Tedric realised that sometimes the most unorthodox manoeuvre could be one that was orthodox but unexpected. So he charged Villion. Caught by surprise, the knight never had a chance to pull his vanishing act. Tedric closed with him. Their wrists slammed together and locked, blades hanging limply. Villion’s strength was enormous. Tedric matched it. Their faces were mere inches apart.
His muscles bulging tautly with the strain, Tedric took a lunging step forward. Villion staggered back. Another step. Another stagger.
Villion’s eyes were large in his head. He could have escaped by vanishing, Tedric knew, but his pride refused to let him run. Step by step, Tedric drove Villion back to the wail.
’Surrender,’ Tedric gasped but loudly enough so that all the room could hear.
Villion shook his head silently. It was a stalemate. Realising this, Tedric jumped back. Villion swung his sword. Tedric parried the blow. Then he heard a scream of anguish.
Turning, he saw a body standing near the wall. The neck was a splash of blood. As Tedric watched, the body toppled soundlessly to the floor. It was Matthew Carey.
Dropping his sword, Tedric ran across the room. Villion could have killed him then. He did not. Why, Tedric never knew, but he could guess. Somewhere in his soul, where it mattered, Fra Villion retained the integrity of his code.
Reaching Carey, Tedric crouched and turned the body over. The throat was cut from ear to ear. Carey was dead. Standing, Tedric shook his head in disgust. ‘How did it happen? Who…?’
Juvi pointed to a youthful-looking vemplar standing nearby. The knight held an open whipsword in one hand. The blade dripped blood.
’The knight started to go to help Villion when you had him pinned against the wall,’ Wilson explained. ‘I was too far away to do anything, but Carey reached out and grabbed him. The knight killed Carey.’
Tedric looked down at Carey’s body. It wasn’t a very glorious end for a man who had once served as Emperor of Man. Still, his mind broken by Fra Villion, perhaps this had been Carey’s only way of reasserting his own sense of worth.
He had saved Tedric’s life. In doing so, he had died himself.
A whistle sliced the air. The head of the vemplar who had killed Carey slid from its shoulders and fell to the floor. For a moment, the headless body swayed, then it, too, toppled.
Fra Villion approached, his sword dangling. ‘He had no right to intervene.’ Villion held out a hand to Tedric. In it was Tedric’s sword. ‘Shall we continue?’
Tedric nodded and took the sword. He and Villion resumed their stations. Again, the blades clashed.
The duel stretched for hours. Tedric fought patiently and well. Twice, Villion broke through his guard and cut him, once on the cheek and once on his chest. Tedric did better. Villion’s free arm - the left - was badly gashed from a dozen wounds. The chest of his jumpsuit was a mass of blood. His dark fur dripped red.
As the battle continued, Tedric observed Villion carefully. There was something new in the vemplar‘s eyes. It wasn’t fear. It was acceptance. Villion guessed that he was about to die, but he did not seem afraid. The two men closed, wrists locking. Villion’s face pressed close to Tedric. The veins showed tautly through the blood on his forehead.
’The darker forces…’ he whispered.
‘Yes?’ said Tedric.
‘I was wrong to serve them. They seek the destruction of…of everything.’
‘I know.’
‘I never desired that. I had given my word. Once done, I could not turn back. Do you understand?’
‘No.’
‘It is the blood oath of the ancient code.’
’There are other codes,’ said Tedric. ‘More important ones.’
Villion nodded. Whether he was agreeing, Tedric could not say. Villion spun away, turned back, swung at Tedric’s legs. Missing, he leaped through space, reappeared, swung immediately, missed again, then parried Tedric’s return slice. The unorthodox, thought Tedric, sensing the end. I must remember to seek the unorthodox.
But Villion acted first. Duplicating Tedric’s tactics, he sprang feet first through the air. Unprepared, Tedric took a crushing blow on the chest. He fell. The air burst from his lungs and his sword flew from his grasp. Alone and disarmed, Tedric lay on his back on the floor and watched as Fra Villion approached.
‘So it ends,’ the knight said softly.
He raised his sword to strike. Tedric shut his eyes. There was a strange singing noise in his ears. His stomach fluttered and he felt nauseous.
Then he was standing.
Opening his eyes, Tedric discovered that he stood on the opposite side of the room, staring at Villion’s back. His whipsword lay at his feet. Stooping down, he retrieved it. Villion turned slowly. His eyes expressed his stunned bewilderment.
Tedric had jumped through space. But how? This was not the time to consider that. Tedric advanced, swinging his sword. Villion rushed desperately at him. The sword blades met and clashed. Tedric swung again. This time, for whatever reason, Villion failed to respond in time. Tedric’s blade cut freely through the air and sliced off Villion’s right ear.
Blood spurted from the skull. Tedric closed. Villion met him. Their wrists locked. Tedric gazed into Villion’s eyes and saw the calm acceptance there.
‘Who are they?’ said Tedric. ’The darker forces - tell me.’
‘I know only one,’ said Villion. ‘I speak with him alone.‘ ‘I saw you in the room. I heard his voice.’
Villion looked surprised but did not ask how. ‘His name…’
‘Yes?’
‘It is Sarpedion.’
‘No!’ cried Tedric in disbelief.
And then Villion’s face altered. It was now a grinning mask. Another face - not Villion’s: older, darker, more hateful. Tedric had known this face before. A long, long time ago. A place far, far from here.
Sarpedion, the dark wizard!
Tedric leaped back and swung his sword with all his might. Villion offered no resistance. His severed head flew through the air. His body fell.
Fra Villion, the black knight, was dead.
