The Nonborn King (33 page)

"Now we'll sleep," she said. "My dearest Tonee."

He fell a silken cloth pressed over his eyes, wrapped around his head and softly tied. "Rowane? What are you doing?"

"Shhh You must never see me when we sleep It would be tembly bad luck Promise that you'll never try." Her warm lips met his, and she kissed his eyelids through the silk

"My tittle Mayflower My exotic darling If it'll make you happy." He was sinking toward sweet unconsciousness Her voice faded, and the memory of her exultant cnes, but not his pride in his own manhood that she had so marvelousiy reaffirmed "For your sake, I won't look Strange little one.

"It's not for my sake, dear Tonee. It's for yours "

She laughed fondly, and then he was asleep, and he had the most singular dream.

When he woke up and absent-mindedly tore off the blindfold, he discovered that the dream had come true.

"Oh. my God!" he croaked

She opened her eye and was instantly her old self Petite Lovely. Putting on her clothes and lifting the withered remnants of the wreath from his neck

"Rowane!" His voice was anguished. "What have they done to you? And to me?

Her smile was pert and very wise- "The ordinary Firvulag are able 10 see through our guises They never would choose the brides m red, you see. And you poor human males we know how few of your own women came through the timegate, and those still mostly enslaved by the Tanu What could be more right than this?" She reached up and kissed him passionately He felt himself respond in spite of the knowledge "Dear Lord Greg-Donnet says the first cross will produce a normal-appearing hybrid. After that, there can be genetic engineering to modify the mutant strain."

"The, first, cross?" He felt the world lurch. The meadow was full of golden flowers and rising larks.

"And our child will be immune to the blood metal, just as you humans are. Isn't that a nice bonus?"

"Uh," he said.

She was pulling him to his feet "And now everyone's hurrying back to Nionel for the May Morning feast We don't want to be iate, do we!"

"No. ."

"You'll love Mummy and Daddy," she added. "And you're going to love Nionel. too Let's run?"

They went racing over the soft grass, hand in hand. Tony thought: What am I going to tell poor old Dougal? But then he saw other lovers converging on the city gates, and among them was a great ginger-bearded man wearing a surtout with a golden lion's head. being led along by another lovely little woman in red.

And Tony knew that his question was superfluous

13

"WE'VE TRIED FOR THE PAST THREE NIGHTS TO BLAST THE

little gold devil while he was asleep and drawn zilch," Medor grumbled. "I don't see why tonight should be any different. He's using some kind of mechanical brain-shield. Pass the rabbit mousse."

King Sharn shoved a platter toward his first deputy, who scraped a great quivering wedge onto his plate and slurped it with gusto. "Tonight, AAen won't sleep in the castle," the King explained. "HeTl be out here in the Grove with everyone else, and using the gadget would cramp his style "

"How so?" inquired Mimee of Famorel, who was viceroy of the Helvetide Uttle People.

"Our ingenious hostess has scheduled another crazy innovation. Something called the Night of Secret Love. After the feast, we're ail supposed to go to those robing tents on the other side of the amphitheatre and pick up a masquerade costume. No illusion making allowed At midnight, a masked ball begins, followed by hanky-panky in the Tryshng Grounds until dawn. Kind of a glorified bachelor party before all the weddings tomorrow Except, being Tanu, the damn brides'U probably be off in the bushes rutting away with the rest of the Foe."

"Decadent bitches," growled Mimee. "And to think that our own folk are beginning the sacred Dance of the Bndes almost at this very moment up in Nionet " He cast a wistful look at

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236 THE NONBORN K-ING

the high-nding full moon, whose light was drowned by the gem-lamps that illuminated the feasting boards. The Firvutag had insisted on segregated dining facilities They were willing to wolf down Tanu food, but disdained Tanu wines and highproof brandies in favor of good old beer, mead, and cyser

"You know what you're getting when you wed a Firvulag bnde " Medor heaved a maudlin sigh. "Virgins' Every last toothsome morsel! And faithful to you forever, once they finally open that adorable vagina denlata. If only my little Andamathe was here . You brought your wife, Sharn. It was damned unfair of you to make the rest of us leave our mates behind' Spoils the whole Loving! Pass the sweetbreads grand due."

