The 35th Golden Age of Science Fiction: Keith Laumer

by Keith Laumer

  I felt better in the clean trappings of tough leather and steel. Torbu led the way and fifteen bodyguards followed, like a herd of trolls. There were few palace servants out at this hour; those who saw us gaped from a safe distance and went on about their business. We crossed the empty Audience Hall, climbed a wide staircase, went along a spacious corridor hung with rich brocades and carpeted in deep-pile silk, with soft lights glowing around ornate doors.

  We stopped before a great double door. Two guards in dress purple sauntered over to see what it was all about. Torbu clued them in. They hesitated, looked us over.…

  “We’re goin’ in, rookie,” said Torbu. “Open up.” They did.

  I pushed past Torbu into a room whose splendor made Gope’s state apartment look like a four-dollar motel. Bright Cintelight streamed through tall windows, showed me a wide bed and somebody in it. I went to it, grabbed the bedclothes, and hauled them off onto the floor. Owner Qohey sat up slowly—seven feet of muscle. He looked at me, glanced past me to the foremost of my escort.…

  He was out of the bed like a tiger, coming straight for me. There was no time to fumble with the sword. I went to meet him, threw all my weight into a right haymaker and felt it connect. I plunged past, whirled.

  Qohey was staggering…but still on his feet. I had hit him with everything I had, nearly broken my fist…and he was still standing. I couldn’t let him rest. I was after him, slammed a hard punch to the kidneys, caught him across the jaw as he turned, drove a left and right into his stomach—

  A girder fell from the top of the Golden Gate Bridge and shattered every bone in my body. There was a booming like heavy surf, and I was floating in it, dead. Then I was in Hell, being prodded by red-hot tridents.… I blinked my eyes. The roaring was fading now. I saw Qohey, leaning against the foot of the bed, breathing heavily. I had to get him.

  I got my feet under me, stood up. My chest was caved in and my left arm belonged to somebody else. Okay; I still had my right. I made it over to Qohey, maneuvered into position. He didn’t look at me; he seemed to be having trouble breathing; those gut punches had gotten to him. I picked a spot just behind the right ear, reared back, and threw a trip-hammer punch with my shoulder and legs behind it. I felt the jaw go. Qohey jumped the footboard and piled onto the floor like a hundred-car freight hitting an open switch. I sat down on the edge of the bed and sucked in air and tried to ignore the whirling lights that were closing in.

  After awhile I noticed Torbu standing in front of me with the cat under one arm. Both of them were grinning at me. “Any orders, Owner Drgon?”

  I found my voice. “Wake him up and prop him in a chair. I want to talk to him.”

  Ex-Owner Qohey didn’t much like the idea but after Torbu and a couple of other strong-arm lads had explained the situation to him in sign language he decided to cooperate.

  “Get off his head, Mull,” Torbu said. “And untwist that rope, Blon. Owner Drgon wants him in a conversational mood. You guys are gonna make him feel self-conscious.”

  I had been feeling over my ribs, trying to count how many were broken and how many just bent. Qohey’s punch was a lot like the kick of a two-ton ostrich. He was looking at me now, eyes wild.

  “Qohey, I want to ask you a few questions. If I don’t like the answers, I’ll see if I can’t find quarters for you in the basement annex. I just left a cozy room there myself. There’s no view to speak of but it’s peaceful.”

  Qohey grunted something. He was having trouble talking around his broken jaw.

  “The fellow in black,” I said, “the one who claimed your place as Owner. You netted him and had your bully boys haul him off somewhere. I want to know where.”

  Qohey grunted again.

  “Hit him, Torbu,” I said. “It will help his enunciation.” Torbu kicked the former Owner in the shin. Qohey jumped and glowered at him.

  “Call off your dogs,” he mumbled. “You’ll not find the upstart you seek here.”

  “Why not?”

  “I sent him away.”

  “Where?”

  “To that place from which you and your turncoat crew will never fetch him back.”

  “Be more specific.”

  Qohey spat.

  “Torbu didn’t much like that crack about turncoats,” I said. “He’s eager to show you how little. I advise you to talk fast and plain, before you lose a whole raft of lives.”

