Future Indefinite (Round Three of The Great Game)

by Dave Duncan

  As the sky began to brighten toward a chilly dawn, Alice trudged wearily back into the grove. The fires had gone out, the landscape looked as if a plague of Brobdingnagian locusts had slept in it. Not many people had. Now they were returning, as she was, broken and bewildered. Exhausted children clung to their parents and wept. Lost children howled in terror for theirs. Adults prowled the ruins in search of scraps left over from the feast.

  Someone was trying to restore order, though. Tracking down the shouts, she found a shield-bearer, but it was Kilpian Drover, who knew no English. She could just make out enough of his words to understand that he was trying to collect all the Niolians.

  Farther up the hill, Ursula Newton was bellowing for Joalians, Lemodians, and Nagians. There was nothing wrong with her voice, but her eyes were red-rimmed pits, her hair a briar patch, and she obviously had not slept. She paused, leaning on her pole and staring blearily at Alice.

  "You heard what happened?"

  "I heard. Can any boat survive in that torrent?” That was the first danger—that the fates had made a mockery of human ambitions once again and the Liberator was floating facedown in some weedy backwater, his mission forever incomplete. (But mana should have taken care of that danger, shouldn't it?)

  Ursula pulled a face that declined comment. Then she seemed to change her mind. “It's possible. That river's flowing forty miles an hour or I'm a Dutchman. He could have reached Tharg hours ago."

  "So what are you doing?"

  Another pout. “I'm carrying out the last orders he gave me. I'm to lead the exodus to Joalia. Can't leave the kiddies here for the Thargians."

  Alice looked over the group Ursula had collected so far and concluded that she might be several hundred short, although who knew how many Joalians had come to join the crusade? “Will they let you go?"

  "Can't know till we try. Excuse me.” She started shouting at a group of men, gesturing vigorously with her pole. They nodded reluctantly and moved off, separating and starting to shout in their turn. “Bid'lip and Gastik are taking the Niolians. Don't know who else is doing what the hell else.” She thumped the end of her pole at a helpless rock a few times. “Shite, what a mess! I hope those ambassadors come through with the rations they promised."

  "And that the Thargians cooperate too. Who's staying here?"

  "Don't know. I imagine Eleal Highpriestess will be wanting to put her temple in order. Don't know if the Thargians will allow that either, of course."

  Alice rubbed her eyes and thought about it. “That will probably depend on what happens when Edward gets to Tharg, won't it? Once he's killed Zath, he won't have to tolerate backtalk from the ephors."

  Ursula responded with long bellows of, “Joalians! Here, Joalians!” like a bull elk summoning his harem. She resumed the conversation in her normal voice, eying Alice pensively. “You really think he's still alive?"

  "I'll believe it until I know he's dead."

  Mrs. Newton pursed her lips skeptically. She was a hard-headed, practical woman, not given to wishful thinking. Julian detested her for some reason he would not discuss, but she would do as good a job as anyone could in shepherding a few thousand pilgrims back to their homes.

  She said scornfully, “With the mana he had, the Thargians should never have been able to ambush him, you know. And certainly not overpower him. Doesn't that suggest that it was Zath's doing?"

  "Why abduct him? Why not just kill him and leave his body for the Free to find?"

  "I don't know.” Ursula sighed. “Because Zath wants a public execution in Tharg, perhaps. It'll take a few days for them to get back with the news."

  Ah! “Someone did go?"

  She nodded absently. “I heard Doggan, Tielan, and Julian. Possibly Dommi. They may have had a few others with them, I don't know. They found a boat farther upstream. Shouted to someone as they went by."

  Alice's knees trembled with weariness. If she didn't sit down soon she would fall down. She compromised by leaning against a tree.

  "That doesn't sound like enough people to stage a rescue, and I don't imagine Edward needs rescuing anyway. I mean, if he overcomes Zath and gets all his mana—that is what's going to happen, isn't it?"

  Ursula was peering around as if to spy out ill-intentioned Joalians hiding in the bushes. “I don't think rescue was uppermost in their minds. They wanted to catch that scummy, yellow-haired Tinkerfolk pervert and knot his guts round his throat."

  "What? You mean Dosh?"

