Silence is Deadly

by Lloyd Biggle, Jr.

  It was Captain Wanulzk who had given Darzek the vital clue, though at the time Darzek hardly noticed it. The captain mentioned that the King of Storoz traditionally had three titles: Ruler of Storoz, Protector of the Faith—and Keeper of the Winged Beast. Belatedly it had dawned upon Darzek that a king with such a title must actually have a Winged Beast in his possession.

  But Darzek hadn’t been able to account for the quantum leap by which he formed his next deduction. He knew that the kingship was not hereditary. He guessed that it was not for a fixed term of years, or someone would have mentioned that fact. He knew that the kingship rotated among the dukes, and therefore there had to be a limitation on the king’s term of office. But his conclusion that the king reigned only as long as his Winged Beast lived was less a conjecture than an inspired hunch.

  “The Duke Merzkion had a Winged Beast,” Riklo objected. “It killed Wenz and almost killed me.”

  “All of the dukes had Winged Beasts before the new king was chosen,” Darzek said. “That was because the tradition of a king reigning as long as a Winged Beast lived seemed highly suspicious and risky to them. Most of them had never seen a Winged Beast. The first step in the Protector’s groundwork for re-establishing the kingship was to give each duke a Winged Beast of his own to care for. Naturally this ownership was highly secret, and most dukes kept their Winged Beasts in guarded rooms in a castle tower. After a year, all of the Beasts were alive and in good health, so phase two of the Protector’s plan went into effect: The kingship lottery would be held at the end of the second year, and all the dukes able to return living and healthy Winged Beasts to the Protector at that time would be eligible.”

  “While that was going on, agents from Arrn and Zruan were attempting to manipulate things to their own advantage, offering the dukes bribes like electric generators, and promising the more susceptible dukes the kingship. Probably an agent from Arrn gave the Duke of OO the idea that a scent would repel the Beasts, and his own black knights helped him plant his stooges among the prisoners.”

  “In the meantime, the Synthesis agents became curious as to what the dukes were hiding. A few found out and were killed by the ultrasonic cries of the Beasts they discovered. Their attempts alarmed the dukes, who thought that other dukes were trying to eliminate them from the lottery by killing their Beasts. They reacted by putting the Beasts under heavy guard, leaving us to wonder why this death ray that killed anyone coming near it had to be protected.”

  “It finally occurred to me that the dukes’ treasures must be Winged Beasts when I saw how the Duke of OO rigged the lottery. In order to come up with a scent that repelled the Beasts, he must have had a Beast to try it out on. Then I had my hunch about the king’s term of office, and I killed the new king’s Beast to try it out. I didn’t find out until later that the Duke of OO wasn’t eligible to succeed himself.”

  “It was brilliant,” Kjorz murmured.

  Darzek indulged in a Kammian shrug. “Maybe, but what followed was rather stupid. I didn’t know that I’d exhausted the charge in my amulet until the Beasts were diving on me. I only survived because the natives of Kamm think I stink, and because the Winged Beasts must think I stink revoltingly. And fortunately my physiology is such that I could temporarily survive the ultrasonic bombardment. From first to last we blundered through this thing.”

  Sajjo came dashing in and went directly to Darzek. The king says yes. Send Kjorz to him.

  Darzek turned to Kjorz. “Congratulations. Go to the king and make like an ex-namafj vendor.”

  “As long as I don’t have to eat any namafj,” Kjorz said with a grin. He went out.

  The opportunity to have a Synthesis agent installed as religious adviser to the King of Storoz was too glittering to be passed up, but Darzek was not about to prolong his stay on Kamm for any kind of opportunity. He recommended that Kjorz, who resembled him superficially, take his place. The king was reluctant to part with a genuine miracle worker, but finally he had assented.

  “And that winds things up,” Darzek told Rok Wllon. “We’ll see that Arrn and Zruan land no more agents here, and if they persist in making interstellar nuisances of themselves, you can deal with them directly. Is there any reason why we shouldn’t leave on this supply ship that’s due tomorrow?”

  Rok Wllon said blankly, “No. No reason.”

  Riklo came over to Darzek. They hadn’t had a chance to talk since he’d secured her release from the underground temple. Now there was nothing left to do except exchange farewells, and she seemed acutely embarrassed.

  “If you think you behaved stupidly,” she said, “I should tell you what I did.”

  Darzek grinned at her. “I already heard. Forget it. Sometimes it takes a generous measure of stupidity to make things work out.”

  Riklo’s tour as a peddler had been brief—her scent gave her away at the first castle she visited. She could have escaped at once by using her amulet, but she let the opportunity pass and waited for a better one that never came.

  But her crowning humiliation had come in the arena. She had been so revolted by the kingship lottery that she placed herself in the rear ranks of the female prisoners and refused to look at it. As a result, she saw nothing at all of Darzek’s performance. She didn’t realize until her release that he had been the successful victim—and that she could have been standing by ready to help him with her amulet if she hadn’t been too squeamish to watch.

  “Be grateful for mistakes that aren’t fatal,” Darzek said. “Sometimes it’s possible to learn from them.”

  She said slyly, “Your own vast learning must be the result of a great many non-fatal mistakes.”

  “An enormous number,” Darzek agreed.

  “Are you really taking Sajjo with you?” Riklo asked.

  “Of course. She wants to go. She wants to grow up to be an interplanetary agent like you.”

  “But—with her being deaf—”

  “There may be a way to correct that. I think she’ll be able to learn to speak, too. She’s already reading lips—and in Galactic, too. See her smiling at you? She recognized her name. She has a natural talent, and she deserves an opportunity to develop it. Bovranulz approves. He foresees a long and happy life for her.”

  “I’m afraid to ask what he foresees for me,” Riklo said. She touched Darzek’s hands in farewell and took her leave.

  Darzek looked after her with a frown. “She’s a talented agent. Unfortunately, she’s too stubborn to take orders.”

  Rok Wllon flashed a superior smile at Darzek and gestured expansively. Here was a problem that properly belonged in the familiar territory of his own administrative expertise, and he was prepared to enjoy it. “Your violation of regulations disturbed her. Also, she has her own sound intuition to follow. I’ve just decided to promote her—she’ll be the new team leader for Kamm.”

  Darzek nodded. It felt good to nod. He’d had a repressed urge to nod his head all the time he’d been on Kamm. For all he knew, Riklo would make an excellent team leader.

  He nodded again, at Sajjo. “Ready for the galaxy?” he asked. She couldn’t have understood, but she smiled and nodded back at him.

  Rok Wllon was watching him expectantly. It pleased Darzek that he was his old, argumentative self, but Darzek did not want to argue about Riklo. “If you want to promote her,” he began and broke off abruptly, scowling.

  “What’s the matter?” Rok Wllon asked anxiously.

  It had just occurred to Darzek that every problem he had encountered on Kamm had been resolved successfully—except one. “I still don’t know what Riklo looks like,” he remarked.

  Rok Wllon puckered his face inquiringly.

  “I’ve never seen her outside that artificial Kammian body she wears,” Darzek explained. “I have no idea what her real form is. I know she’s a native of Hnolon, but I don’t remember ever seeing one. So I don’t know what she looks like. I’ve been tempted to ask her to take off that synthetic epidermis so I could see her as she really is. Bu
t now I think it might be better not to know.”

  “That’s very strange,” Rok Wllon observed thoughtfully. “A little earlier today she said exactly the same thing about you.”