JULIEN
II
Chapter 34
Some answers
Their return to the Burrow was greeted with joy, of course, but the episode had caused a lot of worry too: this time there had been a happy ending, but it could so easily have resulted in the loss of the Keystone of the Empire once more.
The younger members of the party soon started joking about Ambar's flamboyant New Look, and so Julien was obliged to explain the global success of the Stones. Actually he wasn't all that interested in them: he was much more a fan of the Fab Four.
oo0oo
When Subadar came to visit the following morning he had news.
“My Lord,” he began, “Aďn went back to the place he found you and this is what he discovered there.”
He handed Julien a small disc of grey metal, and Julien knew what it was straight away.
“A target-klirk?” he queried. “What was it doing on Earth? And whose is it? Aďn must know, surely!”
Aďn came close enough for Julien to be able to touch.
I couldn't understand why you jumped to that particular point, Aďn told him. Logically you ought to have gone back to your parents' house. There was no reason at all for you to go to that other spot. In fact, it would have been far more likely that if something went wrong with your Gift you'd have gone somewhere within the R'hinz. But you didn't, and nor did you go to the obvious place on Earth. Something must have taken you to the place you did end up at. So I found the exact spot where you arrived – which wasn't hard, because your scent was still fresh – and I started digging. Fortunately the layer of soil there wasn't very deep. And I found the target-klirk. There's no possible mistake: it's one of your own.”
One of my own? But I haven't got any!
Yulmir had several. And Yulmir is you, My Lord.
But that makes no sense!
Perhaps, but those are the facts. There are only two possibilities: either Yulmir visited your world in the past, or someone else placed one of his target-klirks there. Anyway, that's why you ended up there, as opposed to anywhere else on the planet.
“What do you make of it, Subadar?” asked Julien. “I'm sure Aďn has already told you what he just told me.”
“Yes, My Lord.”
“Oh, stop calling me that, would you? It makes my skin creep.”
“Sorry, Julien. Anyway, his theory holds water, and it starts to explain why you turned up outside the R'hinz. On the other hand it does raise some questions that we can't yet answer. As far as I'm aware the Emperor never proposed exploring your world, and there's no trace of it in the archives.”
“Are you sure?”
“Something like that could hardly have passed unnoticed.”
“Perhaps Xarax remembers something. I'll go and find him – he's probably with Dillik.”
In fact Xarax was already on the way, flying quietly so as not to disturb those who were having a lie-in. He landed on Aďn's back for a moment and then moved to his usual place on Julien's shoulder.
I have never heard of a journey that went outside the R'hinz, he said. If Yulmir went to Earth he managed to do it without his haptir finding out, and that's practically impossible.
“Xarax knows nothing about it,” Julien reported. “And he says it would have been almost impossible for Yulmir to have gone to Earth without Xarax's knowledge.”
“Then we're left with the hypothesis that someone stole one of the Emperor's klirks – and believe me, that wouldn't have been easy – and took it to Earth, or gave it to an accomplice to take to Earth and to bury it in that spot,” said Subadar. “And of course we've got no idea of when this might have happened: it might have been several centuries ago. There's nothing on the target-klirk to indicate when it was made, and the metal scarcely ages at all. What I can say, though, is that there must have been some sort of a return of your previous nature. Otherwise I don't think the klirk would have drawn you to it.”
“To be honest, Subadar, I much prefer it when the returning memories are ones about you.”
“I'm flattered, but I don't think there's much we can do to influence what comes back to you.”
“So what should we do now?”
“I don't think there's much we can do right now. I'll start a proper search of the archives and I think Aďn ought to check the records of the klirk-makers, but to be honest I'll be surprised if we find anything. As for you, I suggest you take a few days off. Go and relax at Rüpel Gyamtso for a bit.”
oo0oo
Subadar's exhortation to go and relax was sincerely meant, but it was impossible to relax completely while the Empire was still undergoing events whose outcome nobody could foresee, and so it didn't surprise Julien at all when Dennkar and Tannder came and interrupted his morning swim. At least it meant that this meeting could take place on a beach beneath the shade of some large trees.
“My Lord,” said Dennkar, “we've found out a bit more about our enemies. We didn't find out a lot from the probing of that first agent, Yakder, because he was too junior to know very much. But he did help us to build up a bit of a picture of their culture and history.
“Originally their people, the Dalanns, are supposed to have come 'from the stars' and had settled on Talak, developing a culture entirely geared towards the discovery and conquest of more worlds. However, they weren't able to travel 'to the stars' because their ships, although capable of prodigious speeds, couldn't get past some kind of limit which is related, so far as we can tell, to light itself.”
“Yes, the limit is the speed of light,” confirmed Julien, happy to be able to put his passion for science fiction to some practical use. “You can't travel faster than light.”
“So they had to settle for just visiting the worlds around Nyinka, their sun,” continued Subadar. “And that's why they went on to develop a process they had apparently 'brought from the stars', which was something called a 'no-field generator', and which is a bit like a mechanical version of the Art of our Guides. Once they'd built it they started exploring the universe with it, and so eventually they found us. It took a long time – several thousand cycles, apparently. They stumbled on Dvârinn, and that led them to the existence of the Guides. That was a tremendously important discovery for them, because their no-field generator uses – or, rather, used – tremendous amounts of energy, while a Guide can do the same thing on virtually no energy at all.”
“Do we know why that is?” asked Julien.
Wenn Hyaď, who had transported the two Warriors to Rüpel Gyamtso, moved close enough to establish contact with him.
We think it's basically a matter of sharpness, he said.
Sharpness?
