The Exotic Enchanter Read Online Free PDF Page A

doing in such company? Come to think of it, how did you get here in the first place?"
    Malambroso gave the grandfather of all sighs, but continued pacing. "You remember Freston's, ah, unfortunate demise?"
    "I do," Shea said.
    Freston was a demon who, tricked by Reed Chalmers into committing good, suffered the ultimate penalty. The demon wasn't the only one who suffered; Chalmers and Shea, Florimel, and Malambroso were flung separately from a world in which Don Quixote was its greatest knight and not a madman's delusion, to that of the Aeneid .
    "Well, I wound up in Troy also, and shipped out with a chief named Agamemnon. I jumped ship in Egypt with a bunch of the loot; I figured it was a good place to hole up."
    Shea regretted that Malambroso had not continued to Mycenae with Agamemnon. If he had, Clytemnestra might have disposed of him permanently. According to the Greek legends, she'd made a pretty thorough sweep of her late husband's cronies.
    Malambroso smirked. "Then I bargained with Hermes the Lightfingered. Ten percent of everything I took in exchange for news of visitors from other continua. I bargained him down to five when I hinted that they might be the advance party for new gods.
    "But you can't depend on those Olympians. By the time I found out what you'd been up to you'd already left, although Hermes did drop me off in the same universe.
    "I wound up on the edge of the steppe, and started looking for Florimel. I found her at Yuri Dimitrivich's estate, but I couldn't afford to have her recognize me. She was established enough to have me imprisoned. And I didn't, ah, want to try amnesia spells before practicing with the magic of this world."
    "You don't seem to have learned much," Shea said, increasing his distance as the wizard took a step forward.
    "Magic among the Rus is complicated," Malambroso replied. "Many of them are strongly pious, which can cause spells to have, um, unintended results. Things are easier among these Polovtsi. Their old customs and taboos are breaking down, thanks to the wealth gained from raiding settled areas and providing slaves for the trade. They want spells for spying and battle-luck, things like that."
    "Why didn't you just grab Florimel and run?" Shea asked. "Or are you a slave, too?"
    "No, no. I am the chieftain's counselor, and expected to attend him at all times. After I was, er, captured, and happened to mention the, er, burned palisade, I am considered to bring good luck."
    "Were you there when she was captured?"
    "Of course. I had some idea of running off with her during the raid, but I had not then worked out a spell for leaving this world. Nor have I been able to persuade the chief to give her to me. These people are quite mercenary; they insist on cash down."
    "Ah, has she been hurt in any way?"
    "No, no. The chieftain, at least, understands the market value of undamaged merchandise. The captives are guarded by eunuchs. And—I have not been able to get her away. She and the other women get together and take turns calling on the saints to keep them safe." Malambroso looked sour. "Besides, she has developed much skill in biting, kicking, and screaming."
    Shea wondered just how he had found that out.
    "Why are you telling me all this?"
    "Because Florimel has a most unfortunate habit of loyalty. She won't desert those she considers her comrades. And once she's sold—do you know how hard it is to rescue a slave around here? Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, and everybody so solicitous of everyone else's property rights."
    "Yean, these bastards sure are."
    "Well, they are among themselves, and—confound it!" (although that wasn't exactly what Malambroso said).
    The wizard slapped himself in a sensitive spot, and the tent effect disappeared. Shea could hear normal background noises again, and the bargaining had risen to bellowing. With a last glance at Malambroso, who definitely had ants, if not something bigger, in his pants, Shea rode back to the Rus.
    Igor's men had pulled