THE BLUE BOY
by Lynn K. Hollander
Chapter 5 - Packing
MINDO
"Let me understand this," Baudier's lieutenant said. "We--you, me and Tivon--are going to attempt a covert retrieval of a small boy--who is apparently a magic worker or scholar of some sort himself or how did he operate the gate in the first place?--in unknown territory, while we're burdened with a witch, a scholar and a nursemaid? Is that right?"
"More or less, although we're not sure the boy opened the gate himself."
"Do we really need all those people?"
"The scholar gets us there and back, the witch helps with finding the boy, and unless you want to change the diapers, or whatever the boy wears, we take the nursemaid," Baudier said. "Besides, she's seen him, no one else has."
"So? He's got that white hair. He'll be easy to find."
"Maybe."
"Anything else?" the lieutenant, whose name was Mante, demanded.
"We have to recover the boy before his parents discover he is missing or the treaty is void and the war starts again."
"Have you any good news?"
"Well, yes and no. The Scholars have discovered what world the boy reached. There is no real-time intelligence, but it's not completely unknown and we can eat the local food. However, we seem to be in the middle of a territorial dispute: The College of Witches has also visited there, which displeases the Scholars. Sagard is trying to keep the two groups separate, but we need to talk to each of them. Attempt tact. The College of Witches says they have enough samples of the local languages that they can bespell translation amulets for the party, which is good."
"Translation amulets always have problems with idioms, and they work on only one other person at a time."
"They're what we've got."
"How many languages?"
"The witch staff claim seven, which seems unlikely."
"Why so many? Why would the people on the other side of the gate speak so many languages?"
"We'll ask," Baudier said. "Our clothes should not excite much comment, so that's good."
"Sandals are stupid."
"Linen or hemp pants, in drab blue or brown, and sandals, that's what the scholars say are fairly normal for the society we'll find. Our weapons will attract notice, and that's bad. The witches will provide us with a general covering spell which supposedly will encourage a `state of indifference', which sounds good, but which hasn't been field tested. Last and worst, the situation on the other side of the gate is unsettled and complex: There is at least one other intermittently active gate in the area."
"That's not good. Do we know where this other intermittently active gate gives access?"
"No."
"Now," the Sage said to the group, "the gate you will all be using is what we call a changeable gate. That means travelers other than those who leave from the Scholar's fane here can arrive there. In the interest of safety, we have decided you should us the back-up gate."
"The back-up gate? Where is it?"
"Near the main gate, but at a lower elevation."
"Why are there two gates so close together?"
"There is only one gate, it just has two manifestations. You could call them entrances."
"Why don't they call them that, then?" Mante said softly.
Baudier kicked him into silence.
"Actually," Cham, the novice traveling with the group, said, "you can say that any gate has an infinite number of manifestations, but this gate has two stable positions. Which may indicate that the gate itself is long established and stable."
"You will only approach the main gate after a careful reconnaissance of the surroundings," the Sage said.
"When are we going to have time for that?" Tivon asked.
"We have to do it before we use the gate to return here," Cham said.
"Now," the Sage said, "gather at the fane. We will prepare the detector and the activator and join you there directly."
"That's too much stuff," Baudier said, eyeing the packs the nursemaid had ready.
"A child takes twice as much gear as an adult. I've cut it down to the absolute minimum, we can't get along with any less."
"Antrag," Baudier said, "you have to get it down to one pack--a change of clothes, another pair of shoes, some travel bars, for each of you and if there is any spare room, some gold."
"She can take those," the witch said.
"Gries," Baudier began, annoyed at the interference.
"Once we get it through the gate I can store most of this in a spatial fold, a pouch. It won't be totally handy, but I can access it in less than half a lyud," Gries said.
"All right," Baudier said. "Antrag, repack: a bag to keep with you, as I described. The boy's gear can go in the second pack, which we can put in this spatial pouch thing."
"Along with a lot more gold," Mante said.
"No," the witch said. "There is a limit. A little more gold, and maybe some travel bars, but that's all. I'll be putting my gear," Gries indicated her three packs, "in there, too."
"How secure is this spatial fold?" Mante asked.
"Very. Only I can access it."
"Things ever get lost in there?"
"No."
"Why don't we take some diamonds?" Mante asked Baudier. "Or other gems. Take the gold to sell first, and the gems once we know our way around a little. Diamonds are lighter than gold."
"I hope we won't be staying that long, but that's a good idea, just in case we do."
"So are we ready?" Mante asked.
"Here comes Cham," Tivon said.
"A ritual? Now we're having a ritual?"
"Shhh," Baudier told Mante.
The ritual was short. Cham, wearing heavy silk gloves, laid a silver disk, about the size of a dinner plate, on top of the disk already set into the mossy ground. The Sage handed him a wide and short sealed jar, with what appeared to be limp rectangles of black foil hanging down from the center plug. The Sage then gestured the others into a ring around the disk and had them join hands.
Cham cleared his throat, said the activating word, and the castle of Mindo faded out.
SUNNYDALE
"Where are we?"
"I think we're in a dungeon."