"I'm the Queen," Ayfa said. "I had to come And the rest of you are supposed to keep your wits about you This is a mission into the Foe's territory, deadly serious business You can exercise your damn gonads on your own time "

"So we're to try for Alken Drum again tonight, then," said young Fafnor Ice-Jaws "I presume that -we put on costumes and mingle."

"Not too enthusiastically,"warned the Queen, her dark eyes twinkling. "The Tanu ladies have no teeth where it counts, but rumor has it that when they've finished with a man, his filberts are nothing but rattling husks Don't be tempted, lad."

"The Goddess forbid!" said the young ogre, all in a huff

"We must track Alken wherever he goes and make our strike right at the magic moment," Sharn said- "Alt twelve of us "

"He'll be after that young coercer wench, Olone," Medor said shrewdly "Her shameless flaunting of herself before the King of the May is the talk of all the Tanu gossips. Pass the ortolans en brochette."

The King seized the silver dish and slammed it down out of Medor's reach- "Dammit, will you think of something besides food? No wonder we haven't been able to work up a decent mind-meld' All the blood deserted our brains for our digestive tracts from the moment we set foot in Goriah!"

"Medor's in need of distraction " Old Betulam had a wicked smirk. "And notjust because his wife's in Nionel Guess who we saw at a special table off in a quiet comer of the feastgarden, dining on invalid's slop with his blood-brother, the Interrogator? None other than Medor's Grand Combat antagonist, Kuhal Earthshaker' The one we thought was surely dead."

'Te's toenails'" exclaimed the King. "That's bad news Kuhal tied you in the Heroic Encounters, Medor, and his PK talent is, "

"Nil," the ognsh champion said, grinning around a halfmasticated songbird. "His twin, Fian, died and Kuhal is a basket case- He still spends most of the day in Skin I guess Aiken forced the Afaliah contingent to tote him up here to participate in the rump coronation on the third day of the Loving Kuhal is a High Tabler, you know But about as much threat to us as a newbom dik-dik. Pass the poached marrow and the salmon mayonnaise "

Mimee of Famorel made a face "Your liver wilt take a month to recuperate."

"So what?" Medor said "The war's not scheduled to start until fail."

"Silence'" hissed Sharn His demonic aspect came upon him, the guise of a three-meter albino scorpion with glowing internal organs. His mind dealt a savage correction to the imprudent Medor, who tumbled from his seal onto the grass, pained and shocked and splattered with mayonnaise. Sharn's body returned to normal He regarded the Gnomish Council with a bleak expression. "No one knows the day the Nightfall War begins. Not I. Not you. You will never speak of it among yourselves. Never think of it! Do you understand^"

"Yes, High King," said the others Over by the table of the King and Queen of May, a kind of fireworks display of fountaining Roman-candle lights had started. It signaled the end of the Moonlight Feast and the imminent beginning of the Night of Secret Love.

"Now get your fancy-dress outfits and sober up." said Sharn "Ayfa and I will meet you at the base of the maypole in an hour "

"You look ... ridiculous," said Kuhal "But in character " Culluket shrugged. "I judged it a droll choice of disguise " His expression behind the death's-head mask was perfectly clear to his brother In light of the idiotic charade taking place out on ihe dancing ground. Cull's mocking smile was understandable; but excitement

"You do surprise me. Interrogator. I had thought you well beyond the simpler styles of concupiscence "

"Even so. But tonight is a special occasion."

Death folded his black-clad arms with their painted bones and surveyed the scene The ball music was becoming more frenzied in its eroticism and the dancers more madcap and abandoned The young, who scarcely needed the artificial stimulus anyway, were already pairing off and slipping away through the trees in the direction of the Trysting Grounds Even those traditional Tanu who had entered reluctantly into the masquerade seemed about to surrender to the Dionysian atmosphere. Surely that capering wanton disguised as a purple moth was none other than the venerable Morna-la. And the stout, cloaked figure sporting a panther's head, shamelessly cavorting with a willowy charmer on each arm, bore a suspicious likeness to the Craftsmaster Aiken Drum was out in the middle of things, of course, dressed inevitably in the particolored outfit of a medieval Jester He wore a mask with an obscenely long nose, which seemed to have a libido all its own.

