Pliocene Exile - The Adversary Part 2

In Goriah, Aiken returned from his progress exhausted in mind and body. Securing a portable force-field to screen, himself against attempts on his life, he showed Mercy an enormous cache of contraband Milieu armament and other equipment that Nodonn had secreted in the dungeon of the Castle of Gla.s.s. He fully expected the visiting Firvulag n.o.bles to attempt a.s.sa.s.sination during the upcoming Grand Loving.

On 27 April the boat bearing Cloud Remillard and her confederates arrived at the mouth of the Rio Genii in Spain. Vaughn Jarrow, one of the Rebel children, infuriated Felice by killing dolphins. She annihilated him and mortally wounded the boat's skipper, Jillian Morgenthaler. Calmed by the elderly Rebel Owen Blanchard, Felice nearly fell into a trap that would have put her under control of the North Americans. She was saved by a telepathic warning from Elizabeth, who urged her to come to Black Crag for treatment of her mental illness.

Felice finally agreed and flew away in raven guise, leaving the shaken Cloud, Owen, and Elaby Gathen wondering what to do next. Marc was inaccessible, locked away in cerebroenergetic equipment scrutinizing distant stars. It seemed obvious that the only course left was to make a friendly approach to Aiken Drum.

The usurper of Goriah was busy with other affairs, however.

As a preliminary to the Tanu celebration, he took King Sharn on a Flying Hunt in which the Firvulag ruler barely escaped a fierce plesiosaur. Sharn suspected (correctly) that Aiken had set him up. Later, Sharn and his stalwarts did their metaconcerted best to mind-blast Aiken but they were not yet skilled enough to harm him.

The Grand Loving of Tanu shocked the straitlaced Firvulag visitors. There were murmurings about an upcoming Nightfall War-presumably a resumption of the ancient conflict of Tanu and Firvulag in the Duat Galaxy, which had been interrupted by Brede's offer of exile a thousand years ago.

On May Day, Aiken married Mercy. Having impressed or intimidated the majority of Tanu, he proclaimed himself king with the blessing of Elizabeth, and named a new High Table that included both his friends and certain former enemies.

Among the latter were Celadeyr of Afaliah and Kuhal Earthshaker, a blood-brother to Nodonn being nursed back to health after rescue by Celadeyr.

Simultaneously, the Grand Loving of Firvulag took place in the Howler city of Nionel. Humiliation of the Howler brides was averted when they were chosen in the Bridal Dance by lovestarved Lowlife males, who could not see the true monstrous shapes behind the attractive feminine illusions. Among the bewitched were Tony and Dougal, who awoke the next morning to find that they were wed to devoted she-goblins.

In the cave on Kersic, Huldah celebrated the Grand Loving by dressing the paralysed Nodonn in his gla.s.s armour and embracing him. Wicked old Isak spied on the couple. Nodonn's disgust and fury were so intense that he regained his strength, thrust away Huldah, and killed the wretched old man. He would have slain the woman as well, but Isak had tauntingly ordered him to "look inside" her before doing so.

Exerting his farsight, Nodonn discovered that Huldah was pregnant with his son. Here in the cave, s.h.i.+elded from sublethal solar radiation that had rendered him all but sterile for some 800 years, Nodonn had engendered the heir he had so long desired. Sparing Huldah, he told her to care for the child when it was born and wait for his instructions. Then he left the cave and sent out a telepathic call to Mercy, informing her that he was alive.

In Ocala, Hagen Remillard had finally worked up the courage to defy his terrible father. While Marc continued his futile sta.r.s.earch, Hagen and the rest of the Rebel children and grandchildren fled the island, heading for Europe after disabling pursuit.

Marc "returned" on 16 May with a premonition of what had happened four days previous. Some of his old cronies were in favour of blasting the fleeing children, eliminating the threat of a two-way time-gate once and for ail. Marc refused to consider this and proposed another plan. In a week or so, when conditions were favourable, the children would be forced off course onto the African sh.o.r.e, giving their parents time to repair their own damaged s.h.i.+ps and go after them. In the meantime, Marc had a plan to forestall any attempt by Cloud to deal independently with Aiken. With luck, he would be able to neutralize the newly crowned King altogether ...

Concealing his ident.i.ty, Marc farspoke Aiken and revealed a knowledge of the King's impending expedition into Spain. With Felice undergoing redaction by Elizabeth, Aiken hoped to hunt out the madwoman's lair and retrieve the invaluable Spear of Lugonn-which was not only a useful weapon but also the ancient authority symbol of Tanu kings.h.i.+p. Marc offered to reveal the exact location of the lair and also pledged the mental a.s.sistance of his people. No one knew when Felice would leave Black Crag. If she caught Aiken attempting to rob her, he'd need all the help he could get.

Aiken shrewdly deduced the ident.i.ty of the unknown farspeaker. Not trusting Marc, he was nevertheless eager to use a sophisticated metaconcert program that the rebel leader offered-provided that a fail-safe living "fuse" (in the person of the luckless Culluket) was inserted in the multimind structure to s.h.i.+eld Aiken from Marc's direct mental influence.

