The Nonborn King (15 page)

"Aw, Vilkas," said Sunny Jim. "Hey, come on."

Yosh considered the precious pair. They weren't much to look at, but even a couple of scruffy ashigaru would give him greater face than if he arrived at Goriah unattended. He had enough extra gear to fix them up. The boy could manage the string of hawk kites while the reprobate soldier bore the standard and the mesh bag with the Tanu heads.

'The track between here and Goriah is still somewhat hazardous," Yosh said. "You can come along with me tomorrow. Jim, if you like- Vilkas, too. All I'd ask is that you carry a few of my things."

"Hey, that's damn nice of you, guy!" Sunny Jim was jubilant. "No spook gonna mess with us if we stick close to you and that iron sword' Isn't that a great idea, Vilkas?"

The greasy head lifted. "Super." The bloodshot gaze fixed on Yosh had become horribly sober. "What did you say your name was, slaunch-eyes?"

Yosh put down the rib he had been chewing and smiled, as if at a peevish child.

"You can call me Yoshi-sama." he said.

10

THE RECEPTION PARTY WAITED ON THE GORIAH QUAY AS THE ship from Rocilan was slowly warped into its slip.

All the sable banners emblazoned with Lord Aiken-Lugonn's impudent golden finger hung sodden in the thin rain. The aristocratic riders on their elaborately caparisoned mounts were quite drenched; but Mercy had warned Aiken against tampering with the elements today, even in the interests of hospitality. Screening off the rain, or indeed any extraordinary manifestation of metapsychic prowess, would be a solecism in Tanu eyes, marking the kingly aspirant as deficient in humility.

The gray-torc docking crew wrestled an ornamental gangway into position, in a fine show of pageantry, Aiken's new company of gold foot soldiers took up honor-guard formation. their gleaming brass-and-black-glass half-armor looking all the more resplendent for the sparkling drops of water beading it. Flunkies brought a mounting stool to the foot of the ramp. Alberonn Mindeater himself led forward four white chalikos for the disembarking guests.

On board the ship, a single hom note sounded. Several Tanu ladies in Aiken's train raised their glass carnices and responded with a fanfare. Eadnar, widow of the late Lord Gradlonn of Rocilan, began to descend the gangplank, followed by her venerable mother-in-law Lady Morna-Ia, her sister Tirone Heartsinger, and Tirone's husband Bleyn the Champion

Alken doffed his golden hat with its dripping black plume, levitated discreetly until he stood full upright on his saddle, and threw wide his arms in a gesture of welcome

"Slonshai'" cned the mind and voice of the diminutive usurper of Goriah, and the power of his utterance made the rocky harbor walls reverberate "Slonshai'" he said again, reaching out to join Mercy's greeting with his own as the visitors mounted the waiting chalikos And "Slonshai'" he roared for the third time, making the ship's sails billow and the gulls nse up from all the piers and pilings like a confetti cloud of gray and pink and white From the throats and minds of those assembled on the quay came the haunting strains of the Tanu Song, its melody so strangely familiar to the exiles of the twenty-second century

Li gan nol po'kone niesi, 'Kone o lan li pred near, U taynel compn la neyn, N1 blepan algar dedone

Shompn pone. a gabnnel,

Shal u car metan presi, Nar metan u bor taynel o pogekone, Car metan sed gone mon

There is a land that shines through life and time, A comely land through the length of the world's age, And many-colored blossoms fall on it, From the old trees where the birds are singing

Every color glows there, delight is commonplace,

Music abounds on the Silver Plain, On the Gentle-Voiced Plain of the Many-Colored Land, On the White Silver Plain to the south

There is no weeping, no treachery, no gnef, There is no sickness, no weakness, no death There are riches, treasures of many colors,

THE POST-DILUVIUM 85

Sweet music to hear. the best of wine to dnnk

Golden chanots contend on the P!am of Sports, Many-colored steeds run in days of lasting weather Neither death nor the ebbing of the tide Will come to those of the Many-Colored Land

The honored guests from Rocilan Joined in the singing, but at the last verse, bereaved Alberonn and Eadnar wept openly, and old Lady Morna's seamed visage hardened into a mask of gnef, and Mercy's mind-voice lost its music and keened instead the Celtic lament, Ochone, ochone'

They all fell silent The seabirds drifted back to their resting places The harbor waters were dead calm. a rain-pocked leaden sheet

Alken said, "Welcome, Most Exalted Ones of Rocilan " His mind declaimed The laughter and the joy will come again, and the love and the sport and the many-colored treasures of the heart The Shining One promises it'

Lady Morna-Ia peered at him sharply "You are shorter of stature in person than your farseen image hints, Battlemaster And much younger "

