Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser by Fritz Leiber

Author:Fritz Leiber
Format: mobi
Published: 2010-10-28T11:28:05.359000+00:00

• • •

The Mouser, steeling himself for it, knelt and surveyed the noisome heap that was Prince Gwaay. The stench was abominably strong despite the perfumes the Mouser had sprinkled and the incense he had burned but an hour ago.

The Mouser had covered with silken sheets and fur robes all the loathsomeness of Gwaay except for his plagues-stricken pillowed-up face. The sole feature of this face that had escaped obvious extreme contagion was the narrow handsome nose, from the end of which there dripped clear fluid, drop by slow drop, like the ticking of a water clock, while from below the nose proceeded a continual small nasty retching which was the only reasonably sure sign that Gwaay was not wholly moribund. For a while Gwaay had made faint straining moanings like the whispers of a mute, but now even those had ceased.

The Mouser reflected that it was very difficult indeed to serve a master who could neither speak, write, nor gesticulate—particularly when fighting enemies who now began to seem neither dull nor contemptible. By all counts Gwaay should have died hours since. Presumably only his steely sorcerous will and consuming hatred of Hasjarl kept his spirit from fleeing the horrid torment that housed it.

The Mouser rose and turned with a questioning shrug toward Ivivis, who sat now at the long table hemming up two hooded black voluminous sorcerer’s robes, which she had cut down at the Mouser’s direction to fit him and herself. The Mouser had thought that since he now seemed to be Gwaay’s sole remaining sorcerer as well as champion, he should be prepared to appear dressed as the former and to boast at least one acolyte.

In answer to the shrug, Ivivis merely wrinkled her nostrils, pinched them with two dainty fingertips, and shrugged back. True, the Mouser thought, the stench was growing stronger despite all his attempts to mask it. He stepped to the table and poured himself a half cup of the thick blood-red wine, which he’d begun unwillingly to relish a little, although he’d learned it was indeed fermented from scarlet toadstools. He took a small swallow and summed up:

“Here’s a pretty witch’s kettle of problems. Gwaay’s sorcerers blasted—all right, yes, by me, I admit it. His henchmen and soldiery fled—to the lowest loathy dank dim tunnels, I think, or else gone over to Hasjarl. His girls vanished save for you. Even his doctors fearful to come nigh him—the one I dragged here fainting dead away. His slaves useless with dread—only the tread-beasts at the fans keep their heads, and they because they haven’t any! No answer to our message to Flindach suggesting that we league against Hasjarl. No page to send another message by—and not even a single picket to warn us if Hasjarl assaults.”

“You could go over to Hasjarl yourself,” Ivivis pointed out.

The Mouser considered that. “No,” he decided, “there’s something too fascinating about a forlorn hope like this. I’ve always wanted to command one. And it’s only fun to betray the wealthy and victorious.

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