by Moulton, CD
"Maita, you and TR and T Six are going to have to produce a lot of stuff that's cheap imitation of the things they have and that doesn't work. Make the things they'll have soon in such a way that someone can work with them and make them work, if not as efficiently or easily.
"In other words, leave the idea that the principle is solid, only the method is flawed.
"I don't know what to do about all that carved marble."
*We'll do a hell of a lot better than that. I'll contact Heleemius. We'll do a really crazy thing here.*
[ Don't contact anyone. I know what to do about the city. You can use infrasonics to decompose the marble. Z will have to demonstrate illusions and get the concept of illusion into the minds of these people. I'll find a way to get everyone away from the city when the time comes. We can work that kind of thing, but now is premature. We have to set it all up first. ]
They discussed various other plans, but Thing wouldn't say more so they dropped it. Maita had several hundred kilos of pink gold trinkets ready for them as well as some chrome quartz statuary. In the morning they headed back to meet Kit and Tab before the noonmeal. Z made a production of taking rhodium gold earrings to Canj. When they went to their rooms that evening they found soldiers there waiting for them. They were to come directly to the palace to explain where they got the illegal pink gold – to King Narum and his scientists!
Royalty in a Trap
The crew were taken into the main hall of the palace, which had a long table laden with food and drink toward one end and beautiful marble inlaid floors over all. The ceilings were arched domes with columns toward the sides all around. The floor was raised a third of a meter from the columns to the walls, a space of about 4 meters.
There were rich tapestries on the walls that they could see were as fine as any they'd ever seen anywhere and truly fine statues by each column, if not nearly to the standards of the tapestries. A double plush throne was on the end away from the entrance between the center columns on a dais that was raised a full meter from the main floor level. It was reached from the hall by five steps in black marble. There was a strong carved door behind the throne to the right and one to the left. There were dancing fountains to either side of the double throne and a magnificently wrought symbol of the House of Narum in gold on the wall between the doors behind.
"Very impressive," Z said curtly to the soldiers marching on either side of them, who didn't change expressions as they marched them ahead. The man and woman on the throne were typical Saj, well-dressed in plush purple robes trimmed in white with jewels sewn here and there on them. They were early middle-aged and didn't seem to Z to be very happy people for all the luxury.
When he was close he noticed a trapped and wary look in their eyes and a tendency to jerky movement. Thing was on his shoulder and sent the feeling of fear to him. He deduced they were unwilling puppets of the aliens so fear from them was definitely not unexpected. Kit caught his eye and looked at the massive doors behind the throne, then mouthed the word "steel" in Maitan.
That wasn't at all unexpected, either. The aliens certainly wouldn't want anyone able to break in on them. Steel doors were beyond the abilities of the people here to pass.
The soldiers came to stop before the king and queen, bowed low, presented the crew, and stepped back.
Z didn't so much as nod at them so Tab and Kit took their cue from him and stared at the king and queen in stony silence. Thing reached a tentacle toward them indicating to Z, Kit and Tab they were probably good people caught in a trap they couldn't get out of.
Finally, Narum said, "I am King Narum. This is Queen Hisla. I am aware of the names you have given here.
"You have brought a large quantity of pink gold worked into ornaments and utensils into Royal City against the directives of law. You have dispersed those things, also against directives of law. How do you answer to these charges?"
"I'm called Kemat," Tab said sharply. "I'm a buyer and seller of many things. I first came into your city just four days past with my traveling companion and friend, Lape the Fisherman. We were immediately accosted by armed people who called themselves police. They demanded we present identification, a thing such as I've never known in all my years of travel! I was then asked where I was from.
"I was born right here in Royal City, as was Lape. It was then called Mihgd. We stated this was our place of birth. We were then called liars and were badly treated. We were not given the chance to explain we had not been here in many years. We were not given much chance for anything! We were thrown into a small barred cell and treated to cold hard floors and poor and insufficient food! We were, in short, treated barbarically!
"Our sole passenger, Larg the Traveler, had remained aboard our vessel protecting our investments. He came here when we did not appear back there at the time we said we would and was able to explain to your police that they had misinterpreted what we said and was able to demonstrate to their satisfaction that we were simply honest businessmen. At no time did anyone tell us of any of your idiotic laws about trade. In fact, it was your people here who ASKED us about the pink gold and the green quartz. It was a whore who said she had been ordered by YOU to persuade us to bring the merchandise here.
"I can assure you it will very soon be well-known in many places how you treat honest businessmen in this evil place! We traders have a system of information dissemination you know nothing about and can't guess! The word is already out that to bring pink gold anywhere near this area or, probably, to bring green quartz, will result in this bad treatment. You can rest assured any supply of those things you might have had is now nonexistent. One of our runners will, by now, have gotten the word started out even to the mines. They'll stop any movement of the gold to this place. Count on it! We traders stick together when mistreated!"
"There's no law about pink gold here," Kit said shortly. "I checked carefully. This is a trumped-up charge and we all know it so why not simply say whatever it is you have to say?"
