by John Dalmas
"Nils Savage, this is my daughter and apprentice. I need not introduce you to her, for she has shared the job of watching over you since you were brought to the castle earlier this morning. I have been your other nurse."
Nils sat up on the edge of the cot thoughtfully. He wore only his breeches; his other things lay on a nearby bench. "I don't seem to be injured, only weak," he said. "The troll must have died almost as soon as I lost consciousness."
"Troll!" said Signe, turning to her father without trying to hide her scorn of such superstition.
"Do you believe it was a troll, Nils?" asked Raadgiver.
"Not in the sense of the fairy tales," he answered. "But it's useful to have a name to call it. It's not an animal from this part of the world; if it was, we'd know about it, and not by grandfathers' tales but by its deeds and attributes.
"Brave men who saw it and what it had done weren't terrified by the sight. They believed they could kill it. But when it howled, they were filled with terror, and their minds were like eyes that had looked at the sun. And it wasn't the howl that did it, really, at least not by itself. If I made the same sound, no one would panic."
Nils looked calmly up from his seat on the cot. "And I could see through its eyes, and knew it was coming before it was seen or heard."
"Why didn't you panic?" Raadgiver asked. "You were the only one who didn't, you know. Did you feel no fear?"
"I felt the fear all right," Nils replied. "But it wasn't my own. I think that somehow it was from the others as well as from the troll. It was like a wave washing over me without wetting me."
There was a rap on the heavy door of the chamber, and Raadgiver spoke. A servant entered and left a platter with a steaming roast, mushrooms, a loaf, and a large mug.
"Well," Raadgiver said, "we'll leave you with this, for we have eaten and will return when you've finished." He held the door for Signe, at the same time turning again to Nils. "Do you speak Anglic, Nils?" he asked.
"Some," Nils answered. "I've been learning it for several weeks."
Raadgiver almost grinned for a moment, and nudged his daughter as the door closed behind them. "I believe your 'filthy, ignorant barbarian' heard and understood that little remark just before he opened his eyes," he thought to her. "And what do you think of him now, my dear? He is hardly more than a boy, a very large boy, but he has a mind like a razor."
Signe's answer was a flash of irritation.
Nils chewed the end of the loaf, which held all that was left of the gravy, then tipped the last of the ale from the mug and wiped his mouth on the back of a thick hand. Standing, he pulled the bell cord and walked to the narrow window. The thick stone walls restricted the viewing angle, but the room was high and he could see over the castle wall. The patchwork of fields and woods, so different from the endless forests, bogs and lakes of Svealann, lay peaceful and warm in the sunshine of an August afternoon.
He did not turn when a servant entered and took out the platter. A moment later, Raadgiver and Signe returned.
Without preliminaries, Nils asked, "What is it you want me to do?"
"Why do you think we want you to do anything?" Raadgiver countered.
Nils, leaning casually against the wall, said nothing, simply folding his muscular arms across his chest.
Raadgiver laughed suddenly and addressed his daughter out loud. "My dear, this would be the man we need, even if he wasn't a psi. If I praise him, he won't be embarrassed because he'll know it's merely the truth. And if you insult him, he won't be irritated because it won't matter to him, being untrue.
"And besides, I can't read his thoughts except when he speaks."
Raadgiver lowered himself into a cushioned chair and looked up at Nils more seriously now. "Do you know the word 'psi'?"
"No."
"Psi is the ability to read minds, to converse silently or to look into the future. Very few can do these things. Small children with the potential to learn aren't rare, but in most cases the potential is lost if it isn't developed by the fourth or fifth year. Among the occasional adults who retain it, it is almost always erratic and usually weak, unless trained."
"I've had that sort of experience only twice," Nils said. "In my dream two nights ago, when my mind was in the peasant hut, and last night, when the troll was swimming from the island."
"Only twice strongly," Raadgiver corrected, "but perhaps many other times less obviously. I read the minds of those who were at your audience with the greve. You had handed Jens Holgersen his sword after beating him, and then you sheathed your own. Wasn't that reckless? He could easily have killed you then, and many men would have. Yet bravado and foolishness are as foreign to your nature as weakness is."
"I knew he wouldn't," said Nils.
"Good. But how could you be so sure? You hardly knew him," Raadgiver pointed out. "When we say that an untrained psi shows erratic ability, we refer to conscious psi experience. Most such people, or probably all, receive many other psi impressions unconsciously-that is, psi messages enter their minds, but they don't recognize them for what they are. But the information is in their minds anyway. That is-" He paused. "It's very hard to explain to someone who has no concept of the subconscious mind."
"I understand you," Nils said.
Raadgiver leaned back in his chair, his intensity suddenly gone. "Of course," he said. "You would."
"And now, back to my question," Nils reminded him.
"Ah yes. What we want you to do. We're working up to that." Raadgiver shifted in his seat, looking tired now and no longer meeting Nils's eyes. He spoke quietly. "What is the most important thing to a man next to life itself?"
"For many, what he really believes is true."
