[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
the floor, trying to cover his throat and crotch& Suddenly the entire apparition blew away
at the sound of Mongoose s dispassionate voice: Captain Marandil, you re under arrest in
the name of the King. Sergeant, take his weapons, badge, and keys to the safe. To the
basement with him!
No! No! No-o-o-o! It s untrue, this can t be happening not to him, Captain of the Secret
Guard Marandil, the chief of Gondorian station in Umbar! Yet already they are dragging
him down the steep chipped stairs (out of the blue he remembered that there were twenty of
them, with a large hole in the fourth step from the bottom); once in the basement, they shake
him out of his clothes and hang him up by the tied thumbs off a large hook in the ceiling
beam. Then Mongoose s face appears in front of his again, eye to eye:
I m not interested in your games with the Umbarian Secret Service right now. What I want
to know is who advised you to point the Elves to our team by siccing their underground on
His Majesty s Secret Guard? Who in Minas Tirith are you working for Arwen s people?
What do they know about Tangorn s mission?
I know nothing about that, I swear by anything! he croaks, twisting with pain in dislocated
joints, understanding full well that this is just a warm-up. I gave no orders to kidnap that
Algali Aravan is either crazy or working for himself&
Please begin, Sergeant. So who told you to reveal me to the Elves?
186
The Last Ring-bearer
They know their job well and doze the pain just so, not allowing him to slip away into
unconsciousness& Then it is all over: the mercy of the Valar is truly boundless, and Vaira s
gentle palms pick him up and carry him to the safest refuge the gloomy halls of Mandos.
& The sun was shining straight into Marandil s eyes it was almost noon. Groaning, he
raised his head (heavy like he had not slept at all) off the rolled-up cloak he had used as a
pillow, trying either to swallow or spit out the scream stuck in his dry throat. Habitually he
felt for an unfinished bottle of rum by the couch, pulled the cork out with his teeth and took
a few large swigs. Alcohol did not help much any more; he had to sniff kokkaine to really
wake up. Over the last few days fear ate up the chief of station from the inside, leaving only
a pitiful shell behind. The captain did not step outside the embassy now and slept only in
the daytime, in his clothes: somehow he had convinced himself that Mongoose was going to
come for him at midnight, just like in his nightmares.
The nightmares were varied and diverse. In them, Mongoose s special ops team would now
slip into his office like shadows, nin yokve-style, then arrive ghost-like right out of the large
Khandian wall mirror (when he woke up after that one, he smashed it first thing), or simply
break down his door like a regular police squad, uniformed and armed with official papers.
His most vivid recollection was of a dream in which he was attacked by four cat-sized bats.
Fleet and impervious, they chased the captain all over the building, chirping angrily and
slapping his head with their leathery wings, going for the eyes; the palms with which he had
shielded his face and the back of his head were both already torn into bloody pulp by their
tiny sharp teeth, and only then did the usual end come: Captain Marandil, you re under
arrest in the name of the King. Sergeant, take his weapons, badge, and keys to the safe. To
the basement with him!
Mister Secretary! Mister Secretary, wake up! Finally he realized that he did not wake up
by himself there was a courier mincing in the door. Sir Ambassador is summoning you
right now.
Right now that was new. When he received the letter with Aravan s testimony ten days
prior in the morning mail, Sir Eldred, the Ambassador Plenipotentiary of the Reunited
Kingdom, demanded an explanation from the chief of station. Hearing nothing but pitiful
not my doing, not our affair, he began avoiding the captain like the plague,
demonstratively severing all contact with him. The most horrible thing was that the legend
that Tangorn had dictated to Aravan sounded so persuasive that Marandil doubted his own
sanity: what if he had, indeed, given the order while out of his mind? He became so
convinced that he did away with the wounded Morimir (what if he, too, confirms the order
to kidnap Algali once he wakes up?); he did it in a hurry, clumsily, leaving plenty of clues
and no way to go back. Marandil felt a suffocating emptiness around himself: his
subordinates, to a man, avoided his glance, and all conversation stopped in any room he
entered. He knew that it was high time to flee, but he was afraid of being alone in the city
even more. The only hope was that DSD would get to Mongoose before he got to him; he
no longer believed that his own guard (which was so instructed) would be able to stop him.
What s the big hurry? he asked the courier gloomily, trying to smooth out his crumpled
clothes.
187
The Last Ring-bearer
They ve found some corpse and say it s your department plenty of small scars around the
mouth.
Marandil almost ran into the Ambassador s office and was immediately grabbed by two
bedraggled men in dirty jackets who had stationed themselves on either side of the door. Sir
Eldred stood a bit aside, affronted aristocratic dignity and bureaucratic servility blending
weirdly in his stance and expression it was obvious that His Eminence had just been
administered the proverbial acid enema, a couple of pails worth at least. His chair was
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]