Chi'ash-lan: city at western end of Ravlish Lands. This city was the birthplace of Banker Sod (sometime Governor of the Safrak Bank) and of Thayer Levant (Guest Gulkan's servant, who previously served Plandruk Qinplaqus). The Bank in Chi'ash-lan is the Morgrim Bank. In this Bank is a monster twice man-height. The monster is of jade green stone, and is known to the world as the demon Ko (or, to give it the dignity of its full and formal name, as the demon Koblathakatoria. This demon is not actually a creature of the world of gods and shadows – rather, it is a machine, a military farspeaker of Nexus make.
Guest stood on the marble plinth, momentarily uncertain as to whether it was the real thing or a delusionary illusion. Then he was abruptly shoved from behind by an unruly Banker who came pushing through the humming silver screen which filled the arch of Chi'ash-lan's Door.
"Time is money!" said the Banker, as Guest went stumbling.
Then the Banker promptly turned and made his way back through the Door, pushing on to the Safrak Bank on the island of Alozay. Guest realized he truly was in Chi'ash-lan, and that its Door was in use, and that there was no telling who or what might come through that Door unless he acted quickly. He jumped down from the marble plinth. Water squelched in his boots as he landed, for his boots were still soaking wet from the water in which he had lately been standing.
That squelching water assured Guest that at least some small fraction of his recent experience had been for real. Otherwise, he might have dismissed the Lobos and its cave as sheer hallucination.
He checked. Did he have the yellow bottle? Yes, it was still tightly tied to his swordless swordbelt with a moligok.
Presumably, Sken-Pitilkin and Thayer Levant were still safe inside that bottle. And the ring which controlled it was still safe on Guest's finger.
Right, then. Guest looked for the niche in the plinth of the Door, found it, and found it occupied by the star-globe, as he had expected.
He hesitated.
As soon as he seized the star-globe and pulled it from that niche, then the Circle of the Doors of the Partnership Banks would abruptly close. Then Guest would be stuck in Chi'ash-lan, and would be put to the trouble of fighting his way free from the Morgrim Bank – if he could. He was sorely tempted to take an easier course: to abandon the star-globe and simply jump through the Door, making the passage to the island of Alozay in the tricing of an eyeblink.
But -
But did Lord Onosh still rule on Alozay?
That was the first question which troubled Guest Gulkan. And the second was this: what would his father say if he knew that Guest had been within grasping distance of the star-globe, but had declined its challenge? Guest came to a quick decision.
He seized the cold cool of the star-globe and snatched it from its niche. The silver-buzzing hum of the Door died away on an instant. When Guest rose, the star-globe in his hand, no screen of shimmering silver remained in the arch. Instead, the arch was but a loop of metal.
Now to get out of here. Guest hastened toward the exit of the Morgrim Bank's weirding room. But halted abruptly, for of course the demon Ko stood on guard in that exit.
"Ko," said Guest, challenging that monolith of jade-green stone.
"I see you and here you," said Ko. "You are welcome, thrice welcome. You are free to pass – with or without that which you have won."
All this was said with immaculate courtesy, and was said moreover in Guest's native Eparget, which in itself was sufficient to tell Guest that he was recognized. Ko knew who he was, and what. And Guest remembered a terrible day on which that very demon had seized his brother Eljuk, had torn away his clothes, had -
Remembering, Guest realized he could not trust Ko for so much as half an eyeblink. Courtesy was not the custom of demons, which meant that this demon meant to seize him and tear him. Guest had a rough and ready idea of the demon's reach. It could extrude quick-striking tentacles, smash him and mash him, grip him and clutch him, drag him in and slaughter him. Or hold him prisoner – as Eljuk had been held. Eljuk had eventually been released. But would Guest be so lucky? Somehow, he doubted it. Guest glanced back at the arch of the Door. He was half- minded to open it, then make his retreat, leaving the star-globe in Chi'ash-lan. But if his father still ruled on Alozay, then -
"Come to me," said Ko, softly. "Come to me. It's perfectly safe."Guest looked back to the demon, which saw his hesitation, his fear, his intense suspicion. In response, it laughed.
"Now you see," said Ko, with a sudden change of tone. "Now you realize. There is no way out."
Then the demon laughed again, with brutal frankness.
But -
The thing's laughter was so frank that Guest thought it to be too frank. One could trust a demon in nothing. The brutality of the laughter was so theatrically overstated, so brilliantly triumphant, that Guest was immediately sure that the demon must be trying to distract his attention from something.
But what? Guest remembered Sken-Pitilkin's performance on the day of the battle for the mainrock Pinnacle. Sken-Pitilkin had levitated above the demon Icaria Scaria Iva-Italis, taking advantage of the headroom between the demon and the roof. There was just as much headroom between the demon Ko and the ceiling of the doorway it guarded.
