Tower of Zanid by L. Sprague de Camp Read Free Book Online Page A

gate. Fallon sheathed his weapon and continued on his way. For the moment, he had the crowd with him but if he had tried to kill or arrest the thieves, or had yelled for the law, his life would not have been worth a brass arzu.
    Fallon found the thirteenth room on the second level. Inside, he confronted Qais of Babaal, who had been inhaling the smoke of smoldering ramandu from a little brazier.
    “Well?” asked Qais sleepily.
    “I’ve been thinking of that offer you made me yesterday.”
    “Which offer?”
    “The one having to do with the Safq.”
    “Oh. Tell me not that further reflection has braced your wavering courage.”
    “Possibly. I do mean to get back to Zamba some day, you know. But for a miserable thousand karda…”
    “What price had you in mind?”
    “Five thousand would tempt me strongly.”
    “ Au! As well ask for the Kamuran’s treasury entire. Though perhaps I could raise the offer by a hundred karda or so…”
    They haggled and haggled; at last, Fallon got half of what he had at first asked, including an advance of a hundred karda to be paid at once. The twenty-five hundred karda would not, he knew, suffice in itself to put him back upon his throne. But it would do for a start. Then he said: “That’s fine, Master Turanj, except for one thing.”
    “What’s that, sir?”
    “For an offer of that size, I don’t think it would be clever for anybody to take anybody’s word if you follow me.”
    Qais raised both his eyebrows and his antennae. “Sirrah I Do you imply that I, the faithful minion of great Ghuur of Qaath, would swindle you out of your price? By the nose of Tyazan, such insolence is not to be borne! I am who I am…”
    “Now, now, calm down. After all, I might attempt a bit of swindling too, you know.”
    “That, Terran creature, I can well believe, were I so temerarious as to pay you in advance.”
    “What I had in mind was to deposit the money with some trustworthy third party.”
    “A stakeholder, eh? Hm. An idea, sir but one with two patent flaws, to wit: What makes you think I bear such tempting sums about with me? And whom in this sink-hole could we trust on a matter of business concerning us of Qaath, for whom the love of the Balhibuma is something less than ardent?”
    Fallon grinned. “That’s something I figured out only recently. You have a banker in Zanid.”
    “Ridiculous!”
    “Not at all, unless you’ve got a hoard buried in a hole in the ground. Twice, now, you’ve run out of money in dealing with me. Each time, you raised plenty more in a matter of an hour or two. That wouldn’t have given you time to ride back to Qaath, but it would let you go to somebody in Zanid. And I know who that somebody is.”
    “Indeed, Master Antane?”
    “Indeed. Now who in Zanid would be likely to serve you as a banker? Some financier who had cause to dislike King Kir. So I remembered what I know of Zanid’s banking houses, and recalled that a couple of years ago Kastambang er-Amirut got into trouble with the Dour. Kir had got some idea that he wanted all his visitors to approach him barefoot. Kastambang wouldn’t, because he has fallen arches and it hurts him to walk without . his corrective shoes. He’d loaned Kir a couple of hundred thousand karda some years before, and Kir seized upon this excuse to fine Kastambang the whole amount and the interest, too. Kastambang has never dealt with the Dour since then, nor appeared at court. Logically he’d be your man. If he’s not your banker already, he could be. In either instance, we could employ him as stakeholder.”
    Fallon leaned back, hands clasped behind his head, and grinned triumphantly. Qais brooded, chin in hand, then finally said: “I concede nothing, yet, save that you’re a shrewd scrutator, Master Antane. You’d filch the treasure of Dakhaq from under his very nose. Before we walk out further upon the perilous Bridge of Zung that connects heaven and earth, tell me how you propose to invade the