The Island Under the Earth by Avram Davidson

Author:Avram Davidson [Davidson, Avram]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781440544798
Publisher: F+W Media, Inc.
Published: 2012-07-13T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Three

Zorbinand the Thief had long had it in his mind — and not in his mind alone, but in a little scroll which he kept, marked with diurnal, semanal, and mensual signs, as well as tiny pictographs whose meaning was known only to Zorbinand the Thief — to rob the house of Dellatindílla the eunuch comprador. To this end he had devoted much time and research, such as espying over the walls for several years what went on in the courtyards and counting and noting all the hangings which were taken out to be cleaned and aired and thus estimating, by the several times several sorts of hangings, how many rooms there might be in the eunuch’s apartments, and how large each one was. He counted windows and he counted airshafts and when the opportunities occurred (which were not often) he had fascinated the house-churls and whispered in their ears, as they squatted, slack-faced and drooling, “Draw me a sketch of a house,” and thrust sharp sticks into their obedient hands: of course they had not always sketched the right house and they had not always sketched correctly, but much of the information fitted into the master plan which Zorbinand the Thief was preparing. He had even overcome his natural fastidiousness and made love to the oldest and ugliest of the eunuch’s she-servants, who, by virtue of that very ugliness and age, plus their master’s hateful distaste for anything which smacked of ordinary sexuality, did not often find love lurking for them; and afterwards he had simply let them babble of the wonders of the house. And after they had gone he had recorded the data in coded pictures and symbols in his little scroll.

He was aware that the comprador had periods of hyperactivity which were generally followed by periods of non-appearance, and he had made notes of how long each had lasted and how often they had occurred and at what intervals. And so, eventually, he set his date and retired into his rooms and began to fast. It was astonishing how quickly the fat and rufflebearded Zorbinand — Zorbinand of the curly hair — began to diminish in weight and girth; but then Zorbinand had studied many things in many places for many years, and he knew the secrets of rapid gain as well as those of rapid reducing; he knew which foods merely put on flesh and fat and which added strength without doing so. When he had reached a desired point he took razor and bowl and hot water and saponiferous plants and shaved every hair off his body and plucked out his eyelashes. After this he took neither food nor drink of any kind for one day and then half a day, only sucking on a piece of a certain kind of bark which dulled the pain of hunger without dispelling that degree of sharpening of the senses which a certain degree of hunger produces. And last of all he rubbed himself with oil,

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