Asimov's SF, August 2011

by Dell Magazine Authors

  "If you say so, my lord."

  "Very weary indeed. The man can go. Perhaps another time, then.” He made a gesture of dismissal.

  Stiamot was dumbfounded. To ask that Mundiveen be brought, and then to react like this, and send him away so hastily—!

  But Mundiveen did not seem troubled by the discourtesy. If anything, he appeared to be relieved to take his leave of the Coronal. Stiamot saluted and they went from the room, and, outside, Mundiveen said, “I wondered how he'd react when he saw me. Took him a moment to recognize me, I suppose. How awful he looked. By the Divine, what a haunted look there is in that man's eyes! And for good reason, let me tell you."

  "I can't begin to tell you how sorry I am that—” Stiamot paused. “He recognized you, you say? He's seen you before?"

  Acidly Mundiveen said, “I told you I was at court, in the time before he was Coronal. And for a little while afterward. You don't remember my saying that?"

  "Yes. Yes, of course. I must have forgotten it."

  "I wish I could. We go a long way back, your Coronal and I."

  Stiamot passed his hand across his forehead as though to clear it from cobwebs. “You need to tell me what this is all about."

  "I do? I need to? The same way I needed to go and see Lord Strelkimar?"

  "For the love of the Divine, Mundiveen—"

  Mundiveen let his eyes slip closed for an instant. “All right. Let's go have a bowl or two of wine, then, and I'll tell you."

  "Wine? This early in the day?"

  "Wine, Prince Stiamot. Or no story."

  "All right,” Stiamot said. “Wine."

  * * * *

  Mundiveen said, “I wasn't always twisted up like this, you know. In the days when Lord Thrykeld was Coronal I was quite an athlete, as a matter of fact. And when I was on a surveying trip I could walk miles and miles without the slightest fatigue."

  "Back when you were a mining engineer."

  "When I was a mining engineer, yes. At least you remembered that much. I was going to find the world's biggest iron mine, I thought. Not that Lord Thrykeld cared very much about that. All he cared about, really, was poetry and singing and his Ghayrog favorite. Do you know about that, the Ghayrog? Before your time, I suppose. But no matter. Thrykeld was the Coronal Lord, and I served him as loyally as you seem to serve Strelkimar, and I was going to present him with more iron than had ever been discovered before."

  Mundiveen helped himself liberally to the wine. He seemed calm, icily controlled, betraying no sign of the ferocious rage that had come over him in his first moment in the Coronal's presence. Stiamot waited, saying nothing.

  "The former Coronal, Lord Thrykeld,” Mundiveen said at last. “I suppose history will call him a great fool. You probably know very little about him."

  "Not much, really,” said Stiamot. “Only the standard information."

  "Then you must think he was a great fool. Most people do. Well, probably he was. But he was a gentle, sweet man, with a considerable gift for poetry and music. The people loved him. Everyone loved him. You must have loved him yourself, when you were a boy. But in the third or fourth year of his reign something began to change in him. There was this Ghayrog at court, a certain Valdakko, some sort of conjurer, I think. The Coronal spent more and more time with him, and then he brought him into the Council. Well, that was a little unusual, a Ghayrog in the Council. There never had been one before. They have equality under the law, of course, but they are reptilian, you know. Their metabolisms aren't like ours and neither are their minds. Thrykeld's cousin Strelkimar was High Counsellor then, and I can tell you, he wasn't pleased when the Coronal began to jump this Valdakko up like that. He took it as well as anyone could, though. But when Thrykeld decided that he wanted the Ghayrog to be High Counsellor in Strelkimar's place, things got, shall we say, a little tense."

  "I heard about that,” Stiamot said. “The Ghayrog as High Counsellor."

  Mundiveen had finished his first bowl of wine, though Stiamot had had only a few sips of his. He went to work on a second one, savoring the wine, pondering it, seemingly lost in recollection of a far-off time. At length he began to speak again. “Strelkimar was very diplomatic about it all, at least outwardly. He behaved as though his cousin was just going through a phase. He loved Thrykeld, you know—as I said, we all loved him; a kind, good man—but gradually it became clear that the Coronal had become unstable, was slipping over, in fact, into a kind of megalomania."