Raadgiver stared up for a moment, then looked down at his nails. "Only if he isn't suffering. If he's suffering enough, the most important thing is for the suffering to stop. It can be more important than survival. And if he lives in constant fear-fear of terrible pain, of the real and imminent threat of physical and mental torture-then the most important thing becomes freedom from that threat."
Nils had never heard of such a situation.
"Now suppose there was a land where all men were thralls. No, less than thralls, because thralls at least have some rights and protection in law. Suppose all men were slaves except for one master and his soldiers. And suppose that master had the worst kind of madness, finding his greatest pleasure in the misery and degradation, the torture, of his slaves. An emperor who conquered only to enjoy the cries, the whimpers, the begging for mercy of those he ruled. A man who had lived very long and has a great army." Raadgiver leaned toward Nils. "What would you do if you lived in a land like that?"
"I have never thought of such a thing," Nils answered. "It would depend on the possibilities."
"But suppose that lord offered to make you his lieutenant?" Raadgiver asked.
"The lieutenant would still be his thrall. Where is that land?"
"Right now it is far to the southeast," Raadgiver answered. "But someday, perhaps soon, it may include all of Europe, even Denmark.
"And what we want you to do is kill that man."
7.
Jorgen Stennaeve was tough, ambitious, and direct, but not particularly intelligent. Given cause for distrust, he could be suspicious and wary, but otherwise he tended to take things at face value and was also disinterested in details other than military. So when his chief counselor asked for charge of the barbarian, he asked few questions. Raadgiver simply explained that he believed the troll was sent by an evil power in a distant land. That evil power hoped someday to spread into Europe, perhaps even to Denmark, Nils withstood the troll because of a certain strength against that power, he went on, and Raadgiver wanted to train him and send him to fight it.
To the greve the menace seemed remote and the value of such a fighting man might be considerable in the impending invasion of Slesvig. But, on the other hand, the counselor's advice was almost always good, so he agreed to the request. Thus, Nils moved from t
he barracks to a small chamber near the apartment of Raadgiver and Signe, and began his lessons. Raadgiver instructed him, or Signe, when her father was otherwise occupied.
Most psi experiences are telepathy, Nils was told. Psis can read thoughts only when there are explicit thoughts to read-that is, when the mind is discursive-and psi conversation consists primarily of thinking words, feelings and pictures to one another. When the attention is on some sensory experience, that experience too can be shared, as when Nils looked at the beach through the troll's eyes and felt the water with its body.
Emotional states, including the finer nuances, are easily sensed, and a psi commonly receives a general but appropriate reading of overall personality at first encounter.
Psionic transmissions normally are subject to the inverse square law, but can be received at something beyond normal hearing distance when transmitted forcefully or in a psychically quiet environment. With training, the potentially psi-receptive mind reflexively develops selective damping, providing a large degree of protection against "psi noise." Damping can be cut selectively for screening transmissions, as for seeking one particular mind in a crowd. And when that mind is found, the attention can be focused on it while reception of others remains damped.
Damping is not very effective against transmissions directed specifically toward the receiver, however.
Unexplainable exceptions occur to the inverse square limitation. Occasional transmissions carry thousands of kilometers without apparent weakening. These are highly specific to a receiver or receivers, and the receiver need not be a trained psi. Little is known about this phenomenon and such transmissions cannot be made at will. They are, therefore, of little importance.
There is also a technological exception to the inverse square restriction. Before the Great Death, an instrument called a psi tuner was invented, permitting the narrow focusing of telepathic transmissions to another psi tuner. They are useful only to trained psis.
Precognition and premonition are the other known facets of psi. In the untrained psi these commonly are in the form of symbolic visions, but among trained psis they are usually explicit previews having the same quality and much of the impact of a sensory perception. Premonitions are not necessarily fulfilled, falling into the category of "what will happen if nothing intercedes." Precognition, on the other hand, seems to fall into the category of "what will happen regardless." Many trained psis state they can distinguish them. A strong philosophical case has been made, however, for the contention that there is no precognition in that strict sense, the difference between the experiences lying in the degree of probability that they will be fulfilled.
Premonition and precognition cannot be experienced at will. They occur rarely or possibly never at all to some psis, infrequently to most, and somewhat frequently to a few. Commonly occurring without context, the receiver often cannot understand what he "saw," and the event foreseen may be important or irrelevant to him.
Raadgiver also described the loose organization of psis that had grown up in Europe.
"In the year 2105 there were five billion people on Earth," he said. "Can you imagine that, Nils? That is a thousand taken a thousand times. And then that thousand thousand taken a thousand times again, and five times all of those. It is beyond comprehension. Single towns had more people than probably exist in all the world today. That is our tradition in the Psi Alliance. And then the Great Death came, and within a few weeks so many had died that a man could walk for days before he saw another living person.
"The ancients had great learning and made much use of machines. Machines pumped water into every dwelling through metal tubes, even to the tops of towers. People rode in flying boats faster than the fastest arrows. They even rode them to the stars, which are other worlds like this one. Subtle machines did their labor, drawing power from beams like sunlight but invisible and akin to lightning. But each machine needed men with special skills to take care of it, and it had to be told what to do. So when their keepers died, the machines became confused and soon they too began to die. And when the machines died that made the power, almost all the others died at once.
