Spell of Catastrophe | Page 4

through a doorway. Someone passed him coming out, the someone wrinkling his nose fastidiously.
"Wroclaw!" Max said. "Nice to see you again."
"Very good to see you, sir." Wroclaw' s gaunt skin was an olive-drab green, and his bones were of not quite human proportions. His ancestors had been conjured, one way or another, but that wasn't something usually discussed in polite company. "Are you fit, sir?"
"That remains to be seen. I suspect it depends on what Karlini wants out of me."
Wroclaw coughed discretely. "Very good, sir. Will you see the master now?"
"I hope so, Wroclaw, I really do."
"Ahem, yes," Wroclaw said, "sir. Will you follow me, please?" Crossing the doorway, Max's hair crackled with static and he caught a whiff of ozone. Inside the corridor, though, the air was much cooler and the tang of salt was much less apparent.
"Do you know what I'm doing here, Wroclaw?" Max said.
Wroclaw rounded a corner and came to a stop at the entrance to a cramped circular staircase. "Any idea I might possess," Wroclaw said, "would undoubtedly be less than the complete truth. The master is, as always, the best person with whom to raise the matter."
A raven cawed faintly seven times, somewhere off in another wing. "Oh, goodness," Wroclaw said. "Time for dinner already. Please wait here, sir, the master will be along shortly. Alas, I find myself also serving as the cook."
"Very well, Wroclaw." Max leaned on a stone windowsill across the staircase and watched shadows creep up the hills. One hill had gone into total eclipse by the time a figure bounded down the stairs toward him, running one hand through its hair. "The Great Karlini, I presume," Max said, "and if you don't tell me what's up very quickly I'll turn you into a carp and eat you, raw."
"Oh, good, Max, it is you," said the Great Karlini, pushing hair out of his eyes. "Haddo is certainly faithful, but his eyesight isn't quite perfect and we're never too sure what he'll bring back."
"That robe needs to be washed."
Karlini looked down and started, apparently noticing the cluster of fresh stains for the first time. "Good old Max," he said. "How do I manage without you?"
"That depends on what you've gotten yourself into this time."
Karlini dropped an arm across Max's shoulders and led him down the stairs. "So, Max, how have you been?"
Max stopped. "That's it," he said. "I'm out of here. See you later."
"Max, now don't -"
Max crossed his arms. "Look, Karlini, you get me dragged all the way out here, ruining a perfectly good if somewhat arid caravan trip, and then you won't tell me why. Haddo won't talk, Wroclaw won't talk, you won't talk. You know what that says to me? What that says to me is that you want me to do something that probably involves human sacrifice, and I bet we both know who's the relevant human."
Karlini sat down next to him on the stair. "Don't glower at me like that, Max. It's not that bad, but it is a long story. Actually, it's not that long a story, but it's sort of -"
"Karlini."
"All right, all right. You noticed the castle?"
"Yeah, sure. Looks like a nice place."
"Well �� it's okay."
"So, what's wrong with it? It have rats? Things?"
"It's not what it has," Karlini said, "it's what it does. It moves."
"Moves."
"Not like earthquakes, I mean, or settling ground. I mean you wake up in the morning and the whole castle's jumped somewhere else. It's been here for almost two weeks, but before that, it was bounce, bounce, bounce. Just enough time to get an idea where we are, and then, poof!, another hemisphere. Last month we spent six days somewhere around the North Pole. We almost froze. I'm just waiting for this thing to head for the open ocean."
"I assume we'll get to the real point when you tell me why you can't get rid of the place. You got a problem with the landlord?"
Karlini looked suspiciously at Max. "You sure you haven't heard about this before?" Max shook his head, no. Karlini sighed. "Well, that's the problem, all right. It won't let me get rid of it. I can't even walk out the door."2. THE CREEPING SWORD
AT THE SAME TIME Haddo was flying Max toward Karlini's castle I was sitting at my desk minding my own business, the major thought on my mind being whether I'd be able to afford to eat after the day after tomorrow. There was no way I would have known about Max and Haddo at that point, of course, but I wouldn't have cared anyway since I'd never heard of Haddo or Max or Karlini. Food was the issue, and realizing it was already past the middle of the day and I hadn't had a customer in a week, and wondering how