Myth-Fortunes

"... But do you believe it?" the first one asked the other, her voice suddenly audible over the racket in the street. "In the supply closet! That is just asking to be found, isn't it?"

"Well, you know what they say about them. She said he was absolutely wild .. . !"

"How fabulous!" the first one giggled.

"I know."

They dropped off again into inaudibility, but it had been enough. My cheeks burned. I wanted to climb under the table. I knew who they were talking about and, to my horror, so did Matt. She smiled and shook her head.

"That is typical gossip, I am afraid," Matt said, not without sympathy. "Even I have been getting messages from friends about what is happening on the construction site."

I cringed. "And do you pass them along to your boss?" I asked.

She looked shocked. "No! Why would you ask such a thing? Messages are private. Oh, it is only your friend's bad luck that he chose her. Tauret is such a big mouth. Almost any other woman in that office would have been more discreet."

I didn't intend to tell Aahz how far word of his close encounter had gone. It could have been a function of the curse that caused him to choose the one girl who kissed and told. Or simple bad luck. There was no way to know for sure. It would be cruel to rub it in.

"Mer-ow!" one of the cats said, coming out from beneath Matt's stool.

She stood up and smiled at me. I scrambled to my feet. "I am sorry," she said. "I must go back. Thank you for our lunch. And thank you so much for arranging my ride home the other night."

"My pleasure," I said honestly. "It's our fault you were late getting away."

"You are kind. I wish you good fortune. If there is ever anything I can do for you, please ask me."

"Unless you know how to unlock the curse," I said, wryly, "I don't know what there is."

"I ca

"I wouldn't ask you to," I assured her. "Thanks for the offer, though. It was really nice having lunch with you."

Matt looked surprised, as if it had not occurred to her. "Yes, it was. Goodbye now." She and the cats disappeared into the crowd.

Whistling, I made my way to my rendezvous point with my Camel.

Chapter 25

"What am I? A mind-reader?"

Beltasar met me at the pier. The Scarab held out a sheaf of miniature documents. "Sign these."

"What are they?" I asked.

"Work orders," she said, buzzing in a circle around my head. "There are eight blocks to be moved, and no paperwork has been filed. I ca

I looked them over quickly. Glyphs were still difficult for me to make out, but each of these was almost alike, except for the name of the owner of each stone, and the coordinates of the location to which it was going. I took the pencil from the hovering Scarab and dashed off my name on each one.

"Thank you," she said, and shot away.

Where was Aahz?

I went back to the And Company office. He wasn't in our studio. I checked all the offices. No Aahz.

"He has not been in here in hours," said Miss Tauret. She

looked a trifle miffed. I thanked her and went out to ask around the site.

"Aahz?" asked Lol-Kit, the female scribe. "The male with the face of Sober?"

"That's right," I said. I had been walking around for an hour without luck.

"Oh, he went over there some time ago," she said.

"Where?"

"Up there." She pointed a delicate claw toward the sky. I squinted into the sun, and made out a small black object hovering in the sky. "Yes, he is still there. He has been lying there for hours."

I panted my way up the steps to the top of Phase Two's invisible framework.

"Aahz!" I shouted again. "Are you all right? Answer me!"

My heart battered against the inside of my chest. Had the worst happened? Had he gone up to wait for a client and collapsed without anyone noticing?

He lay on his back at the apex of the four ramps, one arm outstretched, his hand curled around a circular object. He was lying too still. I took to the air and flew the rest of the way.

"Aahz!"

I zipped through the top of the framework and into the air until I was hovering over his face. His eyes were open. "Aahz!"

The eyes rolled in my direction and focused on me. "What? Can't a guy get any peace around here?"

My heart slowed a little, and I lit on the next step down from his. He had a clear pitcher beside him the size of a barrel half-filled with a pale golden liquid. I wasn't naive enough to think it was lemonade. A chased goblet that would have made a good bucket sat empty beside it. That had been the object in his hand.

"Are you okay?" I asked. "Everybody's been wondering where you are."

Aahz sat up and sighed.

"I just needed to get away by myself for a while," he said. "These last few days have been kind of tough on the ego." "I can understand that," I said.

Aahz poured himself a drink. He offered me the goblet. I shook my head, and he took a hefty gulp.

"You sounded like you were in a panic when you came flitting up here," he said. "Something the matter?" He aimed a talon at my nose. "Don't try to hedge. I've been watching you and the others tiptoe around me for weeks. What's on your mind?"

"Nothing!"

"Skeeve, you're a lousy liar. What's going on?"

No use in hedging, as he said, though there wasn't a shrub in sight. "We've been worried about you."

"What about me? I'm not the one who got lost in the sand for three days and hitched a ride home with Shrouds-R-Us."

I shrugged. "We've been kind of worried about your health."

"Why? I'm eating and drinking. Everything else is functioning just fine, thanks. What makes you think I'm not well?"

"Well. . . it's just. . . you've been nice to people lately."

"I'm always nice to people!" he roared. "What are you talking about?"

I smiled. That sounded like the old Aahz.

"It's not just that," I acknowledged. "We were concerned as to why you wanted to be involved in Samwise's project so badly. I saw your face when he started describing the pyramid stones, the carving, the mourners and everything. We've turned down working on jobs like this in the past. It's nothing special. It's construction. But you've taken this very personally. After finding out Samwise is responsible for bringing the curse on himself and everybody involved, we would have walked away from a situation like this in the past, but you've hung on. Why?"

Aahz threw himself on his back again and looked up at the sky.

"Legacy."

"Legacy?" I echoed, feeling panic rising again. "Then, there is something wrong with you? I'm your best friend. Will you tell me what it is?"

"There's nothing wrong with me!" he shouted. "I don't have to be at death's door to wonder what people are going to think about me when I'm gone. By then, it's too late. I'm not as young as I used to be. When Samwise sat down in our office and let loose with his sales spiel is when I really started thinking about it.

"I tend to live with an eye on the future, but it's not my primary focus. But, you know, as time goes by, you start to think about things. What have I ever done that anyone will remember me for? My kids don't talk to me. I've spent a lot of time kicking around, but what have I really accomplished? What's my mark on the future? Where is it? What did Aahzmandius ever do to earn a footnote in history?"

"There's M.Y.T.H., Inc.," I pointed out.

He opened one yellow eye and aimed it at me. "That's not my legacy, kid. That's yours. Bu