Hero of Dreams - By Brian Lumley Page 0,11

them had ever returned! Borak knew why this was so; indeed, he knew much more than the good wizard Nyrass suspected.

For unbeknown to Nyrass, Borak had found a way to contact the wizard-priest of the mountains, discovering him to be a cousin of Nyrass, one Thinistor Udd. Udd in turn had engaged Borak's services, offering him two thousand tonds for each man he could send him; but he must never send more than four at any one time. Borak did not question the sinister wizard's requirements; his greed put aside all need for questions and there was no such thing as "ethics" in his business. Since Nyrass also paid Borak's "expenses," and since no one ever returned from his fool's errand to claim the reward, the Ossaran was in an enviable position-for a man without scruples. And if ever some fool should win Thinistor Udd's wand: well, he could always be disposed of, and then Borak would lay claim to the aforementioned riches promised him by the wizard Nyrass.

Thus was Ebraim Borak a web for the spider Thinistor Udd, and the poor fools who fell in with his plans mere flies for that Wizard's larder. And now, here, if he gauged his men aright, benevolent fates had sent him two more adventurous souls whose paths he could doubtless turn to the north. A few pieces of gold and a promise or two ... there were those in certain quarters of Theelys would gut their grandmothers for a half-tond. Such men were not, however, suited to the Ossaran's needs. These wanderers from the waking world, on the other hand ...

"That man," Eldin softly growled, almost imperceptibly nodding in the direction of a staggering, drunken Kledan slaver whose brawny black arms were banded with gold, "ought not to go home alone. Why, in his condition and with the mist so thick outside, almost anything might befall him on his way back to the black quarter. Eh?" He took his eyes from the lurching, ale-slopping KJedan, indelicately squirted a burst of wine into his mouth, and laughingly slapped his younger companion on the back, as if he had just told some remarkably good joke.

David Hero grinned back at his friend, shook a long yellow lock of hair out of wide blue eyes, and answered: "Aye, there are many dark alleys between him and his bed. Some high-spirited lad might easily bump into him in the dark and inadvertently knock him off his feet. It would be the ruin of those baggy silk pants ..."

The Kledan swayed wildly and half fell, then somehow managed to straighten up. He headed unevenly for the exit, eyes glazed, arms adangle, pushing smaller men out of his way as he went. When his head struck against an especially low beam he reeled and cursed aloud in guttural jungle-born accents, finally teetering through a hanging curtain of beads into the narrow passage that led out onto the Street of Rats.

Eldin was halfway to his feet when a well-manicured but firm hand fell upon his shoulder, pushing him back. Unseen in the momentary diversion caused by the Kledan's ungainly exit, Ebraim Borak had made his way over to the dreamers. Now he loomed over them, too tall for a man born of the dreamlands but proud-featured as the race which had first adopted him.

"Easy, my friend," Borak murmured, smiling from beneath the hood of his rich red robe. 'There are easier ways to make a living, I assure you-and anyway, the foggy air will quickly sober him up. You'd not get away with it, for they'd notice you leaving hot on his trail. The jails of the city are full of would-be pickpockets, sharpers and cutthroats." He seated himself easily between the dreamers and clapped his hands, ordering a skin of the tavern's finest wine.

"We wouldn't have cut his throat," Hero protested in lowered tones. "Merely tapped him on the head, that's all."

"Aye," Eldin agreed, "and in the morning he'd surely thank us for a good night's sleep-and anyway, those golden bangles of his must weigh a ton. They're like to break the poor fellow's arms!"

"Then you admit you were up to no good?"

"Little point in denying it," answered Eldin, stifling a painful cough, "since you've obviously traveled that road yourself. And would you tell on us?"

"Not I," answered the Ossaran, holding up his hands in denial. "Indeed, and as you correctly deduce, if times were harder-and they often have been-I might myself entertain just such wild designs. No, I'm