Having concluded the agreement with Marc, Aiken set off for Spain with an army of his strongest metapsychics, planning to rendezvous with Cloud Remillard and her companions, and with an auxiliary force led by the conservative Celadeyr of Afaliah.

Mercy accompanied Aiken. She forced Culluket to accompany her on a secret flight to Celadeyr's camp and there broke the news that Nodonn was alive. Celadeyr was overjoyed, as was the convalescent Kuhal Earthshaker. Mercy had previously not dared to broadcast the news telepathically because she feared that Culluket, a powerful redactor who hated his brother Nodonn, would betray her to Aiken. But now Culluket wryly admitted he had undergone an about-face-since Aiken had designated him w.i.l.l.y-nilly for the "fuse" role, which was likely to be fatal.

Mercy urged the others to abandon Aiken and fly with her to distant Var-Mesk, where Nodonn was hiding. Aluteyn pointed out that they had given Aiken their oath of fealty; it would be dishonourable for them to desert their companions so late in the game. No ... they would have to go ahead with the raid on Felice's lair. If they survived, then would be the time to rally round Nodonn!

On 2 June, with Aiken's force poised for the rush to Mount Mulhacen, Elizabeth made her culminating attempt to purge Felice's mind of the pathological factors responsible for her psychosis. Against the advice of the wiser Dionket, who had been Lord Healer of the Tanu, she believed that once Felice was sane, she would give up her megalomaniacal power fantasies and become a tremendous force for good. At great personal danger, Elizabeth accomplished the psychic drainage. Felice awoke with her mind free of anomalies-only to laugh at Elizabeth's altruistic proposals and to fly happily from Black Crag seeking her own pleasure.

Her first stop was the Lowlife Village of Hidden Springs.

There Sister Amerie, whom Felice loved, was celebrating a solitary Ma.s.s in thanksgiving for a safe homecoming. Felice demanded that the nun abandon her vocation and come away with her. When Amerie refused, Felice exerted her psychic force. Amerie was killed. Felice then coolly set her sights on her other love, Culluket the Interrogator. Failing to find him in a swift inspection of several Tanu cities, she headed for her lair to spend the night.

She discovered the mountain hideaway buried under tons of fallen rock-Aiken's work. Incandescent with fury, she went after the despoiler and his fleeing force, who were in boats racing down the Rio Genii. Aiken and his technicians were working madly to fix the laserlike Spear, knowing it would provide the margin of safety if Felice should attack.

Marc's enhanced farsight saw Felice approaching and he gave warning. Aiken a.s.sumed the executive position in the metaconcert and expelled an immense blast of psychoenergy. (Large as this blast was, it was safely below the potential maximum for the structure. Aiken had discovered during his previous use of the metaconcert, when he zapped Felice's lair, that attempting to channel the full output through his bare brain would very likely kill him. And this might be exactly what the wily Marc had planned.) As the reverberations of the blast against Felice died away, Aiken heard Marc's farspoken voice say: I think you got her.

A split second later, the King's elation turned to stark terror. He heard an agonized telepathic shout from Marc: G.o.d NO SHE D-JUMPED!

There was an unintelligible image, a pause, and then the farspoken voice of Marc urging Aiken to hit Felice again.

The metaconcert, with its thousands of linked minds, faltered, then steadied. Something had gone terribly wrong-but Aiken realized that if he didn't strike Felice with every bit of psychoenergy at his disposal, she would surely destroy them all. In desperation, he flung the entire load of psychoenergy at her.

The shock sent him falling into oblivion.

He awoke to discover Elizabeth, Dionket, and Creyn attending him. He had nearly died, but they had saved him. In antic.i.p.ation of such a disaster, Elizabeth had asked Minanonn to fly her and the other two redactors to Spain, where they had observed the encounter with Felice and its aftermath.

Felice had vanished. The mental blast had triggered an enormous rockfall into the river, burying part of Aiken's fleet and altering the course of the Genii. Cull was gone, and the Craftsmaster, and Mercy, and some ninety others. The rest were safe-and awaiting the recovery of their King.

It hardly seemed possible to Aiken that Mercy could be dead.

Her body had not been recovered. But there was the testimony of Celadeyr, who claimed to have seen her die, and Mercy's empty silver-and-emerald helmet. Still deathly weak, Aiken returned to Goriah to recuperate. He attempted to farspeak Marc Remillard in North America, but received no reply.

Some time pa.s.sed. A force of Lowlives led by Basil Wimborne travelled once again to the s.h.i.+p's Grave crater. There they rendered no less than twenty-nine of the exotic aircraft operational. The rest were destroyed. According to plan, twentyseven of the flyers were brought to a secret hiding place on the slopes of Monte Rosa-which during Pliocene times exceeded Mount Everest in height. Chief Burke hoped that this region would be inaccessible to Aiken and the Firvulag alike.

The other two flyers brought the Lowlife expedition back to the Vosges Mountains. They were concealed in the Vale of Hyenas, not far from Nionel, where it was planned to adapt them for defensive purposes.

In the small Tanu city of Var-Mesk on the sh.o.r.e of the New Sea, Celadeyr of Afaliah finally met with Nodonn. He brought with him Mercy-who, of course, was not dead at all. There was a tender reunion between Nodonn and his former wife.