  "Dosh! Dosh the Betrayer! He turned Exeter over to the Thargians—didn't you know that? Well he did! And if I ever get my hands on him, he'll rue the day he was born, I'll tell you. Where are you going? You want to go Home? There's a portal over in Thovale we know the key for."

  Alice shook her head. “Not until I find out what happened. Are you quite sure Dosh...” The look in Ursula's eye was answer enough. But it still seemed incredible. “Edward valued Dosh very highly. He put him in charge of the money, remember."

  "Christ trusted his to Judas!"

  "Hell! So he did.” Alice felt very, very weary. “Think I'll go up to the temple and help the bishop with the housework. If I don't ever see you again..."

  They made a subdued farewell. Leaving Ursula Newton to her bull moose impressions, Alice dragged herself up the hill on aching feet.

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  60

  The soldiers had apparently been launching the boat stern first, because Dosh found himself in a pointed end, which he assumed was the bow. He huddled down on the thwart and hoped to be forgotten and overlooked—not an unreasonable ambition, for the helmsman would be fully occupied in trying to steer by moonlight and the four oarsmen must face the rear. His first thought was to pull off his wet boots and massage some life back into his toes, but he discovered he needed both hands just to hold on. Even then, the boat rocked and pitched so violently that he was hard put to stay on his seat. Besides, there was bilge slopping around already, so he might as well keep his boots on. Then something hit the side with a shuddering crash and the sergeant screeched something in Thargian.

  Dosh realized it was intended for him. He also realized that the other four were not rowing, they were frantically fending off logs, ice, and other debris, using the oars as poles. Both ends of the boat were pointed; he was at the stern. A shower of spray half blinded him. The thwart tried to buck him overboard.

  "Speak slowly!” he said and repeated it in Lemodian, which he had learned in bed from Anguan, four years ago.

  One of the sweating troopers knew enough Lemodian to swear in it vividly. He concluded his invective with, “You want us to sink?"

  Dosh turned his attention to the river. It was a ghastly heaving soup pot of black water, surging in glistening waves, frothing and juggling tree trunks, many of which were bigger than the boat, some still furnished with branches and roots. Uphill one minute, downhill the next. They wanted a lookout? No. When a trooper kicked a wooden bucket at him, he realized they wanted him to bail. He should have known not to expect charity from Thargians.

  He reached for the bucket and promptly tipped headlong into the bilge and a melee of struggling men. Spluttering and cursing he sat up, edged back out of the crew's way, and began to bail.

  He bailed until his arms were ready to fall out of their sockets, until the night became a nightmare of bailing. The ancient cockleshell sprang more leaks with every impact. Bilge surged back and forth, drenching him. One moment he was half afloat, the next he thudded down on the boards again, and then another wave would throw him over backward against the thwart.

  Mestwater flowed into Saltorwater which flowed into Mid'lwater which flowed into Thargwater, spreading out to a great width, drowning fields and forests. The current seemed just as fast, if a little smoother. Collisions became less frequent—fortunately so, because the little craft was steadily settling lower in the water. The troopers began using their oars more for rowing and less for fending, struggling to keep the waterlogged boat in the main cha
nnel, away from the half-submerged trees and fences that marked its normal banks.

  Dosh's cramped muscles moved more and more slowly. The bilge grew deeper, tipping the boat as it surged. Eventually one of the Thargians snatched the bucket away from him and started throwing water overboard at three times the rate Dosh had been managing. He hauled himself up on the thwart out of the way and curled into a knot to try and get warm.

  The first light of morning was brightening the sky now, but a mist was rising from the river. A bridge came hurtling out of the fog. The sergeant screamed orders. Oars creaked in the oarlocks. The boat wallowed sideways, straightened, and hurtled between two piers on a long spout of water. The underside of the bridge shot over their heads with inches to spare, and they plunged down into foam. For minutes it seemed they must founder. Dosh clung to the gunwale to avoid being washed overboard. Then the man with the bucket gained on the flood and the boat was still floating. Another man took over the bailing.

