Brother Assassin

by Fred Saberhagen

  Still gripping the helmet and muttering to himself, Time Ops was already on his way.

  After that, Matt paid the Modern world no more attention. He went to stand beside Harl, who had been set like a sleepy statue beside the steering oar. The other men, still tranced, were in place on their benches. Their hands moved slightly on their oars’ worn wood as if glad to be back, making sure they were where they really fitted.

  Looking out past the prow, over the black water under the distant lights, Matt heard a hum of power behind him and felt the ship slide free. In the next moment he saw a shimmering circle grow beneath her—and then, with scarcely a splash, the darkness and the cave were gone, exploded into a glare of blue light. An open morning sky gave seabirds room to wheel away, crying their surprise at the sudden appearance of a ship. Free salt air blew against Matt’s face, and a ground swell passed under his feet. Dead ahead, the horizon was marked with the blue vague line he had been told to expect—Queensland. Off to starboard, a reddened sun was just climbing clear of dawn.

  Matt spent no time with last thoughts or hesitations. “Harl!” he roared out, at the same time thwacking his steersman so hard on the shoulder that the man nearly toppled even as his eyes broke open. “Must I watch alone all day, as well as through the end of the night?”

  He had been told that these words, spoken in his voice, would wake the men, and so it happened. The warriors blinked and growled their way out of their long slumber, each man perhaps thinking that he alone had dozed briefly at his oar. Most of them had started rowing before their spirits were fully back in control of their bodies, but within a few seconds they had put a ragged stroke together, and, a few moments later, all of them were pulling strongly and smoothly.

  Matt moved between the benches, making sure all were fully awake, bestowing curses and half-affectionate slaps such as no one else but Ay would dare give these men. Before they had been given time to start thinking, to wonder what they had been doing five minutes ago, they were firmly established in a familiar routine. And if, against commanded forgetfulness, any man’s mind still harbored visions of an attacking dragon and a slaughtered chief, no doubt that man would be more than glad to let such nightmare vapors vanish with the daylight. “Row, boys! Ahead is the land where, they say, all women are queens!”

  It was a good harbor they found waiting for them. This was Blanium, Queensland’s capital, a town of some eight or ten thousand folk, a big city in this age. Immediately inland from the harbor, on the highest point of hill, there rose the gray keep of a small castle. From those high battlements the princess Alix was doubtless now peering down at the ship, to catch a first distant look at her husband-to-be.

  In the harbor there were other vessels, traders and wanderers, but less than a dozen of them; few for the season and for all the length of quay. Empire trade was falling off steadily over the years; seamen and landsmen alike faced evil days. But let Ay live, and a part of the civilized world would outlast the storm.

  Scattered rivulets of folk were trickling down Blanium’s steep streets to form a throng along the quay as the longship entered the harbor. By the time his crew had pulled into easy hailing distance and the cheers on shore had started, Matt beheld nearly a thousand people of all ranks waiting to see him land. From the castle, whence, of course, the ship must have been spied a great distance out, there had come down two large chariots of gilded wood, drawn by humpbacked load-beasts. These had halted near the water’s edge, where men of some high rank had dismounted and now stood waiting.

  The moment of arrival came, of songs and tossed flowers of welcome. Ropes were thrown ashore, and a crew of dockmen made the longship fast to bollards on the quay, where it rode against a bumper of straw mats. Matt leaped ashore, concealing his relief at escaping the rise and fall of the sea. It was probably a good thing for Ay’s reputation that the voyage had not been a longer one.

  The delegation of nobles earnestly bade him welcome, a sentiment echoed by the crowd. King Gorboduc sent his regrets that he ailed too gravely to come down to the harbor himself and expressed his wish to see Ay as soon as possible in the castle. Matt knew that Gorboduc was old, and ill indeed, having only a month to live, historically, beyond this day.

  The king was still without a male heir, and the Queensland nobles would not long submit to the rule of any woman. For Alix to marry one of them might displease the others enough to bring on the very civil war that she and her father were seeking so desperately to avoid. So, logically enough, the king’s thoughts had turned to Ay—a princely man of royal blood, young and extremely capable, respected if not liked by all, with no lands of his own to divide his loyalty.