  Mundiveen went on to describe how, urged on by his Ghayrog counsellor, Lord Thrykeld had promulgated a law giving him the power to annul any previous statute without consent of the Council. This was absolutism; it was something entirely new in the history of the world. Strelkimar and a few of the other counsellors then made their objections known, objected very strongly, Mundiveen said, and Thrykeld—a Thrykeld none of them had ever known before—retaliated immediately, dismissing the entire Council except for the Ghayrog. He intended to rule, he announced, by personal decree.

  "Strelkimar confronted him on that, of course,” Mundiveen said. “Thrykeld flew into a rage. No one had ever seen him even mildly angry before. He ordered Strelkimar banished to Suvrael and all his possessions confiscated."

  Astounded, Stiamot said, “I never heard a thing about that. It was never made public, was it?"

  "Of course not. No one beyond the Council ever knew anything about it. Except me."

  "You weren't a Council member."

  "No. But I was very close to the Coronal. To his cousin, too. And I was stupid enough to try to intervene in the crisis. I got between them: I told Lord Thrykeld that it was very dangerous to try to strip a great prince like Strelkimar of his estates, and I went to Strelkimar and begged him to be patient, to wait his cousin's madness out, even to go into exile for a time until things calmed down. I was the very soul of moderation and conciliation. So of course they both turned on me."

  Stiamot signaled for another flask of wine. The little man seemed to have an infinite capacity.

  "It was impossible to reason with the Coronal,” Mundiveen said, when he was sated for the moment. “He was far gone in his lunacy and the only person he would listen to was the Ghayrog. He drove me from his side. Strelkimar now let it be known that he felt the Coronal would have to be set aside, for the good of the whole commonwealth. I opposed him on that. I felt I had no choice about it. I went to him and said that Thrykeld was undoubtedly behaving very strangely, but no Coronal had ever been removed from office in all the history of the world; that to depose one would be an offense against the Divine; that all of this would surely blow over in a little while. No, said Strelkimar, his cousin was hopelessly mad. He intended to push him aside. I made the error of getting very excited. I swore great purple oaths that I would stand beside the anointed Coronal no matter what Strelkimar did. I threatened to go to the people with word that Strelkimar was planning to overthrow their monarch. I vowed to fight him every step of the way. My behavior was extremely rash. I forbade him to depose Thrykeld. Imagine that! Saying a thing like that to a man like Strelkimar. I became as crazy as Thrykeld himself was, I suppose."

  He fell silent. The silence stretched for a minute or more. When it began to seem as though he did not intend to resume at all, Stiamot prodded him:

  "And—?"

  "And that evening three hired thugs wearing masks came for me and took me from Stee to someplace far downslope, Furible or Stipool or one of those cities, and there they beat me until both they and I were sure that I was at the edge of death, and then they left me. But I didn't die. They badly damaged me, but I lived. All they did was cripple me, as you see. Or did you think I was born with my backbone all askew like this?"

  "Strelkimar's men, were they?"

  "They didn't go to the trouble of telling me that. Make your own guesses."

  "And the next thing to do was killing Lord Thrykeld, I suppose,” said Stiamot, wondering whether he had fallen into some dream.

  "Oh, no, nothing like that. They
killed the Ghayrog, yes, but the Coronal was persuaded to sign a document of abdication. I can just imagine how he was persuaded, too. In his statement he declared that his health had unfortunately become too poor to permit him to continue to meet his royal responsibilities, and so he was withdrawing from the throne and going off to live in Suvrael. He sent a separate message to the Pontifex Gherivale, urging him most strongly to appoint Strelkimar as the new Coronal. So it was done; and Thrykeld left the palace; and then we heard the regrettable news that Thrykeld's ship had been sunk by a sea-dragon en route to Suvrael, as you probably remember, and that was that. As for me, I suspected that it would not be a smart idea to return to the capital. In fact I discovered, when I had begun to recover from what your Coronal's men had done to me, that I had lost all interest in the company of my own species, and I was years in recovering even a little of it. So I floated off quietly into the forests and took up my new career as a doctor to the Piurivars.” He paused again a moment and stared thoughtfully into his wine bowl. Then, looking up, he gave Stiamot a sharp sidelong glance. “Is there anything else you'd like to know, now?"

