Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn From: hutch@ibeam.intel.com (Steve Hutchison) Subject: [BDAY] [MG] [SORC] Party Time People Message-ID: Date: Tue, 18 May 1993 07:32:15 GMT On the edge of Merchant's Hill, a narrow street ends at what used to be the mouth of a cave. A smallish mansion slid down the hill a few years back, by some miracle mostly undestroyed, and it had been rebuilt with the cave behind it and the front facing the docks. The faint bluegreen line of the horizon showed tonight, the sunset long gone and the colors brilliant. There was a sign on the front over the door: Ale House - and two brilliant scarlet lights blazed at each side of the entry walk. Tables were set out in the small yard, and a few kegs of the cheapest but least toxic ale were being slowly drained by the sailors and passers-by as they toasted the health of Melwis the Wise for giving away the free booze. Not that the bar inside was suffering too greatly. There were plenty of people spending money on the minor games of chance, and watching the shows, and taking advantage of the unusually friendly cuddle-girls that evening. Fireworks sounded in the distance, the first warning shots that led the crowds to gather outside and watch the show. The barge was out in the bay, smoke trailing up to the skies. A flash and a trail of smoke and the first of the chrysanthemum blooms appeared in the skies over the bay. There were several more flash-booms, and the skies began blooming with light. They went on for quite a while. Wizardry has its uses, and pyrotechnic displays are one of them. Most of the people with any sense took the children home to bed when the fireworks ended. Cries of "aww, can't we just stay up just this once?" were generally quashed and the exhausted parents collapsed shortly after. But not everyone had small offspring to drain their energy, and for them the party continued on. * * * "C'mon, Kev, let's GO!" The Little Rat was losing patience quickly. "Kev, hurry up, da sparklin's is gonna start when it gets dark and we gotta get down dere so's we gets some eats before!" "I ain't ready yet, I gotta put my shoes on!" "Shoes," Little Rat sniffed in disgust. "You been hangin' 'round da rich folks too long. In da Low City you only wear shoes if you wanna have dem snached. You is gettin' too soft." "Huhn UH!" Kev protested. "I don't wanna get da green stuff growin' on my foot, 'member I cut it out in da garden," he grunted, pulling a shoe on over his foot. Kev was about a year younger than the Little Rat, from the looks of him, and way more innocent, but then he had the advantage of having parents up until a few weeks ago. Little Rat didn't remember her mother, and her mother hadn't remembered who the father was. Gutter life was not kind in Generica's Low City. "OK, I be ready." Little Rat decided that Kev was just never goin' ta get it. She was still wearing her faded blue tunic that had been cut down from a grownup's discarded rags, from a batch that had been carefully patched and handed out to the worst-off of the street kids by the Priestesses of Aditi. Kev, though, was wearing a stupid-looking black tunic with no arms on his skinny body, and big funny looking short pants, and shiny black boots with big weird strings that held them from falling off. And he had that stupid board with wheels that 'Raelf had given him. Little Rat did NOT like the board with wheels, 'cause it kept sliding out from under her feet. "C'Mon den, let's go!" Little Rat had made a rope out of the sheets of of Kev's bed (what a softie - she preferred to sleep on the floor in her room on a little mat). They waited until the grownups were gone from the big room, and snuck out into the garden She tied the rope to a rock and tossed it over the wall, then tugged at it - the rock caught on the top of the wall and she sent Kev up first "Cause you're littler and it won't hurt as much if you fall." He seemed to believe her, because he went right up, but then he made her hand up his stupid wheel board before he would hold the rope for her to climb. Then on the other side, they ran down the pathway into town - the late afternoon sun was still shining on them as they reached the Bazaar and the beginning of the party. "Wait!" Kev was saying. "Didja see that sign? Ol' Melwiss is givin' food away for free!" She had seen the sign, but like most Low City kids, she couldn't read. "Huh? What's wrong wif it?" Little Rat asked, deeply suspicious of anyone offering anything "free". "Nuthin'. He's just cracked in the nog, throwin' a big party. If we sneaks in we can get some rich-folks eats." Little Rat was still skeptical, but she decided to follow and see what happened. At least she could keep Kev out of trouble. They made their way through the bazaar, Kev hopping on and off of his stupid wheel board and making it slide along the board walkway. It was awful noisy, and he got a few glares, but most of the folks were in party moods, and hardly anyone took a swipe at them. Besides