"We didn't know the police held you," Hisla protested. "You are under no arrest here!"
Thing was waving a tentacle at her.
"Have you heard of Zonn's talent?" Z asked sweetly. "Since when are armed soldiers sent to force people who are NOT under arrest to come to you? As Lape says, why don't you simply say what this is really about? If you have a desire for pink gold, this is a strange way of getting it. If Kemat was lying about his having seen to it you get no more Zonn would have told us of that lie. NO one lies in Zonn's presence.
"Why pink gold? It's just gold with some kind of contamination in it. It's pretty, but actually has less value than pure gold. Green quartz is brittle and tends to shatter. It's hard to carve and breaks easily. If you like green stones, there's plenty of jade to be found. Nothing about this evil place makes any sense. We have lately much discussed Royal City. There's something very wrong here.
"I know of magic – but this is something ... different. There is great power being used here. I can feel that. It isn't real magic, though."
"Magic is trickery," Narum snapped. "This is science. This comes from knowing how things work. Get the idea of magic from your head. It's silly and childish."
"Oh?" Z said and cupped his hands. The blue flame suddenly appeared and grew slightly. Thing squeezed his shoulder to tell him it had caused a reaction from somewhere outside of the room. Z made a spreading, throwing motion upward and outward with his hands and the flames swirled in eddies outward, changing to white, then orange, then red, then disappearing two meters away.
"I always though that was magic!" he said lightly. "Thank you for informing me I was mistaken!"
"Oh, I'm quite sure that trick can be explained by our scientists very easily," Hisla said. "It's probably a simple thing."
"Horvach of Himple has formulated some mathematical theories he calls the laws of thermodynamics," Kit said. "He is what you call a scientist. He was prepared to propose those laws until he saw this demonstration. Larj even was stripped clean, carefully
searched, and was then placed to above his waist in the water of a fountain where he repeated the thing you call a trick. Horvach was forced to suggest there were only two possibilities here. Either there was magic or his proposed laws of thermodynamics were wrong.
"I say there is magic, even if all that means is we can't YET explain why a thing happens."
"And I say Larj has a special type mind that is strong enough to do these things!" Tab retorted. "This isn't why we are here. We were brought here for you to further insult us. I've never heard of a place like this city. It looks clean and pretty from a distance, but is ugly and evil in reality. In all this gleaming marble is the stench of decay. I can feel pure, concentrated evil in this very room!
"It will surely fall! Corruption eats at the foundation of a thing and once the foundation is rotted the whole structure will collapse! Mark my words, there's no good here!"
"People always react to science negatively at first," Narum said. "It's because they don't understand it. There's much good here."
"There is so much good that we passed two separate bands of bandits within sight of this city," Z snapped. "There is so much good that your police detain people in cold hard cells without reason. There is so much good that every shopkeeper tries to steal from his customers. There is so much good that your own court employs prostitutes to try to entrap honest businessmen. There is so much good that every corner has one of your policemen standing on it. There is so much good that you have a very large army who serve no purpose other than to oppress your own people.
"I will take less of this good thing, thank you!
"There is so much good that you arrest people and force them to come to you when they violate nonexistent laws! There is so much good that people are living like rodents, outside of the few who are favored by this court. There is so much good that lands better used for growing of foods are being used by your scientists to make things no one understands and no one can use! There is so much good that you are issuing money made of paper of no use except here in your good city! There is so much good that people in your city are attacking each other and robbing each other merely to survive!
"I will take less of your GOOD, thank you!"
Hisla had slowly risen during the acid tirade and was standing staring at Z in horror, hand to her throat.
"That isn't true!" she cried. "Science has brought good things to our people!"
"Which of my points do you care to deny?" Z asked pleasantly. "Why hasn't effort been made to cure a disease such as the scabby rot? There are known methods. Wouldn't it be easier and cheaper to use a little of your science for THAT? Is the science only to be used for those useless THINGS? Why is food getting ever harder to obtain among those without court favor while your science uses the land that was producing food for things of no use to anyone?
"When Lape and Kemat were here as children they were taught numbers and writing. Who is teaching those things here in your good city? Scientists? Then why have I not found one child who can add numbers or write his name? Why, when there is so much good pure water above in those mountains, is the water in this city unsafe to drink? Can't your scientists use some of their iron to make pipes to bring the good water here? Can't they make pipes to take away the waste-filled water that stinks so in what seems, from the mountains, to be a clean city? They can certainly make bars with their iron! Everywhere, there are iron bars to keep the good of your city out!
"You may tell me of the good your scientists are doing, but I assure you, it is invisible good!"
"I've seen a place like this before," Kit added. "It was much smaller, but the problem was probably the same. That place was ruled by one family, who charged what they called 'taxes' of all the people, supposedly to pay for all the 'good' things they would bring.
"They simply kept the 'taxes', of course. The difference here is that you are stealing directly instead of taxing. That fact is obvious enough."
