The Ship Who Won ккп-5

by Энн Маккефри

  «I hope you're taking all this down so I can work on it later,» he said in a subvocal mutter to Carialle. Hands behind his back, he twisted to survey the rest of the hall.

  «With my tongue out,» Carialle said. «My, you certainly brought out the numbers. Everyone wants a peep at you. What would you be willing to bet that everyone who could reasonably expect admittance is here. I wonder how many are sitting home, trying to think up a good excuse to call?»

  «No bet,» Keff said cheerfully. «Oh, look, the decorator's been in.»

  The big room, which had been empty until the guests arrived, was beginning to fill in with appropriate pieces of furniture. Two rows of sconces bearing burning torches appeared at intervals along the walls. Three magifolk chatting near the double doors discovered a couch behind them and sat down. Spider-legged chairs chased mages through the room, only to place themselves in a correct and timely manner, for the mages never once looked behind to see if there was something there to be sat on: a seat was assumed. Fat, ferny plants in huge crockery pots grew up around two magimen who huddled against one wall, talking in furtive undertones.

  A wing chair nudged the back of Zolaika's knees while an ottoman insinuated itself lovingly under the old woman's feet. She made herself comfortable as several of the junior magifolk came to pay their respects. A small table with a round, rimmed top appeared in their midst. Several set down their magical items, initiating an apparent truce for the duration.

  After kissing Zolaika's hand, Chaumel detached himself from the group and steered Keff toward the next of the high magimen in the room. Engrossed in a conversation, Ilnir barely glanced at Keff, but accorded Chaumel a courteous nod as he made an important point using his wrist-thick magic mace for emphasis. A carved pedestal appeared under Ilnir's elbow and he leaned upon it.

  Each of the higher magimen had a number of sycophants, male and female, as escort. Potria, gorgeous in her floating, low-cut peach gown, was among the number surrounding Nokias. Asedow was right beside her. They glared at Chaumel, evidently taking personally the slight done to their chief. As Chaumel and Keff passed by, they raised their voices with the complaint that they had been wrongly prevented from finishing their contest.

  Ferngal and Nokias were standing together near the crystal windows beyond their individual circles. The two were exchanging pleasantries with one another, but not really communicating. Keff, boosting the gain of his audio pickup with a pressure of his jaw muscles, actually heard one of them pass a remark about the weather.

  Chaumel stopped equidistant between the two high mages. His hand concealed in a fold of his silver robe, he used sharp pokes to direct Keff to bow first to Ferngal, then Nokias. Keff offered a few polite words to each. IT was working overtime processing the small talk it was picking up, but it gave him the necessary polite phrases slowly enough to recite accurately without resorting to IT's speaker.

  «I feel like a trained monkey,» Keff subvocalized.

  As he straightened up, Carialle got a look at his audience. «That's what they think you are, too. They seem surprised that you can actually speak.»

  Chaumel turned him away from his two important guests and tilted his head conspiratorially close.

  «You see, my young friend, I would have preferred to have you all to myself, but I can't refuse access to the pre-eminent magis when they decide to call at my humble home for an evening. One climbs higher by power . . . (power-plays, IT suggested) managed, as ordered by the instructions left us by our ancestors. Such power-plays determine ones height (rank, IT whispered). Also, deaths. They are most facile at these.»

  «Deaths?» Keff asked. «You mean, you all move up one when someone dies?»

  «Yes, but also when one makes a death,» Chaumel said, with an uneasy backward glance at the high mages. Keff goggled.

  «You mean you move up when you kill someone?»

  «Sounds like the promotion lists in the space service to me,» Carialle remarked to Keff.

  «Ah, but not only that, but through getting more secrets and magical possessions from those, and more. But Ferngal of the East has just, er, discarded . . .»

  «Disposed of,» Carialle supplied.

  ». . . Mage Klemay in a duel, so he has raised/ascended over Mage Nokias of the South. I must incorporate the change of status smoothly, though"—his face took on an exaggerated mask of tragedy—"it pains me to see the embarrassment it causes my friend, Nokias. We attempt to make all in harmony.»