While Guest was still deliberating, he heard footsteps approaching. He had no sword, hence did not even momentarily think of fighting his way out of difficulty. Rather, he turned the ring on his finger – and was promptly sucked into the yellow bottle.
It was the work of moments for Guest to retrieve Sken-Pitilkin from the yellow bottle, but unfortunately such was his haste that he accidentally retrieved Shabble as well.
As Guest and Sken-Pitilkin emerged from the yellow bottle, sweeping out as so much smoke, and solidifying to their proper forms instants later, Shabble swept and solidified likewise.
True, Shabble was still secured in a net of silver – but the bubble was free!
"Where are we?" said Sken-Pitilkin.
The yells of a dozen Zenjingu fighters instantly gave him the answer to that question. Sken-Pitilkin could not for the life of him work out how he had been abruptly transported from the Shackle Mountains to the Morgrim Bank, but the sight of the black-clad Zenjingu, combined with the sight of the demon Ko and the skeletons which dangled from the ceiling, orientated him instantly.
As the Zenjingu charged around the flanks of the demon Ko, Sken-Pitilkin threw up his hands and cried out a Word.
The Zenjingu were scattered in all directions, seized by levitational energies and smashed against walls and against skeletons.
"Into the bottle!" said Sken-Pitilkin. "In, and I'll have us out of here in instants!"
Then Guest made a grab for the silver rope which was trailing from the silver net which secured Shabble. But he missed, and Shabble promptly drifted out of reach.
"This is no time for bubble-hunting!" said Sken-Pitilkin.
"Get in the bottle! And stay there!"
With that, Guest turned the ring on his finger, and was again transported into the yellow bottle, thus leaving the responsibilities of initiative to Sken-Pitilkin.
Then Sken-Pitilkin exerted his Power and levitated himself, endeavoring to preserve a grave dignity as he did so. But it is an unfortunate fact that this business of levitation tends to be singularly ridiculous, particularly when one is wearing fisherman's skirts as Sken-Pitilkin was. For, while the skirt is a most practical form of dress, it is most definitely not one which is meant to be viewed from below.
Carrying the yellow bottle, Sken-Pitilkin drifted with due deliberation above the demon Ko, thus making his escape from the room which held the Door of the Morgrim Bank. Shabble confidently tried to follow. But the bubble of bounce had forgotten that it was trailing a rope of silver – and this the demon caught!
On hearing a wail of distress from Shabble, Sken-Pitilkin turned to see the demon dragging Shabble closer and closer toward its own cold green substance.
Then Sken-Pitilkin paid no more heed to Shabble, for he had other problems to worry about.
Need we give here an account of the manner in which Sken-Pitilkin fought his way free from the Morgrim Bank? Need we mention the arrows which were fired at him, and the supreme skill which he demonstrated in coping with their onslaught? Of course we need not! For it may be taken for granted that any wizard of the order of Skatzabratzumon is more than a match for a rabble of Zenjingu fighters. And, further, it would be injurious to Sken-Pitilkin's dignity to suggest that he had (or has) any need for history to take account of the splendidly satisfying manner in which he crunched bones, shattered flesh, and sent the bravest running in all directions in bawling terror.
Let it then merely be recorded that Sken-Pitilkin escaped from the Morgrim Bank, which is set in the approximate center of the city of Chi'ash-lan, and he was levitating toward the outskirts of the city when -
When a cloud formed in the air close at hand. Sken-Pitilkin had barely time sufficient to gape at the cloud before it configured itself as a Yarglat barbarian. Judging from the bigness of his ears, that barbarian was Guest Gulkan. And, on this occasion, the bigness of his ears was matched by the bigness of his mouth. For, when Guest emerged from the bottle to find himself poised in mid-air above the city, his jaw dropped in outright horror.
"The ring!" bawled Sken-Pitilkin.
But it was too late.
Guest was already falling, and by the time he had wit sufficient to turn the ring on his finger, he was too far removed from the yellow bottle for the ring to compel him within it. Thus he fell, with Sken-Pitilkin – his own power nearly exhausted by battle and flight – helpless to save him. Guest did not fall far.
After all, Sken-Pitilkin was no seagull, hence had not soared to any great height. Rather, he had been levitating – and not without difficulty, for it is a business far more tricky than it may appear to the uninitiated, this fine art of levitation – about four storeys above the ground. Guest fell but three storeys before his fall was intercepted by a roof. He crashed through the roof and disappeared from sight.
