The Drawing of the Dark

'How are the accommodations?'

'I don't know. In my day it was a monastery. But they've always made great beer - even back in the days when it was a Roman fort, I understand.'

People on the street paused to stare at the two barbarous-looking riders; Duffy tall, burly, and gray, and Bluto gnarled and hunchbacked, his long swordhilt thrusting up from behind his shoulder like a cobra whispering in his ear. In the courtyard of St Stephen's Cathedral children pointed at them and giggled.

And off to our port side, Duffythought grimly, silhouetted by the sunset, is St Peter's Church, where Epiphany married Max Hallstadt in June of 'twenty-six. I haven't seen her since that afternoon, when she told me I'd behaved disgracefully at the wedding. She was right, of course.

And here I am home again, three years and a few scars later. Returning in dubious triumph to keep bums from throwing up on the Zimmermann's taproom floor.

The sky was darkening fast now, and clear for the first time in several nights. Duffy winked a greeting at the evening star. 'We go left here,' he said.

Three blocks later the Irishman pointed. 'That's her, on the left. As I recall, the stables are around back.' It was along, two-storeyed, half-timbered building with an overhanging shingled roof and three tall chimneys. Yellow light gleamed cozily in nearly all the windows, and Duffy was looking forward almost carnally to a big mug of mulled Herzwesten ale and a real bed.

The stable boys reeled a little, and smelled of beer, but Duffy told the hunchback this was to be expected in the stables of any fine inn. They left the horses there and strode - rolling a bit from the hours in the saddle - back up the alley to the street and the front door.

They paused in the vestibule, under a ceiling fresco depicting an unusually jovial Last Supper. 'You want to see the innkeeper,' Duffy said, 'and I've been told to report to the brewmaster. God knows why. So I may see you later tonight, or I may not.'

Bluto grinned. 'Got a little girl or two you want to get re-acquainted with, hey? Well, I won't tag along. In any case, I know now where to come for the best beer in Vienna, right?'

'That's right.' They shook hands, and Bluto pushed open the public room door while Duffy stepped through the one marked Servants.

A thin-faced woman gasped when she saw him, and nearly dropped her tray of beer mugs. 'It's all right, daughter,' Duffy told her, reaching out to steady the tray. 'I haven't come to rape the help. Can you tell me where I'd find' - he glanced at the envelope, '- Gambrinus? The brewmaster?'

'Certainly, sir,' she quavered. 'He's In the cellar-down those stairs at the end of the hall - testing the spring beer.'

'Thank you.' Duffy walked down the hall to the indicated archway, and descended the dark stairs slowly and noisily to avoid giving a similar fright to the brewmaster. There were many steps, and when he finally stood on the damp flags of the floor he figured he was about thirty feet below ground level. The air was steamy and rich with the smell of malt, but for the moment he could see nothing in the dimness.

'What can I do for you, stranger?' came a deep, relaxed voice.

'Are you Gambrinus?'

'Yes. Will you have a cup of new schenk beer?'

'Thank you, I will.'

Duffy could see dimly now, and sat down on an upturned bucket, dropping his knapsack beside him. A clean-shaven old man with thick white hair drew a cupful of draft beer from a keg nearby and passed it to him. 'We won't make any more schenk this year,' he

said gravely. 'When these kegs are empty we'll open the bock.' -

'Well, fine,' Duffy said. 'Look, I met a man named Aurelianus in Venice a few weeks ago, and he said I should give you this.' Here he handed him the somewhat travel-stained letter. Gambrinus broke the seal and scanned the writing. He must spend a lot of time down here, Duffy realized, to be able to read in this darkness.

The Irishman looked around, interested. I've poured down gallons of Herzwesten beer, he thought, but this is the first time I've seen, however dimly, the cellar where it's brewed. The ceiling was lost in shadow, but scaffolds were braced around copper tubs that stood an easy twenty feet above the floor, and long pipes slanted into and out of several of the old brick walls. Bell-shaped oak kegs lay everywhere; full ones were stacked narrow-side-down several layers deep along one wall. Gambrinus was sitting on an empty one, and other empties were scattered about as if someone had used them for bowling pins in a particularly wild game. The large tun-tubs in which the actual fermentation took place were not visible, and Duffy assumed they were behind one of the walls.

Gambrinus looked up at Duffy curiously. 'He seems to think you're the man we're looking for,' he said. 'And I guess he'd know. Here.' He scribbled in red chalk on the back of the letter. 'Show this to the innkeeper and he'll give you your money.

'All right.' Duffy drained the cup and got to his feet. 'Thanks for the beer.'.

Gambrinus spread his hands. 'Thank God for it.'

Duffy nodded uncertainly, then picked up his old knapsack and climbed back up the stairs to the main floor.

The same serving woman he'd startled before was returning with an armload of empty pitchers. 'Did you find him?' she asked, still a little uneasy.

'Yes.' Duffy smiled. 'Now can you tell me where the innkeeper is?'

'Werner? Certainly. He's the heavy-set gentleman drinking burgundy at the end of the bar in the taproom.' She squinted at him. 'Didn't you used to live around here?'

'I'm not certain yet,' he told her. 'Thanks.'