The Golden Torc

by Julian May

  One of the female black-and-whiters tried to haul Bryan off his bench into the dance, where Aiken and Raimo were already whirling and leaping as though they had been doing the complex steps all their lives. Bryan shook his head to the invitation. He let the waiters fill his great cup again and again and tried to blot from his mind the realization of how it must be now with Mercy.

  When he finally thought to examine the cup closely and discovered what the gold and jewels ensheathed, he was too drunk to care.

  3

  STEINIE don't dance with them don't. Look what they do to Raimo myGod.

  Allright allright littleone calm keep on hiding the two of us don't give way don't fear.

  They are stronger especially this DionketLordHealer I could never keep him out of us without Elizabethhelp. They don't like that friendshipwall but afraid offend her too early. O Jesus. That beautybitchslut Anéar taking Raimo right there middlemob shame disgust furyhate ... Steinie!

  Calm calm shelterlove armsword bless Elizabeth. Atleast they no make Aiken dance their tune viceversa if anything.

  Not toy like Raimobooby.

  Nor I Sukeylove if you help.

  "Are you sure you won't take a turn with the dancers?" The Lady Riganone smiled at Stein and Sukey. The magpies were back importuning them. "Your two friends are having a marvelous time."

  "No thank you, Lady," Stein said. The magpies minced away with reluctance.

  Sukey helped herself to another of the spiced tournedos. "These are delicious, Lord Dionket." She spoke shyly to the deep-eyed Chief Healer, who sat opposite her. "Are they made from venison?"

  "Why, no, Little Sister. Hipparion."

  "Those adorable little horses?" Sukey cried in dismay.

  Lady Riganone tossed her head and laughed merrily. The pendants dangling from wires on her lavender and gold headdress clashed and pealed. "What else would we do with them? They're the most abundant meat source that we have—and the Goddess be thanked they're so delicious. Why—do you realize that those poor people up in the Hercynian Forest, in Finiah and those other places at the end of the world, must make do with pigs and tough old stags and even mastodons? We southerners are so lucky. There's really nothing to compare with a roast loin of hipparion, seasoned with garlic and a hint of thyme and perhaps a little of that new pepper, all brown and crackling on the outside and oozing blood within."

  "Don't be squeamish, Sukey," Stein told her, dipping out another helping from a bowl of rich stew. "When in Rome, you know! I don't know what this is, but it's sure got flavor."

  Dionket poked a bony finger into the deep silver dish, then sucked meditatively. "Mmm ... a promephitis ragout, dear warrior. I believe the Elder Earth equivalent for the little creature would be—"

  The mental picture flashed before Stein and Sukey.

  "Skunk!" The Viking choked.

  "Oh—there, there, Steinie," Lady Riganone exclaimed, radiating solicitude. "Did something go down the wrong pipe? Do take some wine for that coughing."

  The Personage seated next to Dionket, a burly giant in a short jerkin of blue and gold, said, "Try some of these hedgehogs in burgundy to settle your tripes, Stein. Now there's a dish to make your belly take notice! And you know what they say about hedgehog." He leered and the mental image of the prickly pun was distressingly overstated.

  Coolly, Sukey shoved the platter of odd little dainties far out of Stein's reach. "The warrior is recovering from an injury, Lord Imidol. He mustn't overindulge. In anything."

  Lady Riganone's fluting chuckles and her chapeau tinkled together. "Isn't she marvelous, Dionket? She'll be such an asset to your Guild of Redactors. But it was really very naughty of you to have reserved her from the bidding."

  Mindsnap.

  "What do you mean, Lady?" Stein asked.

  "Have some more cherry brandy," the President of the Redactors urged. "Or would you prefer plum or raspberry?" He fingered his torc. Both Stein and Sukey were compelled to relax.

  I couldn't help it Steinie he slipped through. O Elizabeth come back from there and help us before Stein finds out I won't be able to hold him!

  Sukeywoman whatwhatWHAT dammit?

  Steinie stop I can barely cover you if they perceive allthat inside they'll hurt you love O please calmrecedeflattentranquilize. Damn you ElizaMasterbeth come back from there!

