The Ladder in the Sky Read Online Free Page A

interfere. As I told you when we first met, I believe we’re at the mercy of the stars. If the wyrds decreed that you should become possessed of a devil, what can a mere man like myself do about it? Or you, for that matter! Of course, that may not be your fate. Perhaps you’re due to wind up in the sour lake, eaten by savage animals. Perhaps you’re due to disappear into the Dyasthala, to be garroted for your fine new clothes and dumped in a sewer, to end as an anonymous corpse. I hope not. You’re a very astute young man, and I’m sure you’re going to go far. If you live, that is.”
    A cold chill walked down Kazan’s spine like an animal with feet of ice. He said, “I—no! What’s your loyalty to Bryda?”
    A shadow crossed Yarco’s face. He said shortly, “None.”
    “Then what are you doing in this?” Kazan snapped.
    “All right, I’ll tell you,” Yarco said after a second of hesitation. “I was lost on a bet to the prince’s father a month before I was born. I have been the property of the royal family all my fifty years of life. I have never been able to lift a hand to serve myself. That is, I never could until Prince Luth was kidnaped and made captive. So I’m in no great hurry myself to let him free. But my experience of a lifetime has convinced me—oh, foolishly perhaps, but thoroughly—that it’s no good railing against one’s fate.”
    “So in one sense at least, you too are possessed,” Kazan said. He gave a harsh laugh.
    “Too?” Yarco picked the word up like a hungry scavenger pouncing on a scrap of food. “Do you mean—?”
    It was clear what he would have said, “Do you mean that you are truly possessed by that thing—whatever it was?” And to that Kazan still had no answer. For, after all, he had no information to guide him. What should a possessed man feel like?
    But at that moment the entrance door was flung open, Hego appearing momentarily beyond it and then stepping back to make way for Bryda at the head of a small procession of men in dark clothes and outdoor boots. The one directly following Bryda was known by sight to Kazan, but not by name; he had visited the house twice at night, and Kazan had been produced for his inspection.
    It was the man behind, however, who strode into the center of the room on entering and stared Kazan up and down. Meantime, his companions formed a close group just inside the door, their expressions dour and threatening.
    He carried a short cane with jeweled ends, which he tapped on the palm of his hand while he was scrutinizing Kazan. When he was through for the moment, he glanced at Bryda, poking Kazan in the chest with the cane.
    “Him?” he said in a disgusted tone.
    “Not him precisely,” Bryda snapped. “The devil which possesses him.”
    “I’ve heard too much of this devil nonsense,” the man growled. “I want to hear—now!—what he proposes to do to help us, and if it doesn’t make sense, he goes quietly tonight into a lonely grave. And there’ll be a reckoning later. Is that understood?” He glared at Bryda.
    “And you?” he went on after a moment, prodding Kazan again. “Do you understand it? Do you want to save your skin?”
    One moment before he uttered an unconvincing lie, Kazan hesitated. Something had occurred to him, something he had not expected. A good and sensible reason for having delayed.
    He said, “If I’d talked about what was going to be done, how many people in Berak do you think would know about it by now? And what do you think would be stupider than to try a rescue on a night when there’s a moon?”
    A sardonic twist of the lip went with the words, as unexpected and as unfamiliar as they had been—and as effective. Uncertainly, his challenger drew back half a pace. He said after a moment, “I’ll accept that. But what’s to be done?”
    Kazan didn’t answer. He felt his mouth open a little. He stared unseeing and disbelieving past the man before him and towards Yarco, on whose face a look