[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
I had discovered what I had already known to be true. These fearsome Djangs would fight for me, if
they clearly saw my cause was just. I had little doubt that could be made plain. Deliberately, I steered the
conversation away.
In the high-arched banqueting hall of my Palace of Illustrious Ornament in sprawling, arcaded, windy
Djanguraj, the noise of laughter and singing brought aching memories of nights of carousing in the high
fortress of Esser Rarioch overlooking Valkanium. It brought memories of those luminous nights with my
clansmen on the Great Plains of Segesthes under the seven moons of Kregen. And, too, and with an
especially keen nostalgia, it brought flooding back vivid memories of roistering away in Sanurkazz on the
inner sea with my two favorite rascals, my two oar comrades, Nath and Zolta.
Ah! Time is a relentless monster that devours us all.
And sometimes the thought of a thousand years is insupportable to me, and then I think of Delia, and I
know the thousand years will be all too short . . .
So I turned the conversation and I talked of affording better protection to our northern shore against
slaving raids from Loh. I had at that time never been to Loh save for a short stop at Seg s country,
Erthyrdrin, when I had thought him dead . . . I would go there, one day.
We are still a long way from the kind of land we would like to see, O. Fellin Coper said, and we
plunged into discussions of ways and means and where the money was coming from and all the problems
of managing a country.
Oh, yes, I acted the part of the King of Djanduin, and, as is the way of these things, acting was not
necessary. At this time on Kregen the lands of Strombor, Valka, and Djanduin meant most to me, for the
peoples of those lands looked to me not only as their leader and the man who would guide them and
devote his life to them, but mostly, I like to think, because they regarded me as their friend. I do not
make friends easily. I had been blessed and doubly blessed on Kregen with true friends . . . I had also
picked up a few enemies on the way. A goodly number of those were dead, and of those who remained
there were some who were to do me great mischief, as you shall hear . . .
Because I was the King of Djanduin there was no difficulty in finding me a flier in which to travel to
Migladrin. Any guilt I might have felt about depriving my country a country, remember, of which I was
a relatively new king of a precious voller was more than overcome by the attitude of the Pallan of the
Vollers, who would have taken amiss a decision to fly to Migladrin astride a flutduin. The Pallan of the
Flyers an office created by me to foster the breeding of first-class strains of birds kicked a trifle;
but he could see that long journeys went faster with vollers than with flyers. I sorted out a few last-minute
problems and took my leave. At the last moment it was decided that a small group of Djangs, of both
racial stocks, would accompany me to establish friendly relations with the Miglas. This suited me very
well. I was now consciously beginning that wide-ranging system of establishing friendly relations between
the various countries of this continental grouping. Of this I will have much more to say later. For now I
flew to Migladrin, saw old Mog called Mog the Mighty and met my friends there again. Then,
leaving the Djangs to diplomacy, I took off for Valka.
All this high-level politicking was intensely interesting, but I hungered to hold Delia in my arms again.
In Valka I was greeted like some hero returning home, which embarrassed me mightily. After the
junketings, which, you may well imagine, went on for a long time and embraced a continual round of
banquets and feasts and entertainments, I had to confess to Delia, rather miserably, that I had failed.
You see, Delia. It is even more important, now that Hamal refuses to sell us fliers, that we must learn to
build our own.
We were sitting on our favorite terrace high in the fortress of Esser Rarioch overlooking Valkanium and
the sweep of the bay. Drak and Lela were safely sleeping after all the excitement of seeing their father
and did they chatter and jump up and down! The streaming mingled light of the twin suns, Zim and
Genodras, fell about us in the early evening. Soon it would be night, one of those sweet soft nights of
Kregen when the moon-blooms open their petals and drink the moons-light, and the sky is filled with the
pink radiance of the moons. I sipped a fine Jholaix, a wine with few equals.
But, dear heart, said Delia, her sweet face troubled, is it ethical to steal this secret from the
Hamalians?
I knew what she meant.
I tried to explain.
In the normal way, no, of course not. But think how Hamal has behaved. Not only do they charge
inflated prices for vollers and remember, I have seen them built and built them with my own hands!
and refuse all service, they deliberately manufacture them with built-in faults. I am now absolutely
convinced of this.
But, Dray, that is
I know, Delia. But it is so. And we all know the fine men and women who have been killed in faulty
fliers. This is murder. We owe it to the memory of the dead and to the well-being of the living to make
sure a voller is safe in the air.
This all sounds high and mighty, you great shaggy graint! But the fact remains. You are stealing a secret
from another country so that you will not have to buy their goods.
My Delia, my Delia of Delphond, has a confoundedly cutting way with her at times! She put her pretty
rosy finger right on the central core, on a fact that had troubled me. I tried in my gruff way to explain that,
as far as I could see, the Hamalians had forfeited all rights to their own secrets, through their despicable
use of them. If they treated us fairly, there would be no need to steal the secret. They are a nasty lot,
anyway well, most of them and they have done me mischief and will seek to do so again.
I know, Dray, you do not seek to justify your actions by talking of revenge. Delia spoke with just
enough hesitancy to make me sit up and take notice. She is the most beautiful woman in two worlds. She
is also shrewd, clear-sighted, realistic and maddeningly romantic, too! and clever enough to tie in
knots the smartest politicians and lawyers of those same two worlds.
Revenge is for the softheaded, Delia, I said. I drank some wine to break up my words. Oh, I know
I ve thumped a few heads when I was annoyed
I believe you have.
Yes, well. This is taken by me to be a matter of state. If Hamal attacks us as I believe it will we
must have vollers to defend ourselves. I can find vollers only in Hamal. She sat there, looking at me, her
glorious brown hair with those dazzling auburn highlights catching the last of Zim as the red sun sank in
swirls and floods of orange-and-crimson fire. She wore a simple sleeveless gown of white sensil, soft and
clinging, without any jewels save a tiny brooch I had given her pinned to the left shoulder. That brooch
blazed now in the fiery light with brilliant orange, yellow, and blue gems in the hubless spoked wheel
within the circle.
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]