by Moulton, CD
"They were passing the troll, keeping it most carefully in sight, when poor retarded 'Y' thought they were planning to do some business on the side, seeing as the opportunity was so openly presenting itself and the rich fabrics the demon thing wore did indicate a degree of wealth.
"As I said, he felt not the mood of depression and fear that radiated from the being to all others.
"'Y' moved swiftly to restrain the stranger from moving until he could be rendered safe from unsavory characters along those paths, but the demon moved more swiftly. It pointed a strange device at 'Y,' who was as much as turned to steam! It took but a short instant, and 'Y' was no longer there!
"That was an intolerable act, as you can imagine, and the band moved to take revenge on this senseless attack on 'Y', as 'Y' would have done no harm whatever to the demon even if it were not an elemental being. 'X' would have told him to release it and they would have proceeded to their homes.
"It was now too late and it was not to be. The damage was done and men of honor, no matter the code of that honor, must act!
"They fell upon the demon, two more of their number meeting their doom in that encounter.
"If, indeed, men do have spirits, the fate of the spirits of those taken by an elemental.... What is that fate? Is the spirit doomed to some strange and horrible existence? Is it, as the oldest tales would suggest, to ever become a slave to the depravities of the elemental lords?
"Such questions are beyond comprehension by such as 'X' and also beyond myself.
"'X' was able to wrest the strange device from the demon. He was in complete terror by this late moment, moreso because the covering over the head of the demon had been torn away. It had a sort of beak where the nose should be and had no hair at all on the head. The eyes were terrible and 'X' knew then that the fate of his soul hung on his acting quickly and finally. The device he held had a ring with a lever in it and a small end with what he describes as a round mirror with a ruby bead hanging in front of it had been pointed at 'Y' and the others when it had turned them all to steam. The finger of the demon, a long thin thing with a claw on the end, had been in the ring.
"'X' saw that the demon had four fingers and a thumb instead of the three fingers and a thumb normal people have.
"'X' pointed the evil device at the demon and placed his first finger in the ring. He didn't know what to do then, but the demon began chanting curses in its demon language. 'X' felt in the tone and words that the evil thing was pleading and begging its brothers to take revenge against him! He felt his soul turning to rot and knew then the religious peoples could be right about the soul. He clenched his hands tightly in supplication to whatever gods might be.
"His prayers were answered! The evil device made a humming noise and there was only steam where the demon had been!
"I can say now that 'X' is no longer a bandit. He is a deeply religious man who is working to right any wrongs ever he may have accidentally done due to failure to consider rash actions. He took the demon device and pounded it with a large stone until it burst into a flame that he saw with his own opened eyes return to hell! There was nothing under the rock then but some charred and useless metal melted into a shapeless lump and a foul stench in the air that was even more acrid than burning sulfur and made him cough until his throat was raw. He had never before smelled anything like it.
"He threw it into Serpent Creek and will not say where. He says he needs show to others no proof and cares not one whit if no one believes him.
"A strange tale, My Lady. I thought at first he was describing a scientist from the palace and one of their devices, but there are only the four and they are all here. Perhaps it was a demon or a troll, perhaps it was a fantasy that simply came in a dream, as such things sometimes do. A dream can seem more real than reality. I am not one to say. I relate a tale I do not analyze it."
"How odd!" Hisla cried. "A strange tale indeed! Such things do make one wonder about gods and elementals. Perhaps one day we will know. Perhaps we never will. There are always those things to be kept from the knowledge of mere mortals.
"I thank you, Larj, for coming here to relate this story. You are, indeed, a master at the tales. I see the girl was right to become affrighted, but I also see the tale is one a teller must oft repeat as it contains a strong lesson. The demons one encounters in her life, whether of one's own making or real demons, must be dealt with! (With a roll of her eyes toward the door.)
