The Kings of Eternity (35 page)

At some point in the early hours we wended our way back up the hillside to the chirrup of cicadas, the bright sweep of the Milky Way lighting the path.

I collapsed and slept in the front room on an old horsehair settee, and awoke at sunrise surprisingly fresh of mind and looking forward to what the day might bring.

I took a cold shower in an outside stall, and by the time I had finished, Charles was up and frying eggs and bacon in the kitchen.

He arranged a table on the patio, fetched the blue egg and the receiver and placed them upon it. We ate breakfast and drank fine coffee while the sun climbed and we anticipated the communiqué from the stars.

“Not quite the library at Cranley Grange,” said Charles.

“But the view is hard to beat,” I said.

The hour that marked precisely two days since Jasper’s last call - nine o’clock - came and went. Charles made light of the fact. “There might be a hundred reasons he couldn’t open the link on time,” he said, but left unspoken was the possibility that one of those reasons was the Vark had apprehended the rebels’ ship.

I poured more coffee and absently chewed on a wedge of fresh white bread. The sense of anticipation that hung over the table was almost palpable. It was agony to know that our wait was indefinite. For all we knew it might be another twelve years before Jasper managed to communicate again, if at all.

At ten o’clock, Charles jumped up suddenly and paced the patio. Finding its length too restricting, he hurried down the steps and strode back and forth outside. I left the table and sat side-saddle upon the patio wall, staring down the hillside to the bay. Perhaps, if ignored, the blue egg might transmit the communiqué all the sooner...

Urgent news, Jasper had said. I wondered what in his opinion might constitute urgent news. Surely it would be information that concerned the three of us on Earth - why else might Jasper gather us together? If it was news that concerned him alone, some progress report as it were, then surely he would not have described it as urgent. And, also, he wanted to send us something through the receiver. My curiosity was more than a little piqued.

At ten-thirty I gave up hope. Vaughan was pacing the patio, while down below Charles was seated upon a rock and staring out to sea.

I hurried down the steps and joined him.

He turned to me. “What if the Vark did intercept the signal,” he said, “and at this very minute Jasper lies dead somewhere between the stars? The hell of it is not knowing.”

“If only we had some way of opening the communications channel with him,” I said.

The sun climbed, and with it the temperature. Cicadas scratched incessantly like a host of inept bouzouki players. I thought of Tara, who was due to arrive at Iraklion at two, and I hoped that Jasper would communicate before then.

I returned to the house and poured myself a glass of cool water. I was in the kitchen when I heard Vaughan shout out.

“My God! Charles! Jonathon! It’s glowing.”

I came close to choking on the water, set aside the glass and sprinted to the patio. Charles arrived at the same time and was staring at the egg. It pulsed out its effulgent azure light, illuminating the shaded patio.

“Charles,” a voice said, and I did not immediately recognise it as Jasper’s.

“We’re here!” Charles cried. “Jasper, is that you?”

I sat down heavily, aware that I was sweating and a little faint.

“Charles, my friends,” said the voice. “It is indeed I, though changed somewhat over the years. It is long since I have used the English language, and you must forgive me if I stumble somewhat.”

“Are you well?” Charles asked. “Did you evade the Vark? What is your urgent message?”

“I am as well as can be expected, seeing as how we have been on the run for the past year. We have temporarily evaded the hunting party, but they are persistent, and no doubt will pick up our trail again.”

“Are you still aboard the ship?”

“It is our home, and has been these past thirty-odd years. We are a band of six - four Theerans like Kathan, and a Qar. We are at the moment in a moon port, behind the protective shielding of a tiridium visor. With luck we will be safe until the Qar mind-powers the drive unit and we embark once again into the null-ether. Then we are fair game and the chase will be underway.”

“Where are you heading?” Vaughan asked. “How goes the fight against the Vark?”

“We are transporting technology to a rebel planetary system, five thousand light years inward. The battle for the freedom of the galaxy goes well. Not to tempt fate, but we think we have the upper hand.”

“And Kathan,” I said. “Is he well?”

