Nevertheless, the old Lorcan seemed little changed by his sudden rise in status. Data found himself walking beside Almighty Slayer, wondering what the famous warrior was thinking. Was he plotting military strategy? Was he composing a speech to woo the undecided? What did a king think about?
"That was a fairly exciting boggle, wasn"t it?" Almighty Slayer asked the android.
"Are you talking about the eruptions?" asked Data.
"Sure, and the ground bucking like a farm girl." He laughed. "You don"t have boggles where you come from?"
"Not usually," Data admitted.
The ruler"s voice took on a serious tone. "Data, if I"m killed, I want you to take the Wisdom Mask."
Data held up his hand as if to protest, but Almighty Slayer gently lowered it. "I don"t mean you have to wear the mask. I wouldn"t play such a dirty trick on somebody I liked. But I sense that you are a wise man, Data. I think you will know what to do with the Wisdom Mask. Don"t give up your life for it, but try to see that it gets into the right hands. It"s a powerful symbol."
"I will," pledged Data. "But there must be some way for you to win followers without fighting them."
"It"s not the followers I"m worried about fighting," said Slayer grimly. "It"s the thieves."
"Maybe I can help you," offered Data.
Chapter Thirteen.
GATHERING WOODfor that night"s fire was as easy as opening one"s eyes and looking down. As a result of the eruptions, the forest floor and the clay road were choked with fallen boughs. Almighty Slayer mentioned that he was almost glad his wagon had been destroyed; they would have broken their backs clearing a path for it. As it was, their legs were aching and their shins were scarred from climbing over branches all day, and Commander Riker had never been so glad to make camp.
The more Will Riker saw of the Wisdom Mask, the more the ancient mosaic design reminded him of a spiral nebula. Almighty Slayer himself seemed accustomed to the beauty of his unique mask as he searched for a fir tree still in good enough condition to harbor them for the night. Finding one, he immediately put everyone to work stripping the moss off the plentiful firewood, while he went to find a bog for fishing. He warned them that fish might be hard to catch so soon after a big boggle. But he would try.
Riker watched with some trepidation as the famous warrior ventured into the woods by himself. The man was casually wearing the most sought after possession on the whole planet, thought Will, the key to the leadership of Lorca. Without the Wisdom Mask, all the other pretenders to the throne were just that-pretenders.
Not that he blamed the old peddler for keeping the mask hidden. What had happened to the king"s earlier entourages? he wondered. What had become of previous wearers of the Forest Mask? They had been killed, all of them, defending the Wisdom Mask.
The first officer wanted to tell the old warrior to hurl the mask into the woods. He wanted to tell him to live out his years in the peace and serenity of an old peddler"s wagon. But something in the man"s straightforwardness and determination told Will that Almighty Slayer knew what he was doing. Nowwas the time for Lorca to have a ruler who had seen enough of killing, a ruler who had found wisdom behind a simple clay mask.
What had the old peddler said, before turning himself into a king? "The Wisdom Mask chooses who will wear it." Maybe the Wisdom Mask had chosen a warrior out of necessity, then had waited years for him to become a wise man.
This realization, that he wanted his friend to succeed in regaining his throne and the people"s respect, was disturbing to Commander Riker. Such a wish was in direct conflict with the Prime Directive. What would he and his shipmates do when they met a band of ambitious Lorcans? Would they defend Almighty Slayer or let him be killed for his mask? Could they stand by and watch the Ferengi steal the Wisdom Mask, only to auction it to greedy collectors thousands of light-years away? With the Wisdom Mask gone permanently from Lorca, the planet could be condemned to centuries of bloodshed. There would be nothing for individual factions to rally around-nothing but their own swords.
Like every other Starfleet officer, Will Riker had vowed not to interfere in the development of another planet. Starfleet personnel could defend their own lives-as they already had-but that was the extent of it. His personal concern for Almighty Slayer was immaterial. For two hundred years, the strong had wrested the Wisdom Mask from the weak, always by force, and that was the means of ascension to power the Lorcans had chosen. Who was he to put an end to it?
