King Kobold revived-Warlock-2.5 (29 page)

Catharine looked up, horrified, and stepped quickly behind Tuan’s chair. The King, however, looked interested. “Then, by all means, let’s bring him in! Can we think of no questions to ask that might determine the truth or falsehood of this beastman’s words?”

Brom stomped over to the door, yanked it open, and rumbled a command. As he swaggered back Rod offered, “Just this. From Toby’s report, the beastmen’s village is very thoroughly settled and the fields around it are loaded with corn, very neatly cultivated. That settlement’s not brand-new, Tuan. If the Eagle had come here with conquest in mind, would he have taken a couple of years out to build up a colony?”

The young King nodded. “A point well-taken.” He turned as the beastman ambled in, and Catharine took a step back. “Welcome, captain of exiles!”

“The same to you, I’m sure.” Yorick grinned and touched his forelock. Brom scowled ferociously, so Rod figured he’d better butt in. “Uh, we’ve just been talking, Yorick, about why Mughorck tried to assassinate the Eagle.”

“Oh, because Mughorck wanted to conquer you guys,” Yorick said, sur-prised. “He couldn’t even get it started with the Eagle in the way, preaching un-derstanding and tolerance.”

The room was awfully quiet while Tuan, Brom, Catharine, and Rod ex-changed frantic glances.

“I said something?” Yorick inquired.

“Only what we’d all just been saying.” Rod scratched behind his ear. “Al-ways unnerving, finding out you guessed right.” He looked up at Yorick. “Why’d Mughorck want to conquer us?”

“Power-base,” Yorick explained. “Your planet’s going to be the hottest item in the coming power-struggle. Your descendants will come out on the side of democracy, so the Decentralized Democratic Tribunal will win. The only chance the losers will have is to come back in time and try to take over Gramarye. When Mughorck took over we realized he must’ve been working for one of the future losers… What’s the matter, milord?”

Rod had been making frantic shushing motions. Tuan turned a gimlet eye on him. “Indeed, Lord Warlock.” His voice was smooth as velvet. “Why wouldst thou not wish him to speak of such things?”

“For that they are highly confusing, for one.” Catharine knit her brows, but the look she bent on Rod was baleful. “Still, mine husband’s point’s well taken. For whom dost thou labor, Lord Warlock?”

“For my wife and child, before anyone else,” Rod sighed, “but since I want freedom and justice for them, and you two are their best chance for that condi-tion—why, I work for you.”

“Or in accord with us,” Tuan amended. “But hast thou other affiliations, Lord Warlock?”

“Well, there is a certain collaborative effort that…”

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“…that doth give him information vital to the continuance of Your Majesties’ reign.” Brom glanced up at them guiltily. “I ha’ known of it almost since he came among us.”

Some of the tension began to ease out of Tuan, but Catharine looked more in-dignant than ever. “Even thou, my trusted Brom! Wherefore didst thou not tell this to me?”

“For reason that thou hadst no need to know it,” Brom said simply, “and be-cause I felt it to be Lord Gallowglass’s secret. If he thought thou shouldst know it, he would tell thee—for, mistake not, his first loyalty is here.”

Catharine seemed a bit mollified, and Tuan was actually smiling—but with a glittering eye. “We must speak more of this anon, Lord Warlock.”

But not just now. Rod breathed a shuddering sigh and cast a quick look of gratitude toward Brom. The dwarf nodded imperceptibly.

“Our cause of worry is before us.” Tuan turned back to Yorick. “It would seem, Master Yorick, that thou dost know more than thou shouldst.”

Yorick stared. “You mean some of this was classified?”

Rod gave him a laser glare, but Tuan just said, “Where didst thou learn of events yet to come?”

“Oh, from the Eagle.” Yorick smiled, relieved. “He’s been there.”

The room was very still for a moment.

Then Tuan said carefully, “Dost thou say this Eagle hath gone bodily to the future?‘’

Yorick nodded.

“Who’s he work for?” Rod rapped out.

“Himself.” Yorick spread his hands. “Makes a nice profit out of it, too.”

Rod relaxed. Political fanatics would fight to the death, but businessmen would always see reason—provided you showed them that they could make a better profit doing things your way. But Tuan shook his head. “Thou wouldst have us believe the Eagle brought all thy people here and taught them to farm enough to support themselves. Where’s the profit in that?”

