Night's Master by Tanith Lee Read Free Book Online Page B

go.”
    And this he did, and trotted away, and lay in his cave by the lake,
thinking of Azhrarn the beautiful, and of Bakvi the worm tunneling in the
garden, and of the silver collar with the seven tears in it lost in the wide
world of men.
     

5.  A
Collar of Silver
     
     
    The secret in
the collar was quite simple: being magic, a thing of the Underearth, it was
attractive to men and to mortal things in a way no earthly adornment could ever
be. More than its beauty, it was a lure. Whoever saw it coveted it, and
besides, it was wonderfully made—even Azhrarn had received it with pleasure, at
the first. Lastly, the seven gems set in the mesh of the collar were tears, and
cast on it their own pale sorcery. A collar constructed in ambition and pride
and jeweled with sorrow could only stir up greed and smiling fury, and bring
weeping after.
    One of the Eshva brought the collar to earth. In the form of a slim dark
young man, he wandered dreamily from place to place through the night, glancing
in at lighted windows, calling the night things, the badgers and panthers, to
play on the forest lawns, and staring through moonwashed pools at his own
reflection. In the lavender twilight before dawn, the Eshva crossed the market
place of a vast city and found a beggar asleep on the steps of a fountain. The
Eshva laughed softly with his eyes, and fastened Vayi’s collar about the
beggar’s neck. Then, leaping in the air, fled away toward earth’s center like a
dark star.
    After a time the sun rose and the market stirred. Pigeons flew to the
fountain to drink and women came with their water jars to gossip. The beggar
got up and stretched himself in his rags, picked up his begging bowl and set
off for his day’s work, but he had not gone far before a voice bawled out to
ask him what it was he wore about his neck. The beggar paused, and felt the
collar. No sooner had his hand encountered the smooth hardness of silver and
his eye the cool brightness of jewels, however, than a huge crowd came pressing
around him clamoring.
    “Good sirs,” cried the beggar, “I am surprised you are so interested in
this cheap bauble—it is only a talisman I bought from an old witch to keep me
safe from the plague. But, alas,” he added, “I fear it has done me no good,”
and he exhibited a few spots and sores he had previously painted on himself for
begging purposes. The crowd uncertainly drew off a little and the beggar ducked
through and rushed down a side street, but in a moment the mob were after him,
yelling. Into a jeweler’s shop he flew, and flung himself down before the
jeweler. “Succour! Aid me, sweet sir!” screamed the beggar. “Only rescue me,
and I will shower on you the riches of the world.”
    “You?” inquired the jeweler scornfully, but he wanted no trouble, and
hearing the crowd coming, he thrust the beggar into a chest, slammed down the
lid, and went and stood in the doorway as if waiting casually for business.
Presently the crowd came cramming into the street, and implored him to tell if
he had seen a beggar run that way.
    “I?” asked the jeweler loftily. “I have better things to look out
for.”
    The crowd debated noisily and then began to break up in confusion, some
running on down the street, others back up it, and shortly the way was empty.
     “Now,” said the jeweler, throwing open the chest, “be off as fast as you
can.”
    “A thousand thanks,” said the beggar, stepping out, “but before I leave
you, regard this necklet, and tell me how much you would give me for it.”
    Immediately the jeweler’s face altered. His eyes and mouth narrowed and
his nose twitched. Be sure he wanted the collar more than anything. but it
seemed to him quite silly to pay a beggar for it. Such creatures are not
used to coins, he thought. If I pay him what the collar is worth he will
only get into trouble with the money. So he said cautiously: “Just give me the
trinket and let me examine it a moment.”
    The beggar did as he