  Soaked and shivering, Dosh peered out at the ghostly fog and wondered about escape. The troopers were shouting and pointing, identifying landmarks. Obviously they were very close to Tharg itself now, but they were also very close to sinking. If they decided to lighten the boat, Dosh knew what they would throw overboard first. The water was running very close to the top of a levee, well above the countryside beyond. Vague shapes of trees and buildings loomed out of the murk and then vanished again.

  The troopers were as exhausted as he was. The sergeant's yells grew louder and more urgent. The two men still rowing strained to obey and the helmsman leaned on a third oar, but their efforts had no effect. The irresistible river swept them straight for a levee—steep, muddy, and partially undercut, so that great trees had canted outward and overhung the water or floated in it like booms, still anchored by a few roots. The boat struck just upstream, stabbing into the mud, tipping perilously. The current spun the stern around into a tangle of branches and twigs, slapping and cracking over them. The Thargians threw themselves flat. As the boat began to pick up speed again, Dosh saw a thick trunk across his path and stood up.

  The impact winded him, doubling him over. He scrabbled with frozen fingers as someone's head knocked his feet from under him. Then he was sprawled over the log and the boat had gone. His perch trembled ominously; black water raced past underneath him. He managed to get a leg up and lay there, nauseated and shivering, but safe from the Thargians.

  The tree creaked and shuddered as more roots pulled free. He worked his way in along the trunk to the bank and clambered up to a footpath. The river raced by below him, and all the rest of the world was washed away to shadows by white mist. Deathly cold had seeped into his bones and his whole body was shaking. He must keep moving or freeze. He removed his boots to get the water out of them, then found his fingers were too stiff to retie the laces properly. Letting the boots flap, he began to jog. By the time he realized that he was heading toward Tharg, he had gone too far to think of turning back.

  Besides, he probably had more chance of finding some food and shelter in the city than in the country. And there was D'ward. Unless his boat'had sunk, he was probably in Tharg now, perhaps already confronting Zath. When the prophecy was fulfilled, he might have a moment for Dosh.

  D'ward was his only hope. The Free assumed he had betrayed the Liberator. Why in the world would he ever do such a thing—for money? That was infinitely unfair, because it had been a Joalian's offer of thirty silver stars to betray the Liberator that had led Dosh to him in the first place. He hadn't taken that money, so why would he have changed his mind after all that D'ward had done for him? He must find D'ward to clear his name.

  Tired, cold, starving, he staggered on as well as he could, muttering prayers through chattering teeth. As the day brightened, the fog grew thicker not thinner. Nothing was clear or solid anymore. His repentance had brought him no better luck than his former sins.

  He met no one on the path; he seemed to inhabit a ghost world all his own. AH the friends he had cherished would be against him now; he was a traitor to the Free and a heretic to the Thargians. The track became a road, then a street. His story was repeating itself. Four years ago he had come to Tharg with the Liberator. Then the ephors had been planning to execute poor old Golbfish, thinking he was the Liberator, and D'ward had wanted to take his place on the anvil. The Man himself had stepped in to stop him throwing his life away. Golbfish had died anyway, fulfilling the prophecy: “Shame! Shame! To the Man goeth D'ward, saying, Slay me! The hammer falls and blood profanes the holy altar. Warriors, where is thine honor? Perceive thy shame."

  Now D'ward was again coming to Tharg.... Had he planned this? He might have done. He had warned Dosh of the dangers of those orders, so he must have had an idea of what was going to happen. Would Karzon interfere again? But D'ward wasn't asking to be slain this time, was he? Or was he?

  Which visit had been prophesied?

  * * * *

  Ugly, ugly city! Narrow streets, houses like fortresses with barred windows and armored doors. The fog didn't really help, it just laid a wet dreariness over everything. Cheerless, gloomy place! Very few women to be seen, just smoothfaced, grim-faced Thargian men. Every one of them bore a sword, for only slaves went unarmed. They all wore the same brief tunics they wore in summer, scorning to cover their legs. Drab, brown colors. Drab, brown city. Fog.

  Where to go? Dosh slunk from doorway to doorway, careful not to antagonize those strutting warriors, not even by meeting their eyes. He knew no one in Tharg. He did know where the Tinkerfolks’ hole was, but anyone there would likely be some of old Birfair's band, and they would cut out poor Dosh's liver before he could speak a word. He doubted he could make it that far in any case. If he did not eat soon, he would faint. If he fainted, he would be thrown in the river or slapped into a chain gang.