  Leaving orders for Harl to see to the unloading of the ship and the quartering of the crew, Matt took from Ay’s coffer the jewels historically chosen by Ay as gifts for king and princess. And then he accepted a chariot ride up the hill.

  In the Moderns’ world he had heard of places in the universe where load-beasts came in shapes that allowed men to straddle and ride them. He was just well satisfied that such was not the case on Sirgol. Learning to drive a chariot had presented problems enough, and today he was happy to leave the reins in another’s hands. Matt hung on with one hand and used the other to wave to the crowd; as the chariots clattered up through the steep streets of the town, more hundreds of citizens, of all classes, came pouring out of buildings and byways to salute

  Matt with cries of welcome. The people expected the sea rover to hold their country together; he .hoped they were making no mistake.

  The high gray walls of the castle at last loomed close. The chariots rumbled over a drawbridge and pulled to a halt in a narrow courtyard inside the castle walls. Here Matt was saluted by the sword and pike of the guard, and acknowledged the greetings of a hundred minor officials and gentry.

  In the great hall of the castle there was gathered only a score of men and women, but these were naturally the most important. When Matt was ushered in, to the sound of trumpet and drum, only a few of them showed anything like the enthusiasm of the crowds outside. Matt could recognize most of the faces here from their likenesses in old portraits and secret photos; and he knew from the Modern historians that for the most part these powerful people were suspending judgment on Ay—and that there were a few among them whose smiles were totally false. The leader of this last faction would be the court wizard Nomis, who stood tall in a white robe such as Colonel Lukas had worn, wearing a smile that seemed no more than a baring of teeth.

  If there was pure joy anywhere, it shone in the lined and wasted face of King Gorboduc. To cry welcome he rose from his chair of state, though his legs would support him for only a moment. After embracing Matt, and when they had exchanged formal greetings, the king sank wheezing back into his seat. His narrow-eyed scrutiny continued, giving Matt the feeling that his disguise was being probed.

  “Young man,” Gorboduc quavered, suddenly. “You look very like your father. He and I shared many a fight and many a feast; may he rouse well in the Warriors’ Castle, tonight and always.”

  Ay would receive such a wish with mixed feelings, and Ay was ever the man to speak out what he felt. “I thank you, Gorboduc, for meaning to wish my father well. May his spirit rest forever in the Garden of the Blessed above.”

  Gorboduc was taken with a sudden coughing spell; perhaps he gave way to it more fully than he needed, to spare himself making an issue of this correction by an upstart in his own hall.

  But Nomis was not about to let his chance slip by. He strode forward, white robe flowing, while the king was momentarily incapacitated in the hands of his attendants.

  Nomis did not speak to Matt directly, but stood beside him at the front of the hall and addressed the others. “You lords of the realm! Will all of you stand silent while the gods of your fathers are thus insulted?”

  Most of them would, it seemed. Perhaps they were not sure of the insult; perhaps not of the gods. A few of them did grumble something, but in voices low enough for their word
s to be ignored.

  Matt, his nerves stretched taut, did not ignore them. “I meant no insult to any here,” he said clearly. The conciliatory words were hardly out of his mouth before he felt sure that they had been a mistake, too mild an utterance, too near an apology to have come from the real Ay. Nomis displayed a faint sneer of pleasure, and some of the others were suddenly looking at Matt with new expressions of calculation; the atmosphere had subtly changed.

  The king had recovered from his coughing fit, and now all other matters must wait while his daughter was led forth by her attendant women. From behind a gauzy veil, Alix’s eyes smiled briefly at Matt before she modestly lowered them; and he thought that the Moderns had spoken truly: there would be in many lifelines more painful than Ay’s to follow to the end.

  While preparations were being made for the exchange of gifts, a friendly noble whispered to Matt that, if the Lord Ay had no objection, the king preferred that the betrothal ceremony be completed at once. It would mean unusual haste, but there was the matter of the king’s health… .