  Out in the middle of the floor, the arbiter bibendi was holding a length of glittering glass chain above his head and shaking it. The riotous dancing calmed and the music drained away. Revelers drifted back to their seats. Four Tanu ladies all but dragged the disheveled Raimo with them. Aiken Drum suffered no such indignity. He strutted back to his place at the High Table and sat carefully on the edge of his couch.

  "Exalted Personages, most noble lords and ladies, and illustrious honorees!" cried the arbiter. "Pray silence! It is the hour for the contributions of the honored guests!"

  Cheers, cup-thumping, and a clatter of knives upon golden plates.

  The arbiter shook the chain again. "Two of our guests"—the silver-torced exquisite bowed toward Bryan and Elizabeth—"are exempted from show by command of Their Awful Majesties. And one other"—he pointed at Raimo—"has already made his talents known!"

  The ladies at the low tables screamed with laughter. A number of them began pelting Raimo with bananas, stopping reluctantly as the chain of silence rang once again.

  "We will hear from Sue-Gwen Davies!"

  Sukey felt herself impelled toward the center of the room. The soul within her was turned over and over helplessly by the examining psyches of the King and Queen and the other Personages. The Tanu were surprised at the deep barrier (for Elizabeth had returned to assist in the nick of time), but were disposed to be satisfied with the superficial revelations that were accessible to them. Dionket's mind spoke.

  Dear little RedactorSister, apprentice comforterhealer! Lend us a small solace this night sing of ElderEarth of ancient parentland.

  Sukey's apprehension began to melt. Other minds all around her seemed to beg: Lull us.

  Keeping her gaze on Stein, she sang a cradlesong in a small clear voice, first in Welsh and then in Standard English. After the first phrase, a single harpist accompanied her.

  Holl amrantau'r sêr ddywedant,

  Ar hyd y nos.

  Dyma'r ffordd i fro gogoniant,

  Ar hyd y nos.

  Golau arall yw tywyllwch,

  I arddangos gwir brydferthwch,

  Teulu'r nefoedd mewn tawelwch,

  Ar hyd y nos.

  Love, fear not if sad your dreaming,

  All through the night.

  In the mist bright stars are gleaming,

  All through the night.

  Joy will come to us at morning,

  Life with sunrise hope adorning,

  Though sad dreams may give dread warning,

  All through the night.

  Behind the words and music glowed the sheltering love of the caregiver. Her healing energy poured over the manchild to whom she had given rebirth, overflowed and spread in a great psychic pool throughout the hall. For a moment, the lullaby's softness quenched all the others' anxieties, soothed anger and lust, diminished grief and frenzy.

  When the song was done the banqueters were silent. And then on an alien level of consciousness, which the torced humans could sense but not decipher, came a burst of declaration from many Tanu minds. It was cut off in full spate by the lofty voice of Dionket. The Lord Healer rose from his place at the High Table and held out his arms, forming a living tau of crimson and silver.

  Mine. Reserved.

  Sukey returned to her place, dazed, and sat down beside her husband. The arbiter bibendi shook his chain.

  "We will know the talents of Stein Oleson."

  It was the Viking's turn to be drawn irresistibly from his seat. He stood with his head uncovered and glared at the exotic nobility lounging at the High Table, feeling their minds come tapping, prying, snooping. And the Queen's motherthought, more compassionate:<
br />
  He should not have been torced alas the briefliving!

  And then the King: Suffice unto the Combat. Skillplay!

  Two of the magpie dancemasters came bounding from the sidelines, carrying metal baskets full of fruit resembling large oranges. One pitched a bright globe overhand and it flew at Stein's head.

  The bronze sword hissed from its scabbard, gripped in both the giant's hands. He smote the fruit neatly in two.

  King Thagdal roared with jovian delight. The men in black and white began flinging oranges at Stein as fast as they could. His sword flashed like a golden wheel. He spun and leaped, chopping the flying spheres to bits. The King pounded the table while tears of mirth ran into his splendid beard. The company of Tanu screeched and cheered.

  The chain of silence sounded.

  The arbiter gushed, "Oh, a fair show indeed by our newest warrior! Well done, Stein!"

  Bid.