A silence greeted my question. The egg still glowed, so I was assured that the link had not been broken.

“Jasper?” I said.

“Six months ago, approximately, Kathan was captured by the Vark.” Jasper’s tone was flat. “Informants within the Vark hegemony have reported his condition. He was still alive, the last we heard, but had suffered much depredation. The Vark have perfected the terrible art of torture, and I dread to think what they might have done to my friend, in order to extract information.”

We glanced at each other. I saw in my mind’s eye the diminutive figure of Kathan, laid out upon the chesterfield at Cranley Grange.

“Compatriots of ours are attempting his rescue,” Jasper reported. “He is a valued leader of the opposition, and we fear the information that he might be forced to divulge. To date he has given up little, but what he has said has proved costly.”

He fell silent. It seems, looking back on these events at a remove of years, hard to believe that a trans-galactic battle raged between good and evil while we of Earth went about our business without care or concern. As we listened that morning to Jasper’s pained report, however, it was the real world beyond the patio that seemed at once pale and inconsequential.

“It is what Kathan has divulged to the Vark,” Jasper continued, “that made necessary this communiqué, and what we subsequently learned from our informant. Do you have the receiver ready, my friends?”

I glanced at the silver box sitting silently beside the glowing egg. “It is here,” Charles said.

“Excellent. Make ready for delivery. It is on its way.”

Seconds later the receiver glowed with a dazzling white light, and we sat back, covering our eyes from the glare.

The glow abated, and, when next we looked, six objects sat within the receiver. There were three devices that looked like weapons, and three small, oval objects which resembled nothing so much as golden tablets of soap.

“They’ve arrived safely,” Vaughan said.

Charles leaned forward and hesitantly picked up one of the gun-like objects.

It was a device not unlike the serum gun he had transmitted all those years ago. It was jet black, sleek, and incredibly light. For a second I wondered if it was a new batch of the Styrian serum.

I reached into the transmitter and took out an oval object. It seemed to thrum in my hand, as if it were alive.

“My friends,” Jasper said. “The pistols are called kree, not dissimilar to the light-beam device deployed by the Vark and Kathan in the clearing, but more powerful and effective. They work by means of pressure upon the green stud at the top of their butts.”

“And the other things?” I asked.

“We know them as mereths,” Jasper said. “You might be needing the kree and the mereths at some point in the future.”

His words sent my pulse racing.

Vaughan leaned forward. “Explain yourself,” he said.

“One of the things the Vark learned from Kathan,” Jasper said, his voice grave, “was that I transmitted to you the Styrian immortality serum. As you know, Earth and its people are regarded as not advanced enough to join the fraternity. This disqualifies you from the benefit of the advanced technology. The fact that the three of you were in receipt of the serum is decreed by the Vark as a Grade One violation, punishable by death. I might also add that I, too, am under just such a sentence.”

He paused there, and we looked at each other before returning our attention to the egg. We were like men in a trance as Jasper spoke again. “On behalf of Kathan, I am sorry. He must have been under intolerable extremes of pain to have divulged this information.”

Speaking, I hope, for my friends, I said, “We understand. He cannot be blamed.”

Vaughan leaned forward. “You sent us the pistols. You said we will need to protect ourselves...” He paused, his expression grim. “But from what?”

Jasper said, “From our informant we learned that the Vark despatched an assassin to track you down and carry out the death penalty.”

Vaughan said, “But the Vark are easily recognisable. An assassin would have great difficulty in sneaking up on us unawares.”

The silence from the egg was, I feared, ominous.

“Jasper? I said.

He spoke. “My friends, Vark assassins are a breed apart who can transform their shapes at will, and take on the characteristics of whichever race they go among. Beware! The assassin might even choose the form of an animal in order to track you down. But that is where the mereths come in.”

I caressed the oval object. “What are they?” I asked.

“The mereths are detection devices developed by the Styrians in our fight against the oppressors. They detect a Vark at fifty metres, and set up an unpleasant, but silent, tingling sensation when you touch them. I suggest, my friends, that you keep them about your persons from now on.”

