The Berserker Throne

by Fred Saberhagen

  “You don’t really think that I conspired to kill her—? But I suppose you have been made to believe just that, or you wouldn’t be here. That’s why the prime minister picked you, isn’t it, after all?”

  A short man who had been standing at one side of this room, by his uniform a junior officer in the armed forces of Salutai, approached them in an arrogant manner. “I am Captain Lergov.” He gave Harivarman an impassive look, and a perfunctory salute.

  “Ah. I have heard of you, Lergov.” The Prince scarcely glanced at Lergov, but kept his gaze fixed on the grand marshall.

  “Prince Harivarman.” Evidently the old man had forgotten, or nobody had told him, or he had chosen to ignore, the rule about calling the exile General. “Prince Harivarman, you are under arrest, for high treason to the Imperial Throne, and for regicide.”

  Harivarman only looked at him coldly.

  Commander Anne, standing at one side, said: “I have informed the general that I have not formally transferred him into your custody as yet. As base commander here I am still responsible for him.”

  Beraton protested to her: “I would say your authority over the prisoner has now become a mere formality. You don’t contest the legality of the Council’s order, surely?”

  “I have not yet accepted it, Grand Marshall. For one thing, the order as written involves other people besides General Harivarman. You seem to intend to implement the provision for the arrest of his wife, his friends, and even some people who are only vaguely associated with him.”

  “The Imperial Council in emergency session has authority to issue such orders.”

  “That may be for all I know, Grand Marshall Beraton, or it may not. But here I have the authority, and the responsibility as well.”

  The tall old man stared at her frostily. “Yes, madam. Responsibility. Indeed you do.”

  Commander Anne continued: “And the arrest order you have presented me specifically includes Cadet Chen, who is on the Templar rolls.”

  Beraton repeated: “When the Imperial Throne is vacant, as now, the Council, in a case of high treason to the Throne, has supreme authority.”

  “Perhaps, sir. Though in the case of arresting a Templar, on Templar territory, I doubt it very much. But in any case I am still responsible to some degree for all of these people on your list, and I must be sure. Before making any formal response at all to the Council’s document I want to clear the whole matter with my legal staff.”

  Captain Lergov, who had been hovering at a little distance to one side, demonstrated impatience. “How long is that going to take, ma’am?”

  Anne Blenheim looked at him; her almost-plump face was capable of surprising hardness. “These are difficult questions. It may well take several days, Captain.”

  The grand marshall made a small well-bred noise in his throat. “A simple search for legal precedents? Come, now, Commander.”

  “Perhaps not simple, Grand Marshall. I’ll let you know when I have reached a decision.”

  Harivarman said suddenly: “I presume that this meeting is being recorded.”

  “It is,” Commander Blenheim assured him.

  “Good. I want to put it formally on record that I protest the terms of this arrest order. If the base commander here turns me over to these people, I will be murdered by them, or my mental faculties will somehow be destroyed while I am in their custody, probably before I arrive at Salutai.”

  That was enough to set the grand marshall quivering faintly with rage. “And I would like the record to show my own formal protest, that the prisoner’s remarks are a damned lie, and that this man, the prisoner, knows it.”

  The Prince said: “You had better check with Captain Lergov first.”

  Beraton glared at him but said nothing. Nor did Lergov, who only gazed back stolidly.

  There was little more to be said. In a few moments, both grand marshall and captain were gone.

  Harivarman stood gazing at the base commander. Some of her aides had reentered the room and were waiting, as if now they expected Harivarman to leave too.

  The commander dismissed them with a look. “General, I would like to see you briefly back in my private office.”

  When the two of them were alone again, she sat behind her desk and touched a control. “We are no longer being recorded,” she said, and hesitated briefly. “In your wife’s case, and the others, I don’t know yet what my final decision will have to be.”

