“So be it! Logic tells us that one of two things will happen then, The first: Om and the Kaleen will prevail—meaning that the force of Hish will dominate this planet, including you, to an end of which we know not. The second: That Om and the Kaleen will lose—meaning that if the force continues to be held in check, this planet will then come under the domination of a greater race of men; the difference being that unlike the Kaleen, they will not threaten you. Indeed, we of the Foundation now, and the ones who come later if you are still here, are prepared to offer you the stars and a companionship akin to yourselves which, without us, you could never know. Think well on that. And think well now, for the hours pass. I will give you time for council, and I will await your answer.”
I stepped back my three paces to rejoin Murie and Caroween.
“Has there been converse, my lord?” Murie asked. “We have heard naught but a great silence.”
“Aye, there has,” I replied. “But ‘twas a thing of the mind such as dreams are made of, though clearer pictured so all is understood. Now tell me, how was it with you these three long days?”
She moved toward me but I held up my hand. “Stay where you are, my true love. For we must not disturb yon sensitive horrors with our petty ‘pats and rubbings.’ They deem it unseemly.”
Murie’s mouth made a perfect “O” of absolute surprise and indignation. “Well do they, indeed, my lord,” she began, her voice rising.
“Nay, nay!” I said again. “Softly, for they are conversing, and I have asked their aid. Now tell me of your travail.”
She looked at me steadily then, until I smiled and blew her a masculine kiss from where I stood so that she sighed and finally said, “Well, m’lord, along that waterway and through those great cave halls there is a world of stone and people and houses and fields where strange vegetables are grown. At one point there is a great round valley open to the sky with a mountain on all sides. [I knew by this description that she meant the burned-out inner base of the cone of a volcano.] Upon this black soil more things are grown. And there is a lake in its center from which this very water comes. There we were kept, Caroween and I, in a great house not unlike those of our Glagmaron city… . The people of this Vuunland know nothing of the outside world. They are content here and go about their business with no complaint.”
“But do they not resent their slavery to yon Vuuns?”
“In sooth, no! For they do not deem it slavery. They make the resting pillows you see which are of a strange material and hold the heated water from the lake so that the Vuuns rest warm. They bathe the Vuuns sometimes with great brush and giant scraper. Also they grow a certain pepper delicacy which
the Vuuns do greatly love. Other than that, nothing. They look upon the Vuuns as their protectors from all the horror that is outside the mountain chain. And that is that.”
“We sought to tell them of ourselves,” Caroween put in.
“But in sooth, they were hardly interested, so we let them be.”
“What of the prince of Kelb?” I asked Murie. “You were slated, my dear, for his bed and board, and not for Vuunland.”
Murie smiled. “We, too,” she said, “were witness to this thing you speak of as ‘dream pictures.’ For after we left you our strength came back to us—though ‘twas sore cold in the high air where that great monster flew us—and the pictures came. They were directed to that evil prince and his remaining warriors who clung here and there upon the net. The pictures said most clearly that only the prince and his men -would be allowed to leave when we came to earth in Kelb. That black-browed prince did cry and moan then. But the Vuun said nothing more. And when the prince saw that Caroween and I were awake and to life again he threatened me and tried to mount the netting all around the great Vuun’s body, so as to reach me with a fal-dirk. And I called him coward and base dubot, as did Caroween. But he came on. And it was then that the great Vuun’s head, its saucer-eyes all ablaze, turned around on its long and ugly neck to dart toward the prince so that he retreated tailward, all white and sore afraid.
“We came aground in darkness and left the same way. And so it was. The next morn we were here, in Vuunland—ignored and waiting for my lord.”
Great Gods! I thought. The Vuun flew six thousand miles, and in only twelve hours. I have judged them right.
“Do you fancy Vuun flight, my dearest honey-pot?” I asked, grinning.
“Were it not forced. And were I free, too, of the smell, it could be interesting.”
“It may well be,” I cautioned, “that you will return the way you came.”
“And not with my lord?” Tears welled from Murie’s eyes and I was hard put not to join her since she had the power, the singular ability, to evoke a like emotion in me.
“It may have to be that way,” I continued. “But fear not, for you will land within your father’s very camp, knowing naught of either the trip or its discomforts and danger. And mark you: On that very day I will join you. On that very day, too, will we fight a battle such as our world will talk about for all time. And then,” I whispered softly, to Murie alone, “will you truly be my shield-maiden. And that, too—for all time.”
They listened starry-eyed, an amalgam of wonder and tears. Murie opened her mouth to speak again but the Vuun’s thought came strong, insistent. I raised my hand to Murie for her silence and took my three paces forward.