  “I understand.” Matt looked toward the princess. “If Alix is agreeable, I am.”

  Her eyes, intense and warm, flicked up at him again. And in a few more minutes he and she were standing side by side with joined hands.

  With a show of great reluctance being overcome only by a loyalty that was stronger still, Nomis came at the king’s order to perform the ceremony of formal betrothal. Midway through, he raised his eyes to the audience as he was asking the ritual question, whether anyone present had objection to the proposed marriage. And the wizard showed not the least surprise when a loud answer came from one at whom he was staring.

  “I—I do object! I have long sought the princess for my own. And I think the sea rover will be better mated with my sword!”

  The man had hesitated and stammered at the start, and the deep voice was perhaps a shade too loud for real confidence to be behind it. But the speaker looked formidable enough, young and tall and wide-shouldered, with arms thick enough to make the average man a pair of legs.

  No doubt Gorboduc would have liked to intervene and forbid a duel, but he could not do so in the case of a formal betrothal challenge. There was no historical record of Ay’s having fought a duel at his betrothal ceremony, an item not likely to have been overlooked by the chroniclers; still, Nomis had now pushed his pawn forward. For this Matt supposed he could blame only himself; he had somehow failed to match Ay’s exact behavior and so had encouraged the challenge.

  In any event, there was no doubt about what had to be done now. Matt hooked his thumbs into his wide leather felt, faced his challenger, and drew a deep breath. “Will you state your name?”

  The young giant answered in a tense voice, his tone far more hesitant than his words. “I need no introduction to any person of quality here. But that you may address me with the proper respect, know that I am Yunguf, of the House of Yung. And know also that I claim the princess Alix for my own.”

  Matt bowed. His manner was very smooth and cool, as Ay’s would be. “Since you appear to be a worthy man, Yunguf, we may fight at once to decide this matter… if you have no reason to delay?”

  Yunguf flushed; his control slipped for a moment, and Matt saw that beneath it the man was certainly badly frightened—more frightened than such a warrior should be by the prospect of any duel.

  The princess’s hand fell on Matt’s arm; she had put back her veil and now, looking soberly at Matt, she drew him a little aside and spoke to him in a low voice. “I hope with all my heart that you fare well in this matter, lord. My affections have never belonged to that man.”

  “Princess, has he ever asked to marry you?”

  “A year ago he did.” Alix’s eyes flickered in maidenly modesty. “As others have. But when I said him nay, he never pressed the matter more.”

  “So.” Matt looked across the hall to where Nomis was now intoning over Yunguf’s arms a blessing of the Old Religion. Yunguf seemed to need all his courage to keep from shrinking away from the wizard’s touch. No, it was not simple death or wounding in a duel that Yunguf feared.

  Matt himself could face the personal danger calmly enough. He had spent most of his life within threat of violence from animals or nature— though, as one of The People, he had very rarely been in danger from another human being. The Moderns had given him Ay’s lithe hitting power and endurance, had put not only skill but extra speed into his nerves. And they had given him his special sword, which alone could give him advantage enough to win a fight. No, it was not Yunguf’s prowess that bothered Matt, it was the very fact of the duel and the changes in history that it must bring.

  Save for the king and the princess and the two participants, everyone seemed happy at the prospect of a little bloodletting. There was a general impatience at the delay necessary for Ay’s shield to be fetched up from the ship. This delay would have allowed Matt time to get away by himself for a minute and report to Operations; but there was nothing he could say to them, or they to him, that would get him out of this duel. So Matt passed time in trying to make light conversation with the ladies, while Yunguf stood glowering and almost silent among a group who seemed to be his relatives.

  The shield was soon brought in by Harl, who entered running, displaying every sign of eagerness to see the fight get started—probably with the intention of unsettling his lord’s opponent’s nerves as much as possible beforehand.

  The company moved outside, where they were joined enthusiastically by the minor nobility and such of the commons as could crowd within sight. The king, chair and all, was established at the best vantage point, with the higher nobles around him. This courtyard was evidently consecrated to weaponry, judging by the massive timber butts, much hacked and splintered, which stood along its farther side.

