Mirrorworld (37 page)

The crowd began to murmur to itself. A few more economically-minded people slipped away at the back.

“
Furthermore
,” Marcus said, striding back and forth between the crowd and Musk, whose mouth continued to hang open uselessly, “what’s so suspicious about a group of Viaggiatori? We’re certainly not
claiming
to be; we
are
Viaggiatori. And with that in mind, do you want to take on our awesome judo powers?” For emphasis, he flourished his scythe, trying very hard not to drop it.

People in the crowd were glancing at each other. Those who were at the front took a few more steps back.
Wow
, Marcus thought to himself,
this might actually work
.

“Finally,” he said aloud, “if anyone has any actual
proof
that they were cheated by my associate here, rather than just being less good at gambling than he is, then let’s have it, and we’ll take it up in a court like civilised people. Honestly, all ganging up and waving weapons about like that, it’s barbaric. I know we’re out in the north and the wild and that, but I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect a little more fellow-feeling from my fantastical parallel worlds. Put another way, if I do end up having to kill you, then I simply cannot properly enunciate how incredibly annoyed I’ll be about that.
Trust me
.” He held his scythe upright and leant against it wearily. “So what’s it to be, folks?”

More looks were exchanged, and the group that had gathered around the mob’s leader went into a huddle. “Well done,” Musk murmured from behind Marcus, “you may actually have defused the situation.” Marcus glanced back, and the man gave him a nod. Next to him, the Assassin was grinning.

“Okay,” the guardsman said, stepping forward again. “We’ve thought about it, and you do make some valid points. Can’t deny that.” Marcus relaxed slightly. “On the other hand,” the man continued, “well.. we’re all here now, ready to go and everything, and it seems a bit of a waste to
not
attack you. And well, hey, if some of us die, then all the more reward for the rest, right?”

Marcus’s heart sank. “Charge!” the guardsman yelled.

“Kendra!” Musk span, calling to her from where she was still humming to herself. As the mob spilled forwards between them and Musk, Marcus and the Assassin prepared to have all kinds of hell beaten out of them, she opened her eyes, clapped her hands, and the world went
whomph.

Marcus felt a strange sensation pass over him, and almost fell over as his knees gave way. He grabbed at the scythe for support as Musk fell against him and used him for support in turn. To their left, the Assassin steadied himself with his broadsword as would-be attackers collapsed all around him, rolling around on the floor and calling out, weapons falling from their hands as they stumbled.

“Assassin!” Musk yelled, staggering upright “with me! We’re opening that gate! Marcus, get back to the coach, get us moving!”

Marcus turned and obeyed, carefully walking back towards their vehicle amongst bodies that seemed to have lost control over their lower halves. Kendra, who had climbed up onto the roof, reached down a hand and helped swing him up, before collapsing next to him with a sigh.

“What the hell just happened?” he asked her, as Lucin steadied the horses and turned towards the gate, which was creaking open.

“My Talent,” Kendra said sleepily. “Told you it’d be better for you to see it in use..”

“You.. you.. I’m not even sure what you did. Help me out here.”

“Made their legs go wibbly,” she said, closing her eyes. “Temporary thingy.”

“Your Talent is to make people
go weak at the knees
?”

“Yaha,” she said with a giggle. “I toned it down a bit for you guys, but it’s hard to control. Pretty big blast wave. Woo I’m tired.” She began to snore faintly.

Marcus’s mental image of the entire town writhing around on the floor like demented jumping beans was dispelled by Lucin, who called up at that moment to say “you know, if we want to go through that gate, I’m going to have to drive over a lot of people. They weren’t very considerate in their falling over, y’see. So do I go or what?”

“Er,” Marcus said, but he was saved from making a decision, as at that moment they felt the coach suddenly catch the air and lift off, much to the continued bemusement of their already terrified horses. As their newly levitating ride coasted gently over the thrashing populace, Marcus leant over the side, and found Fervesce, conscious, sitting by the window with one arm hanging out, enjoying the breeze. The old man gave him a wave, and then spun his hand in a gesture that was equal parts ‘carry on old chap’ ‘chop chop’ and ‘as you were’. “I think we’re good,” Marcus informed Lucin.