“Well,” Yorick hedged, “he does undertake the occasional humanitarian pro-ject…”

“Also, for certain assignments you boys probably make unbeatable agents,” Rod said drily. Yorick had the grace to blush.

“Or is it,” rumbled Brom, “that he doth fight the future-folk who backed Mughorck? Would thy people not be a part of that fight?”

Yorick became very still. Then he eyed Rod and jerked his head toward Brom. “Where’d you get him?”

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“You don’t want to know,” Rod said quickly. “But we do. How were you Ne-anderthals a weapon in the big fight?”

Yorick sighed and gave in. “Okay. It’s a little more complicated than what I said before. The bad guys gathered us together to use us as a tool to establish a very early dictatorship that wouldn’t quit. You’ll understand, milord, that we’re a bit of a paranoid culture.”

“Can’t imagine why,” Rod said drily.

“What is this ‘paranoid’?” Tuan frowned. “And what matters it to govern-ment?”

“It means you feel as though everyone’s picking on you.” Yorick explained, “so you tend to pick on them first, to make sure they can’t get you. Governments like that are very good at repression.”

Catharine blanched, and Tuan turned to Rod. “Is there truth in what he doth say?”

“Too much,” Rod said with a woeful smile, “and anyone with witch-power tends to be repressed. Now you know why I’m on your side, my liege.”

“Indeed I do.” Tuan turned back to face Yorick. “And I find myself much less concerned about thine other associations.”

But Rod was watching Catharine closely out of the corner of his eye. Was she realizing that she’d been on the road to becoming a tyrant when she’d reigned alone? Mostly over-compensating for insecurity, of course—but by the time she’d gained enough experience to be sure of herself, she’d have had too many people who hated her; she’d have had to stay a tyrant.

But Tuan was talking to Yorick again. “Why doth thine Eagle fight these autocrats?”

“Bad for trade,” Yorick said promptly. “Dictatorships tend to establish very arbitrary rules about who can do business with whom, and their rules result in either very high tariffs or exorbitant graft. But a government that emphasizes freedom pretty much has to let business be free, too.”

“Pretty much.” Rod underscored the qualifier.

Yorick shrugged. “Freedom’s an unstable condition, my lord. There’ll always be men trying to destroy it by establishing their own dictatorships. Businessmen are human too.”

Rod felt that the issue deserved a bit more debate, but the little matter of the invasion was getting lost in the shuffle. “We were kind of thinking about that whispering campaign you mentioned. Mind explaining how you could work it without getting caught? And don’t try to tell me you guys all look alike to each other.”

“Wouldn’t think of it.” Yorick waved away the suggestion. “By this time, see, I’m pretty sure there’ll be a lot of people who’re fed up with Mughorck. In fact, I even expect a few refugees from his version of justice. If you can smuggle me back to the mainland, into the jungle south of the village, I think I can make con-tact with quite a few of ‘em. Some of them will have friends who’ll be glad to forget any chance meetings they might have out in the forest gathering fruit, and the rumor you want circulated can get passed into the village when the friend comes back.”

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Tuan nodded. “It should march. But couldst thou not have done this better an thou hadst remained in thine own country?”

Yorick shook his head. “Mughorck’s gorillas were hot on my trail. By now, he should have other problems on his hands; he won’t have forgotten about me and my men, but we won’t be high-priority any more. Besides, there might even be enough refugees in the forest so that he’s not willing to risk any of his few really loyal squads on a clean-out mission; the odds might be too great that they wouldn’t come back.”

The King nodded slowly. “I hope, for thy sake, that thou hast it aright.”

“Then, too,” Yorick said, “there’s the little matter that, if I’d stayed, there’d have been no message to pass. Frankly, I needed allies.”

“Thou hast them, an thou’rt a true man,” Tuan said firmly. Catharine, how-ever, looked much less certain.

Yorick noted it. “Of course I’m true. After all, if I betrayed you and you caught me, I expect you’d think of a gallows that I’d be the perfect decoration for.”

“Nay, i’ truth,” Tuan protested, “I’d have to build one anew especially for thee, to maintain harmony of style.”

“I’m flattered.” Yorick grinned. “I’ll tell you straightaway, though, I don’t de-serve to be hanged in a golden chain. Silver, maybe…”

“Wherefore? Dost thou fear leprechauns?”