Nevertheless, when a scream came from the woods a few seconds later, in the direction Almighty Slayer had headed, Will Riker was the first to draw his phaser and go running. Data was right behind him and nearly ran him over when Riker pulled up sharply. As the others caught up, Riker and Data stood gawking at the sight of an old man in a fanciful mask dancing with a dirty, bedraggled werjun.
"It"s Reba!" he cried joyfully, swinging the red-haired animal by its gangly arms. "She"s come back."
The werjun apparently had no trouble recognizing her master in his new mask, for she chattered sweetly and nuzzled his neck. Then the animal leapt to the ground and began a gawky dance, accompanied by wild whoops, leaps, and gestures.
"Is she all right?" asked Data with concern.
"She is telling me of her adventures," said Almighty Slayer.
Reba"s performance went on for several minutes, ending with a thrashing about and thumping on the ground that even Riker could tell was a werjun"s impersonation of a giant boggle. Then the slothlike creature cackled proudly and jumped back into her master"s arms.
"Piercing Blade"s band is not far ahead of us," warned Almighty Slayer.
"How do you know that?" asked Dr. Pulaski.
The old warrior shrugged. "Reba told me. She said the camp ahead of us has women in it. She met one of them. That would probably be Piercing Blade"s band, because she is one of the few to accept women as pages."
"I know I"m grasping at straws," said Commander Riker, shaking his head at his own ridiculousness, "but did she see any sign of our missing comrades?"
"Wait," said Fenton Lewis. "Now you"re asking achimp to discredit me. That"s going too far, Riker!"
Will gnashed his teeth beneath his polished mask and ignored Fenton Lewis. "Did Reba see anyone like that?" he asked the Lorcan.
Almighty Slayer shook his head sadly. "To Reba, most humans look the same. She doesn"t know one from another." He hugged the scrawny animal happily. "Except for me, of course."
With Reba"s help, Almighty Slayer managed to catch enough fish to feed his troupe. The fire was blazing comfortably by the time he and his n.o.bleman, teacher, herbalist, archer, and messenger began settling down under the tree to sleep.
Commander Riker couldn"t settle down, however. He leapt up and began nervously pacing the golden perimeter of the firelight. He couldn"t get the idea out of his mind that the Wisdom Mask was about to engulf them in trouble. He didn"t much care for the oppressive darkness, either. The sky was still shrouded in opaque clouds, and being unable to see the stars made theEnterprise seem even farther away.
He drew his communicator from his pocket. "Commander Riker to the bridge," he said softly, not wanting to alarm his sleeping companions.
"Lieutenant La Forge here," came a voice that sounded weary.
"Hi, Geordi. Just checking in to see how long it will be before you can beam us up."
"We"re working on it," answered Geordi. "We can try now, if there"s a real emergency, but that cloud cover makes locking on extremely difficult. We need full enhancement just to pick up your voice. If the winds stay steady, conditions should be much better in a couple of days."
"Great," muttered Riker. "I suppose it"s my own fault for asking for that diversion."
"About the diversion," said Geordi. "We think it did the planet some good."
"How"s that?"
"Well," the engineering officer continued, "we defused a whole chain of volcanoes along the planet"s equator. There probably won"t be another major eruption for several months."
"If there"s ever a demand for volcano sweepers," joked Riker, "we"ll be all set."
"That"s the way I look at it," answered Geordi. There was a moment"s uneasy silence in which the joviality faded away. "No word about the captain"s party?"
"No," sighed Riker. "Nothing around us but Lorcans and Ferengi."
"Take care of yourselves," Geordi offered.
"Thank you. Out."
Commander Riker tucked away the insignia badge borrowed from Ensign Greenblatt and looked back at the fire. Reba, exhausted, was hanging by her tail from an upper branch. A number of bodies lay motionless under the fir tree"s gently swaying canopy. Almighty Slayer and Lieutenant Commander Data emerged from the shadows at the base of the tree and wordlessly found places on the cushions of humus. They were the last, except for Riker, to bed down.
The tiles of the Wisdom Mask glistened softly in the warm firelight, the design subtly shifting every time the Lorcan moved. Data didn"t remove his pale Teacher"s Mask, either, and Riker marveled at the way they were all getting so accustomed to their masks that they seldom removed them anymore, even to sleep.