“Man-thing!” The voice rang icily, harshly, in my ears. “We have conferred. And other than our answer, I would inform you that there is one of us who knows you of the snow mountains in the north. He that brought those two mating creatures here. He says of you that you are a killer of life, a thing of nightmares. Yet despite this knowledge, we will trust you. For we have probed your mind and found you guileless. What you have said, though we know that there be things still hidden from us, is true. Therefore will we desist in all aid for the thing of Hish; rather will we await the outcome of the battle, and further contact with you.”
I said courteously, “I welcome your decision. But know this, for you have lived too long in splendid isolation: All life remains what it is, a thing of struggle, a thing of change; the formula advanced a millennium ago that you are either a part of the solution or a part of the problem holds true today; here, now, on Camelot-Fregis. Therefore I caution you: There is no neutral ground. And if you do not do what you have agreed upon with the thing of Hish, it will someday do something to you.”
“Over us it has no power,” Ap said simply. “We have long known of magnetic fields and their simple cancellation—such as that which you use now. The thing knows we know and can do nothing. It is still too weak. We had allied ourselves with it for the reasons that we told you. And because we know that our ability to create null-magnetism may protect us now from the thing, this would not be true of the developing powers of Man.”
“Well put,” I said. “A question now: Other than your seizure of the princess of Marack—this facsimile of a man-thing, as you call her—how else would you have aided Om?”
“Ten of us were to appear over the field of the coming battle, where we would terrorize your thousands with ‘our presence.”
“Om counts on this appearance?”
“Aye.”
“When?”
“Since armies are gathered—and still gathering—we have been informed that the time will be soon.”
“How are you so informed?”
“In the same manner whereby we converse with you now.”
“There is danger, then, that the Kaleen will know of me through you?”
“None. For we ourselves control our thoughts and entry.”
“Then, though I have said that there is no neutral ground, your participation could still be limited. I would ask but one thing: On the day of final battle, a single Vuun will land within the center of Marack’s forces, and there deposit yon princess, Murie Nigaard, and her companion, the lady Caroween… . Then all upon that field will see and know that Vuuns are not allied with Om.”
/> “And if we do not do as you ask, Man-thing?”
“Well then, nothing. I will simply take these two of ours with me now; the battle will be fought without your aid—and if it is lost, as well it may be, anyway—then you, in part, will share the blame… . For the thing of Hish will win the day and all that could have been will be as naught. Think on that and what it means for you. And remember, too, that which I ask is simple-small.”
” Tis more than ‘simple-small.’ It is alliance.”
“But you risk nothing. As you yourself have said, the Kaleen can bring no harm to you.”
“But in the future, if you lose and the Kaleen grows stronger.”
“By Great Ormon!” I mentally screamed at them. “Know you that on that blood-field one hundred times a thousand men will give their lives in battle against Om? And if we be in the right, those ‘men-things’ will have also died for you! Have you never heard of areas of agreement for mutual gain? Of positive unities of opposites? Think what you will, your future lies with us and not with the thing of Hish and that dark universe beyond the gateway. So say you now! What will you do? For, in all sooth, you try my patience sorely.”
I stood proudly with folded arms and steely glare and held those six great blazing saucer-eyes as if in thrall. The silence mounted, bled off to every nook and passageway from that great dais. And somehow they communicated with each other; not just the three, but the whole five hundred.
Ap spoke to me. “Man-thing,” he said. “Your logic does your courage justice, for you are right in what you say. I myself will go to that plain beyond the Kelbian city of Corchoon. But just how will you protect me against being feathered with ten thousand arrows?”
“Yon maid”—I mentally grinned, taking a certain license with the word—”will fly her father’s colors from your back. And thus will you be safe.”
“It will be done.”
“Then, Great Ap, your flight accomplished, retire to here. And on some future date, if it be your desire, we will meet again and speak of galaxies and the others of your kind in this great universe which we share—agreed?”
“Agreed, Man-thing. You have our permission to leave.”
“I will first say good-bye to my friends.”
“Let it be done.”
And then, as if the sight of my good-byes would be too much for them, the membranous lids of their great eyes flicked up and over so that only the faintest of red showed through.
I said softly to Murie, ” ‘T-is done. I leave you now. But first there is a thing I must do—for the both of you.”
“And what is that, my lord?”
“I would that you did not suffer the long flight through the cold and the night. And I will, with your permissions, prepare you for it.”
“How so, my lord?”
“Like this.” I drew her slight figure to me and beckoned Caroween to join us. I put my cheek against Murie’s for the space of seconds, then pulled back. “I want you both,” I told them, “to watch my eyes and nothing else, and to listen to my voice.” They did so. And shortly, according to my powers, they were in deep hypnosis.
I told them what they were to do: that they would not fear the flight; that all they remembered of me in this hall would be swept from their minds, but that with Murie the faintest of memories would linger so that she would know that it was because of me that this had happened. One thought I implanted deeply. Murie was to tell her father, if she arrived at Dunguring before I did, and if he doubted that which he would hear from Draslich and Chitar, that I would arrive on the final day of battle—with all of Fon Tweel’s thirty thousand. And then I freed them from my spell, and that was that.