They floated over to the gates, which Musk and the Assassin had managed to open enough for them to slip through. On the other side, the many refugees were in just as bad a state as the townspeople, vainly attempting to bring their legs under control. The Assassin jumped down from above, his sword still in hand, and snatched the reins from Lucin, but they stayed there a moment longer as the gate creaked shut behind them, and Musk leapt down to join them.

“What?” he said, meeting Marcus’s curious gaze as Fervesce carefully lowered them to the ground. “We don’t mean them any harm, and if we left the gate open then the refugees might get in unchecked and mess everything up for them. Best to leave things as we found them, right?”

“Yes, of course,” Marcus said, leaning back and enjoying the view of several hundred people failing to get up. “Exactly as we found them.”

That evening, well into the Northlands, and with civilisation now but the faintest hint of a glow on the horizon behind them, it began to snow. They rolled the coach away from the bumpy, battered track that their road had now become, and hid in the sheltered jaws of a rocky overhang, protected from the elements while they built their camp. Marcus stood off to the side as the Assassin built a fire, watching the flakes fall and enjoying the dampening effect of the soft-settling blanket as it soothed away all the world’s sounds, leaving just the quiet bustle of the camp and the louder notes of Kendra bouncing around, making snow angels and generally enjoying herself, as the last sounds of the land. Overall, it was nice, and, despite the wintery atmosphere, not too cold: the temperature had been steadily dropping over the course of their journey, but for now, it remained bearable.

“It won’t for long,” Musk warned, however. The man had been overtaken by a deep gloom since leaving Tiski, dissatisfied as he was with the way things had turned out there. He had cheered up slightly when Marcus had informed him that they’d found out exactly where to find Keithus, meaning that they had in fact accomplished everything they’d set out to do in the town, but given the nature of what lay ahead, he hadn’t cheered up that much.

“It’s a good thing, though,” he mused, considering the map of the Northlands that he had produced when Marcus had shared this information with him. “The Aglaecas Mountains run across the whole northern border of the Northlands, and just continue onwards for as long as anyone has ever dared explore, but there’s only one Aglaecas Pass,
here
, and look – it’s not that far away, almost directly north of us. If we keep our pace up, we could be there in another two days. Maybe three.”

“If this snow keeps up, we won’t be going anywhere,” the Assassin put in, from where he sat wrapped in a blanket nearby. He leaned back to dodge a snowball that came flying in from Kendra’s general direction, scooped up a handful and returned fire with deadly accuracy.

Fervesce, awakening from the light doze he had settled back into after they’d escaped Tiski, informed them with a yawn that he might be able to help out there. He was willing to lift the coach slightly above ground level, in order to ease travelling, although it would mean less flying by night. Musk shook his head, telling the old man not to exert himself, as their late travelling was going to be even more important if they couldn’t cover as much ground during the day. Marcus just sat and thought about what lay ahead; two days, maybe three, and they would be at the resolution of their quest. What would it mean for him? What should he expect? No-one seemed to have any idea. The prevailing atmosphere that seemed to be settling over the group was one of apprehension; they’d known all along that they were basically flying blind into a highly dangerous situation, but now that it was almost upon them, this knowledge had taken on a certain tangible weight that they’d been able to ignore before. The only people who appeared outwardly unaffected were Kendra and the Assassin, insofar as his face ever betrayed any emotion beyond wry amusement.

“So this is it?” Lucin asked suddenly, swinging the coach door right through Marcus’s reverie and stepping out. “We’re not going to talk about what those people back in the town said?”

“What about what they said?” Musk asked absently, poking at the fire with a stick.

“They said they’d been told to look out for a group of suspicious Viaggiatori,” Lucin said. “Now maybe
you’re
all content to let that go, but I at least find it slightly bloody concerning. Where did they get that information? Who told them there would be Viaggiatori coming?”

“Fairly obvious, little man,” the Assassin said, lighting a cigarette. Marcus spared him a longing glance, having smoked the last of his several days ago. “The wizard knows that we are coming, and put the word out to try and stop us. It’s not much of a stretch that he would have spies.”