  Keff thought privately that Chaumel didn't look that uncomfortable. He looked like he was enjoying the discomfiture of the Mage of the South.

  «This is a nasty brood. They make a point of scoring off one another,» Carialle observed. «The only thing that harmonizes around here is the color-coordinated outfits and chariots. Did you notice? Everyone has a totem color. I wonder if they inherit it, earn it, or just choose it.» She giggled in Keff's ear. «And what happens when someone else has the one you want?»

  «Another assassination, I'm sure,» Keff said, bowing and smiling to one side as Ferngal made for Ilnirs group.

  As the black-clad magiman's circle drifted off, Nokias's minions spread out a little, as if grateful for the breathing room. Keff turned to Potria and gave her his most winning smile, but she looked down her nose at him.

  «How nice to see you again, my lady,» he said in slow but clear Ozran. The lovely bronze woman turned pointedly and looked off in another direction. The puff of gold hair over her right ear obscured her face from him completely. Keff sighed.

  «No sale,» Carialle said. «You might as well have been talking to her chair. Tsk-tsk, tsk-tsk. Your hormones don't have much sense.»

  «Thank you for that cold shower, my lady,» Keff said, half to Potria, half to Carialle. «You're a heartless woman, you are.» The brain chuckled in his ear.

  «She's not that different from anyone else here. I've never seen such a bundle of tough babies in my life. Stay on your guard. Don't reveal more about us than you have to. We're vulnerable enough as it is. I don't like people who mutilate and enslave thousands, not to mention capturing helpless ships.»

  «Your mind is like unto my mind, lady dear,» Keff said lightly. «That one doesn't look so tough.»

  Near the wall, almost hiding in the curtains behind a rose-robed crone was the last magiwoman Chaumel had bowed into the room. IT reminded him her name was Plennafrey. Self-effacing in her simple primrose gown and metallic blue-green shoulder-to-floor sash, her big, dark eyes, pointed chin, and broad cheekbones gave her a gamine look. She glanced toward Keff and immediately turned away. Keff admired her hair, ink-black with rusty highlights, woven into a simple four-strand plait that fell most of the way down her back.

  «I feel sorry for her,» Keff said. «She looks as though she's out other depth. She's not mean enough.»

  Carialle gave him the raspberry. «You always do fall for the naive look,» she said. «That's why it's always so easy to lure you into trouble in Myths and Legends.»

  «Oho, you've admitted it, lady. Now I'll be on guard against you.»

  «Just you watch it with these people and worry about me later. They're not fish-eating swamp dwellers like the Beasts Blatisant.»

  Keff had time to nod politely to the tall girl before Chaumel yanked him away to meet the last of the five high magimen. «I know how she feels, Cari. I'm not used to dealing with advanced societies that are more complicated and devious than the one I come from. Give me the half-naked swamp dwellers every time.»

  ***

  «Look at that,» Potria said, sourly. «My claim, and Chaumel is parading it around as if he discovered it.»

  «Mine,» Asedow said. «We have not yet settled the question of ownership.»

  «He has a kind face,» Plennafrey offered in a tiny voice. Potria spun in a storm of pink-gold and glared at her.

  «You are mad. It is not fully Ozran, so it is no better than a beast, like the peasants.»

  Remembering her resolution to be bolder no matter how terrified sh
e felt, Plennafrey cleared her throat.

  «I am sure he is not a mere thing, Potria. He looks a true man.» In fact, she found his looks appealing. His twinkling eyes reminded her of happy days, something she hadn't known since long before her father died. If only she could have such a man in her life, it would no longer be lonely.

  Potria turned away, disgusted. «I have been deprived of my rights.»

  «You have? I spoke first.» Asedow's eyes glittered.

  «I was winning,» Potria said, lips curled back from gritted white teeth. She flashed a hand signal under Asedow's nose. He backed off, making a sign of protection. Plenna watched, wild-eyed. Although she knew they wouldn't dare to rejoin their magical battle in here, neither of them was above a knife in the ribs.

