Elizabeth had closed her eyes again as the man droned easily on. Peace and relief permeated her mind. So there really is a Land of Exile! And I've really managed to come into it safely. Now I can forget what I've lost. I can build a new life.
She opened her eyes wide. The tall man's smile had become ironic.
"Your life will certainly be new," he agreed. "But what is lost?"
You . . . can hear me.
Yes.
She leaped to her feet, drew breath, cried out in a shattering scream. Vocalization of ecstasy. Life found restored renewed. Gratitude.
Softly! she told herself. Draw back from the pinnacle. Gently. After that first mad interior leap, go cautiously. Reach out at the simplest possible mode, at wide focus, for you are weak with rebirth.
I/we rejoice with you Elizabeth.
Creyn. You permit shallow question?
Shrug.
Elizabeth slipped clumsily beneath the surface of his smile, where a neat reticulation of data waited passively for her study. But the deeper layers were shielded by warning hardness. She snatched up the proffered information and got out quickly. Her throat had gone dry and her heart pounded with the shock of the assimilation. Gently! Gently. Two mental blows within a few minutes on her raw tenderness. Suspend heal allow self redaction. He cannot read deeply or far. But coerce yes. Redact yes most strongly. Other abilities? No data.
She spoke out loud at last in a calm voice. "Creyn, you are not a human being and you are not a true operant metapsychic. These two things contradict my experience, so that I am confused. In the world I come from, only persons with operant metapsychic powers are able to communicate in purely mental speech. And only six races in all our galaxy possess the genes for metability. You belong to none of them. May I probe deeper to learn more about you?"
"I regret that I cannot permit it at this time. Later there will be suitable opportunities for us to . . . get to know one another."
"Are there many of your people here?"
"A sufficient number."
In the split second that he replied she hurled a redactive deep-probe with all her strength right between his pale-blue eyes. It bounced and shattered. She had to cry out with the violence of the rebound, and the man named Creyn laughed.
Elizabeth. That was most impolite. And it won't work.
Shame. "It was an impulse, a social error I apologize for. In our world, no metapsychic would dream of probing without invitation unless placed in a threat situation. I don't know what came over me."
"You've been discomposed by the portal."
Wonderful dreadful pitiless one-way portal! "It's more than that," she said, sinking back into the chair. She did a swift tour of her mental defenses. Up and fairly secure, rawness crusting over, familiar patterns reasserting.
"Back on the other side," she said, "I suffered a serious brain injury. My metafunctions were obliterated in the regeneration process. It was thought that the loss was permanent. Otherwise", she gave it mental underlining, "I never would have been allowed to cross into Exile. Nor would I have wanted to come.'
We are most fortunate. Welcome from all Tanu.
"You've had no other operant metas come through?"
"A group of nearly one hundred arrived abruptly some twenty-seven years ago. I'm sorry to say they were unable to adapt to our local conditions."
Caution, caution. Wall-up. Elizabeth nodded. "They would have been fugitive rebels. It was a sad time for our Galactic Milieu . . . Are all of them dead, then? Am I the only operant in Exile?"
Perhaps not for long.
She braced herself on the table, rose and walked closer to him. His amiable expression changed. "It is not our custom to enter lightly into another's private space. I request you in courtesy to withdraw."
Polite regret. "I simply wanted to look at your golden collar. Would you take it off so that I can examine it? It seems to be a remarkable piece of craftsmanship."
Horrors! "I'm sorry, Elizabeth. The golden torc bears a weight of religious symbolism among us. We wear it as long as we live."
"I think I understand." She began to smile.
PROBE.
Elizabeth laughed aloud. Now you must apologize Creyn!
Chagrin unease. Regrets Elizabeth. You will take some getting used to.
She turned away. "What will become of me?"
"You'll go to our capital city, rich Muriah on the White Silver Plain. It lies in the south of this Many-Colored Land. We'll have a wonderful welcome for you there among the Tanu, Elizabeth."
She spun around and met his eyes. "Those that you rule. Will they welcome me, too?"
Caution. "They will love you as they love us. Try to suspend judgement on us until you have all of the data. I know that there are aspects of your situation that trouble you now. But have patience. You are in no danger."
"What happens to my friends? The people who came through the time-portal with me?"
"Some of them will be coming to the capital. Others have already indicated that they prefer to go elsewhere. We'll find good places for all of them. They'll be happy."
Happy ruled? Unfree?
"We do rule, Elizabeth, but kindly. You'll see. Don't judge until you see what we've done with this world. It was nothing, and we've transformed it, just this little corner, into something marvelous."
It was too much . . . her head began to throb again and vertigo came. She dropped back into the soft cushions of the bench. "Where, where did you come from? I know every sentient race in our Milieu six million years into the future, coadunate and non. There is no people resembling you, except for humans. And I'm certain you're not of our genus. Your mental pattern is different."
Differences similarities parallels star whirlpools in countless numbers to the uttermost limit.
"I see. No one in my future time has managed intergalactic travel. We have not yet been able to supersede the pain barrier of the necessary translation. It rises geometrically with the increase in distance."