they were quick, so they were gone by the time anyone noticed. The food down at the Fish Market was pretty good too, no white worms 'cept in that one guy's bottle of hooch, an' the naked ladies from the cuddlecribs was all dressed up for bein' outside, an' Little Rat made Kev pay for their "sammidges" by carryin' glasses from the tables up to the big bucket where the dirty stuff was bein' washed. But the sammidges were still pretty good an' no white worms in anything. Kev explained that rich folks had servants who looked for white worms for them, an' tossed the food in the big trashbins if they had any, which Little Rat pondered for a moment and then decided the rich folks was stupid for getting the food if they was gonna let it get white worms in it. "Look, jugglers," Kev said, pointing at a group of wandering men and women wearing bright clothes and throwing things at each other, and catching them and throwing them back before they could get hit. "Watch out for that big one on the end," Little Rat said, wisely, recognizing Kruft The Pinchpurse from two neighborhoods over. He wasn't very nice; he liked to beat up on kids who hung around his corner, said they scared off the custom. Usually he just juggled and sang by himself, but when he sang too long the carters would start tossin' road apples at him so he just juggled mostly. "Hey, Little Rat," Kev said as the sun began to set, "Are we gonna stay out here all night?" "No," she said reluctantly, "But I did wanna see the sparklies." "Me too," Kev said, "Do ya s'pose they're better from up on the hill - we could watch from the wall." "Oh." Little Rat thought for a minute. "Yeah, I s'pose so." They started back up towards the Bazaar, weaving in and out of the crowd, gradually getting back to the road going up. It was a little dark, but Little Rat could see fine, so she led the way. Kev stopped twice on the way to take rocks out of his boots and throw them hard down the hill, and once Little Rat heard a grunt of surprise, so she hurried them up so they'd get to the Lighthouse faster. "Who'd ya hit?" she asked, as they climbed the last bit of the trail. She figured out that they'd been followed, and just hoped it wasn't some Crazy Charlie like the Gutt Man or Hairy Alice. "Old Rameshi guy with perfume on his beard," Kev answered and started climbing up the sheet rope. "He started followin' us at the Bazaar, I think I got him good tho." "Haul me up, quick," Little Rat said, and they got up to the top of the wall in time for the first BANG! from the bay. * * * "Where am I? For that matter, WHO am I?" "Think. What is the last thing you remember?" "I ... I was going to see Archmage Nescie, and ... Somebody tapped me on the shoulder." "Do you remember anything else? Relax and think." "No. Yes. There's a word, a name." "Say it." "'Raelf. Oh! I remember something now." "Tell me." "The stranger that was working for Urcohea, the one who helped reset the unmonitored power tap. He stopped me before I could go to Nescie's quarters, he and a woman I've never seen before." "What happened then?" "The woman's eyes, they were so strange, I saw something there, I saw myself there, being torn by hooks, being unravelled like a bad sweater and the yarn burned away." "What then?" "They, uhm, kissed me. It was very strange." "They just kissed you?" "I'm an old man, it's been a long time since two gorgeous young people found me interesting that way. No, they took me into a room and I lowered my wards and we, ahem. Well, we were intimate." "Tell me more." "I think, well, it wasn't like sex used to be. It was more like being eaten and eating them at the same time. There was a moment of pain, then it was incredibly intense pleasure." "And then?" "And then I remember telling myself to forget, to go on to the place where I had been going." "What happened after you left?" "I'm not sure. I remember being held, like when I was younger and when I'd spent a night making love, just holding my lover and sleeping." "And then you woke up here?" "Yes. No, first I met a pretty woman with an ankh. Where is here?" "This is the heart of your home." "That name, 'Raelf. I think it's my name. But I used to have a different name?" "Yes. You are 'Raelf het ae 26. Twenty-sixth of the undiluted line of Hunters of clan 'Raelf. I am your, well, great-grandsire." "But I was already born. Or, part of me. I don't feel the same." "You've been reborn. Your sire left you some memories. When you feel more confident you can go through them. First, though, you need to get used to your body." "What does it look like?" "Your eyes haven't opened yet, you're still a kitten. It'll take a little time before you're ready. You hungry?" "A little." "Here. Suckle on this." "Warm. It's Fire, isn't it? And Water and ... I recognize this, it's pure elemental matrix. Yummy. What do I look like, Gran'da?" "You have a silver stripe, and other than that you look just like your sire looked when he was just a newbud." "A silver stripe. I like silver, it's a good