Glen Cook: Sweet Silver Blues Part 2

Of course, even after Garrett decides to accept Old Man Tate’s commission, that doesn’t mean he can just march off into the Cantard.  The area is a perennial warzone, and the town where Denny’s beneficiary lived is far away from Garrett’s hometown of Tunfaire.  He must prepare for his journey, and in order to do so, he looks for assistance from his friends.

Foremost among his friends is The Dead Man, whom Garrett sometimes refers to as Chuckles, Smiley, Old Bones, and His Nibs.  The Dead Man belongs to a race called the Loghyr, and he died four hundred years ago.  Still, as Garrett says of them, “They don’t die just because somebody sticks a bunch of knives into them.”  Weighing in at 450 pounds, the Loghyr’s body slowly decays, but at a rate mere humans cannot detect.  Although he cannot physically move, he communicates with Garrett via telepathy, and can control nearby humans, animals, and insects with his psychokinetic powers.  Garrett finds The Dead Man’s advice valuable, and so he often bounces his thoughts off him, just to see if he’s assessed the situation properly.  In return for his help, Garrett pays the rent on the Loghyr’s room, keeps it clean, and brings fresh flowers to keep the smell down.  Still, insects and small animals occasionally take advantage of the Loghyr’s inability to physically move anymore.  While he’s consulting with his friend, Garrett relates, “A big, shiny black spider crawled out of one pig-like nostril at the end of his ten-inch trunk.  It did not like my looks.  It ducked back inside.”

While humans rule Tunfaire, many different races call it home.  Sometimes Garrett’s not even sure of some of his friends’ ancestry.  For example, when Denny’s family invades his office, insensitive to his raging hangover, Garrett says, “For a moment, I didn’t see the woman.  She barely came up to my chest.  ‘We’re invaded by dwarfs,’ I moaned.”  Later, he learns that there is elvish blood on both sides of Denny’s family.  This isn’t unusual, but that doesn’t mean that the family trumpets their mixed heritage.  “Plenty of people have the taint, yet most cover it up,” Garrett tells us.  “There is a lot of prejudice against the half elfin.” 

Another person he calls upon for assistance is Morley Dotes, who runs Morley’s Joy House, a hangout for elfin, cartha, and other breeds.  In his establishment, he serves up vegetarian food, nonalcoholic fruit drinks, and the kind of “impenetrable and dull entertainment that a dead Loghyr might find exciting.”  Morley is a dark-elf, a fount of local knowledge, and invaluable in a fight.  When some of those interested in Denny’s treasure attack them, Morley “seems to grow about six extra limbs.  He uses them all so fast you could hardly see them move.   And when he isn’t kicking or punching he’s biting, head-butting, hip-jagging, or knee-dropping.” 

When Garrett asks Morley to accompany him, he finds Morley equally reluctant to enter the Cantard.  Nor does Morley have a high opinion of Garrett.  After beating back attackers in Tunfaire, he’s annoyed that Garrett just wants to go to bed, and urges him to cleanse his body of pent-up energy by accompanying him on a five mile run.  Also, he doesn't approve of Garrett’s preference for eating meat and drinking beer.  He chides the private investigator, “You don’t get enough roughage, your bowels tighten up.  When your bowls tighten up, you get these dangerous, self-destructive mood swings.” 

Just as in real life, while Garrett may try to accept everyone for who they are, that doesn’t mean others are as open-minded.

Dragon Dave