Cugel carefully lifted the object, which was brittle with the age of a million years, and returned to the ledge. The vortex, at a command from Pharesm, conveyed Cugel back to the ground.

Dreading the wrath of Pharesm, Cugel tendered the withered talisman.

Pharesm took it, held it between thumb and forefinger. “This was all?”

“There was nothing more.”

Pharesm let the object fall. It struck and instantly became dust. Pharesm looked at Cugel, took a deep breath, then turned with a gesture of unspeakable frustration and marched back to his divinatory.

Cugel gratefully moved off down the trail, past the workmen standing in an anxious group waiting for orders. They eyed Cugel sullenly and a two-ell man hurled a rock. Cugel shrugged and continued south along the trail. Presently he passed the site of the village, now a waste overgrown with gnarled old trees. The pond had disappeared and the ground was hard and dry. In the valley below were ruins, but none of these marked the sites of the ancient cities Impergos, Tharuwe and Rhaverjand, now gone beyond memory.

Cugel walked south. Behind him the cliffs merged with haze and presently were lost to view.

Chapter V

The Pilgrims

1

At the Inn

For the better part of a day Cugel had traveled a dreary waste where nothing grew but salt-grass; then, only a few minutes before sunset, he arrived at the bank of a broad slow river, beside which ran a road. A half-mile to his right stood a tall structure of timber and dark brown stucco, evidently an inn. The sight gave Cugel vast satisfaction, for he had eaten nothing the whole of the day, and had spent the previous night in a tree. Ten minutes later he pushed open the heavy iron-bound door, and entered the inn.

He stood in a vestibule. To either side were diamond-paned casements, burnt lavender with age, where the setting sun scattered a thousand refractions. From the common room came the cheerful hum of voices, the clank of pottery and glass, the smell of ancient wood, waxed tile, leather and simmering cauldrons. Cugel stepped forward to find a score of men gathered about the fire, drinking wine and exchanging the large talk of travelers.

The landlord stood behind a counter: a stocky man hardly as tall as Cugel’s shoulder, with a high-domed bald head, a black beard hanging a foot below his chin. His eyes were protuberant and heavy-lidded; his expression was as placid and calm as the flow of the river. At Cugel’s request for accommodation he dubiously pulled at his nose. “Already I am over-extended, with pilgrims upon the route to Erze Damath. Those you see upon the benches are not even half of all I must lodge this night. I will put down a pallet in the hall, if such will content you; I can do no more.”

Cugel gave a sigh of fretful dissatisfaction. “This fails to meet my expectations. I strongly desire a private chamber with a couch of good quality, a window overlooking the river, a heavy carpet to muffle the songs and slogans of the pot-room.”

“I fear that you will be disappointed,” said the landlord without emotion. “The single chamber of this description is already occupied, by that man with the yellow beard sitting yonder: a certain Lodermulch, also traveling to Erze Damath.”

“Perhaps, on the plea of emergency, you might persuade him to vacate the chamber and occupy the pallet in my stead,” suggested Cugel.

“I doubt if he is capable of such abnegation,” the innkeeper replied. “But why not put the inquiry yourself? I, frankly, do not wish to broach the matter.”

Cugel, surveying Lodermulch’s strongly-marked features, his muscular arms and the somewhat disdainful manner in which he listened to the talk of the pilgrims, was inclined to join the innkeeper in his assessment of Lodermulch’s character, and made no move to press the request. “It seems that I must occupy the pallet. Now, as to my supper: I require a fowl, suitably stuffed, trussed, roasted and garnished, accompanied by whatever side-dishes your kitchen affords.”

“My kitchen is overtaxed and you must eat lentils with the pilgrims,” said the landlord. “A single fowl is on hand, and this again has been reserved to the order of Lodermulch, for his evening repast.”

Cugel shrugged in vexation. “No matter. I will wash the dust of travel from my face, and then take a goblet of wine.”

“To the rear is flowing water and a trough occasionally used for this purpose. I furnish unguents, pungent oils and hot cloths at extra charge.”

“The water will suffice.” Cugel walked to the rear of the inn where he found a basin. After washing he looked about and noticed at some small distance a shed, stoutly constructed of timber. He started back into the inn, then halted, once more examined the shed. He crossed the intervening area, opened the door, looked within; then, engrossed in thought, he returned to the common room. The landlord served him a mug of mulled wine, which he took to an inconspicuous bench.