color. `A star of mercurial light shone silver to my sight' ... I'm tired now. Should I sleep? Somehow sleep doesn't seem safe to me now." "You can sleep just a little bit. You'll outgrow it soon. I'll guard you til then, so you just lay back and relax." "'nite, Gran'da." * * * There was dancing in the streets around the Town Square market, every notable minstrel and player was invited to perform there, and to perform for Melwiss the Wise at his private tent, if the wandering judges found them sufficiently skilled. The northern edges of the crowd were skirting the river bank. There were built-up levees and dikes which had been partly damaged and shored up during the recent storm, but in general the area was clean and well lit by the festive wizard-lanterns with their showers of colored sparklers. While the fireworks were blooming in the western skies, the area had filled with people seeking the view, but afterwards, they had gone back to the Square where there was plenty of food and drink. A tallish man walked light-footed towards the Square, gently swinging the fat purse in his hand - the Honorable Miss had liked his love poetry, and so he had come away much wealthier from their tryst. Too bad, her fiance' had to be there to spoil things, but he HAD liked the poems, and especially the effect they had on the Hon. Miss, so he'd come off like a bandit. Yes, Parsifal Lucas was in good form tonight. An acrobat came cartwheeling by, spinning up and around him, and looked him in the eye. The heavy makeup made the face unrecognizable, and the spare angular body could have been male or female. The harsh mocking laughter that came from the whirling figure gave no hint of gender, either. The acrobat whirled to a stop in front of him, and with splayed fingers raised to its artificial nose, it sprayed him with a thoroughly juicy raspberry. "Hey, you dancing bastard," he shouted, and it stopped, making a moue of exagerrated, appalled horror. "Oi knows wha' YOU wan's" it sneered. "YOU wan's a goud LAY!" "And what's wrong with that?" Pars sneered. "Oi knows 'ow to gets 'em for yer." "What, you?" he laughed. "Yeh, me. You gifs me wot Oi wan's an' Oi gifs you wot YEW wan's" "Tell me more," said Pars, approaching. The acrobat's eyes grew red and Pars felt a lurching ripping sensation, and a curious detachment as a yawning pit opened beneath him and he started to fall into the red of those eyes. Suddenly the acrobat's eyes turned back to their piss-yellow and opened wide, and a look of shock crossed its face, as behind him he heard a and a muttered curse, and he whirled, his concealed wrist-stiletto dropping into his hand. There on the street sat a smoking body, making a giggling noise punctuated by groans. He came closer - it was a satyr, a big one, a half-head taller than he, brown skinned and yellow-haired, with a pair of pan-pipes which it brought to its lips. "Wanna dance?" It began piping, a jig, and Pars felt his feet begin moving, a wild lightness overtaking him, and he started capering around the street better than he'd ever done before. The acrobat was dancing too, but it was screaming imprecations, and the satyr gave it a downright evil look, and began playing a second tune interleaved with the first and as it whirled, its acrobats' harlequin suit began to shred and it bloated and hulked, and Pars caught glimpses of its demon-face as he spun around, grabbing the hands of other men and women who had come in to hear the piping and been swept up in the spell. They were dancing in a circle now, the men and women, around the satyr and the demon, and the demon was spinning in place like a dervish, smoke coming up from its feet where they touched the ground. The song stopped abruptly, and the people sagged, seeing the demon in the center of the circle still spinning helplessly, and a low menacing whisper came from the satyr: "They're mine, little Neph scut," and he stood and reached out, stopping the demon's spin by putting one brawny arm on it's shoulder. It fell to its knees, face level with his, and he kissed it on the lips, and it spasmed in pain and began moaning, then it popped like a child's soap bubble. The satyr grinned, blood on its teeth, and spat out something like a black hairball, which he ground beneath one hoof. The people who had danced were still in the rest-position, but Parsifal found he could move, and came cautiously into the center by where the satyr stood. "Thank you, sir Satyr. You saved me from something hellish." "So I did. You can repay the debt, my friend, by bringing me three full wineskins and a half a roast fowl from the market up there, and bring back some drummers as well, and I'll just have some more music in the mean time." The satyr patted his shoulder affectionately and gave him a gentle shove towards the street. Pars felt his feet moving almost of their own accord as he ran towards the town square, while behind him came the stirring notes of another, wilder dance, and the sounds of dancers singing and laughing.