Treachery of Kings

by Neal Barrett Jr

  Letitia stared. “You think Finn's over there? Behind this? What are we supposed to do now? Isn't there any way in?”

  “It's a wall, Mycer. What did you expect, a door with a nice shiny knob?”

  As the princess spoke, another tremor shook the passageway. A fine veil of ancient mortar fell between Letitia and DeFloraine-Marie.

  “I hate this, I really do.” The princess wiped a dainty hand across her face.

  “Whatever's doing that, it's getting louder. I hope we're not buried in here. Julia, Finn's over there. We've got to get through.”

  “Excellent idea,” Julia said, waddling over splinters, stones and fallen bricks. “That sound, by the way, is from that Millennial Bell, the thing that wakes the royals from their naps. It sounds quite different up here than it does down below, but it's the very same. I'm sure Her Ladyship will be glad to explain.”

  “There's nothing to tell. Your creature's right, it's a bell.”

  The princess seemed uneasy. Her lovely lips twitched, and she stared at the ceiling above.

  “Look. I got you here, all right? Don't complain to me, that's all I can do. You'll have to think of something yourself.”

  “You might help. I don't intend to stand here if my Finn's over there.”

  Brushing dust from her eyes, Letitia turned and picked at the debris. She found a large brick, frowned at it and tossed it away. Finally, she lifted a broken plank, a thick piece of wood nearly two feet long.

  “It's not much, but it's better than nothing at all. Please stand back, lady, I don't have a lot of room.”

  “You're out of your mind. These walls are rotten to the core. You'll bring the whole thing down!”

  “Good. That's what I had in mind.”

  Letitia took a breath and rammed the timber heartily against the wall. Dust rained from the ceiling. Chunks of mortar clattered to the floor.

  The princess moaned and rolled her eyes.

  “The odds are good she's right,” Julia said. “You're likely to bring the place down. Still, our chances are somewhat better if you try. The Badgies I mentioned, the ones that aren't there? They are in this very passageway, as I mentioned before. My guess is they are somewhat less than eight minutes away.”

  “That's impossible, you little horror. I told you no one knows about this place but me.”

  “You're certain of that? No one at all.”

  “My cousins are dead, and there's no one else who could possibly… know.”

  DeFloraine-Marie bit her lip and frowned. “I suppose there might be. I did—meet someone here once. In this passageway, I mean. Not exactly here

  “Oh, dear. I guess I forgot about that.”

  “And who would that be?” Letitia asked.

  “Maddigern. But there's really no concern. He wouldn't hurt me. …”

  FIFTY-THREE

  FINN RAN. Stumbled, fell to his knees on imaginary ground. Got up and ran again. It seemed like a foolish, useless gesture, but the only thing to do.

  Where do you go when you run from an illusion, flee from a spell?

  “Anywhere,” Finn answered himself. “Anywhere's better than nowhere at all.”

  The spidery hand thundered again, pounding, crushing, grinding time to dust. The great machine clattered, ticked, hummed in the eternal sky. The horizon vanished in a blur. No way out, then, nowhere to go.

  Nowhere, Finn told himself, but the worst, most horrid place he could conjure in his mind. The place where he would surely shudder into soup, porridge, mush with an odorous smell.

  He ran, then, with all the speed he could muster when one is running nowhere at all, ran, and found the crawly-hole and slid under the rim of the Millennial Bell—

  —promptly turned inside out, then outside in. Went to his knees. Retched. Tried to stand, fell down again.

  “It's awfully hard coming out of those things. Jerks you around, makes you terribly sick. I see I don't have to tell you that.”

  Everything was back, everything was real. The seer's cluttered chamber, the sizable sorcerer himself.

  Finn stood. Shaky, dizzy and distressed, yet determined to face the magician standing up.

  “What's this, then, another sly trick? A sudden show of mercy? Couldn't you stand the thought of doing me in yourself?”

  “Oh, please.” The seer chuckled and shook his head. “Wherever did you get such a notion as that? If I wanted to do you in as you so crudely put it, there are easier ways than working up a spell. Which takes a lot out of you, in case you didn't know. I put you there to keep you out of mischief. I had a great many things to do. …“

  The seer was interrupted by a rumble, a toll, a deep resonation that shook the chamber's walls.