  "I see you made it.” Tion was dressed like a Thargian youth, but only just, because his buttercup tunic was indecently skimpy and practically unlaced, while his soft leather half boots barely covered his ankles. The rapier at his belt, in contrast, reached almost to the cobbles. The too-beautiful face wore an authentic-seeming Thargian sneer.

  Dosh leaned against a doorpost and shivered. The street rocked, wet clothing clung lankly to his skin. “Where is D'ward?"

  "He's presently standing trial for blasphemy against the beloved gods."

  "And what's going to happen next?"

  "Well, he's not being very cooperative. I'll bet he'll be acquitted if you'll give me ten million to one.” Tion simpered.

  "And then?"

  Mist swirled along the alley. The Youth moved closer, but grew no more solid. He draped an elbow against the wall and smiled down at Dosh. “You know the Thargians. A court can impose capital punishment for public farting if it wants to. They'll smash his brains out in the temple, right in front of Zath's statue."

  "You, boy!” A burly Thargian had stopped in front of Tion.

  Tion raised his classic eyebrows. “Warrior? How may I serve you?” He did not move from his languid posture against the wall.

  "Fasten that tunic! It's indecent to expose yourself like that!"

  "Oh, dear!” Tion sighed. “That is the whole idea. Do go home and disembowel yourself, Warrior."

  The Thargian saluted smartly. “At once, Warrior!” He turned and hurried back the way he had come.

  Tion shrugged. “Now, Dosh, darling, where were we?"

  "D'ward came here to kill Zath!"

  "So he did. And Zath is definitely going to die. He doesn't know it yet, but he is. Probably. He has become a serious nuisance. The problem is that D'ward is going to die too."

  "No!"

  "I'm afraid so, Dosh. It's a shame, don't you think? He's such a nice boy! But he's much too dangerous for the Pentatheon to let him live. He's too good at the Game! Why, in only four fortnights, he's managed to outmaneuver Zath himself, the greatest player of us all. Who knows what he might try next? D'ward must die, dearest!"

  "No!"

 
The sorcerer displayed a hint of interest. “No? I promised ever so faithfully that I would not try to rescue him. I should hate to break my word on that, Dosh!"

  Dosh shuddered. To trust Tion was insanity. He was total evil. He did not know what truth or fair-dealing were. “Can you rescue him?"

  "Probably not. It would be very tricky. But if I were to try ... What would it be worth to you, Dosh dear?"

  "Anything! What do you want—my soul? My body?"

  "I'll decide that later,” Tion said. “How about your life?"

  "Yes!"

  "My goodness! Love is a beautiful thing.” The sorcerer held out a slender hand.

  Dosh took it in his own, which Tion raised to his lips.

  "Well, we'll see what we can do. It certainly won't be easy. I only say I'll try, not that it'll work. Now why don't you run on up to the temple and find a good spot to watch the proceedings? Close to the altar at Zath's end would be best. Very close. The crowds are starting to move already, so you'll have to hurry."

  "You're coming?” Dosh demanded suspiciously.

  "Not just yet. It would not be wise for me to come too close yet. But I do hope to see you there, love.” A pained expression ... “Trust me, Dosh! I haven't told you a lie yet. Not recently, anyway. Off with you now!"

  History repeating ... Isn't this the same trench of a street he came along four years ago? Then, too, he was following D'ward. The crowds were thicker then, but there are crowds now—a crackle of excitement in the air, people heading for the temple ... Do they know of the Liberator, or does any public execution bring out the vultures? There is the Convent of Ursula, with the festoon of blue net over the door, unchanged. So much else has changed in four years. Here D'ward had brought Ysian. Oh, Ysian, little firecat, it was your death that roused him!

  Crowd's growing thicker, almost no women. Yes, jostle me, see if I care. Draw your swords, it hardly matters now. All this swirling fog, is it real or is poor Dosh faint? People recoiling off him in disgust because his clothes are wet. The great square, with men hurrying across it like scurrying bugs. The huge pillars of the temple, tops almost hidden in the fog, giant granite cage, ugliest building in the world.