Since there was no time to heal Nodonn's missing hand, Mercy furnished him with one made of silver to take the place of a wooden prosthesis old Isak had carved, back on Kersic. Regretfully, Nodonn told Mercy that she would have to return to Aiken while he himself accompanied Celadeyr to Afaliah and set about gathering an opposition force of conservatives. It was necessary that Mercy keep them informed of Aiken's movements. Aiken was too metapowerful for any of the Tanu to keep track of by means of ordinary fa.r.s.ensing. After a brief happy interlude, the lovers parted.

Mercy came back to Aiken with a story of having had amnesia.

The King seemed to believe her; but he was much changed from the fun-loving trickster who had come to the Many-Coloured Land the previous August. There was a sombre air about him, and he still had not fully recovered from the terrible effects of the fight against Felice. Together, Aiken and Mercy supervised preparations for the Grand Tourney, which would be held at the end of October in place of the abolished Combat.

Meanwhile, in Afaliah, Nodonn and Celadeyr pa.s.sed the word to all traditionalist Tanu that the designated heir of the late King Thagdal was alive and ready to challenge the human usurper.

Nodonn's brother Kuhal Earthshaker regained his strength almost completely after an innovative Skin treatment shared with Cloud Remillard. Cloud, attracted to Kuhal and now alone in the Many-Coloured Land (her brother and the others were slowly making their way north on land from their landing site in western Africa), became converted to the traditionalist cause.

Nodonn had promised his cooperation in a temporary reopening of the time-gate if the rebel children subsequently destroyed it completely.

Marc's fate was still a mystery. He had not responded to Cloud's attempts at fa.r.s.ensing nor had any of the other old Rebels back in Ocala. Cloud concluded that her father must have been attacked by Felice in an unusual metapsychic manoeuvre, the dimensional-jump, or translocation. This was essentially a mind-powered hypers.p.a.ce trip-the kind of operation performed by Brede's s.h.i.+p when it had transported the exotics from the Duat galaxy to this one. D-jumping was a rare but recognized metafaculty in the Galactic Milieu. Felice could have tracked Marc along his fa.r.s.ense beam and done considerable harm. Cloud and Hagen suspected that Marc had survived, since he was encased in the armour of the cerebroenergetic equipment that provided artificial augmentation of his mind.

But once he left the armour's protection, his injuries would surely require treatment in Ocala's regeneration tank. This would explain why Marc had been incommunicado for nearly three months ...

Up north in the Howler city of Nionel, Tony Wayland the metallurgist and his friend Dougal once more made plans to join Aiken Drum. Abandoning their devoted goblin brides, the pair set off through the jungle, only to stumble by accident into the Vale of Hyenas, where they were captured by the Lowlives working on the two exotic aircraft. As known deserters from the Iron Villages and possible traitors, Tony and Dougal were to be sent to Hidden Springs under guard, for trial by Chief Burke. En route, the party was fallen upon by Firvulag regulars.

Dougal escaped, the escorting Lowlives were killed, and craven Tony saved his life by babbling to the Firvulag about the aircraft.

Hustled off to High Vrazel, Tony repeated his tale to King Sharn and Queen Ayfa. He was then turned over to an ogress, the Dreadful Skathe, while the Firvulag monarchs pondered on ways to use his intelligence. They were aware that Nodonn was a.s.sembling forces down in Afaliah and that he had in his possession the sacred Sword of Sharn, which had once been wielded by the Firvulag King's own ancestor in the Nightfall War and which would have to be in the possession of his successor in any renewal of hostilities. Nodonn was as yet far too weak to attack Aiken in Goriah-even using the Sword. After all, Aiken had the Spear.

But if Nodonn had the advantage of aircraft ...

Sharn and Ayfa decided to tell Nodonn about the two flyers (which the Firvulag were incapable of using themselves) hidden in the Vale of Hyenas, in exchange for the Sword-if and when Nodonn conquered the usurper. Nodonn would be honourbound to carry out his part of the bargain, and there undoubtedly were, among Tanu First Comers, a few surviving pilots.

The proposal was made and accepted. On 24 August, four Tanu and Cloud Remillard invaded the Vale of Hyenas, subduing Basil and his crew. With one aircraft commanded by Thufan Thunderhead, an experienced Tanu pilot, and the other flown by Celadeyr, who had had a bit of flight training, Nodonn led 400 Tanu knights in an air a.s.sault on Goriah.

Mercy knew they were coming. In order to prevent Aiken from using the cache of Milieu arms against Nodonn, she prevailed upon a human psychokinetic specialist, Sullivan-Tonn, whose young wife, Olone, was infatuated with Aiken. Mercy and Sullivan broke into the dungeon storage room, and she used her creative power to disrupt the chamber's insulating lining, embedding all of the equipment in a spongelike ma.s.s pervaded with bubbles of poisonous gas.

Aiken confronted them as they fled from the dungeon. The Nonborn King disposed of Sullivan, then took Mercy to their bed for a final, fatal embrace. As she died, his brain a.s.similated all the powers that had been hers.