Lodermulch had been asked his opinion of the so-called Funambulous Evangels, who, refusing to place their feet upon the ground, went about their tasks by tight-rope. In a curt voice Lodermulch exposed the fallacies of this particular doctrine. “They reckon the age of the earth at twenty-nine aeons, rather than the customary twenty-three. They stipulate that for every square ell of soil two and one quarter million men have died and lain down their dust, thus creating a dank and ubiquitous mantle of lich-mould, upon which it is sacrilege to walk. The argument has a superficial plausibility, but consider: the dust of one desiccated corpse, spread over a square ell, affords a layer one thirty-third of an inch in depth. The total therefore represents almost one mile of compacted corpse-dust mantling the earth’s surface, which is manifestly false.”

A member of the sect, who, without access to his customary ropes, walked in cumbersome ceremonial shoes, made an excited expostulation. “You speak with neither logic nor comprehension! How can you be so absolute?”

Lodermulch raised his tufted eyebrows in surly displeasure. “Must I really expatiate? At the ocean’s shore, does a cliff one mile in altitude follow the demarcation between land and sea? No. Everywhere is inequality. Headlands extend into the water; more often beaches of pure white sand are found. Nowhere are the massive buttresses of grey-white tuff upon which the doctrines of your sect depend.”

“Inconsequential claptrap!” sputtered the Funambule.

“What is this?” demanded Lodermulch, expanding his massive chest. “I am not accustomed to derision!”

“No derision, but hard and cold refutal of your dogmatism! We claim that a proportion of the dust is blown into the ocean, a portion hangs suspended in the air, a portion seeps through crevices into underground caverns, and another portion is absorbed by trees, grasses and certain insects, so that little more than a half-mile of ancestral sediment covers the earth, upon which it is sacrilege to tread. Why are not the cliffs you mention everywhere visible? Because of that moistness exhaled and expelled by innumerable men of the past! This has raised the ocean an exact equivalence, so that no brink or precipice can be noted; and herein lies your fallacy.”

“Bah,” muttered Lodermulch, turning away. “Somewhere there is a flaw in your concepts.”

“By no means!” asserted the evangel, with that fervor which distinguished his kind. “Therefore, from respect to the dead, we walk aloft, on ropes and edges, and when we must travel, we use specially sanctified footgear.”

During the conversation Cugel had departed the room. Now a moon-faced stripling wearing the smock of a porter approached the group. “You are the worthy Lodermulch?” he asked the person so designated.

Lodermulch squared about in his chair. “I am he.”

“I bear a message, from one who has brought certain sums of money due you. He waits in a small shed behind the inn.”

Lodermulch frowned incredulously. “You are certain that this person required Lodermulch, Provost of Barlig Township?”

“Indeed, sir, the name was specifically so.”

“And what man bore the message?”

“He was a tall man, wearing a voluminous hood, and described himself as one of your intimates.”

“Indeed,” ruminated Lodermulch. “Tyzog, perhaps? Or conceivably Krednip … Why would they not approach me directly? No doubt there is some good reason.” He heaved his bulk erect. “I suppose I must investigate.”

He stalked from the common room, circled the inn, and looked through the dim light toward the shed. “Ho there!” he called. “Tyzog? Krednip? Come forth!”

There was no response. Lodermulch went to peer into the shed. As soon as he had stepped within, Cugel came around from the rear, slammed shut the door, threw bar and bolts.

Ignoring the muffled pounding and angry calls, Cugel returned into the inn. He sought out the innkeeper. “An alteration in arrangements: Lodermulch has been called away. He will require neither his chamber nor his roast fowl and has kindly urged both upon me!”

The innkeeper pulled at his beard, went to the door, looked up and down the road. Slowly he returned. “Extraordinary! He has paid for both chamber and fowl, and made no representations regarding rebate.”

“We arranged a settlement to our mutual satisfaction. To recompense you for extra effort, I now pay an additional three terces.”

The innkeeper shrugged, took the coins. “It is all the same to me. Come, I will lead you to the chamber.”

Cugel inspected the chamber and was well satisfied. Presently his supper was served. The roast fowl was beyond reproach, as were the additional dishes Lodermulch had ordered and which the landlord included with the meal.

Before retiring Cugel strolled behind the inn and satisfied himself that the bar at the door of the shed was in good order and that Lodermulch’s hoarse calls were unlikely to attract attention. He rapped sharply on the door. “Peace, Lodermulch!” he called out sternly. “This is I, the innkeeper! Do not bellow so loudly; you will disturb my guests at their slumber!”

Without waiting for reply, Cugel returned to the common room, where he fell into conversation with the leader of the pilgrim band. This was Garstang, a man spare and taut, with a waxen skin, a fragile skull, hooded eyes, a meticulous nose so thin as to be translucent when impinged across a light. Addressing him as a man of experience and erudition, Cugel inquired the route to Almery, but Garstang tended to believe the region sheerly imaginary.

Cugel asserted otherwise. “Almery is a region distinct; I vouch for this personally.”