  Suddenly, she felt a wall of force intrude between the combatants. The thought of a possible incident must also have occurred to Nokias. Asedow and Potria retreated another hand-span apart, continuing to harangue one another. Plenna glanced over at the other groups of mages. They were beginning to stare. Nokias, having been disgraced once already this evening, would be furious if his underlings embarrassed him in front of the whole assemblage.

  Asedow was getting louder, his hands flying in the old signs, emphasizing his point. «It is to my honor, and the tower and the beast will come to me!»

  Potria's hands waved just as excitedly. «You have no honor. Your mother was a fur-skin with a dray-beast jaw, and your father was drunk when he took her!»

  At the murderous look in Asedow's eye, Plenna warded herself and planted her hand firmly over her belt buckle beneath the concealing sash. At least she could help prevent the argument from spreading. With an act of will, she cushioned the air around them so no sound escaped past their small circle. That deadened the shouting, but it didn't prevent others from seeing the pantomime the two were throwing at one another.

  «How dare you!» Zolaika's chair swooped in on the pair, knocking them apart with a blast of force which dispelled Plenna's cloud of silence. «You profane the sacred signs in a petty brawl!»

  «She seeks to take what is rightfully mine,» Asedow bellowed. Freed, his voice threatened to shake down the ceiling.

  «High one, I appeal to you,» Potria said, turning to the senior magess. «I challenged for the divine objects and I claim them as my property.» She pointed at Keff.

  ***

  Keff was taken aback.

  «Now just a minute here,» he said, starting forward as he recognized the words. «I'm no one's chattel.»

  «Hutt!» Zolaika ordered, pointing an irregular, hand-sized form at him. Keff ducked, fearing another bolt of scarlet lightning. Chaumel pulled him back and, keeping a hand firmly on his shoulder, offered a placatory word to Potria.

  «She's not the enchantress I thought she was,» Keff said sadly to Carialle.

  «A regular La Belle Dame Sans Merci,» Carialle said. «Treat with courtesy, at a respectable distance.»

  «Speaking of stating one's rights,» Ferngal said as he and the other high magimen moved forward. He folded his long fingers in the air before him and studied them. «May I mention that the objects were found in Klemay's territory, which is now my domain, so I have the prior claim. The tower and the male are mine.» He crushed his palms together deliberately.

  «But before that, they were in my venue,» the old woman in red cried out from her place by the window. Her chair lifted high into the air. «I had seen the silver object and the being near my village when first it fell on Ozran. I claim precedence over you for the find, Ferngal!»

  «I am no one's find!» Keff said, breaking away from Chaumel. «I'm a free man. My ship is my magical object, no one else's.»

  «I'm mine,» Carialle crisply reminded him.

  «I'd better keep you a piece of magical esoterica, lady, or they'll kill me without hesitation over a talking ship with its own brain.»

  La Belle Dame Sans Merci raised a shrill outcry. Chaumel, eager to keep the peace in his own home, flew to the center of the room and raised his hands.

  «Mages and magesses and honored guest, the hour is come! Let us dine. We will discuss this situation much more reasonably when we all have had a bite and a sup. Please!» He clapped his hands, and a handful of servants appeared, bearing steaming trays. At a wave of their master's hand they fanned out among the guests, offering tasty-smelling hors d'oeuvres. Keff sniffed appreciatively.

  «Don't touch,» Carialle cautioned him. «You don't know what's in them.»

  «I know,» Keff said, «but I'm starved. It's been hours since I had that hot meal.» He felt his stomach threatening to rumble and compressed his diaphragm to prevent it being heard. He concentrated on looking politely disinterested.

  Chaumel clapped his hands, and fur-faced musicians strumming oddly shaped instruments suddenly appeared here and there about the room. They passed among the guests, smiling politely. Chaumel nodded with satisfaction, and signaled again.

  More Noble Primitives appeared out of the air, this time with goblets and pitchers of sparkling liquids in jewel colors. A chair hobbled up to Keff and edged its seat sideways toward his legs, as if offering him a chance to sit down.