The commander thought about keeping himself awake for guard duty, but he knew that Data didn"t really sleep. With so many bodies curled up under the giant pine, the crackling fire was beginning to look more inviting. Riker yawned and forced his aching legs to carry him to the tree. Within seconds of stretching out on the tender needles, he was asleep.
When the scuffle started, the fire was still blazing, casting more than enough light on the horrible scene in front of Riker"s drowsy eyes. He saw Fenton Lewis, in his feathered mask, shooting Almighty Slayer repeatedly with a pistol phaser while he tried to tear the Wisdom Mask off the Lorcan"s face. Something was wrong, however, because the phaser blasts had no effect on the Lorcan, who was rising to his feet, valiantly protecting his mask.
Not believing what he was seeing, Riker blinked and tried to shake off his exhaustion. Fenton Lewis stumbled backwards, unable to believe it either, and bolted into the darkness.
"Lewis stole my phaser," shouted Ensign Greenblatt.
"Day Timer!" shouted the doctor, bounding to her feet.
There were more shouts and confusion, and Riker found himself running into the woods, finally awake. But the pervasive darkness afforded him no chance of seeing, let alone catching, the fleeing amba.s.sador. He stopped before he took a nasty tumble over the fallen branches.
When he returned to the glow of the fire, Riker was startled to see Almighty Slayer calmly removing his mask, as the others looked on curiously. To their astonishment, the Wisdom Mask didn"t conceal a gnarled old warrior at all-but a smooth-faced android.
The lieutenant commander quickly handed the Wisdom Mask to the man wearing the Teacher"s Mask. The teacher deftly turned around and switched masks, becoming Almighty Slayer. The king handed Data"s mask back to him, thumping the android on the shoulder.
"You were right," roared the Lorcan. "He was no good. I"m gladyou decided to beme !"
"I a.s.sumed he would act quickly," Data admitted. "He is very determined."
Dr. Pulaski examined Data quickly. She was no mechanic, but he looked okay to her. "Data, you should be happy he left the phaser on stun. At a kill setting, you"d be a lump of iron by now."
"I am fortunate, Doctor," Data agreed. "I had no idea he would use a phaser-"
"Which he stole from me," said Ensign Greenblatt.
Data nodded. "I thought he would make a simple attempt to s.n.a.t.c.h the mask and run."
"You should"ve talked to me about this first," Riker insisted. "You endangered yourself, Data."
"I couldn"t talk to you, Commander," explained the android, "because Amba.s.sador Lewis had you under observation."
Almighty Slayer interrupted, throwing his arm around Data"s shoulders. "Riker, we only decided to do this a short time ago. Be thankful that you have such a clever lieutenant commander and I have such a clever friend. Data saved my life, and I won"t forget such heroism."
"His job isn"t to save your life," snapped Riker, instantly regretting his words. "Day Timer, we can"t become involved in a power struggle down here. We will capture Fenton Lewis, because he is our responsibility, and we"ll protect you from the Ferengi, if you request it. But we won"t defend you from other Lorcans."
The old warrior put his free arm around Will Riker"s shoulders. "My n.o.ble friend, wearer of the Forest Mask, I know precisely what you will and won"t do. I know how loyal you are. Believe me, if you keep your own people and the Ferengi off my tail, I will be forever grateful."
He let go of their shoulders and clapped his gnarled hands together. "At least we have gotten rid of the traitor in our midst."
Commander Riker looked down the pitch black road where Fenton Lewis had vanished after his thwarted attempt to steal the royal mask. Will"s voice echoed within the Forest Mask as he vowed, "I"m going to get him. And when I do, I"m going to take him to the most distant starbase I can find. He will never disturb Lorca again."
The Thunder Mask and the Amba.s.sador"s Mask lay forgotten in the shadows in a corner of the tent, which was illuminated only by a flickering lamp. Their owners slowly uncurled from a naked embrace that had lasted long after the lovemaking. Jean-Luc started to sit up, and Piercing Blade reached out her sinewy arms to pull him back. He was happy to oblige her needs by again nestling within her soft b.r.e.a.s.t.s and strong limbs.