The silence stretched, and at last Charles said, “Presumably, the Vark assassin will employ a shanath to transport itself to Earth?”

“This is more than likely, yes.”

“How might it go about tracking us?” I asked. “Have the Vark some special technology that might detect us from the billions of other humans on the planet?”

“They know your old names only, and that at one point you were based at Cranley Grange - they know of you only what Kathan knew. As far as we are aware, the Vark have no technology that might distinguish you as immortal. The assassin will apprehend you as might any Earth-bound investigator, by means of simple detection.”

I hefted the kree in my palm. “We appreciate the warning,” I said.

“I wish I could have done more. I have attempted to gain access to a shanath, gentlemen, in order to whisk you away from Earth. However, the prohibitive cost of these devices... And also, to be perfectly honest, you would be at risk wherever you might be in the galaxy.”

Charles leaned forward. “When will you next contact us?”

Jasper sighed. “I cannot be sure. Every channel I open increases the danger that we will be detected. It might not be for some time, much as I need the reassurance of your voices. The fight against the Vark is all important. The galaxy will not be free until the very last Vark-controlled planet is liberated.”

“We wish you luck,” Vaughan said.

“And now, my friends, I must close the link. In one hour the Qar will mind-push us through the ether. I must settle myself into the weapon’s nacelle in the event of engagement with a Vark ship. Farewell, my friends, and good luck!”

The blue light faded quickly, leaving the patio in sudden shadow. A long silence predominated, which each of us was loath to break.

We held the light-beam weapons and considered what Jasper had told us.

“Well, gentlemen,” Vaughan said at last. “Perhaps we should consider a plan of action?”

“The course of fate is never straight,” Charles mused. “Just when I thought I’d found contentment, nemesis raises its ugly head.”

“It’ll certainly put pay to any complacency we might have slipped into as immortals,” I said. “In fact, doesn’t it once more add a frisson of excitement to existence - to know again that we are vulnerable?”

“I would rather,” Vaughan commented, “be without the danger and suffer the hardship of complacency.”

He slipped a kree into the pocket of his jacket, along with a mereth. “You heard what Jasper told us. The assassin might be able to assume whatever form it chooses, but it is limited in its detective capabilities. I think it imperative that we lose no time in changing identities, abandoning the lives we led and adopting new personas.”

I nodded. “That makes sense. Charles, can you abandon your newly-found life here?”

Charles stared out beyond the patio, down to the dazzling sea. “There are other just as beautiful areas of Greece,” he murmured to himself.

I looked at Vaughan. He smiled. “I’ll move from Rome,” he said. “I’ll continue to paint, but I’ll take care and cover my traces.”

“And when we’ve established new identities,” I said, “we can meet up again.”

“Just so long as we are circumspect,” Vaughan said. “The Kings of Eternity forever will be united.”

Charles said, “And now? You will stay for one more day, at least? Or would that be to tempt fate?”

Vaughan smiled. “Shall we remain for another day, Jonathon?”

“Tara arrives at two,” I said. “I’ll bring her here for the night, and in the morning we’ll begin a tour of the island.”

After that... I thought of the life I had made for myself at Lower Cranley, which for safety’s sake I would have to abandon when we returned to England.

I picked up my kree and slipped it into the inside pocket of my jacket. The mereth I concealed in my trouser pocket.

Charles stepped back into the house and returned a minute later with a bottle bound in straw. “Raki,” he said. “When I fought with the resistance, we toasted future victories with a shot.”

He poured three glasses, and we lifted them high.

“To the Kings of Eternity!” he said.

“To the Kings of Eternity!” Vaughan and I repeated.

That afternoon, Nikos drove me to the airport at Iraklion. Tara had said that she would make her own way to Mirthios - ever independent - but I wanted to surprise her.

The same line of taxis stood outside the low terminal building, and a gaggle of bored drivers lounged beside them as they awaited customers from the London flight. I made my way into the terminal building and stood before the great plate glass window overlooking the runway, along with a dozen other men and women awaiting friends and loved ones.