"Will you take noonmeal here with me? – And call me Hisla. I am only a normal person who is mated with a king. I am at great unease with the protocols of court. I do not enjoy all this pomp and silliness. I would give so much to be able to return to that simpler time when...."
"Thank you, Hisla," Z replied. "I would be honored."
They had a pleasant meal while talking of education and health matters, which Hisla was concerned with. It had always been her fight to see those two things were the first priority.
"But there aren't always funds for such things," she complained with a hardness around the eyes and mouth. "The city has grown far too rapidly for us to be able to keep up with it. Perhaps now the scientists will be able to supply funds. They have their gold and have often said the power we need will come when they have enough of it. I think they should be held to their promises to the letter! I begin to see that perhaps we have given them too much. Balance should be reached in these things."
"I still believe they have taken much and given nothing," Z insisted. "Lape and Kemat may be willing to trust them, but I feel they are evil. They will not give anything back. They will simply continue to take and to lie."
"I may say I sincerely hope you are wrong," Hisla said. "Oh! Here is Narum! Larj told me the story of the demon on Northfork Road, dear. It was a fascinating tale! There is a great lesson in morality in it and Dulna shouldn't have let it affect her so negatively."
They talked awhile and Z asked if the scientists had ever demonstrated in any way that they could really produce any power or was that the same as everything they bragged on – talk.
"They have those engines out there," Narum said. "You can see how powerful they are."
"But they work by a process of burning oils," Z replied. "That was all explained by Horvach in his thermodynamic law – or was until I came along. Burning is fire, fire is heat, heat is energy. Anyone can produce power from heat. It's limited to the amount of fuel one puts in. These scientists make claim they can make unlimited power from something in the pink gold. Have you ever seen power from some powder or metal taken from the gold or is it more talk and empty promises?
"I believe they are liars and tricksters. I would make them demonstrate they can make power from something other than heat itself. Not little dribbles, like from salts and unlike metals – real power! Power that can be used to fulfil the promises they make, which I feel are as empty as they are evil.
"They have the gold now. Demand that they publicly prove they can do more than talk. No one can talk better than Larj the Traveler and Larj speaks truth unless he says that the truth is suspended for the sake of a story. These scientists claim they speak the truth. Let them demonstrate that proof! Let them show more than empty words."
Narum was looking thoughtful a few minutes later when Z made his exit to return to the square. Now there were two very likely possibilities Thing had seen and acted against. If the Jornians were forced to put on a show they would surely use one or the other. They didn't have the nitroglycerine made, as they didn't have enough cool storage so they should try to do something with the nitrogen tri-iodide. That should be great fun if Thing knew what it was doing – and Thing always did! Z had never heard of nitrogen tri-iodide before.
Narum didn't waste any time, apparently. It was only an hour later a crier came to call everyone to the palace steps where the scientists were going to demonstrate the thing that would be the salvation of the city. Unlimited power!
Tab, Kit and Thing came to stand beside Z in front of the crowd. Chart and Flale stro
de onto the top of the steps where Chart held up a bottle of brownish crystals.
"That's the nitrogen tri-iodide," Tab said. Thing was sitting on his shoulder so was directly communicating.
"What does it do?" Z asked.
"It's a much more powerful explosive than the nitroglycerine," Tab said. "It's harder to control, though. It's unstable and reacts to vibrations in a VERY spectacular show! So long as it's at all damp nothing happens. Once it dries a least sound can set it off. It's really ultra-sensitive to vibrations.
"I suppose they'll have a very small amount of water in the crystals and will place them in the sunlight to dry, then will make a sharp sound to cause the explosion. Maybe they'll do something to demonstrate the amount of power in the stuff."
"But the glycerine won't let it dry so they'll stand there like fools!" Z said happily. "Nothing will happen!"
"Ha! Better! Don't forget the manganese!" Tab replied. "Watch!"
Flale rolled out a large piece of marble and invited anyone who liked to come up to inspect the rock to prove it was, indeed, a solid piece of marble and not a trick.