  “Even these swine would never dare—” I took out the needle-pointed knife I was wearing as part of my get-up. I put the point against Qohey’s throat and pushed gently until a trickle of crimson ran down the thick neck.

  “Talk,” I said quietly, “or I’ll cut your throat myself.”

  Qohey had shrunk back as far as he could in the heavy chair.

  “Seek him then, assassin,” he sneered. “Seek him in the dungeons of the Owner of Owners.”

  “Keep talking,” I prompted.

  “The Great Owner commanded that the slave be brought to him…at the Palace of Sapphires by the Shallow Sea.”

  “Has this Owners’ Owner got a name? How’d he hear about him?”

  “Lord Ommodurad,” Qohey’s voice grated out. He was watching Torbu’s foot. “There was that about the person of the stranger that led me to inform him.”

  “When did he go?”

  “Yesterday.”

  “You know this Sapphire Palace, Torbu?”

  “Sure,” he answered. “But the place is tabu; it’s crawlin’ with demons and warlocks. The word is, there’s a curse on the—”

  “Then I’ll go in alone,” I said. I put the knife away. “But first I’ve got a call to make at the spaceport at Okk-Hamiloth.”

  “Sure, Owner Drgon. The port’s easy. Some say it’s kind of haunted too but that’s just a gag; the Greymen hang out there.”

  “We can take care of the Greymen,” I said. “Get fifty of your best men together and line up some aircars. I want the outfit ready to move out in half an hour.”

  “What about this chiseler?” asked Torbu.

  “Seal him up until I get back. If I don’t make it, I know he’ll understand.”

  CHAPTER XVII

  It was not quite dawn when my task force settled down on the smooth landing pad beside the lifeboat that had brought me to Vallon. It stood as I had left it seven earth-months before: the port open, the access ladder extended, the interior lights lit. There weren’t any spooks aboard but they had kept visitors away as effectively as if there had been. Even the Greymen didn’t mess with ghost-boats. Somebody had done a thorough job of indoctrination on Vallon.

  “You ain’t gonna go inside that accursed vessel, are you, Owner Drgon?” asked Torbu, making his cabalistic sign in the air. “It’s manned by gobblins—”

  “That’s just propaganda. Where my cat can go, I can go. Look.”

  Itzenca scampered up the ladder, and had disappeared inside the boat by the time I took the first rung. The guards gawked from below as I stepped into the softly lit lounge. The black-and-gold cylinder that was Foster’s memory lay in the bag I had packed and left behind, months before; with it was the other, plain one: Ammaerln’s memory. Somewhere in Okk-Hamiloth must be the machine that would give these meaning. Together Foster and I would find it.

  I found the .38 automatic lying where I had left it. I picked up the worn belt, strapped it around me. My Vallonian career to date suggested it would be a bright idea to bring it along. The Vallonians had never developed any personal armament to equal it. In a society of immortals knives were considered lethal enough for all ordinary purposes.

  “Come on, cat,” I said. “There’s nothing more here we need.”

  Back on the ramp I beckoned my platoon leaders over.

  “I’m going to the Sapphire Palace,” I said. “Anybody that doesn’t want to go can check out now. Pass the word.”

&nbs
p; Torbu stood silent for a long moment, staring straight ahead.

  “I don’t like it much, Owner,” he said. “But I’ll go. And so will the rest of ’em.”

  “There’ll be no backing out, once we shove off,” I said. “And by the way—” I jacked a round into the chamber of the pistol, raised it, and fired the shot into the air. They all jumped. “If you ever hear that sound, come a-running.”

  The men nodded, turned to their cars. I picked up the cat and piled into the lead vehicle next to Torbu.

  “It’s a half-hour run,” he said. “We might run into a little Greyman action on the way. We can handle ’em.”

  We lifted, swung to the east, barrelled along at low altitude.

  “What do we do when we get there, boss?” said Torbu.

  “We play it by ear. Let’s see how far we can get on pure gall before Ommodurad drops the hanky.”