  Again the burst of exotic mindspeech. This time Elizabeth was attuned to it. Without surprise, she heard Stein being auctioned off to the highest bidder as a likely gladiator in a contest called the Low Mêlée. Since the ex-driller was one of the most impressive physical specimens to have appeared in Exile within the past decade, the sports-crazed exotics drove the bidding to what was evidently an unprecedented level. They were bidding their personal services to the Crown—nominal owner of all exceptional time-travelers—offering their metafunctions, their material wealth, their torced and untorced human subjects.

  Three hundred grays for the Royal Guard!

  My garnet mine in the Pyrénées!

  The renowned dancing woman Kanda-Kanda and all of her suite!

  A hundred racing chalikos caparisoned in gold!

  The death of Delbaeth.

  The King cried aloud, "Hold!" He rose from his couch and glowered over the startled assemblage. Out in the middle of the floor, Stein stood still, the point of his great sword resting on the tiles.

  "What person has dared this bid?" asked Thagdal with silken softness. "Who esteems the strength of this warrior so highly that he will rashly pledge the destruction of the Shape of Fire?"

  The crowd of banqueters held their tongues and minds.

  "I do," said Aiken Drum.

  There was a collective sigh, and a collective lancing out, and a mental gasp of stunned surprise as all of the mind-probes fell blunted. Thagdal began to laugh aloud and after a moment, so did Nontusvel and then all of the others. Reaction to the enormity rocked the hall.

  Elizabeth came sliding into Aiken on the uniquely human mode.

  What in the world?

  Look Thaggymind yourself Elizababe fondest wish extirpation meanie FirvulagDelbaethShapeofFire. So bid.

  For Steinie? Deranged clownAiken gaming with ourfriend's life?!

  Elizadummybeth! I'd save Steinbuddyvulnerable. Tanu combat-school ferocitymindset recharge berserkerpsychoenergy irrevocably.

  Damn ... yes. I affirm.

  Safe with me. Eventually get Sukey too. TurdflockTanu really bit it off when torced me. You know.

  Suspected. But damn they get you if comedown mindunion crunch. Get us both if they decipher operant snuffsequence.

  Distract distract distract.

  The mental exchange between Aiken and Elizabeth had occupied a fraction of a second. The arbiter bibendi was frantically jangling the chain of silence as the prankster in the shining suit strolled from his place at the High Table to a position beside Stein. When the tumult died away, the King said, "Speak, Aiken Drum."

  The little man swept off his hat and bowed. Then he began to talk; and as he spoke aloud his mind played a subtle descant that somehow gave his ludicrous words credence, painting them with a mesmeric plausibility that disarmed even the most skeptical of the exotic audience.

  "Now I know that my bidding has surprised you, friends! For not only is the deed itself an impudent thing, but you scarcely can understand how I know enough of the horrid Delbaeth to suggest his removal. It seems incredible to you, doesn't it, that a newly arrived little silver-torc can propose to do what so many of your own champions have failed of.

  "Well, let me tell you how things are! I'm a different kind of human! You've never seen my like. Now, this big fellow who stands beside me is my friend. And I fear that the Good Queen is right in saying that he's not the kind who can wear your gray torc long and live. The coaching style of your fighting-school would undo all the redaction done by the little Sue-Gwen and the Lady Elizabeth to restorc his sanity. And to save Stein, I'd take him from you. But not without offering a fair price in return.

  "Now you've been probing me and pinching me and trying to peek inside me while I speak. And you've failed! Even King Thagdal has failed. Even Elizabeth can no longer probe me! And so you'd better know that the torc put on me at Castle Gateway set off a mental chain reaction that's still going on. I scared your Lord Creyn and I'm scaring you now. But don't fash yourselves! I don't fancy doing you any harm. In fact, I like almost all I see of this world, and the more I grow within, the better things seem to portend for all of us together. So wait until I have my say before you give in to the fear and try to swat me! First see how I can help you become even greater than before!

  "Now, Delbaeth. I saw his Shape of Fire deep inside the Thagdal's mind. I was curious, and I studied it as we ate and drank and amused ourselves. And when the bidding started, I said to myself: Why not? And so I bid my services, following your own custom. I'm confident that I can exterminate this Firvulag menace. So I leave it up to all of you, friends-mental. And you, High King of the Tanu! I'll open myself for just a moment and let you look at what's growing in my skull. Then decide whether you want to treat me as a fellow mind-jouster, or as a slave..."

