The Nonborn King (3 page)

The King's sense of hovering doom was reinforced when a member of the Tanu High Table, Mayvar Kingmaker, the head of the Farsensor Guild, declared that she was in favor of Alken's bid and would see that he was trained for the task as her protege Thagdal viewed Mayvar as a mischievous old crone who might simply be making a gesture On the other hand, she was not called "kingmaker" for nothing

Shaken, Thagdal accepted Alken's bid for Stein Delbaeth was a menace that the King should have dealt with long ago, and now the monarch was backed into a comer by the wily human's maneuver Both Alken and Stem would be introduced to Tanu chivainc practice by the Lord of Swords, and then they and a large troop of knights would go on a Quest against the formidable Delbaeth

Following the portentous banquet, there was desperate reactive scheming among the so-called Host of Nontusvel, children of Thagdal and the reigmng Queen Thagdal had had other wives during his two-millennium lifetime, and he had had thousands of other children by both Tanu and human women, since his germ plasm was considered peerless (This was the basis for his sovereignty ) But the Host considered themselves to be the elite, and had long entertained dynastic aspirations contrary to ancient Tanu custom

The Host leader was Nodonn, greatest battle hero of the Tanu, head of the Psychokmetic Guild, and ruler of Goriah. a nch city situated on the coast of Armonca (Bnttany) Unlike his totipotent father, however, Nodonn suffered from a reproductive handicap His offspring, who were not numerous, did not display important metapsychic powers Nodonn was a member of the Tanu hierarchy, the High Table, as were other Host notables such as the twins Fian and Kuhal, who shared the post of Second Lord Psychokmetic, Culluket the Interrogator, Second Redactor to Dionket, Imidol the Second Coercer, who was the reluctant subordinate to the human Coercer Guild President Gomnol. and Riganone, a female wamor who in tended to challenge old Mayvar for leadership of the Farsensors There were some 200 other members of the Host, but not all of them were first-class mental powers, nor did the Host have a majority of High Table seats But their dynasty might attain supreme power if Nodonn succeeded Thagdal

Now, however, this succession seemed to be endangered not by Alken Drum, whom the Host dismissed as a mere metapsychic nova who would burn out almost as soon as he fiared up, but by Elizabeth

If King Thagdal had fully operant children by her, these would undoubtedly form the nucleus of a hybrid elite, more powerful physically and mentally than the pureblooded Tanu The scheme to use Elizabeth in breeding had been proposed to the King by Gomnol The Host rightly suspected that this devious human Coercer Lord intended to make a place for himself in any new order that included human operants After anxious consultation, the leaders of the Host decided that Elizabeth would have to die This would not be easy to accomplish, since she was an operant Grand Master whom no single Tanu could overcome by means of mental attack If the Host acted together, however, using the multimind thrust called metapsychic concert, they might be able to destroy her (Unfortunately for this plan. the individualistic Tanu found such cooperation to be very difficult Only under the most firm coordination could they achieve metapsychic concert Culluket the redactor and Imidol the coercer would finally succeed in organizing the effort )

Several weeks passed Elizabeth was subjected to rather inept attacks by the Host Knowing that the attacks would increase in effectiveness, she escaped by accompanying Brede Shipspouse into the latter's room without doors, a chamber proof against mind-penetration Brede had plans of her own for Elizabeth that had nothing to do with the schemes of Thagdal, Gomnol, or the Host The Shipspouse, guardian of both the Tanu and Firvulag races, perceived Elizabeth as one who might lead them (as Brede apparently could not) out of their barbarous and feckless battle-culture into a truly civilized society of the mind

Elizabeth was in no mood for Brede's large-hearted hopes She was sunk in despair, feeling that she was the only metapsychic adult in a population of malignant children, who had no response to a superior being other than trying to kdl it out of fear Elizabeth rejected any thought of spiritual motherhood or sharing Brede's guardian role All she wanted, she told the Shipspouse, was to sail away in the great red balloon she had brought with her to the Pliocene to sail away and be left alone, at peace

Alken Drum, under the tutelage of Mayvar Kingmaker, became more and more adept in the use of his metafunctionsMayvar gave him his initiate's golden torc, but he was quick to show the elderly Tanu woman that he had no need of any artificial amplifier He would wear the torc to deceive the other Tanu, however Mayvar also gave Alken a certain simple device that she guaranteed would give him victory over the monster Delbaeth, provided he could use the weapon without any Tanu member of the Quest finding out about it

