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Would you introduce us to your friend? Jim asked.
This is Hob from Malvern Castle, m lord.
Hob from Malvern Castle hunched himself even smaller.
I see, said Jim. Could you, and possibly Hob Malvern with you, then, go
out into that garden? There s a fountain there. See if you can t find
something to bring some of the water in to me. You know how big a soup plate
is?
Oh, of course, m lord. You want some of the water brought you in a soup
plate. I don t think there are any soup plates in the garden, though, said
Hob.
Not in a soup plate, said Jim, in something the size of a soup plate.
Oh, then that s easy, said Hob.
He wheeled around on his smoke, Hob of Malvern following him, and they both
vanished through the curtains in the direction of the garden.
What do you want water for, Jim? asked Angie. Or are you and Brian
thirsty?
No, we re fine- Jim began. But before he could even finish the sentence,
Hob and his counterpart from Malvern were back in the room; and Hob had
brought him the water he had asked for, cradled in the bowl-shape of-some
smoke.
Jim stared at it for a second, then recovered.
Put it on the floor, Hob, he said. There was no place else for it. Hob put
it down on the carpet under their feet, and Jim got down on his hands and
knees to stare into it.
It s for scrying, he said to the room at large. Back in England we use
crystal balls, or mirrors. Here they do it with water. Brian and I watched a
magician in Tripoli scrying that way. If he can do it, I can do it.
Scrying was a use of magic, and he was still trying to conserve his. But
there was no other way to what he wanted to discover.
He concentrated on the water, willing himself to visualize the room he and
Brian had just left a short while ago; and where Baiju, ibn-Tariq and Murad of
the Heavy Purse, with Kelb beside him, should still be.
The image of the room formed in the shimmering surface of the water. But the
room was empty. None of those people was there. Neither was Kelb.
I don t see anything, said Angie, peering interestedly over his shoulder.
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You wouldn t, said Jim absently. You have to have magic.
Oh, of course! said Angie. How could I be so stupid? And of course I can t
possibly have any magic!
She strode off and peered through the curtains, as if her gaze would
penetrate their thickness to show her the garden beyond.
What? asked Jim, still absent in his mind. He had a vague notion that Angie
had just said something important, but he could not remember just what it was.
He returned to his scrying, trying to summon up a picture of ibn-Tariq and
Baiju, wherever they might be.
The picture formed. The two were in a room not much different from this one,
except that it had a little more in the way of furniture. Ibn-Tariq was
talking, Baiju was listening; and sitting watching both of them was Kelb.
Good, muttered Jim to himself; and he immediately began to search in the
water for an image of Murad, and his present surroundings, whatever they might
be.
He had suddenly remembered that Kelb-and he was fairly sure the brown dog was
Kelb-had kept his gaze solely on him and Brian. The memory backed up his
sudden suspicion just now that the whole business with Murad, and Sir Renel
playing the part of Sir Geoffrey, had been a show of some sort for his and
Brian s benefit. Sir Renel had clearly been fed to them as surely as a card
trickster feeds a particular card to someone who thinks he is picking a card
from a deck at random.
In any case, now the necessary thing to discover was where Murad himself was.
Jim concentrated on the bowl of water. Gradually shapes began to form.
Slowly, they solidified. He saw Murad, lying on his back in a bed that would
have been nothing but a huge mattress on the floor of a room, if it had not
been so opulent and thick that it raised the possessor of the Heavy Purse a
good two feet off the floor.
Hob-and Hob Malvern- Jim said. Come here and look in the water. I want to
show you something. Whatever Angie had said a few moments ago finally
registered somewhere in the back of his mind, along with a clear feeling that
she was displeased over something. Oh, Angie, if you d like to see what
things look like in the water, do you want to come and look now? I m making
one of the pictures visible to anyone.
No, thank you, said Angie from the curtains, without turning. She was still
furiously angry-at Carolinus, at Jim, at Brian... she was even more than a
little annoyed at Geronde. Geronde knew why she was angry. The least Geronde
could have done, as a friend, was to come and show a little sympathy.
Then it occurred to Angie that if Geronde had done that, just now, her own
response would have been to snap at Geronde; and Geronde, never shy in such
matters, would of course, immediately have snapped back... the whole thing was
ridiculous. Angie suddenly found herself smiling, the anger gone abruptly.
Jim just doesn t understand, she told herself, of course. He never will.
She turned and went back to Jim and leaned over his shoulder with her head
close to the heads of the two hobgoblins.
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What is it? she said. Oh, who s the big man with the beard?
Someone called Murad of the Heavy Purse, said Jim. He owns this place
we re in. Hob, could you and Hob Malvern go to that opening in the wall behind
me there? That s where I came in here. I didn t really look as I went through,
but I think there s enough thickness to the wall, so that there s a chance of
a passageway. These walls have passages like that all the way through them.
Could you and Hob Malvern search through them on your smoke and try to find
the way to the room that has the man you see in the water here?
Both hobgoblins stared at the image of Murad.
I don t see why not, said Hob. It s just like looking through chimneys,
only straight through instead of up and down.
Can you find him quickly, do you think? asked Jim. He s alone right now
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