  He expanded to them all and they went rushing in.

  Elizabeth flowed over and around and through the exotics, rating an ironic acknowledgment from Aiken for her skill. The Tanu stumbled through incandescence, hardly aware of what the burgeoning mental sprouts showed promise of becoming. But Elizabeth knew.

  Milieu well shot of you Aikenboy.

  Pooh lass see how they run fewkin' psychelliptical blindmice.

  No ... one of them knows. See there?

  Hah! Yes!...Who you anyhoo oldwomanmind?

  I am Mayvar. I have been waiting for the likes of you since the coming of the Ship. I am ancient and I am ugly and I lead the Guild of Farsensors. Come freely to me for your initiation and it shall all be as you hope. Unless you are afraid...

  The chain of silence clanged. The Great Ones and all of the piddling, timorous inspectors went fleeing out of Aiken. He politely waited while Elizabeth and Mayvar withdrew, before slamming down the barrier once more.

  "Shall we allow him?" roared King Thagdal.

  "Slonshal!" the assembly responded.

  "Shall we send him to the test, and shall the boldest of us witness his victory or destruction?"

  "Slonshal!"

  The King's voice fell to the threshold of audibility. "And who among us will dare to take him to kin and teach him our way, this perilously shining youth?"

  Far down at the left end of the High Table a wand-thin figure arose. She came into the center of the hall leaning on a tall golden staff. Her gown was of a purple so deep as to be almost black, powdered with gold stars, and having a hood that concealed her hair but let the amazing ugliness of her features be fully revealed to the two humans waiting for her.

  "Mayvar Kingmaker will take him to kin," said the crone. "I'll see him to his gold and if he's kind, to more! Will you come with me, bright laddie? And will you bring your friend to learn the battle-company's way, before the two of you together dare Delbaeth?"

  "Stein!" cried Sukey.

  The hag laughed. Her mind spoke to Aiken in the intimate mode.

  Countercustom though it be I'll see that he alone has her if you fill your boast. Dionket and I are allied. Now are you coming?

  The little man in the suit of gold extended both arms to the tall old Tanu woman. She bent
to him and they kissed. Then they walked together from the hall, with Stein following as if in a dream a few paces behind. The arbiter bibendi gave a frantic signal and the musicians struck up a spirited dance tune. The magpies came cavorting to draw the stunned guests out onto the floor by sheer force.

  At the High Table, Thagdal watched the strange trio leave through the door at the opposite end of the room. He had not moved so much as a muscle since the woman in purple had risen from the table. But then the opaque green eyes returned to life. Thagdal smiled and raised his cup and so did the remaining Exalted Personages occupying the thrones that flanked his.

  "Shall we give Aiken Drum slonshal?" the King asked softly. "Or shall we wait a bit to see whether or not the Venerable Lady Mayvar has chosen rightly?"

  His goblet tipped. Raspberry liquor poured onto the polished tabletop like fresh blood. Thagdal inverted his cup in the midst of the puddle, lurched to his feet, and vanished through a door concealed by draperies. The Queen hastened after him.

  Sukey came to Elizabeth, mindweeping but with dry eyes. "What's happened? I don't understand. Why have Stein and Aiken gone with that old woman?"

  Patience little Mindsister I'll explain—

  "Kingmaker!" Bryan peered owlishly at the two human women, then raised his own jewel-eyed golden skull goblet with an unsteady hand. "Mayvar Kingmaker, Creyn called her! Bloody damn legend. Bloody damn world. Slonshal! Long live the King!"

  He tilted the dregs down his throat and fell prone onto the table. "I think," said Elizabeth, "that the party is over."

  4

  QUEEN NONTUSVEL and three of her children walked in the garden before noon, while it was still cool, and if the royal lady was apprehensive, she kept her fear well veiled.

  The Queen plucked a coral-colored blossom from a honeysuckle and held it out with an invitational thought. A hummingbird came, its feathers flashing iridescent blue and green when it darted through sunbeams. It drank nectar and suffered the Queen to tickle its avian brain. When it was done it hovered for a moment before her face, buzzing, and then whisked away into the lemon tree.