Tuan and Yorick, Rod decided, were getting along entirely too well. “There’s the little matter of the rumor he’s supposed to circulate,” he reminded Tuan.

Yorick shrugged. “That you and your army have really come just to oust Mughorck, isn’t it? Not to wipe out the local citizenry?”

“Thou hast it aright.”

“But you do understand,” Yorick pointed out, “that they’ll have to fight until they know Mughorck’s been taken, don’t you? I mean, if they switched to your side and he won, it could be very embarrassing for them—not to mention their wives and children.”

“Assuredly,” Tuan agreed. “Nay, I hope only that, when they know Mug-horck is ta’en, they’ll not hesitate to lay down their arms.”

“I have a notion that most of them will be too busy cheering to think about objecting.”

“ ‘Tis well. Now…” Tuan leaned forward, eyes glittering. “How can we be sure of taking Mughorck?”

“An we wish a quick ending to this battle,” Brom explained, “we cannot fight through the whole mass of beast-men to reach him.”

“Ah—now we come back to my original plan.” Yorick grinned. “I was wait-ing for you guys to get
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around to talking invasion. Because if you do, you see, and if you sneak me into the jungles a week or two ahead, I’m sure my boys and I can find enough dissenters to weld into an attack force. Then, when your army attacks from the front, I can bring my gorillas…”

“You mean guerrillas.”

“That, too. Anyway, I can bring ‘em over the cliffs and down to the High Cave.”

“ The High Cave‘?” Tuan frowned. “What is that?”

“Just the highest cave in the cliff-wall. When we first arrived we all camped out in caves, and Eagle took the highest one so he could see the whole picture of what was going on. When the rank and file moved out into huts, he stayed there—so Mughorck will have to have moved in there, to use the symbol of pos-session to reinforce his power.”

“Well reasoned,” Brom rumbled, “but how if thou’rt mistaken?”

Yorick shrugged. “Then we keep looking till we find him. We shouldn’t have too much trouble; I very much doubt that he’d be at the front line.”

Tuan’s smile soured with contempt.

“He’s the actual power,” Yorick went on, “but the clincher’ll be the Kobold. When we take the idol, that should really tell the troops that the war’s lost.”

“And you expect it’ll be in the High Cave too,” Rod amplified.

“Not a doubt of it,” Yorick confirmed. “You haven’t seen this thing, milord. You sure as hell wouldn’t want it in your living room.”

“Somehow I don’t doubt that one bit.”

“Nor I,” Tuan agreed. He glanced at his wife and his two ministers. “Are we agreed, then?”

Reluctantly, they nodded.

“Then, ‘tis done.” Tuan clapped his hands. “I will give orders straightaway, Master Yorick, for a merchantman to bear thee and thy fellows to the jungles south of thy village. Then, when all’s in readiness, a warlock will come to tell thee the day and hour of our invasion.”

“Great!” Yorick grinned with relief: then, suddenly, he frowned. “But wait a minute. How’ll your warlock find us?”

“Just stare at a fire and try to blank your mind every evening for a few hours,” Rod explained, “and think something abstract—the sound of one hand clapping, or some such, over and over again. The warlock’ll home in on your mind.”

Yorick looked up, startled. “You mean your telepaths can read our minds?”

“Sort of,” Rod admitted. “At least, they can tell you’re there, and where you are.”

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Yorick smiled, relieved. “Well. No wonder you knew where the raiders were going to land next.”

“After the first strike, yes.” Rod smiled. “Of course, we can’t understand your language.”

“Thanks for the tip.” Yorick raised a forefinger. “I’ll make sure I don’t think in English.”

Rod wasn’t sure he could, but he didn’t say so.

Yorick turned back to the King and Queen. “If you don’t mind, I’ll toddle along now, Your Majesties.”

He bowed. “I’d like to go tell my men it’s time to move out.”

“Do, then,” Tuan said regally, “and inform thy men that they may trust in us as deeply as we may trust in them.”

Yorick paused at the door and looked back, raising one eyebrow. “You sure about that?”

Tuan nodded firmly.

Yorick grinned again. “I think you just said more than you knew. Godspeed, Majesties.” He bowed again and opened the door; the sentry ushered him out.