  "No,” Stiamot said. “I think I've heard too much already."

  These revelations had rocked him like an earthquake.

  * * * *

  He had known, of course, that Lord Thrykeld had given up his throne, pleading incapacity to serve, and that soon afterward he had been lost at sea. He had suspected, as many people did, that there probably had been more to the change of monarchs than that, that the forceful and charismatic Lord Strelkimar very likely had been instrumental in his cousin's decision to abdicate, though he had taken the tale of Thrykeld's deteriorating health at face value. But Mundiveen's tale of strife at court, of ultimatum and counter-ultimatum between the cousins, of the forcible overthrow of a king—and of Mundiveen's own near-fatal beating—gave the history of the years just before his own arrival at court a darker hue than he ever could have imagined. It all fit together now, Mundiveen's sour cynicism, Strelkimar's haunted, guilt-stricken eyes, the awkwardness and strangeness of the meeting of the two men this morning, so many years after all those terrible events. Lord Strelkimar lived daily with the knowledge that he had stolen the throne; Mundiveen lived daily with his fury and pain. And Stiamot had stupidly brought the two of them face to face.

  "Now,” Mundiveen said, “tell me what your Lord Strelkimar wants to know about the Piurivars."

  "We want to find a solution to the problem of how we are going to live with them in the years to come, how we are going to share the planet. The Council is split in various ways, putting forth all sorts of ideas ranging from a geographical separation of the races to an all-out war of extermination. I myself hope to find some middle course. The Coronal hasn't been taking part in our discussions up to now, but he seems to have come around to an awareness that we need to deal with the issue. And so, in my innocence, I told him that I had encountered someone who had intimate knowledge of the Piurivar way of life, and he asked me to bring you to speak with him. Not knowing, of course, that that man was you."

  "The truth must have come as a great surprise to him."

  "Something of a shock, I would say."

  Mundiveen smiled balefully. “Well, so be it. If he had allowed me to tell him anything, I would have said that there's no good solution to be found. Humans and Piurivars are never going to get along, my friend. Believe me. Never. Never."

  The formal state banquet was held as scheduled that evening, in the municipal festival hall, a lofty wooden structure with an arching roof far above. Planters had come in from all about, drawn by the novelty of a Coronal in their midst. A high table had been set up where the Coronal, in full royal regalia, sat flanked by members of his entourage, a duke or two, a couple of Council members, a sprinkling of Pontifical officials. District Resident Kalban Vond sat at the Coronal's right hand—the greatest honor ever accorded him, Stiamot supposed.

  Just as the first course was being served Stiamot heard the sounds of a commotion outside, shouts, angry cries. Alarmed, he rushed to the window.

  A struggle of some kind was going on right outside the hall. Stiamot saw bursts of flame limned against the night, shadowy figures running about. Looking back at the high table, he saw the Coronal sitting altogether motionless, frowning, lost once again in the darkness of his own thoughts. He seemed entirely unaware that anything unusual might be taking place. But the District Resident beside him looked stricken and aghast. His mouth was agape; his soft, fleshy face seemed to be sagging.

  Then, unexpectedly, astonishingly, a side door that Stiamot had not noticed before opened and Mundiveen came limping in. After what had passed between the Coronal and him this morning, he was the last person, perhaps, whom Stiamot expected to see in the banqueting hall tonight. Flushed, panting, he made his way laboriously to Stiamot's side at the window.

  "Metamorphs,” he said hoarsely. “Disguised as townsfolk. Knives under their cloaks. They're throwing firebrands."

  Stiamot looked out again. In the chaos beyond the window he was able to make out the guards attempting to form a phalanx. They were surrounded on three sides by a host of cloaked figures in rapid motion, flickering, changing dizzyingly from one shape to another as they moved.

  He seized Mundiveen by the shoulder. “What is this?"