  “… and not a lot of time, as I suppose you can tell. Though time, really, is not the proper word here. An interval, a gap, a spatial degree. At any rate, we don't want to be here when that thing hits the mark—my word, what's that?”

  Oberbyght paused, frowning at the far wall. One of the immense, overstuffed shelves of papers and scrolls had begun to shudder, tremble and shift, as if it were trying to toss off its burdens and set itself free.

  “Secondary shake, I suppose. Never seen it do that before.”

  “What do you mean, not much time? That bell's going to—strike, whatever it does, am I right? And you don't want to be here. But that thing isn't really here at all.”

  “Quite right. Good thinking, my boy.” Oberbyght nodded in approval, then took it all back. “That's what you fellows who aren't in the business fail to understand. You want your little love spells, and other greedy needs, but you don't want the scary magic stuff to show.”

  “I'm not sure what you're trying to say. But then I never am.”

  “Simply that the real and the unreal are one and the same. You think the lining of your jacket is the inside, and the fuzzy part's out. In truth, there isn't any outside or in. There's only a coat, you see.

  “When a baker makes bread, you say, ‘there's a bit of dough,’ you don't say ‘there's a loaf.’ Tomorrow, though, that's what it is, and it's flour and such before that, and before that it's in a field. Truly, it's all the same.”

  Finn gave the seer a wary look. “A sleeve and a jacket and a button are the dough of the tweed, and when they come together, you have a fine loaf… “

  “Coat.”

  “I beg your pardon?”

  “That damnable racket. I do believe that shelf is coming apart.”

  “I wish you wouldn't do that again. It always hurts my head.”

  “You're not in the trade. I wouldn't expect you to understand. The point is, you can hear the sound, can you not? You can feel the tremble and the quake. That's the part that leaks through, a little spot where everything's real and everything's not. Like a rip in your jacket, you see. It's neither inside nor out. …”

  “Fine. Whatever you like. Now, Oberbyght, if you're finished fooling with spells and coats, I'd like to get out of here. I intend to free Letitia and Julia if I have to stomp every Badgie in the palace into dust. This nasty business of yours has cost me precious time. If those two are harmed in any way… “

  “Oh, stop.” The seer waved Finn away. “Don't threaten me, I'm weary of that. I told you, we don't have time. You can get another Mycer, I'm sure they're not that hard to find. And that horrid little machine—”

  “What are you talking about?” Finn glared at the seer. “I'm not leaving them behind, you're out of your mind!”

  “I don't think you have a lot of choice. The bell is merely a distraction, you know. It'll set them running amok down there, but the Badgies will pull themselves together and be on our trail quite soon.”

  Oberbyght spread his hands wide, in surrender to the Fates. “I say we, my friend, for we're in this together, as it were. I cannot turn my back on Maddigern again. That's clear from the incident in the cell down there.

  “I don't blame you for that. Maddigern and I were coming to this anyway. I could turn him into a wad of
spit, but another of those louts would simply take his place. No, it's time for me to go, there's no doubt of that.”

  He winked at Finn, turned and walked quickly across the room. From behind a muddle of glasses, jugs and jars, he drew a small purple satchel, a worn and battered thing covered with mystic runes.

  “Not taking much. But one must have the essentials of his trade.”

  “I think you're bonkers, Oberbyght, but that's no concern of mine. I'm going back for Letitia and Julia now. If you want to turn me into something, you'd best do it now.”

  “I do wish you hadn't said that, my boy, you don't leave me any choice—”

  The case against the wall gave a shriek, gave a screech, gave an agonizing groan, then split all asunder, flinging papers, books, powdery pamphlets, ancient odes, unanswered letters, false accusations, debts, bets and dreadful poems about. Forgery, perjury, inflammatory notes, and lurid tales from ancient times.

  And, out of this fluttering storm came Letitia Louise, DeFloraine-Marie, hefting a sturdy plank in her hand, and a lizard with dusty scales.

  “Finn, Finn!” Letitia cried, and ran into her lover's arms.