  «No thanks,» he said, stepping away a pace. The chair, unperturbed, tottered on toward the next person standing next to him. «Look around, Cari! Its like Merlin's household in The Sword in the Stone. I feel a little drunk on glory, Cari. We've discovered a race of magicians. This is the pinnacle of our careers. We could retire tomorrow and they'd talk about us until the end of time.»

  «Once we get off this rock and go home! I keep telling you, Keff, what they're doing isn't magic. It can't be. Real magic shouldn't require power, least of all the kind of power they're sucking out of the surrounding area. Mental power possibly, but not battery-generator type power, which is what is coming along those electromagnetic lines in the air.»

  «Well, there's invocation of power as well as evocation, drawing it into you for use,» Keff said, trying to remember the phrases out of the Myths and Legends rule book.

  Carialle seemed to read his mind. «Don't talk about a game! This is real life. This isn't magic. Ah! There it is: proof.»

  Keff glanced up. Chaumel was bowing to something hovering before him at eye level. It was a box of some kind. It drifted slightly so that the flat side that had been directed at Chaumel was pointing at him. Looking out from behind a glass panel was a man's face, dark-skinned and ancient beyond age. The puckered eyelids compressed as the man peered intently at Keff.

  «See? It's a monitor,» Carialle said. «A com unit. Its a device, not magic, not evoked from the person of the user. He's transmitting his image through it, probably because he's too weak to be here in person.»

  «Maybe the box is just a relic from the old days,» Keff said, but his grand theory did have a few holes in it. «Look, there's nothing feeding it.»

  «You don't need cable to transmit power, Keff. You know that. Even Chaumel isn't magicking the food up himself. He's calling it from somewhere. Probably in the depths of the dungeon, there's a host of fuzzy-faced cooks working their heads off, and furry sommeliers decanting wine. I think he's acting like the teleportative equivalent of a maitre d'.»

  «All right, I concede that they might be technicians. What I want to know is just what they want with us so badly that they have to trap us in place.»

  «What we appear to be, or at least I appear to be, is a superior technical gizmo. Your girlfriend and her green sidekick at least don't want something this big to get away. The greed, by the way, is not limited to those two. At least eighty percent of the people here experience increased respiration and heartbeat when they look at you and the IT box, and by proxy, me. It's absolutely indecent.»

  Chaumel went around the room like a zephyr, defusing arguments and urging people to sit down to prepare for the meal. Keff admired his knack of having every detail at his fingertips. Couches with attached tables appeared out of the ether. The guests disported themselves languidly on the velvet covers while
the tables adjusted themselves to be in easy range. The canape servers vanished in midstep and the remains of the hors d'oeuvres with them. Napery, silver, and a translucent dinner service appeared on every table followed by one, two, three sparkling crystal goblets, all of different design. White, embroidered napkins opened out and spread themselves on each lap.

  Something caught Keff squarely in the belly and behind the knees, making him fold up. A padded seat caught him, lifted him up and forward several feet into the heart of the circle of magifolk, and the tray across his middle clamped firmly down on the other arm of the chair. Under his heels, a broad bar braced itself to give him support. A napkin puffed up, settled like swansdown on his thighs.

  «Oh, I'm not hungry,» he said to the air. The invisible maitre d' paid no attention to his protest. He was favored with china and crystal, and a small finger bowl on a doily. He picked up a goblet to examine it. Though the glass was wafer-thin, it had been incised delicately with arabesques and intricate interlocking diamonds.

  «How beautiful.»

  «Now that is contemporary. Not bad,» Carialle said, with grudging approval. Keff turned the goblet and let it catch the torchlight. He pinged it with a fingernail and listened to the sweet song.

  A hairy-faced server bearing an earthen pitcher appeared next to Keff to fill his glass with dark golden wine. Keff smiled at him and sniffed the liquid. It was fragrant, like honey and herbs.

  «Don't drink that,» Carialle said, after a slight hesitation to assess the readouts from Keff's olfactory implant. «Full of sulfites, and just in case you think the Borgias were a fun family, enough strychnine in it to kill you six times over.»