by James Palmer
“We are proceeding to his quarters now,” the man in front of the procession said into a holophone. From his perch, the Sabour heard others in the party grumble quietly to themselves about off-worlders. They were particularly stirred up, emotionally charged.
The soldiers undoubtedly knew of the cause of the disturbance that Rebani sensed.
When they had passed, the Sabour dropped from the ledge, landing on the stone floor with as much sound as a falling feather would make, and proceeded down the dimly-lit corridor.
Rebani Kalba continued through the maze of corridors, following a twisted path through the castle. He drew up short when he abruptly felt the presence of a malignant being, as out of place in the serene climate of Covenant as a null gravity armchair.
The rampant hostility of the being beckoned the Sabour like the scent of food to a starving man. He focused upon the strong negative emotions flooding the vicinity.
“There he is,” yelled a voice.
Rebani turned and saw, several yards behind him, an armed contingent of men. They trained their weapons on him and called for him to surrender.
If I hadn’t been so intent on the hostile, the Sabour thought ruefully to himself, I would have sensed them sooner. And then he was in motion.
In the dim gloom of the hall, Rebani Kalba was like a black ghost as he sped into an adjoining corridor and vanished. He had not so much run away as discorporated before their eyes. The soldiers, only guessing where he had gone, charged after their quarry, undeterred by his amazing disappearance.
Standing in a darkened doorway, the Sabour caused the troops to hear his fleeing footfalls in an adjacent corridor. The men unerringly followed the false sounds caused by Rebani Kalba’s use of the Art.
As the soldiers went by him, Rebani Kalba sensed the fanatical desire for revenge in them; it fueled their pursuit.
That would make them more difficult to elude, the Sabour realized. The emotionally charged were always less susceptible to trickery of the mind, somewhat like subjects of hypnosis: It was easier to hypnotize an intelligent person than one not so gifted, because it required the ability to concentrate in order to be hypnotized. All those beings who believed they too were smart to be hypnotized were wrong, and often fell victim to the process in a way that unintelligent beings were incapable of doing.
Rebani sensed the hesitation in the troops. Not finding any trace of him ahead, they began to backtrack their steps. He could not remain hidden where he was.
The Sabour flashed along the corridor in the direction from which the armed men had come.
Soldiers ahead!
Rebani Kalba felt the presence of several more armed men in front of him. They were unmoving, stationed at a point. The soldiers were sealing him in, Rebani suddenly realized. Soon there would be no escape.
The Sabour opened his mind, and his senses flooded with information ... footfalls behind, heartbeats ahead, slight draft from above ... Rebani looked up and found a tall, thin window above his head. He vaulted the several yard distance, just gaining a precarious handhold on the stone ledge of the paneless window – the climate of the city was so mild windows were not required.
Rebani’s fingers closed upon the cold stone like a vise, and the Sabour hauled himself up onto the narrow ledge. Moonlight streamed in upon him. He knew this was no place to hide; with even just a little luck, the soldiers would notice him perched on the ledge like a bird in a tree, waiting to be brought down by weapon fire.
Not that Rebani Kalba was a defenseless bird.
The Sabour swiveled on the stone ledge and looked out of the window. It didn’t take him long to take stock of the situation.
The window was several dozens of yards above the ground; not an easy drop, even for a Sabour. He could manage to climb the stone wall fairly easily, but that was a relatively slow method of travel, and it would put him at great risk of being seen from the ground by patrols. The only other ….
The outside wall of the castle veered abruptly not many yards hence, and a window not far below. Rebani calculated the distance by measuring it with his sight and the feel of the breeze as it whipped along the wall. He reached out with his mind, and fuzed the distance to the opening.
Rebani Kalba sprang from the ledge like a great jungle cat pouncing upon a herd animal of the savannah. The balls of his feet struck the lower window’s ledge, and he kept going, falling into the room, propelled forward by the momentum of the leap. His body struck one wall with a loud thump, and Rebani Kalba fell to the floor, rolling into a crouch in one smooth motion.
The Sabour took several deep breaths, and studied the area with his mind. It was a corridor not unlike the one he had just left. No Sentient was in the immediate vicinity; that gave him time to think. A throb in his shoulder pushed these other thoughts from his mind, and Rebani realized he had struck it on the edge of the window on the way in.
The wind must have blown him off course, he decided ruefully.
In the stillness, Rebani Kalba realized the nearness of the malevolent being he had sensed earlier, before the soldiers had intruded.
Untitled
A cruel laugh escaped the intruder, and swelled until it filled the small hallway. “Your Brotherhood holds no sway here, Monitor,” came the rough, evil voice of the man. It sounded hauntingly familiar. “In fact, you’re at a distinct disadvantage on a world where you’re the enemy by a matter of policy.”
“Turn and face me,” spat Rebani, angered by the other’s brazenness.
The one at the far end of the hall laughed maliciously. “Very well.”
The prowler turned slowly to face Rebani Kalba. For one of the few times in his life, the Sabour was surprised. His stern face grew slack with the emotion.
At the other end of the corridor was a man who looked just like him!
