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imprecation at the creature and turned back to the village.
All had fled. The village was deserted. Cugel laughed aloud. He went to the inn,
dressed himself in his garments and buckled on his sword. He went out into the
taproom and looking into the till, found a number of coins, which he transferred
to his pouch, alongside the ivory representation of NULLITY. He returned
outdoors: best to depart while none were on hand to detain him.
A flicker of light attracted his attention: the ring on his finger glinted with dozens
of streaming sparks, and all pointed up the trail, toward the cliffs.
Cugel shook his head wearily, then checked the darting lights once again. Without
ambiguity they directed him back the way he had come. Pharesm's calculations,
after all, had been accurate. He had best act with decision, lest TOTALITY once
more drift beyond his reach.
He delayed only long enough to find an axe, and hastened up the trail, following
the glittering sparks of the ring.
Not far from where he had left it, he came upon the maimed Winged Being, now
sitting on a rock beside the road, the hood drawn over its head. Cugel picked up a
stone and heaved it at the creature, which collapsed into sudden dust, leaving
only a tumble of white cloth to signal the fact of its existence.
Cugel continued up the road, keeping to such cover as offered itself, but to no
avail. Overhead hovered Winged Beings, flapping and swooping. Cugel made play
with the axe, striking at the wings, and the creatures flew high, circling above.
Cugel consulted the ring and was led on up the trail, with the Winged Beings
hovering just above. The ring coruscated with the intensity of its message: there
was TOTALITY, resting blandly on a rock!
Cugel restrained the cry of exultation which rose hi his throat. He brought forth
the ivory symbol of NUL-
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The Eyes of the Overworld
LITY, raji forward and applied it to the gelatinous central globe.
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As Pharesm had asserted, adherence was instant. With the contact Cugel could
feel the spell which bound him to the olden time dissolving.
A swoop, a buffet of great wings! Cugel was knocked to the-ground. White cloth
enveloped him, and with one hand holding NULLITY he was unable to swing his
axe. This was now wrenched from his grasp. He released NULLITY, gripped a
rock, kicked, somehow freed himself, and sprang for his axe. The Winged Being
seized NULLITY, to which TOTALITY was attached, and bore both aloft and
toward a cave high in the cliffs.
Great forces were pulling at Cugel, whirling in all directions at once. There was a
roaring in his ears, a flutter of violet lights, and Cugel fell a million years into the
future.
He recovered consciousness in the blue-tiled room with the sting of an aromatic
liquor at his lips. Pharesm, bending over him, patted his face and poured more of
the liquor into his mouth. "Awake! Whereas TOTALITY? How are you returned?"
Cugel pushed him aside, and sat up on the couch.
"TOTALITY!" roared Pharesm. "Where is it? Where is my talisman?"
"I will explain," .said Cugel in a thick voice. "I had it in my grasp, and it was
wrenched away by winged creatures in the service of Great God Yelisea."
"Tell me, tell me!"
Cugel recounted the circumstances which had led first to gaining and then losing
that which Pharesm sought. As he talked, Pharesm's face became damp with
grief, and his shoulders sagged. At last he marched Cugel outside, into the dim
red light of late afternoon. Together they scrutinized the cliffs which now towered
desolate and lifeless above them. "To which cave did the creature fly?" asked
Pharesm. "Point it out, if you are able!"
Cugel pointed. "There, or so it would seem. All was confusion, all a tumble of
wings and white robes. . . ."
"Remain here." Pharesm went inside the workroom and presently returned. "I
give you light," he said, and handed
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The Eyes of the Overworld
Cugel a cold white flame tied into a silver chain. "Prepare yourself."
At Cugel's feet he cast a pellet which broke into a vortex, and Cugel was carried
dizzily aloft to that crumbling ledge which he had indicated to Pharesm. Nearby
was the dark opening into a cave. Cugel turned the flame within. He saw a dusty
passage, three strides wide and higher than he could reach. It led back into the
cliff, twisting slightly to the side. It seemed barren of all life.
Holding the lamp before him, Cugel slowly moved along the passage, his heart
thumping for dread of something he could not define. He stopped short: music?
The memory of music? He listened and could hear nothing; but when he tried to
step forward fear clamped bis legs. He held high the lantern and peered down the
dusty passage. Where did it lead? What lay beyond? Dusty cave? Demonland?
The blessed land Byssom? Cugel slowly proceeded, every sense alert. On a ledge
he spied ajihriv-eled brown spheroid: the talisman he had carried into the past.
TOTALITY had long since disengaged itself and departed.
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
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Cugel back to the ground.
Dreading the wrath of Pharesm, Cuge! tendered the withered talisman.
Pharesm took it and 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
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The Eyes of the Overworld
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.
118
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 where 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 and 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.
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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
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