Ylahayll the lot!
Aiken said: DELIBERATE! WHAT IS YOUR JUDGMENT OF THIS COMPANY?
The nine spectral heads said: They are guilty of high treason.
WHAT IS THE PENALTY UNDER TANU LAW?.
The heads: Confinement under Chain of Silence until the next Grand Combat. Then life-offering to our compa.s.sionate G.o.ddess in the Great Retort.
The little man grinned. "Too bad," he said in his normal voice. "I"ve abolished the Combat, as we all know. It"s to be a Grand Tourney this Hallowe"en. And cooking criminals in a gla.s.s oven would spoil the tone of the festivities."
He turned to face the prisoners, hefting the boltcutter.
"We"ve heard the High Table opinion. Now I"m going to ask you for yours! ... But first, a few relevant bits of data to help your cogitation.
"One: Make no mistake-Nodonn Battlemaster is dead and so is Queen Mercy-Rosmar. I"ve subsumed portions of their mentalities. I"ll leave it to your imaginations to decide just what that means ...
"Two: Sharn and Ayfa have not only broken the Armistice, they"re stomping on the bits. You"ve noticed that Armida the Formidable didn"t appear to judge you. Right this minute her city of Bardelask is under attack by eight thousand Firvulag regulars. Armida and her people are fighting for their lives and they"re going to lose. The relief force I sent didn"t arrive in time.
"Three: Condateyr"s spies have information that Roniah will be next on the hit-list. Unless we can keep the city secure until the Truce starts a month from now, we are in very deep trouble indeed! Because the late Lord Bormol of Roniah was a collector of smuggled Milieu artifacts just like his equally defunct brother, Osgeyr of Burask, and we all know what happened when Burask fell. The Little People nicked a fair-sized cache of contraband high-technology weapons that they"re using right now to zap down the walls of Bardelask. But if the Firvulag get their gnomish hands on Bormol"s stash it will be all h.e.l.l out for noon, dear enemies-because Condateyr says that his late leader"s illicit arms dump is ten times the size of Osgeyr"s! If we can"t safeguard Roniah, we"ll have to destroy the stuff to keep it away from Sharn and Ayfa."
The radiance of the chained knights had undergone a chilled diminution. Old Celadeyr"s mouth was working furiously. "To h.e.l.l with anything that corrupts the battle"s glory!" he shouted.
"Destroy the Lowlife gadgetry right now or you are no Tanu king! Where"s your sense of honour?"
Aiken said, "Perhaps you"d better ask King Sharn and Queen Ayfa that question. And their viceroy, Mimee of Famorel, who"s investing Bardelask ... While you"re at it, make certain that their idea of a Nightfall War is the same as yours."
The old hero"s face inside his open helmet was as pale and hard as limestone. His mental barrier trembled, preparing for another explosive eruption.
Kuhal intervened. "Nodonn informed me that the greatest store of futuristic weapons is right here in the souterrain of the castle. Or did Queen Mercy-Rosmar succeed in destroying them?"
"She merely rendered them unusable," Aiken said. "Nodonn wasn"t a traditionalist a.s.s like Celo. He planned to use the Milieu weapons himself later, putting down any human opposition to his takeover. Right now, the entire storage area is buried in a sticky mess of poison-filled foam. We"ve sent to Rocilan for a Milieu-trained chemist. He"s the best one in the Many-Coloured Land, and you Tanu had him torced with silver and supervising a b.l.o.o.d.y candy factory!" Aiken"s golliwog grin was wry. "He"s not looking forward to his new job, even though I promised him an instant promotion to gold."
"If what you say about the Firvulag is true," Kuhal ventured, "we totter on the verge of ruin-"
"I totter," Aiken corrected. He gesticulated at the nine projections of the High Table members.
"They totter! The Tanu High Kingdom that you cheese-brains say you love totters! But you don"t have to stick around for the debacle. Oh, no. You can choose death if you like. Not next November in the d.a.m.ned Retort, but tomorrow morning, quick and clean in front of the Matsu carbines of Congreve"s guard. By all tenets of Tanu law, you stand condemned. But this is a new era, and I say that the lot of you are going to pa.s.s judgment on yourselves ... and choose your own punishment."
Confused and astonished, the minds of the prisoners buzzed on the intimate mode.
"There"s something else you should know," Aiken said. "Elizabeth farspoke me a piece of intelligence earlier this evening.
The human operant that we"ve known as Abaddon is ready to leave North America. He"s coming here."
"The starmind out of the western morning," said Celadeyr in a dead voice.
Aiken was silent.
"You have told us that one of our options is clean death,"
Kuhal said. "And is that another?" He nodded at the steel boltcutter in Aiken"s hand. "Mental castration as the price of liberty?"
"What good would you be to me then?" inquired the King softly. "I only showed you the iron to ... encourage att.i.tude adjustment."
"Kuhal, nothing has changed-" Celadeyr began.
The Earthshaker interrupted. "I am your senior in rank, Celo, even if your junior in years. I claim the right to be spokesman for all of us." His mind encompa.s.sed those of the other chained knights: Do you agree battle-companions?
We agree.
And you Celadeyr of Afaliah?
I-I yield to your authority.
Kuhal Earthshaker lifted his arms. The crystal links made two glittering curves from his wrists to his throat. His form burned with rose-gold luminescence.
"I pa.s.s judgment, then, upon this company. We are guilty of breaking our oath of fealty. Guilty of supporting a Pretender.
Guilty of taking up arms against our lawful Sovereign. Our lives are forfeit and you may do with us as you will, King AikenLugonn. But know that we now submit to you utterly and beg mercy, and if you condescend, we pledge our minds and bodies to your service without reservation. And thou, Tana, witnesseth."
The little man sighed.
The gla.s.s chains fell to the floor with a musical clash.
"You"re free." The King turned about, went to the black throne, and sat himself down on the hard stone seat. He leaned forward, and abruptly his coercive grip held Kuhal like a beetle on a pin.
"Fine sentiments are all very well. But we Lowlives tend to think that actions speak louder than words! I want proof of your born-again righteousness. No weaseling, no horse trading, no quid pro quo power brokering between you traditionalists and me. Do you understand me, Earthshaker?"
"I understand, High King."
Aiken smiled. His coercion softened. "Then we"ll get down to serious business. Where have you hidden the rest of those aircraft?"
CHAPTER FOUR.
Gasping for breath, halting every fifty paces or so to rest his swollen ankle and thudding heart, Brother Anatoly Gorchakov O.F.M. made his way up the fogbound mountain.
What a pity that the bandits had taken his chaliko! Chalikos never lost their way, no matter how dark the night or exiguous the trail. With a mount he would have reached the lodge four or five hours ago. He"d be dry, warm, and fed, perhaps even beginning to lay the groundwork for the mission. But the chaliko, a handsome animal that had been the gift of Lomnovel of Sayzorask, had proved an irresistible temptation to the four footpads back on the Great South Road. Anatoly"s reasoned plea that he needed the mount in order to carry on the Lord"s work was greeted with merry laughter-and four vitredur lances p.r.i.c.kling at his neck.
"Blessed are the poor," said the bandit chieftain with a sententious grin. "We"re just helping to keep you holy, padre.
Now hit the dirt."
Anatoly sighed and slid out of the high saddle. Thirty years as a circuit rider in Pliocene Europe had made him sensitive to the more obscure manifestations of the divine will. If he had to travel the last 50 kilometres of his journey on foot, then fiat voluntas tua. On the other hand ...
"You"ll never sell the beast, you know," he said. "White chalikos are a reserved breed. You even try to ride him into a town, the first grey-torc patrol you meet will tie your guts into a bowknot."