Compleat Traveller in Black by John Brunner Read Free Book Online Page A

after a deep inhalation. “I can scent his power. Now what snare has that devious personage laid in our path?”
    He advanced towards the altar. Taking his stand three paces distant – because of the heaped-offerings – he raised his voice and addressed the putative god.
    “Sir! We, the lords of Ryovora, are here to determine whether or no you are a god, as the populace maintain!”
    Bernard Brown gave a cautious nod. “I was advised about your intention,” he confided. “And I have been warned not to deny the possibility. Since meeting with Jorkas on my way here, I have acquired a healthy respect for the advice I am given hereabouts, no matter how irrelevant it may seem. Contrariwise, however, in all honesty I must state that prior to my arrival in your city the notion that I might be a god had never crossed my mind.”
    Was it possible for a god not to be aware that he was one? That paradox was not addressed in any of the books the margrave had studied. He exchanged frustrated glances first with Eadwil and then with Ruman, who snorted characteristically and called to Bernard Brown.
    “Are we, then, to take it that you believe it possible you may be a god?”
    “I don’t know what to believe,” said Bernard unhappily. “Until yesterday I had always pictured myself as a perfectly ordinary person. But certainly I am not ordinary in your world, wherever and whatever it may be.”
    “Come now!” said Ruman, bridling. “This is a reputable and well-regarded city! Or was, until you chose to intrude on its traditionally sober existence.”
    “If you will forgive my contradicting you,” Bernard sighed, “I chose nothing of the sort. All I want is to be allowed to go home. Have I not already said as much?”
    “This does not sound like the utterance of a god,” the margrave muttered to Eadwil, who nodded.
    “Sir,” he said to Bernard, “we wish to establish the extent of your powers. To what knowledge lay you claim?”
    “I am competent,” said Bernard cautiously, “in matters touching roads, drains and bridges and similar practical undertakings. Is that the sort of thing you want to hear about?”
    “Indeed it’s not! But are you acquainted with the Book of Universal Shame, and can you conjure from it?”
    By now the townspeople had ceased their going and coming before the altar, and were gathering in silence to listen to this discussion. It was plain that a few of them were unconvinced, propitiating Bernard only by way of insurance, as it were.
    “I never heard of it,” said Bernard, swallowing.
    “Then of the Book of Three Red Elephants? Perhaps of the Casket of Disbelief?”
    To each name Bernard shook his head.
    Eadwil turned smiling to the margrave. “It is most unlikely that this fellow is a god!”
    Then in their turn Petrovic, Gostala, and Ruman questioned Bernard about the most esoteric wisdom known to them – which implied the most esoteric known to anyone. Some few individuals surpassed the enchanters of Ryovora, such as Manuus, but those persons were far beyond the commerce of everyday life and chose to exist alone with their powers, seldom intruding on mundane affairs.
    To each inquiry Bernard was constrained to reply in the negative, and in the watching crowd some began to stare significantly at Brim. The locksmith grew more and more flustered and annoyed, until at last, when Ruman had completed his interrogation, he strode forward and faced the altar challengingly, hands on hips.
    “Let’s have it straight!” he bellowed. “Are you a god, or have you come here under false pretenses?”
    “I – I was advised not to deny it,” said Bernard helplessly, and the margrave clapped his hand to his forehead.
    “Fool that I am, after Eadwil gave me the clue!” he cried, and thrust Brim to one side, ignoring his complaint. “It was Tyllwin who advised you thus, was it not?”
    “I don’t suppose it can do any harm to say who it was,” Bernard decided reflectively. “Uh … whether it