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of
Brazel; at the walled city Munt; and in the observatory of the Grand
Starkeeper at Vir Vassilis."
Cugel shook his head sadly. "I hear that conditions have changed. Brazel has
long since sunk beneath the waves. Munt was destroyed a thousand years ago by
Dystropes. I have never heard of either Blue Azor or Vir Vassilis, though
184
I am widely traveled. Possibly, here at Gundar, you are the solitary Solar
Emosynaries yet in existence."
"This is dismal news," declared Maier. "The noticeable enfeeblement of the sun
is hereby explained. Perhaps we had best double the fire under our regulator."
Cugel poured more wine. "A question leaps to mind. If, as I suspect, this is
the single Solar Emosynary station yet in operation, who or what regulates the
sun when it has passed below the horizon?"
The innkeeper shook his head. "I can offer no explanation. It may be that
during the hours of night the sun itself relaxes and, as it were, sleeps,
although this is of course sheerest speculation."
"Allow me to offer another hypothesis," said Cugel. "Conceivably the waning of
the sun has advanced beyond all possibility of regulation, so that your
efforts, though formerly useful, are now ineffective."
Maier threw up his hands in perplexity. "These complications surpass my scope,
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but yonder stands the Nolde Huruska." He directed Cugel's attention to a large
man with a deep chest and bristling black beard, who stood at the entrance.
"Excuse me a moment." He rose to his feet and approaching the
Nolde spoke for several minutes, indicating Cugel from time to time. The Nolde
finally made a brusque gesture and marched across the garden to confront
Cugel. He spoke in a heavy voice: "I understand you to assert that no
Emosynaries exist other than ourselves?"
"I stated nothing so definitely," said Cugel, somewhat on the defensive. "I
remarked that I had traveled widely and that no other such 'Emosynary' agency
has come to my attention; and I innocently speculated that possibly none now
operate."
"At Gundar we conceive 'innocence' as a positive quality, not merely an
insipid absence of guilt," stated the Nolde. "We are not the fools that
certain untidy ruffians might suppose."
Cugel suppressed the hot remark which rose to his lips, and contented himself
with a shrug. Maier walked away with the Nolde and for several minutes the two
men conferred, with frequent glances in Cugel's direction.
Then the Nolde departed and the innkeeper returned to Cugel's table. "A
somewhat brusque man, the Nolde of Gundar," he told Cugel, "but very competent
withal."
"It would be presumptuous of me to comment," said Cugel. "What, precisely, is
his function?"
"At Gundar we place great store upon precision and methodicity," explained
Maier. "We feel that the absence of order encourages disorder; and the
official responsible for the inhibition of caprice and abnormality is the
Nolde. . . What was our previous conversation? Ah yes, you mentioned our
notorious baldness,
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I can offer no definite explanation. According to our savants, the condition
signifies the final perfection of the human race. Other folk give credence to
an ancient legend. A pair of magicians, Astherlin and Mauldred, vied for the
favor of the Gunds. Astherlin promised the boon of extreme hairiness, so that
the folk of Gundar need never wear garments. Mauldred, to the contrary,
offered the Gunds baldness, with all the consequent advantages, and easily won
the contest; in fact Mauldred became the first Nolde of Gundar, the post now
filled, as you know, by Huruska." Maier the innkeeper pursed his lips and
looked off across the garden. "Huruska, a distrustful sort, has reminded me of
my fixed rule to ask all transient guests to settle their accounts on a daily
basis. I
naturally assured him of your complete reliability, but simply in order to
appease Huruska, I will tender the reckoning in the morning."
"This is tantamount to an insult," declared Cugel haughtily. "Must we truckle
to the whims of Huruska? Not I, you may be assured! I will settle my account
in the usual manner." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]