  The Prince stared at her. His right arm that had started to rise in a confident gesture dropped back at his side. “Well. Like most final decisions, it will have to be whatever you make it. I assume you’re not going to—”

  “Let me finish, please. I’m afraid I may have misled you somehow. In your case, there’s really no doubt, I’m afraid, what I must do.”

  “—what—?”

  “I am saying that in the case of you personally, General, it appears to me more and more certain that I have no grounds for refusing the Council’s order, or even delaying compliance.”

  Stunned, he stared at the uniformed woman. He could find no words to say to her. It was all too obvious that she was deadly serious.

  “I am sorry, General, if you failed to understand that point clearly from the beginning. I thought—”

  At last he found his tongue. “I see I must tell you again. Perhaps you’re the one who has failed to understand. I am not speaking rhetorically, or fancifully, or for some political effect. Once they have me on that ship, I’ll be murdered.”

  “I have no evidence of that, General Harivarman.”

  So, she’d do it to him. She really would. There were a thousand words of protest, of outrage, to be said, but he could say nothing. Rage, of unexpected intensity, choked him. He wanted to hit her, smash her in the face.

  She went on, with cold control: “As a favor, I am telling you now, privately, ahead of time, what I am shortly going to have to tell the grand marshall. I really have no choice. You must soon be transferred into his custody.”

  “His custody. As if the old fart were capable of . . .” Somehow Harivarman had mastered himself, at least enough to speak coherently. “I am very grateful for the favor, Commander. And your responsibility for my welfare, as your prisoner?”

  “The Council’s order is clear, and my responsibility is to obey it. You are to be returned to Salutai for trial on these charges of—”

  “I see why you need no recording in here. You turn into a recording yourself. Yet once more I’ll say it. Beraton would not willfully murder a prisoner, but he’s too great a fool to have any real control over what happens on that ship. If you hand me over to Lergov, and his political crew, I’ll never see Salutai alive. Or at least not with my brain intact. Does that mean nothing to you? I had thought, in my foolishness, that we had even come to mean something to each other on a more—”

  “General Harivarman, I have been aware that from our first meeting you have been trying to—establish some such relationship. Foolish though it would have been, as you say. Fortunately none has been established.”

  There was a little silence. Her eyes challenged him to find a trace of weakness in them.

  “I see,” he said at last. His throat again was growing tighter and tighter, so that it was hard now to get even those two words out.

  There was more tense silence. At last the commander began to repeat: “I have no evidence to indicate that—”

  “I was right about them coming for me. I’m right also about their intentions. Once more I tell you if you put me on that ship with them, I’ll never see Salutai alive. I can easily think of several ways by which they’ll be able to destroy me en route and get away with it. Do you believe me?”

  “Even if you were right—”

  “I am.”

  “I’ll recite my speech one more time, General.” Now it was as if she were exasperated with some dull recruit. “I must act on facts, evidence, not political opinions. And even if you were right about their intentions, I have no evidence. Ca
n you show me any?”

  “The past record of these people stands as evidence. Fatuity in the case of the grand marshall, a fiendish propensity for evil in the case of Lergov, and of those who sent them both. Specifically Prime Minister Roquelaure.”

  She hesitated marginally. “There are strong differences of opinion about the history and the politics of the Eight Worlds. Your own record is perhaps not spotless.”

  “And yours is.”

  “My record is irrelevant.”

  “I would have thought mine was too, now that I am helplessly in Templar custody and someone wants to murder me.”

  She said: “My orders, and the Compact of Exile, leave me no choice.”

  “You’re just doing your duty.”

  “That is the truth.”

  “I hereby volunteer to enlist in the Templars.”

  “Are you speaking seriously? You can’t be, you must know that that’s absurd.”

  And even as she spoke, she was hoping in a way that he would keep on with this futile argument; if he had faced the inevitable with dignity it would have been much harder for her to go through with what she had to do, and it was hard enough to do so anyway.