"I'll be twenty-two years old on the day before the Grand Loving. Farseemg Lady," said the rogue "On my home world, Dalnada, I'd already be four years into my majority And old enough for elected office if my fellow-citizens hadn't banished me as a menace to the public welfare'"

Morna's subvocalization was still mentally audible Understandable

"As for my size," he added, smu-king, "I was quite big enough for Mayvar Kingmaker, your late guild-sister " She bridled dangerously at the innuendo, but he swept on "And if the Flood hadn't interrupted my duel with Nodonn, I'd have cut him down to size, too "

"So you say," the lady retorted "Lofty talk seems to be a commodity in iong supply about Goriah this time of the year That, and the flouting of sacred tradition " Her glance fell on her widowed daughter-in-law, Eadnar, communing wordlessly with Alberonn, who still held the bridle of her chaliko "It is your shameless example, Battlemasler, presuming to affiance yourself to Mercy-Rosmar in defiance of our mourning customs, that has led Eadnar lo profane my late son's memory "

Alken shifted elocutional gears abruptly, abolishing any hint of saucy bravado and speaking to the older woman on the intimate telepathic mode with all of the earnest charm he could conjure

Farseeing Lady Morna-Ia, you're a First Comer, a pillar of your guild, a person of great wisdom as well as metapsychic strength You're aware of the danger we face, with so many of the battle-company having perished in the Flood The Foe is poised to take advantage of any show of weakness now that they outnumber us, and they will not scruple to go against tradition if it will hasten our downfall' Consider the so-called Howler attack that devastated Burask, in which the invaders made unprecedented use of bows and arrows And the skirmishes in the alpine foothills around Bardelask where ogres and imps have been seen mounted on chalikos and hippanons, in contravention of their most ancient custom'

The Foe are planning to pick off, one by one, those cities that have lost their strong lords and fighting ladies Even Rocilan, on the Atlantic coast and a protectorate of Goriah, is vulnerable to the Fuvulag of the Grotto Wilderness The lovely Eadnar is a creative genius in textiles and the confectionery arts, but she is hardly the person to undertake the defense of your city against a well-armed force of mounted monsters' This is why, at my insistence, Alberonn Mmdeater has pressed his suit in spite of your mourning customs You know he's eminently qualified Why, it's to Rocilan's honor that it be governed by a High Tabler, and a fighting specialist, to boot' Add to this the fact that Alberonn saved Eadnar's life, and your own, m the Flood

"We owe the Lord Mmdeater more than we can repay," Morna said aloud, stiff-faced "We welcome him with humility and Joy Nevertheless, "

Aha I see what you take little (rouble to hide' It's Me you really object to My meddling in Rocitan affairs My trampling your tradition My taking of Goriah and aspiring to be king'

You are a human

And a rascal' I know But if you'll just use your great ultrasenses to look past my sawed-off body and my humanity and my youth and my bragging, naughty ways you'd see that I'm the very one this kingdom needs now to lead it I'm the one who can rebuild at the same time that I send the Foe packing' Who believes it? Bleyn and Alberonn do, and follow me now as they did in the last Grand Combat Mercy-Rosmar, the President of the Creator Guild, has agreed to be my wife And here's the Second Redactor, Lord Culluket, come to Gonah just this past month to throw in his lot with the Shining One Four of the five eligible High Table survivors accept me at my word' Won't you?

"it's true what they say aboul your sly mind and forked tongue " But the old woman's face had softened into a wintry smile "One moment you're a disingenuous mountebank, and the next, "

"Not all that impossible a candidate for High King'" He giggled, clapped his broad-bnmmed golden hat back onto his head, and squinted at the wet plumes that now dnpped in front of his eyes 'At home on dear, soggy Dalnada, we'd call this a fine soft morning Whai say. lady dear, that we take a jaunt of inspection? Just a wee detour on our way to the Castle of Glass? I'd like you and the other Exalted Ones of Rocilan to see all the great things I've done, refurbishing the Grove of May for this year's Loving You'll be amazed'"

"Oh, very well," said Morna

The other guests and the members of the welcoming party, who had been mingling and chatting gravely, now felt silent and expectant Mercy, sitting her white chaliko sidesaddle. took up Alken's suggestion as though n were a spur-of-the-moment thing and not something the two of them had planned from the start Psychocreative force streamed from her, and her wild opalescent glance made even the lovely sisters of Rocilan look almost wan in comparison

"Let's fly'" Mercy exclaimed "It's a grand day for a Faery Rade'" She threw back the hood of her velvet Kinsale cloak, so that her fine auburn hair darkened and coiled in ringlets from the rain "Away with all you soldiers and attending lords and ladies, we'll not be needing your company until we return to Goriah You dear guests, follow me' Fly away' Fly away'"

