The Nonborn King (2 page)

Meanwhile, on the trail north of Castle Gateway, the other four members of Group Green were plotting a prisoner revolt. Felice, a professional athlete, was abnormally strong, and her latent metapsychic powers enabled her to mind-control animals She also had a small steel dagger, little more than a toy. which had been overlooked by searchers.

When the caravan reached a remote shore of the Lac de Bresse. Felice's plan for escape was put into action Richard, disguised in Amerie's religious garb, surprised the head guard and stabbed him to death Then Felice compelled the caravan's escorting pack of huge bear-dogs to attack Lady Epone and the other soldiers In the ensuing fray, the samurai Tatsuji was killed, as well as the entire escort of gray troops Richard approached Epone. thinking that she, too, was dead But the exotic woman seized him with her powerful mind, in spite of the fact that she was nearly torn to pieces Richard would have perished had he not stabbed her with Felice's little dagger

(Much later, the nun, who was a physician, deduced that the nearly invulnerable Tanu were fatally poisoned by iron weapons For this reason, they had proscribed the use of iron in Pliocene Europe, making do with copper alloys and a kind of supertough glass, vitredur, in its place )

Felice coveted Epone's golden torc. knowing that the mental amphfer was capable of releasing the great metafaculties now locked within her brain But before she could take the torc from the Tanu woman's body, mad Dougal grabbed it and threw it into the lake Amerie had to drug Felice with a sedative to prevent her from killing Dougal

Bewildered and frightened, the ex-pnsoners realized that news of the fight must have been tetepathically flashed by the dying Epone to the nearest fort They would have to disperse quickly One group elected to follow Basil, the ex-don They would sail in small boats down the Lac de Bresse to the Jura Mountains

Claude, the 133-year-old paleontologist, was more wilderness-wise after years of roughing it on wild planets in the Milieu He advised his friends of Group Green to avoid the open lake and instead head into the heavily forested Vosges Mountains, which were much closer than the Jura The surviving samurai wamor, Yosh, decided to go his way alone, heading north in hopes of reaching the sea

The large group of escapees out on the lake was eventually almost entirely recaptured and taken in chains to the city of Finiah But Claude, Richard, Amerie, and Felice went deep into the Vosges, where they Finally made contact with a group of free outlaw humans, fugitives from Tanu settlements, who called themselves Lowlives

The Lowlife leader was an old woman, Angelique Guderian, former keeper of the time-gate and the ultimate author of Pliocene humanity's degradation Around her neck was a golden lore, the gift of the Firvulag, those deadly enemies of the Tanu, who had formed a very tentative alliance with the Lowlives Madame had modest metapsychic powers

The killing of Epone by the escapees were unprecedented Never before had a mere human been able to bring about the demise of one of the tough exotics, who normally enjoyed life spans of hundreds of years Tanu searchers, under Lord Velteyn of Finiah, now swarmed the Vosges region, looking for the ones who had done the deed The remnant of Group Green, together with Madame Guderian and some 200 Lowlives, hid in a great hollow tree until things should cool off Inside the refuge, Madame explained to the newcomers her great plan to free Pliocene humanity from the Tanu yoke, a task she had undertaken in order to expiate her own guilt

Madame's deputy, a Native Amencan named Peopeo Moxmox Burke, who had once been a judge, was keenly interested in Amerie's theory about the deadliness of iron to the exotic race This might be an invaluable secret weapon in the liberation of humanity

A friendly Firvulag named Fitharn Pegleg joined the Lowlives inside their sanctuary and told Group Green the legend of the Ship's Grave The great space-going organism that was Brede's mate had died in making the leap from its home galaxy to our own Tanu and Firvulag, passengers in the Ship led by Brede. escaped from the hulk m small flying machines just before it impacted upon the Earth, making a great crater known as the Ship's Grave

For some time. Lowlives, working with Firvulag, had searched for this ancient site Even though a thousand years had passed, it was possible that some of the sophisticated flying machines left at the Grave might still be operational And inside one of them, entombed after a ntual duel, was the body of Lugonn, Shining Hero of the Tanu. together with his sacred weapon, the Spear The latter was not a blade, but rather a Spear, in the hands of Lowlife humanity, could turn the balance of power Madame's people had looked in vain for the Ship's Grave. But Claude, knowledgeable in future geology, told them that the crater could only be the astrobleme known as the Ries, located some 300 kilometers to the east, beyond the Black Forest, on the northern shore of the Danube River.