Yes, My Lord. For example, if you want to sew a garment you use a needle that can slip easily through the material. If you tried to sew using a nail you'd need to exert a lot more pressure and you'd damage the cloth, too. Now try to imagine sewing using a tree-trunk, assuming for a moment that the cloth is big enough and strong enough: you'd have to exert a colossal amount of pressure. That's only a rough analogy, of course, but it gives you an idea of what I mean by 'sharpness'. The mind of a Guide – indeed, your own mind, My Lord – is like the finest needle imaginable and so it can slip effortlessly through the material of the universe. In contrast, their 'no-field generator' was an incredibly blunt instrument, and it also left great rips in the Outside that we were able to use to trace where it had been, once it occurred to us to start looking for them.
“As far as we've been able to make out,” said Dennkar, “they had a very long-term plan to annex the Nine Worlds, and the plan had moved into an active stage of trying to destabilise our political system. We're sure to learn more about this before too long: so far a little over a hundred of their agents have turned themselves in and we've started to probe the ones who agree to it. However, it seems likely that the ones who chose not to surrender, for whatever reason, are likely to react violently and dangerously. And unfortunately those are likely to be the ones who know most about the enemy's plans.”
“Is there anything I can do to help?” asked Julien.
“For the time being, the mere fact that you're back with us and safe is all the help we need.”
“'Thank you, Dennkar. Now, perhaps Master Tannder would like to have his disciple back?”
“No, thank you, Julien,” said Tannder. “I like Karik being with me very much, but right now there's no work that he's really suited for, and I'm happy for him to have a little break. Consider him to be officially on holiday.”
“Now I'm getting worried about you,” said Julien. “I'm not used to you being quite that generous. Are you sure you're not getting soft in your old age?”
“What exactly do you mean by that?”
Julien opened his mouth to answer, but then saw the glint in Tannder's eye.
“Don't worry,” he said, “Karik hasn't been gossiping about you!”
Dennkar laughed and clapped Tannder on the back.
“That's you told!” he said.
oo0oo
Chapter 35
Rodrigue! etc.
It wasn't too long before duty called Julien away from his relaxation once more: as he was about to join Dillik on his catamaran and set off in pursuit of Niil he was intercepted by a messenger from House Bakhtar, who handed him a note from Lord Aldegard respectfully requesting an interview whenever the Emperor could find some time in his schedule. The mere fact that the messenger had been able to find him exactly here and at this moment indicated clearly that Aldegard knew precisely what he was doing, which in turn suggested that he thought Julien could easily spare him a little of his off-duty time. As he had no reason for wanting to annoy his senior Mirror the Emperor abandoned his planned catamaran race, rounded up his haptir and his personal Guide and headed for the nearest klirk.
After apologising for dragging him away and offering some refreshments Aldegard got straight down to the reason for his note.
“Ajmer, the traitor who dragged the honour of my House through the mire, has now told us everything he knows about the enemy and his plans,” he said.
“I'd guess that didn't amount to much.”
“That's true. So now he's of no further use to our counter-intelligence service.”
“You're probably right.”
“So now I'm entitled to demand justice with no further delay.”
“Um... what exactly do you mean by that?” asked Julien. “Don't forget that I promised to see him dead only if Tannder failed to recover from his injuries. And I'm happy to say that Tannder is now in good shape.”
“I haven't forgotten, My Lord. But two other men died and a third will never recover completely. Moreover, the honour of my House...”
“Aldegard, as far as I'm concerned the honour of House Bakhtar is still intact. If it wasn't, you wouldn't be my Mirror any longer.”
Of course Julien wasn't completely surprised by the direction the conversation was taking: he'd known that this subject was likely to spring up sooner or later.
“Please believe me, My Lord, when I say that your trust is the most precious thing to me, and that your continued belief in me...”
As unlikely as it seemed, it looked as if Aldegard was on the brink of tears. He swallowed and got his voice under control and then went on, “However, it will be expected of me not to let his treachery pass unpunished.”
“Does that mean that you're going to demand his exile to Tandil?”
“Well, I could do that, but I'm not yet so decrepit as to have to do things in such an underhand way.”
“You mean, you want to fight him?!”
“I would like to have your permission to do so, My Lord.”
“Suppose I refuse to give it? I'm sure I have the right to do that. After all, I don't want to let some pathetic little turncoat deprive me of both a friend and an indispensable ally. I'm not trying to disparage your ability with a sword here, but accidents do sometimes happen.”
“If you refuse your permission, My Lord, of course I will obey you.”
“Good!”
“But...”
“I knew it couldn't be that easy!”
“I would have to step down as Mirror, and probably also pass my duties as First Lord to someone more worthy. After all, nobody would expect the Emperor to be represented by someone who couldn't even...”
“Yes, I know – who couldn't even bathe in the blood of his foes, and so on, and so forth. You should try reading El Cid. I'm sure you would find it immensely appealing. Look, Aldegard, this whole business is just annoying. Heaven knows the bastard deserves to end up as a tak's hors d'oeuvre, and I really don't want to risk losing you. Why are all my friends so keen on getting themselves skewered? First Niil and now you...”
“Well...”
“Of course you have my permission! How could I refuse? But you'd better get some serious training in, because if I lose you...”
“I'm as ready as I'll ever be, My Lord.”
“Now there's a surprise. So how soon do you want to do this?”
“I don't want to spoil your... the time you spend with your friends.”
“Get to the point. When?”
“Tomorrow would be a good day for it, My Lord.”
“I see. And I expect you'd like me to attend the performance?”
“Your presence would be an honour, My Lord.”
“If you use the word 'honour' one more time I swear I'm going to kill you!”
“Well, My Lord...”
“So how does it work? At dawn in the garden of the Tower?”
“We can certainly do it like that if you want, My Lord. But it's more usual to do it shortly after noon, and in the hall of arms.”
“Of course – how silly of me! There's nothing like a fight to the death to aid the digestion! Very well – I'll be there.”
oo0oo