  “Letitia, I can't tell you how worried I've been, how much I've missed you, dear. You cannot imagine the fearsome, yet wondrous places I've been!”

  “I can't wait to hear it,” said Julia Jessica Slagg, nosing her way through papery debris. “First, however, I think you should know there's a horde of Badgies on our heels. We've about two minutes, maybe less than that.”

  “Maddigern!” Oberbyght clutched his satchel to his chest. “We're off, then, not a moment to lose.”

  “Off where?” Finn wanted to know. “I fear I don't see anywhere to go.”

  “Of course you don't. How would you know? Up there. Up that ladder. As quickly as you can.”

  Letitia reached down and plucked up Julia Jessica Slagg. “You know you're no good with ladders. You're not even very adept with stairs.”

  “I can't do everything,” Julia said with a rusty croak, “though I know I'm expected to perform any sort of miracle when trouble comes along.”

  While Letitia was busy with Julia, DeFloraine-Marie slipped past her like wraith and pressed her slender form against Finn.

  “Here, take this,” she said, slipping something into his pocket, then whispering quickly in his ear.

  She was there and she was gone, leaving Finn with the clean scent of her hair, the heat of her touch. “Wait,” he said, “what's this all about?”

  Letitia turned at his voice. The princess gave her a nearly pleasant smile.

  “Wherever you're going, have a nice trip. Try not to drop in again.”

  She glanced over her shoulder. “I'm not an ugly little machine, but I can hear a great many Badgies down there. I think you should —stop that, get away from me!”

  The seer moved so swiftly Finn scarcely saw more than a blur. He clutched the princess’ wrist in one strong hand and dragged her roughly across the room. DeFloraine-Marie kicked and screamed to no avail.

  “Here now,” Finn demanded to know. “Leave her alone, what do you want with her?”

  “Stay out of this, Master Finn. Tangle with me again, and I'll turn that pretty Mycer into a stone, and you can toss her at Maddigern when he comes!”

  “They're coming,” Julia said, “ now.”

  Obern Oberbyght was halfway up the ladder at the rear of his chamber, the princess tightly in his grasp. She kicked her bare legs, and railed at the seer with curses Finn had never heard before.

  “I don't see that it'll do much good to stay here,” Finn said. “Please hurry, dear…”

  Letitia didn't answer. At that very moment, Badgies spilled in through the narrow passageway, led by Maddigern himself, swinging his sword about and raging at Finn…

  FIFTY-FOUR

  FINN'S MOUTH WAS DRY AS DIRT. FOR AN INSTANT,he was too stunned to move. In less than a blink, the seer's small chamber swarmed with angry Badgies—a throng, a mob, a veritable pack of the silver-mailed creatures, cursing, howling, shouting for blood.

  “Blades and Spades, it's the King's Third Sentient Guards, and every bloody one of the brutes, unless I miss my guess!”

  Finn scrambled up the ladder, urging Letitia ahead, grabbing at her legs, pushing her shapely behind. Letitia told him she didn't care for this, but Finn didn't hear.

  He could feel the ladder shake, and didn't dare look back to see. One step, another, two at a time when Letitia took three.

  Something seized his ankle and held. Finn lashed out, felt the grip give way, heard the Guardsman fall back.

  The ladder creaked, groaned. Finn pushed frantically at Letitia, nearly lifted her off the ladder and hurled her through the narrow hole above. The ladder snapped with the weight of Badgies, flinging them down in a tangle below.

  Finn desperately grabbed for the rim of the hole. Letitia's strong hands clutched his wrists and held on. Finn drew up his knees, tore one hand free, got a firm grip on the tower floor and rolled himself clear.

  Angry shouts rose from below. Badgies tossed bricks, stones, jugs, and ponderous tomes at the hole, while others piled chairs, cabinets, tables, anything they could find, in an effort to reach their prey above.

  “That should slow them down a bit,” Oberbyght said, grinning over Finn's shoulder at the rabble below. “Fools ought to think before they leap, but that's not the Badgie way.”

  “Let me go, you oaf,” cried DeFloraine-Marie. “Get your filthy hands off me, I'm of noble birth!”