"That's not true!" Narum cried. "I will not countenance these accusations! I don't answer to fishermen and buyers! We steal nothing from anyone!"
"Really?" Z asked. "Then how do you pay all those soldiers and police? How do you provide food for them, even when your people don't have enough? Who paid for all this fancy marble? Who pays your scientists? Why is there so much food on that table in front of us while so many in your good city have no food at all?
"Nothing is ever truly without cost. To steal the labor of a person is, if anything, far worse than stealing his money or property or other things.
"I do not accuse. I merely ask you to explain inconsistencies in your words and actions. I ask you to share the deep secret of getting something for nothing.
"I admit I do not think for one second you can answer any of this in a way that one with the least intelligence will accept.
"Incidentally, the town Lape spoke of was called Farum. The people eventually arose and killed the entire ruling family to the fourth cousin. That family thought they had weapons to save them when that inevitable act took place, but there is no weapon to save twenty fat and corrupt rulers from ten thousand raging wronged people. There is nothing on Savaraj that ever will stop such a one-sided equation from reaching the obvious end. The numbers determine the answer in any equation. They did in that one and they will in this one."
Thing had tightened the tentacle when he said "on Savaraj" to note there was a strong reaction from behind those doors.
"We were told by your soldiers we were to answer to both you AND to your scientists!" Tab stated. "I think it'll be most interesting to hear their answers to my esteemed friend's charges. I think he'll make complete fools of them all. I think he'll make you see what you don't want to see – that they're fakers and thieves!
"You say that magic is trickery, yet you fall into the trap of believing any magician who comes along so long as he calls his magic something else. Horvach is a scientist. These here are tricksters. Nothing more. I challenge them to make any sense when they're questioned by a truly intelligent person!"
Hisla and Narum whispered together, then called a page, who went into one of the doors. He returned after a couple of minutes to whisper to Narum, then went to stand by a column where he had been all along. Narum and Hisla looked nervously at each other, then Narum said, "The scientists are presently absorbed in an important experiment and can't leave it. You may go."
"Hah!" Kit snorted. "If THAT doesn't prove Larj is right, I don't know what does! They don't DARE to face him! He'll show them up for what they are! I'll wager fifty kleperts they didn't have any 'important experiment' when they told you to bring us here, now did they? Hah! They have enough intelligence not to face a storyteller, a fisherman and a buyer! I'm surprised they have so much!"
"Come on, friends," Tab suggested. "We'll go. I want to finish my business here and go. This place is evil. I don't want to be contaminated by too much exposure to its filth. Be assured there will be no more of the pink gold or green quartz brought here. It is, according to your very own words, against the LAW to bring it here!"
They walked out while Narum and Hisla fidgeted. Back at their rooms Kit shook his head slightly when Z started to say something about the meeting so he knew the room had listening devices in it now.
"I wonder what's really going on here?" he said. "The king and queen don't have any power at all. That's sure! They're terrified of those phony scientists for some reason. I'll bet those poor people are under the spell of a sorcerer. One of the old-style ones who found the power sources.
"It's very strange I can't feel that kind of power here. The power I feel here isn't natural power. It moves in very precise paths – and power doesn't normally do that. This power is quite different. It is contained, but can wreak the most.... It is a dangerous power. It is NOT a natural thing.
"How odd! I felt like there was someone or someTHING behind those doors – something very evil! I wonder if there's some elemental there who's broken loose? There's something that doesn't longer belong on Savaraj in that
place. Mark my words! Those socalled scientists have loosed a terrible elemental demon on this place. It may only be a demon of the mind, but I am not at all convinced those aren't the worst kind!
"It's good you were able to get the word to the boy about the gold and quartz before the soldiers got us out of here. If many people didn't know we were taken by them I'm certain we'd be in the dungeons under that palace now. There is, indeed, a great and evil puzzle here."
"I got the distinct feeling that Narum and Hisla aren't in control, too," Kit said. "I also got the creeps when the page opened that door. There's something in there that doesn't belong. I can't argue against that determination. I don't have your magical powers, but I could feel there was a thing not natural behind that door.
"Did you notice how Zonn reacted? Much of what they said they believed!"
"Yes. I couldn't help but notice Zonn's strong reaction. It was on my shoulder, weren't you little fellow? I wish you could talk! I know certainly there's something you want to tell me!"
"I felt it, too," Tab said. "How do you do that trick with the fire?"
"It's no trick," Kit protested. "I heard all about the test Horvach made."
"Oh, it has to be a trick!" Tab insisted. "How do you do it, Larj?"
"It's no trick," Z replied. "It was shown to me by an old sorcerer, one who had learned that the danger in the old arts was that they could imprison the spirit of a weak man...." He told a long gripping story about magic, built mostly on his experiences on Tlorg where he actually did learn some magic. All the science of the Maitan Empire couldn't explain that simple little trick, though they were all sure it was some kind of psychokinetic power.