Swords and Ice Magic - By Fritz Leiber Page 0,46
grasp and can be weighed in scales. Money and fish. It's one way to go. But Cif and I have gone another ― where phantoms throng, to learn to pick the useful and trustworthy ones from the flibbertigibbets and flimflammers ― which is well for Rime Isle. For these two gods we've found ― ”
“Two gods?” Fafhrd questioned, raising his eyebrows. “Cif found one too? Or is another in the bower?”
“It's a long story,” she said impatiently. “Much too long to tell now, when dire events press upon us thick and fast. We must be practical. Cold Harbor's in dismal peril and ―”
“Again your pardon, Lady Afreyt,” Fafhrd broke in, raising his voice a little. “But your mention of practicality reminds me of another matter upon which you and Cif appear to differ most sharply with your fellow councilmen. They know of no Mingol invasion, they say, and certainly nothing of you and Cif hiring us to help repel it ― and you've asked us in your notes to keep that secret. Now, I've brought you the twelve berserkers you wanted ― ”
“I know, I know,” she said sharply, “and I'm pleased. But you were paid for that ― and shall get further pay in Rime Isle gold as services are rendered. As for the council, the wizardries of Khahkht have lulled their suspicions ― I doubt not that today's fish-run is his work, tempting their cupidity.”
“And my comrade and I have suffered from his wizardries too, I trow,” Fafhrd said. “Nevertheless, you told us at the Silver Eel in Lankhmar that you spoke with the voice of Rime Isle, and now it appears that you speak only for Cif and yourself in a council of ― what is it, twelve?”
“Did you expect your task to be all easy sailing?” she flared at him. “Art unacquainted with set-backs and adverse gales in quests? Moreover, we do speak with the voice of Rime Isle, for Cif and I are the only councilpersons who have the old glory of Rime Isle at heart ― and we are both full council members, I assure you, only daughters inheriting house, farms and council membership from fathers after (in Cif's case) sons died. We played together as children in these hills, she and I, reviving Rime Isle's greatness in our games. Or sometimes we'd be pirate queens and rape the Isle. But chiefly we'd imagine ourselves seizing power in the council, forcibly putting down all the other members.”
“So much violence in little girls?” Fafhrd couldn't help putting in. “I think of little girls as gathering flowers and weaving garlands whilst fancying themselves little wives and mothers ― ”
“ ― and put them all to the sword and cut their wives' throats!” Afreyt finished. “Oh, we gathered flowers too, sometimes.”
Fafhrd chuckled, then his voice grew grave. “And so you've inherited full council membership. Groniger always mentions you with respect, though I think he has suspicions of something between us ― and now you've somehow discovered a stray old god or two whom you think you can trust not to betray you, or delude you with senile ravings, and he's told you of a great two-pronged Mingol invasion of Rime Isle preparatory to world conquest, and on the strength of that you went to Lankhmar and hired the Mouser and me to be your mercenary captains, using your own fortunes for the purpose, I fancy ― ”
“Cif is the council treasurer,” she assured him with a meaningful crook of her lips. “She's very good at figures and accounts ― as I am with the pen and words, the council's secretary.”
“And yet you trust this god,” Fafhrd pressed on, “this old god who loves gallows and seems to draw strength from them. Myself, I'm very suspicious of all old men and gods. In my experience they're full of lechery and avarice ― and have a long lifetime's experience of evil to draw on in their twisty machinations.”
“Agreed,” Afreyt said. “But when all's said and done, a god's a god. Whatever nasty itches his old heart may have, whatever wicked thoughts of death and doom, he must first be true to his god's nature: which is, to hear what we say and hold us to it, to speak truth to man about what's going on in distant places, and to prophecy honestly ― though he may try to trick us with words if we don't listen to him very carefully.”
“That does agree with my experience of the breed,” Fafhrd