It was decided to mount a new expedition at once. With luck, the searchers might return before the end of September. The Hcvulag would then Join humanity in a joint attack against the city of Finiah, provided that me fighting took place before the start of the Grand Combat Truce, which began at dawn on October 1. Unknown to Filham, who agreed to accompany the party, the Lowlives who remained behind intended to go to another site designated by Claude, where they hoped iron ore might be found. They would smelt whatever iron they could and then forge weapons to be used in the Finiah attack. The iron was to be kept a secret from the Firvulag, since Madame was dubious of their loyalty.

After receiving permission from Yeochee IV, King of the Firvulag, the expedition set out. Itcomprised Madame Guderian, Richard, Felice, Chief Burke, a former aircraft technician named Stefanko, a dynamic-field engineer named Martha, Claude, and Fitham. Felice was especially anxious to go. She was certain that the body of the ancient hero, Lugonn, would have a golden torc about its neck that she could appropriate.

Disaster struck the party even before it reached the Black Forest. In a Rhineside swamp, a giant pig killed Stefanko and badly wounded Chief Burke. Frail Martha, who had borne four children in quick succession as a Tanu slave, began to hemorrhage from the shock. It seemed that the expedition would have to be abandoned. But Martha insisted that she would recover, and Felice agreed to carry the sick woman if need be. Martha was a vital member of the group, now the only one with the technical skill to put the photon Spear and/or a flyer into operation once the expedition found them. The Firvulag Fitham agreed to take Chief Burke back to the Lowlife village of Hidden Springs, where Amerie was recuperating from a broken arm.

After many vicissitudes, the reduced expedition crossed the Black Forest range and came into the territory of a certain Sugoll. Only nominally under the authority of the Firvulag King, Sugoll ruled a large band of grotesque mutant Firvulag called Howlers. His own hideously deformed body was hidden beneath a handsome illusion- Sugoll at first scorned to assist the expedition and threatened to kill the humans. But when Claude pointed out the source of Howler deformity, radioactive rocks among which they had lived for many generations, the ruler relented. Claude hinted that the Howlers might relieve their plight by seeking help from human geneticists, if such persons were released from Tanu slavery. The liberation of humanity (and helping out the expedition) was thus to the Howler advantage- Sugoll finally agreed to assist the party in finding the River Danube, on which the humans could easily voyage to the Ship's Grave. Once again the four travelers set off.

On 22 September they arrived at last at the crater. Richard and Martha, who had become lovers, set about repairing one of the flying machines and the great Spear. Feiice, after a fit of rage brought on by her discovery that Lugonn's skeleton had no golden torc, calmed herself and was a model of cooperation. Even so, time was getting desperately short if they were to meet the deadline before the Grand Combat Truce. Martha's old affliction returned and she grew dangerously weak from loss of blood; but she would not let them return to Hidden Springs until the testing of the photon weapon was complete.

Meanwhile, a great Firvulag army had gathered on the bank of the Rhine opposite the Tanu city of Finiah- Additionally, several hundred Lowlives had been recruited from scattered wilderness hamlets and surreptitiously armed with iron- At dusk on the twenty-ninth the flyer finally landed at Hidden Springs with the Spear ready for use. But Martha was in shock from hemorrhaging, and Amerie could only rush her away for transfusions and pray for a miracle. The distraught Richard could not even remain with his beloved; he had to pilot the flyer in its bombardment of Finiah. ^

Screened by Madame Guderian's limited metapsychic power, the flyer hovered over the city while Claude blasted holes in both city walls. Then he turned the Spear on Finiah's barium mine, the only source in the Many-Colored Land of the elemeni that was vital in making all kinds of torcs- The mine was destroyed, and waves of Firvulag, wearing the illusory shapes of hideous monsters, invaded the city alongside Chief Burke and his Lowlife forces. After a desperate fight, Finiah fell. Its surviving Tanu populace, including the ruler. Lord Velteyn, fled in the direction of Castle Gateway. The erstwhile human slaves (some of whom had been quite content in their bondage) were given the choice of freedom or death. Those wearing gray or silver torcs had to submit to their removal with an iron chisel, a painful process that left many of them in a state of profound nervous collapse.

