The Second Book of Lankhmar

the god my greeting, May," he heard Mara say.
           "If he wakes enough to attend to aught but drink his milk and sleep again." May replied as she branched off from the expedition and headed for the hill with her jar through the dissipating shadows of night.
           Some of the men exclaimed gloomily at that, too, and Skor called for silence.
           Mara said softly to Fafhrd, "We bear left here a little, so as to miss Darkfire's icefall, which we skirt through the Isle's center until it joins the glacier of Mount Hellglow."
           Fafhrd thought, what cheerful names they favor, and scanned ahead. Heather and gorse were becoming scantier and stretches of lichened, shaly rock beginning to show.
           "What do they call this part of Rime Isle?" he asked her.
           "The Deathlands," she answered.
           More of the same, he thought. Well, at any rate the name fits the mad, death-bent Mingols and this gallows-favoring Odin god too.

             * * * *

           The Mouser was tallest of the four short, wiry men waiting at the edge of the public dock. Pshawri close beside him looked resolute and attentive, though still somewhat pale. A neat bandage went across his forehead. Ourph and Mikkidu rather resembled two monkeys, the one wizened and wise, the other young and somewhat woebegone.
           The salt cliff to the east barely hid the rising sun, which glittered along its crystalline summit and poured light on the farther half of the harbor and on the fishing fleet putting out to sea. The Mouser gazed speculatively after the small vessels — you'd have thought the Islanders would have been satisfied with yesterday's monster catch, but no, they seemed even more in a hurry today, as if they were fishing for all Nehwon or as if some impatient chant were beating in their heads, driving them on, such as was beating in the Mouser's now: Mingols to their deaths must go, down to weedy hell below — yes, to hell they must go indeed! and time was wasting and where was Cif?
           That question was answered when a skiff came sculling quietly along very close to the dock, propelled by Mother Grum sitting in the stern and wagging a single oar from side to side like a fish's tail. When Cif stood up in the boat's midst her head was level with the dock. She caught hold of the hand the Mouser reached down and came up in two long steps.
           "Few words," she said. "Mother Grum will scull you to Sprite," and she passed the Mouser a purse.
           "Silver only," she said with a wrinkle of her nose as he made to glance into it.
           He handed it to Pshawri. "Two pieces to each man at nightfall, if I'm not returned," he directed. "Keep them hard at work. 'Twere well Flotsam were seaworthy by noon tomorrow at latest. Go."
           Pshawri saluted and made off.
           The Mouser turned to the others. "Down into the skiff with you."
           They obeyed, Ourph impassive-faced, Mikkidu with an apprehensive sidewise look at their grim boatwoman. Cif touched the Mouser's arm. He turned back.
           She looked him evenly in the eye. "The Maelstrom is dangerous," she said. "Here's what perhaps can quell it, if it should trap you. If needs must, hurl it into the pool's exact midst. Guard it well and keep it secret."
           Surprised at the weight of the small cubical object she pressed into his hand, he glanced down at it surreptitiously. "Gold?" he breathed, a little wonderingly. It was in the form of a skeleton cube, twelve short thick gold-gleaming edges conjoined squarely.
           "Yes," she replied flatly. "Lives are more valuable."
           "And there's some superstition —?"
           "Yes," she cut him short.
           He nodded, pouched it carefully, and without other word descended lightly into the skiff. Mother Grum worked her oar back and forth, sending them toward the one small fishing craft remaining in the harbor.
           Cif watched after them as their skiff emerged into full sunlight. After a while she felt the same sunlight on her head and knew it was striking golden highlights from her dark hair. The Mouser never looked around. She did not really want him to. The skiff reached Sprite and the three men climbed nimbly aboard.
           She could have sworn there'd been no one near, but next she heard the sound of a throat being cleared behind her. She waited a few moments,