Laumer, Keith The World Shuffler

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going "
"Why, I wouldn't hear of it! A body could catch his death on a night like this "
"I'm not sure you understand," Lafayette protested, sidling toward the door. "I'm a
total stranger. I just wandered in here, and "
"But surely you're the same charming young man who rented the spare bedroom?" The
old lady peered nearsightedly at him.
Lafayette shook his head. "Afraid not. I came here looking for the Lady Andragorre
"
"Why, you're a friend of my niece! How delightful! Why didn't you tell me! Now you
really must give up this silly idea of going back out in that icy wind. Oh, by the way, ah,
where is dear Andi? I had a foolish notion you might be bringing her along?"
"You're Daph I mean Lady Andragorre's aunt?"
"Why, yes, didn't you know? But you haven't said where she is . . ."
Lafayette was looking around the room. It was clean and comfortable enough, but
decidedly on the primitive side. "I got the impression the Lady Andragorre is very well
off," he said. "Is this the best she can do for you?"
"Why, foolish boy, I adore living here among the birds and flowers. So quaint and
picturesque."
"Who chops the wood?"
"Why, ah, I have a man who comes in on Tuesdays. But you were saying about Lady
Andragorre . . . ?"
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"I wasn't saying. But I don't know where she is; I came alone. Well, thanks for the
goodies "
"You're not leaving," the old lady said sharply. She smiled. "I won't think of it."
Lafayette pulled on his cloak, went to the door. "I'm afraid I have to decline your
hospitality " He broke off at a sudden sound, turned in time to see the old lady behind
him, her hand swinging down edge-on in a murderous chop at his temple. He ducked,
took the blow on a forearm, yelled at the pain, countered a second vicious swing, aimed a
stiff-fingered punch at his hostess's ribs, took a jab to the solar plexus, and fell backward
over the rocker.
"Double-crosser!" the old lady yelled. "Selling out to that long-nosed Rodolpho, after
all I've promised to do for you! Of all the cast-iron stitch-welded gall, to come waltzing
in here pretending you never saw me before!" Lafayette rolled aside as the old lady
bounded across the chair, barely fending her off with a kick to the short ribs as he
scrambled to his feet.
"Where is she, curse you? Oh, I should have left you tending swine back in that bog I
picked you out of "
Abruptly the old girl halted in mid-swing, cupped an ear. Faintly, O'Leary heard the
thud of approaching hooves.
"Blast!" The old woman bounded to the door, snatched a cloak from the peg, whirled
it about herself.
"I'll get you for this, Lorenzo!" she keened in a voice that had dropped from a wheezy
soprano to a ragged tenor. "Just you wait, my boy! I'll extract a vengeance from you that
will make you curse the day you ever saw the Glass Tree!" She yanked the door open and
was gone into the night.
Belatedly, O'Leary sprang after her. Ten feet from the door, she stood fiddling with
her buttons. As O'Leary leaped, she emitted a loud, buzzing hum, bounded into the air,
and shot away toward the forest, rapidly gaining altitude, her cloak streaming behind her.
"Hey," Lafayette called weakly. Suddenly he was aware of the rising thunder of
hooves. He dashed back inside, across the room, out the back door, and keeping the
house between himself and the arriving cavalry, he sprinted for the shelter of the woods.
Dawn came, gray and blustery, hardly lessening the darkness. Lafayette sat in deep
gloom under a tree big enough to cut a tunnel through, shivering. His head ached; his
stomach had a slow fire in it; his eyeballs felt as if they had been taken out, rolled in corn
meal, and Southern-fried. The taste in his mouth resembled pickled onions spoiled
ones. In the branches overhead, a bird squawked mournfully.
"This is it," Lafayette muttered, "the low point of my career. I'm sick, freezing,
starving, hung-over, and dyspeptic. I've lost my horse, Lady Andragorre's trail
everything. I don't know where I'm going, or what to do when I get there.
Also, I'm hallucinating. Flying old ladies, ha! I probably imagined the whole business
about the cottage. A dying delirium, maybe. Maybe I was actually shot by those bum-
bling incompetents in the yellow coats. Maybe I'm dead!"
He felt himself over, failed to find any bullet holes.
"But this is ridiculous. If I were dead, I wouldn't have a headache." He hitched up his
sword belt, tottered a few feet to a small stream, knelt, and sluiced ice water over his
face, scrubbed at it with the edge of his cloak, drank a few swallows.
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"O.K.," he told himself sternly. "No use standing around talking to myself. This is a
time for action.
"Swell," he replied. "What action?
"I could start walking," he suggested. "It's only about twenty miles back to Port
Miasma.
"Rodolpho isn't likely to be overjoyed to see me coming back empty-handed," he
countered. "But I'll probably have a chance to explain my reasons to Groanwelt.
Anyway, I don't know which direction it is." Lafayette peered upward through the canopy
of high foliage. Not even a faint glow against the visible patches of gray sky indicated the
position of the sun.
"Besides which, I can't run off and leave the Lady Andragorre to her fate.
"All right, I'm convinced: I press on. Which way is on?"
He turned around three times, with his eyes shut, stopped, and pointed.
"That way.
"You know," O'Leary confided in himself as he started off in the indicated direction,
"this talking to myself isn't such a bad idea. It opens up whole new vistas.
"And it certainly cuts down on the shilly-shally factor.
"Of course, it is a sign of insanity.
"Poof what's a little touch of schizophrenia, among all my other ailments?" [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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