The Continent Makers and Other Tales of the Viagens (18 page)

The stands were already full of people who, from the predominant color of the flowers in their hats, seemed to favor Shusp. Borel ignored Zerdai’s suggestion that he pitch some commoner out of his seat and claim it for himself, and led her to where the late arrivals clustered standing at one end of the field. He was a little annoyed with himself for not having come in time to lay a few bets. This should be much more exciting than the ponies on Earth, and by shaving the odds and betting both ways he might put himself in the enviable position of making a profit on these saps no matter who won.

As they took their places a trumpet blew. Nearby, Borel saw a man in Moorish-looking armor, wearing a spiked helmet with a nose guard and a little skirt of chain mail; he was sitting on a big tough-looking aya, also wearing bits of armor here and there. This Qararu now left his tent to trot down to the middle of the field. From the red touches about his saddle and equipment Borel judged him to be Sir Volhaj. Volhaj as the challenged party had his sympathy, in line with his own distaste for violence. Why couldn’t the other gloop be a good fellow about his girlfriend? Borel had done that sort of thing and found nobody the worse for it.

From the other end of the field came another rider, similarly equipped but decorated in white. The two met at the center of the field, wheeled to face the grand master, and walked their mounts forward until they were as close as they could get to the booth. The grand master made a speech which Borel could not hear, and then the knights wheeled away and trotted back to their respective ends of the field. At the near end Sir Volhaj’s squires, or seconds, or whatever they were, handed him up a lance and a smallish round shield.

The trumpet blew again and the antagonists galloped towards each other. Borel winced as they met with a crash in the middle of the field. When Borel opened his eyes again, he saw that the red knight had been knocked out of the saddle and was rolling over and over on the moss. His aya continued on without him, while the white knight slowed gradually as he approached Borel’s end of the field, then turned and headed back.

Volhaj had meanwhile gotten up with a visible effort in his weight of iron and clanked over to where his lance lay. He picked it up, and as Shusp bore down on him he planted the butt end in the ground and lowered the point to the level of the charging aya’s chest, where the creature’s light armor did not protect it. Borel could not see the spear go in, but he judged that it had when the beast reared, screamed, threw its rider, and collapsed kicking. Borel, who felt strongly about cruelty to animals, thought indignantly that there ought to be an interplanetary S.P.C.A. to stop this sort of thing.

At this point the crowd began to jostle and push with cries of excitement, so Borel had to take his eyes off the fight long enough to clear a space with his elbows for Zerdai. When he looked back again the knights were at it on foot, making a tremendous din, Shusp with a huge two-handed sword, Volhaj with his buckler and a sword of more normal size.

They circled around one another, slashing, thrusting, and parrying, and worked their way slowly down to Borel’s end of the field, till he could see the dents in their armor and the trickle of blood running down the chin of Sir Volhaj. By now, both were so winded that the fight was going as slowly as an honest wrestling match, with both making a few swipes and then stopping to pant and glare at each other for a while.

Then in the midst of an exchange of strokes, Sir Volhaj’s sword flew up, turning over and over until it came down at Shusp’s feet. Sir Shusp instantly put a foot on it and forced Sir Volhaj back with a swing of his crowbarlike blade. Then he picked up the dropped sword and threw it as far away as he could.

Borel asked: “Hey, is he allowed to do that?”

“I know not,” said Zerdai. “Though there be few rules, mayhap that’s against them.”

Shusp now advanced rapidly on Volhaj, who was reduced to a shield battered all out of shape and a dagger. The latter gave ground, parrying the swipes as best he could.

“Why doesn’t the fool cut and run?” asked Borel.

Zerdai stared at him. “Know you not that for a knight of the Order the penalty for cowardice is flaying alive?”

At the rate Volhaj was backing towards them, he’d soon be treading on the toes of the spectators, who in fact began to spread out nervously. Volhaj was staggering, disheartening Borel, who hated to see his favorite nearing his rope’s end.

On a sudden impulse, Borel drew his own sword and called: “Hey, Volhaj, don’t look now but here’s something for you!” With that he threw the sword as if it had been a javelin, so that the point stuck into the ground alongside of Volhaj. The latter dropped his dagger, snatched up the sword, and tore into Shusp with renewed vigor.