Mitigant.
"How interesting. If it were only possible to transmit information about that back through the portal."
"We can discuss this later, Elizabeth. In the capital. There are other possibilities even more intriguing that will be made clear to you in Muriah." Distraction. He fingered his gold necklet and at once there was a tapping on the door. A nervous little man in blue stepped into the room and saluted Creyn by placing his fingers to his forehead. The Tanu gave a regal gesture of acknowledgement.
"Elizabeth, this is Tully, one of our trusted interviewers. He's been talking to your companions, discussing their plans for the future and answering their questions."
"Have all of them recovered from the passage?" she asked. "I'd like to see them. Talk to them."
"In good time, Lady," said Tully. "All of your friends are safe and in good hands. You mustn't worry. Some of them will be going south with you, while others have chosen to travel to another city in the north. They feel their talents will be appreciated more up there. You'll be interested to know that caravans will be leaving here this very evening, going in both directions."
"I see." But did she? Her thoughts were muddled again. She threw a tentative query at Creyn, which he parried neatly.
Trust in me Elizabeth. All will be well.
She turned back to the little interviewer. "I want to be sure of saying goodbye to those of my friends who are going north."
"Certainly, Lady. It will be arranged." The little man put a hand to his necklet and Elizabeth looked at it closely. It seemed identical to the one worn by Creyn except for the dark color of the metal.
Creyn. I want to put this one to the question.
Disdain. He is under our protection. Would you distress him in premature attempts to satisfy curiosity? Questioning would distress him very much. Perhaps permanent harm. He has little data. But do as you wish with him.
"Thank you for telling me about my friends, Tully," she said in a gentle tone.
The man in b
lue looked relieved. "Then I'll just run along to the next interview, shall I? I imagine Lord Creyn has already answered all of your questions about, um, generalmatters."
"Not quite all." She reached for pitcher and glass and poured some of the cold drink. "But I expect he will, in time."
Chapter Four
No sooner had the blue-clad interrogator left the room than Aiken Drum was testing the wooden door, discovering that it was locked, and doing something about it.
He used the tough glassy needle of a leatherworking fid to probe the slot where the brass latch bar came through until he was able to lift a concealed pawl that was preventing the notched bar from moving. Opening the door carefully, he saw the device on the other side that activated the locking mechanism. A tiny stone from the floor served to jam it.
He pulled the door shut and went creeping down the hallway, passing other closed rooms where he assumed his comrades from Group Green were incarcerated. He wouldn't let them out yet; not until he looked things over to see how he might take advantage of this strange situation. There was something powerful as well as peculiar at work here in the Pliocene, and it was obvious that it would take more than the simple-minded schemes of Stein and Richard to con the local yokels.
. . . Look out!
He darted into one of the deep window bays that overlooked the castle's inner courtyard. Whipping out his chameleon poncho, he hunkered down in the shadows and tried to blend inconspicuously into the stone floor.
Four sturdy guardians, led by a man in blue, went dashing down the corridor in the direction from which Aiken had come. They never looked in his direction and in a moment the reason became apparent.
There was a roar of rage in the distance and a muffled crash. Heavy blows began to ring against the inner side of one of the reception room doors. Aiken peered from his alcove in time to see the group of castle lackeys cringe away from the first door at the head of the stairway. Even from his viewpoint more than ten meters away, Aiken could see the slabs of thick oak tremble from the force of rhythmic smashes.
The guardian in blue paused outside the door and fingered his torc in an agony of apprehension. The four other men gaped as their leader screeched, "You let him keep the iron axe? You stupid turdsl"
"But, Master Tully, we put enough soporific in his beer to stun a mastodon!"
"But not enough to even slow down this Viking maniac, that's obvious!" Tully hissed. The door vibrated with a particularly mighty blow and the point of Stein's axe blade showed momentarily through broken wood before it was pulled back. "He'll be out of there in minutes! Salim, run for Lord Creyn. We'll need a very large gray torc. Alert Castellan Pitkin and the security squad, too. Kelolo, bring more guardians with a net. And tell Fritz to close the portcullis in case he gets away down the stairway. Hurry! If we can net this bastard as he breaks through we might just salvage this crock of shit!"
The two guardians raced off in-opposite directions. Aiken shrank back into the shadows. Good old Steinie. Somehow he'd seen through the facade of phony goodwill and decided to take direct action. Drugged beer! Good God, suppose the coffee had been doped, too? He hadn't taken more than half a cup though. And he'd tried to play the game their way when Tully interviewed him. He felt certain he had put himself over as a potentially useful but harmless little clown-handyman. Maybe they only drugged the big, dangerous-looking types.
"Hurry, hurry, hurry up, you fools!" Tully wailed. "He's breaking out!"
This time Aiken didn't dare look. But he heard a triumphant bellow and a squawk of splintering wood.
"I'll teach you to lock me in!" Stein's voice called out "Wait till I get my hands on that little white-bellied prick who juiced my beer! Yah! Yah! Yah!"
