53

I woke up very late, and what dragged me from dreamland was Saucerhead Tharpe and the grolls stomping in. I popped up. I’d been left alone with the women and Vasco. I checked myself for knife wounds.

“Where’re Morley and Dojango? What have you guys been up to?”

“Around somewhere,” Saucerhead said in his slow way. “I think Morley said something about getting something decent to eat. We took the coffins and most of our stuff down to the ship so we’d be ready to go tomorrow morning.”

I grumbled a bit and went for a breakfast of my own. I didn’t worry much until afternoon rolled around and still there was no sign of Morley or Dojango. I started fisheying Saucerhead, who had something on his conscience and was doing a poor job of hiding it. Then I found the bodies.

Actually, they weren’t bodies. They were Kayean and Valentine, bundled up and concealed under some odds and ends and junk and straw left from when the place had been a stable. Then I knew what Morley had done.

Saucerhead looked relieved. He told me, “He said just sit tight and pretend they’re around somewhere if anybody asks.”

Two minutes later I noticed that my last paper spell fold was missing. I couldn’t guess what Morley planned to do with it since there was no way he could know what would happen when he opened it. I tried fifty lines of reasoning but fixed on none of them. There was no predicting a darkelfin breed like Morley.

When afternoon gave way to evening I started prowling. The grolls got restless, too, and might have gone off if they hadn’t the strictest of orders. My game of tease with Tinnie lost its savor. Rose got nervous because everyone else was, though she didn’t know what was going on. Only Saucerhead was able to relax. I have to fight the temptation to say that it was because he wasn’t smart enough.

Nothing happened until just before midnight, when one of Zeck Zack’s “friends” came to chide us for not having delivered. I told him, “We’re right here waiting whenever he wants a piece of us. Tell him he’d better bring a box lunch because it’s going to take awhile to get the job done.”

The messenger departed a little flustered.

I wondered how the centaur’s nerves were doing, out in the graveyard or wherever he was planning to take us when we tried sneaking up on him. I was willing to bet he’d planned for every contingency but us sitting tight. I hoped Morley hadn’t walked into any of his plans.

Two hours later the handful of people left in the common room began buzzing. I went to find out why. Rumors were flying about a large fire out in the Narrows Hills. One of the mansions there.

Morley’s opening move, I presumed.

There was nothing more for another three hours, then Dojango stumbled in, wounded, pale, barking in grollish. He flopped down as Doris and Marsha stamped out.

“Well?” I demanded.

“They’re going to pick up the coffins.”

I looked him over. Tinnie helped. She had a fair touch with wounds.

“That all you have to tell me?”

“Morley sent me back ’cause I got hurt, actually. He’s still out there working them. If that critter gets out of this alive, it sure won’t be on the cheap.” And that was all he would say.

Awhile later the grolls came tramping back in with the coffins. The landlord was right behind them raising hell about our bunch stomping back and forth through the common room during quiet hours. “I’m never leaving TunFaire again,” I promised myself once more, and snarled. “Quit your bitching. You’ve made a bundle because of us, playing all the sides, and we’ll be out of your hair in an hour anyway. Do us all a favor and make yourself disappear.”

I looked so nasty he had no trouble getting the hint.

We refilled and sealed the coffins and gathered what remained of our possessions. For Tinnie and Rose and Vasco and Saucerhead Tharpe that meant no work at all. Their adventures had left them with nothing but the clothing on their backs. I wondered if I ought to put a burr under Dojango’s saddle, recalling how meticulously he had gone over the ruins of their last encampment, salvaging coins and jewelry the night people had discarded. I decided the wiser course was to keep everyone dependent upon my charity.

We marched out to the sighs of the landlord and his crew.

We reached and boarded our ship without suffering misadventure.

Time passed. The tide turned. The sailors prepared to cast off. And still there was no sign of Morley.

“Where the hell is he, Dojango?”

“He said don’t worry. He said go ahead. He said don’t hold up anything on his account.” Dojango said it, but he didn’t feel it. He wanted to do something.

I didn’t believe it. Morley Dotes wouldn’t sacrifice himself for anyone.

“Here he comes,” Saucerhead said. The deck crew was paying out the last lines, fore and aft.

He was coming for sure, in that sort of wild sprint only elfin can manage. Zeck Zack was thirty yards behind and gaining fast.

“Perfect,” Dojango whispered.

Perfect, like hell. Morley wasn’t going to make it without help. I looked around for a weapon and couldn’t find anything.

“Now!” Dojango said. And, “Actually!”

The striped-sail woman and her crew materialized from amid the freight on the pier. They all carried ready crossbows. Morley whipped past. Zeck Zack skidded to a halt, stood there shuddering. Morley leaped from the pier to the ship, teeth glistening in a grin.

“Is this the one?” the woman called.

“The very one, darling,” Morley gasped.

The gang closed in on the centaur.

“You damned fool!” I yelled at Morley. “You could have been killed.”

“But, if you’ll notice, I wasn’t.”