"A pantry," Tivon said, nodding at a rack of wine bottles.
"Strategy training center," Mante said indicating the ping-pong table.
"A dwelling, in any case," Baudier said, listening to footsteps on the floor above. "And someone is home." He eyed the scholar in a grim and annoyed manner.
"There wasn't a house here when the last survey was done," Cham whispered.
"And when was that?" Baudier asked.
"About forty-five cycles."
"Hell," Baudier said.
"How do we get out of here?" Mante asked.
"Just a minute," Cham said, touching the top of the bell jar to the silver disc on the floor.
"Hurry up," Baudier said.
Cham watched the black foil leaves stand away from each other, then stuffed the jar into his pack. He picked up the silver disc and wrapped it in silk, then put it into a different part of his pack. "Ready."
"Look behind that arras," Gries, the witch said.
"Big window," Baudier disapproved. "Not defensible."
"It's a door," Gries said. "See, it slides."
"Good eyes. And this is the lock," Mante said, unlocking the patio door and opening it. The house alarm system sounded.
"Possibly defensible after all," Baudier said, waving the group out.
"You asked for safe," Mante said. "You didn't say quiet."
"The idea that we're safe here is appalling," Cham said, looking around Willy's.
"Well, we don't stand out here. Try talking to the bartender," Baudier told Mante.
When Mante came back to the table, carrying a pitcher of beer and several glasses, he said: "The amulets work. The bartender says we can take the girls next door."
"What do you mean?" Antrag asked. "Take us? Take us where?
"Across the alley, to something called the `Flamingo Lodge -- a hot sheet dive'. Apparently an inn of some kind."
"He thinks we're harlots," Gries said calmly.
"What?" Antrag demanded.
"It's a reasonable assumption to make," Gries said.
"No, it isn't. I'm not going."
"If you stay here, anyone may approach you."
"This is just so awful."
"I'm sure we were cheated, but we have a hole to hide in," Baudier said.
"I can work here," Gries said, looking around at the "housekeeping unit" they had rented.
"Good."
"So what is my first priority?" the witch asked.
"Travel bars," Tivon said. "I'm starved."
"The landlord said we have some sort of kitchen," Antrag said.
"Unpack," Baudier told the witch. "Put the wards up. Feed Tivon. Antrag, Mante and I will go shop for some local food and to get a general idea of the current layout of the town."
"Not much of a kitchen," Antrag said. "Stew," she decided, looking at the dented pots and the tiny stove.
"Alarms," Gries said, "not active wards. Alarms aren't noticed until they sound."
"Whatever," Baudier said. He, Mante and Antrag went out.
"A more current map," Baudier said, spreading it out on the low table in front of the sagging couch.
Cham frowned at it, then said: "I'll assume the watercourses didn't shift." He turned the group's smaller map until the shore line and the two small and one large rivers flowing into the harbor were in the same orientation. "So," he said, "ah, up here is the main gate and here is the back gate, and uh..."
"We're here," Baudier said. "Roughly. The man at the posting station--they call it a gas station--could read this; Mac says he was here, at this red mark, and we're only three streets over and two streets up or down."
"The area is much more developed than the last survey noted. I cannot estimate what the population is today."
"Overgrown," the witch said, "to the point of instability. We should not linger here, unless we wish to be caught in the collapse."
"What's that?" Tivon asked, seeing Mante take a jerky stick out of a large bag he was carrying.
"Dried meat, with seasoning," Mante said, handing Tivon one.
"Not bad."
"What are those?" Cham asked, seeing that Mante had more items in the bag.
"Blue jeans," Mante said. "Most of the people around here wore them, not trousers like ours. We managed to get some for everyone, and if they're too big, we hold them up with belts, that's what the funny loops are for."
"So we can blend in better," Baudier said. "And this is a trench coat. See here, the sword hangs here, it's a little lumpy, but we don't need to go around unarmed. Mante and Tivon can share this one, and this one's mine."
"You look like a man with a sword under his coat," Cham said.
"We're not sure we'll be noticed at all," Gries said.
"We get twitchy, walking around without our swords," Tivon said.
"How are you coming on locating Ingelram?" Mante asked the witch.
Gries re-oriented the maps, putting north, north and took a tiny square-based pyramid, placing it where Baudier had indicated the group was. On the sharp apex, she balanced a thin gold arrow, which spun gently, then pointed steadily in one direction. "He's that way."
"Excellent," Cham said. "We'll have a bite to eat, go get the boy and leave."
"Any indication how far?" Mante asked the witch.
"Less than twenty leagues," Gries said.
"Can you make do with a three league base?" Baudier asked.
"Certainly for a start."
"Twenty leagues!" Cham said. "That's five days walk."
"Two days and a half, but we don't know that Ingelram is twenty leagues away, we just know he's that way somewhere," Baudier said.
"So tomorrow we go up or down from this line three leagues, do the spell-search again, and draw another line. Ingelram will be where the lines cross."
"Tomorrow?" Cham asked.
"Gries is tired," Tivon said.
"Magic is different here," the witch said.
"Tomorrow," Baudier decided.
"Stew," Antrag announced.
***