Both Claude and Madame were wounded by bolts of Velteyn's psychoenergy during the air attack. Richard lost the sight of one eye, but managed to return the flyer safely to Hidden Springs- There he discovered that Martha had died. Mad with grief, he took her body and soared away in the gravomagnetically powered aircraft, to wait for his own death in an orbit thousands of kilometers above Pliocene Earth.

Below, Felice was walking toward the ruins of Finiah. She bitterly regretted missing the war; but she knew that she would find her long-sought golden torc somewhere in the devastated city, and then she would attain the powers needed to fulfill her vow to destroy the Tanu race. Felice finally did find a torc; it raised to operancy her latent powers of farsensing, psyhchokinesis, coercion, and creativity. Some time would have to elapse before she learned to use these powers correctly, and so she returned to Hidden Springs in order to assist Madame Guderian in the next phases of the liberation of humanity.

Meanwhile, far to the south in the Tanu capital of Muriah, the other four members of Group Green encountered an utterly different face of the Many-Colored Land.

Upon their arrival, the Green quartet and their fellow humans, Raimo and Sukey, were presented to the Tanu aristocracy at a lavish feast. Elizabeth learned from Thagdai the High King that she was to be taken to Brede Shipspouse in order to be initiated into Tanu ways, an unprecedented honor. After the initation, which might take a month, she would be impregnated by the King and found a new dynasty of fully operant (i.e., torcless) Tanu-human hybrids. Queen Nontusvel seemed enrirely agreeable to this arrangement and Elizabeth herself showed no emotion as Thagdai unfolded his plans The other honored prisoners learned their own fates. Bryan the anthropologist was commanded to make a careful study of me impact of humanity's advent upon the Tanu socioeconomy. A certain faction, headed by Nodonn Battlemasler, the most powerful son of Thagdai and Nontusvel and heir presumptive, maintained that the coming of humanity had been detrimental to Tanu culture rather than beneficial, as Thagdai and most of the Tanu aristocracy believed. Bryan, using the advanced analytical methods of the Milieu, was to settle the matter. It went without saying that Thagdai felt confident that Bryan would confirm the royal policy.

The gigantic Viking Stein, Raimo Hakkinen, and Sukey Davies were forced to display their talent before the company, Sukey's silver torc had activated a powerful latent faculty of redaction. She would be apprenticed to the Redactor Guild, headed by the compassionate and civilized Dionket, and learn the art of mental healing. Poor Raimo, who possessed only a weak psychokinetic power, found out that he was destined to become the sexual plaything of Tanu women, who found it difficult to conceive by their own males. Stein was presented to the festal throng as a gladiatorial candidate for the Grand Combat, the annual rituai war between the Tanu and Firvulag in which certain humans also participated. Stein was about to be auctioned off to the highest Tanu bidder when an incredible event threw the entire mass of Tanu aristocracy into a turmoil.

Aiken Drum put in his bid for Stein This charming young rogue's awesome latent mind-powers had been released in a psychic torrent by the donning of the silver torc. So great was the power of Aiken's liberated mind that he had actually burned out the control circuits of the silver torc. He was now in the process of going fully operant, metafunctional without artificial augmentation. Only Elizabeth, who had been a masterclass teacher of young metapsychics back in the Milieu, knew what was happening. The Tanu realized that Aiken Drum was far above the usual type of human latent; but they were not yet aware just how menacing his potential would be.

As the Tanu nobles began to bid for his friend Stein, Aiken was aware that the big Viking was in mortal danger Not only had Stein taken Sukey as his life-mate (an action that the Tanu deemed treason for a silver-lore woman), but he was also one of those individuals fundamentally incompatible to the torc's operation If Stein wore his gray collar for very long, he would go mad and sink into death Most humans who wore gray were tested for compatibility before being torced Stein had received his collar as a means of subjection after his bloody battle in Castle Gateway The Tanu did not really care how long he lived Alken, however, did, and so he entered the bidding against the Tanu, pledging to the King that as payment he would dispose of a Firvuiag monster, a certain Delbaeth, who had been terrorizing the adjacent Spanish mainland

The King was stunned, not only by Alken's audacity but also by the glimpse of power he had perceived upon bnef examination of the young trickster's mind It hardly seemed possible and yet this little human mountebank, who wore a gold-fabric suit all covered with pockets, just might be a threat to Thagdal himself