A very tall figure dressed in scarlet and white went striding past Aiken's refuge, trailed by a jangling squad of warriors, all human, wearing domed kettle-helmets and heavy coats of yellowish scale-armor.
"Lord Creyn!" came Tully's voice. "I've sent for the net and more men . . . Oh, thank Tana! They're here!"
Lying flat on the floor under the poncho, Aiken wormed over the stones until he had a good view down the corridor. Stein, yelling with each blow of the axe, had enlarged the hole in the door until it was nearly large enough to permit his escape. The people from the castle had regained their discipline with the coming of Creyn and stood waiting.
Six armored men had a strong net deployed on the floor. Two more soldiers poised on either side of the disintegrating door with dubs as thick as a man's arm and studded with rounded metal knobs. The unarmed guardians fell back in a protective line before the towering form of Creyn.
"Hee-yah" cried Stein, kicking the last obstructing pieces of oak from the opening. His horned Viking helmet popped out for an eye-blink and then withdrew for the charge.
He emerged with a leap that carried him nearly to the opposite side of the broad corridor, beyond reach of the net and into the midst of the guardians gathered about their awesome master. Men in white flung themselves at the berserker with despairing screams. Stein hewed at them, both hands swinging the battle-axe in short vicious arcs that sheared through flesh and bone and sent pathetic severed things bouncing from walls and along the floor, fountaining crimson as they rolled. The armored soldiers clubbed at him without effect and tried to seize his arms while he kept chopping at the barrier of living and dead men separating him from Creyn. In some way, Stein knew very well who his principal enemy was.
"I'll get you!" the Viking roared.
Creyn's robes showed scarcely any white now. He stood impassively against the wall, fingering the golden ring about his throat. One soldier finally snatched the horned helmet from Stein's head while another swung a club, catching the giant at the back of the neck with a force that would have crushed the bones of a less heroic vertebral column. For three long seconds, the Viking stood like a grotesque statue, his axe raised within easy striking distance of Creyn's head. Then Stein's fingers loosened. The weapon went tumbling down behind his back. His knees bent slowly and his head fell onto his breast as the net was belatedly flung over him.
One of the warriors drew a short bronze sword and rushed forward, eyes glittering. Before he could strike, he halted as though paralyzed. Another soldier pried the blade from his hand.
"No one is to harm this one," the Tanu overlord said. He moved through the shambles until he could look down upon Stein's unconscious body. Kneeling on the gory flags, Creyn held out his hand for the short sword and used it to cut the meshes covering Stein's head. Then he took a gray metal torc from a large pouch at his belt and fitted it about the fallen rock driller's neck.
"He is harmless now. You may remove the net. Take him to a fresh reception room and clean him up so that I may treat his wounds. He'll be most welcome in the capital."
Rising, Creyn beckoned for a pair of soldiers to accompany him. All three of them made bloody footprints as they walked toward Aiken's hiding place, slowed, and stopped.
"Come out," Creyn said.
"Oh, well!" Aiken gave him a grin as he scrambled to his feet. He flourished his hat in a mock salute and bowed from the waist. Before he realized what was happening, Creyn bent down and snapped something around his neck.
Oh, Christ, Aiken thought. Not me, too!
You are a completely different breed of cat, Aiken Drum, and bound for more sophisticated amusements than your muscular friend.
Aiken craned his head to look into the wintry eyes far above him. The Tanu's hair that had been so sleek and shining was clotted now with the blood of men who had died defending him, died unwillingly, from the sound of their hopeless screams, freed from the symbol and source of their bondage only at the moment that Stein's blade severed their heads from their bodies.
"I suppose you can do what you like with us once you've put on these fewkin' dog collars," Aiken said bitterly, touching the thing about his own throat. It was warm. For one fraction of a second he felt a flash of pleasure born in his loins go racing along his nerves like lightnin
g through wires before it exited his body through tingling fingers and toes.
What the hell!
Did you like that? It's only a sample of what we can give you. But our greatest gift will be the fulfillment of your own potential, freeing you even as you serve us.
The way these poor sods served? Headless trunks piled limbs awash in blood?
Amusement. Your own torc is silver and not gray. As befits a latent metapsychic made operant. You're going to enjoy the Pliocene very much, my lad.
"Well, I'll be damned!" Aiken exclaimed aloud. Delight, Delight. DELIGHT! "How many of the functions am I strong in?"
Find out for yourself.
A built-in master control mechanism in the collar for you guys I presume.
What do you think?
Aiken gave a crooked grin. "Better than gray, less than gold. Tell you what. I'll take it!" He folded his poncho carefully and stowed it back into his lumbar pouch. "What next, Chief?"
"We'll let you wait in a fresh reception room for now. One with a more effective lock. In a few hours, you'll be leaving for our capital city, Muriah. Don't be apprehensive. Life here in Exile can be very pleasant."
As long as I know who's boss? Afirm.
The guards hustled Aiken Drum through a door. He called over his shoulder, "Have, one of your flunkies bring me a good stiff drink, will you, Chief? All this fighting raises a terrible thirst in a man."