"And on the day after tomorrow," Kuhal observed, "we will acclaim him King! Goddess forgive us. And you have been among his chief supporters, Redactive Brother. You, an elder of the Host' I have the excuse of brain-wreck, at least. But you, for all your quirks of temperament, are a paragon of glacial rationality Yet you calmly accept this human mountebank, even serve him! It was well known that you and Nodonn were estranged; but that you should pledge fealty to a Lowlife it negates all that the Host of Nontusvel stood for "

Death laughed. "Who remains of our vaunted Host? Fifteen meager-powered brothers and sisters under Celo's protection, most of whom survived because they were wounded in the Combat and shipped off to Redactor House to gel them out of the way. I myself And you."

Kuhai turned away. His gaunt features tightened An unbidden image rose in his memory, easily perceptible to the Interrogator "And me Half a mind Half a man. Widowed and crippled in the same bereavement Deprived of a love no singleton could ever understand'" The vehemence of his bitterness made him falter, grown suddenly gray-faced- Cutlukel took his brother by the arm and led him back to his cushioned seat near the clipped hedge, beyond the sight of the revelers Kuhal sank down, accepted a small tumbler with some medicinal tisane, and sipped at it until the strong herbs took ettect. He ventured a wan smile "I almost envy your poor sweethearts their embrace with Death, Brother! Be sure to choose young ones, if you can lure them away from that pnapic jackanapes The young are less likely to know the melancholy history of your nine wives and thirty luckless mistresses."

"I have my lover already selected," Culluket said. "And she knows "

"Go away, then," said Kuhal Earthshaker. "I can rest here as well as anyplace. In the morning, Boduragol and the other Afatiah redactors will tend to me. Enjoy your Night of Secret Love, Brother'"

Death nodded, raised one skeletal hand, and slipped away to the masquerade

Sullivan-Tonn danced with his betrothed, the beautiful young coercer Olone, knowing with sick certainty what black impulse from his own subconscious had made him choose the antelope mask with the spiral homs

"You can't go with him! I forbid it Your father gave me his most solemn promise'"

Olone was a vision m a cloak of floating white petals and a tall flowered headdress. Her tiny half-mask was gold, the top margin all decorated with jeweled stamens. She looked down at her elderly fiance with a smite that blended amusement and contempt.

"Father is dead. And anyway, a King's wishes overrule those of a city-lord."

"Olone! My darling child My untouched flower! I'll spirit you away, " She felt the lightening embrace of his great psychokinesis But all that was needed was a single coercive thrust, and he was crushed and weeping behind his silly antelope head, and they whirled over the soft grass and the music throbbed

"Father pledged me to you without my consent when I was nothing but a child You should be grateful that I still agreed to accept a human "

'No psychokinetic can match my powers'" Sullivan-Tonn blustered

"Except him And you're not such a prize You're much too dumpy, and you're terribly old for one who's only ninetysix, and I think it was craven of you not to fight at Fimah "

"Don t talk like that' I love you so much'"

"Oh, twaddle " She was guiding the two of them closer and closer to the center of the dancing-ground, where the Fool and his Lady were spinning and soaring "I know why you want a virgin Don't think I can't read those temble books you were showing the Interrogatorjusl because the words aren't Standard English' Do you think we Tanu are incapable of using a Sony Translator? La nouvelle Justme, indeed' You try just one of those Lowlife tncks on me after we're married, and I'll coerce you to jelly'"

"My darling, I'd never, "

"Oh, be quiet'"

Most of those couples still on the dancing-ground now gathered about Alken and Mercy The Lady of Goriah was scarcely disguised at all. wearing a simple black domino and the Celtic costume that had been her choice for passing through the timegate. The music had slowed to a languid three-quarter time. The jester and the Insh princess danced at arm's length His face was hidden not only by the ludicrous long-nosed mask, but also by a mental curtain. Her lips were colorless, curved in a knowing smile.

The dance ended and they bowed to one another A new melody began, jagged, eerie, impossible to dance to The ball was over and the couples humed toward the shadows

Olone slipped out of Sullivan s arms and rushed to Aiken "My King'" she said breathlessly, and curtseyed to the ground The Fool snapped the fingers of both hands and came leaping al her She rose, dissolving in giggles, to be met by the relentless caress of the nose

Helpless, Sullivan saw them run away Mercy was almost alone now in the midst of the great bowl of lawn The musicians, all human, had slipped into the climactic bars of "La Valse " Sullivan shivered in premonition A spectral figure that had been waiting under the plane trees came into the moonlight and beckoned Mercy went to him slowly, then rose on tiptoe and kissed Death's fleshless mouth.