The Stranger's Magic: The Labyrinths of Echo: Book Three Read Online Free PDF Page B

tomorrow, said Juffin. Otherwise, you can come to the Street of Old Coins tonight. You’ll
definitely find me here. It won’t even matter if your sense of timing is off.
    Thank you, Juffin. I’ll do that.
    Good. Now get out of my office. I know you all too well. First you’ll drink two or three mugs of kamra, and then you’re going to say that you had to work overtime.
    Hey, it’s my office, too! I said. All right, all right. I’m gone already.
    Liar!
    You can’t fool the boss, I thought. I gave a loud, deep sigh, rose from the armchair where I had just curled up, and went to the Hall of Common Labor. Shurf Lonli-Lokli wasn’t there,
so I decided to take my chances and look for him in his lair.
    He wasn’t in his huge, almost empty, and sterile office either, but I sensed that he would show up any minute now. I had gotten so used to trusting my instincts that I didn’t bother
to burden myself with Silent Speech. Instead, I grabbed a random book from a small white bookshelf over his desk, sat on the only (and very hard) chair in the room, and prepared to wait.
    The book was The Pendulum of Immortality. I had seen Shurf reading it many times already. I didn’t have the chance to dip into this literary monument, however. Moments later, the door at
the far end of the office opened with a quiet creak. I’m a fast reader, all right, but not that fast.

    “You came even sooner than I expected,” I said, getting up from the owner’s chair. I rushed to put the book back on the shelf—I knew what a pain in the neck Shurf
was.
    “I am happy to see you, Max,” said Lonli-Lokli. His stone face looked almost friendly. “But I should be very much obliged if you returned the book to the place you took it
from.”
    “Wait, what did I just do?”
    “You put it on the shelf—you didn’t return it. The book was the third from the right, and now it is the rightmost item on the shelf. Do not get me wrong, Max. I am all for
changes in general, yet untimely changes do not facilitate a good mood.”
    I submitted without a murmur and returned the book to its original place. Then I couldn’t contain myself and laughed. “Oh, this is just brilliant, Shurf! Sometimes I think that the
World stands on your back.”
    “It may well be true,” said this wonderful fellow in an indifferent tone. “Do you have any news for me, or have you just decided to pay a visit?”
    “Yes and yes. But my news requires a more intimate setting: a candlelit dinner and whatnot. Got a minute?”
    “Must it be candlelit?” said Lonli-Lokli. “There are not many taverns in Echo that use candles, you know. Illuminating gas is much more practical.”
    “Fine, we’ll do away with the candles,” I said in the tone of a person who was willing to sacrifice the most sacred principles in the interests of business. “To be
perfectly straight, we can do away with the dinner, too. I don’t have much in terms of news. I just like to combine business with pleasure.”
    “So do I,” said Shurf, grinning. “And since you mentioned candles, we could go to the Vampire’s Dinner. Their cuisine is not bad, and I think they still don’t have
too many customers there. They even have candles. Would this be agreeable to you?”
    “The Vampire’s Dinner is a marvelous place. I had no idea you ever went there.”
    “At one time, it was one of my favorite taverns, and I still find it pleasant. I used to dine there almost every day.”
    “‘Used to’? Was it during your Merry Fishmonger days, by any chance?” I said.
    “Oh, no. Much, much later. Incidentally, it was there that I met my wife. She caught my fancy by ordering precisely the dishes that I found virtually inedible. I thought that studying that
woman would grant me access to a new side of human life that hitherto had been unknown to me. A side that does not find the taste of Kuankulex wine or Loxrian xatta revolting.”
    I shook my head, bewildered. This fellow baffled me every now and