Z went to check it out, as he was sure they expected. It was a meter cube of solid marble with a hole drilled into the center. A small hole.
After several people had inspected it, pounded on it and done everything else they could think of to the marble cube Chart called for them to roll the thing to the base of the steps. He poured some of the crystals onto a ceramic plate to display it. It was in the full sun. There were no more than a few grams of the crystals poured out.
When the cube was in place Flale stood on it. "People of Royal City, you have inspected this solid rock!" he called loudly in his strange accent. "You see this little bit of powder, which we have made from pink gold!"
Thing was waving a tentacle, but few noticed. Flale and Chart did!
"I will soon pour the powder into this small hole in the rock and we will place this iron band across the hole to seal it!"
He held up an iron band.
"When I do that I want you to move back. The band will be in place and nothing will be taken from your sight! Nothing can change!
"I will then tell you when the rock will be shattered to powder by the power of this little bit of brown powder I can easily hide between two fingers!"
"Is the stuff really that powerful?" Z asked.
"If the seal's tight enough it might split the rock," Tab replied. "I'd say they've already put about a sixth of a kilo of the tri-iodide in the hole. They think it's dry enough that the heat of the crystals they just added will do the job. The concussion certainly will. The worst they think will happen is the rock will be split instead of powdered. Still impressive."
"They have an infrasonic generator behind the third column," Kit said. "Chart will probably stand by the column and yell when it's supposed to go off. He'll hit the marble with a concentrated focused sound wave that'll set the tri-iodide off."
"I'm going to focus a small microwave beam on it later," Tab said for Thing. "Z can make a good show by refusing to move away from the rock. It's not going to go off with that glycerine in there."
Everyone moved away when Flale ordered them to except for Z, who claimed nothing was going to happen if anyone was close enough to stop any trickery so he'd remain right there. Chart and Flale both tried to get him to move, but he said he was the one responsible. If he were to be hurt or killed by this it would be because HE was wrong about them.
They sneered and moved back.
Hisla and Narum were on the top steps and Hisla was obviously worried. Z waved at her and sat on the block. Chart went to stand by the column. He held up his hands for silence, then told Z it was his last chance to move out of danger or he was responsible for whatever may happen to him. Z made a rather universal sign among mammals with the central finger, which further angered Chart, who then yelled, "It is your decision and your responsibility!
"NOW!"
Z felt a slight vibration from the powerful infrasonics, but nothing else happened.
"NOW!" Chart yelled again and again the vibration and nothing else. Z gave him the finger again.
"NOW! GODDAMN IT! NOW!" Chart yelled in Jornian, again with the same results.
Z put his hands upward and shrugged. He didn't need Thing's empathic talent to feel the fury radiating from both Chart and Flale.
"Perhaps the power powder was not yet dry!" Flale cried. "We will place it in the sunlight for a moment more! It will work!"
"When Chart's power incantation in the old magician's language has failed you?" Z asked innocently. "Tricksters! Phony charlatans!"
Chart came to push him off of the cube. Flale took the pegs loose from the iron band as people came close. Thing was still on Tab's shoulder and Kit was to one side, very close. Chart lifted the band and started to bend closer to the rock to look into the hole. Z didn't know why, but he shouted, "Back, evil demon! Hula hula boola!”
A bright purple flame in the form of a spiral came from the hole in the rock, grew in height for a moment, then suddenly stopped as a large brownish-purple smoke ring rose majestically above the granite block with another purple tongue of flame shooting through the center. The process repeated four times, then nothing. The smoke rings turned rust-brown and fell like bits of brown cotton.
"Permanganate?" Flale cried in Jornian. "How in the hell did permanganate get into the NI three? What kind of damned screw-up is this? Why the hells didn't the permanganate catalyze the iodide? Cripes!"
Z began clapping and hooting and soon the whole crowd joined in. Hisla was laughing so hard she almost fell down the steps while Narum just looked a bit scared.
