The Chalice of Death (6 page)

“We understand,” Navarre said. He was still staring without believing. “No one told me that on Kariad the Earthman to the Court was a
woman
.”

Helna Winstin smiled. “The appointment was but recent. My father held the post until last month.”

“And you succeeded him?”

“After a brief struggle. Milord was much taken by a Lyrellan who had served as Astronomer Royal, but I'm happy to say he did not choose to break the tradition of an Earthman adviser.”

Navarre stared at the slim female Earthman with sharp respect. Evidently there had been a fierce battle for power—a battle in which she had bested a Lyrellan.
That was more than I managed to do
, he thought.

“Come,” she said. “The order for your release has been signed, and I find cells unpleasant. Shall we go to my rooms?”

“I don't see why not,” Navarre replied. He glanced at Carso, who looked utterly thunderstruck. “Come along, Domrik.”

They were led through the corridor to a liftshaft and upward; it was evident to Navarre now that the dungeon had been in the depths of the royal palace itself.

Helna Winstin's rooms were warm and inviting looking; the decor was brighter than Navarre was accustomed to, but beneath the apartment's obvious femininity lay a core of surprising toughness that seemed repeated in the girl herself.

“Now then,” she said, making herself comfortable and motioning for the men to do the same. “What have you two done that brings you to Kariad with a pair of assassins on your trail?”

“Has the man confessed?”

“He—ah—revealed all,” Helna Winstin said. “He told us he was sent here by one Kausim, a Lyrellan attached to the Joran court, with orders to make away with you, specifically, and your companion, too, if possible.”

Navarre nodded. “I suspected as much. Can I see the man?”

“Unfortunately, he died under interrogation. The job was clumsily handled.”

She's tough, all right
, Navarre thought appreciatively. She wore her head shaved, though it was not strictly required of female Earthmen; she wore a man's costume and did a man's job, and only the rise of her bosom and the slightness of her figure indicated her sex.

She leaned forward. “Now, may I ask what brings the Earthman of Joroiran's court here to Kariad?”

“We travel on a mission from Joroiran,” Navarre said. “We seek the Chalice of life for him.”

A tapering eyebrow rose. “How interesting! Joroiran has become a student of mythology, then! Or does the Chalice really exist?”

“It might,” Navarre said. “But our target is only indirectly the Chalice.” In terse, clipped sentences he told her the whole story of their search for Earth. A strange look crossed her face when he finished.

“Lord Marhaill is all too likely to side with your friend Kausirn in this matter,” she said. “And if I help you it may mean the loss of my post here—if not all our lives. But the prize is great—Earth herself!”

“You'll help us, then?”

She smiled slowly. “Of course.”

The main library of Kariad City was a building fifty stories high and as many more deep below the ground, and still it could not begin to store the accumulated outpourings of a hundred thousand years of civilization on uncountable worlds.

“The open files go back only about five hundred years,” Helna said, as she and Navarre entered the vast doorway, followed by Carso. “Everything else is stored away somewhere, and hardly anyone but antiquarians ever bothers with it.”

Navarre frowned. “We may have some trouble finding what we want, then.”

An efficient-looking Dergonian met them at the door. “Good day, Sir Earthman,” he said to Helna. Catching sight of Navarre and Carso, he added, “And to you as well.”

“We seek the main index,” Helna said.

“Through that archway,” said the librarian. “May I help you find your information?”

“We can manage by ourselves, thanks,” Navarre said.

The main index occupied one enormous room from floor to ceiling. Navarre blinked dizzily at the immensity of it. He watched as Helna coolly walked to a screen mounted on a table in the center of the index room and punched out the letters
E-A-R-T-H
. She twisted a dial and the screen lit.

A card appeared in the center of the screen. Navarre squinted to read its fine print:

EARTH: legendary planet of Sol system(?)

considered in myth as home of mankind

See: D80009.1643, Smednal,
Creation Myths of the Galaxy

D80009.1644, Snodgras,
Legends of the First Empire
.