  * * * *

  The palace lay below us, rearing blue towers to the twilit sky like a royal residence in the Munchkin country. Beyond it, sunset colors reflected from the silky surface of the Shallow Sea. The timeless stones and still waters looked much as they had when Foster set out to lose his identity on earth, three thousand years before. But its magnificence was lost on these people. The hulking crew around me never paused to wonder about the marvels wrought by their immortal ancestors—themselves. Stolidly, they lived their feudal lives in dismal contrast with the monuments all about them.

  I turned to my cohort of hoodlums. “You boys claim it’s the demons and warlocks that keep the whole of Vallon at arm’s length from this place. In that case there’s no protocol for a new Owner’s reception at the Blue Palace. A guy with a little luck and even less of a memory than usual could skip the goblins and play it good-natured but dumb: show up at the Palace grounds, out of common politeness to the Top Dog, to pay his respects. Anything wrong with that?”

  “What if they rush us first…before we got time to go into the act?” said somebody in the mob.

  “That’s where the luck comes in,” I said. “Anybody else?”

  Torbu looked around at his henchmen. There was some shrugging of shoulders, a few grunts. He looked at me. “You do the figurin’, Owner,” he said. “The boys will back your play.”

  We were dropping toward the wide lawns now and still no opposition showed itself. Then the towering blue spires were looming over us, and we saw men forming up behind the blue-stained steel gates of the Great Pavilion.

  “A reception committee,” I said. “Hold tight, fellas. Don’t start anything. The further in we get peaceably, the less that leaves to do the hard way.”

  The cars settled down gently, well-grouped, and Torbu and I climbed out. As quickly as the other boats disgorged their men, ranks were closed, and we moved off toward the gates. Itzenca, as mascot, brought up the rear. Still no excitement, no rush by the Palace guards. Had too many centuries of calm made them lackadaisical, or did Ommodurad use a brand of visitor-repellent we couldn’t see from here?

  We made it to the gate…and it opened.

  “In we go,” I said, “but be ready.…”

  The uniformed men inside the compound, obviously chosen for their beef content, kept their distance, looked at us questioningly. We pulled up on a broad blue-paved drive and waited for the next move. About now somebody should stride up to us and offer the key to the city—or something. But there seemed to be a hitch. It was understandable. After all there hadn’t been any callers dropping cards here for about 2900 years.

  It was a long five minutes before a hard case in a beetle-backed carapace of armor and a puffy pink cape bustled down the palace steps and came up to us.

  “Who comes in force to the Sapphire Palace?” he demanded, glancing past me at my team-mates.

  “I’m Owner Drgon, fellow,” I barked. “These are my honor guard. What provincial welcome is this, from the Great Owner to a loyal liege-man?”

  That punctured his pomposity a little. He apologized—in a half-hearted way—mumbled something about arrangements, and beckoned over a couple of side-men. One of them came over and spoke to Torbu, who looked my way, hand on dagger hilt.

  “What’s this?” I said. “Where I go, my men go.”

  “There is the matter of caste,” said my pink-caped greeter. “Packs of retainers are not ushered en masse into the presence of Lord Ommodurad, Owner of Owners.”

  I thought that one over and failed to come up with a plausible loophole.

  “Okay, Torbu,” I said. “Keep the boys together and behave yourselves. I’ll see you in an hour. Oh, and see that Itzenca gets made comfy.”

  The beetle man snapped a few orders, then waved me toward the palace with the slightest bow I ever saw. A six-man guard kept me company up the steps and into the Great Pavilion.

  I guess I expected the usual velvet-draped audience chamber or barbarically splendid Hall, complete with pipers, fools, and ceremonial guards. What I got was an office, about sixteen by eighteen, blue-carpeted and tasteful…but bare-looking. I stopped in front of a block of blue-veined grey marble with a couple of quill pens in a crystal holder and, underneath, leg room for a behemoth, who was sitting behind the desk.

  He got to his feet with all the ponderous mass of Nero Wolfe but a lot more agility and grace. “You wish?” he rumbled.