  “I fear not, lady. I've become enamored with your manner, your gentle voice, your royal charm.” The princess glared, her eyes bright points of fury, her golden tresses tumbling loosely down her cheeks.

  Oberbyght still held her wrists in one hand, the other tightly around her slender waist. No matter how the princess squirmed, the seer refused to let her go.

  “You're going to keep her?” Finn asked. “What do you intend to do with her, seer?”

  “I intend to use her lovely self to keep us alive,” Oberbyght said. “I can't tell you how pleased I am she dropped by.”

  Finn looked at the fellow, and Oberbyght met his glance, in a manner that said he was certain Finn knew full well the value of DeFloraine-Marie.

  Finn turned away, then, and looked about. It was late afternoon, which surprised him a bit, for he'd lost all sense of time since his stay in the cell. That, and a venture within an illusion, where time meant nothing at all.

  The open tower was surrounded by a shoulder-high wall, with the usual crenellations so soldiers could fire at their foes below.

  Finn peered down from the dizzy heights. Beyond the courtyard, the bailey and the breastworks lay Heldessia Town and the vast open countryside beyond.

  The walls of the tower dropped straight away, with no visible access to the ground.

  “I hate to ask,” Finn said, “but I hope you have a grand plan. I don't see any way off this thing.”

  The seer smiled. “There isn't. That's the beauty of it, you see?”

  “This isn't more of that jacket and bread business, is it? I can't handle that.”

  “They're working awfully fast,” Letitia said. “They're halfway up the wall.”

  “Oberbyght, isn't there a cover, a plank, something we can put over this hole?”

  The seer shrugged. “I used to put a pail under the thing when it rained. Never thought about keeping Badgies out.”

  “You haven't answered Finn's question,” Letitia said, her dark opal eyes larger than ever. “I'd like to hear what you have in mind too.”

  At that very moment, the deep, solemn peal of the bell resounded from somewhere, or nowhere at all. The tower shook precariously, and several large stones plummeted down the long wall.

  Below, in the seer's former chamber, chaos was the order of the day. Badgies howled, and raged in fear. Bricks, plaster, and rotten timbers rattled about their heads.

  Finn wondered how Maddigern had managed to bully his Guardsmen th
is far. The King's Third Sentient Guards were stout and valiant warriors, but they greatly feared the magician and his spells. Only a creature as fierce as Maddigern, Finn decided, could have held them under his sway.

  “Finn,” Letitia said, close so no one would hear, “we've found each other again and I'm grateful for that, but I fear we've followed a madman to the same dire end we faced below.”

  “We'll think of something,” Finn said, aware that such bravado did not fool Letitia Louise. Still, he refused to admit they were doomed, for that would not bolster her courage at all.

  “Yes, I'm certain we will,” Letitia said, looping her arm tightly in his. “Though at the moment, I cannot see how.”

  “It is a peculiarity of Newlies and humankind,” said Julia, who had mostly kept her silence during the recent dread events, “one I can somewhat understand, since I, too, possess an animal brain. When the situation is totally hopeless, as it clearly is now, reason says ‘quit, give up, yield, resign one's self to one's fate.’

  “Yet, does that foolish gray organ in our heads desist, surrender, throw in the trowel—whatever that means— does it submit, capitulate, bend? Does it—”

  “Stop that thing from squawking, or by damn I'll toss it over the side!”

  Oberbyght, the princess flailing about in his iron grip, was kicking at a Badgie who had suddenly appeared at the entry hole. The seer stomped on his hand and the Badgie cried out and let go.

  “I don't suppose you could give me a hand over here, Finn. As you can possibly see, I don't have one free.”

  “Sorry, be right with you.” Finn left Letitia and joined the seer, whose chubby features had now turned a startling shade of red. As another green-robed warrior scrambled for a hold, Finn kicked him squarely in the face, where the white streak of hair angled sharply at his brow. The soldier howled, and tumbled back below.

  Still, it was only a matter of minutes before another, then another, surged up through the hole.

  “I don't see how we can keep this up,” Finn said. “I think Maddigern has an endless supply of these brutes.”

  “Won't have to,” said the seer. “We can stop this nonsense soon.”