Rebani followed the source of negative emotions, burning brightly on a calm sea of content. It was too unusual, its appearance too sudden, its proximity too near the charged soldiers to ignore it.
The Sabour followed the trail of the hostile being like a bloodhound. He moved rapidly through the winding corridors, getting ever closer to the malicious man.
Ahead, Rebani sensed the intruder, filled with elation. This giddy feeling glossed a heart of darkness, but could not hide it from the Sabour. The core being of the prowler throbbed in the peaceful, contented atmosphere of Covenant like a red-hot coal in black night.
Rebani Kalba chased the black-hearted being, following a trail as visible to the Monitor as bread crumbs left scattered along the stone hall.
Suddenly, he sensed a change in the evil being’s mood. A flicker in the intruder’s aura told the Sabour that he believed himself approaching safety.
Rebani Kalba quickened his pace, tracking the malicious prowler like a hound on the scent of his quarry, and soon cornered the other in a short passageway between two corridors.
“Hold,” ordered Rebani, “by the authority of the Brotherhood of Sabours.”
25 In Which a Lion
Is Beset by Jackals
With a guttural laugh, the being who resembled Rebani Kalba the Sabour opened the door behind him. He went through it before the Udehe could close the distance between the two. As the Sabour followed, he heard from ahead a man yelling, “I’ve found him! The Sabour is trying to kill me!”
Rather than give chase, Rebani ducked into a room. He glanced about the room. It contained a small table and chairs, and a bureau, on which sat a pitcher of water and glasses. The chamber was some sort of meeting room. Shortly, from the corridor outside, Rebani Kalba heard voices.
“I found the Sabour,” one explained. It was the same voice that had been yelling for help. “When I confronted him, he attacked me. I lost my weapon and ran away, so that I could get help. I thought he was following me. He must be around here somewhere.”
Another voice said, “Spread out. Search every room.”
It was a clever frame, Rebani reflected. Obviously an eyewitness had seen “Reb
ani Kalba” commit some heinous crime, and it appeared that the intruder had used his “Sabour abilities” to escape, when he actually had changed his appearance in some manner.
That explained the guards who had been pursuing Rebani Kalba.
The voice of the man who claimed to have been attacked by Rebani said, “I’m going to get another weapon. Be careful. If he killed the Hierophant, he won’t hesitate to kill you.”
The Hierophant killed! So that was the crime!
Rebani glanced about the chamber in which he had taken refuge. It was bare but for the few items of furniture he had observed upon entering the room.
With hard emerald eyes, the Sabour searched the room, but there was no place to hide.
Rebani Kalba stood close to the wooden door of the room, and concentrated. He reached out with his mind, and projected the feeling of confidence to the armed men outside in the hall.
One started directing the others to search. He said, “If he came along here, we’d have seen him. Move out.”
The Sabour heard the soldiers vacate the area. That would buy him some time, at least. Rebani waited until he sensed no one in the corridor, and exited the room. The Sabour moved swiftly along the stone-walled passage.
A solitary soldier walked casually through the halls of the castle, moving from the area of the search toward the wing of the building where guests were quartered. He was stopped only once, and when he explained that he was on his way to check on the alien visitors, he was allowed to go on his way.
He entered the chambers of Princess Virga without knocking.
The princess gasped at the sudden appearance of the guard. She watched breathlessly as the man’s features shifted like sand in an hourglass until his countenance became the familiar one of Xiten.
Count Xiten laughed harshly.
“Did it go as planned?” asked Virga excitedly.
“Exactly,” answered Xiten, drawing the crystal from beneath his tunic. This, it could be seen in the bright light of the room, was of an unusual fabric. He held the gem up for the princess to inspect. “They are closing in on the Sabour even now.”
Voluptuous Virga fell back onto the bed and closed her eyes.
“Tell me what happened.”
The princess felt the weight of Xiten on the mattress beside her. “I got into the Hierophant’s wing of the castle disguised as a guard. Once there, I assumed the form of the Sabour, and in that guise, I killed the Hierophant and stole the gem. As I left, I made sure the guard got a good look at the killer. I wandered the castle until the Sabour found me, obviously following my ... mischievous ... emanations. I simply turned the image-maker off, which dispelled the illusion of my clothing resembling his, so that I once more assumed the guise of a guard. It was an unforeseen benefit that I had the image-maker when a Sabour came to Covenant. When he found me, I fled as a guard and summoned others. They know the area he is in and will find him shortly. And no one,” added the gargoyle with an ugly smile, “will believe his story of innocence.”
Princess Virga laughed softly. She rose up and took the gem from Xiten’s hand. The princess ran the crystal along her dusky olive skin. Xiten looked down into her face with a certain coldness.
“The Sabour cannot escape, and no one will believe him,” Xiten said.
“In the event they don’t kill him upon sighting him,” he added maliciously.
Bal Tabarin awoke to the sound of loud, strident footsteps in his room. Hands pulled him roughly to his feet. Bal opened his eyes to see several armed soldiers. The looks on their faces meant business.
“Where is your companion, the Sabour?” one demanded.
“I don’t know,” Bal answered in a tired, confused voice. “I’ve been sleeping.”