“Yes, that’s what
I
thought,” Lucin snapped. “And we’re not going to discuss that?”

“There’s nothing to discuss, Lucin,” Musk said quietly, “it doesn’t make a difference if he knows we’re coming or not. We have a job to do regardless. On that subject.. can you find us some eyes in the Aglaecas Pass, that we might see what shape of trap we may be walking into?”

The short man glared at Musk, but closed his eyes and concentrated. “No,” he said, after a moment. “I can’t look that far.”

“Well, keep trying,” Musk said, staring into the flames distantly.

“Pah.” Lucin stared around a moment longer. “This weather is disgusting. Dibs on the coach.” He turned to climb back in, then paused. “By the way, we now have approximately three hundred Portruss dollars, in varying currencies. Took some counting.”

“Thank you, Lucin,” Musk murmured, but the short man appeared not to hear, climbing back into the coach and slamming the door behind him.

“What’s up with
him
?” the Assassin asked, with his customary raised eyebrow.

“Probably the same thing that’s up with all of us,” Musk said. “Unfortunately he’s never been a particularly jolly person at the best of times.”

“Nothing’s weighing on my mind, muscle man. What’s eating you?”

“Really?” Musk asked. “You’re not even slightly apprehensive about what’s coming up?”

“Nah. See, the difference between us is that I’ve done this before. Seven times I’ve been hired to kill a wizard, and seven times I’ve killed a wizard, without so much as a scratch. They’re all the same. They think that because they can do things most people can’t dream of, they’re invincible. So much ego, and by all accounts, this one’s got an ego so big that if you throw things at him they orbit.”

“Don’t get complacent, Assassin,” Musk warned. “Keithus is
very
dangerous.”

“Maybe to you, chap. But I’m not worried. And you needn’t worry about me. Spend your time worrying about yourself, because I’m not coming to your rescue if you get in trouble.”

It was at this point that the conversation rather broke down. The Assassin stubbed out his cigarette and appeared to roll over and fall asleep, whilst Musk sat and glared at the fire, which flickered self-consciously. The only other noise came from across the flames, where Kendra was putting the finishing touches to a rather impressive snowman. She even gave it her hat, before Fervesce rose from where he’d been sitting, eyes closed and likely asleep, and mentioned that it wouldn’t be going with them when he started moving, at which point she promptly snatched it back.

“Put the fire out too,” the old man added as he climbed to his customary position atop the coach. “I can bring some of the warm air with us, but not that.”

Marcus chucked some snow over it until the flames had been extinguished, casting the group into darkness, and then decided that since no-one else seemed to want to talk much, he may as well attempt to get some sleep for once.

In the end, it took four days for them to reach the foot of the Aglaecas. For their part, the mountains spent that time lurking on the horizon, growing steadily more apparent as the terrain grew steeper, the snow fell heavier and the temperature began to drop; all of these things impeded their progress in daylight, but failed to faze Fervesce as he quietly guided them through the darkness. For himself, Marcus discovered a new appreciation for the huge amount of camping apparel the group had stuffed into the coach. They’d even discovered, to their delight, a portable heater hidden amongst the tents that they’d begun to erect each night as a buffer against the wind. No amount of magic fire and blankets could truly dispel the cold of the mountain air, however, and after the third night, which had been the first truly freezing one, Marcus decided that he was never sleeping outdoors ever again.

The mood of the group remained much the same as they travelled. Marcus’s night-time conversations with Fervesce had come to an end, as the old man was now doing most of the work regarding their travelling, moving them faster by night to make up for the time they lost during the daylight hours. The strain was beginning to show, as the old man was looking haggard and now barely moved even when awake, preferring to lie back and concentrate whilst he worked.

Kendra has similarly withdrawn somewhat; on the first day after Tiski, she’d delighted in contemplating several clever plots that would somehow extract Marcus from his precarious position on Death’s hit list, but had failed to come up with anything that she judged worth sharing. Seemingly discouraged, she had instead produced a pile of books from somewhere and was steadily devouring them, whilst assuring Marcus that she hadn’t given up. Marcus was thus left without anyone he could have a non-gloomy conversation with, so he passed his time brooding and staring at the scenery.