We walked to the edge of the dais, my arms close around them. I even helped them enter the cockleshell boat. Before they left, of course, I held Murie tight once again and kissed her and told her that I would see her very soon.
And, as stated, that was that… .
The boat moved off into the passageway where it disappeared. I then turned to the three great Vuuns, saw that their eyes were open, and bowed respectfully in then* direction. “Until that time, Great Ap,” I said.
Great Ap said nothing, though he seemed to mentally nod his acquiescence.
I returned to the massive entrance with its Vuun guardians. I nodded to them, too, but they ignored me. It had begun to snow so that all was a swirl of white before my eyes. I advanced a few feet, gave the numbers aloud that phased in the starship, and continued cautiously, wary of the edge of the precipice, until I could feel its bulk with my hands.
Once inside, I shot straight up from the snow-blanketed ledge so that again the greater part of the southern continent of Camelot-Fregis lay below me. North then, and across the trackless jungle and the river-sea. I hovered thrice. The first time over Dunguring to watch the gathering hosts. The main body of the Omnian-Kerchian-Seligian armada had landed and the fields and roads from Corchoon were packed with hordes of marching soldiery. The Marackian army remained at twenty thousand. They had yet to be joined by Hoggle-Fitz. I would have stopped had I the time to make contact, to tell Caronne and the lord Per-Rondin that help was coming. But Fitz would be there shortly, anyway. Then to Glagmaron. All was as the previous day. No single tent struck, no charge of dottles to the west. …
On the great south road from Ferlach and Gheese there streamed a dottle horde such as few men have ever seen: three abreast for a full thirty miles. They were a flowing wash of color in the proudly displayed banners and pennons of Ferlach and Gheese. Forty thousand fighting men—three dottles per rider: one hundred and twenty thousand dottles. The very earth shuddered to their million pounding paws. The sight was as a flowing river of gray lava, mottled with white and black and buff—and it was beautiful.
Then to my last stop, the mountain road that crossed the southern sea-plain to the port city of Reen in Ferlach. I had directed Rawl to go to Reen because I had no desire to appear twice before the hordes of Chitar and Draslich. Now he traveled with but ten student warriors.
I followed the road down from the battlefield of the river bank to where I spotted their group some miles before the pass that led down to the sea. I settled to a shaded spot, damped the ship, and moved to the road and waited. Again I slept on a grassy hummock overlooking the path; for again I had time. It was high noon. It would take Rawl and his ten another hour to reach me, and I needed that hour. The road to the north from my hummock was straight for a good two miles. It crossed two small streams and a series of gog-meadows. I awoke with minutes to spare and lazed luxuriously. All around me were the strident voices of quarreling tuckle-birds, plus the sweet warbling of something in fluffy beige and purple feathers. I had been joined, too, by two small dubots. They sat on a log and nibbled ipy nuts and discussed me raucously.
And then, as predictable as Fomalhaut in orbit, there came Rawl. I slid down the fifteen feet of grassy knoll, stood in mid-road, and held up my hand.
They were eleven riders and thirty-three dottles. Rawl was shaking his head for the last one hundred yards. He knew full well who I was. “Sir Lenti, Sir Collin,” he said lightly. “What now, Sir Sorcerer? I see that I shall meet you on every road on Fregis. Have you changed your plans?”
“Nay, Sir Fergis.” I grinned. “I have simply come to change yours.”
“My lord,” he exploded. “Not again?”
“Gather around,” I said to all of them.
And I explained what was to be; that their chief would go with me, while they would continue to Reen to help cement the needed unity among the ships of Marack, Ferlach, and Gheese. Our ten brave valiants groaned at this, but I never saw a man more happy to give up his command than Rawl. ‘Take your armor,” I cautioned, for he was dressed as light as I, though all his men wore link mail.
Then we stood together in mid-road while our gallants, banished, as they saw it, to banal tasks while others rode to glory, nevertheless managed to shake our hands as they rode by us. …
“What now, oh mighty Co
llin?” Rawl asked when we were alone. “Here we stand with my gear beside me upon the ground, and neither dottle, gerd, nor gog-pet for our transport. … I await, sir,” and he gave a most respectful bow, “your magic… .”
“First the magic of your strong back. Follow me and pick up that mess of pot-metal.”
He did, and we struggled back up the hummock and down its far side and into the little clearing where I had left the ship. I phased it in, called on its port to open, and bade Rawl enter.
I sat him down in my contour’s twin, ordered up food, and bade him eat of it. “Say not a word,” I admonished, as we both munched hungrily from the trays of offered goodies. “Say not a word, my friend. For come tomorrow you will remember naught of this, save that by sorcery you traveled with me from Ferlach to far Glagmaron, and all in the space of minutes.”
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