Chapter 17
Tedric and Skandos
Although the room was unquestionably empty, Tedric sensed that he was no longer alone. He turned his head in a futile search, then finally said, ‘Skandos? Is it you?’
Tedric had returned to Earth three days before. He now stood in a bedroom in Alyc Carey’s house. She, Yod Cartwright, Juvi Jerome, and Ky-shan were outside waiting for him to join them at this moment.
A gentle voice spoke in his mind: I have come to converse with you, Tedric.
It was Skandos all right. ’Is there…trouble?’ Usually, when it was necessary for Skandos to speak to him, Tedric was summoned to Prime.
No, no trouble at all. You’ve had a long and arduous journey. I felt it kindest to allow you to continue your holiday without interruption. Besides, there are occasions when I derive pleasure from revisiting Earth, even in this rather indirect way. I lived here once, you know. I was born not more than five hundred miles from where you stand.
Tedric had not known that. The origins of the Scientists, who they were and where they came from, were buried in a misty past. ‘I’m glad you’ve come,’ he said, going to a chair and sitting down. His voice was soft. He knew it wasn’t necessary to speak but found it more comfortable, easier to arrange his thoughts clearly. ‘I must have a million questions to ask you.’
Skandos’s amusement showed in his voice. I’m afraid I may not be able to answer quite that many. Will three or four suffice for the moment? I followed your progress in the Bioman Sphere and was pleased by your success.
’That’s what bothers me. I succeeded but I don’t know why. During my duel with Fra Villion, I hopped through space. It just happened and I don’t know how.’
In time, I think you will, said Skandos. Remember, when 1 first brought you to this universe, I explained that you possessed certain unrealised powers.
‘Does that mean I�
��m not a normal man?’ said Tedric.
You are a normal man - a man of your own universe. Tell me, how much do you recall of that other place?
’Only a very little.’ Tedric shook his head. ‘I’ve tried and tried but it’s still very vague.’
It is a universe where magic works.
’Is that what I did? Was it magic?’
It was - but it wasn’t. Was Villion’s ability to leap through space a result of magic? No, it was only a different way of using the brain. You must learn to accept your powers and use them wisely.
Tedric knew that Skandos’s evasiveness was deliberate. Through the window, he could hear the voices of Alyc, Yod and Juvi, laughing and talking. For some reason, he thought instead of Lola Dass. Keeping his promise, he had allowed her to return to Earth with them aboard a ship provided by the vemplars. She was somewhere in New Melbourne now. He wondered idly if he would ever see her again and found himself hoping very much that he would. Embarrassed, he cut off that thought quickly. It was very possible that Skandos could hear everything he was thinking.
Hastily, Tedric said, ‘What about the red cloud? I don’t understand that {either. When I killed Villion without learning how to reach beyond him, I assumed I had failed. But the cloud disappeared. From what Alyc tells me, it must have disappeared the moment I killed Villion.’
It did.
‘But why?’
Have you ever played chess, Tedric?
‘I have, yes.’
When a piece is captured it must be removed from further play. Is that correct?
‘Yes, of course.’
Well, by defeating Fra Villnian you forced our adversaries to remove a piece from play - the cloud. It was part of the rules of the game, Tedric.
‘And you knew this ail along?’
I suspected it, yes. The rules are not always entirely clear.
‘Why didn’t you tell me?’
I saw no need. If you had failed and Villion lived, the cloud would certainly have swallowed up Earth. You knew this fact. I did not wish to intervene and risk a similar move by the other side.
‘By Sarpedion?’ As he spoke the name, Tedric again felt its familiarity.
By Sarpedion, Skandos confirmed.
‘Have I known him before?’ Tedric asked.
You have. Skandos seemed hesitant to proceed.
‘Can you tell me when? Or where? It wasn’t here. I’m sure of that. It must have been in the other universe.’
Skandos seemed to make a decision. I can tell you certain things about Sarpedion and shall, but you must not ask me to elucidate - not at this time.
‘I understand,’ said Tedric.
Sarpedion is a man - in the same sense that I am a man. Once he was a Scientist and dwelled among his colleagues on Prime. He was an able man but one driven by a lust for power. In time that lust came to dominate his personality. He inserted himself directly into the affairs of another universe. It was your universe, Tedric - and he acted as if he were a god. When his crime was discovered, he was brought to trial and sentenced to permanent exile. Later, he joined our adversaries in search of revenge - against us and against you.
Tedric had to resist the urge to ask Skandos any of a dozen obvious questions. He sighed, is that ail you can tell me?’
That and the fact that he is our supreme enemy. No one stands behind him, though there are many at his side. For eons, our adversaries lay dormant. Now they are on the move again and they will not rest until we - or they - are forever vanquished.
‘But where are they? Why have I never seen them?’
Few men have. But they exist. Their planet lies in a distant part of this galaxy.
’Then I must go there,’ said Tedric.
Skandos laughed. In time - in good time. That will have to wait for later. For now we must concentrate upon the threat of the clouds. One is gone but others remain.
Tedric nodded thoughtfully. He opened his mouth to ask another question, then realised something. He was alone. Skandos had gone.
With a bemused sigh, Tedric went slowly to the bedroom window and drew back the thin curtain. Outside, Alyc, Yod and Juvi ran back and forth on a small patch of green lawn, playing catch with a round rubber ball. Tedric watched Alyc, marvelling at the way, though blind, she always seemed to know exactly where the ball was coming from. She never hesitated, never wavered, never faltered.
He turned away. No, it wasn’t magic. It wasn’t magic for Alyc or for Villion or for himself.
What it was and how it could be used to save the universe from the threat of Sarpedion was something he would have to find out. When? He shrugged and turned for the door.
Only time could answer that question.
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