Then Shusp went down with a clang. Volhaj, standing over him, found a gap in his armor around the throat, put the point there, and pushed down on the hilt with both hands . . . When Borel opened his eyes again, Shusp’s legs were giving their last twitch. Cheers and the paying of bets.

Volhaj came back to where Borel stood and said: “Sir Felix the Red, I perceive you succored me but now.”

“How d’you know that?”

“By your empty scabbard, friend. Here, take your sword with my thanks. I doubt the referee will hold your deed a foul, since the chief complainant will no longer be present to press his case. Call on me for help any time.” He shook hands warmly and walked wearily off to his wigwam.

“ ’Twas a brave deed, Felix,” said Zerdai, squeezing his arm as they walked back to the buggy through the departing crowd.

“I don’t see that it was anything special,” said Borel truthfully.

“Why, had Sir Shusp won, he’d have challenged you!”

“Gluk!”
said Borel. He hadn’t thought of that.

“What is it, my dearest?”

“Something caught in my throat. Let’s get back to dinner ahead of the crowd, huh? Giddap, Galahad!”

However, Zerdai retired after dinner saying she would not be back for supper; the excitement had given her a headache.

Kubanan said: “ ’Tis a rare thing, for she’s been in better spirits since your arrival than was her wont since Sir Shurgez departed.”

“You mean she was grieving for a boyfriend until I came along and cheered her up?” Borel thought, Kubanan’s a nice old wump; too bad he’ll have to be the fall guy for the project. But business is business.

“Yes. Ah, Felix, it’s sad you’re of another species, so that she’ll never lay you an egg! For the Order can use offspring inheriting your qualities. Even I, sentimental old fool that I am, like to think of you as a son-in-law and Zerdai’s eggs as my own grandchildren, as though I were some simple commoner with a family.”

Borel asked: “What’s this about Shurgez? What happened to him?”

“The grand master ordered him on a quest.”

“What quest?”

“To fetch the beard of the King of Balhib.”

“And what does the Order want with this king’s beard? Are you going into the upholstery business?”

Kubanan laughed. “Of course not. The King of Balhib has treated the Order with scorn and contumely of late, and we thought to teach him a lesson.”

“And why was Shurgez sent?”

“Because of his foul murder of Brother Sir Zamrán.”

“Why did he murder Zamrán?”

“Surely you know the tale—but I forget, you’re still new here. Sir Zamrán was he who slew Shurgez’s lady.”

“I thought Zerdai was Shurgez’s girl.”

“She was, but afterward. Let me begin at the beginning. Time was when Sir Zamrán and the Lady Fevzi were lovers, all right and decorous in accord with the customs of the Order. Then for some reason Lady Fevzi cast off Zamrán, as she had every right to do, and took Sir Shurgez in his stead. This made Sir Zamrán wroth, and instead of taking his defeat philosophically like a true knight, what does he do but come up behind Lady Fevzi at the ball celebrating the conjunction of the planets Vishnu and Ganesha, and smite off her head just as she was presenting a homemade pie to the grand master!”

“Wow!” said Borel with an honest shudder.

“True, ’twas no knightly deed, especially in front of the grand master, not to mention the difficulty of cleansing the carpet. If he had to slay her he should at least have taken her outside. The grand master, most annoyed, would have rebuked Zamrán severely for his discourtesy, but he’s hardly past the preamble when Sir Shurgez comes in to ask after his sweetling, sees the scene, and leaps upon Zamrán with his dagger before any can stay him. So then we have two spots on the rug to clean and the grand master in a fair fury. The upshot was that he ordered Shurgez on this quest to teach him to issue his challenges in due form and not go thrusting knives among the ribs of any who incur his displeasure. No doubt he half-hoped that Shurgez would be slain in the doing, for the King of Balhib is no effeminate.”

Borel was sure now that nothing would ever induce him to settle permanently among such violent people. “When did Shurgez get time to—uh—be friends with Zerdai?”