"Our powder was contaminated!" Chart yelled. "We'll show you! In the morning in the south fields! We'll add some of our powder to plain water and you'll see what power really is! You'll see!"
"When you say the powder didn't work because it wasn't dry you'll add water to make it work?" Z asked innocently, to which Flale gave him the finger. The Jornians went into the palace and Z went up the steps to speak with Hisla and Narum. He advised them to leave the palace for the night, saying angry sorcerers, for that was surely what the scientists must be – or perhaps much worse – weren't to be trusted.
"Have you ever actually seen any of them?" Z asked. "Or have they always hidden themselves? Have you seen the fourth of them since ... since the bandits found the elemental? What if that demon was the fourth socalled scientist?
"I have some power of premonition and it is telling me that you two must take your trusted staff members away from that place this night! Something evil and terrible is about to happen! I fear Royal City itself may be doomed! Get away so that you are not consumed in this evil!"
"I feel that all is very wrong, too," Hisla agreed. "We will go. I'll hear no argument, Narum. If nothing happens here we may return on the morrow no harm done."
Z was getting more and more uneasy. The people were muttering among themselves. If the scientists didn't produce a show – and one hell of a show, tomorrow – it was going to get nasty.
Kit, Thing and Tab came to take Z back to the rooming house, then out of the city before dark. They watched as the king and queen and the entire household staff went in four mountbeast carriages toward Dockside Station. When things happened, they happened fast! Thing, Tab, Kit and Z were aboard the special floaters while Maita, TR and T6 came overhead. In the morning everyone in Royal City awoke to a very strange place.
Saj Saved
It had been a busy night. The entire crew, including the ships, had played their own parts in it. It started soon after nightfall. Maita sent the floaters to start quietly releasing a special gas specifically tailored to the physiologies of the Saj. It caused them to become more and more tired so not much more than three hours after it first started spreading everyone was fast asleep and wouldn't awaken for more than four hours.
Shortly after that, a rumbling noise that shook the houses hardly more than made them turn over in their sleep. Few awok
e for even a full minute.
*That's it! You were right, Thing! They got in a big hurry to produce a large quantity of the glycerol trinitrate at once! The floaters showed the three of them were in the lab together. The entire palace caved in on them, but I imagine they were blown to a messy pulp with the initial explosion. There won't be anyone there to put on the probe, which is my only regret because I agree that this is not nearly over with Savaraj.*
"Okay," Z answered. "Up to this point I knew what to expect and it's gone pretty much the way I thought it would, but what now? Isn't this exactly the sort of thing to suggest that science isn't anything to mess with?"
[ No, Z! Our show this afternoon and your story about the Northfork Demon will occur to them at the same time. I hope we can get one body out of the palace that isn't too terribly splattered. If one of them was in the pod we have it or if one was in the supply room behind that huge wall we'll have it. Maita, get some floaters to start digging. We have to get rid of the pod and some of that equipment. Change those parts on the stuff around like we planned. Nothing will work. ]
"T Six and I are already using the short beams and the sonics on the buildings," TR reported. "We'll have time to decompose the marble deep enough to do what we want if we all get on it now."
[ Yes. They know the marble was quarried as what it looks like so the rotting process will only have to be a few centimeters deep and Z can tell some silly story about evil elementals that cause marble to turn to sandstone when they move it or something. Give it a slant that it is a case where the good is inside the evil for when the surface weathers to the marble in a few decades. ]
*You guys take the floaters and use the stuff like we planned. Z will get his instructions as we go. Get on it, people!*
[ Do you see, Z? They'll wake up and their city will look like sandstone and common soft rock. The marble will be gone. The elite will find their jewels and riches are common rocks. The fine things will be nothing. The wines will be sour vinegar and the fancy foods putrid. That's what the story of the witch island was. It's all illusion! None of it was real! ]