Stem. loo, received training as a Tanu man-at-arms He womed about Sukey, separated from him as she prepared to begin her redactor apprenticeship Stein's fears were confirmed when he perceived a telepathic cry of fear emanate from his wife He rushed to the headquarters of the Redactor Guild and found her recovering from an operation A traitorous human physician. Tasha-Bybar, had reversed the sterilization procedure obligatory to all time-traveling women, making Sukey ready for King Thagdal's droit du seigneur (Tasha, a great heroine to the Tanu, had perfected this restoration of fertility, making possible the Tanu breeding scheme that utilized human women. Her students did their work in each Tanu city as female newcomers arrived. Because of the female sterilization requirement originally promulgated by Madame Guderian, only onefourth as many women as men elected to time-travel to the Pliocene )

Stein was reunited with Sukey, only to discover that the infamous Tasha was spying upon them. Realizing by Sukey's telepathic confession what Tasha had done, not only to his own wife but to thousands of other human women , Stem killed the doctor on the spot.

His deed was discovered by the redactor Creyn, who seemed oddly sympathetic. Creyn promised to conceal their part in Tasha's death, giving Stein and Sukey the first hint of the existence of a Peace Faction among the normally bellicose Tanu. This group cherished the heretical notion that one day Tanu and Firvulag would be brothers in sun as well as in shadow.

At the September Sport Meeting in Munah, both Alken and Stem were required to display their fighting prowess in the arena, before the grand and petty nobility of the Many-Colored Land If the pair passed muster, they would be accepted as members of the Tanu battle-company and the Delbaeth Quest would proceed.

Stem fought first and dispatched a monstrous hyenalike animal with his battleaxe. Then it was Alken's turn His antagonist was a species of crocodile seventeen meters long. It had been brought to the Munah arena just for him by Nodonn Battlemaster, who had recognized Alken as a force to be reckoned with.

The anthropologist Bryan Grenfell had been spending his days studying Tanu culture in company with a genial hybrid, Ogmol On the night of Aiken's testing, Bryan was in the royal box together with the King and Queen, Aluteyn Crartsmaster, the President of the Creator Guild, the fey human Genetics Master Greg-Donnei (ne Gregory Prentice Brown), and other notables Bryan was introduced to Nodonn upon the Battlemaster's arrival, but he had eyes only for Nodonn's new wife, Lady Rosmar, who was none other than the bewitching Mercy Lamballe, Bryan's own love-at-first-sight, whom he had helplessly followed to the Pliocene. Mercy now wore a golden torc and had developed tremendous psychocreative powers.

In the arena, Aiken met the giant crocodile. Astride a chaliko, wearing golden glass armor and armed only with a glass lance, the trickster was terrified. He lost control of his mount and was thrown to the sand. The rules permitted no use of overt mental power against the beast, but Aiken eventually conquered it, using only his native cunning. The Tanu spectators went wild at his bold performance. King Thagdal and Nodonn had a more chilly response.

Having proved themselves, Aiken and Stein now undertook the Delbaeth Quest- The expedition consisted of several hundred knights and was led by the King himself- Nodonn was there to keep an eye on Aiken. Two High Table members, Tanuhuman hybrids of great mental power, became partisans of the trickster. They were Alberonn Mindealer and Bleyn the Champion.

The colorful troop began the Quest at the large city of Afaliah, at the base of the Aven Peninsula. Its crusty old lord, Celadeyr, no particular friend of the Host, was nevertheless scornful of the notion that a human such as Aiken might get the better of the awful Delbaeth. For three weeks the Quest chased the monster, who bombarded the knights with lethal fireballs and effectively kept them at a distance. Finally the Firvulag disappeared into a vast network of caverns out on the Gibraltar Isthmus, and King Thagdai and Nodonn demanded that Aiken admit he was beaten.

Aiken refused. He and Stein stripped themselves of their glass armor and prepared to follow Delbaeth underground. By law, the Quest had to end in three days, when the Grand Combat Truce would begin and Tanu and Firvulag would forswear fighting until the start of the ritual war- Aiken demanded that he be allowed those three days; and supported by his partisans, he was given his chance. Using his psychocreative power, Aiken turned himself and Stein into bats and they flew into the depths.

They encountered Delbaeth two days later and killed him by means of the secret device Mayvar had given Aiken. Just before they left the Firvulag's cave. Stein pointed out to Aiken that the waters of the Atlantic were pounding against the western wall. The narrow Gibraltar Isthmus, forming a sill between Spain and Africa, was all that separated the ocean from the deep empty basin of the Mediterranean.