“Why, he couldn’t leave before the astrological indications were favorable, to wit for twenty-one days, and during that time he enjoyed my secretary’s favor. Far places have ever attracted her, and I think she’d have gone with him if he’d have had her.”

“What’s the word about Shurgez now?”

“The simplest word of all, to wit: no word. Should he return, my spies will tell me of his approach before he arrives.”

Borel became aware that the clicking sound that had puzzled him was the chatter of his own teeth. He resolved to ride herd on Henjaré the next day to rush the model through to completion.

“One more question,” he said. “Whatever became of Lady Fevzi’s pie?” Kubanan could not tell him that, however.

###

The model was in fact well enough along so that Borel asked the grand master for the perpetual motion meeting the following day. Although he expected an evening meeting, with all the knights full of dinner and feeling friendly, it turned out that the only time available on the grand master’s schedule was in the morning.

“Of course, Brother Felix,” said Sir Juvain, “if you prefer to put it off a few days . . .”

“No, most mighty potentate,” said Borel, thinking of the Shurgez menace. “The sooner the better for you, me, and the Order.”

Thus it happened that the next morning, after breakfast, Felix Borel found himself on the platform of the main auditorium of the citadel, facing several thousand knights of the Order of Qarar. Beside him on a small table stood his gleaming new brass model of the perpetual motion wheel. A feature of the wheel not obvious to the audience was a little pulley on the shaft, around which was wound a fine but strong thread made of hairs from the tails of shomals, which led from the wheel off into the wings where Zerdai stood hidden from view. It had taken all of Borel’s blandishments to get her to play this role.

He launched into his speech: “. . . what is the purpose and function of our noble Order? Power! And what is the basis of power? First, our own strong right arms; second, the wealth of the Order, which in turn is derived from the wealth of the commons. So anything that enriches the commons increases our power, does it not? Let me give you an example. There’s a railroad, I hear, from Majbur to Jazmurian along the coast, worked by bishtars pulling little strings of cars. Now, mount one of my wheels on a car and connect it by belt or chain to the wheels. Start the wheel revolving, and what happens? The car with its wheel will pull far more cars than a bishtar, and likewise it never grows old and dies as an animal does, never runs amok and smashes property, and when not in use stands quietly in its shed without needing to be fed. We could build a railroad from Mishé to Majbur and another from Mishé to Jazmurian, and carry goods faster between the coastal cities than it is now carried by the direct route. There’s a source of infinite wealth, of which the Order would of course secure its due share.

“Then there is the matter of weapons. I cannot go into details because many of these are confidential, but I have positive assurance that there are those who would trade the mighty weapons of the Interplanetary Council for the secret of this little wheel. You know what that would mean. Think it over.

“Now I will show you how it actually works. This model you see is not a true working wheel, but a mere toy, an imitation to give you an idea of the finished wheel, which would be much larger. This little wheel will not give enough power to be very useful. Why? Friction. The mysterious sciences of my native planet found centuries ago that friction is proportionately larger in small machines than in large ones. Therefore, the fact that this little wheel won’t give useful power is proof that a larger one would. However, the little wheel still gives enough power to run itself without outside help.

“Are you watching, brothers? Observe: I release the brake that prevents the wheel from turning. Hold your breaths, sirs—ah, it moves! It turns! The secret of the ages comes to life before you!”

He had signaled Zerdai, who had begun to pull on the thread, reeling in one end of it while paying out the other. The wheel turned slowly, the little brass legs going
click-click-click
as they reached the trip at the top.

“Behold!” yelled Borel. “It works! The Order is all-rich and all-powerful!”

After letting the wheel spin for a minute or so, Borel resumed: “Brothers, what must we do to realize on this wonderful invention? One, we need funds to build a number of large wheels to try out various applications: to power ships and railcars, to run grist mills, and to turn the shafts of machines in workshops. No machine is ever perfect when first completed; there are always details to be improved. Second, we need an organization to exploit the wheel; to make treaties with other states to lease wheels from us and to give us the exclusive right to exploit wheels within their borders; and to negotiate with the powers that be to exchange the secret of the wheel for—I need go no further!

“On Earth we have a type of organization called a corporation for such purposes . . .” And he launched into the account he had previously given Kubanan and Juvain.