The old cutter made a peremptory sign. “Return to work! Your gossip is delaying this important caravan!” And to Varmous: “Proceed by Tuner’s Gap. A week and a day should bring you into Kaspara Vitatus.”
Varmous returned to the carriage. The caravan moved forward. After a mile a side-road turned off toward Tuner’s Gap, and Varmous reluctantly departed the river-road.
The side-road wound back and forth up over the hills to Tuner’s Gap, then turned out across a flat plain.
The time was now almost sunset. Varmous elected to halt for the night where a stream issued from a copse of black deodars. He arranged the wagons and carriages with care, and set out a guard-fence of metal strands which, when activated, would discharge streamers of purple lightning toward hostile intruders, thus securing the caravan against night-wandering hoons, erbs and grues.
Once again a great fire was built, with wood broken from the deodars. The ‘premier’ passengers partook of three preliminary courses served by Porraig aboard the Avventura, then joined the ‘ordinaries’ for bread, stew and sour greens around the fire.
Varmous served wine, but with a hand less lavish than on the previous evening.
After supper Varmous addressed the group. “As everyone knows, we have made a detour, which should cause us neither inconvenience nor, so I trust, delay. However, we now travel the Ildish Waste, a land which is strange to me. I feel compelled to take special safeguards. You will notice the guard-fence, which is intended to deter intruders.”
Ivanello, lounging to the side, could not restrain a facetious remark: “What if intruders leap the fence?”
Varmous paid him no heed. “The fence is dangerous! Do not approach it. Doctor Lalanke, you must instruct your wards as best you can of this danger.”
“I will do so.”
“The Ildish Waste is a wild territory. We may encounter nomads down from the Karst or even the Great Erm itself. These folk, either men or half-men, are unpredictable. Therefore I am setting up a system of vigilant look-outs. Cugel, who rides the Avventura and makes his headquarters at the bow, shall be our chief look-out. He is keen, sharp-eyed and suspicious; also he has nothing better to do. I will watch from my place on the forward carriage, and Slavoy, who rides the last wagon, shall be the rear-guard. But it is Cugel, with his commanding view across the landscape, to whom we shall look for protection. That is all I wish to say. Let the festivities proceed.”
Clissum cleared his throat and stepped forward, but before he could recite so much as a syllable, Ivanello took up his lute and, banging lustily at the strings, sang a rather vulgar ballad. Clissum stood with a pained smile frozen on his face, then turned away and resumed his seat.
A wind blew down from the north, causing the flames to leap and the smoke to billow. Ivanello cried out a light-hearted curse. He put down his lute and began to toy with the mimes, whom, as before, he had hypnotized with his music. Tonight he became bolder in his caresses, and encountered no protest so long as he evenly shared his attentions.
Cugel watched with disapproval. He muttered to Doctor Lalanke: “Ivanello is persuading your wards to laxity.”
“That may well be his intent,” agreed Doctor Lalanke.
“And you are not concerned?”
“Not in the least.”
Clissum once again came forward, and holding high a scroll of manuscript, looked smilingly around the group.
Ivanello, leaning back into the arms of Sush, with Rlys pressed against him on one side and Skasja on the other, bent his head over his lute and drew forth a series of plangent chords.
Clissum seemed on the verge of calling out a quizzical complaint when the wind rolled a cloud of smoke into his face and he retreated coughing. Ivanello, head bent so that his chestnut curls glinted in the firelight, smiled and played glissandos on his lute.
Ermaulde indignantly marched around the fire, to stand looking down at Ivanello. In a brittle voice she said: “Clissum is about to chant one of his odes. I suggest that you put aside your lute and listen.”
“I will do so with pleasure,” said Ivanello.
Ermaulde turned and marched back the way she had come. The three mimes jumped to their feet and strutted behind her, cheeks puffed out, elbows outspread, bellies thrust forward and knees jerking high. Ermaulde, becoming aware of the activity, turned, and the mimes capered away, to dance for five seconds with furious energy, like maenads, before they once again flung themselves down beside Ivanello.
Ermaulde, smiling a fixed smile, went off to converse with Clissum, and both sent scathing glances toward Ivanello, who, putting aside his lute, now gave free rein to his fondling of the mimes. Far from resenting his touch, they pressed ever more closely upon him. Ivanello bent his head and kissed Rlys full on the mouth; instantly both Sush and Skasja thrust forward their faces for like treatment.
Cugel gave a croak of disgust. “The man is insufferable!”
Doctor Lalanke shook his head. “Candidly, I am surprised by their complaisance. They have never allowed me to touch them. Ah well, I see that Varmous has become restless; the evening draws to a close.”
Varmous, who had risen to his feet, stood listening to the sounds of night. He went to inspect the guard fence, then addressed the travellers. “Do not become absent-minded! Do not walk in your sleep! Make no rendezvous in the forest! I am now going to my bed and I suggest the same for all of you, since tomorrow we travel long and far across the Ildish Waste.”
Clissum would not be denied. Summoning all his dignity, he stepped forward. “I have heard several requests for another of my pieces, to which I shall now respond.”
Ermaulde clapped her hands, but many of the others had gone off to their beds.
Clissum pursed his mouth against vexation. “I will now recite my Thirteenth Ode, subtitled: Gaunt Are the Towers of My Mind.” He arranged himself in a suitable posture, but the wind came in a great gust, causing the fire to wallow and flare. Clouds of smoke roiled around the area and those still present hurried away. Clissum threw his hands high in despair and retired from the scene.
Cugel spent a restless night. Several times he heard a distant cry expressing dejection, and once he heard a chuckling hooting conversation from the direction of the forest.
Varmous aroused the caravan at an early hour, while the pre-dawn sky still glowed purple. Porraig the steward served a breakfast of tea, scones and a savory mince of clams, barley, kangol and pennywort. As usual, Nissifer failed to make an appearance and this morning Ivanello was missing as well.
Porraig called down to Varmous, suggesting that he send Ivanello aboard for his breakfast, but a survey of the camp yielded nothing. Ivanello’s possessions occupied their ordinary places; nothing seemed to be missing except Ivanello himself.
Varmous, sitting at a table, made a ponderous investigation, but no one could supply any information whatever. Varmous examined the ground near the guard fence, but discovered no signs of disturbance. He finally made an announcement. “Ivanello for all practical purposes has vanished into thin air. I discover no hint of foul play; still I cannot believe that he disappeared voluntarily. The only explanation would seem to be baneful magic. In truth, I am at a loss for any better explanation. Should anyone entertain theories, or even suspicions, please communicate them to me. Meanwhile, there is no point remaining here. We must keep to our schedule, and the caravan will now get under way. Drivers, bring up your farlocks! Cugel, to your post at the bow!”
The caravan moved out upon Ildish Waste, and the fate of Ivanello remained obscure.
The road, now little more than a track, led north to a fork; here the caravan veered eastward and proceeded beside the hills which rolled away as far as the eye could reach. The landscape was bleak and dry, supporting only a few stunted gong-trees, an occasional tumble of cactus, an isolated dendron, black or purple or red.
Halfway through the morning Varmous called up to the ship: “Cugel, are you keeping a sharp watch?”
Cugel looked down over the gunwale. “I could watch with more purpose if I knew what I was watching for.”