In the face of this disaster, Sken-Pitilkin did not have to make any fine ethical calculations. The best he could do was to ensure his own survival, so that was what he did. He got himself to the outskirts of the city, landed, and took to his heels and fled.
Need we give here an account of Sken-Pitilkin's escape? No, surely not. For it was only Zenjingu fighters who were pursuing him, and any fieldsman who cannot elude five thousand of the Zenjingu or more is not worthy of his bootleather.
While Sken-Pitilkin was a wizard, he was other things as well. Amongst other things, he was a fisherman. He had not adopted a fisherman's skirts as his customary attire by random choice! No, he had studied the Art of Arts for generations, and from its study he had learnt his fieldcraft thoroughly.
Thus Sken-Pitilkin was able to elude the Zenjingu, and get himself away from Chi'ash-lan – and, eventually, to improvise a stickbird of sorts and go limping back to the island of Drum.
A fine predicament, this!
For Sken-Pitilkin was still in possession of the yellow bottle, which he took with him all the way to his home island of Drum, but he did not have the ring which allowed one to enter or leave that bottle. The sole ring to command that bottle was in Guest Gulkan's possession, and, for all the wizard knew, Guest might well be dead.
Well.
We all have to die sometime.
But the truly tragic part was that Thayer Levant, Guest's long-serving, long-suffering and totally unappreciated servant, was trapped in the yellow bottle, unable to get out through his own exertions, and with Sken-Pitilkin (for all his undoubted sagacity) in no position to help him.
And suppose one to be trapped in a wizard-made bottle, as was Thayer Levant. What then will one have to drink? And what to eat?
As a rule, drink is no problem, for wizards take care to stock such bottles well with water. And food? Well, this yellow bottle had lately been used as a portable storehouse on a journey into the Shackle Mountains, so it contained rations sufficient to feed one person for a few months or so. But supposing those few months to pass, what then? Why, a prisoner trapped in a wizard- made bottle and beyond succor by outside forces must necessarily resort to the siege dust which is so commonly found in such bottles.
Of siege dust, it may be said in its favor that it can last for upwards of five thousand years while still remaining as good to eat as it was to start with. The problem is that, even to start with, siege dust is no more palatable than ordinary dust.
So Thayer Levant was doomed to suffer a cruel and unusual punishment, for his ordinary food must inevitably run out unless Guest could make it back to Drum in six months or less.
But six months passed and there was no sign of Guest. A year passed, and still there was no sign of Guest. Sken-Pitilkin had every right to presume to Weaponmaster to be dead – but, not content with taking such a position, the wizard of Skatzabratzumon had built a fully serviceable stickbird, and had several times flown it the full length of the Ravlish Lands in search of the Weaponmaster.
However, despite Sken-Pitilkin's exhausting and exhaustive endeavors on his account, Guest Gulkan had to do it all on his own. Having survived the fall through a roof – he had after all fallen a mere three storeys, and what is three storeys to a stoutly built Yarglat barbarian? – Guest escaped from Chi'ash-lan and fled east through the Ravlish Lands.
For a year and a day he fled, with the Zenjingu fighters ever close on his heels. And, a year and two days after Guest's intemperate materialization in the skies of Chi'ash-lan, the sea dragon Hobagamandrik came to Sken-Pitilkin with the news that a fishing boat had arrived from D'Waith, and that Guest Gulkan was a passenger on that fishing boat.
(Two Zenjingu fighters arrived the very next day, and were shortly thereafter eaten by Sken-Pitilkin's sea dragons, who pronounced them to be rather stringy, and of a flavor midway between that of cat and that of pig).
Thus Guest Gulkan returned to Drum, and was able to use his ring to liberate Thayer Levant from the yellow bottle. For all that time, Levant had preserved the star-globe, which Guest had left behind in the bottle when he had exited to the skies of Chi'ash-lan. Levant – rightly enraged by a year of imprisonment – declared that Guest could count himself supremely lucky that the star-globe had not got itself flushed down one of the vents which allowed wastes to exit from the yellow bottle.
In the light of what later happened, it may be seen in retrospect as being very unfortunate that Guest did not take the time to address Levant's complaints in depth and in detail, to soothe him with flattery and to balm him with promises. But instead, Guest belittled Levant's sufferings, saying they had all taken place indoors, free from the wind and rain, the wasps and thorns, the rockburn and sunburn which had bedeviled the Weaponmaster on his year of flight from Chi'ash-lan.
Then Guest promptly launched himself into a conference with Sken-Pitilkin, making plans for returning to Alozay with the starglobe, and, assuming his father to still be in possession of that island, using Alozay as a base for a struggle which would surely seem him end as master of the Circle of the Partnership Banks.