Chapter 2 - finale

In the Red Scarp, Amos paused in her story-telling. She was remembering that climb from the mouth of the Azot into the light-less belly of the earth.

Colm blinked, as if coming out of a waking trance; with his black eye, he looked like an owl fooled out of its wisdom.

Leni yawned. Then he said, “Could we get some refreshments in here? I mean, I suspect we are not prisoners – is that so? Even they get meals, I believe.”

Colm cleared his throat and scowled at the magician. “Yes, excuse me for overlooking it. I was enrapt.”He stood up, looking around for something that was not present.

“It's a gripping tale,” Leni concurred, “but that is no good reason to lose your grip on good etiquette.”

“Of course. Forgive me.”Colm rang a bell upon his desk, summoning his assistant; then he asked the two seated in his office, “What would you like?”

Leni smiled and said, “I've prepared a list.”He produced a little rolled sheaf, like the type that the messenger birds carry.

“A list? When?”Colm looked at the scrap of paper with an intense suspicion.

“What does it matter?”Leni said, waving the ticket in annoyance.

“Did you know that you would be dining here – in my office?”Colm asked with real fear in his face.

“Don't be absurd!” Leni scoffed. “I merely assumed I would, but that is neither here nor there. I didn't come with this in my pocket; I composed it while you were letting my bride regale you – in other words, while your attention was diverted.”

The assistant, a tall, bookish lad with medals on his red coat, entered the office. Colm, flustered, took the note from Leni and thrust it into the lad's hands.

“Have this brought in immediately,”the Chief Commander snapped.

The red coat nodded. It was obvious he was trying to avoid looking at his superior officer's black eye, which was very hard not to stare at. With relief, he looked instead at the scrap, squinting at Leni's tight lines of small black writing.

“Murmaly eggs?” he enquired. “Incepnosium? Fresh water-crescent? These are unusual ingredients!”

Colm's eyes narrowed. He looked at the magician for an explanation.

Leni gave him a look. “I have a very peculiar diet,” he said in response. “Magic demands of me to be remain puissant.”

“You don't mean to conjure anything with this do you?” Colm pointed at the list which the bewildered boy still held aloft.

“Indeed not!” Leni snapped in turn. “My plan is to make something disappear – my hunger! I'm sure that somewhere within the Red Scarp, or in other places nearby, all of those items can be located.”

Colm rolled his eyes. “Just bring what you can find,” he said to his lanky assistant, waving him away. The lad nodded once more, glanced at the ugly black eye as the Commander turned away, then let himself out scratching his chin.

Amos leaned in toward Leni's ear. “Murmaly eggs?”she whispered.

“If I am to be treated to lunch by the red coats, I'm going to make sure they treat me – and you – to everything we deserve.”

Colm poured out two glasses of wine for his guests, but for himself he doled out a stiff portion of heady brandy. These he brought over on a tray. When he was seated again, he gestured to Amos. “Please: continue,” he said.

Amos wished she hadn't lost her snuff box. She considered for a moment trying to find one in one of Leni's pockets – but the last time she'd gone searching in the many hidden pockets of his jacket, she had come up with a dead lizard. He of course had denied putting it there as a plant to ward her off future attempts to intrude on his privacy.

She contented herself with a rather indelicate swig of the wine. It was pale, orange, and very good. Leni was right again – the Archers could certainly afford to give them a free lunch, and more! She took another quaff, draining the goblet by half, which elicited a look of shock from the Commander, and a loving smile from Leni.

“I climbed down into the cavern until the cable ran out. Climbing back up was impossible for me. I was too young, and I didn't have the strength. So I dangled there, in the dark, for just a moment. I remember thinking that maybe we had all been destined to die, and although I was afraid, there was some hope in my heart that I was going to rejoin my mother, and the rest of my murdered family.”

Amos paused. She was staring at the rest of the wine her glass, moving it around the base of the crystal cup with a slight swirl.

Leni observed Colm, sitting on the edge of his seat, urging her silently to go on. He knew also that Amos wasn't keeping the Commander in suspense; she was lost in the memory, entranced by the past.

“What did you do then?” Leni murmured, like a moderator might say, leading someone on to give an answer; or a hypnotist might gently probe for information.

“I let go,” Amos said immediately, without even realizing she had spoken. When she came back to herself, she threw back the last of the wine, and gave Colm a radiant smile, putting her glass out to be filled again.