  The noble who had whispered to Matt about the betrothal came whispering again, to ask if he was acceptable to the Lord Ay as referee; Matt nodded his agreement.

  “Then, my lord, if you will take a stand in the arena.”

  Matt moved to the center of the clear paved space, which was large enough to allow a good deal of maneuvering, and drew his blade. When he saw Yunguf’s advancing on him with blade and shield ready, slow and powerful-looking as a siege tower, he understood that there would be no further preliminaries. It seemed that at Gorboduc’s court killing was much less ritualized than wedding.

  The sun had passed the zenith by now, the air was warm, and in the windless courtyard even moderate exercise soon raised a sweat. Yungufs approach, with many feints, was slow and cautious almost to the point of parody, but no one watching showed surprise. Probably a feigned slowness at the start was Yungufs usual style. Sure enough, he moved rapidly at last, and Matt stepped quickly back, his shield-sword-shield parrying in good order the three blows of the attacking combination. Matt had hoped that at the clash of blades his opponent’s sword might break, but the contact had been flat-sided and glancing, and Yungufs weapon was evidently tough. And, Matt realized now, if one sword was broken, another would be provided; if two or three, cries of sorcery would be raised. No, only wounds could now decide the issue.

  Matt worked his way back to the middle of the arena, still keeping out of Yunguf’s way. The knowledge weighed on him that any killing he did today, any wounds he carved, would be disruptive changes that worked to the advantage of the berserkers. But for Matt to be killed or beaten by Yunguf would damage history still more. The onlookers had already begun to murmur; no doubt his deep reluctance for this brawl was showing. He had to win, and the sooner the better—but without killing or maiming, if that were possible.

  Matt raised his sword and shield in readiness as Yunguf moved slowly into attacking range. And when Yunguf charged again, Matt beat him to the thrust, aiming along the side of Yungufs shield to damage the sword arm’s shoulder muscles. But Yunguf was twisting his body with the force of his own lunge; as the huge man’s blade slid off Matt’s shield, Yungufs body turned into the path of Matt’s thru
st, which cut between his upper ribs.

  The wound was only moderately deep, and Yunguf was not yet stopped, but his next slash was weak and slow. Matt swayed back just enough to let the blow go by, then lunged in again, blocking sword with sword, hooking the wounded man’s knee with his foot and using his shield to force Yungufs upper body back.

  Yunguf fell like a tree, and there was Matt’s bloody point hovering at his throat, while Matt’s foot pinned Yungufs sword wrist to the paving stone.

  “Will you—yield to me—the combat—and its prize?” Matt was now aware of his own panting and of Yunguf’s whistling, strangely gurgling breath.

  “I yield me.” The answer, in strangled tones, came quickly enough. There were no grounds for hesitation.

  Matt stepped wearily back, wondering what Ay customarily used to wipe a bloody sword blade. Harl came to perform that office for him and to scold him about his hesitancy at the start of the fight. Yungufs relatives had gone to Yungufs aid, and with their help the wounded man seemed to be sitting up easily enough. At least, thought Matt, a killing had been avoided.

  He turned to the princess and her father, to find them with frightened eyes fixed on an object that lay on the ground nearby. It was Nomis’s outer robe, snowy in the sunlight. The wizard himself was no longer in sight; the white garment discarded was a plain enough signal that he was donning black.

  A cough sounded wetly behind Matt, and he turned to see Yunguf with bright blood upon his lips.

  The great metal dragon lay motionless, buried almost completely in the muck of the sea bottom. Around it the dull life of the great depths stirred— in safety, for this berserker was now seeking to avoid killing anything. For it to end even a vegetable lifeline nonhistorically could provide a datum for the Moderns’ huge computers, implacable as berserkers themselves, to use in their relentless search for the dragon’s keyhole.

  The dragon was still under the direct command of the berserker fleet that was besieging the planet in Modern times. On their own variety of sentry screens, that fleet’s linked computers had observed the lifting of Ay’s ship and crew to Modern times and their subsequent restoration to Ay’s time, with one lifeline added.