  “I’m Owner Drgon, ah…Great Owner,” I said. I’d planned to give my host the friendly-but-dumb routine. I was going to find the second part of the act easy. There was something about Ommodurad that made me feel like a mouse who’d just changed his mind about the cheese. Qohey had been big, but this guy could crush skulls as most men pinch peanut hulls, and in his eyes was the kind of remote look that came of three millenia of not even having to mention the power he asserted.

  “You ignore superstition,” observed the Big Owner. He didn’t waste many words, it seemed. Gope had said he was the silent type. It wasn’t a bad lead; I decided to follow it.

  “Don’t believe in ’em,” I said.

  “To your business then,” he continued. “Why?”

  “Just been chosen Owner at Bar-Ponderone,” I said. “Felt it was only fitting that I come and do obeisance before Your Grace.”

  “That expression is not used.”

  “Oh.” This fellow had a disconcerting way of not getting sucked in. “Lord Ommodurad?”

  He nodded just perceptibly, then turned to the foremost of the herd who had brought me in. “Quarters for the guest and his retinue.” His eyes had already withdrawn, like the head of a Galapagos turtle into its enormous shell, in contemplation of eternal verities. I piped up again.

  “Ah, pardon me.…” The piercing stare of Ommodurad’s eyes was on me again. “There was a friend of mine—,” I gulped, “swell guy, but impulsive. It seems he challenged the former Owner of Bar-Ponderone.…”

  Ommodurad did no more than twitch an eyebrow but suddenly the air was electric. His stare didn’t waver by a millimeter but the lazy slouch of the six guards had altered to sprung steel. They hadn’t moved but I felt them now all around me and not a foot away. I had a sinking feeling that I’d gone too far.

  “—so I thought maybe I’d crave Your Excellency’s help, if possible, to locate my pal,” I finished weakly. For an interminable minute the Owner of Owners bored into me with his eyes. Then he raised a finger a quarter of an inch. The guards relaxed.

  “Quarters for the guest and his retinue,” repeated Ommodurad. He withdrew then…without moving. I was dismissed.

  I went quietly, attended by my hulking escort.

  I tried hard not to let my expression show any excitement, but I was feeling plenty.

  Ommodurad was close-mouthed for a reason. I was willing to bet that he had his memories of the Good Time intact.

  Instead of the debased modern dialect that I’d heard everywhere since my arrival, Ommodurad spoke flawless Old Vall
onian.

  * * * *

  It was 27 o’clock and the Palace of Sapphires was silent. I was alone in the ornate bed chamber the Great Owner had assigned me. It was a nice room but I wouldn’t learn anything staying in it. Nobody had said I was confined to quarters. I’d do a little scouting and see what I could pick up, if anything. I slung on the holster and .38 and slid out of the darkened chamber into the scarcely lighter corridor beyond. I saw a guard at the far end; he ignored me. I headed in the opposite direction.

  None of the rooms was locked. There was no arsenal at the Palace and no archives that lesser folk than the Great Owner could use with profit. Everything was easy of access. I guessed that Ommodurad rightly counted on indifference to keep snoopers away. Here and there guards eyed me as I passed along but they said nothing.

  I saw again by Cintelight the office where Ommodurad had received me, and near it an ostentatious hall with black onyx floor and ceiling, gold hangings, and ceremonial ringboard. But the center of attraction was the familiar motif of the concentric circles of the Two Worlds, sketched in beaten gold across the broad wall of black marble behind the throne. Here the idea had been elaborated on. Outward from both the inner and outer circles flamed the waving lines of a sunburst. At dead center, a boss, like a sword hilt in form, chased in black and gold, erupted a foot from the wall. It was the first time I’d seen the symbol since I’d arrived on Vallon. I found it strangely exciting—like a footprint in the sand.

  I went on, toured the laundry and inspected pantries large and small and caught a whiff of stables. The palace was asleep; few of its occupants noticed me, and those who did hung back, silent. It looked as if the Great Owner had given orders to let me roam freely. Somehow I didn’t find that comforting.

  Then I came into a purple-vaulted hall and saw a squad of guards, the same six who’d kept me such close company earlier in the day. They were drawn up at parade rest, three on each side of a massive ivory door. Somebody lived in safety and splendor on the other side.