  "The beginning of the insurrection, I think. They want to burn the building down."

  "The Coronal—!"

  "Yes, the Coronal."

  "I'm going out there,” said Stiamot. “I have to do something."

  "No one can do anything. Especially not you."

  Hesitating only a moment, Stiamot said, “Well, then, what about you? Even in the darkness, they'll recognize you. And you could talk to them. They trust you if they trust anybody. You've done so many things for them. Explain to them now that this is insane, that they have to withdraw or they'll all die, that the Coronal is too well guarded."

  Mundiveen glared at him scornfully. “Why would they care about that? They're beyond all caring about anything. Don't you see, Stiamot, there's no hope? This is a war to the death, beginning right now, right here, and it will never end, at least not until you people recognize that you have no choice but to eradicate them altogether."

  His words hit Stiamot with the force of a punch. You people? Did Mundiveen, then, think that he stood outside the human race? You have to eradicate them altogether? This, from a man who had spent so many years living among them? Stiamot faltered, speechless.

  But then, abruptly, between one instant and the next, Mundiveen's expression changed. A flash of something new came into his eyes, a wild, almost gleeful look, something Stiamot had never seen in them before. “All right,” he said, with a savage, twisted grin. “As you wish, my friend. I'll go to them. I'll talk to them."

  "But—wait—wait a moment, Mundiveen—"

  Mundiveen broke free of Stiamot's grasp and ran from the hall.

  By now the Coronal seemed to have realized that there was trouble of some sort; he had half-risen from his seat and was looking questioningly toward Stiamot. Stiamot beckoned urgently to him to sit down. His figure would be too conspicuous this way if the Metamorphs succeeded in breaking into the hall.

  Then he returned his attention to the window. Mundiveen had somehow succeeded in getting through the line of guards. Stiamot could see his small, angular form, moving clumsily and with great difficulty but even so at remarkable speed into the midst of the attackers. He was visible for a moment, his hands lifted high as though he were calling for their attention. Then the Shapeshifters swarmed in around him, surrounding him, yelling so loudly that their fierce incomprehensible cries penetrated the walls of the building. Stiamot had a fragmentary glimpse or two of Mundiveen tottering about at the center of their group, and then, as Stiamot watched in horror, they closed their circle tightly about him and Mundiveen seemed to melt, to vanish, to disappear entirely from view.

  * * * *

  In the morning, after order had been r
estored and the bodies cleared away, and while the preparations for the Coronal's departure from Domgrave were being made, Lord Strelkimar called Stiamot to his side.

  The Coronal was so pale that the blackness of his beard seemed to have doubled and redoubled in the night. His hands were shaking. He had not dressed; he wore only a casual robe loosely girt, and a flask of wine stood before him on the table.

  Stiamot said at once, “My lord, the Shapeshifters—"

  Strelkimar waved him to silence with an impatient gesture. “Forget the Shapeshifters for a moment, Stiamot, and listen to me. There's news from the Labyrinth.” Lord Strelkimar's voice was a ragged thread, the merest fragment of sound. Stiamot had to strain to hear him. “A message came to me in the afternoon, just as I was getting dressed for the banquet. The Pontifex Gherivale has died. It was a peaceful end, I am told. This has been a day of great surprises, and they are not yet over, my lord."

  My lord? My lord? Had he lost his mind?

  Blinking in confusion, Stiamot said, “What are you saying, my lord?"

  "Don't call me ‘my lord.’ That's you, Stiamot. I am Pontifex, now."

  "And I am—?” The startling implications began to sink in, and his mind swirled in a jumble of wonder and disbelief. This was unthinkable. “Do I understand you correctly, my lord? How can this be? You are asking me—me—"

  "We are in need of a new Coronal. There's a vacancy in the position. The succession must be maintained."

  "Yes, of course. But—Coronal—me? Surely you aren't serious. Consider how young I am!” He felt as though he were moving in a dream. “There are counsellors much senior to me. What about Faninal? What about Kreistand?"

  "They'll be disappointed, I suppose. But we need a Coronal, right away, and we need a young one. You'll be fighting the war against the Shapeshifters for the rest of your life."