He could feel her arms tightening around his back as she buried her little girl"s face in the crook of his shoulder. What drove this incredible woman? he wondered. She could best any man in a swordfight, and that would be enough for most Lorcans. She could love a man to death, he knew that much. She was a warrior in the n.o.blest, most chivalrous sense. In the span of a single day, she could be an inspiring leader, an insatiable lover, and a vulnerable child. She commanded the loyalty and allegiance of some of Lorca"s best citizens, and yet she expected the impossible from them.
No matter how brave they were, how could half a dozen Lorcans unite an entire planet? Jean-Luc knew their grief for Spider Wing was real, but the loss of one man had only served to demonstrate how short-handed they were for the task set before them.
Now Piercing Blade clung to Captain Picard as the moss clung to the fir trees above them. She wanted so desperately to rule Lorca, but Picard wondered if such a thing was possible. A land of vast wilderness areas, far-flung population, and seething volcanoes did not seem a good candidate for the rule of law. The planet"s very atmosphere was anathema to electronic devices, and the people were committed to a b.l.o.o.d.y form of feudalism. With the Wisdom Mask, he supposed, Piercing Blade might stand a chance of achieving her goal. But having the Wisdom Mask hadn"t made Almighty Slayer"s job any easier; he had vanished without a trace.
Despite the odds against them, Jean-Luc would have given anything to share Piercing Blade"s dream with her. He longed to be two people, one of whom could proudly wear the Amba.s.sador"s Mask and fight and love at her side. But he was already the other person, the one who wore the tight-lipped starship captain"s mask.
"Picard?" she breathed, stroking the fine gray hairs on his chest. He normally thought of himself as fair, but next to her smooth body, he was the swarthiest of men.
"Yes," he murmured.
"When will you leave me?"
He sighed deeply and shifted onto his back, his body sticking to the slick oilskin. The bedding had felt like silk a moment before, and now it felt like what it was-clammy fish skins. "I don"t know," he answered honestly. "At the moment, we have no way to go back."
"Back to your ship in the sky?" she asked, her innocent face glowing guilelessly. "To your wives? The captain of so fine a ship must have many wives?"
"Maybe he should," laughed Picard. "After these last few nights, I might consider it. But I am a prime example of a captain who is married to his ship."
"That is sad," Blade replied, nuzzling his neck.
"No sadder than a queen," he countered. "When does a queen take time off to be a woman?"
"Right now," she purred, running her hand down his chest and across his flat stomach. "Oh, Jean-Luc," she moaned, "why is our time so short?"
He drew her into his arms and hoa.r.s.ely replied, "So that we will be forced to make the most of it."
As their lips met, an irate voice sounded outside: "Intruder! Halt! Who goes there?"
"Come out slowly," called another.
In the s.p.a.ce of time it took Piercing Blade and Captain Picard to dress, several more cries and shouts echoed throughout the camp. Worf"s ba.s.s voice could be heard above all of them, bellowing, "Captain!"
Picard pulled on his mask and followed Piercing Blade outside into the dim glow of the campfire. There, surrounded by pages with swords drawn, stood a man in a feathered mask and rawhide leggings.
"Lewis," exclaimed Picard in astonishment.
"None other," the man answered, nodding his owlish Messenger"s Mask. "Please put the swords away. I"m unarmed and can"t do you any harm. In fact, I bring important news to Lady Piercing Blade."
"Where have you been?" growled Worf.
"Mostly lost," the amba.s.sador acknowledged. "But do you really need to know how I spent every instant I was gone? Can it suffice for you to know that I"ve been with Almighty Slayer?"
"Almighty Slayer," gasped Piercing Blade, rising to her full height. She drew her sword and leveled it at Fenton Lewis. "If this is a trick, not even the dragon will be able to stop me from taking your head."
"No trick, my lady." He bowed, his sandy hair tumbling over his shoulders. "They are, in fact, right behind us on this same road. I have just come from their camp."
Picard pointed angrily at Lewis. "You mean you ran away from them, just as you ran away from us?"
"Never mind that," snapped Piercing Blade, waving the captain down with her sword. "Do you know for sure it"s Almighty Slayer? Have you seen the Wisdom Mask?"