She mounted aloft into the downpour, leaving Alken momentarily open-mouthed This detail of flying had definitely not been planned, and of the others, only Culluket was capable of self-levitation Alken would have to carry the four Rocilan guests and Alberonn himself, violating the humility precept No stigma attached to the pregnant Mercy, who by Tanu custom was permitted any caprice, but she'd put d right one across him

"What the hell," Alken said, shrugging "Up. up and away' I'll be breaking a whole raft more of your holy fewkm' rules to save you from the Firvulag, so we might as well wipe the slate of this piece of silliness right now "

He waggled both hands The rain slopped falling on the Tanu aristocrats and the trickster, deflected by his psychokmetic power "If we were on Dalnada," he said, "we could nde in nice comfy aircraft instead of on these overgrown turnip eaters But hang tight' I'm working on that little problem, too'"

Effortlessly, he drew them all along with him, the chalikos seeming to canter through the moisture-laden clouds They caught up quickly with Mercy, who only laughed, and soared eastward over a low range of heavily wooded hills. Beyond them the broad River Laar made a northerly bend before curving down to the Tainted Swamp and its outlet to the Atlantic A well-graded roadway from Goriah paralleled the nver at this point, and it was alive with traffic. Carts drawn by hellads and chaliko caravans brought loads of dressed stone, carved timbers. rolls of sod, and bailed-and-burlapped ornamental plant stock into a raw clearing adjacent to the Laar. The eight flying nders swooped low, decelerated to a walking pace, and drifted JUST above the crowns of big magnolia and black-gum trees Workers were everywhere down below. Humans, both bare neck and gray torc, supervised gangs of diligent, child-sized ramapithecme apes who dug and raked, cleared and planted, fetched and carried.

This area along the river is all new since Tirone and I were married." Bleyn remarked 'What's it going to be, Alken^'

A fancy campground for the Firvulag guests Surprise'"

Bleyn's jaw dropped He looked like a thunderstruck Siegfried Tana s Teeth' You can't invite them''"''

"it goes against all precedent'" Morna said "Firvulag would never,

"They've already accepted," the Shining One interrupted her blithely "Only the biggies, of course King Sharn and Queen Ayfa and their close henchfolks We kept the guest list modest Two or three hundred With luck they'll bring presents

Tirone Heartsmger protested, "But the Little People always have their own Grand Loving celebration Tanu and Firvulag join in the Combat as is proper for Foes But never in the Loving'"

Alken said, "The common ruck of Firvulag can do as they please, dear lass But I have special reasons of state for getting the royals to attend our bash It'll be very educational for em to see how the Tanu and torced humanity have rallied round Me'"

"If we can be sure that the city-lords will" Atberonn growled, his mind troubled and showing it clearly.

Alken now brought the party wafting down They rode along a broad tanbarked way that wound through the riverside grove Mercy said, 'My Lord Lugonn and I have devoted a lot of thought to this year's Maying We've been planning all winter long to show the people of the Many Colored Land a Loving such as they've never seen before Her mind opened to them, showing the work she had done on Elder Earth, where she had directed historical pageants recreating the her itage of medieval Europe for sentimental colonials The tncks of Mercy's theatrical trade would lend a fresh and erotic luster to what had been, in Tanu tradition, a charming but rather naive fertility festival Thanks to Alken, that poiymathic jack of all-trades, and to her own expertise as President of the Creators, she had been able to translate her most fantaslic designs into reality No matter that it meant looting Goriah of resources and lying up the city's labor force for most of the winter and spring A spectacle had been announced, and would be duly produced

"We'll keep all the good old aspects of the Grand Loving," Mere) said, projecting reassurance at Lady Morna "The pledging of hearts and the Maypole Dance and the marrying and the lovemakmg on the dew-starred grass of May But there'll be wonderful new delights as well " The visions rolled forth from her mind in a flamboyant cascade The old trystmg grounds will be gloriously redecorated, finer than our dear people ever dreamt of There 11 be fresh entertainments as well as the familiar ones, new songs and dances and comical skits and dramas of romance, and bright masquerade costumes for everyone in our innovation of the Night of Secret Love And the food, ' You know how I adore creating good things to eat Wait until you taste our new picnic lunches and moonlight feasts, and the grand aphrodisiac wedding banquet to climax the nuptial celebration' Even the visiting Firvulag will find our hospitality impossible to resist You know what perfume fetishists they are well, we've transplanted nearly sixty cartloads of orchids and night jasmine and scented waterlilies for the riverside lagoons The Little People should be almost embalmed in fine fragrance'"