With the start of the month-long Truce, both Tanu and Firvulag from all parts of the Many-Colored Land began to converge on Muriah's White Silver Plain, a large salt flat where tent cities, grandstands, lists, and the battlefield for the Combat proper were located. Because they had adopted war-mounts and other human innovations, the Tanu had won the Grand Combat for forty years running, and the Firvulag had become more and more bitter. However, the recent fall of Finiah cheered the Little People, and inspired them to adopt a few Lowlife fighting customs themselves in hopes of changing their luck. The new tactics were opposed by the old Firvulag Battlemaster, Paliol One-Eye; but he was forced to bow to the will of the younger generals Sharn and Ayfa, a husband-and-wife team.

In the Lowlife village of Hidden Springs, Madame Guderian discussed her plan for liberating humanity from the Tanu yoke. Phase One had been successful. Finiah with its barium mine was a deserted ruin.

Phase Two would be more audacious. Under cover of the Truce, a small group of Lowlives would infiltrate the torc factory down in Muriah and sabotage the irreplaceable machinery. The undertaking would be hazardous in the extreme, since the factory was situated inside the fortresslike Coercer Guild complex, presided over by the renegade human. Lord Gomnol.

Phase Three involved the permanent closing of the timegate. Madame had a plan for doing this herself, and Claude insisted upon helping her.

An implied fourth phase of the liberation involved the making of iron weapons by humanity. It was arranged that the freed human population of Finiah, as well as some of the Lowlives who had come from other parts of Europe to join in the Finiah fight, would found several Iron Villages. They would mine. smelt, and forge the "blood metal" in preparation for the ultimate bid for human freedom.

Eleven people, including Madame and the Group Green survivors, left Hidden Springs to implement Phases Two and Three. They were disguised as loyalist human refugees from Finiah. At the city of Roman, Madame and Claude separated from the others and went off to hide near Castle Gateway, while the others proceeded south to the capital The two groups would try to synchronize strikes against the time-gale and torc factory.

The Muriah-bound group included Felice, Sister Amerie, Chief Burke, the alpinist don Basil Wimbome (liberated from a Finiah prison), and five other dedicated Lowlives. Felice's metapsychic powers were developing nicely and the longer she wore her golden torc, the stronger her mental faculties became. She also carried the photonic Spear- It had been totally discharged in the Finiah fight, but the saboteurs hoped that their former Group Green companion, Aiken Drum, would find some way of putting it back into action. As the group approached the Tanu capital, a telepathic call was sent to Aiken, telling him of the Lowlife conspiracy. The saboteurs took for granted that Aiken would be loyal to humanity and eager to assist them. But they were wrong.

Down in Muriah, Aiken and Stem and Elizabeth learned at the same lime of the impending assaults on the torc works and the time-gate. Elizabeth had reluctantly helped Brede attain metapsychic operancy; but she was still determined to escape from Muriah in her red balloon and live alone. Stein eagerly welcomed the prospect of a strike against the Tanu; but Aiken feared that the exotics would read Stein's simple mind and discover the plot, and so he and his new ally Gomnol (who professed to be sympathetic to humanity) put a mind-block into the big Viking. Neither Gomnol nor Aiken anticipated that Stein would leak the sabotage plot to his redactor wife, Sukey The alliance between Aiken and Gomnol Lord Coercer was a devious one. Neither man really trusted the other, but they had been forced into a coalition of necessity. Aiken aspired to be King of the Many-Colored Land and would need plenty of help to fulfill his ambition. Gomnol, cordially hated by the present heir to the throne, Nodonn, knew that his previous position of strength as a supporter of King Thagdal was crumbling. The Tanu monarch was on a downhill slide and might very well take Gomnol with him. The King had believed that the Tanu race benefited by the admixture of human genes and the utilization of human technology- But now Bryan Grenfell's cultural survey, recently completed but still secret, showed that humans would eventually dominate the Many-Colored Land if Thagdal's policy continued. The King suspected (correctly) that his eldest son Nodonn planned to use the survey to discredit him publicly during the Grand Combat. Additionally, the King had suffered another blow to his prestige when Brede forbade the implementation of Gomnol's mating scheme between Thagdal and Elizabeth. Elizabeth was now taboo, and the King would not become the father of an operant superrace as he had hoped. On the contrary, that honor might very likely fall to Aiken Drum!