Helna looked up doubtfully. “Shall I try the next card? Should I order these books?”

“I don't think there's any point to it,” said Navarre. “These works look fairly recent; they won't tell us anything we don't know. We'll have to dig a little deeper. How do we get to the closed shelves?”

“I'll have to pull rank, I guess.”

“Let's go, then. The real location of Earth is somewhere in these libraries, I'm sure; you just can't
lose
a world completely. If we go back far enough we're sure to find out where Earth was.”

“Unless such information was carefully deleted when Earth fell,” Carso pointed out.

Navarre shook his head. “Impossible. The library system is too vast, too decentralized. There's bound to have been a slip-up somewhere—and we can find it!”

“I hope so,” the half-breed said moodily, as they left the index room and headed for the library's administration office to ask for a closed-file permit.

Track fifty-seven of the closed shelves was as cold and as desolate as a sunless planet, Navarre thought bleakly, as he and his companions stepped out of the dropshaft.

A Genobonian serpent-man came slithering toward them, and the chittering echo of his body sliding across the dark floor went shivering down the long dust-laden aisles. At the sight of the reptile, Carso reached for his blaster; Genobonians entered this system infrequently, and they were fearsome sights to anyone not prepared for them.

“What's this worm coming from the books?” Carso asked loudly. His voice rang through the corridors.

“Peace, friends. I am but an old and desiccated librarian left to molder in these forgotten stacks.” The Genobonian chuckled. “A bookworm in truth, Earthman. But you are the first to visit here in a year or more; what do you seek?”

“Books about Earth,” Navarre said. “Is there a catalog down here?”

“There is, but it shan't be needed. I'll show you what we have, if you'll be careful with it.”

The serpent slithered away, leaving a foot-wide track in the dust on the floor. Hesitantly, the three followed. He led them down to the end of a corridor, through a passageway dank-smelling with the odor of dying books, and into an even mustier alcove.

“Here we are,” the dry voice croaked. The Genobonian extended a skinny arm and yanked a book from a shelf. It was an actual book, not a tape.

“Handle it with care, friends. The budget does not allow for taping it, so we must preserve the original—until the day comes when this track must be cleaned. The library peels away its oldest layer like an onion shedding its skin; when the weight of new words is too
great—whisht
! and track fifty-seven vanishes into the outworlds.”

“And you with it?”

“No,” said the serpent sadly. “I stay here, and endeavor to learn my way around the new volumes that descend from above. The time of changing is always melancholy.”

“Enough talk,” Navarre said brusquely, when it seemed the old serpent would maunder on endlessly. “Let's look at this book.”

It was a history of the galaxy, arranged alphabetically by subject matter. Navarre stared at the title page and felt a strange chill when he saw that the book was more than thirteen thousand years old.

Thirteen thousand years. And yet Earth had fallen millennia before the time of the printing of this book.

Navarre frowned. “This is only the volume from
Fenelon to Fenris
,” he said. “Where's Earth?”

“Earth is in an earlier volume,” the Genobonian said. “A volume which we no longer have in this library. But look at this book; perhaps it may give you some information.”

Navarre stared at the librarian for a long moment, then asked, “Have you read all these books?”

“Many of them. There is so little work for me to do down here.”

“Very well, then. This is a question no Earthman has ever asked of an alien before, and if I suspect you give me a lying answer, I'll kill you here among your books and your dust.”

“Ask away, Earthman,” the serpent replied. He sounded unafraid.

Navarre moistened his lips. “This we should know before we pursue our search further. Tell me,
did Earth ever exist
?”

There was silence, broken only by the prolonged echoes of Navarre's voice whispering the harsh question over and over down the aisles. The serpent's bright eyes glittered. “You do not know yourselves?”

“No, damn you,” Carso growled. “If we did, why would we come to you?”

“Strange,” the serpent mused. “But yes—yes, Earth existed. You may read of Earth in this book I have given you. Soon they will send the book far away, and it will no longer be possible for us on Kariad to prove Earth's existence. But till then—yes, there was an Earth.”