Which was the truth. Just woken out of a deep sleep, Bal Tabarin would not have been able to fool the verifier, which one guard carried.
“He’s telling the truth,” said the soldier who held the holotronic machine.
“What’s going on?” demanded Bal, now fully awake.
“If your companion returns, tell him to turn himself in,” said the first guard. “He can’t get off the planet.”
As the soldiers turned to leave, Bal asked, “Turn himself in for what? What’s going on?”
“He murdered the Hierophant,” replied the lead soldier before going out the door.
Bal Tabarin shook his head wonderingly. Murdered the Hierophant? He didn’t believe it. He thought the Sabour would do almost anything to get the gems, but cold-blooded murder wasn’t one of them. If anything, it was the one thing Rebani wouldn’t do. So what had happened?
Bal Tabarin located his small shell-like communicator, and signaled Josef aboard The Vagabond Lady. He briefly explained what he knew, then said into the device, “Here’s what I need you to do ....”
Rebani Kalba the Sabour felt exits from the area being sealed off as he moved through the semi-dark corridors of the castle. The soldiers had established a perimeter, and were closing it about him. Thus far, Rebani had managed to side step two- and three-man patrols in their search for him.
But the emotions of the soldiers were highly charged, and difficult to influence in any substantial manner, such as causing them not to see the Sabour. “Turning invisible” as most Sentients believed it, was one of their psionic tricks, which only played on the perceptive powers of the mind. He had thus been limited to misdirection by sound and enhancing the natural shadows of the castle halls for camouflage.
Rebani had been reluctant to confront them. He was loathe to injure them, for they were only doing their duty, acting on reasonable beliefs which happened to be untrue. He had been mulling the situation over as he weaved through the endless corridors of the castle, and had come to the conclusion that Xiten was behind the frame.
The case was a simple one: The murder of the Hierophant while four beings visited with intentions of getting the gem pointed the finger toward at least one of the four. Of course, it was neither the Sabour nor his companion Bal Tabarin. That left Xiten and Virga, the pair’s opponents.
Rebani cursed himself at underestimating them.
Virga seemed not to have the background for cold-blooded murder, though the Sabour could not be certain about this. Xiten, whose background was unknown, was the more likely perpetrator. The masker he had carried at dinner had a deeper purpose than merely hiding the being’s nature. It protected the pair’s evil plan to gain possession of the gem fragment. The Udehe Monitor wished that he had attempted to penetrate their minds again before conducting his own mission to find the gem.
Rebani Kalba felt the guards closer now, groups ahead of him, and behind. He sidestepped these, and found his path blocked by a third search party.
The Sabour would have to fight if he was going to escape.
Rebani stood silently and waited as the soldiers rushed into the passageway and surrounded him. He raised his arms and said, “I am unarmed.”
Several of the guards removed batons from their leather belts, and fell upon Rebani Kalba, beating him down to the hard, cold stone floor.
26 In Which the Hunter
Becomes the Hunted
When Bal Tabarin was finally allowed to see his companion the following day, he was thoroughly searched. Expecting this, he had left his small blazer behind, hiding it in case his chamber was searched
The Corruban wasn’t surprised to find Rebani Kalba bruised and bloody. He actually didn’t look as bad as Bal had expected.
“We are trained to resist pain and heal more quickly,” the Sabour explained simply, with remorse or blame.
“What in the Thirteen Hells happened last night?” Bal asked in a quiet tone, expecting to be overheard. It would not be beyond Covenant’s subtle use of technology to have the jail surveilled holotronically.
“Xiten impersonated me and murdered the Hierophant,” Rebani said.
“What?!”
“I have had some time to contemplate events,” the Udehe said, expansively waving a hand t
o show his circumstances, “and I have concluded that Xiten is a changeling.”
“A shapeshifter,” breathed Bal.
“A holotronic device might have fooled everyone else on this planet but not me. His transformation had to have been physical.”
“That would explain why he looks nothing like the actor – he’s playing a part here,” mused Bal. “Say, I’ll bet that’s how he effected all those disguises he used as an actor – it was never make-up at all!”
Glancing back at the imprisoned Sabour, the Corruban’s mind returned to the present. “Don’t worry, I’m working on a plan to get you out of here.”
“Don’t bother,” replied Rebani. “I can leave here any time I like.”
“And what about getting off-world?” Bal asked pointedly.
“A little more troublesome, but I could manage to steal a ship, I think,” the Udehe explained immodestly. “But there is a larger issue at stake here: My name must be cleared to avoid a war between Covenant and the Brotherhood.”
“Yeah, about that,” Bal said, “your DNA was found on a goblet in the Hierophants quarters.”
“Yes, of course,” the Monitor nodded. “Taken from the dinner table, no doubt. Quite clever.”
“I’m lucky that I’m not in there with you,” said Bal. “I passed the verifier.”
“So did I.”
“Yeah, but they think you fooled it,” Bal retorted.
“I did not.”
“But they think that you did,” the Corruban repeated. Then, after a moment, “Have you got any ideas how to go about proving that you’re innocent?”