  But the general’s arguments ceased abruptly. He let out a long sigh. A remoteness suddenly came into his manner. It seemed to Commander Blenheim, watching closely, that his anger had not dissipated, but had hardened.

  At last he asked, in an altered voice: “Can you at least stretch your concept of duty enough to give me this much—a little time to myself? A couple of hours of freedom, before they take me away and kill me? There are a few farewells that I would like to say.”

  It seemed to her that he was posing, trying to arouse her pity, not really concerned about saying farewell to anyone. “You are lowering yourself in my estimation, General.” Then she wished she had not said that. But she, too, was very angry now. As if in some effort to be fair, to make amends, she added: “Will two hours be sufficient?”

  Harivarman sighed again. “Two hours should give me the chance to take care of everything,” he answered softly.

  Commander Blenheim started to turn away, then swung back, wondering. He hadn’t seemed to her at all the suicidal type . . . although under present circumstances, if he believed what he was saying about being murdered . . . “You will report back here to me at the end of that time?”

  Calm now, his rage certainly controlled, the general gazed back at her solemnly. “I’ll be here, or at my house. You needn’t worry.”

  “Then you can go. Two hours.”

  “You have my word.”

  Lergov was waiting in the outer office when Harivarman came out. She saw him give the Prince another impassive glance as the two men passed each other.

  Harivarman glared back, at both of them, one after the other, and departed.

  Anne Blenheim faced Lergov, and demanded: “Is there anything else I can do for you, Captain?”

  “When you are ready, hand over the prisoners to us, ma’am. We don’t necessarily need to have them all at once.” Lergov sounded more courteous than he had before.

  “I’ll let you know, Captain.”

  “I’d like to remind the colonel, if I may, that General Harivarman is now under Council authority, and it would not be well received by the Council if you should allow anything to happen to him before—”

  “I said, Captain, that I am still responsible for the general. I’m about to order guards posted at his quarters. As soon as the situation changes, I will let you know.”

  “Yes ma’am.” This time Lergov’s salute was closer to the proper military form.

  Chapter 12

  Very rarely, no more than two or three times in all the years of his association with the Prince, had Lescar seen his master as angry as he was now. The little man cringed away from this fury, even though he knew that it was not directed at himself, and hesitated even to speak to try to calm it. Prince Harivarman, coming back from the meeting with the base commander, went stalking through the exiles’ house as if he sought some object for his wrath, and came as close to raving as Lescar had ever heard him come.

  To Lescar’s great relief, this unproductive phase of behavior lasted only for a minute or two. After that the Prince, regaining control of himself, went to his room and started to change clothes, donning utility garments as if he were going back to his secret work. Lescar understood, or thought he did. Some last attempt at concealment or destruction of the berserker must be made. Though whether such an attempt could succeed or not . . . At the same time the Prince, now giving the impression of being very much in control of himself and of the situation, began to issue orders. Lescar was to see to certain arrangements, and to make very sure that they were carried out. The chief task assigned him was to summon both Gabrielle and Beatrix to the house, telling the women whatever seemed likely to get them there.

  “Here, to this house, Your Honor? Both of them here at the same time?”

  “That’s right. They must come here. Call them as soon as I leave. I probably won’t be back yet when they arrive. But see that they stay here, no matter what happens, till I get back. And stay here yourself, unless you hear otherwise from me.”

  “Yes sir. I will do my best.”

  “I know you will.” The Prince’s tone softened slightly. He had now, moving with great speed, got himself dressed and ready, for all the world appearing as if he were only going out for another afternoon of archaeology. At the door he turned back. “The bastards are out to get us, my friend; but they’ll find it’s not going to be that easy. We’ll see them all in the ninth hell yet!”

  “The lawyers on Salutai will help us, I’m sure. Your Honor. When we get there—”

  The Prince came a step back into the house. “The lawyers on Salutai? We’d never reach there alive. Haven’t you been listening to anything I’ve told you over the past few days?”

