Harry Turtledove The Case Of The Toxic Spell Dump

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life and property, in this place, before this pentacle, without grievance,
deformity, noise, murmuring, or deceit. Obey, obey, obey!"
"It pains me to cease the destruction of the monastics housed therein." I felt
Vepar s voice rather than hearing it. Like the demon's visible form, it was
sensuous enough to make me want to forget from what sort of creature it really
came.
The wizard didn't forget. "Obey, lest I cast thy name and seal into this
brazier and consume them with sulphurous and stinking substances, and in so
doing bind thee in the Bottomless Pit, in the Lake of Fire and Brimstone
prepared for rebellious spirits, remembered no more before the face of God.
Obey, obey, obey!" He held his closed hand above the brazier, as if to drop
into the coals whatever he held.
I wouldn't have ignored a threat like that, and I'm a material creature. To
Vepar; who was all of spirit, it had to be doubly frightening. Water suddenly
saturated the air around the burning tower; you could see fog turn to mist and
then to rain. The same thing had to be happening inside, too. The flames went
out.
"Give me leave to get hence," Vepar said sullenly. "Am I now sufficiently
humiliated to satisfy thee?"
The mage from the firecrew was too smart to let the demon lure him into that
kind of debate. Without replying directly, he granted Vepar permission to go:
"O Spirit Vepar, because thou hast diligently answered my demands, I do hereby
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license thee to depart, without injury to man or beast. Depart, I say, but be
thou willing and ready to come whenever duly conjured by the sacred rites of
magic. I adjure thee to withdraw peaceably and quietly, and may the peace of
God continue forever between us. Amen."
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He stayed in his own circle until the mermaid-shape vanished from the
pentacle. Then he stepped staggered, actually out. I hoped the fire truly had
a stake through its heart; that mage didn't look as if he could summon up ten
coppers for a cup of tea.
A slim, Asian-looking man in constabulary uniform came up to me. "Inspector
Fisher?" He waited for me to nod before he stuck out a hand. "I'm Legate
Kawaguchi. As I said, Brother Vahan asked for your presence here." He affected
to notice Judy for the first time. His face went from impassive to cold. "Who
is your, ah, companion here?"
What are you doing bringing your girlfriend along on business
? he meant. I said, "Legate, allow me to present my fianc�e, Judith Adler."
Before he could blow up at me, I added, coldly myself, "Mistress
Adler is on the staff of Hand-of-Glory Publishing. As I feared magic might
well be involved in this fire, I
judged her expertise valuable." I gave him back an unspoken question of my
own:
Want to make something of it
?
He didn't He bowed slightly to Judy, who returned the courtesy. Kawaguchi
turned back to me. "Your fears, it seems, are well-founded. This indeed
appears to be a case of arson and homicide by sorcery."
I gulped. "Homicide?"
"So it would appear, Inspector. Brother Vahan informs me that eleven of the
monks cannot be accounted for. Firecrew have already discovered three sets of
mortal remains; as the site cools further, more such are to be expected."
"May their souls be judged kindly," I whispered. Beside me, Judy nodded. Until
it happens, you don't want to imagine men of God men who worked for nothing
but good, snuffed out like so many tapers.
Murder of a religious of any creed carries not just a secular death sentence
but the strongest curse the sect can lay on, which strikes me as only right.
Kawaguchi pulled out a note tablet and stylus. "Inspector Fisher, I'd be
grateful if you'd explain to me in your own words why Brother Vahan believes
your recent work to be connected with this unfortunate occurrence."
Before I could answer, Brother Vahan himself came up. I might have known
nothing, not even magical fire, could make the abbot lose his composure. He
bowed gravely to me, even managed a hint of gallantry when I introduced Judy
to him. But his eyes were black pools of anguish; as he stepped closer to one
of the firecrew s St Elmo's lamps, I saw he had a nasty burn across half his
bald pate.
I explained to Kawaguchi what I'd been investigating, and why. His stylus
raced over the wax. He hardly looked at what he was writing. Later, back at
the constabulary station, he'd use a depalimpsestation spell to separate
different strata of notes.
When I was through, he nodded slowly. "You are of the opinion, then, that one
of the firms in some way involved with the Devonshire dump was responsible for
this act of incendiarism?"
"Yes, Legate, I am," I answered.
Brother Vahan nodded heavily. "It is as I told you, Legate Kawaguchi. So much
loss here; enormous profit to someone must be at stake."
"So I see," Kawaguchi said "You must understand though, sir, that your
statement about Inspector
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Fisher's investigations is hearsay, while one directly from him may be used as
evidence."
"I do understand that, Legate," the abbot answered "Every calling has its own
rituals." I didn't really think of the secular law, as opposed to that of the
Holy Scriptures, as a ritual system, but Brother Vahan had a point.
A firecrewman with the crystal ball of a forensics specialist on his collar
tabs stood waiting for
Kawaguchi to notice him. When Kawaguchi did, the fellow said, "Legate, I have
determined the point of origin of the fire." He waited again, this time just [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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