"And the people with the plague were seized with the desire to set fires, as a man with a cold must cough or sneeze. The few who survived inherited a smoking ruin.
"At first, they hoped that those who'd gone to the stars would come back someday and bring the machines back to life. But they never did, and it's probable that the plague struck them, too.
"One who survived was a trained psi named Jakob Tashi Norbu, who taught in a great place of learning called the University of Lucerne. In those days there was a powder that could be given to a person to tell whether or not he had psi potential, and he searched on foot through Europe, after the Death, looking for psis. He found three. He also searched the places of learning for psi tuners and found thirteen. Mine is one of them.
"It took him years.
"Father Jakob taught each of his psis and gave them tuners. They took mates and most of the children were psis. That was the beginning of the Alliance.
"Over the generations men's numbers increased, and lords and chiefs appeared. So the Alliance dispersed; it was becoming unsafe to be a separate community. Fourteen had psi tuners, and these worked themselves into the service of lords and chiefs as advisors. They kept their talents secret and used them to advance good lords or cause the fall of bad. Within the Alliance, those with psi tuners are called the Inner Circle. Over the centuries the Inner Circle has had an important influence on the ascension and the acts of rulers.
"Some without tuners also are advisors, and in most important towns there is at least one free merchant who is a psi. These we call the Kinfolk; some of us refer to the whole Alliance as the Kinfolk. And they, too, keep their talents a secret.
"Still others have become wanderers. We call them the Wandering Kin, but the peasants call them the Brethren. They wander through the countryside and among the villages as storytellers, teachers and magicians, speaking Anglic almost exclusively. This helps keep Anglic alive so that men of different lands can speak with each other. They awe the people by knowing their secrets and use their skills to seem supernatural. When available, the peasants call upon them to judge disputes. Their stories become traditions and their acts legends, and so far as their understanding and ability allows, they try to reduce the cruelty and injustice that men perpetrate on men.
"The Wandering Kin have their own tradition. They own nothing but the clothes they wear and a sleeping robe for when they must spend the night beside the road. The peasants feed and shelter them and give them clothes, regarding it a privilege. Only in unpeopled stretches do the Wandering Kin own even a hut, built by themselves in the wilderness, where they can shelter in bad weather."
Raadgiver also taught him how psis influence the thinking of non-psis. A psi cannot influence a subject to a conclusion or action incompatible with the subject's nature. But his reaction to a specific idea or event commonly can be modified. For example, the influence of a psi advisor on his feudal lord depends on:
1. Selection of a lord who is not particularly suspicious of him or adverse to advice, followed by the cultivation of the lord's confidence.
2. Sound insight into the lord's personality. An important element in psi training is training to interpret thoughts and emotions and to integrate them into a reasonable model of the subject's subconscious so his reactions can be predicted.
3. Correct reading of the lord's mood of the moment, which is automatic for a trained psi.
4. Ability to translate the psi's objective, or an approximation of it, into an objective harmonic with the lord's tastes or at least compatible with them.
Nils also was instructed in geography, map reading, and use of the psi tuner. Raadgiver also passed on odd bits and pieces of subjects from geology to philosophy. As far as possible, instruction and conversation were in Anglic.
The man Nils was to assassinate was a psi named Kazi. The Alliance had first become aware o
f him several decades earlier as the ruler of a powerful Near Eastern despotism. One of the Kinfolk equipped with a psi tuner had been sent to spy on him and was captured. Apparently he succeeded in suicide, however, for Kazi seemed to have gotten little information from him. But he clearly deduced the existence of a European psi organization. For a time Kazi had sent psi spies of his own into Europe, losing several but assassinating three of the Inner Circle. Apparently he concluded that so loose and nonmilitary an organization as the Alliance was no threat to him, for no more spies had been detected for a number of years.
Meanwhile, Kazi had expanded his empire to include much of the Balkans.
Reports and rumors gathered by the Wandering Kin in peripheral areas and from refugees indicated that Kazi's rule was one of deliberate depravity, and that he was clearly psychopathic. His subjects lived in a pathetic state of fear or apathy, and his army was thought to be invincible.
Legends described him as the Never Dying. Evidence indicated that he actually was either ageless, extremely old, or more probably a dynasty.
Apparently he intended to conquer Europe. He had planted a cult to Baalzebub throughout much of the continent, Baalzebub referring to himself. Under the influence of drugs, initiates practiced such obscene depravities that they felt themselves afterward totally alienated from their culture and either dedicated themselves completely to the cult or committed suicide.
It had few adherents now, however. Initiates were easily detected by the Kinfolk, and using the information they provided, the feudal lords had suppressed the cult harshly. And the Wandering Kin preached against it.
Recently trolls had appeared along the coasts of western and northern Europe, and the rumor had been spread that Baalzebub had sent them because the people did not worship him.
The Alliance had been looking for someone who might stand a chance of assassinating Kazi. Raadgiver told Nils frankly that success seemed less than likely, and that Kazi could well come to rule all of Europe.