  “Yes sir. I just thought that perhaps now—”

  “Lescar. Did you think I’d let them argue me into that? Going to the slaughter peacefully, and bringing you along?” If there were secret listening devices in the house, the Prince had evidently given up trying to evade them.

  “Whatever Your Honor wishes.” Then, suddenly, Lescar thought he understood his master’s new plan; the Prince was not about to destroy his discovered berserker, but to reveal it to the world, claim it boldly as a great discovery. “You said, Your Honor, that you had some plan for arranging a delay?”

  The Prince looked at him in an odd way. “Yes, Lescar, that’s it. I think I have. A good long delay. I’m going to see about it now.”

  “The commander is not—altogether convinced, then? I mean, still not convinced that our enemies are right?”

  The Prince smiled; Lescar had seen that particular smile on his master’s face before, and knew it probably boded ill for someone. But right now he was glad to see it. When the Prince fought he generally won, whereas his giving up meekly would have led them all into totally unknown territory. And a shade of worry had even crossed Lescar’s mind that the Prince when brought to this kind of an extremity might even kill himself. Thank all the Powers that was not to be.

  The Prince said: “I think perhaps Commander Blenheim can yet be made to see the justice of my cause.”

  “That will be excellent, sir. Excellent.”

  “I am glad to be able to offer you—a certain hope.”

  “And sir, of course . . .” Lescar let his eyes move sideways, in what might have been the direction of the last archaeological site.

  “I am going to take care of that too. Right now. It all fits in. Don’t worry.” And the Prince seized his servant’s hand and shook it. That also had happened only two or three times in the past, at moments of great crisis. The Prince went out. A moment later Lescar heard the faint sound of a flyer departing the garage.

  Left alone, the little man hastened to put through the two calls as he had been ordered.

  The first was to the former Princess—she had had
to relinquish the title on separation—Beatrix, in her lodgings at one of the City’s more luxurious tourist facilities. Beatrix, without asking questions, without appearing to be particularly surprised, agreed to come to Harivarman’s house at once. Lescar said nothing to the Princess about who else he was supposed to summon.

  Next Lescar called the City apartment of Gabrielle Chou, where the answering robot said that its mistress was not in, and insisted that there was absolutely no way that she could be reached at present.

  “I repeat, this is an emergency.”

  “I am sorry, sir, but—”

  “Then I must leave a message. Tell her,” said Lescar, “that it is vitally important to—to her own future welfare, that she come to Prince Harivarman’s lodgings as soon as she can.”

  He broke off, wondering and worrying. He had never really liked Miss Gabrielle. But he meant her no harm, and of course he had done his best. Her own future welfare. That was what his master had told him: provide whatever reason would get them there.

  * * *

  It took the Prince only minutes in his swift flyer to reach the room in which the berserker controller unit awaited him. There were moments on the way in which he imagined himself finding it gone; but it seemed that he had already had enough bad luck for one day. The thing was there, just as he had left it.

  It took him only a few minutes more, standing in the doorway of that remote room, with his suit’s lights shining on the metallic and deadly beauty across from him, to issue the machine his orders. He discovered that, as in his old days of military planning, when the moment came to issue orders the details lay ready in his mind. Some part of him must have known that he was going to do this, must have been at work on the details already, perhaps for days.

  “Orders acknowledged,” the controller said. The tones of its voice sounded like, and no doubt were, the exact same tones that it had used with those words before.

  Trembling a little, the Prince got out of the way of his new slave as soon as it began to move again on its six legs. As far as he could tell from watching these first ordered movements, the great belly wound that his experimenting had inflicted on it did not inconvenience it at all, no more than the old wound whose trauma had now evidently been somehow bypassed. He retreated farther as it came past him, through the doorway into the corridor. This doorway was wide enough for it to get through without knocking more bits out of the walls. He drifted near it as it hovered in the corridor, and he tried without success to pick up its radio signals as it called in its extra bodies from the deep.