“Where?”

“I knew once, but I have forgotten. It is in that volume, that earlier volume that was sent away. But look, Earthmen. Read there, under
Fendobar
.”

Navarre opened the ancient History with trembling fingers and found his way through the graying pages to
Fendobar
. He read aloud:

FENDOBAR. The larger of a double-star system in Galaxy RGC18347, giving its name to the entire system. It is ringed by eight planets, only one inhabited and likewise known as Fendobar.

Because of its strategic location, just eleven light-years from the Earth system, Fendobar was of extreme importance in the attack on Earth (which see). Starships were customarily refueled on Fendobar before …

… coordinates …

… the inhabitants of …

“Most of it's illegible,” Navarre said, looking up. “But there's enough here to prove that there
was
an Earth—and it was only eleven light-years from Fendobar.”

“Wherever Fendobar was,” Helna said.

There was silence in the vault for a moment. Navarre said to the librarian finally, “There's no way you can recall the volume dealing with Earth, is there? In it we could find Earth's coordinates and everything else. Our quest would be shortened if—”

He stopped. The Genobonian looked at him slyly. “Do you plan to visit your homeland, Earthmen?”

“Possibly. None of your business.”

“As you wish. But the answer is no; the volume cannot be recalled. It was shipped out with others of its era last year, sometime before the great eclipse, I believe—or was it the year before? Well, no matter; I remember not where the book was sent. We scatter our excess over every eager library within a thousand light-years.”

“And there's no way you could remember?” Carso demanded. “Not even if we refreshed your memory?” The half-breed's thick hands shot around the Genobonian's scaly neck, but Navarre slapped him away.

“He's probably telling the truth, Domrik. And even if he isn't, there's no way we can force him to find the volume for us.”

Helna brightened suddenly. “Navarre, if we could find this Fendobar, do you think it would help us in the quest for Earth?”

“It would bring us within eleven light-years,” Navarre said. “That's a goodly jump toward finding Earth. But how? The coordinates are illegible!”

“The Oligocrat's scientists are shrewd about restoring faded books,” the girl said. She turned to the Genobonian. “Librarian, may we borrow this book a while?”

“Impossible! No book may be withdrawn from a closed track at any time!”

Helna scowled prettily. “But if they only rot here and eventually are shipped off at random, why make such a to-do about them? Come; let us have this book.”

“It is against all rules.”

Helna shrugged and nodded to Navarre, who said, “Step on him, Carso. Here's a case where violence is justified.”

The half-breed advanced menacingly toward the Genobonian, who scuttled away.

“Should I kill him?” Carso asked.

“Yes,” said Helna instantly. “He's dangerous. He can report us.”

“No,” Navarre said. “The serpent's a gentle old creature who lives by his rules and loves his books. Just tie him up, Carso, and hide him behind a pile of rotting books. He won't be found till tonight—or next year, perhaps. By which time, we'll be safely on our way.”

He handed the book to Helna. “Let's go. We'll see what the Oligocrat's scientists can do with these faded pages.”

Chapter Five

The small ship spiraled to a graceful landing on the massive planet. “This might well be Kariad,” Helna said. “I am used to the sight of double stars in the skies.”

Directly overhead, the massive orb that was Fendobar burned brightly; further away, a dim dab of light indicated the location of the huge star's companion.

“Even this far away,” Navarre said, “it seems like home. The universe remains constant.”

“And somewhere eleven light-years ahead of us lies Earth,” grunted Carso.

They had traveled more than a billion light-years, an immensity so vast that even Helna's personal cruiser, a warp-ship which was virtually instantaneous on stellar distances of a few thousand light-years, had required a solid week to make the journey.

And now, where were they? Fendobar—a world left far behind out of the main currents of galactic history, a world orbiting a bright star in a galaxy known only as RGC18347. A world eleven light-years from Earth.