“You must decree confiscation from the ensqualmated witches of all IOUN stones, on grounds of policy. Then we will work a time-stasis and send sandestins out to gather the stones.”
“All very well, but our comrades often conceal their treasures with ingenious care.”
“I must confess to a whimsical little recreation — a kind of intellectual game, as it were. Over the years I have ascertained the hiding-place of every IOUN stone current among the association. You keep yours, for instance, in the water reservoir of the convenience at the back of your work-room.”
“That, Rhialto, is an ignoble body of knowledge. Still, at this point, we cannot gag at trifles. I hereby confiscate all IOUN stones in the custody of our bewitched former comrades. Now, if you will impact the continuum with a spell, I will call in my sandestins Osherl, Ssisk and Walfing.”
“My creatures Topo and Bellume are also available for duty.”
The confiscation went with an almost excessive facility. Ildefonse declared: “We have struck an important blow. Our position is now clear; our challenge is bold and direct!”
Rhialto frowningly considered the stones. “We have struck a blow; we have issued a challenge: what now?”
Ildefonse blew out his cheeks. “The prudent course is to hide until the Murthe goes away.”
Rhialto gave a sour grunt. “Should she find us and pull us squeaking from our holes, all dignity is lost. Surely this is not the way of Calanctus.”
“Let us then discover the way of Calanctus,” said Ildefonse. “Bring out Poggiore’s Absolutes; he devotes an entire chapter to the Murthe. Fetch also The Decretals of Calanctus, and, if you have it, Calanctus: His Means and Modes.”
4
Dawn was still to come. The sky over Wilda Water showed a flush of plum, aquamarine and dark rose. Rhialto slammed shut the iron covers of the Decretals. “I find no help. Calanctus describes the persistent female genius, but he is not explicit in his remedies.”
Ildefonse, looking through The Doctrines of Calanctus, said: “I find here an interesting passage. Calanctus likens a woman to the Ciaeic Ocean which absorbs the long and full thrust of the Antipodal Current as it sweeps around Cape Spang, but only while the weather holds fair. If the wind shifts but a trifle, this apparently placid ocean hurls an abrupt flood ten or even twenty feet high back around the cape, engulfing all before it. When stasis is restored and the pressure relieved, the Ciaeic is as before, placidly accepting the current. Do you concur with this interpretation of the female geist?”
“Not on all counts,” said Rhialto. “At times Calanctus verges upon the hyperbolic. This might be regarded as a typical case, especially since he provides no program for holding off or even diverting the Ciaeic flood.”
“He seems to suggest that one does not strive, ordinarily, to control this surge but, rather, rides over it in a staunch ship of high freeboard.”
Rhialto shrugged. “Perhaps so. As always, I am impatient with obscure symbolism. The analogy assists us not at all.”
Ildefonse ruminated. “It suggests that rather than meeting the Murthe power against power, we must slide across and over the gush of her hoarded energy, until at last she has spent herself and we, like stout ships, float secure and dry.”
“Again, a pretty image, but limited. The Murthe displays a protean power.”
Ildefonse stroked his beard and looked pensively off into space. “Indeed, one inevitably starts to wonder whether this fervor, cleverness and durability might also govern her — or, so to speak, might tend to influence her conduct in, let us say, the realm of —”
“I understand the gist of your speculation,” said Rhialto. “It is most likely nuncupatory.”
Ildefonse gave his head a wistful shake. “Sometimes one’s thoughts go where they will.”
A golden insect darted out of the shadows, circled the lamp and flew back into the darkness. Rhialto instantly became alert. “Someone has entered Falu, and now waits in the parlour.” He went to the door and called out sharply: “Who is there? Speak, or dance the tarantella on feet of fire.”
“Hold hard your spell!” spoke a voice. “It is I, Lehuster!”
“In that case, come forward.”
Into the work-room came Lehuster, soiled and limping, his shoulder feathers bedraggled, in a state of obvious fatigue. He carried a sack which he gratefully dropped upon the leather-slung couch under the window.
Ildefonse surveyed him with frowning disfavor. “Well then, Lehuster, you are here at last! A dozen times during the night we might have used your counsel, but you were nowhere to be found. What, then, is your report?”
Rhialto handed Lehuster a tot of aquavit. “This will alleviate your fatigue; drink and then speak freely.”
Lehuster consumed the liquid at a gulp. “Aha! A tipple of rare quality! … Well then, I have little enough to tell you, though I have spent a most toilsome night, performing necessary tasks. All are ensqualmed, save only yourselves. The Murthe, however, believes that she controls the entire association.”
“What?” cried Rhialto. “Does she take us so lightly?”
“No great matter.” Lehuster held out the empty goblet. “If you please! A bird flies erratically on one wing … Further, the Murthe appropriated all IOUN stones to her personal use —”
“Not so!” said Ildefonse with a chuckle. “We cleverly took them first.”
“You seized a clutch of glass baubles. The Murthe took the true stones, including those owned by you and Rhialto, and left brummagem in their place.”
Rhialto ran to the basket where the presumptive IOUN stones reposed. He groaned. “The mischievous vixen has robbed us in cold blood!”
Lehuster gestured to the sack he had tossed upon the couch. “On this occasion, we have bested her. Yonder are the stones! I seized them while she bathed. I suggest that you send a sandestin to replace them with the false stones. If you hurry, there is still time; the Murthe dallies at her toilette. Meanwhile hide the true stones in some extra-dimensional cubby-hole, so that they may not be taken from you again.”
Rhialto summoned his sandestin Bellume and issued an appropriate instruction.
Ildefonse turned to Lehuster: “By what means did Calanctus confound this dire and frightening female?”
“Mystery still shrouds the occasion,” said Lehuster. “Calanctus apparently used an intense personal force and so kept Llorio at bay.”
“Hmmf. We must learn more of Calanctus. The chronicles make no mention of his death; he may still be extant, perhaps in the Land of Cutz!”
“Such questions also trouble the Murthe,” said Lehuster. “We may well be able to confuse her and induce her retreat.”
