attributed to fatigue. "The wind blows," he said cryptically to the Mouser, "but it blows through me. The music, too, seems to pass through me."

"Music?" the Mouser repeated. "What music?"

Fafhrd continued to watch the skiff. Though the boatman worked his pole with practiced skill, he progressed but slowly over the darkening waves. "I can't explain it, my friend," he said without looking at the Mouser. "I feel . . ." he hesitated and hugged himself against a chill before finishing his thought. "Insubstantial."

A small sharp pain flashed suddenly through Fafhrd's rump. Giving a yelp, the Northerner jumped a foot in the air and clutched his backside.

The Mouser smiled wickedly as he held up thumb and forefinger and made a pinching motion. "So much for insubstantiality," he said. "Now come on."

The Mouser turned his back to the river and started away. Fafhrd followed, but before they rounded the corner of yet another warehouse, he glanced around abruptly and stopped.

The air became dead still, without a breath of wind. The guy wires and riggings of the moored ships hummed no more, but fell suddenly silent, as if struck dumb. Even the constant creaking of the wharves seemed to cease.

Fafhrd studied the river. Nowhere upon that gently swirling surface was there a sign of a skiff or boatman.

"Blood of Kos," Fafhrd muttered, taking long strides to catch up with the Mouser. "This city is getting to me."

Where Nun Street joined Cash Street, yet another temple stood. The four-storied black structure cast its shadow over a neighborhood composed mostly of small shops and the estates of wealthy merchants and ship-owners. Taller and more slender than most of the forbidden towers, and leaning at a riverward angle, it looked to Fafhrd like some stygian sword thrust by a giant hand into the earth. Narrow balconies beneath windows on either side even gave the impression of tines.

A fair number of citizens still ventured abroad in this part of town even as night drew close. Many still carried their shopping baskets as they drifted from door to door. Others, dressed in finery and accompanied by servants or personal guards, on foot or in palanquins, headed east on Cash Street toward Carter Street, bound for the Festival District or the Plaza of Dark Delights.

Fafhrd started toward the iron fence that surrounded the ancient tower, but the Mouser's hand closed firmly around his arm and steered him in a new direction.

"Pull up your hood," the Mouser whispered sharply, his dark eyes darting suspiciously from side to side.

Without seeming haste, Fafhrd covered his head and continued down the street past the temple. A fountain and public drinking well gurgled prettily at the center of the intersection of Nun and Cash Streets. Fafhrd allowed the Mouser to guide him there, and the two men dipped their hands in the water to drink.

"So, gray friend," Fafhrd said as he brought his cupped hands toward his mouth, "what spurred this sudden fondness for my elbow?"

"Glance toward the lace-maker's shop across the way," the Mouser said as he pretended to drink. "What do you see leaning in the doorway?"

Smacking his damp lips, Fafhrd wiped his hands on his trousers. "Why, nothing but two fellows in idle conversation," he answered, scrutinizing the pair. Under the cloaks they wore, however, he thought he detected the outlines of swords.

"Now, over by the white wall of that estate," the Mouser continued, dipping his hands for another drink. "Just down the road to your left."

Splashing a little water on his face, Fafhrd wiped at his eyes with one sleeve. As he did so, he gazed where his partner directed. "Another pair of fellows," he noted. "Also in idle conversation."

"Also cloaked and armed," the Mouser said. "Also shaven of face and trimmed of hair, like the pair by the shop. Four sturdy men without an ounce of merchants' fat around their bellies or on their bare cheeks. Their eyes sweep everywhere."

"Private security?" Fafhrd suggested. "Perhaps they are positioned to keep the neighborhood safe from crime."

The Mouser snorted. "Let's continue casually around the tower," he suggested. "For the moment, observe it without approaching it."

By the time they finished their reconnaissance, night had fully settled. "How many did you count?" Fafhrd asked as they drank once more from the fountain at the intersection of Nun and Cash.

"Twenty-two," the Mouser answered quietly, "lounging in various doorways and gateways, under trees, on rooftops."

From the doorway of the lace shop, a pair of stout men paused in their conversation and glanced their way. They were a different pair, but acting out the same conversation, striking the same nonchalant poses. Their eyes, though, gave them away, for they watched everything.

"The guard has changed," Fafhrd murmured.

"The question is," his companion said, "what are they guarding? My money is on the tower."

Together, they left the fountain and started eastward on Cash Street away from the forbidden temple. "Why this particular temple and not the others?” Fafrd wondered aloud. Then the obvious idea occurred to him. “Could they be seeking Malygris as well?”

The Mouser gave a low chuckle. “So many curious questions,” he said. “And if your archery skills are sufficient to put an arrow and a climbing line through one of those upper windows, perhaps after midnight we can find some answers.